I heard this on NPR and now I MUST have this book and an audio book with Steve Martin reading would not be remiss either.
Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Giles ,'Conversations with Dead People'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
sumi - Oct 25, 2007 4:16:28 am PDT #4211 of 28481
Art Crawl!!!
Amy - Oct 31, 2007 7:03:42 am PDT #4212 of 28481
Because books.
A little Halloween topic, just out of curiosity:
Can anyone think of any mainstream-successful female horror writers aside from Anne Rice? (It took me a while to come up with her, because I tend to classify vampire fiction as distinct from horror the way Stephen King and Peter Straub write it, although I'm not sure why.)
I know there must be female horror writers out there, writing the kind of genre books that don't hit the bestseller lists (the same way I write low to midlist romance, and no one know who the hell I am except, like, my mom and my husband), but I can't think of any who have hit it really big. Am I missing people?
Dana - Oct 31, 2007 7:05:39 am PDT #4213 of 28481
I haven't trusted science since I saw the film "Flubber."
Laurell K. Hamilton? Though if she's classified as horror, it might be for unintentional reasons. And that's still vampire fiction.
Amy - Oct 31, 2007 7:06:48 am PDT #4214 of 28481
Because books.
Yeah, I forgot about her, too. And even there, she's got a big "Vampire Fiction" tag in my head. I don't know why it's different, but I can't seem to shake that classification.
Dana - Oct 31, 2007 7:09:06 am PDT #4215 of 28481
I haven't trusted science since I saw the film "Flubber."
I don't know why it's different, but I can't seem to shake that classification.
Because you can write about vampires without it being a horror story?
Toddson - Oct 31, 2007 7:12:56 am PDT #4216 of 28481
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy Collins?
Amy - Oct 31, 2007 7:16:10 am PDT #4217 of 28481
Because books.
Because you can write about vampires without it being a horror story?
Oh. Well, yes!
Never heard of Nancy Collins, Todd. Poppy Z. Brite is a good example, but not as mainstream as I was thinking.
Toddson - Oct 31, 2007 7:29:27 am PDT #4218 of 28481
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
On reflection, I realize both do a lot of vampire stuff. (Nancy Collins - not sure of the spelling at this point - wrote "Sunglasses at Night" among other books and stories).
Atropa - Oct 31, 2007 9:50:30 am PDT #4219 of 28481
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
Never heard of Nancy Collins, Todd. Poppy Z. Brite is a good example, but not as mainstream as I was thinking.
The only female horror writer I can think of that doesn't do vampire stuff is Caitlin. R. Kiernan. And while Caitlin has done well, I know she hasn't hit any best seller lists.
Volans - Oct 31, 2007 10:03:51 am PDT #4220 of 28481
move out and draw fire
Shirley Jackson?
Joyce Carol Oates has a couple pretty good short stories that turn up in horror anthologies, and then there's Whassherface that wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.