Southern Horror Writers Association Forum Who made you?

Who are the writers that you would say inspired you to write the way you do?

HP Lovecraft is the most prevelant influence I have in my subject matter, but stylewise I like to think of myself as a student of Richard Matheson and Stephen King. The first "Novel" I brought to school to read for class in first grade was "The Dead Zone".

And the "Scary stories to tell in the dark" books. Damn I love those, to this day I'll flip through my anthology edition when I'm hungry for inspiration.

For me, I'm a child of Edward Lee and Stephen King.  King is a recent addiction, but I've been following Lee's work since just after high school. 

If you ever get the chance, check out "City Infernal" by Lee.  It's a gore filled Hell ride into the unknown! 

Well I guess I'd have to go back and say that most of the greats were who drew me into horror.  I'm such a big fan of so many writers, so many artist(fine arts, comic art and tattoo art), so many bands and so many horror actors and directors.  I was hooked from the first horror movie I ever watched...The Exorcist.  I grew up loving the Adams Family, The Munsters, all the old horror movies.  Not just influenced by horror movies or books.  I was hooked to the look by Gene Simons (The Demon).  My kindergarten picture for school I was wearing a KISS shirt.  I thought they were just awesume.  Growing up on the shirt tales of my cousins they got me into KISS, OZZY and all the great bands of the time.  They also introduced me to The Savage Sword of Conan and the horror comics of the time.  As I got older I feel in love with art work of a big variety....oil paintings by Frank Frazetta and Boris....Sir brush art by Oliva......comic book art of Todd McFarlene......rock art by Pushead.  My taste now?  I love horror of all kind from the zombie movies to the abstract horror movies....I love B Rate horror movies.......and also the old classics.........My favorite Authors now days are Stephen King, Tabitha King, Joe Hill, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Anne Rice are just a few of my favs.  Favorite actor is DOUG BRADLEY.  I guess if I had to pick who has been the biggest influence on me over the past ten years it would be Clive Barker.  He is the master of his style of horror.  But, as for all time favorite or who has been the biggest influence.....who made me........I bow to the greats of the industry (not just horror writing, but metal, horror, art, tattooing and writing).  I have lived to be part of the greatest time for horror.  It is still alive in the main stream and such much in the underground where too me is where the greatest horror writers of our time are.  

I was inspired to write by reading Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Style wise I would have to say it is a fusion of the previous two writers with the likes of Khalil Gibran, Mary Shelly, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stroker.

I started writing horror because I was a fan of horror movies.  I still find it very hard to get through a horror novel.  In fact I've really on read a couple novels, "Mirror" and "Trauma" by Graham Masterton (one of the greatest and underrated horror writers out there) and "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon (though some will argue this is sci-fi) and "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker oh and of course I was a HUGE fan of RL Stein's Fear Street series when I was younger..  I've tried to read King's "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot" and found it hard to stay with it.  I'm a firm believe that horror is best in short story format.  Too much plot build-up tends to ruin the fear factor for me.  I want it quick and scary, I love King's short stories, Poe, and Lovecraft.  I'd have to say that I'm much more a fan of macabre, supernatural/pyschological horror that makes you think and wonder if what just happened was real or not.

My biggest writing influences aren't horror writers at all.  Tolkein is definitely one of my biggest influences, but as far as who influenced me to start to write stories instead of poetry it was Eric V. Lustbadder and his book "The Ninja."

Betty Davis in Whatever Happpened to Baby Jane, gave me a love for horror. It was the defining tweak to my brain. Others: Richard Matheson, Henry James, all the writers for the Twilight Zone,(How to serve Humans) unforgettable, till this day, my belief of what an alien would really want. Poe,Straub,all the short story writers Alfred Hitchcock collected like shells all of those years. Though I write horror shorts,  I still love Michael Moorock, who gave me a love for weak or flawed heroes. Sheesh, I could go on but I think thats the core of what made me. Oh thanks for having me in ya'lls group.

 

Hmm...interesting question.  Poe, Lovecraft, Anne Rice and Clive Barker come to mind as horror favorites.  As a writer, however, my influences stray greatly.  Horror/ Thriller is just the genre I most enjoy writing in.  Overall, the writers who have influenced me most are probably Richard Bach, Chuck Pahlaniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman and Jose Saramago.

That kind of is a tough question. I like to think that I made myself but then again, just like every other person in the writing world or any form of creativity, there is always an influence. Most of my writing consists of a more older style of horror writing, which has often been compared to that of the late and great HP Lovecraft. Although I have never really read any of his work, I had one of his books at one point, loaned it to a friend and never got it back. So I never did get a chance to read any of his works. My style of horror is subtle and often times hits a person on a more psychological level rather than the straight out in your face kind you often see in movies nowadays. I personally find that horror that gets inside your head is so much better and frightening than the kind that just jumps out at you at the most predictable times. I also don't use a lot of dialect when it comes to my characters. I often times prefer to view the world and situations through their eyes, I suppose that for me, it adds more depth to the character and helps the reader become attached to them a lot easier.

 

But as far as influences, I would have to say that I aspire to be like Stephen King, Anne Rice, Bentley Little and Brian Lumley. They are just a few of my favorite authors. :)

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Robert McCammon, Don Pendleton, Edgar Allen Poe....a few more those are the main ones and in order.

I actually find my inspiration in Nickelodeon's old series Are You Afraid of the Dark. I always wanted to write things that could be shared around a fire and creep people out. After that I sought any vampire novel I could find... now I'm onto life's real life suckers - serial killers.