Happy Sunday, everyone!
Was thinking about some of my interviews in the past and the obvious question comes up regarding my choice of genre. My answer does not vary much from what you can see on my web-site Q&A section: I was the odd kid that liked the “spooky stuff.”
The more I considered this, the more I realized there may be more to it than just this pat answer.
The last few days I downloaded and pasted photos of some of my most favorite toys as a child from Google Photos which include, The Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadow Game complete with skeleton, casket and wooden stakes. Shrunken head making kit you made from drying apples and the Motorized Monster Making Kit which worked sparingly at best. I bring these up because on retrospect, no one else in my family was into this “Crap” as my father would say. I had two older sisters who did not share my fascination with the occult and all things morbid. The Exorcist came out in 1975 and I was only in 5th grade at the time. Both my sisters had a chance to see it and I was jealous. One left the theater screaming after forty minutes. Baby! The other made it through the entire movie but, upon coming home that evening, walked through our front door with eyes dilated and the complexion of a frozen fish. How cool is that?!
I, on the other hand, being too young, was left with old black and white horror movies or creature features that played on the weekends and odd hours. I remember being forced by my father to vacate the living room (my parent’s bedroom was just off the main floor) on many occasions while I sat late at night, huddled up in front TV with pillow in lap in total bliss. To this day I still do not know how the movie, The Creeping Flesh ends!
What conclusion have I come to with this walk down memory lane you ask? None, really. Well, ok, possibly I am feeling very fortunate to not only have an appreciation for the “Spooky Stuff” but the ability to write in a genre that has always fascinated me and, with a little luck, to be able to give the genre the respect it deserves. I don’t think I could ask for a better contribution to the world of literature. The world has too many Jack Londons anyway.
April, 10th 2011
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