In an essay from J.N. Williamson's How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction," Ray Bradbury discussed the writing of many of his chilling stories collected in Dark Carnival from Arkham House, his first book.

In that piece, "Run Fast, Stand Still, Or The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, or New Ghosts from Old Minds," Bradbury wrote that he developed a list of nouns in his early writing life and set out to pen a story for each of those. "The Dwarf," "The Crowd," "The Jar" and many others followed. Read more...