On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition
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In On Writing Horror, Second Edition, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, Jack Ketchum, and many others tell you everything you need to know to successfully write and publish horror novels and short stories.
Edited by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature, On Writing Horror includes exclusive information and guidance from 58 of the biggest names in horror writing to give you the inspiration you need to start scaring and exciting readers and editors. You'll discover comprehensive instruction such as:
• The art of crafting visceral violence, from Jack Ketchum
• Why horror classics like Dracula, The Exorcist, and Hell House are as scary as ever, from Robert Weinberg
• Tips for avoiding one of the biggest death knells in horror writingpredicable clichésfrom Ramsey Campbell
• How to use character and setting to stretch the limits of credibility, from Mort Castle
With On Writing Horror, you can unlock the mystery surrounding classic horror traditions, revel in the art and craft of writing horror, and find out exactly where the genre is going next. Learn from the best, and you could be the next best-selling author keeping readers up all night long.
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Product details
- ASIN : B0033ZAVVC
- Publisher : Writer's Digest Books; 2nd edition (November 4, 2006)
- Publication date : November 4, 2006
- Language : English
- File size : 566 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 274 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1582974209
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #680,036 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #137 in Composition (Kindle Store)
- #733 in Authorship
- #1,035 in Writing Skill Reference (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Michael McCarty has been a professional writer since 1983 and the author of over forty books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as hundreds of articles, short stories and poems. He is a Five-Time Bram Stoker Finalist and winner of the David R. Collins' Literary Achievement Award from the Midwest Writing Center.
He is the author of such books DARK CITIES: DARK TALES, DARK DUETS: MUSICAL MAYHEM, A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS, I KISSED A GHOUL and LOST GIRL OF THE LAKE (with Joe McKinney)
In Nonfiction, he wrote MODERN MYTHMAKERS (Crystal Lake Publications) a collection of interviews with Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Elvira, William F. Nolan, the cast & crew of Night of the Living Dead and several more. He also co-written the book CONVERSATIONS WITH KRESKIN with The Amazing Kreskin (Team Kreskin Productions) a cornucopia of stories of Kreskin's Amazing life, culture, famous friends, inside knowledge of entertainment personalities, his mind power, thought reading, and much more. ESOTERIA-LAND the Authentic, Eclectic & Eccentric Nonfiction of Michael McCarty and GHOSTS OF THE QUAD CITIES (with Mark McLaughlin) true ghost stories in the Quad Cities metro area.
Michael McCarty have written the following fiction books with Mark McLaughlin: DRACULA TRANSFORMED & OTHER BLOODTHIRSTY TALES (Dracula & vampire short stories and novellas), APOCALYPSE AMERICA! a science fiction and horror novel and MONSTER BEHIND THE WHEEL a horror novel.
Michael McCarty & Jody LaGreca wrote the BLOODLESS series together (published by Simon & Schuster (as a kindle) and Amazon as a trade paperback. The three book series BLOODLESS, BLOODLUST and BLOODLINE is about a 100 year old vampire who survives both the sinking of the Lusitania and the Hindenburgh explosion but has a hard time dealing with his family.
His stories and interviews have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies including Fangoria, Cemetery Dance, Starlog, Filmfax, ON WRITING HORROR (A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association, edited by Mort Castle), MIDNIGHT PREMIERE and IN LAYMON TERMS (both anthos from Cemetery Dance publications).
McCarty's first solo novel, a vampire satire called LIQUID DIET, was released in 2009 release by Black Death/Demonic Clown Books and republished as an ebook as LIQUID DIET & MIDNIGHT SNACK: 2 VAMPIRE SATIRES from Whiskey Creek Press. McCarty was the former staff writer for Science Fiction Weekly (the official website of the Sci-Fi Channel). He can be found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMcCarty.Horror
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Michael Arnzen (http://gorelets.com) is an award-winning author of horror and dark suspense fiction, a poet, and an English professor. His trophy case includes four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing stories. The best of these appear in the Bram Stoker Award-winning career-length retrospective, Proverbs for Monsters, which Dread Central called "a guided tour of insanity and the macabre, with a few moments of touching grace combined with repulsive terror...[which] serves to document the evolution of a great writer."
Arnzen holds a PhD in English from the University of Oregon (where he researched his non-fiction book, The Popular Uncanny) and he is presently a Professor at Seton Hill University, where he teaches horror and suspense fiction in the country's only graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction (http://fiction.setonhill.edu).
Arnzen resides near Pittsburgh, PA.
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"In a little over a decade, Michael A. Arnzen has achieved what few writers manage in a lifetime. He has become the master of a brand of literature that is uniquely his own, and I do not doubt that his approach to horror will soon (if it has not already) be referred to as 'Arnzenian.' When you begin an Arnzen story, you embark on a journey where the old maps do not apply. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory, barreling through landscapes more fascinating and twisted than any previously encountered. Be assured, you will be amazed, startled, amused, and creeped out along the way, but whatever the road has in store, you will not be able to stop reading until the story ends. Horrifying, captivating, ironic -- Arnzenian! -- the works of Michael A. Arnzen are in a class all their own. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!" -- Lawrence C. Connolly, author of Veins
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Chicago native, born in 1959. While I write primarily short fiction and novellas in the crime and horror genres, I have a novel, THE HOLY TERROR, and my memoir, PROACTIVE CONTRITION. In 2016, Crossroad Press will publish RAPID TRANSIT: 30 years of short fiction by Wayne Allen Sallee.
Weston Ochse is the author of more than twenty five books, most recently the SEAL Team 666 books, which the New York Post called 'required reading' and USA Today placed on their 'New and Notable Lists,' and his military sci fi novel Grunt Life. His first novel, Scarecrow Gods, won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in First Novel and his short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work as appeared in comic books, and magazines such as Cemetery Dance and Soldier of Fortune.
His work has been lauded by Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Straub, Kevin J. Anderson, John Skipp, Brian Keene, Jonathan Maberry, David Gerrold, William C. Dietz, Tim Lebbon, and many more, including the New York Times, New York Post, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Denver Post, The Financial Times of London, and The Examiner (UK).
His last name is pronounced "oaks." Together with his first name, it sounds like a stately trailer park. He lives in the Arizona desert within rock throwing distance of Mexico. For fun he races tarantula wasps and watches the black helicopters dance along the horizon. He is a military veteran with 30 years of military service and recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. He's traveled the world, been more to 50 countries, and blogs at Living Dangerously. You can google him under 'Literary Stuntman,' 'Superhero for Rent,' or 'Yakuza of the Written Word."
W.D. Gagliani is the author of the horror/thriller WOLF'S TRAP, a past Bram Stoker Award nominee, as well as the Nick Lupo series WOLF'S GAMBIT, WOLF'S BLUFF, WOLF'S EDGE, WOLF'S CUT, and WOLF'S BLIND, plus the novella WOLF'S DEAL. Gagliani is also the author of the supernatural thriller THE JUDAS HIT and the hard-noir thriller SAVAGE NIGHTS, the collection SHADOWPLAYS, the pulp fantasy novella THE GREAT BELZONI AND THE GAIT OF ANUBIS (two versions), and various holiday-themed short stories such as "The Christmas Wolf," etc.
Gagliani has written numerous short stories published in many anthologies, such as FEARFUL FATHOMS, ROBERT BLOCH'S PSYCHOS, UNDEAD TALES, MORE MONSTERS FROM MEMPHIS, THE MIDNIGHTERS CLUB, etc.
Additionally, the creative team of W.D. Gagliani and David Benton published the novel KILLER LAKE (Deadite Press, 2019), which was nominated in 2020 for both the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novel and the Indie Horror Book Award (Splatterpunk novel). The team of Gagliani and Benton has also published fiction in THE X-FILES: TRUST NO ONE, SPLATTERPUNK: FIGHTING BACK (also translated into Italian), SPLATTERPUNK: PAST INDISCRETIONS, SNAFU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MILITARY HORROR, SNAFU: WOLVES AT THE DOOR, ZIPPERED FLESH 2, MASTERS OF UNREALITY, DARK PASSIONS: HOT BLOOD 13, and more, including webzines such THE HORROR ZINE and DEAD LINES
Gagliani has also written numerous book reviews, articles, and interviews that have been published in places such as THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, CHIZINE, CEMETERY DANCE, HORRORWORLD, PAPERBACK PARADE, CINEMA RETRO, HELLNOTES, FLESH & BLOOD, BOOKPAGE, BOOKLOVERS, THE SCREAM FACTORY, HORROR MAGAZINE, SF CHRONICLE, BARE BONES (first and second version), and others. His work was also published in the Writers Digest book ON WRITING HORROR, THEY BITE!, ZOMBIE WRITING!, and in the Edgar Award-nominated THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS. THE WRITER magazine published his article on writing werewolf epics in October 2011.
His interests include old and new progressive rock, analog synthesizers and his Theremin, weapons, history (and alternate history, secret history, and steampunk), military history, movies, book reviewing, and plain old reading and writing. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), the International Thriller Writers (ITW), and the Authors Guild. He lives and writes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Since many markets are born and die in a single year, many of the listed resources are no longer active markets, but it is the job of every writer to keep track of current, available markets. The industry is in constant change.
One problem with this book is that most of the people that supply the contend for the book are now senior citizens, many of whom are form the pre-TV generation, and don't have an entirely modern viewpoint on the publishing and promotional mechanisms available today. There is talk of the evils of vanity presses for example; which is silly, as modern platforms like the Kindle Self-Publishing Program render such things moot. Other examples are abound, but I won't get into it. The point is, some of the information in this book is both dated, and told from a dated perspective. Thus, if you buy this book, keep in mind that you don't have to take all of their advice literally, and that there are many, many more options available to you when it comes to publishing.
I'm not bagging on older people at all, mind you. I'm not saying that being a member of the pre-TV generation is a bad thing either; as a writer, it's a very good thing in my opinion. I just know that technology has opened about a half-billion doors that the people writing in this book aren't familiar with and haven't considered.
The other aspect of this book that I disagreed with is the great push for writers conferences and workshops. While there is a warning that they're not for everyone, the push is obvious. Why do they push them? It's not on-the-level, if you ask me. Many of those that write for this book have their own conferences and workshops that they sell as a service, so it's inherently biased advice.
Other than these small issues, the general advice in the book is solid. I really liked some of the suggested-reading and I liked reading the work by the authors that were name-dropped (whom I'd previously never heard of).
Take ALL writing advice with a grain of salt.
Top reviews from other countries

I originally bought the paperback version of this, but due to the ridiculously small typeface, I ended up buying the ebook version too, just to be able to read the damn thing! While there is much in this book to appeal to writers in any genre, it is mainly intended for writers of horror. Annoyingly, and despite the so-called ‘revised and updated' spiel, a lot of it is still aimed at American writers (writers’ groups, workshops etc in the US). There’s also a bit of an emphasis on the inclusion of Stevie King, even though his contribution is from an acceptance speech, rather than advice on writing, so not terribly helpful. (A search on YouTube will reveal an abundance of vids about the man and his work.)
Having said all that, there are some cracking good chapters in this volume. My favourites are David Morrell’s thoughts on dialogue and dialogue tags, and the conversation with Harlan Ellison. There are worthy contributions too from Tom Piccirilli, Karen E Taylor, Jack Ketchum and an interesting piece on redneck horror by Weston Ochse.
A useful and thought-provoking volume for writers everywhere, but if your eyesight ain’t great, buy the ebook.

It's an American book, the Horror Writers Association being based in the US, with the result that a handful of chapters on topics such as workshops and local conventions are of little use unless you live there. These chapters are, however, the exception rather than the rule. I hadn't previously heard of most of the contributors, but the ones I had include Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsay Campbell, Jack Ketchum (who should be renamed Ketchup) and Harlan Ellison (his interview, in which he calls the value of horror as a genre into question, is one of the highlights). The transcript of a Stephen King award acceptance speech also appears, though it's of limited value.
Perhaps the lines that stick most in my mind come from critic Douglas E. Winter: 'Horror is not a genre. It is an emotion,' and 'it can be found in all great literature.' If you want advice on writing any kind of fiction, this is an illuminating read.

Another good book in this line is Stephen King's On Writing On Writing that is part autobipgraphy and part advice.

It is not a typical "How To" book, but it contains enough information to give a new horror writer the tools to get started. Part three finally got into the developing a horror concept which gives a wealth of information and examples. It also delved into the basics of "beginning, middle, and end" of a story with great insights.
I would certainly recommend this book as a companion book for the specific genre of horror writing as it gives additional techniques on writing in this specific genre that other generalized 'How to write' books do not cover.
