I’m very much a method writer. When I experience any extreme emotion, whether it be grief or anger or happiness, the lizard-like part of my writer-brain crawls out. Good, good. Take notes. Write down what it feels like to have the snots of sadness run out of your nose or quakes of anger tremble through your fist.
Point being, even sucky experiences can be positives because everything winds up on the cutting room floor of the creative mind.Read More
Last summer, my wife and I spent a couple of weeks house and dog-sitting for my parents at their home in the woods of northern Connecticut near the Massachusetts border. Their town is little more than a crossroads in what’s known as the “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut. Union boasts literally only one restaurant: a quirky, charming establishment called Traveler Food and Books, just off Exit 74 on I-84.
You scared me out of a year’s growth! Fear, in one form or another, is central to horror…and these stories cut right to the bone!Read More
You can say a lot when people aren’t expecting it. Here we see great examples of horror’s ability to make us think about serious, and sometimes taboo, issues.Read More
The devil can take on any form he needs. In these stories, we learn that fear and horror can come from some surprising places.Read More
They say there’s nothing more fun than laughing in the dark. These stories remind you that smiles and scares can go great together!Read More
To those of you who don’t already know Shirley Jackson: she is my goddess. Yes, I’ve admitted to worshipping at her figurative-altar. Yes, I’ve yipped aloud when the New Yorkerran a whole Sunday edition devoted to her awesomeness. Yes, I’ve read The Haunting of Hill Housein a single sitting, which was a mistake because by the time I finished it was 2 am and I was too terrified to sleep.Read More
M.P. Diedrich referenced the famous Sartre quote at our recent panel for the anthology First Came Fear. It seems fitting to utilize it once again as I make a case for Emily Brontë’s gothic masterpiece, Wuthering Heights, to sit comfortably within the horror genre. Although tales of horror can include both the fantastical and the supernatural, my own training in psychology has taught me that if humanity itself possesses the potential for infinite kindness, it just as proficiently exercises the deployment of infinite harm. And no soil more richly cultivates cruelty than that of love.Read More