My love of horror started somewhere around 1989 with two books – Immortal Blood by Barbara Hambly (published as Those Who Hunt the Night outside of the UK) and Clive Barker’s Cabal.
Cabal by Clive Barker
It was around the same time that my eventually-to-be-wife introduced me to horror films in the form of Hellraiser and I was hooked. I never really got into the hardcore horror scene but we’ve watched a lot of horror films over the years.
So, when I started writing in 1992 (ouch), it was inevitable that I’d start with horror stories. The first, Almost Alone (currently unpublished and sitting in my “trunk” folder) was set in a hospital room with a malevolent creature living in the ceiling. I’m planning on revisiting the idea at some point.
Since those early stories, I’ve dabbled in science fiction and fantasy but over half the stories I’ve written have been some form of horror tale. It’s been a couple of years since I wrote a full length horror story though, so getting back to horror with The Bone Boy has been fun – I’ve really been able to stretch my writing legs.
I wrapped up the closing scene yesterday and at roughly 1,400 words it was twice as long as I expected. I’m sure once I’ve let it fester for a few days there’ll be some bits I hate and bits I only vaguely dislike but overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The final length was 5,383 words so I’ve got a bit of tightening up to do – I don’t want to go over 5,000 words.
That will happen another day. Today I’m putting together an outline for a science fiction story – working title, In the Shadow of Memories.
[Hanging with the Bone Boy by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 25 August 2013]