Download or read book Writing in the Dark written by Tim Waggoner and published by Guide Dog Books. This book was released on 2020-09-16 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive textbook devoted to the craft of writing horror fiction, award-winning author Tim Waggoner draws on thirty years' experience as a writer and teacher. Writing in the Dark offers advice, guidance, and insights on how to compose horror stories and novels that are original, frightening, entertaining, and well-written. Waggoner covers a wide range of topics, among them why horror matters, building viable monsters, generating ideas and plotlines, how to stylize narratives in compelling ways, the physiology of fear, the art of suspense, avoiding clichés, marketing your horror writing, and much more. Each chapter includes tips from some of the best horror professionals working today, such as Joe Hill, Ellen Datlow, Joe R. Lansdale, Maurice Broaddus, Yvette Tan, Thomas Ligotti, Jonathan Maberry, Edward Lee, and John Shirley. There are also appendices with critical reflections, pointers on the writing process, ideas for characters and story arcs, and material for further research. Writing in the Dark derives from Waggoner's longtime blog of the same name. Suitable for classroom use, intensive study, and bedside reading, this essential manual will appeal to new authors at the beginning of their career as well as veterans of the horror genre who want to brush up on their technique.
Download or read book On Writing Horror written by Mort Castle and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-11-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The masters of horror have united to teach you the secrets of success in the scariest genre of all! In On Writing Horror, Second Edition, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, Jack Ketchum, and many others tell you everything you need to know to successfully write and publish horror novels and short stories. Edited by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature, On Writing Horror includes exclusive information and guidance from 58 of the biggest names in horror writing to give you the inspiration you need to start scaring and exciting readers and editors. You'll discover comprehensive instruction such as: • The art of crafting visceral violence, from Jack Ketchum • Why horror classics like Dracula, The Exorcist, and Hell House are as scary as ever, from Robert Weinberg • Tips for avoiding one of the biggest death knells in horror writing—predicable clichés—from Ramsey Campbell • How to use character and setting to stretch the limits of credibility, from Mort Castle With On Writing Horror, you can unlock the mystery surrounding classic horror traditions, revel in the art and craft of writing horror, and find out exactly where the genre is going next. Learn from the best, and you could be the next best-selling author keeping readers up all night long.
Download or read book We Hear Voices written by Evie Green and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Prepare for major goosebumps.” —PopSugar “The must-have for any horror fan.” —Marie Claire An eerie horror debut about a little boy who recovers from a mysterious illness and confronts the shadowy forces behind his new imaginary friend... Kids have imaginary friends. Rachel knows this. So when her young son, Billy, miraculously recovers from a mysterious flu that has proven fatal for many, she thinks nothing of Delfy, his new invisible friend. After all, her family is healthy and that’s all that matters. But soon Delfy is telling Billy what to do, and the boy is acting up and lashing out in ways he never has before. And Billy isn’t the only kid suddenly hearing voices.... Rachel can’t shake the feeling that this is all tied up with the flu, and something—or someone—far more sinister is at play. As rising tensions threaten to tear her family apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost—even from themselves. We Hear Voices is a gripping near-future horror novel that tests the fragility of family and the terrifying gray area between fear and love.
Download or read book Writing Horror written by Edo Van Belkom and published by Bellingham, Wash. ; North Vancouver : International Self-Counsel Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes you through the process of creating horror, including the art of suspending reader disbelief, the creation of atmosphere and believable characters, and the seven steps of plotting.
Download or read book The Collector written by K. R. Alexander and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spooky doll story filled with thrills and chills, for fans of Mary Downing Hahn and Neil Gaiman. Josie always liked visiting her grandmother's house. But when she's forced to move there, she starts to feel like something is a little . . . off. Her grandmother has some very strange rules:Never leave your windows open after dark.No dolls in the house.Never, ever go by the house in the woods.A little spooked, Josie is relieved to find that her school seems pretty normal. She even manages to make friends with a popular girl named Vanessa. When Vanessa invites Josie back to her house to hang out, Josie doesn't question it. Not even when Vanessa takes her into the woods, and down an old dirt road, toward the very house her grandmother had warned her about . . .The house that has been calling for her.
Download or read book The Savior s Sister written by Jenna Moreci and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Savior's Sister is utterly unputdownable. It's compulsive, addictive, and mesmerizing. If you love romance, fantasy, and bloodshed, ignore your TBR pile, this is the only dark fantasy novel you need." - Sacha Black, BESTSELLING fantasy and nonfiction writing craft author In the thrilling companion to one of Book Depository's Best Books of All Time, experience the peril and heart-stopping romance through Leila's fresh perspective. Leila Tūs Salvatíraas, Savior of Thessen and magical Queen of Her realm, is worshiped by all. Except Her father. He wants Her dead. The Sovereign's Tournament-a centuries-long tradition designed to select The Savior's husband-is days away, but Brontes's plan to overthrow his daughter ignites, shifting the objective of the competition from marriage to murder. With the help of Her sisters and some unexpected allies, Leila must unravel Brontes's network and prevent Her own assassination. But as the body count rises, She learns the deception runs far deeper than She imagined. When She finds Herself falling for one of the tournament competitors, Her father finds himself another target for murder. Can Leila save Herself and Her beloved, or is their untimely end-and the corruption of Her realm-inevitable? TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book contains graphic violence, sexual situations, physical abuse, adult language, and references to suicide. "The Savior's Sister is one of those gritty, sexy (and occasionally violent) books you can't put down. I can't wait to see what's next for Leila and Tobias." - Meg LaTorre, FOUNDER of iWriterly and science fiction and fantasy author
Download or read book How To Write A Horror Movie written by Neal Bell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-20 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to Write a Horror Movie is a close look at an always-popular (but often disrespected) genre. It focuses on the screenplay and acts as a guide to bringing scary ideas to cinematic life using examples from great (and some not-so-great) horror movies. Author Neal Bell examines how the basic tools of the scriptwriter’s trade - including structure, dialogue, humor, mood, characters, and pace – can work together to embody personal fears that will resonate strongly on screen. Screenplay examples include classic works such as 1943’s I Walked With A Zombie and recent terrifying films that have given the genre renewed attention like writer/director Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed and financially successful Get Out. Since fear is universal, the book considers films from around the world including the ‘found-footage’ [REC] from Spain (2007), the Swedish vampire movie, Let The Right One In (2008) and the Persian-language film Under The Shadow (2016). The book provides insights into the economics of horror-movie making, and the possible future of this versatile genre. It is the ideal text for screenwriting students exploring genre and horror, and aspiring scriptwriters who have an interest in horror screenplays.
Download or read book Scanlines written by Todd Keisling and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1987, Congressman Benjamin Hardy III died by suicide on live television amidst accusations of political corruption. Years later, rumors of a recording surfaced among VHS trading groups and urban legend chat rooms. Dubbed the "Duncan Tape," after the deceased cameraman who attempted to sell the video, the rumors allege that anyone who watches the tape is driven to suicide. Or so the story goes. In truth, no one has ever seen the supposed Duncan Tape, presumably because it doesn't exist. It's a ghost story perpetuated on the forums and chat rooms of the internet, another handful of bytes scattered across the Information Superhighway at blistering 56K modem speeds. For Robby and his friends, an urban legend is the last thing on their minds when a boring Friday night presents a chance to download porn. But the short clip they watch turns out to be something far more graphic and disturbing, and in the coming days, they'll learn even the most outlandish urban legends possess a shred of truth...
Download or read book Effective Programming written by Jeff Atwood and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-07-04 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABOUT THE BOOK Jeff Atwood began the Coding Horror blog in 2004, and is convinced that it changed his life. He needed a way to keep track of software development over time - whatever he was thinking about or working on. He researched subjects he found interesting, then documented his research with a public blog post, which he could easily find and refer to later. Over time, increasing numbers of blog visitors found the posts helpful, relevant and interesting. Now, approximately 100,000 readers visit the blog per day and nearly as many comment and interact on the site. Effective Programming: More Than Writing Code is your one-stop shop for all things programming. Jeff writes with humor and understanding, allowing for both seasoned programmers and newbies to appreciate the depth of his research. From such posts as "The Programmer's Bill of Rights" and "Why Cant Programmers... Program?" to "Working With the Chaos Monkey," this book introduces the importance of writing responsible code, the logistics involved, and how people should view it more as a lifestyle than a career. TABLE OF CONTENTS - Introduction - The Art of Getting Shit Done - Principles of Good Programming - Hiring Programmers the Right Way - Getting Your Team to Work Together - The Batcave: Effective Workspaces for Programmers - Designing With the User in Mind - Security Basics: Protecting Your Users' Data - Testing Your Code, So it Doesn't Suck More Than it Has To - Building, Managing and Benefiting from a Community - Marketing Weasels and How Not to Be One - Keeping Your Priorities Straight EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK As a software developer, you are your own worst enemy. The sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be.I know you have the best of intentions. We all do. We're software developers; we love writing code. It's what we do. We never met a problem we couldn't solve with some duct tape, a jury-rigged coat hanger and a pinch of code. But Wil Shipley argues that we should rein in our natural tendencies to write lots of code: The fundamental nature of coding is that our task, as programmers, is to recognize that every decision we make is a trade-off. To be a master programmer is to understand the nature of these trade-offs, and be conscious of them in everything we write.In coding, you have many dimensions in which you can rate code: Brevity of codeFeaturefulnessSpeed of executionTime spent codingRobustnessFlexibility Now, remember, these dimensions are all in opposition to one another. You can spend three days writing a routine which is really beautiful and fast, so you've gotten two of your dimensions up, but you've spent three days, so the "time spent coding" dimension is way down.So, when is this worth it? How do we make these decisions? The answer turns out to be very sane, very simple, and also the one nobody, ever, listens to: Start with brevity. Increase the other dimensions as required by testing. I couldn't agree more. I've given similar advice when I exhorted developers to Code Smaller. And I'm not talking about a reductio ad absurdum contest where we use up all the clever tricks in our books to make the code fit into less physical space. I'm talking about practical, sensible strategies to reduce the volume of code an individual programmer has to read to understand how a program works. Here's a trivial little example of what I'm talking about: if (s == String.Empty)if (s == "") It seems obvious to me that the latter case is... ...buy the book to read more!
Download or read book The Philosophy of Horror written by Noel Carroll and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a "transmedia" phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those "paradoxes of the heart" that make us want to be horrified?
Download or read book The Harmony Society written by Tim Waggoner and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reality and nightmare. Past and present. Sanity and madness. For Nathan Bennett, there is no longer any difference between them - not since the Harmony Society came into his life. Now, as his world begins to collapse around him, Nathan must travel the strange and dangerous roads of the Nightway in search of the Dark Angel - a being of great power that the Harmony Society desperately wishes to control. But even if Nathan reaches the Angel first, what waits for him at the end of his long, dark road: salvation . . . damnation . . . Or both? Biography Tim Waggoner is the author of two novels, Dying for It and The Harmony Society, as well as the short story collection All Too Surreal. He's published over seventy short stories in the fantasy and horror genres, and his articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest, Writers' Journal, New Writer's Magazine, Ohio Writer, Speculations, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. His home page is located at www.sff.net/people/Tim.Waggoner.
Download or read book Writing Monsters written by Philip Athans and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters are more than things that go bump in the night... Monsters are lurking in the woods, beneath the waves, and within our favorite books, films, and games--and there are good reasons why they appear so often. Monsters are manifestations of our fears and symbols of our society--not to mention they're a lot of fun--but each should serve a purpose and enhance the themes and tension in your fiction. In Writing Monsters, best-selling author Philip Athans uses classic examples from books, films, and the world around us to explore what makes monsters memorable--and terrifying. You'll learn what monsters can (and should) represent in your story and how to create monsters from the ground up. Writing Monsters includes: • In-depth discussions of where monsters come from, what they symbolize, and how to best portray them in fiction • Informative overviews of famous monsters, archetypes, and legendary creatures • A Monster Creation Form to help you create your monster from scratch • An annotated version of H.P. Lovecraft's chilling story "The Unnamable" Whether you write fantasy, science fiction, or horror, your vampires, ghouls, aliens, and trolls need to be both compelling and meaningful. With Writing Monsters, you can craft creatures that will wreak havoc in your stories and haunt your readers' imaginations--and nightmares.
Download or read book The Road written by Cormac McCarthy and published by Vintage Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity
Download or read book When You Read This written by Mary Adkins and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Warm, original, funny and heartbreaking, this novel made me drop everything so I could read it in one lovely afternoon. When You Read This is inventive and witty, but more importantly it’s honest and wise. I adored it.” — Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls For fans of Maria Semple and Rainbow Rowell, a comedy-drama for the digital age: an epistolary debut novel about the ties that bind and break our hearts. For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only thirty-three. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris’s last wish. Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris’ big sister Jade, an haute cuisine chef who’s been knocked sideways by her loss. Each carrying their own baggage, Smith and Jade end up on a collision course with their own unresolved pasts and with each other. Told in a series of e-mails, blog posts, online therapy submissions, text messages, legal correspondence, home-rental bookings, and other snippets of our virtual lives, When You Read This is a deft, captivating romantic comedy—funny, tragic, surprising, and bittersweet—that candidly reveals how we find new beginnings after loss.
Download or read book Bloodstone and Broomcorn Curse of the W I T C H written by Sean Best and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early decades of the twenty-first century, an elusive force as subtle, powerful, and all-pervading as gravity is draining conscious awareness from the human population of Earth. The entity is cunning, insidious, bent on its virulent plot to eat the faculty of free will from the mind of every man, woman, and child of our world. The little girl who cries tears of blood in the mirror is not an illusion. The seance invokes an unhallowed visitant. The old woman who lives alone in the swamp knows the apocryphal secret of the ancient emptiness whose insatiable hunger can never be assuaged. A mediocre fellow ( Dalton T. Broome ) from a Midwest town becomes infected with a consuming obsession to expose the malevolent agency that has the alarming skill of methodically devouring its victims bit by dehumanizing bit while they remain ignorant of its sinister existence. A two-hundred year old remote seaside inn with a shadowed history is the core from which the deceitful abomination butchers the naive who are its prey. W.I.T.C.H. - a cabalistic occult acronym, the meaning of which Broome is destined to learn the hard way - lurks in the rapidly spreading psychological pandemic. Dalton Broome is a man who feels hopelessly lost. The Roofies are out to get him! The course of his life haunts him with failure upon failure. He hears voices inside his head. His awkwardly small feet and his deformed nose rob him of such luxuries as confidence and self esteem. How does bloodstone relate to broomcorn? Mayans, deep space, human teeth, a deck of cards - how can these widely disparate, yet intricately linked, clues guide an urban misfit to a profound revelation which holds the key to restoring his alienated dignity and rescuing our species from annihilation in the oblivion of the gluttonous craving of the vast, unfathomable, abyssal Void?
Download or read book Dark Wood Dark Water written by Tina Callaghan and published by Poolbeg Press. This book was released on 2018-07-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Something is wrong with the town of Bailey. Something dark, something dangerous. Something evil. Josh's brother has just drowned. He meets Kate and Gabe, who also have lost family to the river. When they seek the help of a local historian, Naylor, he tells them that there is a sinister longstanding pattern to such tragedies. But some unknown force is trying to help Josh rid the town of its curse. Why is he dreaming of a ship's captain, a hooded monk, a dark familiar with a knife? What is being demanded of him? Soon greater horrors than ever before are set loose. They are fighting against time, as evil has turned its baleful eye upon them.
Download or read book Dan O Bannon s Guide to Screenplay Structure written by Dan O'Bannon and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dan O'Bannon famously crafted his screenplays using a self-designed system which he called "dynamic structure." This book outlines how O'Bannon's method differs from those of other well-known screenwriting gurus, and illustrates with examples from classic (and not-so-classic) films how dynamic structure can be applied to craft narrative and character. O'Bannon also includes his insights on subjects such as the logic of the three-act structure, the role of the producer in screenplay development, and the psychological principle known as "hedonic adaptation," which has a unique effect on the structuring of screen stories.