Comments on: Asking "What If?" & Exploring the Unknown–A Final Word on Writing Horror https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/ Author, Blogger, Social Media Jedi Fri, 14 Apr 2023 05:41:13 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 By: S. Michael Simms https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-116301 Fri, 14 Apr 2023 05:41:13 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-116301 For some, the mystery only gets deeper. In his book The Circus Fire, Stuart O’Nan criticizes the “fifteen-minutes-of-fame” amateur detective work of the author (and co-author) of A Matter of Degree which found an arson investigator and writer essentially wining and dining a relative of the previously (and possibly still) missing Eleanor Cook until enough pressure was applied to authorities who relented to the group’s impassioned insistence that Little Miss 1565 was, in fact, Ms. Cook despite strong evidence to the contrary. Citing several inconsistencies in the evidence and gaping holes in the investigation, O’Nan and other skeptics have sought to have the identification properly verified but, so far, to no avail. The older the case gets, the less likely it seems that it will ever be seriously revisited by anyone with the power to exhume the body and make a confirmation with DNA samples once and for all.

]]> By: A Hodgepodge of Useful Bits & Pieces – Mid-October 2013 | https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40989 Sun, 01 Mar 2015 22:41:48 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40989 […] a final post on horror from Kevin Lucia at Kristen Lamb’s blog, “Asking ‘What If?’ & Exploring the Unknown—A Final Word on Writing Horror” in which he believes that writing horror is “a quest into the unknown”, not just […]

]]> By: Kristen Lamb Envy: I Want to be a Maven Too! | Wing's World https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40988 Fri, 18 Oct 2013 16:37:14 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40988 […] First of all, I’d like y’all to meet my Blogging Guru, Kristen Lamb. If you haven’t been to her website yet, run, don’t walk. Here’s her latest:  http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-… […]

]]> By: A Hodgepodge of Useful Bits & Pieces – Mid-October 2013 | KD DID IT Takes on Books https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40987 Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:45:58 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40987 […] a final post on horror from Kevin Lucia at Kristen Lamb’s blog, “Asking ‘What If?’ & Exploring the Unknown—A Final Word on Writing Horror” in which he believes that writing horror is “a quest into the unknown”, not just […]

]]> By: Matthew Randall https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40986 Thu, 10 Oct 2013 01:21:49 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40986 Hey Kevin, great work putting this fab series together (and thanks to Kristen for tracking you down to guest). Your enthusiasm and dedication to the genre really shone through and kept me reading.

You’ve reminded me horror was my first teenage-reading-crush and also clarified why. I’ll be checking out some of the stories you’ve cited.

There are a lot of lessons here to take into any genre – especially going deeper into a story and pushing the envelope by asking ‘what if’.

]]> By: Kevin Lucia https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40985 Thu, 03 Oct 2013 12:11:43 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40985 Thank you, Karyne! Thanks everyone! It was lots of fun!

]]> By: Karyne Corum https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40984 Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:46:43 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40984 Kevin, this was truly an exceptional series on Horror. You zeroed in on the most elusive and yet defining aspect of the genre. The Unknown. It has it’s own zipcode and it’s own peculiar scent. I think that a horror writer not only revels in the exploration of this, like a child kicking through autumn leaves, but we can obsess about details for months, even years. I saw an article in a paper about a women who died in her apartment. The police had to break down the door and do a basic investigation of her possessions to try and locate kin. What they found was something that has lingered in my mind for two decades now. A single photograph, of a young girl, perhaps the deceased, perhaps not, no one could tell. All that was written on the back was the single phrase, “What happened to her should never have happened to any human being.” My first thought wasn’t for her sad and lonely death, though it was tragic, nor was it about the fact that they never did find anyone to claim her. What haunted me and still does, till I exorcise it in a story, is the consuming need to know what happened to the girl in the photograph?
Thanks for this amazing blog series. I so enjoyed it.
Oh, and yes, Happy Halloween!

]]> By: moxeyns https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40983 Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:01:10 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40983 A really interesting series, Kevin – thank you!

]]> By: Debbie Johansson https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40982 Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:45:07 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40982 Like Sharon above, I jumped watching Aliens, but I love it – it’s one of my favourites. 🙂 I enjoy stories that are psychological – either having unexpected twists in the end or even if the end still provides no answers, like in Turn of the Screw or Picnic at Hanging Rock. Such stories explore our fears, but still leave you asking questions. It’s good the hear the story of Little Miss Nobody has been cleaned up after all these years. Thanks Kevin and Kristen for this inspiring series and book/author recommendations, it’s much appreciated.

]]> By: johngee34 https://authorkristenlamb.com/2013/10/asking-what-if-exploring-the-unknown-a-final-word-on-writing-horror/#comment-40981 Wed, 02 Oct 2013 03:51:50 +0000 http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/?p=13279#comment-40981 We are not alone…oh yes we are! stop your scaring me, a fellow has got to sleep sometime!

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