“I'm being haunted," she blurted out. "My dear," he cooed. "Turn yourself into a tourist attraction and charge admission.” HorrorMysteriousHaunting Book:Julia Source: Julia
“Human beings across every culture I know about require such stories, stories with cool winds and wood smoke. They speak to something deep within us, the capacity to conceptualize, objectify and find patterns, thereby to create the flow of events and perceptions that find perfect expression in fiction. We are built this way, we create stories by reflex, unstoppably. But this elegant system really works best when the elements of the emerging story, whether is is being written or being read, are taken as literal fact. Almost always, to respond to the particulars of the fantastic as if they were metaphorical or allegorical is to drain them of vitality.” WritingHorrorStorytellingGenreFantastique Book:American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps Source: American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps
“With American Morons, Glen Hirshberg confidently shoulders his way through the generational pack to claim his rightful place on the summit. These stories are smart, challenging, ripe with feeling, expansive in every way: Horror as it should be writ, and as only the best and most expressive can write it.” WayShouldWritingStoriesFeelingsChallengesHorrorSmartClaimsShouldersPacksSummitRipeMoronExpressive Author:Peter Straub
“I was once told by a very well-respected editor, "Category horror is about good vs. evil, that's all it is." And I thought, "That's why it's no good. That's why I find that stuff unreadable." One is looking for something that's a little more emotionally complex and nuanced.” EvilHorror Author:Peter Straub
“From a tale one expects a bit of wildness, of exaggeration and dramatic effect. The tale has no inherent concern with decorum, balance or harmony. ... A tale may not display a great deal of structural, psychological, or narrative sophistication, though it might possess all three, but it seldom takes its eye off its primary goal, the creation of a particular emotional state in its reader. Depending on the tale, that state could be wonder, amazement, shock, terror, anger, anxiety, melancholia, or the momentary frisson of horror.” MayStatesMightEyeThreeBitsGoalDealsWonderEffectsCreationEmotionalParticularReaderBalanceHorrorAnxietyConcernHarmonyTerrorTalesPsychologicalPrimariesNarrativeDramaticShockDisplayInherentExaggerationMomentaryAmazementSophisticationWildnessDecorum Author:Peter Straub