Okay so all this talk has got me thinking about horror and how much I love it and what TMA has to do with that.
I was introduced to horror very young. Specifically, by being forced to watch C.H.U.D. while at someone’s house when I was maybe 6 or 7. It was awful and I still have nightmares about it. I was also forced to watch Arachnophobia when I was about 10 or 11, which combined with some other stuff gave me, well, arachnophobia that I’m still contending with.
First: for the love of the gods, do not force kids to watch stuff that scares them! It can mess them up!!
My own first active forays into horror were Twilight Zone episodes and vampire stuff generally. Let me be clear: it was Anne Rice. I was into Anne Rice. And monster movies; I loved monster movies!! I loved the Addams Family and somehow as I got older “monster movies” seemed like a natural outgrowth of that.
And then a friend of mine offered me a Stephen King novel, and I couldn’t put it down.
Ever since then, horror’s actually been my go-to genre. I wouldn’t have said that twenty years ago or even ten years ago. I like science fiction! (I like SF horror a lot.) I like comedy! (I love self-referential and “funny” horror.) I like cosmic horr–oh wait.
Point being, if there’s one movie I can watch per year it’s gonna be the best horror movie. If there’s one new book I want to read it’s horror. If there’s one podcast… well.
The thing is, I’ve never tried to write horror, not really. My original work has all been more fantasy or SF, not tangling with questions of fear and revulsion. My original work has also consistently flamed out and stalled.
And then TMA came along and hit a really good sweet spot for me. I love podcasts, I love queer people, I like a lot of English fiction, I love cosmic horror. And suddenly I’m writing more than I’ve written in a long time, coming up with AU after AU, pulling it apart and putting it back together again.
The thing that keeps happening? Over and over and over?
“I can make it sadder.” “I can make it worse.” “I can make it scarier.”
Not the fluff I usually try to write, but the villains and the pain and the terror. The things that repulse and disgust. The… well, the horror.
Which doesn’t mean I think I’m a good horror writer–I’ve never really tried to do it much! But it makes me think maybe that’s what I want to write, and just… haven’t been letting myself, for whatever reason.
Anyway this is a bit rambling but I will also add–if TMA was your first horror fiction experience… welcome! We have snacks! I promise it’s okay to cover your eyes when something scary is on the screen. TMA is good horror and it’s a great introduction to the genre!
And always remember–just because it’s not scary to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t scare someone. I mean, to me “Deer That is Wrong” is inherently scary. Have you seen wasting disease? That shit is terrifying!! My spouse warned me off MAG 85 “Upon the Stair” and I didn’t find it frightening at all. That’s one of the beauties of an anthology series–it can play around with a lot of stuff and you can figure out what you actually like best.