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Horror Author Roundtable
Ever read a horror book and thought, "What kind of mind comes up with that?." Join nine acclaimed horror authors --- Kelley Armstrong, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Doug Clegg, David Searcy, Tananarive Due, Christopher Schlidt, Darren Shan, Whitley Strieber and R.L. Stine as they discuss their influences and their phobias. Find out if there's truth behind the assumption that horror writers are just a little bit, well, odd.
Meet
the Authors:
Questions
1. AOTW: From what we have heard, everyone who reads and/or writes horror has one --- THE book --- the one that introduced them to the genre and made them seek out everything they could in the field. What was your first introduction to horror literature?
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2. AOTW: It's easy to scare other people; jumping out from behind a door, a black rubber spider in a running shoe, the list goes on and on. You have made a living by scaring people who encounter you on a page of print. Do you ever come up with anything so wild that you scare yourself, that leaves you wondering where that came from?
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3. AOTW:Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite horror book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of the horror genre?
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4. AOTW: Do you look to your own phobias to find subject matter? Are your stories the products of nightmares, childhood experiences, fantasies, or do they come straight from the headlines of contemporary events or other experiences?
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5. AOTW: How will the genre be affected, if at all, by the events of September 11? With the nation struggling with terror, do you feel horror novels may be in more --- or less --- demand?
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6. AOTW: What draws people to horror novels? Why do we, as readers, like to be scared?
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7. AOTW: Where do you as an author draw the line on gory descriptions?
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8. AOTW: Do you feel any competitive pressure from horror films? If so, does the increasingly graphic nature of horror in films make your job more difficult? If not, why not?
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9. AOTW: Many of the situations and scenarios in horror novels are so, well, horrible, it seems impossible they could all be products of pure imagination. Do you ever research real events to get ideas? Does the Internet ever come in handy?
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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?
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