One of the main purposes of 31 Days of Horror is to provide you, the library worker, with exposure to all facets of Horror RA. What I hear most often from you as you work in your libraries is that you know you have readers who enjoy horror, but that you don't get why.
Sometimes you don't get why because you yourselves don't like horror. Others tell me they don't have enough interaction with their horror readers to have them articulate why they enjoy the genre. Either way, the outcomes is the same: you need to have more examples of why horror appeals to a wide range of readers.
The second most common complaint is that you don't know about enough different authors. Maybe you can find the names of authors, but you don't really know a lot about them.
For both of these reasons I spend a lot of time in the months leading up to 31 Days of Horror, soliciting authors to provide "Why I Love Horror" posts for me to run during this month. You can use this tag to pull up everything that has appeared in this series over the years, but no matter which year the guest post ran, the goal is the same. Authors of horror share what draws them to the genre. This is both to introduce you to them and their work, but also to give you an example horror patron. These authors are passionate about the genre, they have made it their life. But, like our patrons, they all come to the books they love for their own personal reasons. The more reasons why people love horror you are exposed to, the easier it will be for you to help your own horror loving readers, and all without reading a single horror novel yourself [although if you think you are too scared of horror, I can help you find something to at least try to see the appeal of the genre for yourself.]
Beginning tomorrow, I am going to be highlighting this year's crop of "Why I Love Horror" guest posters. All were personally invited by me. I do not accept unsolicited posts for this series. I have handpicked this group because I know they have something worth sharing with you. Also, taken as a whole, these authors represent a broad spectrum of the genre.
To kick things off today, and get us in the spirit, I want to begin with a recorded panel from WorldCon 76 sponsored by the Horror Writers Association entitled, "What Turns People On to Horror." This panel gathered 6 authors, including bestsellers, Richard Kadrey and Scott Sigler. The first 15 minutes of the video is the authors talking about why they write horror. Literally a spoken presentation of what I am trying to do with these guest posts.
So click here to watch the video today. And stay tuned for the next 10 days [or so] as authors introduce you to their love for the genre and I introduce you to one of their books that I think you should add to your libraries.
And don't forget about the multiple years of backlist "Why I Love Horror" posts, which include authors from the well known to the barely known sharing their love for this, the scariest of genres.
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