Halfway to Halloween Reading Ideas

Click here to see my Library Journal column with six titles sure to reacquaint you and your patrons with the pleasure of a great scary read.

I have also added these annotations to the horror review index.

In Memoriam: The Monster Librarian

The following is a repost from The Monster Librarian Blog in appreciation for all he did to promote horror in libraries.

The Original Monster Librarian

Published by Kirsten on April 26th, 2014 - in Uncategorized

In Memoriam: Dylan Kowalewski, The Original Monster Librarian

September 5, 1973-April 17, 2014

Monster Librarian was the idea and passion of Dylan Kowalewski. Dylan, in a typical burst of optimism and energy, with an intense love of horror fiction, started the site at the end of 2005. Where he got the energy and conviction to start it off less than three months after our first child was born, while working full time and attending library school, I do not have the slightest idea. Library school was an eye-opening experience for him, as over and over again he ran into librarians or soon-to-be-librarians who told him they didn’t like horror fiction, didn’t want to read it, and didn’t know what to hand readers who asked for “something like Stephen King.” He was tired of going to bookstores and finding only the same three or four authors in the “horror” section. Anne Rice and Stephen King were just the tip of the iceberg, but you would never know that from looking there.

Dylan himself grew up down the street from a used bookstore called “Granny’s Attic”. Remember used bookstores? I do. The one I frequented at that age was run by a guy with a beard and a very sneaky cat, with shelves of yellow-spined DAW paperbacks. Dylan’s, apparently, was stocked with killer animal (and killer plant) books from the 1970s and 1980s. As we cleared out the bookshelves in his basement study so new carpet could be installed, he let go of a lot of books, but Guy N. Smith’s Crabs books, James Herbert’s The Rats, and many other well-worn paperbacks stayed.

While I’m not actually working in a library anymore, I do have the degree, and I’ve been a children’s librarian in a public library, a school librarian in an elementary school. I’ve also had plenty of anecdotal experiences in which I’ve run into people who were non-readers who became readers when they discovered Stephen King, or Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, or R.L. Stine. I’ve seen all of these attacked by censors and belittled as trash reading or merely a stop on the way to “real” literature.  And I firmly believe that the world becomes a better place when people learn to read and to love reading. Dylan believed that too, and felt that a lot of kids, teens, and adults, were turned off to reading because the people who have the most influence– parents, teachers, and librarians– didn’t see the value of reading horror for pleasure. He always maintained that reading for entertainment is enough reason to read– there doesn’t have to be deeper meaning, and sometimes a tree really is just a tree.

And so he started Monster Librarian, writing short, objective reviews of just a few sentences, almost completely by himself, and publishing them every week, to create a resource for all those people (especially librarians) who told him “I don’t like reading horror, but I need to know about it”. For a long time that’s the only name by which people knew him. At a conference he attended, someone finally took him around and introduced him– “This is Dylan, the Monster Librarian”.  And he’s the only person who, I think, can ever own that title. At one point he worked full time, had a second job in a library, and put in probably the equivalent to a part-time job in time and effort for the site, as well as being a devoted and loving father and husband.

Most of the people who knew Dylan through Monster Librarian knew him mainly online, but both he and I have been lucky to have both authors and reviewers call us friends. This site became what it is because, in spite of his being an intensely private person, his personality and love of the genre and the horror community always shone through. Bret Jordan, Bob Freeman, David Agranoff, Rhonda Rettig (formerly Wilson), Erik Smith, Kelly Fann, Michele Lee, Colleen Wanglund, Darlene Wanglund, Dave Simms, Patricia O. Mathews, Diana Lord, Sheila Shedd, Hannah Kate,  Aaron Fletcher, Julie Adams, and so many more contributed to making this site what it is– a place where parents write to thank us for finding the right book for their reluctant reader, authors contact us to tell us that finding their book reviewed here convinced them to keep writing, small presses and self-publishers get their names out into the mainstream, Midwestern moms confess their love for horror, and librarians discover the gems of the horror genre.

The work of all these people has made the site a success.

But Dylan is the one who made it happen.

And to quote Amy Dalton, his former manager at the Southport Library, “the only thing monstrous about the Monster Librarian was the size of his heart.”

If you have any memories or stories about your friendship or interactions with Dylan that you would like to share, feel free to email me at kirsten.kowalewski@monsterlibrarian.com.

The Stoker Awards Are Coming May 10th

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards.  Stephen King vs Joe Hill with the excellent team of F. Paul Wilson and Sarah Pinboroughhoping to exploit a split vote.

And to top it all off, the Horror Writers Association is again offering a live stream of the banquet.  Please find the official press release with all the details following.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                               
April 29, 2014   
Contact Doug Murano               
doug.murano@gmail.com

27^th Annual Bram Stoker Awards® to Be Presented May 10 2014

An all-star lineup of some of the most respected voices in horror will present The Bram Stoker Awards® – the horror genre’s highest honor – as part of the World Horror Convention after an evening gala banquet (approximately 7:30 p.m.) Saturday, May 10, 2014, in the Multnomah/Holladay Room at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Portland, Oregon. Jeff Strand, author of I Have a Bad Feeling About This and known as “the funniest man in the gore business,” will emcee. 

Presenters include: Linda Addison (How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend), Michael Arnzen (Play Dead), Jason V. Brock (The Ackermonster Chronicles), Greg Chapman (Witch Hunts), Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft’s Monsters), James Dorr (The Tears of Isis), Scott Edelman (What Will Come After), JG Faherty (Castle By the Sea), Lois Gresh (Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!), Lynne Hansen (Shades of Blue and Gray), Nancy Holder (Buffy: The Making of a Slayer), Jack Ketchum (The Lost), Leslie Klinger (The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft), John R. Little (Little By Little), Lisa Mannetti (The Gentling Box), Mike McCarty (Werewolf Bloodlines Book One: Gemini Rising), Joe McKinney (The Savage Dead), Lisa Morton (Netherworld: Book One in the Chronicles of Diana Furnaval), Yvonne Navarro (Concrete Saviour: A Dark Redemption Novel), Weston Ochse (Age of Blood: Seal Team 666 Book Two), John Palisano (Nerves), John Skipp (Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane), Aaron Sterns (Wolf Creek 2), Steve Rasnic Tem (Blood Kin), F. Paul Wilson (A Necessary End) and Rocky Wood (Stephen King: A Literary Companion). 

In addition, Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Stephen Jones, the renowned editor behind such anthology series as Best New Horror and Zombie Apocalypse!, will be on-hand to accept; and R. L. Stine, the legendary creator of Goosebumps and Fear Street, will accept his Lifetime Achievement Award via video. 

The awards presentation will begin immediately after the banquet, approximately 7:30 p.m., and will be streamed live via the internet, courtesy of platinum sponsor, Samhain Publishing. To view the live-stream, please follow these instructions:

1. On the evening of May 10, visit
https://avms.webex.com/avms/j.php?MTID=mbfc75996326ded17427e4dad4f06c473. 

2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
3. If a password is required, enter: whc2014. Then, click "Join."

Haunted Hotel Gives the NBA's Thunder an Advantage

Check out this great article from the New York Times about the haunted hotel where the OKC Thunder's opponents stay.  If they win the NBA Championship, will they have the supernatural to thank for it?

Stephen King's Carrie Turns 40

In my book, I argue that the current age of horror fiction began with the publication of Carrie by Stephen King.  Everything before Carrie is "classic," while everything after is modern.  It really was THAT important.

Well, this week Carrie, a novel that changed horror, heck changed American fiction writing, forever, turns 40.  This was King's first novel, and as I also argue in my book, no matter how you feel about King and his work, it would be very hard to dispute the fact that no other American author has had as great of an impact on the American fiction landscape over that time period.  And, I would go so far as to say he is America's greatest living storyteller.

Anyway, in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the publication of Carrie, the Guardian UK ran a series of articles and essays:

• Click here for Stephen King's "How I Wrote Carrie" essay
• Click here for "How Carrie changed Stephen King's Life and Began A Generation of Horror"
• Click here for the Carrie at 40 Quiz

Happy 40th Birthday Carrie!

RA for All Goes International With an Updated Horror Presentation

Click here for a 2014 coupon

Yes, International!  Due to the wonders of technology and in spite of the perils of time zones, day light savings time, and the international date line, I will be making my first ever overseas appearance for a New South Wales Readers Advisory training based out of Sydney, Australia.

The appearance is on Wednesday March 12th in the afternoon their time, but will be Tuesday evening my time.  I feel like I get to time travel. That was a bonus I never saw coming.

This will be my 1 Hour Horror RA program based on my book, The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, 2d edition, but with new examples, trends, and authors.

I have made the presentation available for anyone to view.  Simply click here for access.  

The good people at ALA Editions have also provided a great coupon for anyone to use in order to buy my book in print or eBook format.  Remember, the book comes with a free update...this BLOG! The coupon is in the second slide if you are interested.

But feel free to view the presentation no matter where you live.

WiHM Guest Post: Australian Horror Author Kaaron Warren

Welcome to the final day of February which is also the last day of Women in Horror Recognition Month.  I am glad I participated more officially in the celebration this year.  Together with Monster Librarian, I think the library world got an excellent and broad picture of the contributions of women in horror as they apply to a public library audience.

For today’s final post, I am capping off February while looking forward to March.  Today I welcome award winning Australian horror author Kaaron Warren.  You can see more about Kaaron here and here.

But why is this post looking forward to March? Well, I first got in touch with Kaaron because we are both going to be featured speakers at an Australian RA training in March focused on horror.

I will have more on that presentation as well as a brand new coupon for my book coming soon, but for now let’s close this wonderful month out with Kaaron.

I have archived this year’s WiHM posts here.  I have also tagged any post I have ever done about women in horror.

Now, here’s Kaaron.....

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“Why do you write horror? You’re a woman.”

It’s the classic question, one I’m asked more often than “Where do you get your ideas?”

The thing is, quite often the questioner has just finished telling me about a vicious murder, or an arsehole ex-boyfriend, or a child drowning in a swimming pool. They’re armpit deep in horror, shocked by it, fascinated, disgusted, entranced. This is the stuff that chills us to the bone.

Most of my stories are a visceral response to these horrors.

In “Dead Sea Fruit” the thing I was horrified by was body image and how many people it destroys. The story is about the Ash Mouth Man, a legendary character anorexic girls believe in. They say that after you kiss him, everything you eat will taste like ash, so you’ll never want to eat, and you’ll be thin.

The inspiration came from a friend telling the story of a young girl who travelled to India and drank from the Ganges, with the sole purpose of getting dysentery and therefore losing weight.

This was one of those moments where a bunch of women were horrified, outraged, shocked, and terrified for our own daughters. We wondered how this could happen, and why, and how did we keep our girls safe.

My response was the Ash Mouth Man.

And  no, the girl who drank from the Ganges is not alright. Years later, she is still sick.

"Why do you write horror?"

I get asked this question more often because I’m a woman, I think, and more specifically a mother, as if becoming a mother numbs all but maternal feelings, as if having a child renders all of your past vacant.

Many people can see the same things I’m seeing, talk about them, then let them go.

I can’t let them go, and I can’t forget. I want to try to make sense of the nightmares.

Why do I write horror?

Because I never, ever will.

You can read "Dead Sea Fruit" in Kaaron's latest book, The Gate Theory, the reprint collection