Tag: horror
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The Changing Shape of the Monster
The monsters we create have become us. It sounds like a dramatic statement, but the monsters of the past threatened our bodies. Today, they are much closer. They disturb our minds, our identity, our memory, and even our own perception of ourselves, almost sounding like our thoughts. As horror authors, we extract elements and ideas…
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Ten Memorable Novels
In my last post (which you can read here), I gave you 10 memorable short stories. Many of which have been with me for decades. In this post, I want to share with you 10 memorable novels. Novels that have made a lingering impression. Novels that refuse to let me go. The list is roughly…
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Listening to Discomfort
Some music isn’t meant to comfort. It doesn’t try to distract, uplift, or resolve anything. It creates pressure and holds it there, often longer than the listener is willing to tolerate. That reaction alone is enough to make people reject it. We’re used to music doing something for us. Even when it’s dark, it usually…
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ON BEING HAUNTED
Sometimes he would for hours together walk to and fro throughout the long oak-wainscoted apartment which he generally occupied, with wild gesticulations and agitated pace, in the manner of one who has been roused to a state of unnatural excitement by some sudden and appalling intimation. -from ‘The Fortunes Of Sir Robert Ardagh’ I recently…
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From Blood to Whispers: The Appeal of Quiet Horror
I used to live in the guts of horror. By that, I mean the kind of horror that stains your palms and tastes like rust. My other books — especially the Bloody Series with its love for graphic detail, human monsters, and the unforgiving anatomy of violence — live in the places where flesh tears,…
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The Door
There are few objects more ordinary than a door. We pass through them a dozen times a day without thought. They separate rooms, mark boundaries, provide privacy. But in horror, doors carry far heavier meaning. They become symbols of fear—of what lies beyond, or of what might cross through when we least expect it. A…
Threads that Bind 