31 Days fo Horror: Day 24 The Not Scary H-Word Column About Horror in Nightmare Magazine

Since its start in October of 2012, Nightmare Magazine  has run a monthly nonfiction column about Horror called "The H Word."

From that first column:

Welcome to the first installment of “The H Word,” our monthly dissection of the horror genre. In the future, I, along with various guest columnists, will take the beast apart, piece by twitching piece, in an effort to see what makes it tick . . . to see what works and what doesn’t. We’ll cover popular tropes and popular sub-genres, and we’ll even shine a light on specific, important works.

Just as they promised, this column has been about the craft of writing horror written by a variety of writers sharing their knowledge. Many authors familiar to readers of this blog like Grady Hendrix, Kristi Demeester, Nadia Bulkin, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Lisa Morton [to name only a few] have contributed their expertise.

But for you, the library worker, this column is a fantastic resource to get inside the head of horror authors and see how they sculpt the scares. Reading them as they break down how they portray emotions like paranoia, create supernatural monsters, and pay homage to classic tales, all of it is useful to us-- especially those of you who are too scared to read a horror novel yourself.

Seriously, if you are one of the many library workers who know they can't handle a full horror novel, I totally understand. No one, not even me, is going to make you scare yourself to the point that it is damaging to your mental health.

But, that statement does not mean you get a pass on helping horror readers. You still need to help them. You still need to understand why others do enjoy it. And guess what? This column will help you to that goal and it is not scary at all.

There is a new one every month, here, so after this horror centric month comes to an end, consider reading The H Word every month. That is one short column about horror, once a month. It really is enough to keep you in shape so that next year, when October rolls around again, you won't be caught off guard by the shambling hordes of horror fans making their way to your library asking for terrifying tomes.

To make it even easier for you [also so you don't tell me you forgot about it], I have added a direct link to this column on my Resources page and marked it [***] as one of the most useful.

Now get out there and help someone find a scary book.