Tag: writing fiction
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The Thermostat of Terror, or Climbing the Ladder of Dread
HP Lovecraft had a notorious, borderline pathological hatred of the cold. When the thermometer dipped in New England, the gentleman from Providence didn’t just bundle up—he practically withered away. He became physically sluggish, deeply miserable, and convinced that warmth was synonymous with comfort and life, while the frigid cold was the domain of absolute evil…
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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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Story Structure for Horror Stories: Part Two
Continuing my last post on story structure for horror, I wanted to take another look at structure, this time dissecting it using the 10 steps to story structure from K.M. Weiland. Let’s first take a quick look at those steps and then see how they can be applied to horror. 1. The Hook What is…
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WRITING AS CATHARSIS
Hey! I publish horror shorts about fictional Valmar here on Threads because my lovely author fam is nice enough not to toss me out yet. My latest one Monday involved a teenage boy and a machine, and a search for the Unknown. It goes wrong, though. It’s horror. Sorry. it’s how the machine works. I…
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Completely Different Than Anything We Can Imagine
Have you ever wondered why book, movie, and TV depictions of aliens are almost always human or human-like? I have. And I wonder, if there are alien life forms, what makes us think they’d be like us? My guess is that we find it very difficult to imagine life outside of what we can perceive.…
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Don’t Know Science
What do you do when you love science fiction, want to write science fiction, but don’t have a degree in any science? What do you do when you’re not the typical geek who loves nerdy stuff but never had the focus to get through college? Or struggled with a learning disability that killed that dream?…
Threads that Bind 