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Tag archive: writing advice [ 12 ]

A Point of Pride: Interview with Arley Sorg

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Arley Sorg is an associate agent at kt literary and co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. He is an SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist, a two-time Locus Award Finalist, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards. Arley is also a senior editor at Locus, associate editor at both Lightspeed & Nightmare, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He is a guest critiquer for the current Odyssey Workshop and the week five instructor for this year’s Clarion West Workshop. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey graduate. His site: arleysorg.com. Twitter: @arleysorg Facebook is… a weird number. ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Koji Suzuki

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Koji Suzuki is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring novels, which have been adapted into other formats, including films, manga, TV series and video games. 

Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror?

My first novel Paradise was a love story in the South Pacific during the Age of Discovery (my second novel was Ring) and my third novel was also situated in the South Pacific, the story centers around a destined love story between a crew on a tuna fishing ship and a lovely female singer-songwriter. I personally am a yachtsman, so the ocean is the one situation I can really show my best. ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Lisa Tuttle

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Photo Credit: Colin Murray

Lisa Tuttle, a Texan by birth, Scottish by inclination and residence, is the author of 13 novels and seven short story collections. Windhaven, written in collaboration with George R.R. Martin, was her first novel and his second and has been almost continuously in print since 1981. She’s also written non-fiction and books for children and worked as a journalist and library assistant. The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies, the third in a series of 1890s-set, supernaturally tinged mysteries, is forthcoming from Jo Fletcher Books, as well as a new collection, Riding the Nightmare, is out from Valancourt this summer.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisatuttlewriter ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Nisi Shawl

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Photo Credit: Misha Stone

Nisi Shawl’s debut novel Everfair, an alternate history of Africa’s Congo region, was a Nebula Award finalist. They’re the author of the Otherwise Award-winning story collection Filter House. They edited both volumes of the acclaimed New Suns anthology series, winner of the World Fantasy, Locus, and Ignyte awards. With Cynthia Ward they co-wrote Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, a standard text on inclusivity for over a decade. Recent publications include the horror collections Our Fruiting Bodies and Exploring Dark Short Fiction 3: A Primer to Nisi Shawl, as well as Speculation, a middle grade fantasy novel about redeeming a family curse.

Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what
were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror? ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Yvonne Navarro

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Photo Credit: Chuck Wade

Yvonne Navarro is an award-winning author of twenty-four published novels and a lot of short stories, articles and a reference dictionary. She writes several genres but favors horror or dark fantasy. Her work has won the Bram Stoker and IATW Awards, among others. Her shorter work has appeared in hundreds of anthologies and magazines. Her franchise work includes the Predator, Aliens, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, V-Wars, and more. She lives in Tucson, Arizona and dotes on her rescued dogs, Kyah and Chewbecca, and cranky talking parakeet, BirdZilla. Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/yvonne.navarro.001 ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Stuart David Schiff

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Photo Credit: Terry McVicker

Stuart got his undergraduate degree from Cornell University (1968) and his D.D.S. from The Columbia School of Dental and Oral Surgery (1972). He spent 8 years in the Army that included time as one of only four dentists in the 82nd Airborne. After he left the Army (1980), he joined a group dental practice in upstate NY and retired in 2012. He has won four World Fantasy Awards, the British Fantasy Award and had two Hugo nominations. In 2014 he was a Guest of honor at the World Fantasy Convention. ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Nancy Kilpatrick

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Photo Credit: Caro Soles

Nancy Kilpatrick is an Award-winning author and editor. She has published 23 novels, 3 novellas, over 250 short stories, 6 collections, and has edited 15 anthologies. She wrote the non-fiction book The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined. Much of her work has been translated into 9 languages. Her most recent project is the six-book novel series Thrones of Blood, the final volume #6 coming soon in print and ebook. The series has been optioned for film and TV. ...More...

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Steve Rasnic Tem

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Steve Rasnic Tem is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. He won the Bram Stoker Award for his novel Blood Kin and his novel Ubo was a finalist. He has published over 500 short stories in his 40+ year career. Some of his best are collected in Thanatrauma and Figures Unseen from Valancourt Books, and in The Night Doctor & Other Tales from Macabre Ink. You can visit his home on the web at www.stevetem.com.

Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what
were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror? ...More...

Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

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demonic turkeys with overlaid flamesSomewhere in the United States this moment, a large turkey—with glorious plumage, I would like to imagine—doesn’t know that he’s already been selected for presidential pardon for the American Thanksgiving holiday next week. In classrooms across the country, kids are consuming read-aloud picture books about other turkeys running from feast centerpiece fates. Many classroom games and educational activities are built to the theme of staving off the imminent death of the turkey—hide the turkey, disguise the turkey.

Can you, young schoolchild, alter this bird’s fate and save his life?

It’s all fun and games, and then we expect the child to happily go home and eat the lifeless turkey who has failed to escape that fate.

But it does illustrate that even such a sedate* holiday—as Thanksgiving in America is associated with a single meal, then a football game while people crash from turkey’s legendary tryptophan* triggering tiredness—can easily be mined for horror. After all, aren’t those children’s turkey read-alouds a kind of (extremely) mild horror in themselves?

*The sedateness refers to the holiday in pop culture, and this post will cover holidays more generally. If you wish to look to the specific darker history of Thanksgiving, the National Day of Mourning, for horror, tread carefully and educate yourself to make sure you’re respectful. American Indians in Children’s Literature is a good place to start.

*Tryptophan as a sleep-maker has been debunked, but the idea persists. However, there is evidence that tryptophan can give more vivid dreams, so perhaps horror writers can generate story ideas by doping on turkey to dream ghastly inspiration?

book covers of Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr and Laura Rader; Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano and Lee Harper; Turkey Surprise by Peggy Archer and Thor Wickstrom

Above: Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr and Laura Rader; Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano and Lee Harper;

Turkey Surprise ...More...

Evil Teachers and Beyond: 5 School Scare Sources

Evil Teachers and Beyond: 5 School Scare Sources

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Scary school bus

The days are getting shorter and cooler, and ravaged store displays are picked-over, having only straggling survivors among the pencils, notebooks, and backpacks. Children and teens have mysteriously vanished from public places on weekdays… It’s Back to School season! In honor of returning yellow school buses, here are five school aspects to be mined for your horror stories.

1) Mind Control

Kids in classroom

From preschool to high school, kids spend a large portion of their day having someone else tell them what to do. Wear this. Eat now. Do this work now. You need the bathroom? The break’s in 15 minutes, so you’ll have to wait. Say this Pledge of Allegiance. Parrot back the textbook, even if you’ve read conflicting facts elsewhere.

No one likes being controlled, hence rebellion. It’s one thing to do as you’re told, begrudgingly, to avoid consequences, all the while resenting the external controls. Now, take that normal school experience and amp it up to horror. After all, what could be scarier than a force that takes away your ability to rebel, something that insidiously seeps into your brain until you can only think pre-approved thoughts? To watch your peers succumb one by one to mind control—be it by drugs, parasite, or good old-fashioned brainwashing—while wondering when it will be your turn.

2) Embarrassment and Social Isolation ...More...

A Flash of Fear: Why Write Short-form Horror

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For many (if not most), the first introduction to horror doesn’t come from a book or movie, but from a brief scary story told to them, perhaps around a smoky campfire in lonely–or are you alone after all?–woods. Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories collections include many of the selfsame creepy jewels of storytelling’s oral tradition, and have inducted many a child into the ranks of the horror lovers.
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Writing Prompt: Knock on Wood

Writing Prompt: Knock on Wood

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Young Horror brings you writing prompts to energize your week with spooky idea inspiration. Are you writing picture books, chapter books, middle grade, or YA? Your next great idea could be sparked right here.

Check back every Monday for new writing prompts. Share your ideas and discuss in the comments below.

“Superstition is foolish, childish, primitive and irrational–but how much does it cost you to knock on wood?” -Judith Viorst

Your superstitions are much older than you. If you take that moment to knock on wood, you’re joining in on an activity to ward off anger and envy that dates back to ancient Europe. Avoid walking under ladders? You’re in stride with the Ancient Egyptians.  ...More...

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