Even though I love writing YA, and YA paranormal in particular, I have to confess...I've been having an illicit affair with horror.
Sneaking into my thoughts, invading me when I am alone, consuming me with ideas I dare not mention here (potential story ideas, don't you know!), horror and I have been keeping each other company for longer than I will admit.
I don't want to ruin my relationship with YA paranormies, I just want a tasty little sumpin' sumpin' on the side. A gory, tasty, little psychotic sumpin' sumpin'. Is that wrong?
Well if loving horror is wrong, I don't wanna be right! (Sorry, to every single song from the 70's). And as the creepy, just, just wrong ideas are invading my dreams (nightmares?), I want to know what floats your boat as well. Or, I guess, sinks it?
So, I asked my friends, family and facebook fans the ultimate questions.....What scares you?
The answers were amazing. And illuminating. And hilarious. It started with my hubs who had no idea he was going to be in a post. He hates spiders. Like, irrationally hates and fears them. When one is in the house, he will kill it, but only if he can find the most giantist shoe in the house. And because I won't allow him to slam a workboot against the wall, this usually ends up being one of mine. Let me tell you, it is totally gross scraping squished bug from your platforms.
Bugs of any kind were a huge answer. I got spiders, ants, basically any bug with more legs than a dog. I even got a wicked visual about a roach peeking out from a faucet in a tub...with the bather still in it.!
I got lots of snakes. A scorpion was mentioned. Wasps and bees got a mention. Even heard worms and slugs.
But many of you took the question where I hoped you would....to a psychological level. Since the horror I write is mostly mind-bending, not gore-slinging, this was right where I wanted to go. Those answers were the most telling of all.
Mothers losing their children. Or their children no longer needing them. Or the fear of losing everything. This friend called it Bag Lady Fear. To which I replied: Great story idea!
My baby girl is still afraid of the dark. Or as she quantified, what might be in the dark that she can't see. A member of my family is frightened of being alone. Another member is afraid of not finding happiness.
I think the results of this terribly informal poll was this: anything can be frightening. It doesn't have to be crawling on you, or dropping from the ceiling into your hair (another of mine!), it can be the fear of the unknown, the unnamed, the unaccepted. And thank goodness for that, because it's those fears as a horror author on which I base my stories.
I want you to be scared to keep reading and scared not to. I want your fear to be palpable because somewhere in the back of your rational, calm place is a teeny, tiny voice saying...maybe, just maybe, it could happen.
Welcome to my brand of fear.
If you want to share any of your fears, please let me know. I promise, if a story is born of it, I will give you all the credit.
*evil giggle and fade to black....as a spider drops from the ceiling*
Best. Post. Ever! Great job Samantha! I'm scared of ET...might as well come out and say it...I'm also afraid of vacuum cleaners but its b/c my mom used to chase me with them> WHO DOES THAT?!?!
ReplyDeleteIm with you. I'm afraid of the garbage disposer. TOTALLY know there is a story in there!
DeleteI know this will sound strange but I'm scared of dying alone. If you don't know I've got no biological family, just the ones of Facebook and with my publishers.
ReplyDeleteI knew. And you have Dakota. You're never alone as long as you have all of us.
DeleteNightmares aren't necessarily about what frightens you when you're awake. Sometimes they are the things that you REALLY don't want to happen. Like during the (far too many) years when I had small babies I would often wake up in a sweat after dreaming I'd left one of them on a bus, or lost one in the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that... There was a radio poll a few months ago here on "What was the most important thing you ever forgot?" One guy called in and said he saw a lady on the bus with a baby and a lot of other stuff. When she got off the bus, she gathered all of her belongings and left the kid behind.
DeleteSo there really is a good reason to have nightmares about it—it could happen!
DeleteI was commenting on someone else's blog the other day about this very thing. My yicky scare was always when I took a bath in Costa Rica, and the cockroaches would emerge out of the faucet. AAUUUUGH!!
ReplyDeleteYep, this was one on my informal poll....and not even yours. So that's two votes for peeping tom roaches.
DeleteWhen my first child reached toddler age, I've been terrified of heights. That was so noticeable because when I was the kid, I was always climbing things --- the higher and more dangers, the better. Fell off plenty of stuff, too ... but none of that frightened me. I even jumped off my roof when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteBut having children dart about in potentially dangerous situations just gave me horrible anxiety.
Yeah, mine are 6 and 9 now and they still do!
Delete