Link: Fear Factor: Using Childhood Fears in Mythos Fiction
Sometimes, the day job gives you pearls. I was sitting in a seminar on Childhood Anxiety when I realized I was looking at something important Read More
Tag: The Castle of Otranto
Link: Size Does (Not) Matter: The New Paradigm
A good friend, writer Jack Mackenzie, got me thinking about book lengths in Science Fiction and how they have been tied to publishing. He also Read More
Ancient Terrors: The Ghost Stories of Greece and Rome
The creation of the Gothic Novel is accredited to Horace Walpole in 1764 with the writing of The Castle of Otranto. This book inspired an Read More
Link: EAP-HPL-PKD: Shades of the Gothic
The word ‘Gothic’ has many definitions, all conflicting. First, it means the Germanic people who, amongst other tribes, sacked Rome in 410 AD. Because of Read More
Link: Gothic Gotham
In 1764, a bored English peer, no longer active in politics, builder of a fairy tale castle in the middle of Twickenham, came up with Read More
Link: Sword & Sorcery Cliche No. 1: The Ming the Merciless Haircut
I am currently re-reading John Jakes’s entire Brak the Barbarian saga, and I was struck by an odd thought. Why do wizards in sword-and-sorcery always Read More
The Case of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1808-1849) is the father of the mystery story, the inventor of psychological horror, and an early writer of science fiction. His works Read More
The False Monster Tradition
The notion that a monster should prove to be a fraud is a fairly recent idea. The warriors gathered around the scop reciting Beowulf would Read More
Why Write Horror?
Why write horror? Why not the socially more accepted Science Fiction or Fantasy, in which the reader experiences wonder and the heights of imagination? Why Read More