Category

Horror Writing

/

After the Attack: Horror Sequels

Happy Halfoween! Get out your now empty plastic eggs and fill them with fingers and eyeballs. Behead the Daffodils. Leave bloody footprints as you tiptoe through the red tulips. Keep watch for killer bunnies. As we're halfway to Halloween, I began to ponder how, in scary books and movies, we are given only half of the story. The demon has been defeated by rituals and symbols. The ghost vanquished. The insane killer with the chainsaw has been left to die in a rock quarry or lake. The vampire staked. The werewolf left breathless by the silver bullet. All the ev[...]

/

Halfway There

Hello Kittens!   Happy Halfoween! In honor of this spooky celebration, here is one of my favorite kill scenes, from one of my all-time favorite movies, Thir13en Ghosts. (It's not Halfoween if someone isn't getting bisected) While I was drumming up ideas for my blog post, I kept thinking of the fact that we're halfway to Halloween. It might just be me, but I feel like everything is "halfway" lately. My kid is always halfway clean. I'm halfway done the laundry (meaning it's sitting in the washer, slowly drying). My jobs are halfway done at work. The bottle[...]

/

Real Life Horror: Publishing

Hello Kittens,   Boy, have I had a week. I'd tell you all about it, but I really don't want to turn this into a big pity party. I've done enough sulking. So instead of whining about my life, I thought we could chat about real life horror...in publishing! Now, I know that a lot of you out there are just like me; Agentless (as of a week ago #frown) and wading through the cold, dank query trenches. Querying is terrifying. Sending your words out into the world to be judged at face value is enough to give me the chills in the middle of August. But you know wh[...]

/

Resources for Authors: Free Sites for Horror Writers

I think it might be safe to say I've overcommitted myself recently. Or, perhaps, my impulsiveness overtook my common sense and my pre-planning skills took a nosedive in my excitement. The short version: I committed to producing a short story a month for a year, with a public release and quasi-marketing; treating the project like the preliminaries in a grudge match against traditional publishing. I thought to myself initially, "Let's just see what it might be like to self-publish some small stuff instead of a whole book." Crackers. I am crazy crackers. It's mon[...]

/

Six

Hello Kittens,   I remember the first time I set foot into the land of Twitter. There was a hashtag going on, one I thought was absolutely brilliant. #SixWordStories People from all over the world were tweeting their stories, a good chunk of them plays on perhaps the most well known six-word-story of all time: Like...come on. Hemingway is so good he can slaughter your soul in six effing words. He is such a legend. The idea of a six word got me thinking about how important words are, and how we sometimes use way more than we should. I know that my own fi[...]

/

RIP Wes Craven

You've probably heard by now, but Wes Craven passed away on August 30th after losing his fight with brain cancer. He was 76 years old and a super horror champ. He was a writer and director of many horror classics, A Nightmare on Elm St, Scream, and Last House On The Left just to name a few. He's truly a horror legend, and I can't imagine someone who loves horror not knowing and loving at least one of his films. I will admit, I was always a Halloween and Friday the 13th girl (I was brought up on those franchises). Scream and A Nightmare on Elm St are w[...]

/

Writing Bloody: Research

  For this week's installment of Writing Bloody, I'd like to talk about research. Going on a fact finding mission is imperative to writing a believable story. Some things you can fake, we all know that. But what you can't fake are facts. For example, making up your own name for a specific emergency room tool--like a scalpel-- will NOT work (neither will made up spelling). Can you make up scenery or make your own mad scientist formula? Sure. But still, there needs to be a balance between fact and fiction or your readers won't believe a thing your selling.[...]

/

Writing Bloody- Series vs. Serial

  My favorite TV show of all time--Buffy the Vampire Slayer--is a series. What does that mean? Well, a series is a show with the same characters throughout, but the each episode is a different story. Take the Once More with Feeling episode. Admittedly one of my favorites, the characters are compelled by a demon to sing their truths. One episode. That's it.   https://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/357bqm/was_it_me_teaser_megathread/ Yes, BtVS does have a thread that is carried throughout each episode--the love between the Slayer and th[...]

/

Horror and Heavy Metal: A Match Made In…

Horror and heavy metal--they go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Why do these two great tastes taste so great together? There are some very obvious reasons, and I found myself thinking about them quite a bit when I attended a horror convention and a heavy metal music festival in the same weekend. On Saturday July 18th, I spent the day selling books and hanging out at the Connecticut Horror Fest. My friends over at the Horror News Network put on another great show, and their star-studded guest lineup featured Doug Bradley (Pinhead in Hellraiser), Gunnar[...]

/

Vote for You Favorite Banner

Since I've taken to writing a weekly blog post about writing horror, we've decided that my posts need to have a name. Coming up with a name was simple, especially since Jolene and Faith did all the work on brainstorming a list for me to choose from. With that nailed down--Writing Bloody--Faith has created a few banners to use too. The problem is, I'm not quite sure which one to pick.   This is where you come in. Which banner is your favorite? Let me know in the comments and I'll announce the winning artwork next Tuesday!   1.  This one is simple, le[...]