Why horror? I started my reading life as a fan of writers like Steinbeck and Hemingway, and read almost everything they'd written. It's a sad thing to come to the end of a favorite author's works with the knowledge there's nothing more and never will be.


My brother was a Stephen King fan who'd been after me for years to read King's books. He also played Dungeons and Dragons. I found it easy to dismiss the advice of a man who thinks he's a wizard.


Then I read Misery and was blown away. Don't ask me what hair crawled up my gluteus maximus, because I honestly can't recall the reason I took the plunge. I became a big fan, not of horror, but of Stephen King. The man can flat out write. He is an American master and would be no matter what his genre.


Do I read a lot of other horror writer's? Not more than any other genre. I occasionally read Dean Koontz, or J.A. Konrath, not because it's horror, but because they can really write. I am a fan of great writing, not genre. I'll take it wherever I can find it. I've been blown away by Markus Zusak, Elizabeth Rosner, Sara Gruen, Margaret Atwood, and Lee Child, to name a few.


So if it wasn't Stephen King, why do I write horror? The honest truth is, in my efforts to get short stories published, horror publishers offered more opportunities, though it went beyond that. The horror community was welcoming and encouraging. I developed a good relationship with a wonderful publisher, Pill Hill Press (sadly no longer in business). I found the themes for their anthologies inspired creativity in me. I owed them. They gave me my start, and I will always be indebted.


Horror is more than gore and chills. If it's done well, it explores relationships and the human condition. And when it does scare us, it reminds us how much we want to live. No matter what life has done to us or how bad the day has gone, when the mastiff-sized spider crawls from beneath the storm drain we'll run for all we're worth. Why? Because when all is said and done, we really do want to see the sun come up tomorrow. Horror reminds us of that. It makes us grateful - "No spiders today. No spiders today."


Will I only write horror? I don't think so. I have a lot of other things to say. Will I continue to write horror? You betcha. Be afraid. It's good for both of us.