Faherty is a great readalike for Stephen King. He writes compelling horror that cross subgenre boundaries regularly but also always has great characters and the chills horror readers are craving. Depending on his book, the level of gore is varied, but it is never gratuitous and fits with the story he is telling and the level of terror he is invoking. Cemetery Club [adult] and Ghosts of Coronado Bay [YA- link to my review] are great places to begin giving Faherty a try.
I have also gotten to know Faherty through his tireless work for the HWA on making sure that libraries are a part of the association's goals and work. I can honestly say that without Faherty reaching out to me years ago, I would never be as involved in the HWA as I am now. He has a true passion for the genre. Thankfully, he also has the writing chops to go with it.
I think Faherty captures why he is so personally passionate about horror in his essay below, and he does so in language that I think many of your own patrons would also use.
I will still have more from Faherty before the month is over, but first, here is why he loves horror.
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠
Why I Love Horror
By JG Faherty
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the title to Shirley Jackson’s final novel. It’s also how I would describe my relationship with horror.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of horror. My earliest memories include watching the Universal monster movies and watching TV shows like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. I got my reading start with books about dinosaurs and reptiles, but my first ventures into fiction included Poe, Shelley, Verne, and Stoker. Even the cartoons I watched as a kid tended more toward the spooky or mysterious: Scooby Do, Jonny Quest, Gigantor. My favorite Bugs Bunny episodes were the ones with monsters in them and my favorite holiday was, of course, Halloween.
Even my bedtime stories revolved around scary stuff. My dad used to tell me tales about a mischievous kitty who would have all sorts of crazy adventures in mad scientist laboratories or with vampires or with criminals in dark, dangerous alleys. He was kind of a feline Tintin (who was also a favorite of mine!).
As I got a little older, I discovered the grand horror movies of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Them!, the Hammer films, etc. One of the greatest moments of my young life came at a drive in theater, where after Planet of the Apes (a new release at the time), the 2nd feature was one I’d never heard of: Night of the Living Dead. My parents roared out of that parking lot like we were being chased by the devil, saying that was no kind of movie for an eight-year-old, but not before I got my first glimpse of those shambling, hollow-eyed zombies marching across the cemetery.
I was hooked!
After that, horror went from a shared favorite (I also enjoyed science fiction and mysteries) to my primary form of entertainment. My dressers were crowded with the Aurora monster models. It was the 1970s, a golden age for horror, so every Saturday there was a new movie to see at the local theater, ranging from Godzilla films to classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sundays found me in front of the TV each morning to watch Thriller Theater, which showed all the old black and white horror and monster sci-fi from the 50s and 60s. I devoured it all and wanted more. I discovered the magazines: Creepy, Terror Tales, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Strange Tales, Eerie. Marvel had a line of monster comics, and there were even comics based on the classic horror novels.
And the books! From Poe and Shelley and Stoker I moved on to Bloch, Wellman, and Wagner. And then, of course, King, Koontz, and Straub. In the 80s, horror paperbacks exploded. Garton, Hautala, Saul, Farris, Monteleone, Wilson, Campbell, Herbert. The list goes on and on. And the movies: gory fun the likes of I Spit on Your Grave, The Hills Have Eyes, Food of the Gods, Child’s Play, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, Bloodsucking Freaks, and a million others.
I remember one night, I was in a bar with 2 friends. We’d just come from the movies. Three girls sat down next to us, so we started talking to them. They said they’d just come from the movies, and we said “Us, too! What did you see?”
“Blue Lagoon,” they replied. “What about you?”
“Zombie Holocaust and Bloodsucking Freaks.”
Needless to say, we spent the rest of the night drinking alone!
As a horror writer, people often ask me what happened in my life that made me enjoy horror? I can only answer that I was made for it, that it was meant to be. There were no terrible traumas in my childhood. I’ve just always been attracted to the macabre. As kids, we played hide and seek in cemeteries and mausoleums. None of the books I’ve read or movies I’ve watched have ever given me a single nightmare. In fact, even going back to my early childhood, most horror never even scared me. The movies kept me at the edge of my seat, or made me squeal with joy at a particularly grotesque death. But rarely did I get more than the occasional tingle down my spine. I can only remember a single time I actually jumped in a theater, and that was during my first viewing of Phantasm.
When it comes to books, the only one that ever scared me enough to put it down and finish it later was King’s Pet Sematary.
It’s this inability to be frightened that makes things difficult when I write, because I have no idea if what I’m putting down is actually scary. I have to wait until people read it to find out, and sometimes I’m surprised at what frightens people and what doesn’t.
So, to go back to the original question. Why do I love horror? It’s a part of me. It’s authentic, because it deals with real human emotions that we all share. It helps us understand and deal with our fears, our losses, our trepidation of the unknown. It makes us feel better, because those people on the screen or in the pages are having much worse days than us. There is something for every mood and every preference, because horror can involve romance, adventure, mystery, blood and guts, realism, or extreme supernatural fiction.
But more than anything, I love horror because it’s who I am and who I’ve always been.
Horror is my castle, and I have always lived in it.
=========================
A life-long resident of New York's haunted Hudson Valley, JG Faherty has been a finalist for both the Bram Stoker Award® (The Cure, Ghosts of Coronado Bay) and ITW Thriller Award (The Burning Time), and he is the author of 6 novels, 9 novellas, and more than 60 short stories. An Active member of several genre writers’ organizations, he serves as the Director of the HWA’s Library & Literacy Program, which focuses on reading programs for young adults. He grew up enthralled with the horror movies and books of the 1950s, 60, 70s, and 80s. His next novel, Hellrider, comes out in 2019.
Follow him at www.twitter.com/jgfaherty, www.facebook.com/jgfaherty, www.jgfaherty.com, and http://jgfaherty-blog.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment