Sue Rovens asked Richard Thomas:

How do YOU differentiate between horror and suspense and thriller?

Richard Thomas Great question. Sometimes it crosses over, and has elements of some or all three genres (or more). I think certain genres have classic expectations—with horror you expect to be scared, by monsters typically, or some force; with crime there is obviously a crime, with mystery a mystery to be solved; with suspense/thrillers there should be tension and page-turning action. I think part of the reason I'm so excited for the present state (and future) of dark fiction is that the BEST writing seems to incorporate elements from MANY genres. Call it neo-noir or hybrid or genre-bending or slipstream, there is a lot of dark, weird, surreal contemporary fiction (as well as television and film) going on right now. While classic publications such as Ellery Queen may still have a certain voice, many other places (Cemetery Dance, Shock Totem, Nightmare, Tor.com, etc.) take on a wide range of fiction. It's what I'm trying to do with my upcoming magazine, Gamut, Kickstarted in February of this year (2016).

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