Category: Guest Post

To Punch Me Is to Know Me

To Punch Me Is to Know Me

By Howard Blaise

 

How do you portray conflict in a horror story? Perhaps more than any other genre, horror fiction tends to offer antagonists (vampires, werewolves, zombies, &c.) that turn us into them. At what point does this strange ambivalence swing from the risk of being transformed to the desire of being transformed? Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a horror protagonist.

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How to Take Your Love of Horror to The Next Level

How to Take Your Love of Horror to The Next Level 

By Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl 

As we’re celebrating the re-vamp of our podcast and YouTube show Horror Rewind, we thought we’d talk about turning horror into more than just a pastime. 

Sure, when we were reading Stephen King books and watching slasher flicks on summer breaks, we had a vague idea that a few, special people got to live and breathe horror as a career. Meg even used to pretend to be interviewed with a fake microphone in her mirror as the “next Stephen King” in grade school. 

But then that stupid thing called reality came settling in, you know, rent, gas, diapers, the popcorn and movie ticket fund. Horror was our hobby, and for you, maybe that’s all it needs to be. Meg’s husband is content painting and playing Warhammer for fun, and Kelly’s husband is an avid golfer who doesn’t have ambitions to go pro. Though, if you’re like us, and have an inkling of interest in making horror more than a pastime, let us give you a few tips from our years in the gory trenches. 

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Horror – A Sort of History

Horror – A Sort of History

By James L Hill

 

People have been afraid of the dark since time began. For good reasons, we don’t have the night vision of a cat, the hearing acuity of a bat, or the sense of smell of a dog. We compensate for our lack of physical abilities with our superior mental prowess. But that opened its own can of worms.

By the way, worms terrify people, usually not on a one-on-one basis, but n mass, they cause nightmares. It is our higher intellect that is the source of most of our fears. Some of those fears are ingrained in our DNA, part of our fight or flight survival response, like a bump in the night that raises the hairs on the back of our necks.  Others come from millennia of stories meant to shape our morality and make us better people, like bad things happen to bad people. Or shame on you if you do this, tell your children the monster under the bed will get them if they get out of bed one more time, even if you need peace and quiet. By the way, which will only cause more nightmares making you get out of bed to quieten the children again.

Armed with a basic idea of fear, we can talk about the history of horror. Horror can be broken down into three forms, natural, supernatural, and technological. Natural horror stories are understandable. We are not the most physically fit of the creatures on Earth. These stories build on primal fears, being hunted by some beasts, lions, tigers, and bears. Oh My!

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How to Use Descriptions of Light to Create Suspense

How to Use Descriptions of Light to Create Suspense

Have you ever felt your heart pounding as you flipped through the pages of a book, desperate to find out what might be lurking in the shadows? Part of this experience comes from an author’s use of suspense. Suspense isn’t just about cliffhangers and plot twists — it’s also about withholding information and then revealing it slowly to create a feeling of uncertainty.

 

Descriptions of light in particular can be a powerful tool in your arsenal, particularly when writing thriller and horror genre books. Here are three effective ways you can use light to create suspense in your own writing:

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Baby Reindeer: Horror and Trauma

Baby Reindeer: Horror and Trauma

By Kelly Florence & Meg Hafdahl

 

This article contains spoilers for the 2024 series, Baby Reindeer, streaming on Netflix.

With the title, Baby Reindeer, we weren’t sure what we were getting into when we started the seven-episode series last month. Intrigued by the seemingly innocuous name, it became clear that horror can exist in even the most innocent settings. What begins as a tale of a man offering kindness to a woman in need, the story turns out to be one of stalking, assault, trauma, and healing. Based on the true story of what happened to writer, actor, and creator, Richard Gadd, the series takes on a whole new level of horror as the audience realizes they are watching the man, himself, relive the terrible things that he went through earlier in his life.

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Beneath the Mask: Psychological Horror and the Human Psyche

Beneath the Mask: Psychological Horror and the Human Psyche

 

Psychological horror occupies a special place at the top of the horror genre. But it grows in the strange shadows of the mind, not in overt acts or visible monsters. This article does just that by exploring the central role psychological horror plays in penetrating our deepest fears and penetrating the veil of consciousness. 
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Pressing Skin: Publishing Horror With a Small Press

Pressing Skin: Publishing Horror With a Small Press

by Lee Rozelle

I’m the type of writer who rolls body horror over my tongue until it makes me concerned about myself. I like to handle and manipulate words—flip them, control them— long after they become the property of other people. I squeeze myself between editors, get in the comfort zones of layout designers, stalk cover artists, and expose myself to bloggers. Craving validation for my literary efforts, I invite myself to online interviews, doll up to charm reviewers, and brand myself until it hurts.

Does that mean I need help?

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WiHM 2024: 5 March Horror Book Releases From Women

Image donated by Sara. C./center>

March is often our last month before spring gets its foothold into the earth, sprouting flowers and ushering us out into the sunshine. As goth girls who can’t get enough of reading dark books by a crackling fire, we hope you take this opportunity, like we are, to stay inside, cozy under a black blanket for a little bit longer. And since March is Women in Horror Month, what a great excuse to pick up these five March horror book releases by women. 

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