tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688313038352917033.post3722480210700396842..comments2014-02-26T01:50:17.926-05:00Comments on Hairy Eyeballs: Are people seeing what the reviewers are seeing?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10388554435369819867noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688313038352917033.post-58321821861795244982012-07-23T18:52:01.041-04:002012-07-23T18:52:01.041-04:00Thank you thank you!
I'm not sure why I was s...Thank you thank you!<br /><br />I'm not sure why I was so mystified about the horror word, especially when so many of my writing prompts came from, well, you. And I saw after I posted this that Harry Potter won a Bram Stoker!<br /><br />After I wrote this post I totally let go of the categorization thing. The book is whatever it is, and people need to figure out where to stock it on the shelf. Just the fact that they're stocking it on the shelf is always a good thing.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10388554435369819867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2688313038352917033.post-72456060664309225242012-07-22T11:38:42.719-04:002012-07-22T11:38:42.719-04:00Thanks for the kind words!
It can be hard to re...Thanks for the kind words! <br /><br />It can be hard to read what others say when they objectify and categorize our work, but at least those reviewers are positive on the whole! Reviewers always seek to categorize and classify and draw associations -- writers always (I hope) try to be original and stand out -- so it's always going to be a tug-of-war. I can totally see what you're saying, but sometimes the genres claim us even if we don't realize we're in their domains. So I empathize. I agree with every point you made about why your work isn't exactly "horror" material, but I can also totally see why reviewers see the genre trappings when they look at your book. "Twisted" is the keyword that immediately puts it near the horror shelves, if not right next to Stephen King. Few if any other genre uses that word. The allusions to terror, surprise, etc. are all there, Nora. Your defense of the word "attack" mention "not even touching" -- attack is a verb and any attack can be unsuccessful at hitting, so it's the THREAT that makes it horrific. The problem may be that you have been thinking of "horror" too narrowly -- it never was the genre of teen slashers, alone...that's a subgenre. All spooky, gothic, surreal and weird stuff belongs in the genre, and perhaps your work is more "dark fantasy" than horror per se, but horror is the genre of dark fantasy regardless. <br /><br />And as you conclude -- there is no need to worry about all this. It will bring you people looking for horror. The book won't chase any non-horror folks away. Maybe it's even a genre-stretcher in its own right. But whatever it is, it's a good book on its own and that's all that matters. Good luck in the Stokers.Michael Arnzenhttp://gorelets.comnoreply@blogger.com