BOOK REVIEW: 'Writers Workshop of Horror: A Must-Have Handbook for Horror Writers of All Skill Levels

Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
(August 11th, 2009)

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. -- Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith (1905-1982)

There's no shortage of generic advice for writers. "Writers Workshop of Horror" (Woodland Press LLC, Chapmanville, WV, 262 pages, $21.95), edited by Michael Knost, includes get-to-the-point essays on the specifics of writing all varieties of horror, from professionals of every publishing level in one useful quality paperback.

Knost includes contributions by a dream-team of nationally -- and internationally -- known authors and storytellers, many of them Bram Stoker Award winners. Contributors to this work include: Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas F. Monteleone, Deborah LeBlanc, Gary A. Braunbeck, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, Tom Piccirilli, Jonathan Maberry, Tim Waggoner, Mort Castle, G. Cameron Fuller, Rick Hautala, Scott Nicholson, Michael A. Arnzen, J.F. Gonzalez, Michael Laimo, Lucy A. Snyder, Jeff Strand, Lisa Morton, Jack Haringa, Gary Frank, Jason Sizemore, Robert N. Lee, Tim Deal, Brian Yount, Brian J. Hatcher, and others.

Lucy A. Snyder, one of four women contributors to the book, interviews Clive Barker, one of my favorite horror writers, the creator of the "Hellraiser" movies, the author of "Weaveworld" and "The Great and Secret Show" and the author of a recent book I liked a lot, "Coldheart Canyon." Snyder's interview reveals a great deal about one of the world's greatest horror writers.

Another woman contributor, Lisa Morton, tells us "Why Writing Horror Screenplays is REALLY Scary." Her most recent screenplay is for the 2004 movie "Blood Angels" (also known as "Thrall"). She demystifies the glamor of living in La-La-Land -- she lives in North Hollywood, CA -- and gives sage advice about making a living as a screenwriter.

Brian Keene recognizes that many -- all, really, unless they are independently wealthy or well established best-seller authors -- horror writers need and have a day job to put food on the table and pay the rent or mortgage, so he tells writers they shouldn't TAKE time to write every day, they should MAKE time. Get up an hour earlier or go to sleep an hour later and write, write, write, he advises. In a month, you'll have a 3,500-word short story and in a year you'll have a 90,000-word novel, both fairly typical sizes.

Elizabeth Massie gives detailed advice on how to begin your story or novel. Michael Laimo concentrates on "Middles: The Meat of the Matter," while J.F. Gonzalez discusses how to end the story or novel. All three writers provide information you can use immediately.

Scott Nicholson discusses character point of view (POV). "One of the quickest ways to jump to the top of the slush pile, engage the reader, and create emotional connections with your fictional characters is to pick the right point of view and stick with it. Until you shift."

Michael A. Arnzen, a four-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and a teacher of horror fiction writing at Seton Hall University, discusses "stripping away the masks" in an essay on scene and structure in horror fiction. He quotes Robert Bloch, author of "Psycho": "Horror is the removal of masks." It's one of Arnzen's favorite mantras and is exactly what Bloch did in the classic story, based on the real life Ed Gein case in rural Wisconsin.

One of the longer essays is by British horror master Ramsey Campbell, who has been called (by the "Oxford Companion to English Literature") "Britain's most respected living horror writer." Fans of fellow Brit Clive Barker might dispute that, but both are masters of their art. Campbell invites us to "rediscover awe and supernatural dread" in his essay "The Height of Fear."

Knost interviews Campbell and provides brief biographies of the contributors at the beginning of their essays. It's a stellar cast, with enough Bram Stoker and Edgar Award winners to fill the wall-to-wall bookshelves of a room. I exaggerate, perhaps, but not by much!

Joe R. Lansdale, the sage of Nacogdoches, Texas and the winner of seven Bram Stoker Awards as well as an Edgar Award (the Oscars of detective fiction) and many other awards reveals his reading habits and advises on "Cross Reading" in an essay that I found very helpful as a book reviewer. Lansdale says that beginning writers borrow from their favorites and, as they progress, combine elements of various writers. It's only when you discover your own voice that you achieve the goal of having readers hooked on your work, like being hooked on Stephen King, or Peter Straub, or Clive Barker -- or Joe Lansdale.

Here's how it puts it: "My work began to blend elements from dozens of writers. I mixed in my life experience, and one day I stood up from my typewriter (this was before Word Processors were the thing), and I had written my first Joe Lansdale story. It was mine. There was something about it, some attitude, something about the voice, the content that was mine."

Knost, the editor of the two "Legends of the Mountain State" anthologies which I've reviewed (I'm looking forward to the third and final entry in this trilogy coming out in October), tells how you can learn from rejection, until you achieve "The Aha! Moment" in his essay of the same name. He says his wife worked as a bank teller a number of years ago and learned how to spot counterfeit money by studying real currency. She told him: "You can't spot a fake unless you can identify the genuine article."

Knost: "That's why we as authors should read as much of the good stuff as possible. If we study the good stories, immersing ourselves in them, we'll be able to identify the bad aspects of writing and avoid them....Every now and them, we will make a discovery that changes how we think and write forever after. Some call it the intuitive perception, some call it an epiphany and some call it self-enlightenment. I call it thhe Aha! Moment."

These are just a selection of the wonderful essays in the book that will make it an essential companion of any writer -- and reader, too. I found it very helpful as a professional reader/reviewer, as well as one who reads for the sheer joy of it.

"Writers Workshop of Horror" is available on Amazon.com and should be on the shelves of well-stocked bookstores like Borders and Empire Books and News.

Book website: www.writersworkshopofhorrors.com

Publisher's website: www.woodlandpress.com

(Published from Huntingtonnews.net)