Congrats to Jeanie K who will get a free copy of The Donors.
More giveaways coming this week.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
31 Days of Horror: Day 14-- Horror Wikis
As promised, today's post is about the return of The Walking Dead and American Horror Story to TV tonight and Wednesday. But, this is also a readers' advisory driven blog, so I will use the return of these shows to talk about a larger resource the fan wiki.
Yes, the librarian is going to ruin all the fun of these creepy, terrifying shows by teaching you something. Sorry, but that is why you read this blog...to learn something.
Anytime there is a popular series, you can expect a fandom to rise up. While it used to be that these intense fans only got together at conferences or expos, the Internet has allowed them to unite 24/7. Over time, the wiki has evolved as the best tool for these fan communities to work together to create, index, and gather everything in the world that is even partially connected to their series.
There is no better place to get information both official and unofficial about a popular series than on a fan wiki.
The other wonderful thing about fans is that they do not stop being fans when a series is over. Take a look at the Buffy fan wiki which is still going strong.
When I am dealing with a reader or viewer who has a favorite series, I always check to see if there is a fan wiki set up. All you need to do is a Google search for the series and then add "wiki." So, for example, "The Walking Dead wiki."
Patrons love to be directed to these pages. I have some patrons who use them to find read and watch alikes, while others have become contributors themselves.
The point here is that you use the fans and their intense focus to your advantage. Don't waste your time searching all over for a patron. Go straight to the knowledge source. It is the same strategy you would use to answer a reference question. If you had a tax question, you would go to irs.gov, obviously. And, in the same vein, if you have a Buffy question, you go to the Buffy wiki.
So for the return of these two popular horror series, I direct you to The Walking Dead wiki and the American Horror Story wiki. If it is even remotely related to either of these series, you will find it here.
Enjoy the season 3 premier of The Walking Dead tonight too.
Yes, the librarian is going to ruin all the fun of these creepy, terrifying shows by teaching you something. Sorry, but that is why you read this blog...to learn something.
Anytime there is a popular series, you can expect a fandom to rise up. While it used to be that these intense fans only got together at conferences or expos, the Internet has allowed them to unite 24/7. Over time, the wiki has evolved as the best tool for these fan communities to work together to create, index, and gather everything in the world that is even partially connected to their series.
There is no better place to get information both official and unofficial about a popular series than on a fan wiki.
The other wonderful thing about fans is that they do not stop being fans when a series is over. Take a look at the Buffy fan wiki which is still going strong.
When I am dealing with a reader or viewer who has a favorite series, I always check to see if there is a fan wiki set up. All you need to do is a Google search for the series and then add "wiki." So, for example, "The Walking Dead wiki."
Patrons love to be directed to these pages. I have some patrons who use them to find read and watch alikes, while others have become contributors themselves.
The point here is that you use the fans and their intense focus to your advantage. Don't waste your time searching all over for a patron. Go straight to the knowledge source. It is the same strategy you would use to answer a reference question. If you had a tax question, you would go to irs.gov, obviously. And, in the same vein, if you have a Buffy question, you go to the Buffy wiki.
So for the return of these two popular horror series, I direct you to The Walking Dead wiki and the American Horror Story wiki. If it is even remotely related to either of these series, you will find it here.
Enjoy the season 3 premier of The Walking Dead tonight too.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
31 Days of Horror: Day 13-- Halloween Trivia
I have been patiently waiting to do this post for 13 days. Let me explain.
Many of you already know that Kathy and I host the Berwyn Public Library's monthly trivia night at The Garv-Inn on the first Tuesday of the month at 7pm. Click here for details. We have been having tons of fun bringing the library to a bar every month. The press has had fun with it to. Click here to see a "Two librarians walk into a bar" article. We have been going strong for over a year now and keep growing. The next one is on election night. But at these events, I play Vanna to Kathy's Pat Sajak. I help make the questions, I do not have to answer them.
Well all that changes tonight. I have signed up with my husband and 3 other couples to participate in a local trivia night to benefit my town's historical society. While I am very excited, I also realize the pressure I am under. These people all know that I run a trivia night and think of me as the smart library lady. I hope I can do as good a job answering as I do asking.
Okay, so what does this have to do with 31 Days of Horror? Well, a little. I was brushing up on my Halloween trivia for our October 2 trivia night questions and for tonight. I figure it would be really embarrassing if the local horror expert can't handle the seasonal questions.
When I was looking into Halloween trivia, I found so many quizzes and lists of interesting facts that I saved them to share with all of you today. So, I are celebrating my entrance into the world of trivia contestants with a whole bunch of fun Halloween trivia links. Enjoy.
Many of you already know that Kathy and I host the Berwyn Public Library's monthly trivia night at The Garv-Inn on the first Tuesday of the month at 7pm. Click here for details. We have been having tons of fun bringing the library to a bar every month. The press has had fun with it to. Click here to see a "Two librarians walk into a bar" article. We have been going strong for over a year now and keep growing. The next one is on election night. But at these events, I play Vanna to Kathy's Pat Sajak. I help make the questions, I do not have to answer them.
Well all that changes tonight. I have signed up with my husband and 3 other couples to participate in a local trivia night to benefit my town's historical society. While I am very excited, I also realize the pressure I am under. These people all know that I run a trivia night and think of me as the smart library lady. I hope I can do as good a job answering as I do asking.
Okay, so what does this have to do with 31 Days of Horror? Well, a little. I was brushing up on my Halloween trivia for our October 2 trivia night questions and for tonight. I figure it would be really embarrassing if the local horror expert can't handle the seasonal questions.
When I was looking into Halloween trivia, I found so many quizzes and lists of interesting facts that I saved them to share with all of you today. So, I are celebrating my entrance into the world of trivia contestants with a whole bunch of fun Halloween trivia links. Enjoy.
- You can take the Halloween quiz (I got 7 out of 11 the first time out)
- This page has great facts and trivia about the holiday, the folklore behind it, and just creepy stuff.
- Quizland lets you take a weighted quiz. (I got 100% on this one)
- Want to do 31 days of trivia? This page has a question a day (or you can do them all at once).
And finally, to prepare for The Walking Dead season premier tomorrow. Click here for official Walking Dead quizzes. There is a page for each season. More Walking Dead info tomorrow. Right now, I have to get back to preparing not to embarrass myself.
Friday, October 12, 2012
31 Days of Horror: Day 12--Horror Links Round-Up 2
As I mentioned last Friday, once a week I will be gathering horror related links of interest throughout the month to post in large round-ups.
But first a few scheduling notes.
But first a few scheduling notes.
- I am still running the giveaway for The Donors. You have until Sunday 10/14 at 5pm cdt to get your entry in. Simply put "The Donors" in the subject line and email me: zombiegrl75[at]gmail[dot]com. I will be using a random number generator to choose the winner and will contact that person via email to get the snail mail details. I will post the results on the blog so that everything is on the up and up. Entries are already pouring in. Get yours in soon,
- Next week my list of 6 books to read this Halloween will be published in Library Journal. I will have a link to the list, but more importantly, I have guest posts from a few of the authors whose books appear on the list and some big giveaways to go with them. So next week gets very exciting here.
- Sunday is the return of the best show on television--The Walking Dead. And the second best show, American Horror Story, comes back on Wednesday, 10/17. I will have posts previewing both series this weekend.
- Those of you who also follow RA for All know I am a proud, but relocated, Jersey Girl. So, these ghostly New Jersey boardwalk photos on Flavorwire caught my eye.
- Even better from Flavorwire: 25 Horror Villain Tattoos That Will Give You Nightmares.
- As posted on The Monster Librarian Blog: Bookplates of Doom– blog posts from a bookplate collector, of bookplates with dire warnings and threats to book thieves and belated borrowers. Click here and here to see them or to submit your own.
- Booklist asks horror story collection editor extraordinaire, Ellen Datlow some Hostile Questions.
- Uninvited Books is offering all e-books for only 99 cents through Halloween.
- Like your scares to be more reality based. Take a look at this article by Sarah Statz Cords in Library Journal about historical True Crime. As she said about the article on her blog, Citizen Reader: "It took me a ridiculous amount of time to research and write, but it was fun. For a while. And then I started to get creeped out by all the True Crime. You can only read so much of that stuff at a time, even if it's set far back in history."
- io9 posted these exclusive details on David Fincher's plan to bring zombie comic Goon to the big screen as a PG-13 animated movie.
- My daughter is reading The Graveyard Book right now (and loving it), so I have graveyards on the mind. io9 also had this post (with pics!) of the Strangest Real Life Graves in the World.
- A report from Amazon on their Horror, SF, and Fantasy imprint 47North on its first birthday.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
31 Days of Horror: Day 11-- Review and Giveaway of The Donors
Yesterday, I had this guest post by Jeffrey Wilson. Today I am going to review his latest novel, The Donors*.
But first, I am running a giveaway of The Donors for the next few days. If you are interested in winning a paperback copy of the novel, email me at zombiegrl75[at]gmail[dot]com by Sunday at 5pm central time. Put "The Donors" in the subject heading. The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday and a book will be sent out to you.
Now on to the review.....
As I have have talked about in the past, JournalStone is my current favorite independent publisher of dark fiction. They are leading the charge to revitalize the horror paperback market. One of their biggest hits this season is Jeffrey Wilson's The Donors (the other is anything by Brett Talley, but we will get to him next week). JournalStone has succeeded in getting the paperback copies of The Donors on the shelf in Barnes and Nobel stores. This is a testament to their rising stature in the publishing world, and a nod to the quality of this horror novel.
Nathan, a 5 year old boy ends up in the emergency room, a victim of abuse at the hands of his mom's boyfriend. His doctor, Jason, is instantly drawn to Nathan as he too has a dark secret of abuse in his own past.
But this hospital has a dark secret of its own. It is filled with demonic looking men with pale faces and glowing eyes. Only Nathan and Jason can see these Lizard Men for what they really are: creatures who feed off of their victims' fear and harvest their organs while they are awake.
Only Nathan can defeat the Lizard Men and restore order to the hospital and his and Jason's lives.
Appeal (or why you would read this book): People who are new to my reviews need to understand that I believe that ever book has a reader, and it is my job to match the book to the reader. I talk about the appeal of the book in empirical terms: what is here that would make you want to read the book. And in this case, there is a lot of reasons to give The Donors a try.
The character are endearing and well drawn for the genre. The narration in this novel moves around but is mostly between Nathan and Jason (although there are some visceral scenes of the Lizard Men attacking their victims; these were great!). What I really liked about Nathan's 5 year old narration was that is was believable. He is not precocious. As he is readying to battle the Lizard Men, he thinks of himself as a Power Ranger. He is regularly reminding himself to be brave and "big." I also liked how we get to see the same scene from Nathan's view and Jason's view at times. It adds a depth to the story and deepens the character development of each.
All in all we get 4 fully drawn characters (Jenny the nurse, and Nathan's mom are the other 2) who we care about. Then Wilson adds the truly disgusting monsters who torture their victims, although it should be said that some of their victims deserve what is coming for them. They prey on people's fear, using it as an entrance to their physical body. Once insides, they suck the life out of the person.
These are great monsters. They are evil, creepy, and well dressed. Seriously, though, all good horror books need a terrible monster of some type to drive the fear. If the reader does not like the protagonists and the monsters are not scary enough, what's the point. Wilson nails this on both counts. The Lizard men are great in the sense that I believed that they were terrifying manifestations of pure evil. As a result, the chase to stop them is suspenseful and intense.
There are some visceral scenes, but this is not a blood and guts story at all. That being said, many readers do not like books with abused children. Nathan and Jason have both been through a lot. If this bothers you, please do not read this novel. If you are only slightly uneasy with this, I assure you that the abusers do not win. Actually, reading this story as Sandusky was being sentenced added a level of extra anxiety. Even in a world without Lizard Men, evil stalks young children. That is scary on its own. Wilson plays off of this real world threat to increase the terror of The Donors.
The Donors is a blend of dark fantasy and horror. While the Lizard Men monsters are evil, sadistic, and well realized, the story ends more like fantasy than horror. This makes it a good option for a broader audience, but it may disappoint hard-core horror fans.
The Donors is a great pick for medium to large public libraries with a following in dark fantasy and horror.
Send me an email to enter the contest for a free copy for you or your library.
Three Words That Describe This Book: monsters, child narrator, intense
Readalikes: If you liked the medical thriller parts of this novel and don't need the supernatural elements to keep you on the edge of your seat, make sure you try Robin Cook and Michael Palmer. Both have been around a while and are still writing frightening and thrilling novels where terrible things happen in hospitals.
Another horror book set in a hospital getting a lot of press this season is The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle. I will have more on this novel next week, but it is a good readalike option; however please note that The Devil in Silver has more psychological suspense and an adult narrator.
A couple horror titles that feature young narrators and a similar intense fight against evil creatures are Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon and The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (another title by her, The Price, also has a hospital setting).
Finally, if you want to read another terrifying book with a young narrator who is the victim of abuse, try the critically acclaimed, compelling, and intense Room by Emma Donoghue.
*Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this novel for free from the author.
But first, I am running a giveaway of The Donors for the next few days. If you are interested in winning a paperback copy of the novel, email me at zombiegrl75[at]gmail[dot]com by Sunday at 5pm central time. Put "The Donors" in the subject heading. The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday and a book will be sent out to you.
Now on to the review.....
Nathan, a 5 year old boy ends up in the emergency room, a victim of abuse at the hands of his mom's boyfriend. His doctor, Jason, is instantly drawn to Nathan as he too has a dark secret of abuse in his own past.
But this hospital has a dark secret of its own. It is filled with demonic looking men with pale faces and glowing eyes. Only Nathan and Jason can see these Lizard Men for what they really are: creatures who feed off of their victims' fear and harvest their organs while they are awake.
Only Nathan can defeat the Lizard Men and restore order to the hospital and his and Jason's lives.
Appeal (or why you would read this book): People who are new to my reviews need to understand that I believe that ever book has a reader, and it is my job to match the book to the reader. I talk about the appeal of the book in empirical terms: what is here that would make you want to read the book. And in this case, there is a lot of reasons to give The Donors a try.
The character are endearing and well drawn for the genre. The narration in this novel moves around but is mostly between Nathan and Jason (although there are some visceral scenes of the Lizard Men attacking their victims; these were great!). What I really liked about Nathan's 5 year old narration was that is was believable. He is not precocious. As he is readying to battle the Lizard Men, he thinks of himself as a Power Ranger. He is regularly reminding himself to be brave and "big." I also liked how we get to see the same scene from Nathan's view and Jason's view at times. It adds a depth to the story and deepens the character development of each.
All in all we get 4 fully drawn characters (Jenny the nurse, and Nathan's mom are the other 2) who we care about. Then Wilson adds the truly disgusting monsters who torture their victims, although it should be said that some of their victims deserve what is coming for them. They prey on people's fear, using it as an entrance to their physical body. Once insides, they suck the life out of the person.
These are great monsters. They are evil, creepy, and well dressed. Seriously, though, all good horror books need a terrible monster of some type to drive the fear. If the reader does not like the protagonists and the monsters are not scary enough, what's the point. Wilson nails this on both counts. The Lizard men are great in the sense that I believed that they were terrifying manifestations of pure evil. As a result, the chase to stop them is suspenseful and intense.
There are some visceral scenes, but this is not a blood and guts story at all. That being said, many readers do not like books with abused children. Nathan and Jason have both been through a lot. If this bothers you, please do not read this novel. If you are only slightly uneasy with this, I assure you that the abusers do not win. Actually, reading this story as Sandusky was being sentenced added a level of extra anxiety. Even in a world without Lizard Men, evil stalks young children. That is scary on its own. Wilson plays off of this real world threat to increase the terror of The Donors.
The Donors is a blend of dark fantasy and horror. While the Lizard Men monsters are evil, sadistic, and well realized, the story ends more like fantasy than horror. This makes it a good option for a broader audience, but it may disappoint hard-core horror fans.
The Donors is a great pick for medium to large public libraries with a following in dark fantasy and horror.
Send me an email to enter the contest for a free copy for you or your library.
Three Words That Describe This Book: monsters, child narrator, intense
Readalikes: If you liked the medical thriller parts of this novel and don't need the supernatural elements to keep you on the edge of your seat, make sure you try Robin Cook and Michael Palmer. Both have been around a while and are still writing frightening and thrilling novels where terrible things happen in hospitals.
Another horror book set in a hospital getting a lot of press this season is The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle. I will have more on this novel next week, but it is a good readalike option; however please note that The Devil in Silver has more psychological suspense and an adult narrator.
A couple horror titles that feature young narrators and a similar intense fight against evil creatures are Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon and The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (another title by her, The Price, also has a hospital setting).
Finally, if you want to read another terrifying book with a young narrator who is the victim of abuse, try the critically acclaimed, compelling, and intense Room by Emma Donoghue.
*Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this novel for free from the author.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
31 Days of Horror-- Day 10: My Love of Horror: A Guest Post by Author Jeffrey Wilson
Today's guest post comes from horror author Jeffrey Wilson:
I will be back tomorrow with my review of The Donors.
****************************************************************
My Love of Horror By Jeffrey Wilson Author of THE DONORS And THE TRAITEUR’S RING
Write what you know and love, or so the saying goes. As a reader, I grew up with a love of great horror stories and that most assuredly affected who I became as a writer. I devoured books by King, and Koontz, and Straub. As a kid, I scared myself to death reading Edgar Allan Poe by flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping. More recently I am a fan of Joe Hill and Benjamin Kane Ethridge, of Brett J. Talley and Joe Nassise. I have read other genres and still do-- I like science and politically based thrillers-- but my real love is horror, especially supernatural horror (I am not a fan of slasher type horror) or chilling psychological thriller type Horror.
Like most Horror readers, I enjoy the thrill ride of a chilling tale. I genuinely love the adrenaline rush of being scared. Horror stories are like a rollercoaster ride and to an extent, horror readers are thrill seekers. You know that nothing bad will actually happen to you on that rollercoaster, but man, the terror of the two hundred foot drop is still a rush. Also like a great roller coaster, a great horror story will hurl you screaming down that drop, and then take you through some gentle turns and climb you back up the next hill, letting you recover a bit before hurling you down again. So, most definitely I enjoy the scare, but it is way more than that for me. I believe that Horror stories allow readers to experience characters’ lives in a way that no other genre really can. And it is the character driven stories that I am drawn to. My list of authors probably makes that pretty clear.
What I want in my fiction is a story that brings the characters alive in ways that make them so real that I feel at the end as if I have known them my whole life. Stephen King’s incredible imagination and the amazing situations he writes about make his stories good, but it is his character development that makes them great. I have often joked to friends that King could write a five hundred page book about a guy reading the phone book, and I would probably enjoy it, because only King and a handful of others could make that yellow page skimming dude so real that he might be sitting next to me. I want that same character rather than plot driven style in my other fiction genres, too, but it seems easier to achieve in Horror. Why is that?
We see the most in real people when they are at their most vulnerable, I think. I have had enough life experience to know that to be true. The macho guy at the gym reveals less about himself doing another set of curls then he does when gun fire at the grocery store leads him to trample over a little old lady on his way out the door, screaming like a little girl. The quiet girl from the library, steps in front of the escaped tiger and is mauled to death, because she couldn’t help butsave the four year old frozen in fear in the animal’s path. You see what I mean? Extreme situations reveal things about people that they probably don’t even know about themselves. Horror stories, whether supernatural like King or based on the horrifying side of man like Richard Godwin and Thomas Harris, put ordinary people in extraordinary situations and let us see the core of those people and their relationships. It is revealed in their actions, their dialogue, and their inner narrative and it shows who they are and who they become as they respond to the situations the writer puts them in. Read the older, original Robert Ludlum books and you see the same thing. Ludlum was a master at writing ordinary people into his thrillers and would surprise both the character and the reader in the way those people, driven by survival instinct, find abilities in themselves that allow them to overcome. So it is enjoyable to see this inner core of the characters revealed in other genres, but in horror, and most especially horror with supernatural elements, it is important for another reason.
In Bag of Bones, King showed us a character we liked and then showed us his very soul in the grief after the loss of his wife. We know how much he loved her and we felt his loss deeply, because King made him so real. Then he introduces uncomfortable questions about secrets she may have had, and we again feel the fear and pain right along King’s protagonist as he re-evaluates their love, their marriage, and his life with her. And so he becomes more real still. Now that the character is at least as real as the guy who sits beside us at work, King takes us on a terrifying journey with him, introducing horror elements of ghosts and unresolved murders, all the while building the human side of his character as we learn more about him and his dead wife and as he finds new enemies and allies they add another layer to the story. We can’t help but believe in the horror elements, because we already believe so much in the characters. The realism of the characters and the story makes the horror elements intensely more frightening-- after all, it is happening now to people we know!
If a horror story jumps right in from page one with some way out premise of lizard-like creatures who exist in two parallel worlds, but in our world they use healthcare workers by controlling their desires so they will harvest organs from living donors, literally torturing them to death so the lizard men can feed on the fear and pain-- well, that plot seems so beyond reality that most readers will have a hard time diving in with fully opened minds. But if the book starts with compelling characters who over the first few chapters become very real, and more importantly are characters the reader is drawn to empathetically (which makes them still more real), then when the supernatural part of the tale evolves the reader accepts the fantastic elements much more readily. Make the main character a bright and loving five year old, recovering from injuries that pull at your heartstrings. Make him brave and wise beyond his years and give him a child-like innocence that we all see in our own kids, but with the brave heart of the righteous people we want our kids to become. Dare the reader not to love that little kid. Now he is real. And if the characters have come to life, then the things that happen to them, no matter how out there, must be real-- because the little boy the writer made us fall in love with is by now very real, after all. Now we not only accept the crazy lizard-men story, because to not do so means we can no longer believe in the little boy, but we have a real emotional response to them-- not just for the strange and terrifying things they are doing, but because they are scaring the little boy we now care about so much. We hate those damn lizard men, and we want our little hero to be safe.
As a reader, that is what I love about horror. I love the way those stories can make the characters so real and emotional for us. As a writer, I find bringing the characters to life the biggest challenge, but once you do, it makes selling your crazy imagination, your stories of demons and supernatural powers, of ghosts and evil forces, so much easier to sell to your reader. I love writing horror, because once you build those characters you can unleash your imagination without limits. The mystery writer has to make the story and the plot believable. I have only to make my characters come alive and I can write the most unbelievable plots with authority and realism. It allows me to unchain myself from convention and history and reality and I become limited only by my ability to push my imagination to new limits.
So, as a writer, I find a real freedom in horror fiction. I have tried my hand before at more traditional genres, but there is always this nagging little voice in my head whispering questions like “That’s cool, but what if the hero is already dead, but just doesn’t know it?” or “wouldn’t it be cool if that Navy SEAL could actually kill with a single thought or heal his team mates with just a touch? How neat would that be?” Those whispers unleash my imagination and allow me to create things that are new and fresh—and, to me at least, way more exciting. They let me build worlds that challenge my characters in terrifying ways and my reader’s ability to hear those whispers with me.
And of course, if I do my job well, it gives us all one hell of a thrilling ride.
Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, a firefighter, a paramedic, a jet pilot, a diving instructor, a Naval Officer, and a Vascular and Trauma Surgeon. He also served two tours in Iraq as a combat surgeon with both the Marines and with a Joint Special Operations Task Force. In addition to his debut novel, The Traiteur’s Ring, which was released in 2011, Wilson has written dozens of short stories, including “Calling Home,” which was published in BuzzyMag and “The Writer,” which was included in the Warped Words 2011: 90 Minutes to Live anthology. Jeffrey and his wife, Wendy, are Virginia natives who, with children Emma, Jack, and Connor, call Southwest Florida home.Wilson's latest novel, The Donors is garnering rave reviews. You can click here to see for yourself. In fact, Barnes and Nobel recently agreed to carry the novel in its physical stores. This is big news for small press, paperback horror in general as well as a huge endorsement of Wilson's novel. We will hear more from Wilson's publisher, Journal Stone a bit later in the month. But for now, Wilson shared the attached guest post where he writes about why he loves horror as a writer and a reader.
I will be back tomorrow with my review of The Donors.
****************************************************************
My Love of Horror By Jeffrey Wilson Author of THE DONORS And THE TRAITEUR’S RING
Write what you know and love, or so the saying goes. As a reader, I grew up with a love of great horror stories and that most assuredly affected who I became as a writer. I devoured books by King, and Koontz, and Straub. As a kid, I scared myself to death reading Edgar Allan Poe by flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping. More recently I am a fan of Joe Hill and Benjamin Kane Ethridge, of Brett J. Talley and Joe Nassise. I have read other genres and still do-- I like science and politically based thrillers-- but my real love is horror, especially supernatural horror (I am not a fan of slasher type horror) or chilling psychological thriller type Horror.
Like most Horror readers, I enjoy the thrill ride of a chilling tale. I genuinely love the adrenaline rush of being scared. Horror stories are like a rollercoaster ride and to an extent, horror readers are thrill seekers. You know that nothing bad will actually happen to you on that rollercoaster, but man, the terror of the two hundred foot drop is still a rush. Also like a great roller coaster, a great horror story will hurl you screaming down that drop, and then take you through some gentle turns and climb you back up the next hill, letting you recover a bit before hurling you down again. So, most definitely I enjoy the scare, but it is way more than that for me. I believe that Horror stories allow readers to experience characters’ lives in a way that no other genre really can. And it is the character driven stories that I am drawn to. My list of authors probably makes that pretty clear.
What I want in my fiction is a story that brings the characters alive in ways that make them so real that I feel at the end as if I have known them my whole life. Stephen King’s incredible imagination and the amazing situations he writes about make his stories good, but it is his character development that makes them great. I have often joked to friends that King could write a five hundred page book about a guy reading the phone book, and I would probably enjoy it, because only King and a handful of others could make that yellow page skimming dude so real that he might be sitting next to me. I want that same character rather than plot driven style in my other fiction genres, too, but it seems easier to achieve in Horror. Why is that?
We see the most in real people when they are at their most vulnerable, I think. I have had enough life experience to know that to be true. The macho guy at the gym reveals less about himself doing another set of curls then he does when gun fire at the grocery store leads him to trample over a little old lady on his way out the door, screaming like a little girl. The quiet girl from the library, steps in front of the escaped tiger and is mauled to death, because she couldn’t help butsave the four year old frozen in fear in the animal’s path. You see what I mean? Extreme situations reveal things about people that they probably don’t even know about themselves. Horror stories, whether supernatural like King or based on the horrifying side of man like Richard Godwin and Thomas Harris, put ordinary people in extraordinary situations and let us see the core of those people and their relationships. It is revealed in their actions, their dialogue, and their inner narrative and it shows who they are and who they become as they respond to the situations the writer puts them in. Read the older, original Robert Ludlum books and you see the same thing. Ludlum was a master at writing ordinary people into his thrillers and would surprise both the character and the reader in the way those people, driven by survival instinct, find abilities in themselves that allow them to overcome. So it is enjoyable to see this inner core of the characters revealed in other genres, but in horror, and most especially horror with supernatural elements, it is important for another reason.
In Bag of Bones, King showed us a character we liked and then showed us his very soul in the grief after the loss of his wife. We know how much he loved her and we felt his loss deeply, because King made him so real. Then he introduces uncomfortable questions about secrets she may have had, and we again feel the fear and pain right along King’s protagonist as he re-evaluates their love, their marriage, and his life with her. And so he becomes more real still. Now that the character is at least as real as the guy who sits beside us at work, King takes us on a terrifying journey with him, introducing horror elements of ghosts and unresolved murders, all the while building the human side of his character as we learn more about him and his dead wife and as he finds new enemies and allies they add another layer to the story. We can’t help but believe in the horror elements, because we already believe so much in the characters. The realism of the characters and the story makes the horror elements intensely more frightening-- after all, it is happening now to people we know!
If a horror story jumps right in from page one with some way out premise of lizard-like creatures who exist in two parallel worlds, but in our world they use healthcare workers by controlling their desires so they will harvest organs from living donors, literally torturing them to death so the lizard men can feed on the fear and pain-- well, that plot seems so beyond reality that most readers will have a hard time diving in with fully opened minds. But if the book starts with compelling characters who over the first few chapters become very real, and more importantly are characters the reader is drawn to empathetically (which makes them still more real), then when the supernatural part of the tale evolves the reader accepts the fantastic elements much more readily. Make the main character a bright and loving five year old, recovering from injuries that pull at your heartstrings. Make him brave and wise beyond his years and give him a child-like innocence that we all see in our own kids, but with the brave heart of the righteous people we want our kids to become. Dare the reader not to love that little kid. Now he is real. And if the characters have come to life, then the things that happen to them, no matter how out there, must be real-- because the little boy the writer made us fall in love with is by now very real, after all. Now we not only accept the crazy lizard-men story, because to not do so means we can no longer believe in the little boy, but we have a real emotional response to them-- not just for the strange and terrifying things they are doing, but because they are scaring the little boy we now care about so much. We hate those damn lizard men, and we want our little hero to be safe.
As a reader, that is what I love about horror. I love the way those stories can make the characters so real and emotional for us. As a writer, I find bringing the characters to life the biggest challenge, but once you do, it makes selling your crazy imagination, your stories of demons and supernatural powers, of ghosts and evil forces, so much easier to sell to your reader. I love writing horror, because once you build those characters you can unleash your imagination without limits. The mystery writer has to make the story and the plot believable. I have only to make my characters come alive and I can write the most unbelievable plots with authority and realism. It allows me to unchain myself from convention and history and reality and I become limited only by my ability to push my imagination to new limits.
So, as a writer, I find a real freedom in horror fiction. I have tried my hand before at more traditional genres, but there is always this nagging little voice in my head whispering questions like “That’s cool, but what if the hero is already dead, but just doesn’t know it?” or “wouldn’t it be cool if that Navy SEAL could actually kill with a single thought or heal his team mates with just a touch? How neat would that be?” Those whispers unleash my imagination and allow me to create things that are new and fresh—and, to me at least, way more exciting. They let me build worlds that challenge my characters in terrifying ways and my reader’s ability to hear those whispers with me.
And of course, if I do my job well, it gives us all one hell of a thrilling ride.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
31 Days of Horror: Day 9-- Review: Ghosts of Coronado Bay
Yesterday, I had this guest post by JG Faherty where he worte about writing horror for a Young Adult audience. Last month, I read his Bram Stoker nominated Young Adult novel, Ghosts of Coronado Bay. Below is my review.
Ghosts of Cornoado Bay opens with a very frighetning prologue set a few hundred years in the past as a ship sinks in a storm off the coast of a small New England Island. This prologue hints at the dark secrets that went down with the ship.
Flash forward to 21st Century life on the island of Coronado Bay where Maya, our protagonist, is a typical 16 year old girl. She has a best friend Lucy, a difficult relationship with her on again, off again boyfriend, Stuart, and works at the diner her family owns. However, Maya is not as normal as she seems. She is a seer, someone who can see ghosts. So far, she has only been able to see her Grandmother. No one knows her secret though.
When the local historical society raises the ship wreck from the prologue, an evil wizard/ghost, Gavin is unleashed. He is looking for the dark magic book that went down with the ship. But also unleashed is Blake, the kind hearted boy whose family had sworn to stop Gavin. As the two spirits battle, Maya is caught up in the middle.
As the story progresses, Maya's problems shift from worrying about who to take to the dance, to whether or not she (and the entire town) will survive the dance.
Appeal: GoCB is a well constructed ghost story which begins with an unsettling prologue, then backs up to describe Maya's regular life. The paranormal is introduced innocently with Maya talking to the ghost of her dead grandmother, but then it quickly turns sinister as the reader is privy to the evil wizard Gavin and his violent pursuit of the magic book that was lost when the ship sank.
The pacing is brisk. Like the best horror novels, it is unsettling from page one (can't get more ominous than a sinking ship), pulls back and lets you get comfortable, before slowly building the anxiety and scares until a terrifying last third that keeps you frantically turning the pages to see how it all ends.
Although this novel is written for a teen audience, it holds plenty of scares for adults. Faherty carefully constructs a realistic world. Placing the ghosts within the context of being raised with the sunken ship, makes the horror seem possible. Gavin, is evil and will stop at nothing to find the black magic object he needs to take over the world. He has waited at the bottom of the ocean for hundreds of years, and will not waste his chance.
That being said, it is important to note, that the climax is bloody and violent. Teenagers die. The good guys win in the end, but there are casualties. It is nothing anyone 13 and up hasn't seen on TV, but it is violent and unsettling.
Maya is a very compelling protagonist. She is a bright and articulate teenager who is dealing with boy problems, her blossoming sexuality, and her uneasiness about growing up. She is realistic. So while there are ghosts in town, she is also worried about who to take to the dance, that is until the dance turns deadly....
Readers who like paranormal mysteries, ghost stories, and ship wrecks will love this novel.
Three Words That Describe This Book: ghosts, good vs. evil, YA
Readalikes: Fans of GoCB would also find much to like in Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood. 17 year old Cas is a ghost killer, but everything changes when he meets the ghost, Anna. Like GoCB, Anna Dressed in Blood is creepy and suspenseful, set in a modern world with realistic teens who happen to have paranormal powers.
I would also like to suggest the debut novel, Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough as a readalike here. In this chilling novel, it is 1958 and Cora and her sister Mimi are set to stay with a relative in an isolated village where they encounter an ancient evil.
Finally, if you enjoyed the raising of the ship angle to the story, I would suggest the nonfiction title Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. As Joyce wrote on our class's blog:
Readers who like paranormal mysteries, ghost stories, and ship wrecks will love this novel.
Three Words That Describe This Book: ghosts, good vs. evil, YA
Readalikes: Fans of GoCB would also find much to like in Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood. 17 year old Cas is a ghost killer, but everything changes when he meets the ghost, Anna. Like GoCB, Anna Dressed in Blood is creepy and suspenseful, set in a modern world with realistic teens who happen to have paranormal powers.
I would also like to suggest the debut novel, Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough as a readalike here. In this chilling novel, it is 1958 and Cora and her sister Mimi are set to stay with a relative in an isolated village where they encounter an ancient evil.
Finally, if you enjoyed the raising of the ship angle to the story, I would suggest the nonfiction title Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. As Joyce wrote on our class's blog:
When two experienced deep-sea wreck divers discover a torpedoed but undocumented German submarine lying deep off the New Jersey coast in 1991, they embark on a 7 year investigation to discover its identity. This perilous search delves into the mechanics of the dangerously deep dive, the frustrating searches in U.S., British, and German archives to identify the submarine, and harrowing tales from WWII submarine survivors–German as well as American. The mission is not without its share of tragedies: three divers lost their lives on the wreck and John Chatterton’s marriage failed as a result of his obsession. Fascinating characters, both contemporary and historical, fill this intriguing, detail-rich true adventure tale.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
