Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer #19: Horror Through the Ages, Horror.

I've talked about how I'm not a horror writer, but people are not consistent. I went through a phase where I wrote and published horror. I had done this before. One of my first stories, "The Snow Demon," was a horror story, and I had written a few others, but mainly my stories did not go along the lines of horrific supernatural. Then a streak of them came, and most of the tales were more traditional and "dark" horror. As for my aversion to that kind of writing—well, as Walt Whitman once said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself." Some of the stories were quite fascinating and interesting to compose.

A series of horror stories came from my pen (I write in longhand). The first one, "Dream Catcher," was about a serial killer with Satanic connections who goes after a young man's girlfriend (he has already killed her sister). His attempts to get at the girl are blocked because the young man possesses a dream catcher from a friend who is Native American and practices their ancient spirituality. Also, his girlfriend is a sculptor, and art communicates.

That's probably the best part of the story. An artist puts 

something of himself or herself into a

work of art. Any writer knows this. Margie, the girlfriend of Daniel, who narrates the story, has done a sculptured bust of Amy, her sister. So much of Margie is in the bust, and so much of Amy in Margie, that Daniel begins to have a recurrent dream. Amy is communicating through the statue, and which has captured so much of her soul—which has, like all good art, immortalized her. The dream catcher Daniel has facilitates this. He begins to see an old train signal tower, an anchor, and something having to do with Alabama.

All of the substance of the dream came from my home town. There is an old, fading, creepy train tower from the days when railroads hung lanterns out for signals so trains would not overlap on the tracks and crash into each other. Near-by is the Anchor Bar. And the street that runs just past this is Alabama Street. Daniel does not comprehend this, but eventually he recognizes the landscape and begins to investigate.

In the tower he finds a photo of Amy. It is surrounded by cryptic writing in  ancient languages. With the evidence he needs, Daniel climbs the narrow steel ladder to the street below.

Rail Tower near Alabama Street, Grand Rapids, MI

He is attacked by shadowy creature but manages but destroys it with the dream catcher. After that, Daniel confronts the killer himself, who has a gun. He hears voices. He has killed Amy as "tuition" (Daniel terms it this) so he can gain occult power from these higher powers he hears. Daniel is not impressed. He has the dream catcher. The killer scoffs at the dream catcher, calling it an "Injun charm." In reply, Daniel says, "This 'Injun charm' draws on power that was recognized and feared thousands of years before your ancestors or mine ever set foot on this land. Whatever two-bit magic you learned will collapse when it comes up against this."

The serial killer's gun won't work. He eventually flees. Daniel calls the police. At first they suspect him, but he tells them they will find the real culprit somewhere on Alabama Street. They find him hiding in a warehouse. Amy's murder is solved, as are the murders of three other women. The dream catcher has proved its potent magic.

But, as I've said before, horror is not my thing—at least not the type of horror I often encounter,where characters face unopposable evil. To me, such writing is simplistic. It strikes me rather like the classic cartoon Bambi vs. Godzilla, which is only about ten seconds long. You see Bambi grazing. He looks up to see Godzilla approaching. A shadow falls and then Godzilla's foot comes down and squishes Bambi. End of movie. This typifies a lot of horror. Where is the conflict, the complication, the plot twists—other than the protagonist fleeing from the monster and ending up in a box alley where he or she can't escape—or the woman in the fifties 

horror movie, Tarantula, who gets her skirt caught in 

the door of a car as the spider closes in on her?

In "Dream Catcher" evil is not ultimate because, unlike good, it is derivative. It has no existence in itself but is only the twisting of something good. It can exist, but when it runs up against its opposite—no, not it's opposite, the genuine thing of which is the perversion—no contest.

But the horror-writing phase went on for a while. More on this to come.

If you want to read "The Dream Catcher," here is a link to it. The Horror Zine, an award-winning online horror publication, is one of the very best and I highly recommend it.

I am promoting my science fiction story, Mother Huda. Based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm, taking place in a future where the peoples of India are the predominant race and cultural force on Earth, containing elements of sci-fi, fantasy and romance, it's a great read. Get a copy!   

For more titles, check out my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.