I’m easily terrified. No joke. Although I’m a passionate fan of vintage horror—Mary Shelley, Poe, Bram Stoker, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, giant ants, the blob and the rest—I’m way too easy-to-frighten for most contemporary horror. And gore puts me way over the edge! I had to take two breaks during ‘Get Out’ (a brilliant film!) and I’m almost as prone to nightmares as I was when I was five.
That being said, lately I’ve been drawn to reading scary books & stories. I loved ‘Lovecraft Country’ by Matt Ruff; I’m slowly making my way through a collection of contemporary scary stories; and this morning I finished reading ‘Dark Magic’ by Tom Williams. The glitch is that I can’t indulge in this genre before bed because I’m likely to be up until the wee hours racing to the end of story OR to fall into my own nightmarish world inspired by fiction!
It’s comical, but true.
As a writer, I’m conscious of how I’m being manipulated by the way a good scary story reveals and conceals in equal measure. The fog over the moor in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is just the most literal interpretation of this gambit. A good storyteller will facilitate the reader’s desire to fill in the blanks—sometimes with fearful premonitions and sometimes with potential red herrings—while never letting the reader see where they are going.
As I’m primarily a mystery/suspense reader and writer, this aspect of good horror fiction is a characteristic that transfers well to my genres—especially when my intention is to mix in a bit of comedy. Once again, I’m convinced of the validity of the case for reading outside your chosen genre. Learn a little of this and that from well-written romance, learn a lot of detailed descriptions from historical fiction, get hints on dialog from plays, read memoirs, history, biography, fantasy…
I don’t know where my recent fascination with new horror comes from, but I’m reading away—just not at midnight which is bedtime for me.
