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Book Review: Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner

cover art for Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner

Writing In The Dark by Tim Waggoner

Guide Dog Books, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1947879195

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition  ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

 

To properly review this book, I believe a writer needs to be at the helm. New writing manuals crop up so often, it’s tough to decipher which are worthy additions to your collection.  I challenge any aspiring or accomplished writer to walk away from this book unaffected and without substantial improvement in how they view the world and their own writing. For those unfamiliar with prolific novelist Tim Waggoner, who seems to come out with a new book every few months, either in his own worlds or in the franchises of Supernatural, Alien, or Grimm, he is also well-known as a professor.

Waggoner tackles his topic in a hybrid manner. First, he rolls through all the requisite topics, providing a history of the tropes and story elements and explaining how they are utilized in classic and popular fiction. Second, he poses the same two questions to a bevy of writers, some new, some iconic. Their responses, sprinkled in at  every chapter, punctuate what he has covered. The exercises at the end are pragmatic and work to specifically improve the reader/writer’s own work. That Waggoner is is a teacher is evident here, but the book is not stuffy or academic. After just a few pages, it’s clear that most writers would love his approach. I felt as if I were sitting in a dive bar, discussing secrets of the universe with my feet up. Waggoner can take the toughest topic– from theme, to voice, to motivation and conflict– and talk someone through it as if reviewing his favorite new movie.

Each chapter is broken down into specifics. My favorites include: “Why Horror Matters”, “The Physiology of Fear” (the connection between psychology and biology through the rush of reading horror is fascinating), and “The Horror Hero’s Journey”, a take-off of Joseph Campbell’s famous work.

After each topic, Waggoner gives the writer a specific exercise that stretches the imagination, followed by the pair of questions tackled by writers from all levels and areas of the genre: 1. What makes good horror/dark fantasy/suspense? 2. What’s the best advice you can give to a beginning writer of horror/dark fantasy/suspense?

It continues the conversation and keeps the book from being a lecture.

The most useful part of this book for me were the appendices. The psychological makeup and “pain” makeup questionnaires for your characters can help dive deeper, as well as allow readers to analyze favorite novels. It’s a brutal exercise, but yields great results.

I was in the final edits of a novel that I believed to be solid. Waggoner’s advice suggested I dig deeper. I did and now the story feels so much more alive and relevant than I had believed it to be. I was also completing the final chapters of a middle-grade novel, and felt the same way.

This is a fine workbook for writers of all stripes, levels, genres, and interests.

Let the professor work his magic on you.

Highly recommended, right up there with King’s  On Writing.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on January 5, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Blood Rush by Jan Verplaetse, translated by Andy Brown

cover for Blood Rush:The Dark History of a Vital Fluid by Jan Verplaetse  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Blood Rush: The Dark History of a Vital Fluid by Jan Verplaetse, translated by Andy Brown

Reaktion Books, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-78914-196-2

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

 

The scariest of Halloween costumes usually involve blood spattered on clothing, dripping down faces, or leaking out of fatal wounds. Likewise, detailed written descriptions of bloody murders that really took place or seeing that blood flow in a horror film can easily inspire terror and revulsion. So, it makes perfect sense that Jan Verplaetse would want, as he says in the subtitle of Blood Rush, to write “The Dark History of a Vital Fluid.” However, Verplaetse‘s ends up offering odd tidbits of information only to leave the reader wondering where it will all lead.

The book begins with the usual descriptions of and explanations for pagan sacrifices and winds its way to Christian transubstantiation. Along the way, we are regaled with stories of Christians accused of cannibalism, Odysseus’ trip to Hades, and the belief that epileptics could be cured by drinking fresh blood, usually procured from executed criminals or gladiators. This ancient time period provides everything from the author’s thoughts on blood sausage and pudding to demonic blood drinking. The focus on bloodlust, something the author tells us he experienced, and blood vapor or mist as the essence of the life force establish the dark underpinning of human interest, even attraction to, blood.

In contrast, the rest of the book does not progress in a way that would suggest there has been a development or a series of changes in the way humans perceive blood, nor are the examples of people and events particularly interesting. Instead, Verplaetse jumps from religious relics, to toxic menstrual blood and public slaughterhouses. Suddenly, the book seems to be about violence and then blood sports and “barbaric masculinity.” Can people really smell blood? Verplaetse experiments with its impact on gamers and decides the answer is no. Are cows upset by blood? He decides they are actually upset by what they are experiencing not the blood itself. “Why do we derive pleasure from the horrific?” he queries after summarizing the plot of Stoker’s Dracula for us.

By the end of the book, the theme as stated in the title is lost. It seems as though the research led Verplaetse in other directions, yet he continued to move forward without showing how his new findings tied into his original thoughts. However, there is promise in other possible themes he mentions like “dark romanticism” or the impact of myth and superstition as they relate to blood. In this sense, Blood Rush does not fulfill its potential.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on January 3, 2021 by , Reply

Musings: Breaking Out of Your Reading Slump

A note from the editor:

We are now more than midway through October and Monster Librarian still needs to raise the funds to pay for our hosting fees and postage in 2021. If you like what we’re doing, please take a moment to click on that red “Contribute” button in the sidebar to the right, to help us keep going!  Even five dollars will get us closer to the $195 we need to keep going at the most basic level. We have never accepted paid advertising so you can be guaranteed that our reviews are objective. We’ve been reviewing and supporting the horror community for 15 years now, help us make it another year! Or, you can purchase titles mentioned in this post through our store at Bookshop.org. Thank you!

Horatio P. Bunnyrabbit with a pumpkin for trick-or-treating

For a list of the books mentioned in this post, check out the Monster Librarian store on Bookshop.org!

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October is the big month for the horror genre, and in hopes of getting up a review every day, I do a lot of reading in hopes that I can do exactly that. The pandemic has killed my ability to focus, though, and especially if I’m reading something long, it seems to take longer to read about it, think about it, and write about it. That’s especially true if I’m reading similar kinds of books– after awhile I just have to stop.

This has been especially aggravated by my library closing down and my kids’ schools going virtual so that I don’t get time in those libraries either. Libraries are my haven and not physically getting to be in that space is so difficult for me! I know I’m not the only person who is dealing with this right now. A dear friend of mine who typically gobbles up anything horror-related has stacks and stacks of books that he just keeps buying but is unable to focus enough to finish anything. So what can you do?

First, it’s okay to put a book down if you just can’t handle it.  I like ebooks for really long books because holding those in my hands gets me thinking on how much there is to read, which sometimes can be intimidating. Is your fiction too close to your current reality?  This month was not the month I needed to start watching The Man in the High Castle.  I also read Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, not realizing how intense it was going to be. Reading Goodreads reviews after the fact, I found that readers were providing content warnings to potential future readers. If a book is stressing you out instead of entertaining you, you don’t need to keep going.

Second, mix it up! Short stories are great, and I love them, but if you’re reading several anthologies in a row from cover to cover, it’s no longer a vacation. I just finished the excellent SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire, edited by Nicole Givens Kurtz, so I’ll be switching to something different before I start another one. There are plenty of authors who don’t get the kind of attention they should, classic authors you might not have read, and new books coming out all the time. Reading T. Kingfisher’s new book The Hollow Places led me to track down The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. In addition to the HWA’s newly published series of genre classics, if you are short on funds, many classics are available free as ebooks through Project Gutenberg.

There’s some really good horror-related nonfiction out there, such as Lisa Morton’s recently released Calling The Spirits.  Although these can seem long, nonfiction is great because you can read a chapter and put it down for awhile until you’re ready to come back to it. Kit Powers’ My Life in Horror, Volume 1 is a series of standalone personal essays on growing up as a horror fan, easy to pick up and put down until you’re ready for more. You might also consider checking out some poetry. Even if you’re convinced it’s not your thing, Alessandro Manzetti’s Whitechapel Rhapsody might change your mind, although it’s not for the faint of stomach.

This is also a great time to check out some of the titles that tie into current television and movies. The HBO series   Lovecraft County is based on a book of the same name by Matt Ruff, a great book of interconnected stories. Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor riffs on the ghost stories of Henry James, notably The Turn of the Screw.

You don’t have to seek out anything new, though. I’ve reread some old favorites when I needed a break. Looking for something lighter? Maskerade by Terry Pratchett isn’t horror, but it is an entertaining riff on a story that definitely is, The Phantom of the Opera.  Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, starting with Discount Armageddon, takes a lighter approach to slayers, monsters, and ghosts than is typical for horror, but it is a lot of fun. Sometimes a thriller is what you need, as long as it’s not too close to life for you. Alyssa Cole, mostly known for her excellent romance novels, has an #OwnVoices thriller out right now on gentrification spiraling out of control titled When No One Is Watching, and David Simms has a supernatural thriller, Fear the Reaper, that reveals the dark history of American eugenics.

Despite protestations that they aren’t “real reading”, graphic novels definitely are, and if too many words on the page is a struggle right now, you might try them. Marjorie Liu’s Monstress has even won awards, Or try a novella. A recent entry into the novella category that I raced through was Stephen Graham Jones’ Night of the Mannequins.  There are a lot of great titles in the middle grade and YA fiction categories as well. No, you are not too old for good middle-grade fiction. If you haven’t read Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book in either its novel or graphic novel formats it is well past time.

If you are a doer or a maker, I don’t personally have the patience for audiobooks or most podcasts, but if you spend a lot of time driving or run long distance, that’s another opportunity. And it’s the perfect time of year to explore Halloween cookbooks and crafts! My son collected and loved these even before he could read them, and a lot of gruesome-looking foods are pretty easy to make. We’ve worn out Ghoulish Goodies!  There is even an unofficial Walking Dead cookbook called The Snacking Dead. 

Third, go outside. It’s a little cool where I am to go outside and sit and read right now, but I went for a long walk yesterday that really cleared my head and got me focused again. All the sitting inside, social media, news, attempting to get along with your family you’ve been stuck inside with for seven months leaves you feeling tired and your brain cloudy. Reading is supposed to be relaxing, but apparently you need to really relax before you can enjoy it.

Clear out your brain, clear space for yourself inside and out, turn off your television, and give yourself permission. It’s the Halloween time of year, so, whatever makes you feel the season, give yourself a treat.

Posted on October 22, 2020 by , Reply
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