Beetlejuice ablaze.

Aug 23, 2012 13:09


"A horror story with nothing supernatural in it"...

That's what joeymichaels called my "Making Fire" run-off piece written for LJ Idol a few seasons ago. It was a tale set in 1990, told from the point-of-view of an overworked wife angry at her [perceived-to-be] lazy husband. Her exhaustion sets the stage for a terrible accident. Very little happens in the span of the story... most of the impact comes from her emotional state.

The inspiration for that piece was rooted in my reading material of the time... THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR by Anne Rivers Siddons and the short stories of Shirley Jackson.

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I've had that story read by several horror writers, published and emerging. They found it very creepy despite not having a well-defined monster.

The yardstick of any horror story being effective, for me, is if I sympathize with the people in it. I was told that my "slice-of-life" could be playing out in any number of households at any given moment; thus its effectiveness.

Would the story have worked as well if the woman in the kitchen was possessed by an ifrit while slamming pots around, or if the man in the living room was an astral-projecting serial killer while slumped in his recliner?

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We are all tales in progress, some with more elements of phantasy and fable than others.
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