Creative Non-Fiction

Hey, writerly types, we spend a lot of time covering fiction on this blog because that's the main topic we discuss. But what about the other side of creative writing? No, not poetry. I'm referring to creative non-fiction. Let's bang that drum this week, shall we?

What kind of non-fiction do you prefer to write/read? Personal essays, how-tos, researched topics, true accounts (biographies, true crime, etc.)?

Alisa Richie Childress: I write personal essays. I write stories from my own life about mental health struggles (mine and my son's). Caregiving for me mother who passed from Alzheimer's last year. A lot about grief as I lost both of my parents in three years, my dad from cancer in May 2020, and my mom from Alzheimer's in June 2023. I write about parenting and what it is like to raise a child who had a major mental health crisis and who is gay (we live in a red state with conservative family members). Mostly I with about whatever I feel like I need to get out and what I hope will help others. My blog is alisachildress.com. I have been published in physical and online journals and write a lot on Medium.

Brian K Morris: I like to read mostly historical and scientific books when I read nonfiction. These days, I'm mostly into the business behind the creative efforts (such as how the comic companies were run by people affiliated with organized crime, or the boom/bust periods of comic books) these days. I also enjoy books on writing and marketing because I always want to do better at my job.

L. Andrew Cooper: I’ve been writing a lot of interviews for which I do extensive prep and into which I put significant thought, so that’s a biggie. Otherwise, I’ve done a lot of academic literary and film criticism, and after a long hiatus, I recently got back into film criticism a bit and found I still enjoy it. As for reading, I enjoy reading non-fiction for research related to whatever I’m writing (fiction or non). Otherwise, I enjoy reading philosophy.

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction is my bread and butter. I took my journalism degree into the newspaper world in 1997 and have worked in the news ever since, including my time on the national ethics committee and as president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists. I was a full-time newspaper reporter for more than 20 years and I covered every beat except sports. I have stood in the snow outside a murder site and waited for an indicted governor at the end of a long dusty road and interviewed a president before he was anybody. Sometimes it was the county fair and sometimes it was the vicious beating death of a toddler. I wrote stories that changed the law and stories no one read. 

I went freelance in 2018 so I could have the freedom to go to grad school and begin teaching, but I have continued to work for local and regional news organizations, for regional and national magazines and so on, including a few investigative pieces. Freelancing has also given me the freedom to write more personal essays, writing essays and other free-form nonfiction, most of which is published on Patreon and Medium if it is not picked up by a magazine.

Scott Roche: Read - Biographies, history (particularly of science), and religious topics (not solely my religion, though primarily). Write - How to, reviews, commentary, and I'm getting to the point where I want to write some memoir-adjacent stuff.

Sean Taylor: I read a lot of various shades of nonfiction, everything from religious stuff (both classic like Augustine's City of God and contemporary progressive like Jim Wallis and Keith Giles), political/cultural stuff (currently reading White Rage and Hatemonger), to history (my fave is Lies My Teacher Told Me), and then also more fun stuff like books about horror and giallo movies and bios of my favorite actors and actresses. In terms of writing, I tend to do more essays about reading (like here on the blog), movie reviews (for a new book), and articles about the art and craft of writing. 

Van Allen Plexico: Most of my top sellers are nonfiction. Two books about the Avengers comics (I edited and coordinated both and wrote sections) and five books about Auburn sports (co-authored with my podcast cohost).

The Avengers books got me badges to Heroes Con and raised a lot of money for charity; the Auburn books have gotten me TV and radio appearances, speaking engagements before alumni/fan groups, and several book signings.

So yeah, I love writing nonfiction.

I also enjoy reading it a lot -- as a History professor I sort of have to -- and I find nonfiction works better in general on Audible than fiction does. So it's easier for me to listen to.

When writing non-fiction, particularly if you also write fiction, how does your routine or strategy differ from when you write fiction (if at all)?

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction and fiction use completely different brain cells, at least for me. My newspaper colleagues used to joke that I could sneak in a novel when the police beat was quiet, but I can’t work that way. After 25-odd years of writing news every day, I can turn out a high-quality news story in 15 minutes. It’s like falling off the proverbial log. Fiction, on the other hand, requires a good energy environment, the right caffeinated beverage, the alignment of the stars and planets and possibly the sacrifice of the nearest available virgin for the words to come. You’d think it would be easier to write stuff you can make up rather than the stuff that has to be accurate, ethical, responsible and all that jazz, but for me, the reverse is true. This goes back to one of those old writing saws we all hear and ignore: practice practice practice. Every word you write makes you a better writer, and I know journalism is easy for me because I’ve written 2-5 stories every day for decades. If I wrote fiction all day, every day for the next 20 years, maybe that would be like falling off a log.

Van Allen Plexico: I've found that when writing nonfiction I tend to outline very carefully beforehand--more even than I do in fiction. With fiction, I'm usually trying to leave myself lots of leeway to change the story as it wants to change when it unfolds.

With nonfiction, I need to know up front, "Okay, this section will cover the Sonny Smith years of AU Basketball; and this first chapter will be about how Auburn hired him and his first press conference and the preseason and then how his first team fared. And then the next chapter will be about how he recruited Charles Barkley and about Charles as a freshman. And then a separate chapter just of funny stories about Charles. And then..." sort of like that.

Alisa Richie Childress: I do not really write fiction, but I would like to. I have written a short piece in the Imaginarium anthology and am working on another. I have some ideas for novels. But I do not have a good fiction writing process. Or really a great writing discipline at all. I am working on this.

L. Andrew Cooper: Although I’m big in outlines for both fiction and non, for non, there’s an even more structured funnel process that goes from reading and research to organizing notes into conceptual groups that become outline points that become sections, paragraphs, etc.

Sean Taylor: It's actually easier for me to write nonfiction than fiction. I think this comes from being a Literature major in college and having to write so many essays and papers. They just kind of roll out of my brain onto the page. Fiction becomes so much more personal and that slows me down a lot because I really try to get my first draft super close to the way I want it. Nonfiction is the kind of thing I tend to trust myself to go back and edit/rewrite as needed.

Brian K Morris: Before I focused on New Pulp fiction, I wrote a number of articles about comic books. Usually, I'd look for the drama in the project (editorial whims, stumbling blocks in the production process, inherent challenges in changing a series' direction, etc.) and build a narrative with a satisfying conclusion. For instance, one of my favorite articles for Back Issue Magazine was about the final tales of the Silver Age Supergirl, how she'd gone from Superman's Secret Weapon to public acceptance, on-off powers, different locales, then her eventual death to become a spirit that helped talk people off the ledge, returning to her roots as a "secret weapon" for good.

What do you find most fulfilling about non-fiction writing?

Scott Roche: For me, any writing scratches roughly the same itch. Writing non-fiction does tap into a different vein. It requires more research/experience. For me it requires a different kind of brain work. I wouldn't say it uses a different part of your brain since I haven't done that research and am not a psychologist/neurologist, but it would make sense to me if it did.

Elizabeth Donald: I always knew I wanted to write and create, and I wanted to be in public service. Journalism allowed me to indulge both, while also engaging my brain, and I was able to make some small difference in the world around me. It is an incredibly difficult job, poorly paid with wildly unpredictable hours and an enormous emotional and mental toll, and as a weekend bonus, absolutely everyone hates you! We burn up new journalists at an alarming rate. But I loved it, and I still do. Doing what we do is a privilege, and one I’ve never taken for granted: we tell people what happened today, because they need to know. It’s that simple, and that complex, and completely unappreciated in this modern era. We write the first rough draft of history, as Phillip Graham said, and that is an enormous responsibility, as well as our honor.

Sean Taylor: When I write about writing, which is the bulk of my nonfiction, I'm telling the story of who I am directly. When I write fiction, it's still telling my story too, but it's far more subtle, far more hidden behind the symbols and the themes. With nonfiction, I can just come out and say what I think, feel, believe, etc. 

Van Allen Plexico: The really creative part of that kind of book for me is when I write the beginning and the ending, where I lay out what the book is trying to do, and then I make the closing argument at the end for what I was trying to say in it.

L. Andrew Cooper: I get to say what’s on my mind quite directly!

Alisa Richie Childress: The type of writing I do is very cathartic. Putting it all in paper helps me to organize me thoughts and my feelings in a way that I cannot do if I keep them in my head, it even if I am just journaling. Having an imagined audience to talk to helps me with clarity. I also hope that I am helping others. It really makes me feel good when someone tells me how much something I said resonated with them or helped them in their journey.

Brian K Morris: I enjoy finding out new ways of looking at something real, whether it's the history of a comic book character, getting perspective on a creator and their thinking, or instructing WHY something has merit, such as writing book reviews and how simple it can be.

Halloween Re-Runs: Writing the Scary -- 7 Tips for Creating Horror and Dread with Words

by Sean Taylor

What’s the scariest scene you’ve ever seen in a horror flick? Why was it scary?

Now I know some of you are going to default to either scenes of gratuitous (now there’s a loaded word if ever I’ve seen one), gore or perhaps others will immediately think of a jump scare, but I want us to think even deeper than that? What scared you even deeper than the moment of the scare? What really stayed with you and made you think twice about taking that dark alley, what caused you to make sure you got home before the woods at the park started to get dark, what got lodged in your brain and made you check the closet twice before being sure no one was hiding there so you could relax and go to sleep?

For me, those are the true scares, the deep frights, the fears that rattle us at our cores and stick with us.

Case in point. Okay, well, two cases in point. Both from my own movie-going experience.

Case 1: Window Scratching

I saw the original television broadcast of Salem’s Lot when I was way too young. At the time, my bedroom was made up of a former back porch and had glass shutters for the walls on three sides. Outside those shutters were short trees with limbs that moved in a good breeze. (Those of you familiar with the movie have already guessed where I’m going with this.)

In the movie, when someone was turned into a vampire, he or she would visit a friend or loved one and scratch outside their window, asking to be let in.

Well, that night, there was a strong breeze, and when the tree limbs brushed against my window-walls on all three sides, needless to say, I was terrified and imagined that vampires were outside begging to be let in to drain my blood. And no, I did not open the shades to check, not until morning light sent the vamps packing.

Case 2: Door Bumping

I was an adult when I discovered the absolute scariest motion picture ever made. For those who realize it, that movie is 1963’s The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson’s equally “haunting” story, The Haunting of Hill House. That movie had few jump scares and relied more on a constant, building sense of madness to keep the viewer off-center and off-balance.

Lots of folks remember the sudden face at the top of the spiral staircase, but for me, it was the bumps on the door while Nell and Theo hugged each other, huddled in shared terror. In reality, I will most likely never see a ghost, but I will hear lots of loud bumps in the dark, and that’s something that triggers memories of that scene almost every time.

I share these examples to show that the best horror isn't forced or faked or manipulated through tricks, but maintained through the steady use of narrative technique.

What made Salem's Lot scary was how the story affected me. And the same goes for The Haunting. And guess what? Each of those was a terrifying book before it became a motion picture -- and if they hadn't both been so damn scary as books, they never would have been made into movies.

You’re Not in Control, Like in the Movies

Writing scary is hard. Movies have it a lot easier when it comes to horror. They control the eye, and thus, they also control the mind of the viewer.

Writing scary is hard. Books are stuck in one place, but the reader isn’t. Skip ahead a few pages and the suspense can be ruined. Put the book down, and the tension is released. The writer has no control of the reader’s eye, no power to keep them from turning a page... besides those specific to all other genres of writing of course.

Writing scary is hard. It's really hard because it takes an understanding of the human mind, memories, senses, and universal generalities about the human condition. In a story, you don't have the luxury of visual shorthand to creep readers out like directors do in a scary movie.

Jump scares? Nope. Sorry. The reader controls the pacing. And he or she can skip ahead or backward at will. That clutching crone hand can go backward and forward and be skipped altogether based on the reader's whims.

Graphic visual scares? Gore? Sorry again. Unless you're the most visceral writer ever, written gore falls short. And overused, it simply becomes words on a page made less by the sheer volume of them.

So, as a writer, you're stuck with having to be a psychological and writing genius. But how? While I'm far from an expert on horror outside of reading it for years and knowing what I like (as the saying goes), I have written several tales in the genre, from ghosts to monsters to zombies and creepy human beings, and I've learned a few things with each telling.

Thanks for Reading Thus Far; Now Here’s Your Reward

The key to writing horror, as least as I see it (and you’ll find as many different takes on this as you can find authors, I’m sure), is to camp out in the concepts of discomfort and dread. You’re not going to surprise scare a reader. You’re going to slowly overwhelm them with several smaller “uneases” that become a full-blown “creepy” and finally if you’ve done your job right, all-out dread.

Dread is that feeling that keeps a reader’s stomach unsettled, that scene that makes them feel phantom pains in the same limb or joint the killer keeps sticking a pin into, the sum of all the chills up a spine and “what if” scenarios of the mind a reader keeps accumulating during the time it takes to read your tale.

But how?

1. Be visceral. But don't mistake visceral for gross. For example, while a limb being removed and force fed to a tied up victim is certainly a compelling image in a story, it may not be as effective as something as simple as a sewing needle being wedged into the soft skin beneath a dry fingernail.

My friend Kimberly Richardson is a master of this technique, as demonstrated in her story “Silk” from the collection Tales from a Goth Librarian. I won’t spoil it, but you definitely need to read it to see perhaps the best lesson on this topic you’ll ever see.

2. Tap into the universal fears. For example, when I wrote "Nymph" for the Gene Simmons House of Horror graphic novel collection (yes, I know that it's not pure prose, but bear with me), I wanted to recreate the sense of being lost in the woods, in a place where you're at the mercy of the natural world. When I was a kid the woods were creepy more often than not, and I had lost that feeling after moving to Atlanta and growing up. But I knew there was something innate, subconscious about being afraid of being lost in the woods, and I wanted to tap into that.

In Robert W. Chambers’ tale “In the Court of the Dragon,” from The King in Yellow, the narrator begins to notice he is being followed by a sinister church organist. Very few people enjoy being singled out, and none I know who like being singled out for a nefarious purpose. Add to that the idea of the messenger of death, and Chambers is able to touch on two universal fears at once in this story.

Another master of this technique is Neil Gaiman. What’s worse for a child than to have your own mother against you? And yet, that’s the premise for his newly classic Coraline. Is there any more universal fear than being hunted by those who are supposed to protect you?

3. Discover the specific, individual fears make a person tick. For example, in my zombie tale "Posthumous" (from Zombiesque by Daw/Penguin Books), it's not the decaying body of the zombie that makes her creepy. It's her determination to save her marriage, her blind, unwavering determination to do so regardless of the consequences to anyone else. Incidentally, this is something I learned from the writing of C.S. Lewis, that the great goods also have the capacity for becoming the greatest evils.

Stephen King did this well in the story “N.” Bear in mind that I have OCD and I constantly rearrange books on a coffee table, look for even numbers on everything from the radio volume to the number of french fries I eat at a time. Yeah, I know. Weird. But look it up online. I’m not alone in this. So when King asked what if those crazy little habits are the only things keeping a terrifying other universe from invading our own, that really resonated with me.

4. Unleash your horrors on ALL the senses. Don't let just sounds and sights convey your protagonist's woes and horror. Go deeper. Is that smell like the burn ward at a hospital? Does the touch of the killer leave grease and sweat on a victim's neck? Does the hooker's kiss taste like she's been eating rotting meat? Engage all the senses that can convey fear and discomfort.

As simple as this should be to writers, it’s perhaps the most underutilized. It merely requires us to shift from the “first gear” of what we see and hear to the higher gears that are stronger and more efficient.

Jessica McHugh, a fellow writer I’ve met a few times on the convention circuit, really, and I do mean REALLY gets this one. If you can read her work without really feeling the tightening in your gut (even to the point of wanting to empty your stomach sometimes), then you’ve got a mind and gut of steel. Don’t believe me? Then try to sit through this one turned audio at The Wicked Library podcast: Extraction.

5. Use sounds that bother the reader, not just the characters. You can make up words that sound like stuff. The official literary term for this is onomatopoeia, and it works because it plays games with the reader's ear, whether they hear the sounds spoken aloud or not.

For example, in my steampunk horror tale "Death with a Glint of Bronze" for Dreams of Steam II: Brass and Bolts, I hit the reader right off the bat with the "crick-cracking of the neck bone where it attaches to the top of the spine." But the following sentence continues the idea, simply by using sounds that create a stop and reflow, like restricted breathing might sound: "Then there is the delicious constriction as the breath slowly ceases its movement through the windpipe."

6. Don't try to be "horror movie" scary. Aim for "imagination" scary. Go for the stuff that no movie could ever film, you know, the kind of sick, warped, crazy stuff that could only take shape in someone's imagination as they read. For example, does anyone really know by reading Lovecraft's stories what an elder god truly looks like? We have ideas, but that's all. We have the accepted image that has become synonymous with the tales, but let's be honest -- does that fully match the horror you imagined in your psyche when you first read the words of Lovecraft's description? On a similar note, isn't your personal nightmare of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky far creepier than any of the drawings you've seen of it?

Ray Bradbury is the master of this kind of scare, and he isn’t afraid to leave the action sequences “off panel,” preferring to let the characters fears become the readers’ fears. One need only read Something Wicked This Way Comes or his short story “The Veldt” to see this master at play.

7. Make your setting as important as your characters. Setting is perhaps the most effective weapon in your arsenal as a writer when it comes to horror fiction. Choose the right setting and you’ve already done half the work. Why does Stephen King trap people on islands so much? Isolation. An island is a cage full of open doors that don't matter.

Why is Gothic fiction (even Gothic romance) so creepy? It’s those castles and mansions. Empty spaces and echoes. Secret rooms.

But let’s think a little more contemporarily too. Movie theaters with the lights out. Joe Hill covered that to great effect in the story “20th Century Ghost” from the 20th Century Ghosts collection. From the same collection, “Last Breath” captures the eeriness of dirty, unkempt roadside attractions during long car rides on family vacations.

But Wait! There’s More!

These techniques aren’t just for horror. A little bit of scary can often improve even the best love story, or perhaps a dramatic literary book.

Don’t believe me?

Okay, smarty-pants. I’ll prove it to you.

1. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier -- What makes this book memorable? Is it the forlorn new bride left mostly alone in the big house (shades of The House of the Seven Gables, anyone?)? Is it the lingering tension that her new husband could be a killer? Perhaps it’s the big, creepy, gothic type mansion with rooms she’s not supposed to visit. Is it the way Du Maurier forces the reader to use his or her imagination just as the protagonist does? Why, yes. Yes, it is.  And guess what? All those are elements of horror. The key fear: those who are supposed to protect you turn against you.

2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton -- Let’s look at setting first. The frozen, rural town. What is more isolating, more soul-crushing to someone whose biggest goal is to live vibrantly? The sense of oppression doesn’t let up from the moment Ethan kisses Mattie. Tension mounts as they try to break out and find freedom, but fate has other plans, and ironically it’s the setting itself that becomes the “monster” that kills their chance at happiness. The key fear: failure to find happiness, and becoming the very thing you hated in the first place.

3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte -- Not only is the Gothic setting of this novel unsettling, but it seems to pervade through all the characters as well. Not only that, there are visions of ghosts, multiple creepy (and needless) deaths in the house, and unpunished sins left to fester that plague not only Heathcliff, who ultimately must die alone with his ghosts. The key fears: loneliness, isolation, and rejection.

4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl -- Who's creepier than Dr. Victor Frankenstein? Willy Wonka. It's like Friday the 13th for kids in this book. Who gets knocked off next? Sure, they make it out (kind of) okay, but wow at the horror in here. Mauled by squirrels, shrunk, juiced, almost drowned in chocolate, etc. That Wonka was one whacked-out mad scientist. Key fears: how about squirrels, getting shrunk, drowned, and juiced? How does that grab you?

Okay, Bye-Bye Now

That's all I've got to give you, but if you can learn to do even those seven things well, you'll never hurt for a job writing truly frightening horror stories.

Advice for younger writers -- How To Make Your Writing Suspenseful

by Victoria Smith

What makes a good horror story? Sure you could throw in some hideous monsters, fountains of blood, and things jumping out from every corner, but as classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

And writers harness that fear not by revealing horrors, but by leaving the audience hanging in anticipation of them. That is, in a state of suspense.

The most familiar examples of suspense come from horror films and mystery novels. What’s inside the haunted mansion? Which of the dinner guests is the murderer? But suspense exists beyond these genres.

Will the hero save the day? Will the couple get together in the end? And what is the dark secret that causes the main character so much pain?

The key to suspense is that it sets up a question, or several, that the audience hopes to get an answer to and delays that answer while maintaining their interest and keeping them guessing.

So what are some techniques you can use to achieve this in your own writing?

Read the full article (and do the lesson) here: https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/how-to-make-your-writing-suspenseful

HORROR AND HEROES CLASH ONCE AGAIN! BARRY REESE’S ‘THE STRAW-MAN BOOK TWO’ DEBUTS!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Acclaimed Author Barry Reese’s epic superhero meets horror series continues with THE STRAW-MAN: BOOK TWO, from the author’s own imprint, Reese Unlimited!

He haunts the autumn streets of Grove's Folly... and he battles the forces of both Heaven and Hell! The Straw-Man returns, confronting the threats of the man called Jupiter, the dangerous Grave Master, the lovely Rhiannon, and the malignant evil of Ladybird. From the mind of award-winning author Barry Reese comes the second volume in an unsettling new series.

Known for his legendary New Pulp characters the Peregrine and Lazarus Gray, Reese takes Genre Fiction to a whole new level with THE STRAW-MAN: BOOK TWO. From Reese Unlimited and Pro Se Productions.

With a thrilling cover designed by Antonino lo Iacono and featuring art of Jupiter by Luis Filipe and The Straw-Man by Gilbert Monsanto and print formatting by lo Iacono, THE STRAW-MAN BOOK TWO is available from Amazon for only $12.99 at https://tinyurl.com/2d24sh76. 

Formatted by Iacono and Marzia Marina, the second novel in this innovative series is also available as an ebook for only 2.99 from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ms895tf7. Kindle Unlimited members can read for free!

THE STRAW-MAN BOOK ONE and multiple other Reese Unlimited books are available on Amazon.

For more information on this title, interviews with the author, or digital copies for review, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com. Like Pro Se on Facebook at Pro Se Productions.

Envy and Imitation

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at
the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;
that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;
that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel or
nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed
on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

It's okay. Every writer does it. I do it. You do it. The best-sellers do it. The indie savants do it. 

We tend to ape -- sometimes unintentionally, sometimes on purpose -- our favorite writers and pick up on the traits we enjoy about their work. 

When I started writing, I was determined to be the next C.S. Lewis. Not the Narnia Lewis but the Space Trilogy and the Till We Have Faces Lewis. Because of that, my writing was overblown and way too wordy. And I also sounded British--using British turns of phrase and UK slang. Don't take my word for it. You can trust the fine folks at The New Yorker and The Missouri Review, who both told me the same thing. I still have both rejection letters in a binder with other memories from my writer's journey. 

When I started my Bachelor's classes in Literature, I found out how much I loved the novels and short stories of a certain boisterous and burly man-baby named Hemingway. So I moved on from the verbose intelligence and heavy vocabulary of C.S. Lewis for the clean, crisp, succinct prose of Papa Hemingway. 

The trouble was that I was still playing the imitation game. 

Only something was changing, something I wasn't even aware of.

Every Man's Education

After Hemingway, I went down the 20th Century American Literature rabbit hole. There was Raymond Carver, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes (yes, stories not just poetry), and Shirley Jackson. As their ideas and styles added to what I had learned to apply from Papa, I noticed my way of writing changed significantly. I retained my love for simple sentences and direct nouns and verbs without lots of adverbs and adjectives, but I turned away from trying to be so "Literary" and embraced the "Southern" of my youth. 

And so began my phase of "Southern Literary" where I found the themes of Welty, O'Connor, Hurton, etc. weaving into my fiction. However, the voice was always changing from the Lewis/Hemingway copycat to something new that blended bits and bobs from lots of influences. 

It was during this time that I wrote for the award-winning Cyber Age Adventures. Being a literary writer, you can imagine the fun I had crafting superhero stories with my lens of literary impact and import. Somehow, it worked. Between Frank Fradella's RPG-inspired adventure yarn set in real-world physics and repercussions, Tom Waltz's quasi-military approach, and my focus of American Literature, we created something unique and engaging in the world of superhero fiction. 

But my inspiration still had some growth to come. 

Imagine the confusion and prosaic mush created when I started exploring for work of the great pulp and pulp-adjacent writers as I tried my hand at some New Pulp Fiction stories thanks to some introductions by friends like Bobby Nash. To do my homework at writing pulpy tales, I dug into the stories (both novels and short stories) of folks like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, among others. 

With these new influences, my style took another shift. The simple prose of Hemingway was still similar to the simple, direct prose of Chandler, but the types of stories were suddenly allowed to become a lot more, well, more exciting physically and emotionally rather than just the intellectual excitement of my Literary focus.

This began a new phase of what Derrick Ferguson and I often called Literary Pulp. For us, that meant deeper than mere surface characterization, dialogue that does more than just advance the plot, and looking for real-world interactions that didn't sugarcoat the time periods we were writing about. For me, it was just a continuation of what I had been doing since discovering Lewis and Hemingway. Lewis made me want to deal with spiritual and philosophical topics in genre fiction. Hemingway made me want to create characters who, when they spoke about a topic or when they avoided a topic, revealed a lot about who they were. Same uniform, just a different ballfield.

Nourishing Corn on My Own Plot of Ground

Okay. So what did I learn through that journey toward becoming Sean Taylor, the writer? Are there lessons that can help other writers push through their own journeys from imitation to what Emerson called "self-reliance"?

Sure. If you know me at all, you already know I love both tutorials and lists, and when I get to put them together in a single article, I'm suddenly the happiest little clam in the world. 

So here goes...

1. Embrace your idols. 

It's okay to be inspired to imitate. We learn by copying the works of those we enjoy reading. Their stories teach us about story structure, how to write dialog, when to break grammar rules -- all those wonderful techniques that ultimately fill up our writing toolkit and become what we call a personal style and voice. 

Take those inspirations. Work with them. Play with them. Turn them upside down and inside out. Put your own spin on them. Play with all your favorite toys. 

2. There can't only be one. 

Now, here's the trick, isn't it? This is your journey to discovering who you are as a writer, not a rehash of the movie Highlander. 

Imitating a single writer makes you a copycat. Imitation several at once makes you a dedicated learner of the craft. The more you learn from multiple writers, the more you integrate seemingly disparate voices into your own work, and that makes you become unique. Even if you use all the same ingredients, you bake your pie from a different recipe. 

3. Start purging. 

There will be lots of tidbits and style doodads that you find no longer work for you the more comfortable you become in your own writer "skin." That's all part of learning. What doesn't work anymore, excise it. Purge it like last month's leftovers. Eventually, you are left with the style stuff that makes you happy and makes you, well, you. 

Just like I left behind the British-isms of Lewis, you may need to cull the standard adventure motif of Tolkein or Donaldson's ten pages of how brown the mountains and tunnels were. You may need to cull the reliance on the internal monologue you copied from Faulkner. You may need to ditch the sudden shifts in verb tense and -person you picked up from Ed McBain. They may have gotten you to where you are, but they no longer suit you.

4. Good writers borrow. Great writers steal. 

This quote is usually attributed to the poet T.S. Eliot and it is often quoted along with a variation on it by Aaron Sorkin: “Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.” Regardless of who said it when and how, it's absolutely true. 

Beginning writers obsess about how much their work may remind them of the folks they admire. Great and practiced writers stop caring after a while. In fact, it's safe to say that all those things you think you will be called out for copying won't even register with most readers. Sure, there will always be reviewers who are paid to make both fair and unfair comparisons, but those are your typical readers. 

Steal proudly. Steal broadly. Steal without any discrimination. Do you like the way Eudora Welty writes winter scenes? Fine. Take it and shove it in your toolkit. Really dig the way Chandler can chop dialogue into snappy fragments? Chisel it right out of his book and hang onto it for your next story. 

New in Nature

Now, before you look at that list above and start to craft a plan, stop. Those aren't steps in a printout from Mapquest in 2006. You don't aim for step one and then turn off Highway 20 onto step two like it's some kind of organized plan. 

What is it then?

It's a synopsis of what happens to us as writers. It's a description of the process more than an outline to follow. It's something organic, not ordained. Something passive, not planned. 

It's one thing to be aware of it and acknowledge it and not let it consume you with imposter syndrome. But it's another thing entirely to see it as a roadmap for your writing goals. That shift in thinking is both subtle and crucial. 

The next line in the Emerson quote that started this essay is this: 

The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Ultimately it comes down to this: TRY.

Enjoy what you enjoy and let it shape you as a writer. Read, consume, mulch it in your mind, turn it into brain food, rinse and repeat. It's really as simple and as complicated as that. 

31 Days of Halloween -- Streaming Services

 Enjoy this handy list of where to stream your 31 days of Halloween this year!

UPDATED FOR HALLOWEEN 2024! Horror Movies that Influence Me as a Writer

Note: This is an update to this post. So many new movies have come out and I've caught up on a few I still had managed to miss from the "good old days" that it felt like the right time to update this list. 

As a writer of horror stories and connoisseur of scary flicks, I get asked a lot what my favorite horror movies are. Well, it's not that simple with me (it never is; ask my wife and kids). There are so many and how can one possibly pick a favorite when there are favorites in so many subgenres? (It's like how my wife tells me she can have more than one best friend when "best" is a superlative, not a comparative.) 

Anyway, as of this moment in time (subject to change), this is my list of favorite horror movies (and those that influenced my ideas and my writing) categorized by subgenre. 

If you want to consider this your own "to watch" list, I won't stop you. It's a fantastic list (at least in my opinion) of the essential horror stories committed to film. 

FYI, you will notice some crossover between subgenres, because, well, that's just the way horror works. 

New Category#1! Sinister Locations

My son Evan recommended that I include this as a new category, and the more I thought about it, he was right. I don't include a mere haunted house tale in this list though. Those will be under Ghost Stories/Haunted Houses. This list is reserved for a place that is more than haunted; it is cursed, unclean, unwelcoming and out to get you.

1. Hausu

2. As Above, So Below

3. YellowBrickRoad

4. In the Mouth of Madness

5. Dead & Buried

6. The Shining

7. Messiah of Evil

8. The Watcher in the Woods

9. Silent Hill

10. Dave Made a Maze

11. Suicide Forest

12. Population 436

13. Cabin in the Woods

14. Pet Sematary

15. Southbound

16. Skinamarink

17. The Dark

18. Neon Demon

19. Jugface

20. Waxworks

New Category#2! Kaiju

Who doesn't love giant monsters? It all began with the two kings, Kong and Godzilla. But American sci-fi quickly picked up on the theme and gave us lots of giant monsters thanks to the dangers of atomic bombs and chemicals polluting our waters. 

1. King Kong 1933

2. Gojira 1954

3. Godzilla Minus-1

4. Troll Hunter

5. Tremors

6. Them

7. King Kong 2005

8. The Host

9. Godzilla 2014

10. Destroy All Monsters

11. Monsters

12. Cloverfield

13. Mothra

14. Rodan

15. Kong: Skull Island

16. Tarantula

17. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

18. Nope 

19. The Mist

20. Q the Winged Serpent

21. Pacific Rim

22. Attack of the 50 Foot Women

23. The Blob 1988

24. Anaconda

25. Colossal 

New category! Stephen King Adaptations

His work has been adapted into films more than any other living writing writer, probably any writer living or dead, period. Some are fantastic, some are, well, less than fantastic. But here are the ones that have most influenced my work. 

1. Cujo

2.  Salem's Lot (1979)

3. Christine

4. The Shining (1980)

5. Carrie (1976)

6. It, Chapter 1

7. The Mist

 8. Gerald's Game

 9. 1408

10. It (1990)

11. Needful Things

12. Doctor Sleep

13. Pet Sematary (1989)

14. Secret Window

15. Misery

16. Desperation

17. It, Chapter 2

18. Maximum Overdrive (sure, it's silly but so much fun)

19. Cat's Eye

20. The Langoliers

Ghost Stories

For me, ghost stories are my favorite genre of horror tales, and whether they're about a haunted person, house, or even plot of land, I'm all in. 

1. The Orphanage

2. The Devil's Backbone

3. The Haunting (1953)

4. Thir13en Ghosts

5. The Others

6. Ju-on

7. The Ring (US version) 

8. The Innocents

9. In a Dark Place

10. The Sixth Sense 

11. The Shining

12. Session 9

13. The Terror

14. Kwaidan

15. The Babadook

16. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

17. Last Night in Soho

18. Crimson Peak

19. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

20. The Changeling

The Living Dead

I'm really burned out lately on zombies, and I'm really tired of the "zombies as the apocalypse" theme. I love, however, to see directors and screenwriters do something new and different with the living dead, which for me also includes mummies and ghouls returned from the grave. 

1. Dead Girl

2. Night of the Living Dead

3. Carnival of Souls

4. The Fog (original) 

5. Tombs of the Blind Dead

6. Make Out With Violence

7. 28 Days Later

8. Dawn of the Dead

9. The Re-Animator

10. Zombi 2

11. Dead Snow

12. Brain Dead

13. Dance of the Dead (2008)

14. Return of the Living Dead

15. Day of the Dead

16. Candyman

17. Hello, Mary Lou: Prom Night 2

18. The Ghost Galleon

19. Night of the Seagulls

20. Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

Dr. Frankenstein/The Monster

The scientist who wants to play god is another of my favorite genres in horror, but not just that. This type of film also includes for me those who can't accept the "wrong" parts of people and want to create a sort of perfect version, even in non-science-y ways. 

1. Deadly Friend

2. Bride of Frankenstein

3. The Bride

4. Frankenstein

5. Frankenstein Created Woman

6. May

7. Lady Frankenstein

8. Splice

9. Embryo

10. Demon Seed

11. Halloween III: Season of the Witch

12. Depraved

13. The Spirit of the Beehive

14. The Curse of Frankenstein

15. Ex Machina

16. M3ghan

17. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman

18. The Island of Dr. Moreau

19. The Golem

20. M3gan

Vampires

Vampires. The original bad boys long before they ever sparkled. Let's just get this straight. I don't mind modern romantic vamps, but I prefer even my romantic vamps to enjoy a good rip of the jugular every now and then. 

1. From Dusk Till Dawn

2. Forsaken

3. Dracula (Spanish Version)

4. Let the Right One In

5. Night Watch

6. Chronos

7. Shadow of the Vampire

8. Nosferatu

9. Prey

10. Salem's Lot (original TV miniseries)

11. Near Dark

12. Dracula (Universal)

13. Lost Boys

14. Fright Night

15. 30 Days of Night

16. Strigoi

17. The Night Stalker

18. Embrace of the Vampire

19. Taste the Blood of Dracula

20. The Brides of Dracula

Werewolves and Shapeshifters

Lycanthropes may be the A-listers in the shapeshifter crowd, but the world of therianthrope isn't limited to just wolves. I think for writers, the shapeshifters offer one of the best shorthand for looking into what makes humanity actually human, whether, wolf or cat or snake or lizard.

1. Cat People (original)

2. Howling

3. Howling V: The Rebirth

4. An American Werewolf in London

5. The Wolfman (original)

6. The Reptile

7. The Gorgon

8. Cursed

9. Cat People (remake)

10. Dog Soldiers

11. Silver Bullet

12. Blood and Chocolate

13. Underworld

14. The Wolfman (remake) 

15. The Curse of the Werewolf

16. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman

17. Ginger Snaps

18. Werewolves Within

19. Hisss

20. Night of the Cobra Woman

Demons/Devils

There are as many cultures of demons in the world as they're are countries and cultures of people. Although movies tend to default to the Western devil and demons, I wanted to include a few other brands of the demonic here as well. 

1. Wishmaster

2. Sinister

3. The Beyond

4. The Exorcist

5. Lisa and the Devil

6. Rosemary's Baby

7. Drag Me To Hell

8. Jennifer's Body

9. The Evil Dead

10. Hellraiser

11. Demons

12. Night of the Demons

13. The Garden (2006)

14. Insidious

15. The Exorcism of Emily Rose

16. The Last Exorcism

17. Nightmare on Elm Street

18. Antrum

19. Prince of Darkness

20. Hereditary

"Witches"/Cultists

Yeah, I know there's a huge difference between horror movie witches, Wiccans, and nature worshippers, but for this list it if fits in any of those it works. 

1. Suspiria

2. Black Sunday

3. City of the Dead (Horror Hotel)

4. The Dunwich Horror

5. The Wicker Man

6. The VVitch

7. The Babysitter

8. Curse of the Demon

9. Midsommar

10. House of the Devil 

11. Witching and Bitching

12. Season of the Witch

13. The Virgin Witch

14. The Love Witch

15. Inferno

16. Mother of Tears

17. Rosemary's Baby 

18. The Witch

19. The Woods

20. Viy

21. The Craft

22. Blood on Satan's Claw

23. Witchouse

24. The Autopsy of John Doe

25. The Lords of Salem

Slashers

It's the genre that will never take a break, much less die. Knives, axes, machetes, pointy sticks, bows and arrows, you name it, these folks use any tools at their disposal to dispose of their victims for revenge or no motive at all. And we still love to watch them. 

1. Twitch of the Death Nerve (Bay of Blood)

2. Peeping Tom

3. The Burning

4. Halloween

5. Sleepaway Camp

6. Friday the 13th Part II

7. Dementia 13

8. Hatchet

9. Audition

10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

11. Stage Fright (2014)

12. Last House on the Left (original)

13. I Spit on Your Grave (original)

14. Theatre of Blood

15. The Visit

16. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

17. Martyrs

18. Final Girls

19. The Banana Splits Movie

20. Happy Birthday to Me

Creature Features

For my list, I'm separating supernatural and mutated creatures from the "Nature Gone Wild" critters. These monsters should be way about sharks and bears on the scary-meter. And they are. The thing I love about this genre is that often the critters are more sympathetic than their prey. 

1. Pumpkinhead

2. Gojira

3. She Creature

4. Pan's Labyrinth

5. The Creature from the Black Lagoon

6. Silent Hill

7. Dagon

8. Feast

9. Troll Hunter

10. Humanoids from the Deep

11. Tremors

12. Nightbreed

13. The Mist

14. Digging Up the Marrow

15. The Host

16. The Bay

17. Jeepers Creepers

18. Tremors III

19. The Golem

20. Cellar Dweller

Nature's Monsters

You'll never go back into the water. You'll never venture alone in the woods. You won't piss off earthworms or birds anymore either. 

1. Jaws

2. Cujo

3. The Birds

4. Eight-Legged Freaks

5. Piranha (original)

6. Chaws

7. Deep Blue Sea

8. Orca

9. Squirm

10. Willard

11. Empire of the Ants

12.  Marabunta

13. Alligator

14. Grizzly

15. Razorback

16. Food of the Gods

17. Anaconda

18. Snakes on a Plane

19. Cocaine Bear

20. Zoombies/Zombeavers

Aliens

At some point, sci-fi aliens shifted from adventure to horror, and I love it. Who says first contact should be with something we can categorize and tame? Certainly not these otherworldly killer critters?

1. Alien

2. Slither

3. A Quiet Place

4. John Carpenter's The Thing 

5. Aliens

6. The Blob (remake) 

7. Species

8. Virus

9. Night of the Creeps

10. Bad Taste

11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (remake) 

12. Phantasm

13. Pitch Black

14. Day of the Triffids

15. Planet of the Vampires

16. Galaxy of Terror

17. Dead Space: Downfall

18. Under the Skin

19. The Mist

20. Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Psychos

There's often a lot of crossover between psychos and slashers, but a true psycho is out of his/her/their mind. They often have little to no rationale for their killings, and if they do, it's because of a break from sanity. They take the murderous urge above and beyond the average.

1. Nightmare in the Wax Museum

2. House of 1000 Corpses

3. Psycho

4. Misery

5. The People Under the Stairs

6. Pieces

7. The Devil's Rejects

8. The Boy

9. 2000 Maniacs

10. Eaten Alive

11. Saw

12. Don't Breathe

13. The Collector

14. Dressed to Kill (and yes, there are problematic issues that don't translate well to today)

15. Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator

16. Christine

17. 31

18. The Devil's Rejects

19. Fade to Black

20. The Pit and the Pendulum

Creepy Kids

Creepy kids have to be the absolutely creepiest movie "monsters." But it's so easy to overdo them and turn a flick into a farce. There's a very fine line that must be walked for the story to avoid the "cornfield" motif from Twilight Zone. 

1. Orphan

2. The Omen

3. Children of the Corn

4. Cooties

5. The Children (1980)

6. Hard Candy

7. Village of the Damned

8. The Bad Seed (1956)

9. You'd Better Watch Out

10. Wicked Little Things

11. Who Can Kill a Child

12. Alice, Sweet Alice

13. The Brood

14. Goodnight Mommy

15. Them (2006)

16. The Children (2006)

17. Kill, Baby, Kill

18. Case 39

19. Spider Baby 

20. Pet Semetary

Holiday Horror

I love just about any horror flick that is attached to a holiday. They can be so much fun, and typically they don't take themselves too seriously. Some though can be super creepy and terrifying, in spite of the holiday trappings (or often because of them). 

1. Black Christmas (original)

2. Halloween

3. Rare Exports

4. Santa's Slay

5. Saint

6. Gremlins

7. April Fool's Day

8. My Bloody Valentine (original) 

9. Anna and the Apocalypse

10. Trick or Treat

11. Satan's Little Helper

12. A Christmas Horror Story

13. Wind Chill

14. Dead End

15. Santa Jaws

16. Letters to Satan Claus

17. Holidays

18. Krampus

19. Terror Train

20. Violent Night

Anthologies

Okay. A lot of anthologies kind of suck. Maybe one good segment in a bucket filled with crap. But a few, a select few, get it right. Maybe by theming with a good theme. Maybe by lining up great writers and/or directors. Or just maybe by getting lucky. 

1. Trilogy of Terror

2. Trilogy of Terror II

3. Tales from the Crypt

4. From a Whisper to a Scream

5. V/H/S

6. Creepshow

7. The House That Dripped Blood

8. Asylum

9. Southbound

10. The Field Guide to Evil

11. Trick 'r Treat

12. Creepshow 2

13. A Christmas Horror Story

14. V/H/S II

15. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

16. Tales from the Hood

17. XX

18. The Uncanny

19. Cat's Eye

20. Ghost Stories

Creepy Comedy

There's a big difference (at least to me) between a comedy movie that adds tropes from horror and a horror flick that paces and dresses like a comedy during its runtime. I tend to like them both. But the best is the kind that integrates both genres almost seamlessly. 

1. Bubba Ho-Tep

2. Shaun of the Dead

3. House (with William Katt)

4. Monster Squad

5. Black Sheep

6. Fido

7. The Cottage

8. Trailer Park of Terror

9. Doghouse

10. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

11. Elvira Mistress of the Dark

12. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie, not series)

13. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

14. Grabbers

15. Zombieland

16. Evil Dead II

17. Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy

18. Psycho Goreman

19. Young Frankenstein

20. Zombie Strippers

Giallo Horror

When Noir abandoned black and white, it found the world of four-color gore and violence. This is one of my favorite genres to watch. I love the Everyman aspect, caught up in a dangerous crime spree or mystery. And I love the way this type of film skirts the edges of horror tales and mystery stories. 

1. Don't Torture a Duckling

2. Deep Red

3. Blood and Black Lace

4. Hatchet for the Honeymoon

5. Bird with the Crystal Plumage

6. Tenebre

7. The Case of the Bloody Iris

8. Cat O' Nine Tails

9. Kill, Baby, Kill

10. Four Flies on Velvet

11. Night of the Glass Dolls

12. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

13. Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

14. Black Belly of the Tarantula

15. Unsane

16. A Blade in the Dark

17. Whatever Happened to Solange?

18. Don't Look Now

19. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

20. The Perfume of the Woman in Black

21. Baba Yaga

22. The Girl Who Knew Too Much

23. Lizard in a Woman's Skin

24. The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire

25. Stage Fright 

Body Horror

This one can be a tough genre to watch. It tends to revel in its super-gross-out ideas and images. It can be sickening down to its core concept (I'm looking at you Centipede). But when maintaining a fantastic story to accompany that imagery, they can be the most memorable stories around.

1. Videodrome

2. Blue My Mind

3. Dr. Jeckyll and Sister Hyde

4. Altered States

5. Shivers

6. The Human Centipede II

7. The Fly

8. Teeth

9. Spring

10. Thale

11. Tetsuo the Iron Man

12. Society

13. The Fly (Jeff Goldblum)

14. Sssssss

15. Splinter

16. Dead Ringers

17. American Mary

18. Eraserhead

19. The Skin I Live In

20. Tusk

Voodoo

Voodoo is a mixed bag in horror. Some films treat it as a bogeyman and make stuff up left and right to give it more horror gravitas while some evil cast it as the "white man's fears of others" -- some select few at least try to treat it fairly as a religion. But whatever the bag it's put in, it's still the home of the original zombies. 

1. White Zombie

2. The Serpent and the Rainbow

3. Scream Blacula Scream

4. Venom

5. Eve's Bayou

6. Sugar Hill

7. The Skeleton Key

8. Ritual

9. Jessabelle

10. I Walked with a Zombie

11. The Plague of the Zombies

12. Black Mamba

13. The Curse of the Doll People

14. I Eat Your Skin

15. Ouanga

Gateway Horror for Kids

Even as a kid, I loved being scared by movies. Without these horror-themed entry-level flicks, where would kids like me have ended up? Some were designed to be horror-lite, but some just took elements of horror and wove them in to build in the creepy factor. Either way, they were my gateway drug as a kid. 

1. Coraline

2. Corpse Bride

3. Monster Squad

4. Goosebumps (the movie) 

5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

6. The Gate

7. Willy Wonka

8. Monster House

9. The Watcher in the Woods

10. ParaNorman

11. Hocus Pocus

12. Little Monsters

13. Gremlins

14. The Lady in White

15. The Witches

Super Powers Gone Crazy

As a writer of superhero fiction, I love it when horror and superpowers mix. Call me a cynic, but I think if we have powers like that in the real world, they would more often lend themselves to moments of real horror than to moments of Boy Scouts saving folks from falling buildings. 

1. Phenomena

2. Carrie

3. The Fury

4. Firestarter

5. Brightburn

6. The Crow

7. New Mutants

8. Split

9. Scanners

10. Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Warriors

11. Akira

12. Dead Zone

13. Chronicle

14. Blade

15. Tourist Trap

Creepy Dolls

On the creepy scale, does anything rate higher than creepy dolls? I mean, really? (Okay, maybe clowns, but even that would be too close to call without a photo finish.) What is it about things that are almost lifelike that scare us so? Especially things that are inanimate. Is there something in them that reflects something we don't want to face back at us?

1. Dolls

2. Puppet Master

3. The Boy

4. Dead Silence

5. Love Object

6. M3ghan

7. Magic

8. Dolly Dearest

9. Marronnier

10. Corn

11. Tourist Trap 

12. Annabelle

13. Devil Doll

14. Bride of Chucky

15. Trilogy of Terror

16. The Devil's Machine

17. Baba Yaga

18. Anatomy

19. The Doll Master

20. Love Object

Stupid Shark Movies

I'll admit it. I love shark movies, both the genuinely awesome, scary ones that make me look twice at the ocean before entering the water at the beach AND the ones that are so stupid, so ridiculous that I simply laugh all the way through at the zany situations they create on celluloid. In fact, sometimes I prefer the really goofy ones, and the dumber the better. 

1. Sharktopus

2. Sharknado

3. Santa Jaws

4. Sand Sharks

5. Ice Sharks

6. Ghost Shark

7. Two-Headed Shark Attack

8. Empire of the Sharks

9. Sharknado III

10. Planet of the Sharks

11. Trailer Park Shark

12. Jurassic Shark

13. Ouija Shark

14. Toxic Shark

15. Malibu Shark Attack

16. Three-Headed Shark Attack

17. Sky Sharks

18. Shark Night

19. Shark Week

20. House Shark

Torture Porn

Not a fan of this subgenre, but the first Saw and the first Hostel, like the original found footage cannibal films, were groundbreaking horror flicks. Seems like the films they inspired were just insipid and uninspired derivatives. 

1. Saw

2. Hostel

3. The Wizard of Gore (original)

4. Martyrs

5. Cannibal Holocaust

Truly Weird/Genre Defying/Outliers

This last list is for my absolute favorite type of horror flicks, the kinds that don't fit neatly, or often at all, into easily definable categories. This is the place where the truly gifted or the truly insane come out to play. It's the kitchen where writers and directors operate with a blender and a spray nozzle more than with a paintbrush or a list of classic techniques and storylines. And it's where the best of the best in horror can usually be found (at least in my opinion). 

1. Uzumaki

2. Lake Mungo

3. Rubber

4. The Lift

5. Lord of Illusions

6. From Beyond

7. Chopping Mall

8. The Woman

9. Jacob's Ladder

10. Freaks

11. Donny Darko

12. Us

13. The Deaths of Ian Stone

14. Irreversible

15. It Follows

16. Frontier(s)

17. The Broken

18. The Baby

19. Scare Me

20. Santa Sangre 

Motivational Monday: The Importance of Literary Criticism (It's Not What You Think It Is)

Visit me at Multiverse Convention in Atlanta!

 

I will be a guest for Multiverse Con in Atlanta October 18-20, 2024.

My convention schedule:

Friday, 10/18

4:00 PM -- Asian Horror Influence

8:30 PM -- Bedtime Stories: The R+ Rated Storytime

10:00 PM -- Horror Story Reading 

Saturday, 10/19

10:00 AM -- Advanced Worldbuilding: Folklore and Folk Magic

Sunday, 10/20

11:30 AM -- MCs That Look Like Me: Religious Protags

2:30 PM -- Storytelling and Narrative in Art

ONE MAN TAKES ON EVIL OF THE WORST KIND-FRANK SCHILDINER’S ‘HIDDEN HORRORS’ DEBUTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

It’s the early days of the new millennium, a time of hope and information expansion. The internet is becoming more widespread and new frontiers appear just ahead. Unfortunately, the worst criminals in the world, wealthy supposedly upstanding citizens are selling a commodity that destroys lives…child sex trafficking.

Pulled away from his retirement after two decades as a soldier, wounded veteran Alain Mancini battles vicious gangsters, wealthy entrepreneurs, and childhood friends in hopes of rescuing victims who cannot fight for themselves. The odds are against him, but some battles are worth the risk. Author Frank Schildiner, known for his genre bending novels, takes on a real-life issue of evil in his newest thriller. Follow Mancini as he risks his life, maybe even his very soul, trying to just save one child from HIDDEN HORRORS. From the author’s own imprint, Schildiner’s Worlds, and Pro Se Productions.

“Storytelling,” says Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions, “is escapism at times, and yet it also has the ability to touch subjects that disturb us in a way that opens minds, hearts, and eyes to a world we may want to ignore, but we shouldn’t. Frank Schildiner’s HIDDEN HORRORS is a tightly crafted thriller that weaves through a modern-day horror like a hot needle. But there’s more here than the suspense, this book burns with a passion about a topic that we can never forget exists still today. This may be Frank’s best work yet, in my opinion.”

Featuring a stunning cover and print formatting by Antonino lo Iacono, HIDDEN HORRORS is available from Amazon for only $14.99 at https://tinyurl.com/2ajhffw9.

Formatted by Iacono and Marzia Marina, Schildiner’s latest novel is also available as an ebook for only $3.99 for a limited time from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/yk69ax5r. Kindle Unlimited members can read for free!

For more information on this title, interviews with the author, or digital copies for review, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

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