I also created “I,Robot” under the pseudonym Isaac Asimov. The name of Asimov came from a fictitious character in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The title of “I, Robot” came from the title to an episode of the television show “The Outer Limits (1964) which The Alan Parsons Project also used for the title to their album. Of course, Hollywood had to give Asimov a fake background. But, I worked on script ideas with Will Smith for the film “I, Robot” and naming the characters.

I’ve explored writing horror a couple of times, as short stories or flash fiction. I doubt I could survive a whole novel! That said, I do think that we writers need to deliberately explore all genres, including horror, even if we never publish in that style. The amount and precision of description required for horror will serve us well in our lighter, more fun-filled battlefield bloodbaths.

I agree that the best horror is rooted in what COULD happen – what human nature is capable of. Even though I’ve never written horror, my writing always has a dark element, and I think it’s because I like to get to the heart of what really terrifies people. I always remember Freud’s essay on The Uncanny, which talks about the idea of taking something familiar but making it unfamiliar and terrifying – for example, the doppelganger, talking dolls, automatons, etc. Creatures that look human but aren’t. Maybe that itself says something about human nature!