Horror Newsletter, June 20, 2007

About this Newsletter:
Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
~Sir Francis Bacon


No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
~Edmund Burke


When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
~Nietzsche

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
-- H. P. Lovecraft.

Fear of monsters attracts monsters.
-- Unknown.

From the Editor:

Most of us have read Steven King's On Writing. But what do other horror writers have to say about the genre? Authorsontheweb.com conducted a round table interview with seven such souls. The authors interviewed were Suzy McKee Charnas, Geoffrey Huntington, Gregory Maguire, Michael Norman, Fred Saberhagen, F. Paul Wilson, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. I thought it would be interesting to view their perspectives. The interview in its entirety can be viewed at http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/0210-horror/horror.asp.

When asked for their definitions of horror, the answers were varied. The main theme is fear, especially fear of the unknown. Other answers included the horrors we face as a society and the need for a fantasy element. There are no wrong answers here. We may, as a whole see horror as fear but what scares us personally differs. What is your definition of horror?

When asked about their feelings on graphic content in horror writing, most of the panel agreed "less is more" is a good rule of thumb. Gore is not necessary to a good story. A few panel members stated that it depended on the story and the character(s). How do you feel about how graphic a horror piece should be?

The panel was then asked to name a contemporary horror favorite and to explain why they chose that work. Now pay attention. These answers may give you a clue as to what intrigues fellow writers of this genre. One writer, Suzy McKee Charnas, says she likes King's early work because " he does tend to tie his horror material to real-life stresses and terrors in a way that uses these things, but also honors them rather than trying to trivialize them." F. Paul Wilson says "Hands down, The Exorcist. Maybe because I was raised Catholic, maybe because I went to Georgetown and knew the steep stone steps where two people in the novel fell to their deaths, I'm not sure. I knew I'd expected a novel like Rosemary's Baby but instead found myself immersed in something far more profound. It's so deep and so wide . . . no reading experience in my life has disturbed me like The Exorcist. Closing the covers did not put an end to it. The book wouldn't go away; it perched on my shoulder for days, weeks, months." The other authors don't tend to read horror. What are your thoughts?

These are a mere sampling of the questions asked. (Some of the others, and their answers, we will explore later.) I find the answers food for thought and a springboard for more questions of my own.

So now, dearies, answer me this:

What is your definition of horror?

How graphic do you feel a horror piece should be?

Who are your favorite horror authors and why?


Until next month, be sure to check under your bed!
Nikola


Feedback:

From Fish*sWife - I'm Baaaaack! : This was a GREAT issue, Nikola! Thank you for featuring one of my 120 word pieces!


From SilverNickles : I've just recently started doing Miro-fiction and Flash fiction. I've never really did anything like that before but now I'm hooked! Like you stated it forces you to take out the words that are dead weight and leave all the juicy parts. I'm still learning but I really like it!