OFFICIAL SPONSORS:

SF REP SPOTLIGHT

LAURIE ROSS AKA "MISTRESS LAURIE" FROM SINISTER SIDNEY IN SIDNEY, IOWA

When I was young in the late 70's, my older brother took me to a haunt he was working. I got to meet all the monsters getting ready for the night and I was hooked! Many years down the road, I reconnected with someone I had known in Jr. High school named Mike Ross. We quickly realized, as we tell people the story, that we were the same person. I just happen to have larger boobs. I even let him think it was his idea to get married. We share a passion for Halloween and started buying props, hoping someday to have our own haunt. I am a rural route mail carrier by day and that has helped us realize our dream that we call Sinister Sidney. Besides our three girls and five grand kids, I am also mom or grandma to more wonderful people than I can count thanks to our Haunt family. Sinister Sidney has led us to connect with so very many like-minded people in the industry through conventions and groups that I simply cannot imagine my world without each and every one of them! I am now 57 years old and “living the dream” as they say. We have cats, horses, 10 acres and a huge family that I never dreamed I could have. It hasn't been easy sometimes because life has not always been kind. However, I am a survivor, I never back down, and I love with all that I am!

My alter ego Mistress Laurie:
Many years ago, Mistress Laurie got fed up hiding in the shadows and barely surviving. She bought a place in the small town of Sidney, Iowa that was surrounded by trees and hedges that made it very hard to even notice there was a home there. Finally able to hide in plain sight, she started taking in other fringe creatures who were in need of such a place. She protected and cared for them them fiercely and they, in turn, kept her secret and gave her the blood of their victims. Years passed and a man joined them who simply called himself The Grave Digger. Not only did he steal the vampire's heart, he came up with a plan to help support their community. He explained that in the world around them, during the month of October, people would pay to be scared in places called haunted attractions. He set up a path on the property that they could walk and told the creatures how to terrify normal people as they passed through. Thanks to our weird little family, Sinister Sidney Haunted Trail was born...