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Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  Who are your influences James? |
Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Ed Gorman, Robert R. McCammon, Richard Matheson, Bentley Little, F. Paul Wilson, Thomas F. Monteleone, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, and the short stories of Nancy Collins.
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Do you think of scenes for example then work them into a story or a story first?
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It can work both ways. There have been many cases in which I've had a cool scene or a series of scenes come to mind, and then I built a story around them. The best example would be my novel ANIMOSITY -- I can't really tell you the exact scene I'm referring to because it's a huge spoiler, but the whole book started with one powerful moment. I actually wrote it first, even though it doesn't happen until about 3/4 into the story. I just had to figure out what happened to bring the characters to that awful point, and it didn't take long. It all came together pretty smoothly after I had that one scene. I've been told by quite a few readers, BTW, that the scene in question made them cry.
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I found Stephen King's On Writing and Danse Macabre fascinating reading.
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Yes, great stuff! I love when my favorite writers try their hand at nonfiction. As far as my all-time favorite "how to" book goes, though, that would be TELLING LIES FOR FUN & PROFIT by crime writer Lawrence Block.
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I don't really have a fave horror scribe, but buy all King's horror fiction and also love James Herbert, Ramsay Campbell and Richard Laymon
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Oh, yes . . . if you're a Richard Laymon fan then you're gonna dig THE WICKED, I'm quire sure.