I’m tardy on this, but… *waves at news wires*
My latest published story came out in September – Hear Me Roar (via poiseandpen publishing and available at all the usual places) includes “Blackout” and the reviews got me thinking.
(yes, I read my own reviews. Mistake? Usually. But I hope as a newbie writer that even obnoxious comments hold some opportunity to improve my skillset.)
Some of them called out that my story was really dark. Now I can’t stand scary movies. I’m not a big fan of scary books. As for TV? even the X-Files used to creep me out. But I enjoy learning how to write horror…. especially the human kind. Oh, sure, zombies and aliens and all that other stuff has its place but true terror lies in what people do to each other, and the lingering effects of trauma and PTSD.
See, a zombie by definition is mindless hunger. Aliens may see us as nothing different than we see chickens or carrots. But people know better. People choose to inflict horrors on other people, knowing humans feel pain. Feel hunger. Feel hopelessness and despair. Much as reading a scary book can give me the willies, what really scares me is not a haunted laundry press or a ghost ship but child abuse and terrorizing the helpless.
So – my latest story should carry pretty much every trigger warning there is. I hope if you read it, you enjoy it anyway.
JB Riley 