 |
 |
|
|
10.
AOTW: The perception of the horror writer is that he/she is maybe just a little bit odder than most. Do you find yourself --- and other horror writers --- to be more idiosyncratic than the average person? What one stereotype about horror writers is absolutely wrong? What one stereotype is dead on?
Whitley Strieber: I'm damned odd. Peter Straub is odd. Stephen King is damned odd. Clive Barker is odd in a sort of indefinable, strangely friendly way. Dennis Etchison is odd. I don't know Dean Koontz, but I've heard that he's pretty odd. Anne Rice, with whom I share some mutual friends --- unbeknownst to her --- is odd. BUT most of these people are also very settled and plain, in a certain way. Peter, Steve and I have all been married to the same ladies all of our lives. Clive and Anne are somewhat more gothic in their tastes, but in a very stable sort of a way. The stereotype that horror writers are drooling, maniacal, sex-crazed misanthropes is absolutely wrong. It is also absolutely dead-on.
Tananarive Due: Frankly, if I think about some of the top horror writers in the field --- Stephen King, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, Dan Simmons --- there aren't a whole lot of similarities that come to mind except their fierce intelligence. Anne Rice and Clive Barker might better suit the stereotype of horror writers as seeming "strange," whatever that means, but not so for Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Dan Simmons. To me, they're regular working joes, very professional. At horror conventions, I see a lot of people who dress the part, but that seems a lot less common at the higher echelons. Having said that, however, ALL writers are somewhat odd, to a degree --- they live in their heads and often tend toward shyness or personality extremes, like many artists. But I don't find horror writers more odd than writers in general, at least when they're wearing their faces for the public. I'm sure many people have met their favorite horror writer and walked away disappointed, thinking, "Gee, they're not so strange."
David Searcy: I'm not sure I understand, but if you sat next to me on a bus I'm pretty sure you'd never notice. Except for the wound --- there's that I guess and maybe the smell.
Darren Shan: I don't know about other horror writers, but I'm definitely a bit stranger than most of the people I know! As for stereotypes: Many people think horror writers write their stories in the dead of night --- which I most certainly don't. And many people think horror writers get ghoulish pleasure out of giving their readers nightmares --- which I most certainly do!
Christopher Schildt: I recognize that I share this world with all sorts of life forms, I love animals and children. I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones that I do have are all very dear to me. I can be moved to tears or joy by a mere few notes of good music or the captivating words of good literature. Even through the worst of times, I never abandon these principles. If this makes me an unusual or idiosyncratic person, than so be it, for that is who I am.
Kelley Armstrong: When people learn what I write, the number one comment I get is 'But you seem so normal!' No moldering Victorian mansion. No black lipstick and talon-length nails. No homicidal glint in my eye. I'm such a disappointment. I think that's the biggest misconception: the idea that you can pick the horror buffs from a group of writers. In my experience, they look and act just like everyone else. What I find does distinguish a horror writer is a macabre turn of mind. Give them an ordinary set of circumstances and they can imagine the worst possible scenario.
R.L. Stine: I've met a few horror writers and movie directors, and they seem to be shy, quiet, normal people. I think the one thing they have in common is a good sense of humor --- because there's a very close tie between humor and horror.
Douglas Clegg: I think that people who don't read horror fiction would believe that anyone who writes it is essentially morbid. I think this is foolish, since most of the literary novelists I've enjoyed seem to have fairly morbid imaginations themselves. But it's something I've heard. Most readers of horror fiction I've met or with whom I've corresponded seem to know we're just like them: fairly ordinary, enjoying a good tale of terror, and trying to make sense out of the world as we live through it. I think the only stereotype of horror writers that I think can stick would be that we're pretty much like anyone else writing fiction for a living in a new century that seems to be full of both wonder and terror.
Ameilia Atwater-Rhodes: I find that writers in general see and respond to the world a little differently than the average person. It's like seeing an extra color, or knowing a little more history. A non-writer knows his own world; a writer has two. A non-writer has his own opinions, and maybe a talent for seeing others'; a writer has all his characters. In order to express that other world and those characters, most of the writers I know have their little quirks.
Or large quirks. I have a character who loves Fritos but hates chocolate. When I'm working on her book, I grab a bag of the former and lay off the cookies. Quirks, habits; I have them all. But beyond them, I'm relatively normal. Stereotypes about horror writers being dark, morbid, reclusive people are way off. I have friends and a close family. Many writers have husbands, wives, children, pets, whatever people have.
What one stereotype is dead on? I'd have to hear more; so far I haven't found one.
|
|
|
|
(c) Copyright 2001, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com. All rights
reserved.
|
|
