Genre Choice

  • Oct 18, 2022
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I usually prefer to write science fiction and fantasy, with teenage or college age protagonists. Roaring adventures. But there have been exceptions to that. Among my unfinished manuscripts are two or three horror stories, and maybe a tragedy or so.

Horror isn’t really my genre… I find myself allergic to movies on it. Too easily frightened or carried away by the scary themes. But when you have characters who can sense or see ghosts, things can get interesting. What is that character like as a result of their abilities? How does it affect their personality, their outlook, their problem-solving skills? And then the author throws them a whale of a problem and you get to see how they swim out of it.

My first horror story was told to my younger cousin when she was around five because she kept asking me for horror stories like the Supernatural series that she watched religiously with her parents. Thankfully, I had a story in reserve about a haunted music box in an old house and a lady architect who could see the ghosts there… It wasn’t even a fully developed story, but it was enough for the kid.

And then there’s another that’s been on my mind lately… But that’ll be a story for another time.