Extreme Halloween, the new book by Tom Nardone, takes the holiday and ramps it up several notches with advice and instructions on how to create over-the-top decorations, startlingly gross-looking party food and deviously good-natured mayhem– most of it safe and legal. But as he points out in this interview, the police may not always see it the same way.

So how are your neighbors treating you this year?

So far, so good, but Halloween hasn’t arrived yet, so I still have time to piss them off. 

How did your TV appearances go last year for your last book, Extreme Pumpkins 2?

I was on Regis and Kelly again and that was fun. I was also on Conan O’Brien. I’m a big fan of his show, so being on it was a great time. I spent two days there. I carved pumpkins, befriended the prop guy and even tried to convince everyone that we should use pyrotechnics. Conan was hilarious and I had a great Halloween.

In Extreme Halloween, you write that your neighbors called the police when you staged a fake hanging in your front yard– IN MID-NOVEMBER?! What were you thinking?

After I made it, I was quite proud of myself. So what if it was November, a pumpkin skeleton hanging from the gallows is cool. If only the police office would have agreed.

I appreciate your attention to detail, from explaining what a onesie is for your baby-eating yard monster sculpture, to booby-trapping the medicine cabinet for a Halloween Party. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

I write late at night when my brain is all silly. I’m not sure where some of the stuff comes from honestly, but someone once told me that I probably never forget a joke. They might be right. I am a big fan of joking around. 

Your Halloween party food section is my favorite in the book, especially the edible “human corpse” made from roasted meats. Have you ever thought of applying your twisted aesthetic to, say, Christmas or Mothers Day?

I want to do something around Fathers Day next. I think that people who aren’t dads have no idea what to get a dad for Fathers Day. If they did, there would be no bacon left on the supermarket shelves on Monday. 

Some of the pranks you suggest in Extreme Halloween seem like they should come with legal disclaimers. Did your publisher’s legal department have to sign off on anything?

They are pretty cool. The publisher knows that disclaimers for no good reason aren’t worth the time. Besides, because it is a book, you assume the person reading it is literate, which is far more than you can assume for TV viewers.

What’s next, maybe an extreme party planning reality show on TLC or Spike?

I spent a little time trying to pitch a TV show last year. I think the pitch was really good, but I’m not connect enough to get anyone to look at it. Know anyone?

On Tom’s site, Extreme Pumpkins.com, you can become a fan on Facebook, enter pumpkin carving contests, watch videos of him with Conan and Jimmy Kimmel, order a copy of Extreme Halloween and more.