If you didn’t know, Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! Why? Because just like in a book, you can use your imagination and be someone you’re not. And even better, you can dress up in really cute clothes! lol So in honor of getting ready for Halloween, I talked to some authors who wrote some “creeptastic” books (paranormal and thrillers) that I adore and asked them how they got the idea for their scary reads!
The story behind Barry Lyga’s
Jasper Dent series was actually pretty funny for the story to be so dark. He said
“I HUNT KILLERS happened pretty much purely by accident. My editor and I were chatting one evening over drinks and she misunderstood something I said — she thought I said I was writing a book about a teenage serial killer. She got very excited by this, until I explained the misunderstanding. I was a little disturbed by her excitement, though — serial killers are MONSTERS. They are horrible, horrible people. “Do you really want a book about a teenager — a CHILD — torturing and murdering people in terrifying ways?” I asked.
She thought it over and conceded that maybe this wasn’t the best idea. “Maybe,” she said, “the kid knows someone who’s a serial killer.” I thought nothing of it, but then in the middle of the night, I woke up thinking, “His father is the killer!” And the entire story of Jazz and Billy and Howie and Connie and all the rest just flooded into my brain. The rest is history.” I can’t lie, now I’m kind of wondering what kind of book it would have been if it had been about if Jasper WAS the serial killer. Like if he joined his father……
Kendare Blake’s story to how the
Anna Dressed in Blood series was born was a little bit different.
“I missed writing creepy blood and guts. It’s what I grew up on. Also, I wanted to play Silent Hill, and no one would play with me. So I wrote Anna. Never thought I would write a ghost story, never watched ghost hunters, never that interested in ghosts. But Anna showed up, this lovely murderous dead girl, so what could I do?” It seems that Blake always knew she NEEDED to write Anna.
If you didn’t know, my birthday is also TWO days after Halloween! (another reason its my favorite holiday…) So to celebrate the holiday and my birthday, I’m giving away a gift card for a paranormal, thriller, horror, urban fantasy, or fantasy book (really anything that can be considered scary)! Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter! (Open only to USA residents, Must be 13 or older to participate, and prize MUST be classified under one of the above genres. Offer ends on my birthday, one week from today, November 2, 2013!)
