Darren Shan Interviewed by Dave Jeffery

Darren Shan Interviewed by Dave Jeffery

One of the big questions often asked by writers wanting to dip their toes in the waters of YA horror fiction is, "How far can I go?" We know this because members frequently ask this question on various HWA forums. It was certainly one of the queries that rattled around my head when thinking about my own projects back in the 80’s. I wished back then I could access the insights and experiences of established, successful YA writers and explore their views on the market, and what should or shouldn’t feature in a YA horror book. These days, the internet…
Scary Out There with Sarah Rees Brennan

Scary Out There with Sarah Rees Brennan

It’s Scary Out There had a witchingly good time talking character, lore, and more with Sarah Rees Brennan, author of Season of the Witch, the tie-in novel for Netflix’s hit show, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. With books like How to Hang a Witch, The Price Guide to the Occult, and Conversion, witchcraft in YA seems to be more popular than ever. Why do you think that is? Witches are figures of female independence and social disobedience! I think whenever society is having a big conversation about how just our system actually is, how power can be achieved in different…
Surviving Records: Found Footage in Print

Surviving Records: Found Footage in Print

Shaky camcorders, baby monitors picking up paranormal activity, mysteriously unearthed videos—it’s no wonder found footage flourishes so well in cinematic horror. It’s visually compelling metafiction that doesn’t undermine audience immersion. It can be a little harder to pull off in print (especially because the author name on the physical book is rarely also the name of a character inside of it, a limitation The Blair Witch Project marketing team didn’t face when they released fake missing posters of their leads and even convinced some that the actors were dead). But, it can still be a lot of fun and provides…
YA Writing Prompt: Cabin Fever

YA Writing Prompt: Cabin Fever

Young Horror brings you writing prompts to energize your week with spooky writing idea inspiration. Are you writing picture books, chapter books, middle grade, or YA? Your next great idea could be sparked right here. The Horrors of Winter Break Ah...take a breath, because December brings with it Winter Break. There's a short vacation for kids, teens, and parents from the usual routine of packing lunches, school buses, and homework. Picture togetherness, smell the holiday spices, taste the hot cocoa, feel the soft flannel of matching family pajamas. Sometimes, there can be TOO much togetherness. If the weather's terrible or the…
Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

Murder Most Fowl and Other Holiday Horrors

Somewhere 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…
Evil Teachers and Beyond: 5 School Scare Sources

Evil Teachers and Beyond: 5 School Scare Sources

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 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…
Writing Prompt: Knock on Wood

Writing Prompt: Knock on Wood

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…
Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

While I love supernatural horror, realistic horror stories—murders, kidnappings, unexplainable medical phenomena—are the ones that really keep me up at night. There’s something extra terrifying about a fictional story that can, and does, happen to people in real life, so it’s no surprise that authors draw inspiration for their horror (or suspense or thriller) novels from news stories. With a 24-hour news cycle and the Internet vortex, you won’t need to look too far for an idea to rip from the headlines. I read a stack of Sick-Sad-World-worthy YA fiction, and here are some ideas I came away with about…
Love is a Disease: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary

Love is a Disease: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary

Ever wonder why some books get the horror classification, while others—sometimes with similar plotlines and the exact same monsters—get labeled paranormal romance? The difference is easy—the former has the primary goal of scary, and the latter focuses on a romantic relationship (to the degree that the plots rely on it to function). The real question, then, concerns the tipping point between the two genres, the point at which your young adult novel is less terror and more Twilight. First, a caveat: There’s nothing wrong with paranormal romance; it’s simply a different genre from horror (and the two genres frequently have…
Peekaboo with the Devil: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist

Peekaboo with the Devil: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist

Just like any relationship, the special bond between a horror protagonist and her antagonist benefits from a little bit of mystery. In this case, the hero is a proxy for your readers, and the mystery comes from your story’s scariest villain, be it a human serial killer or a demonic creature or the mad scientist who, when left unattended for a few minutes, will inevitably create a horrific zombie plague. There are a host of reasons why keeping your baddie cards close to your chest can help your story’s tension and overall terror levels. Obviously, if your plot line is…
The CreEpy Catalog: On the Day I Died

The CreEpy Catalog: On the Day I Died

In order to write great children's horror, you must READ great children's horror. To help you out with this, we've invited our very own middle school librarian to take you into the deepest, darkest corners of the stacks to see what frightening fiction kids are reading. Welcome to the CreEpy Catalog! One of the things I love about working in a middle school library is that kids have the ability to read independently, but they still love being read aloud to. Once a week, I have a group of fifth graders for library class, and I love the experience of making…
Ambiguously Ever After: Ending the Children’s Horror Story

Ambiguously Ever After: Ending the Children’s Horror Story

There’s much handwringing in publishing for children about what is “right” or “appropriate.” There are many controversial subjects and editorial choices, but today we’re talking about endings. Do endings in books for children need to be happy? Or should writers of children’s books portray a realistic version of the world where things don’t always end well? Critics and authors have come down on both sides of the issue. When the 2014 Carnegie Award was given to The Bunker Diary, it set off a flurry of controversy in the UK and prompted an opinion piece for The Guardian in which two…
And the Clock Strikes Three AM: Time and Timing in Terror, the Sequel

And the Clock Strikes Three AM: Time and Timing in Terror, the Sequel

Last month’s terror-time about time-and-terror was firmly grounded in reality—creating timetables that work inside the book (natural character reactions to stimuli and logical story flow) and inside the reader’s mind (pacing appropriate for the specific audience’s needs, and avoiding shattering suspension of disbelief through overuse of techniques that, when used sparingly, should enhance tension). Immersion was the name of the game, with an end goal of a truer feeling story and the horror that relating to it as true-ish brings. But before you go off and wed your story to reality at the altar of believability, there’s another variable. Unless…
And Now for Something Completely Different: Adding Humor to Your Horror

And Now for Something Completely Different: Adding Humor to Your Horror

With the popularity of dark comedies, it should be no surprise that horror and humor can be a compelling mix. However, when it comes to young adult books, few succeed at the balance that keeps a funny horror book from losing its edge or appearing to try too hard. Here are a few humorous elements used in YA horror to enhance the story, characters, or setting without sacrificing their horror-ness. WORD PLAYS AND PUNS Puns and other forms of wordplay can range from clever to groan-inducing, and they are a little of both in Croak by Gina Damico. In the…
And the Clock Strikes Midnight: Time and Timing in Terror, Part I

And the Clock Strikes Midnight: Time and Timing in Terror, Part I

Whether it’s the beeping of an alarm clock marking a night over too soon, a school buzzer announcing the start of a test period, or the chime of a grandfather clock in an old house declaring the start of the witching hour, there are lots of ways that time can provoke dread. So, when writers look no further than flashbacks and verb tenses, they miss out on timely tension opportunities. With a little attention towards the timing of the horrors in your story—pacing as well as narratively—you can save yourself time in revisions, time better spent dreaming up new nightmares…
Scary Out There with Kaitlin Ward

Scary Out There with Kaitlin Ward

NOTE: Listeners, this was our first attempt at an audio interview. We know there is a slight echo and the background noise isn’t ideal, but bear with us as we creep into the world of audio interviews. Thanks for your understanding and patience! Hello Horror Fanatics! Today Scary Out There is sitting down with Kaitlin Ward, the author of Bleeding Earth (Adaptive Books, February 2016). Listen as Kaitlin discusses how she came up with the idea for Bleeding Earth, why it's important for children and teens to read horror, and more. Kaitlin Ward grew up on a dairy farm in Monroe,…
Scary Out There! A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction: A Chat with Kami Garcia

Scary Out There! A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction: A Chat with Kami Garcia

Welcome back to SCARY OUT THERE! This week I sit down to have a chat with Kami Garcia, the #1 New York Times & international bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures Series and the author of Unbreakable, the first book in the Legion Series, releasing on October 1, 2013. Kami is fascinated by the paranormal, and she's very superstitious. When she isn't writing, she can usually be found watching disaster movies, listening to Soundgarden, or drinking Diet Coke. She lives in Maryland with her family, and their dogs Spike and Oz (named after characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). JONATHAN MABERRY: Let’s jump in with the…
Scary Out There! A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction: A Chat with Rachel Caine

Scary Out There! A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction: A Chat with Rachel Caine

Welcome back to SCARY OUT THERE, the Horror Writers Association’s new blog on scary fiction for teens. This week I sit down for a chat with Rachel Caine the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than forty novels, including the bestselling Morganville Vampires series, the Weather Warden series, the Outcast Season series, and the new upcoming Revivalist series. She was born at White Sands Missile Range, which people who know her say explains a lot. She has been an accountant, a professional musician, and an insurance investigator, and until very recently continued to carry on a secret identity in the…

Scary Out There: A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction – A Chat with Ellen Hopkins

Welcome back to SCARY OUT THERE, the Horror Writers Association’s new blog on scary fiction for teens. This week I sit down for a chat with Ellen Hopkins, the award winning author of nine NY Times bestselling young adult novels-in-verse, plus two adult verse novels. Before delving into fiction, Ellen was a poet, freelance journalist and nonfiction author, with twenty published nonfiction books for children. Ellen mentors other writers as the regional advisor for the Nevada chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives near Carson City, where she has recently founded Ventana Sierra, a 501(c)(3),…

Scary Out There: A Blog on Horror in Young Adult Fiction – A Chat with Melissa de la Cruz

Welcome back to SCARY OUT THERE, the Horror Writers Association’s new blog on scary fiction for teens. My guest this week is Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of a slew of critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including the BLUE BLOODS series, The AU PAIR series, The ASHLEYS series, Angels on Sunset Boulevard, Girl Stays in the Picture, and the Witches of East End series. She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for dozens of publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar,…