Horror Tree Logo

Category: Guest Post

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

8 of the Scariest Horror Books Ever Written

8 of the Scariest Horror Books Ever Written

 

Horror is a popular genre in literature, film, and television. It can be defined as a genre intended to scare, shock, or terrorize its readers or viewers.

 

Some of the most famous horror books ever written include Stephen King‘s The Shining, Anne Rice‘s Interview with the Vampire, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. These novels have all been made into successful movies and have helped to shape the modern horror genre.

(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

Guest Post: Memento Mori

Memento Mori

By Kelly Florence

You never know how tragedy will affect your life or what gifts may come out of it. This was the case for me when I simultaneously lost my husband but met my best friend during one summer.

I was twenty-three years old, spending three months in the intensive care unit of a hospital next to my twenty-four-year-old husband. He was diagnosed with lupus only two years prior. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its own tissues. In the case of my husband, he had a stroke, and his lungs and other organs were failing. Treatment after treatment took place over that summer and it was a lot for a couple so young to go through. I would often be mistaken for his “girlfriend” due to our young age. Only family members were allowed to visit. I would have to assure the staff that I was, indeed, his wife and we had been married for four years already. Day after day, the only escape I would have from the monotony of the beeping monitors and the horrific sound of the life support system that was keeping him alive was a trip downstairs to the cafeteria or restaurant.

(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

WIHM 2022: Upcycling Emotions, or Why I Write Horror

Upcycling Emotions, or Why I Write Horror

by Katherine Quevedo

 

Blood-red paper. Twin blades. An amusement park ride. Sounds like the stuff of horror, right? Except, the ride I’m talking about was a miniature one occupying a corner of my dining room table, next to a sheet of red tissue paper and scissors. One of my sons had a school assignment to collect things destined for our recycling bin and instead convert them into an amusement park ride. He took a paper towel roll, a flattened cardboard box, a takeout beverage tray, and that scarlet tissue paper, and he crafted a carousel. Little red seats hung down from the top wheel, and he painted the central pole blue. It was a lesson in engineering and, to my eyes, a prime example of upcycling—crafting something new out of what would otherwise be discarded as waste, with the end result becoming more valuable than the sum of its parts. 

What does this have to do with writing horror? Everything. Step right up. 

(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

WIHM 2022: Kristina Rienzi: Beyond The Bio

Beyond The Bio

If you’ve read my bio, you’ll get a pretty good sense of who I am even if you don’t know me and you’ve never read my books. However, there’s more to an author than her writing life summed up in one paragraph. I’m here to let you in on the details I left out. 

If you’ve read my thrillers but never met me in real life, you’d likely believe that I’m an introvert. You’d also probably believe that something dark lurks inside of me. Then, you’d meet me in person and your head might just spin around. 
(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

Novellas, the Bogeyman of Publishing

Novellas, the Bogeyman of Publishing

by Cassondra Windwalker

 

     Literature and publishing are forever squabbling like impassioned parents, leaving readers to look on morosely from their hiding place behind the couch. In this case, the argument is especially silly, as its conclusion has been decidedly proven on the best-seller lists already. Still, agents and publishers will claim that books must be a minimum of 70,000-80,000 words long to even be considered for publication, while authors point miserably to the insistences of successful writers from Beatrix Potter to Truman Capote to Ernest Hemingway to Charles Bukowski, each of whom loudly proclaimed the superiority of paucity.

     Brevity is especially well-suited to horror. Horror, like seduction, relies more on the imagination of the reader than the dictation of the writer. Should the writer give in to her self-indulgent desire to painstakingly explain and describe every detail of every scene, to plumb the depths of every motivation, she would remove the reader entirely and leave them outside the pages, a mere observer. Worldbuilding serves the author well, but it should never be used to bludgeon the reader into docile submission. The reader needs to feel the cobblestones under their feet and choke softly on the cold smog filling their lungs, not visit the bricklayers’ yard and measure out the particulants in the air.

  (more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

‘Tangents & Tachyons’ Blog Tour: An Exclusive Excerpt

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Eventide

 

I felt a little sick. Okay, a lot sick—like something had wrenched my stomach out of my gut and pulled it halfway to Mars.

Not far from the truth, as it turned out.

I reached for my stomach. My furry belly was a little thicker than I would have liked—too much processed sugar, Peter said. That and the whole no exercise thing.

What did I eat this time? My memories were a bit fuzzy.

I remembered bright lights and a sharp smell. And a keening whine.

I opened my eyes. The light above dimmed of its own accord.

That’s weird. And the smell… kind of antiseptic?

I sat up, and my fingers sank into the soft blue mat beneath me, leaving an impression when I lifted them up which just as quickly disappeared.

I was naked. What the hell?
(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

Pushing Past Writer’s Block – The Discipline of Inspiration

Pushing Past Writer’s Block – The Discipline of Inspiration

By: Jennifer Lieberman

Have you ever been stuck in a story and still forced yourself to stare at a screen for hours to fulfill a required time limit of ‘work’? Or have you ever forced out pages of nonsense to feel like you were being productive only to delete them soon after? I don’t know about you but I hate when I’m told that to be a writer I have to write everyday. The advice usually comes with a required page amount (5-10 pages a day) or a time requirement (2-5 hours) and although I know it’s well meaning, I just don’t buy it.

I don’t write every day. There, I dared to say it; what many writers are afraid to admit. Granted I wear many hats, and have another career outside of writing, but so do most of us. Sure, we’d all love to get to the point in our careers that all we do is write for a living, but that isn’t the reality for most writers and creatives in general. My writing style and forms fluctuate from plays to scripts, poetry to books; no matter what I’m writing, the process of conjuring worlds, characters, arcs and emotions is the same. Some of us write intuitively where we don’t know exactly where we’re going when we sit down and some of us need to have everything mapped out. No matter what your process, I’m sure you’ve had those moments when you just don’t know what comes next…and if you haven’t you’re a superhero of your craft and please share your secret.

(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

Horror – Writers – Ink: Community and Your Writer’s Toolkit

Community and your writer’s toolkit

One thing I’ve learned is that community is one of the biggest assets available. It’s community that pulls you through, holds you up, and keeps encouraging you to persist. Writing is a solitary craft, and sometimes writers need more than the fictional voices in our heads to help us succeed. While community isn’t for everyone, I’ve certainly seen it true for most. There are many ways of being part of a community too. 

I’m a Melbourne-based author and I write in several genres with my nonfiction covering topics from hauntings to spelling to sport, and my fiction either literary or speculative. But the horror writing community is the one I have been most connected with since I started my writing journey, and it is for them I hold the greatest soft spot.

In 2012, I commenced studying writing and editing, and as a part of my course, I was given a yearly membership to Writers Victoria, the state writers’ organisation. This was the beginning of writerly me being part of something bigger than myself. Around this time I also joined the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA), and since then I’ve joined more organisations, subscribed to newsletters, Patreons, and volunteered as well. I do this for two reasons: to keep informed and to pay it forward.

This article is about what I’ve learned about community and what resources I’ve come to use or rely on as a horror writer. It’s an article for aspiring authors as well as a checklist for established ones. 

(more…)