From Author David Boyle, writer of the upcoming collection of horror short stories, Abandoned In The Dark. To be released by AuthorMike Dark Ink on October 8th. Come back tomorrow for a short story treat from David!
Every Halloween I recall precisely the reason I became addicted to horror—that is, my own interpretation of horror. John Carpenter’s “Halloween” frightened me so profoundly that I couldn’t think clearly or rationally for hours after the final frame. A mechanism of some kind, which had remained undiscovered throughout my early childhood, had been triggered and I realized the feelings and sensations of excitement associated with fear. For a young boy who had never done a drug in his life, I felt as though I had indeed taken some mind-altering substance. That one film left on me a permanent impression most would shrug off.
Fear doesn’t always have a motive, an elaborate cause; it is often silent and lurking—but it exists nonetheless. Fear, however, can serve a vital purpose. Fear, in its various innocent forms, essentially changed my life, rewarding me with an imaginative creative outlet. Fear instilled in me something that neither love nor fantasy could ever attain. I started on my own to comprehend the countless responses of the human body to the unpredictable, how potent yet how harmless those effects could be when channeled effectively.
As an impressionable, open-minded youth, I came to terms with the fact that I was different from my friends, different from anybody I knew, because I had derived pleasure and purpose and value and insight from something which filled others with unrelenting dread and anxiety. I’m drawn to what I like to call “real” horror: the horror that often goes ignored. I am terrified and fascinated by the oddities that occur in everyday life: being stalked, heated arguments taking dramatic turns, drug abuse, eerie phone callers, sexual predators, sane people snapping under pressure, conflict in the workplace, quarreling lovers getting out of control, dysfunctional families going berserk, hostile people pushed beyond their threshold, abuses of power, unforeseen accidents, marital discord becoming dangerous. These commonalities have kept my imagination running at hyper-speed since adolescence and there’s no sign of a slowdown. I see the horror in all these instances, instances that seem so insignificant and ordinary they are often put out of mind.
As a writer I have had the privilege of articulating my thoughts and sharing them with readers who have either witnessed such misery befalling others or have been victims themselves. As for my own points of view, no matter how subtle my darkest visions and nightmares may seem, I can’t stop myself from exploring the possibilities of what they can turn into. I always need to figure out in my own way how harrowing a situation can become, how grotesque life can be when we pause, for the briefest moment, and look around at the madness everywhere. Such abnormalities are what inspired me to create the 18 stories that constitute Abandoned in the Dark—a collection brought to the fans by AuthorMike Ink.
The stories in this collection had stolen from me many sound sleeps; they begged to be unleashed as I lived them. Consequently I decided to put the reader in the scene, let them face the fear and participate in the journey, just like I felt when I saw “Halloween” the first time. So I’ve found the fun in fear: By diving neck-deep into the darkness and confusion of the real world, I can better understand who I am, what I am, and what my place is in this always expanding universe of horror. The cherished readers who join me in my journeys, who read my unyielding tales with enthusiasm and pleasure and wonder, have more guts than I’ll ever have; yet those wonderful people give me the inspiration to keep going and going on this fulfilling literary quest. Thank you all for listening and coming along for the ride.
