The Human in Horror

I admit that when I switched from writing contemporary and fairy tale retellings to "horror" I got a few strange looks... and messages... and "Um... what?" moments.

It's not easy switching genres in the best of circumstances, but when you switch to something like paranormal and horror, people start to question.

You start to question ;)

But the cool thing about horror is that it doesn't have to be gory and graphic and bloody. YES, some of the best stories are and YES sometimes a story needs it to be told well, but from what I've learned horror and gore aren't synonymous.

I have some answers to some of your burning horror ponderments. Keep reading...

I want to read horror, but I don't like blood...

One of my favorite channels on youtube is Dr. Pimple Popper (there is a point to this). I love 90% of her videos... except for the ones that have the blood. 

Believe it or not, I'm not a fan of blood. Scream is my favorite scary movie/slasher movie, but it's about as far as I can handle in the blood department. 

So for me, horror is so much more than "slasher". It's atmosphere. It's situations. It's jumps in the night. It's mystery. It's all the things...

While I WILL read and watch movies with a bit of gore in them, trust me, it shall be read firmly between my fingers.

Take Frankenstein, Dracula, all classic horror with very little to no blood/gore (Dracula does in parts bc... I mean... vampires ;) )

Why write scary books at all...

The top answer is because it's fun.

I grew up on Buffy, Interview with the Vampire, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, etc so those are the kinds of shows and books I love. Like I said, I love the atmosphere, the mystery, the way character arcs can move and twist.

Look back at my first book, CROSSING THE DEEP. Crossing the Deep is a young adult inspirational book about a church group that gets lots in the Smoky Mountains and how they survive (or don't survive...). One of the scenes in it was inspired by the Stephen King mini-series IT...

I'll let you take that in--

Even from the beginning, I knew I wanted paranormal in my stories-- I just wasn't ready to commit.

I also love how human paranormal stories are. 

Think about that. My goal with all of my horror/paranormal is to make it as real and as human as I can. My book, Heartless, is probably the most human of any story I've ever written... and it's about angels and demons. On the outside at least. At it's core, it is about a girl who is tortured by her inner demon(s) and is working to free herself from it. It's about how we can get so wrapped up in things and in our own head and the consequences of that... as told in a paranormal way.

The book I just finished, TRINITY ROW, is about dealing with guilt, panic attacks, anxiety, forgiveness, and moving on. 

Sometimes, I think it's much easier to deal with issues in the paranormal world, than in the real one. SO we need horror stories and paranormal stories to help.

Do you like scary books?
If so, why? What are you favorites? Why are they your favorites? What is about it a good ghost story or a good paranormal story that you love?

I'm thinking about making a series on here monthly talking about horror/paranormal updates, books, recommendations, things like that. Let me know if it's something you'd be interested in.

ALSO, one last note... TWILIGHT by STEPHENIE MEYER... is considered YA Horror #justsaying...

Live your dreams. Write your nightmares,
Kelly