Writing To Be Read

Well, it’s that time of year once again, I fear. October is a time of fear, isn’t it? During this month you are liable to see a little of everything that scares you: spiders, bats, witches with black cats and pointy hats; ghost, ghouls, and goblins too; werewolves, vampires, and zombies galore; mad scientists, Frankenstein, psychos and more.  I think that for writers, this is a great time of year, because we can let our imaginations run wild and never worry that readers will think we are just too far out. That may be true the rest of the year, but in October, readers just chalk all of outrageously dark stories up to the season, and they assume we’ll return to our normal selves, (as opposed to our Halloween transformations), and write about normal things once again as soon as November comes round. Of course, there are writers, like Stephen King, that can get away with writing scary stuff all year long. His readers just know that he has a warped mind and they love him for it.

As for me, I’ve got a whole series of scary Colorado articles swirling around in the head of the Southern Colorado Literature Examiner, so be sure to pop in there once in awhile to see what I’m brewing up. I am currently reading Retribution: An Anna Strong Vampire Novel, by Jeanne C. Stein in preparation for its review, for starters. I’ve also got an idea for an article on Colorado ghost stories, and maybe one on books about Colorado ghost towns, as well. I’m on the hunt for a Colorado author of dark fiction for a profile and my eyes will be open for any other good scary Colorado literary stories.

Of course, I couldn’t leave out Writing to be Read. A big fan of horror myself, I enjoy the master of the macabre; the one and only Stephen King, but I also enjoy great reads, such as Anne Rice’s Vampire and Mayfair Witch series, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Clive Barker and Peter Straub.  For this site, I thought I’d try to encourage some reader participation, so here’s the deal. This month I want to hear who your favorite author of dark fiction is. They can write horror, sci-fi or even just some very intense thrillers. All you have to do, is leave a comment at the end of this post. You don’t have to be a member of the site, or anything, just leave a comment telling me who is your favorite and why. At the end of the month, I’ll publish a list of all the books that readers think are the scariest. So that’s it, kids. Just let me know who does it for you. Who writes the novels that make you want to sleep with the lights on, or the ones that won’t let you sleep at all.  

Spooky Things

Black cats and witches hats

What a scary time of year

Ghouls and ghosts and goblins;

All that you might fear

Vampires and werewolves

Shape shifters, too

Monsters of all shapes and sizes

Sent to frighten you

Creepy, crawly, slimy things

You don’t want in your bed

Flesh eating zombies;

Walking, talking, living dead

Not so friendly aliens

That stir the urge to run

Wait, where are you going?

The fun has just begun

Copyright ©2009  Kaye Lynne Booth