31 Days of Horror-- Day 8 Writing for a Young Adult Audience: Guest Blog by JG Faherty

Today I turn things over to JG Faherty who is not only a wonderful horror writer of adult and young adult novels, but he is also a tireless cheerleader for the genre.  He is actively involved in the Horror Writers Association sharing his experiences and mentoring young writers. And, he has taken over librarian relations for the Horror Writers Association.  So of course, I am a fan!

Today, I have asked him to share his experience writing for a YA audience.

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Writing for a Young Adult Audience
Guest Blog by JG Faherty, author of the Bram Stoker Award® finalist Ghosts of Coronado Bay


There is no denying that the young adult (YA) audience is one of the fastest growing segments of readers, especially in the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Because of this, more writers are trying their hand at writing YA novels, and many of them are finding out it's a lot harder than they imagined.

Now, I can't speak for other writers as to why this is. For me, it's been a pretty painless road, in part because my fiction writing career started in YA and then branched into adult fiction later, rather than the other way around. But having written for several different age groups, I consider myself pretty well qualified to discuss the differences in writing for adult and teen/tween audiences.

First, a little background. (I'll be brief, I promise!)

In 1999, I took a contract assignment to write some study guide books for The Princeton Review/McGraw-Hill. These are practice books designed to help grade school students prepare for standardized reading tests. At that point in my life, I hadn't written any fiction since college, 20 years earlier, when I attempted to write a horror novel and then gave up because it was not turning out anywhere near as good as the stuff by Stephen King or Peter Straub I was reading at the time. So when I took the assignment with The Princeton Review, I was a bit nervous, because it meant having to write about two dozen one-page short stories for third and fourth-grade readers.

Lo and behold, it turned out to be much easier than I expected. The words seemed to just flow out of me, and the ideas came effortlessly. When my editors told me how much they enjoyed the stories, I began to think that maybe I could write something longer. So I tried my hand at short stories. It took a couple of years, but eventually I started getting published in various genre publications. Adult horror, science fiction, and some YA fantasy. I wrote a couple of adult-level novels, and while I was trying to sell them, I came up with an idea for a YA sci-fi adventure. However, I was concerned that it might not be appropriate for a teen audience. Right around that same time, I attended a writer's conference and had a chance to talk to a YA editor from one of the big publishing companies. 

"Tell me," I asked her, "what is off limits these days in YA fiction?"

Her answer really opened my eyes.

"Nothing," she said, "within reason. Generally, the only rules are no graphic sex and no graphic violence."

"Teenage readers," she went on to tell me, "are more sophisticated than they get credit for. Your best bet is to pick up a few books and read them."

So I did, and this is the first lesson any prospective YA writer should take to heart. Read heavily in the YA genres if you want to know what's out of bounds and what isn't. While that editor I spoke with was correct, there's more to it than just that. Within the YA category there are different age groups to consider. Older teens, younger teens and tweens, elementary school readers. You can't write the same for all of them, not just because of sex or violence concerns, but also because what might make an older teen laugh could very well keep a nine-year-old awake for weeks with nightmares.

The second important aspect of writing for a YA audience is being a good listener. Any time I'm working on a YA novel, I make sure to spend extra time talking to, and listening to, my nieces and nephews and their friends. Teens don't speak the same as adults. Just listen to a conversation between any two – or more – sixteen-year-olds and you'll hear all sorts of phrases and expressions that aren't part of ordinary adult conversation. And don't think you can turn to television or movies to pick up teen lingo. More often than not, TV and movies either use slang that is very California-centric or they veer too heavily towards urban, hip-hop expressions. TV and movies live and die by using stereotypes; books are usually doomed to failure if they try the same trick. Another thing to consider is that teen language idiosyncrasies are constantly changing. The slang you put into your book today might very well be out of date by the time it's published. For this reason, the best bet is to limit your use of slang or teen-specific terms and stick with the ones that have remained popular for the past several years.

A third trick to writing YA books is to keep things moving fast. Of course, this is a good rule for any book, but adults are more likely to stick with a novel that has a slow build, while teens and children have notoriously shorter attention spans.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is know your audience. Are you writing for sixteen-year-old boys or for girls fourteen and up, like I did with Ghosts of Coronado Bay? Are you writing for a specific group, such as urban teens, or do you want the book to be read more broadly across the U.S.? Boys and girls think differently, more so than men and women do. A book about a boy on a farm who has to give up his prize pet pig to be slaughtered might not do well in urban schools, just like a book about trying to break free from a gang or escape poverty isn't going to be so popular at a fancy private school. If you really want to reach a broad audience, you have to tap into the things all teens have in common. A fear of not fitting in. A desire to be independent. Balancing school and social lives. Loving parents and hating to be around them at the same time. Raging hormones. A good story goes beyond immediate socio-economic limitations and appeals to everyone. The Harry Potter stories are a great example of this.

In my novel Carnival of Fear, which straddles the line between YA and adult horror (if you don't let your kids watch R-rated movies, you wouldn't want them reading this book!), I took a slightly different route. Instead of focusing on one character or social segment, I brought different individuals together in a shared dangerous situation. Urban youths, jocks, science club geeks, stoners – I took them all and forced them to interact in ways they normally wouldn't do. This not only increased the appeal of the book to a broader audience, it also allowed me to break stereotypical molds and build unique personalities.

So, with all that in mind, here are my personal guidelines for writing YA fiction:

1. Ages 6 to 10. No swearing. No sex. Only implied violence. Talking about death is okay, like in the Grimm fairy tales, but there shouldn't be any dwelling on it. No sad endings.

2. Ages 10 to 14. Humor involving bodily functions is always going to get a laugh. No swearing. Punching and kicking in fights is fine. More dangerous violence, such as murders or getting eaten by a monster, could be talked about but not shown directly. If what you write is okay for family hour on regular television, or in a Harry Potter movie, then it's okay in the book.

3. Ages 14 to 16. Mild swearing is fine. No graphic sex scenes. Lesbian and gay characters and couples are fine. Think hard PG or mild R-rating.

4. Ages 16 and up. Pretty much anything goes, but only if absolutely necessary. No gratuitous sex. This is the age group that's going to R-rated movies and watching Showtime, Cinemax, and HBO. Now, this isn't to say you should write a steamy erotic novel for teens! This group isn't reading 50 Shades of Gray. But they are watching True Blood and Game of Thrones, and they are seeing horror movies like Saw, Human Centipede, and Touristas. 

Of course, there's plenty of overlap between the categories I've arbitrarily created for myself. I know a lot of kids who are 12 or 13 who are were fine with the themes in Ghosts of Coronado Bay, which included a girl wondering if she should lose her virginity and a ghost who wants to rape and kill her for a magical spell. And then there were kids who, at the age of 14, still weren't ready to read the book. This is where you can only try your best and hope parents have a good handle on what their kids can handle.

The great thing about writing for the YA audience is they force you to really do your best. They're smart, they're looking for action-packed stories, and they will not sit through any crap. As a writer, you have to eye your work carefully and strip out anything that hints at slowing the pace or talking down to the audience. In many ways, a lot of YA novels are better reads for adults than so-called adult novels. Since I began writing YA, I've discovered many good books I might never have found out about otherwise.

To sum things up, writing for a YA audience can be easy or hard, rewarding or frustrating, successful or a flop. It takes the write combination of talent and effort.

A lot like writing in general!

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About the Author...

JG Faherty is the author of Carnival of Fear, Cemetery Club, The Cold Spot, and He Waits. His YA paranormal adventure novel, Ghosts of Coronado Bay, was a Bram Stoker Award ® finalist in 2011. His next novel, The Burning Time, will be released in January 2013. His other credits include more than 2 dozen short stories. 

You can follow him at www.jgfaherty.com, www.twitter.com/jgfaherty, and www.facebook/jgfaherty.

31 Days of Horror: Day 7-- Review: Locke And Key 5: Clockworks

I have great love for the Locke and Key series by Joe Hill and 
Gabriel Rodriguez.  Click here to access my review index and read detailed reviews of the first four installments in the series.

I am all in on this series.  In fact, I went as far to proclaim national library conference back in March:

While there are physically more series, some of the best horror writing in general, series or not, is happening in the format of the graphic novel.  This has a bit to do with the fact that horror lends itself nicely to the visual form; you can say a lot with pictures in horror.  However, it is not only the fact that these works are illustrated that makes them better.  I have been finding that the most interesting characters and the richest story lines are coming out in the comic format.  I am not alone in this opinion.  Take for example the most recent Eisner Awards for the entire comics industry and click here to see that Joe Hill won for best overall writer of any comic, for his horror series, Locke and Key.  In my opinion, there really isn't a better horror series, in any format, right now than Locke and Key.

Now to Clockworks specifically.  This is the fifth installment in the series, and as Joe Hill announced, there will one more cycle of comics to be bound as the hardcover, Omega next year and then a 7th installment compiling all of the side, historical stories of the Locke family and their history with the keys (some of which I have bought on my own at my local comics store and read already).

Speaking of, that is what Clockworks focuses on--the history.  When we left the Locke family in the 4th volume: Keys to the Kingdom, Zack/Dodge has possessed the youngest Locke, Bode, although no one knows that; they all think they killed Zack/Dodge.  But Clockworks does not advance that story line at all.  Instead, Hill introduces a key that opens an old clock.  The clock takes the 2 older Locke children, Tyler and Kinsey, back to the past.  Interestingly, the clock only goes up to 1999, so the kids cannot see their future, which of course was their first instinct.

So as readers we not only go back with the kids to the start of it all, in the 1770s, but we also go back just one generation.  The story focuses on Ben and Miranda Locke (Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode's parents) in their own time.  The clockworks key allows all of us to see why Dodge turned bad, why Ben and Miranda ended up together, how the keys moved into the next generation, and why Tyler and Kinsey are running out of time to stop the insanity on and for all.

With Clockworks Locke and Key continues to be the very best horror series in any print format.  With this 5th book, Hill concentrates on character development.  By going into Ben and Miranda's story not only do we get valuable information about these key characters, but the story is advanced.  It takes a lot of discipline as a writer to hold off on many of the key details this long into a series.  But now, with only 6 chapters to go, the characters have all been given further depth AND the stage has been set for an epic showdown between the Locke kids and some seriously evil magic.

Locke and Key is also excellent because the story is not predictable.  Joe Hill is THE BEST horror writer today and this series solidifies that.  He adds things to his story lines that are unpredictable but not out of left field. Hill is able to honor the tropes of horror while adding his new spin. The main theme of the entire series is as old the horror genre--the seduction of evil magic.  Even though you want to use it for good, very bad comes when you unleash an evil power. We are used to this story line, but the way Hill executes it is unique and original.

Finally, as good as Hill's stories are, Rodriguez's art is amazing.  He is able to convey emotion in his drawings.  When you are dealing with supernatural elements, it is easy to go over the top, but his art is restrained, much like a good horror story.  We get enough to keep us unsettled throughout, and then he gives us the payoff at the big action moments with bright, complex drawings with enough gore to portray the horror, but nothing too gross.  I also love the way he has portrayed Kinsey's fear throughout the series.  These creatures come into play in this installment.  Which brings me back to Hill's awesome character development.  He is so good at writing complex characters, that even a main character's fear is a memorable character.

Three Words to Describe This Book:  compelling, complex characters, unsettling

Readalikes: You can use this link to see the numerous read alike options that I have given for this series in the past.  I have mostly given graphic novel suggestions, but today I want to offer suggestions for people who really like that the story is happening in both the present and the past.  So here are some other compelling, unsettling, and character centered novels that tell a story in 2 time periods.  All links are to reviews if available:

• The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff
• The Keep by Jennifer Egan (which I read before I started either blog)
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield
• Either Centuries of June or The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

31 Days of Horror: Day 6-- Why I Love Horror

Next week, I will begin with the main theme of this year's 31 Days of Horror:  Why I love Dark Fiction/Horror.  I posed this question to the authors more as why they like to write it, but also why they enjoy it too.

As a librarian and library educator in the field of readers advisory, I am constantly asking my students, colleagues, and myself, to question the "whys" behind what people like to read what they most like to read.  When you understand why a type of story is appealing to a reader, you can better understand what else they should read. In the RA biz these whys are called the language of appeal.

In the second edition of my book, I wrote an entire chapter on the appeal of horror, but here on the blog you can use this link to get more info.  The best crash course appears in this article entitled "Horror At the Service Desk: How to Serve Your Scariest Patrons" which I wrote for NoveList last year.

But that is why people in general love to read dark fiction.  I wanted to probe deeper into the appeal this year by asking those who make a living writing it why they have devoted their careers to horror. As I was receiving back a flood of responses from authors, I realized that I too have spent a large portion of my professional career immersed in the world of horror, so it is only fair that I answer my own question.

So here is why I love dark fiction...

The world is predictable.  Yes, sometimes very good things happen and you are elated, and other times very terrible things happen and you are despondent, but none of those things involve the supernatural.  I know that zombies do not exist, but I read fiction to escape into a story, and a complex world where these things do roam, adds a level of unpredictability to the story. As a reader I love when anything truly can happen.  It opens the story up.

But there is more.  I love stories that have a macabre angle.  The weird and dark things that happen in these stories keep me on edge and propel me to turn the  pages.  This is why I like literary fiction and psychological suspense too.  I love the anxiety and the twists as the unreliable narrator changes the entire story in with one sentence (Atonement) or when a Survivor-esque reality show actually turns deadly (Castaways).  In horror the good guys don't always make it through.  I love that.  In a mystery the detective will survive but in a novel like The Ruins, no one survives.  Talk about unpredictable.  Yes it is horrific, but it is not actual people dying.  It is exhilarating to read a work where the ending is not a forgone conclusion.

I like feeling anxious when I read and I am looking to be scared.  But more with books than movies.  While my husband loves horror movies, I am not a fan.  The visual form relies on blood and guts too much, I like to watch the tension build on the page.  I am a nice, happy, and smiley person with a great life.  I love that as my reality, but horror and darker fiction is a safe way for me to peek into a terrifying world and know that when I close the book, it will go away.

So this will be the theme of the month, Why I Love Horror.  Posts will alternate between author guest posts and reviews of some of their work.

Please note that I review books for a public library audience.  While I will give my personal opinion of the book in question, the goal of my reviews are to assess it from the perspective of "what type of reader will enjoy this book?"  There is a reader for every book and my job is not to judge my readers' tastes, but rather to match their tastes to the book that is right for them.  Click here to see an example of a book I disliked, but still was able to review for the reader who would most enjoy it.

I have books to give away too.  And it all starts tomorrow.

31 Days of Horror: Day 5-- Horror Related Links Round-Up

Over the course of the month, I am collecting the interesting things I have found to pass on to you.  Today is the first of those Links Round-Ups:

• From Miskatonic Books Blog, a re-imagining of H.P. Lovecraft's The Tomb as a Dr. Seuss book.
• Is Anne Rice bringing back Lestat?
• From the HWA's Halloween Haunts, author Laura Benedict passes on a cautionary tale about being careful who you scare.
• Amazon studios has optioned its first novel to make into a movie, and it is the horror novel Seed.
• Nightmare Magazine launched its first issue on October first.  They plan to publish monthly with 2 new fiction stories and 2 reprints in each issue, along with other content.  Click through to read the first editorial explaining their mission and goals.
• From JournalStone Publishing's blog, Three Hallmarks of Horror: Part I (Location).
• My friends Rebecca and Karen at Shelf Renewal reposted the comments from October of 2010 when they asked readers to share their favorite scary stories, including my response.  They are asking again.  So click through to share your opinions.  The final list will be compiled and posted on Halloween.
• From The Rap Sheet, the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore may be revived.
• Joe Hill announced his new novel, NOS4A2 (its a vanity plate; say it out loud) will be released in April 2013.
• And the filming of Joe Hill's previous novel, Horns has begun with Daniel Radcliffe sporting his horns.

31 Days of Horror: Day 4-- Monster Librarian Guest Post

I have mentioned Monster Librarian on this blog before.  This resource is the only one out there that focuses on horror in the library for all ages. (I focus on adult with a little YA.)

After doing a guest post for their Monster Movie Month celebration back in June, I asked Kirtsten Kowalewski, one of the Monster Librarian editors to write a piece for 31 Days of Horror on the current trends in the genre. Below is her guest post.

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TRENDS IN THE HORROR GENRE

By Kirsten Kowalewski

Many of the trends in horror fiction right now reflect trends in publishing and reading in general. Anyone who follows books at all, or has been to the bookstore recently, will note an overwhelming number of YA titles devoted to the supernatural, as well as dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. So results of a recent study by Bowker Market Research, that show that 55% of  YA books (targeted at ages 12-17) are purchased by adults reflect a notable trend not just in general but for the horror genre.  The trend towards adults reading YA books is now so strong that popular writers of adult horror, such as Jonathan Maberry are now writing YA titles, and publishers of adult horror are now starting YA imprints--ChiZine Publications recently announced that it will introduce a new imprint, ChiTeen, in 2014.

Something to remember as you consider these numbers is that teens also read a lot of adult fiction. In her book Shelf Discovery, Lizzie Skurnick touches on this, as she recalls reading adult books like Jaws and raiding her parents’ bookshelves , in addition to reading contemporary YA fiction (and as Becky noted in this blog post, as teens are new to the genre,  introducing them to these more mature titles is a great way to circulate your backlist). Many, many people start reading Stephen King and other adult horror novels as teens. What young adults read isn’t necessarily fiction targeted at young adults, any more than what adults read is targeted to them.

At MonsterLibrarian.com, we’ve reviewed books with monsters in them that fall all along the spectrum, and the most popular searches for book lists are for YA vampire books and paranormal romances. These are so popular that we started a blog, Reading Bites, just for this audience. However, there seems to be agreement between horror readers and librarians that the vampire novel, for the most part, has lost its bite; as one middle school librarian noted to me recently, middle school girls aren’t scared by a vampire who will take them to the prom. As vampires bleed into the genres of romance and mystery, hardcore horror readers, who prefer their monsters to be monstrous, have started to turn away from this subgenre.  Make sure you know what a reader wants when he or she asks for a vampire book.

The trend in YA fiction towards dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, influenced by The Hunger Games, also seems to frequently take on a romantic angle, and often portrays the main characters as catalysts for societal change. Post-apocalyptic fiction seems to be mainly reflected in adult horror in the subgenre of zombie fiction, where the focus is usually on the survivors of a post-apocalyptic event doing their best to survive a zombie invasion. Lovers of this subgenre are sometimes content to read the same kind of story over and over—they like the fast-paced action and gore and aren’t necessarily interested in character development—but in recent years there have been some fresh takes on a genre that, while popular, was starting to get a bit stale (you can see what I mean by checking out our list of zombie titles).  Mad science is also taking off in interesting directions, with plague viruses, technology gone mad, genetic manipulation, and man-made monsters showing up with frequency in both YA and adult fiction. One of the scariest books I’ve read in the past twelve months was Kenneth Oppell’s This Dark Endeavor (reviewed here), a prequel to Mary Shelley’s classic horror story Frankenstein. Both Oppell’s short novel and Shelley’s original appeared together in the same ebook.  Now that’s a hook! The Frankenstein story takes a totally different turn in Neal Shusterman’s UnWholly, due out later this month. And these days many zombie books start with some kind of virus or plague, with the search for a cure a significant storyline.

Another trend in publishing and reading that is affecting horror fiction is the popularity of ebooks and self-publishing. At the time that we started MonsterLibrarian.com, horror fiction had more or less lost its home in mainstream publishing and migrated to small presses that often specialized in printing collector’s editions—beautiful, but expensive, and not easily available to the average consumer. Some of them, like Cemetery Dance and Bad Moon Books have done very well, but many times books from small presses are only available by direct order, which makes them hard to find. 

As ebooks and self-publishing have exploded, horror fiction of all kinds has become much more readily available. Short pieces that weren’t exactly what a publisher was looking for, or were by unknown authors, could be (and are) presented in ebook format, and find an audience. This is great for horror readers who are loyal to a subgenre that isn’t being promoted in mainstream publishing , like werewolf fiction. There is a strong minority of readers who love werewolf horror (enough that we hosted a Werewolf Month for several years), but there are few current werewolf horror books (here’s our list of werewolf titles). A search for “werewolf horror” on Amazon.com brings up over 1,000 titles, mostly self-published ebooks. It’s hard to know what the quality of a self-published book will be before you read it, but many ebooks are very low-priced. Some authors are now publishing serials, with an attempt to hook an audience with episodes of a continuing story.  Authors whose rights have reverted to them can introduce their books to a new audience.  Small presses sell books in ebook format as well as collector’s editions, making those available to a wider audience. And current mainstream authors (like Stephen King) are finding a demand for shorter pieces . The ways that ebooks are changing publishing in general and horror in particular are many, and it’s very exciting. Unfortunately for libraries and their readers, most of these won’t be easily available through a service like Overdrive. The conundrum of how libraries can help horror readers connect more easily with ebooks doesn’t seem like one that can be solved easily.

A final trend that I see affecting the way people experience horror fiction is the way it is sweeping the media. Television shows like The Walking Dead (originally based on a series of graphic novels) have made zombies more mainstream. Movies such as Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods draw in reluctant viewers (see what blogger Barbara Vey wrote here). Apps allow you to take the experience along with you.  The brand-new book Horrible Hauntings by Shirin Yim Bridges uses augmented reality technology to extend the reading experience; ghosts leap out at the reader when you point your cell phone camera at the pictures! Horror is such a visual genre that the way other media are giving readers to experience it is nothing short of amazing.

Getting the horror reader in the door can be a challenge. But the real challenge is this: with so much horror outside mainstream publishing, once you get the reader in the door, how are you going to manage to give them what they’re looking for?

Kirsten Kowalewski  has worked as a children’s librarian and school librarian and is now editor for MonsterLibrarian.com, a review website dedicated to helping librarians with readers advisory and collection development in the horror genre, and to help horror readers find another good book to read.  In addition to cajoling reviewers and editing and writing reviews, she also runs the blog Musings of the Monster Librarian, which you should definitely visit. Kirsten can be reached at monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com.

31 Days of Horror: Day 3-- Countdown to Halloween

Before I get too deep into my planned programming here, I thought I would spend a moment to point out that I am not the only one out there engaging in a month of posts counting down to Halloween.

RA for All: Horror is one among dozens of blogs upping its output for these 31 days.  You can find all the participants in the Countdown to Halloween here.

From the library perspective, this site provides you with a full view of the horror loving community.  Much like I tell my students to read customer reviews on Amazon and readers' comments on GoodReads as a way to see example opinions about a book by a real reader, you can use these sites to see the views, opinions, likes and dislikes of actual horror fans.  It will give you a sense of how best to help someone seeking a spooky read even before that theoretical patron sets foot in the library.

Understanding the what and why behind horror fans' love of all things terrifying improves your ability to help them with their leisure reading needs.  I have said it before, but you do not have to enjoy horror yourself in order to be good at helping horror readers.  It is not an exclusive relationship.  I do not enjoy romance, but I help at least 1 romance fan a day to find their next good read. How?  I make sure I follow the blogs and websites of romance fans.  I learn what it is about the genre they love and why they love it.  I use their likes and enthusiasm for the genre as my guide to helping them, not my personal opinion.

I have posted extensively on the topic of appeal of horror.  You can click here for all posts tagged appeal for more information.

So, since the horror hordes will be descending very soon, it is time to prepare.  Usually we get our first crush of people looking for horror novels and stories the first weekend of October.  You still have a few days to prepare, and a visit to Countdown to Halloween will help.

31 Days of Horror: Day 2-- Librarians Meet The Horror Blogger Alliance

In this first week of 31 Days of Horror, I am focusing my posts on the best tools for librarians from my friends in the terrifying world of horror.

Today, I am featuring the Horror Blogger Alliance, of which I am a member.  The curator, Jeremy, is a very talented artist and lover of horror.  He really went above and beyond for me too.  He created the original art you see above just for this event, wrote up the post below introducing the Alliance to the library world, and, if you read all the way through, he is offering 31 Days of Horror's first of many giveaways.

I will let Jeremy elaborate, but first I do want to remind readers that I have an irregular feature called Spotlight on Blogs where I introduce a specific member of the Horror Blogger Alliance and write about their blog in details.  This runs any time of the year.  You can click here to follow all of my features.

Now here's Jeremy.....

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So this is the month that many horror fans look forward to, if I have to tell you… well then maybe you are in the wrong place. I want to tell you about a wonderful place called “Horror Blogger Alliance” (http://horrorbloggeralliance.blogspot.com), where it is Halloween all year round. Maybe you have heard of it, maybe not. It’s like the name says, an alliance of horror sites from around the globe calling us a home or at the very least a horror starting point. With over 800+ members I am almost certain you will find something that will thrill, scare or make your day a little darker.

I am the curator of the HBA and have been for several years now… trying to keep up to date with the latest horror sites. I like the “Godfather” Carl of “I Like Horror Films” this was his original brainchild and like life for him it became a extension he just could not keep up with… though he oversees my progress. I keep him in the loop on things I might be changing or adding a new “T-shirt” design ever year to generate a little revenue. With the help from Jesse W. Campbell of “Zombie Bites” we are changing it to more of a hub than a site.

We have so many people who contribute stuff every month and adding new faces to the site, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the madness. So we are trying figure out a way to make it a stomping ground and open the door to a world of horror.

For me I find I enjoy designing the items you see from month to month… it’s funny if you scroll back a year… it’s a different place, a different look and I am happy for the growth. I run this and a few other sites “Howlin' Wolf Records: On-Line Magazine”  and “[Retro-Zombie]," which all has lives of their own… it’s the “Horror Blogger Alliance” that makes it a monstrous family.

All those who comment on this post are going to be entered in a secret giveaway, so all enter… one will win… it’s going to be scary cool!

Jeremy [Retro-Zombie]