Something About Understanding Horror Fiction

O horror, horror, horror!

Something About L. Frank Baum

Tik-tok but the stories don't stop.

Colin Meloy's Wildwood

Colin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for The Decemberists and has completed the second of his books in the planned Wildwood Chronicles trilogy of children’s novels - which are both wonderfully illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis.

Under Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book Two (2012) follows last year's Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book 1 (2011) and tells the tale of Prue McKeel and her adventures in the Impassable Wilderness, full of animals, mystics, bandits and more.

An Heir To Our Affections

Parker Peevyhouse (!) posts about books finished posthumously and a majority of her text is devoted to John Bellairs and, more so, Brad Strickland:

"This isn’t exactly an unusual occurrence, and it has also taken place in children’s publishing. The series that starts with the quirky and Gothic The House With A Clock In Its Walls, by John Bellairs, was completed by author Brad Strickland after Bellairs’ death. Strickland finished two manuscripts Bellairs had started before his death: The Ghost in the Mirror and The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder. He also wrote two more books based on Bellairs’ notes, and then wrote four more novels of his own using Bellairs’ characters.

...when I hear that an author is finishing a book or series created by another author, I get very suspicious. Is this an act of generosity to readers who want more...Bellairs? Is it a plan to take advantage of a dead author’s good name? We can’t know how...Bellairs would react to Strickland’s commandeering of his series–but we do know that these authors’ estates felt it wise to approve these new books.”

Something About Michael and Marc Leighton

Director Michael Shane Leighton and writer Marc Leighton are the brothers responsible for the terrifying found footage horror film Pursuit of a Legend. Gorepress’s Scullion was hugely impressed by their feature debut and wanted to discuss where their ideas came from and how they created such a believable “found footage” film.

Something About Author Robert J. Wiersema

The So Misguided blog, a Canadian book blog, interviews Robert J. Wiersema who is - you guessed it - a Canadian author as part of a review of his second novel, Bedtime Story (2010):

Saving the Best for First

It’s been said by many a fan that Bellairs’s The House with a Clock in its Walls was his best novel because it was first. Our introduction to Lewis and the book’s cozy familiarity have made fans out of readers for years. And while the later tales of Anthony and Johnny – and even Lewis – still send shivers through our fingers as we turn the page, there’s something about coming to New Zebedee that first time....