Help me out, here, please. My novel 22 Dutch Road is supposed to be a horror book, but my monkeys aren\u2019t sure if it\u2019s got enough, well, to put it bluntly, gore. (Allergen alert: copies of the book are printed in facilities which also process gore). Is gore necessary for a \u201chorror\u201d book?<\/p>\n
Per book-genres.com\u2019s definition: \u201cHorror stories are designed to evoke fear, fascination, or revulsion in the reader,\u201d using either supernatural elements or psychological circumstances to evoke feelings of terror. Fear, fascination, revulsion? They sound pretty serious, don\u2019t they? Really, am I trying to terrorize my readers? Seems like something one might get arrested for or at least get talked to sternly after having been told to stand in the corner.<\/p>\n
Still, terror is the general point: getting one\u2019s heart racing, getting anxious\u2014okay, fearful. All of this is to be done vicariously, of course, in the comfort of one\u2019s well-lit home while wearing fuzzy slippers. A cheese Danish might be involved.<\/p>\n
So, do I have the three ingredients? Do I have fear? Stalked characters get injured under a variety of dire circumstances: auto wrecks, storms, gunfire, fits of murderous rage, so \u201ccheck\u201d there.<\/p>\n
Revulsion? Like maggots? Not so much. No maggots. I personally find maggots disgusting. But there are distasteful elements in the book, like riotous cancer, so I think check.<\/p>\n
Is the story fantastic in the old-school sense of that word? Well, natural laws get violated, slowly at first, then eventually, off to the races. Check.<\/p>\n
So, fear, revulsion and fascination: I got all three. That\u2019s enough, right? I thought so and told my monkeys\u2014to shut them up\u2014but they just laughed.<\/p>\n
Frickin\u2019 monkeys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"