H is for Horror: #atozchallenge2015

Posted on April 18, 2015 · Leave a Comment

dark-graveyard-background_MJAFJu5uAlexandria Publishing Group is participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge again this year. Here’s one of my posts: http://alexandriapublishinggroup.com/2015/04/09/h-is-for-horror/

Horror is an emotion shared by everyone who’s human. The horror genre explores that emotion in all its forms—subtle, graphic, and all shades in between. Horror doesn’t have to mean blood and guts and chainsaws. One of my favorite horror writers, Charles L. Grant, is known for his “quiet horror.” I was excited when I found his work, because his approach to horror mirrored my own. Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas series is horror every bit as much as Stephen King at his creep-crawliest. Zombies, serial killers, paranormal spookiness—all horror.

Horror as a genre has made a renaissance of late, and like science fiction, can be used as social commentary as well as straightforward story. The Horror Writers Association (HWA), premiere professional writers association, doesn’t define horror narrowly, but includes dark literature and dark fantasy within its purview. And it isn’t just for adults; HWA recently began a blog aimed at writers of young adult horror.

Here are some horror/dark fantasy books and stories written by Alexandria Publishing Group members:

Valerie Douglas – Shades

Donna K. Fitch – The Color of Darkness and Other Stories, Second Death, The Source of Lightning

Terry C. Simpson – The Arcanus Archives: Shadeborn (Bk 1)

Kai Wilson-Viola (as Sabrann Curach) – Footnotes to a Lesson, Litanies, Pillow Talk

 

Explore the world of horror!

Filed Under: Blogging A to Z April 2015 Challenge Tagged With: , ,

More excursions

Posted on December 27, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I’ve neglected this blog in favor of the main blog at donnakfitch.com, but I’m currently working on a different novel than I was last time I posted here, so I thought I’d post a bit of information about that. Plus, I’ve written my first short story since “Detour” in 2008!

Dad, Christmas, 1964 001_cr

Dad holding the red guitar, Christmas 1964

First the short story. It’s called “Red Guitar,” and it appears in an anthology called An Alexandria Winter Story Collection, available at Amazon and Smashwords. It’s classified as fantasy, but it’s based on my father, who died on Christmas Day, 1988, and this wonderful photo of him receiving a guitar as a gift in 1964.

The collection is full of other wonderful stories by my colleagues at Alexandria Publishing Group: Jonathan Gould, Paul Kater, Stephen H. King (TOSK) and D. Kai Wilson-Viola, with an excerpt of Valerie Douglas‘ latest book, The Girl in the Window.

My work-in-progress is called Revival. It’s the novel I started during last year’s NaNoWriMo, and it’s on the (roughly) second draft. Maybe third. It’s the story of Elijah Grayson, a Baptist preacher with a dark past whose first sermon in rural Bishop’s Creek, Alabama, is interrupted by church members speaking ancient Sumerian. I’d love to have it published by the end of 2013. That’s my goal, anyway.

Pick up the APG collection and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Filed Under: writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,