Guest Blog by Alan Nayes: Unnatural Thoughts

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Guest Blog by Alan Nayes: Unnatural Thoughts

BOO!

Did I scare you?

Probably not, but the topic for this post is horror—writing designed to frighten as well as entertain the reader.

First, I would like to thank Greg James for inviting me to his blog this week. Greg who writes as G. R. Yeates and is author of The Eyes of the Dead is a horror author and though I don't call myself a horror writer per se, my next release The Unnatural could be loosely categorized as a horror story, dark as it is. So since I am not strictly a writer of horror tales, what inspired me to dip my pencil ( not literally) into the horror genre. Several things.

Horror is fun to read. My favorite horror author is undoubtedly the incomparable Stephen King. I recall when Pet Sematary was released several decades ago—has it been that long?—and I read it thinking not only is this story a fun read, wouldn't it be fun to attempt to write a story like this. I wasn't writing fiction then but I always kept that thought on the back burner. His The Stand is another one of my favorite Stephen King books. So yes, reading horror—good horror—definitely was an impetus for me to delve into the macabre when I finally did decide to write.

But long before King or Pet Sematary , when I was young I used to love watching horror movies on television. I still do when I'm cruising late night cable and see a good flick that catches my attention. Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, and Lon Chaney's Wolfman are all horror classics that never cease to make me put the remote down and watch awhile. I've always thought wouldn't it be a fantastic feeling to accomplish what Mary Shelley did—and at only twenty-one—to publish a novel that would be a horror classic for almost two centuries—and counting.(pub in France in 1823)

My inspiration is derived from both mediums—the written and the visual. Though The Unnatural is my first horror story, I enjoyed writing it so much, two more are in the works. Hemlock Pond is about a woman and her young son who move into an old farmhouse with a haunted pond on the property. Sometime early next year I hope to release Girl Blue, the dark story of a terminally ill sculptor who becomes haunted by his last work.

So if you hear something under your bed late at night — DON'T LOOK!

Sweet dreams.

Again, thanks Greg for hosting me.

Alan Nayes

Website http://anayes.com/

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