Month: January 2016

Horror’s Not Dead

Stefanie Snider

horror dead

 

…is it?

I like to read horror novels (shocker, I know). They’re my favourite night reads, nestled under the covers and with a hot cup of tea on the nightstand. And though I don’t read horror exclusively, it’s fair to say that as one honing my writing craft, I tend to focus on my own genre.

So I went to Chapters the other day, looking for a few fresh reads to see me through my week off from DayJob. I beelined to the horror section, which has recently been relegated to the far back corner.

There used to be a whole horror aisle: shelves on both sides piled high with scares.

Then horror was squeezed to one side of the aisle, with a shelf or two of overflow on the other.

But now it’s dwindled even more. The horror section is now being encroached upon by true crime, and sports some unsettling bare spots to boot.

What happened? In my personal life alone, I know a handful of horror fans. I know more online (and I’m lucky enough to interact with a number of them, here and through Facebook). I know we’ll never be as big a market as, say, romance, but come on. It was 75 percent Stephen King and the rest was mostly stuff I’ve already read, by a very few authors.

Is it the paper book itself that is suffering, accounting for that tiny sliver of (physical) shelf space? Is it the genre? There are new horror movies out all the time; it can’t be the scares themselves. So what gives?

You’re here, and that almost certainly means you’re on Team Spooky. So where the hell is everyone else?! Should I feel excited at the apparent lack of “competition”, or should I entertain this soul-crushing doubt that tells me the good ol’ days are over?

If you’re out there, speak up! Come say hi! Tell me you exist! Us weirdos need to stick together.

The Blanket

The Blanket

Stefanie Snider

I’m not exaggerating when I tell people it’s like Halloween every day in this house. Some people have an abiding love of angel knickknacks. Some collect fine porcelain. Me? If it has a skull on it, odds are it will find a place in my home.

That being said, it’s not all gloom. There’s a sugar skull, embellished and dainty. There’s the vodka, the cut-glass bottle gleaming like crystal.

And now there’s this:

skullblanket

 

It took me about four months, during which time I had to teach myself to crochet. It weighs a ton, and the colours are even more eye-searing in real life. It’s gaudy and kitschy and I’m so damn proud of myself for finishing the thing.

And now that winter is kinda, sorta finally here, I plan to spend my lazy Sunday afternoon curled beneath this Technicolor monstrosity, book in hand and coffee at the ready.

(To give credit where credit is due, I stole the idea from Granny Mania via Pinterest. But those 630 squares? All me, baby.)

IT’S ALIIIIIIVE!

Stefanie Snider

…by which I mean, I’m alive. How the time flies when you’re slacking off on your blog.

Sorry ’bout that.

So. Uh. Long time no see. Since the last time you saw me, we’ve welcomed a new niece into the world. I’ve started a new DayJob (same company, but I moved on up to the fourth floor). Oh, and I wrote my first novel. It’s still in the roughs, but as we speak I have a real, live, full-length novel sitting on my desk. It’ll be out in the next month or two.

I’ve done some deep thinking about where I want my writing career to go, and about what that looks like, in terms of the day-to-day. I think what made the blog fall apart before was that I was focusing so hard on new content that the actual writing stopped. It stopped for a long time, actually. Completely. Cold. I have never felt worse about myself; conversely, while I was writing the novel this past Fall I was the happiest I’ve ever been.

So, a balance. A fresh start. I have no idea how often I’ll be blogging; I have zero schedule in mind. Because at the end of the day, the effort needs to be about the writing, not the talking about the writing. That being said, I think I can pull off more than once every two years, if I hold my tongue just right. Who’s with me?

 

-Stef