K. Marvin Bruce

What makes a story scary?  I suspect that the answer depends on the asker.  You see, I think of my stories as scary.  Whether other people do, I don’t know. When I look for a scary story I’m not looking for gore.  Properly speaking, I’m not looking for fear either.  Mood, creepiness, and the strange are far more appealing.  Frisson at the atmosphere.  Poe, I suspect, isn’t too scary these days.  He knew how to set a mood, though. I recently read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.”  I’ve heard a lot about this story and since it is still under copyright I had to find a book that contained it.  It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. Don’t take me wrong—I am a fan of Shirley Jackson.  She was able to deliver as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle show.  “The Lottery,” however, didn’t scare me.  It was interesting, a nice short story, but not fearful. I find my hackles rising...

I love used bookstores.  While visiting one recently, I thought of how used books represent immortality to a writer. As usual, I came out with mostly an armload of non-fiction.  I write mainly fiction, but non-fiction gives me the material with which to work.  Many of my ideas come from the world of what really happened, often to someone else. Nevertheless, I lingered long over the fiction section.  Maybe it’s because it’s harder to find specific books of fiction.  I keep a list and I take it with me to stores—otherwise I get over-excited and can’t find anything.  I did spy an early set of Poe, but I left him for a more worthy owner. The fact that many people came in on a pleasant Saturday kindled my hopes.  There’s so much you can do with a summer Saturday.  Spending it looking at old books is one that few select, but here I was among other inveterate readers.  Readers unite! Used books mean that an author’s words continue a...