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The Horror Writers Association announces that it has appointed one of our members, Catherine Scully as the Editor of its dedicated Young Adult Horror section (http://www.horror.org/yahorror/).

A fan of monsters that you kill versus ones that you date, Catherine Scully is a Writer and Illustrator of all things dark and whimsical. She served as Editor with literary magazines The Nomad and Vision and Voice, worked as an illustrator for the U.S. Army, and designed branding for clients like AT&T, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network. Currently, she writes young adult horror and works in brand management while pursuing her MFA in writing at Kennesaw State University. She can usually be found watching Sam Raimi movies with her husband, son, and pet rabbits.

The Young Adult horror section is a bit sparse at the moment but we are already populating it. We are fortunate to have the input of acclaimed comic strip writer and HWA member, Ray Billingsley (creator of CURTIS) as we look to use YA horror to improve uptake of reading, and of literacy generally.

All Young Adult material will be gathered in this section, so that librarians, parents, teachers and young adult readers can find our YA material in one easy place.

We will shortly be adding last year’s Bram Stoker Award® nominees for Young Adult Novel and the winners of the Award for this category in previous years. There will be a selective addition of ‘iconic’ and notable YA works from past years at some point also.

You can assist us to populate the YA section by doing the following:

• If you have a blog to write about YA and YA horror you can submit by following the guidelines at the bottom of this announcement.
• If you have a New Release YA book don’t forget to use the New Releases form.

Remember the audience here is not fellow HWA members – it is librarians, parents, teachers and most of all Young Adult readers.

Submission Guidelines
Size limit: 1000 words for article, 200 words for bio
If you’d like to submit an article to the HWA blog, follow these simple guidelines. We reserve the right to reject any submission for any reason.

Only members (of any level) may submit directly. Non-members must send a query first. Email queries to webmaster@horror.org.

We accept two types of submissions: non-fiction articles and recommendations. Articles can be about anything related to the horror genre, the horror industry, horror writing, or the HWA. Keep your audience in mind. If in doubt about whether your topic is appropriate or not, you can query at webmaster@horror.org.

Word limit: 1000 words; 200 words for bio (total of 1200 words max).

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By submitting, you agree that the material submitted is your own work and that you have the right to let us publish it on the HWA website and blog. Send submissions to webmaster@horror.org.

Recently I sat down and had a chat with famed cartoonist Ray Billingsley, creator of the CURTIS comic strip. Some of you might be wondering what a comic about two sassy kids and their long-suffering parents has to do with horror, but Ray has a secret: he’s a huge horror fan! And on top of that, he’s also dedicated to advancing youth literacy and has recently partnered with the HWA to promote reading among the young adult crowd – where horror and dark fiction happen to be the most popular genres.

JGF: Ray, let me just say it’s an honor to have you here. Like the thirty-five million other people who read Curtis each day, I’m a big fan. I especially enjoy when Curtis drags his terrified little brother Barry to see double features with fantastic titles like “The Brain that Ate the City” or “Bug-Eyed Alien Squids from Mars.” How old were you when you first discovered you had a love of things creepy and scary?

RB: First of all, let me say what an honor and a pleasure it is to be here speaking to you all! Thank you so very much for the compliments about my strip CURTIS. I’m happy that so many readers like it! Your question is quite interesting. I can clearly remember my very first horror movie, which my mother, of all people introduced me to. It was VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, you know, the story with the cute li’l kids-who were all born at the same time, and could control the adults with their eyes, yadda yadda yadda. Yes, my mother took me there to see it. Not Bambi. Not Peter Pan or what have you. I remember that it caught my attention right away and held it until the last frame. I was cheering for the kids! I was less than ten years old, maybe six to eight years old. We had one TV in the house, which my older brother usually had control of; he basically made me watch THE TWILIGHT ZONE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. On late Saturday nights, he liked ‘CHILLER’ and things like that. So I was introduced to the genre at an early age.

JGF: Chiller! I remember that program. Great classic horror movies. Speaking of movies, rumor has it you have a pretty big movie collection. How many movies do you have, and what are some of your favorites?

RB: Hmm, I don’t have an actual count, but there are several hundred DVDs. Oh my goodness, I have so many favorites! THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, THE EXORCIST, THE FLY, SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE THING (John Carpenter’s version!), THE SKELETON KEY, any movie with Vincent Price, SALEM’S LOT, there are so many! On visitor, who was going through my DVD collection, happened to mention that it consisted mainly of horror films. I also enjoy Japanese horror, like Ju-Ch’s THE GRUDGE, also ONE MISSED CALL.

JGF: What type of horror do you enjoy the most? For example, psychological, suspense, supernatural creatures, classic monsters, gore-fests, etc.

RB: Most genres I like, with the exception of extreme gore. The films with characters like Michael Myers were creepy the first time, but with so many sequels they sort of lose their punch for me. Classic creatures are really campy fun, especially when you think of the poor actor who was trapped inside some badly designed rubber costume. Films that use special effects really effectively like, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Most types of horror I truly enjoy, with the exception of the mousse-hair characters who now today inhabit most of the vampire genre. Also, I think the ‘zombie’ genre is losing its punch because of overcrowding. THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was great by itself. The flood of predictable zombie films these past few recent years, not so much. Suspense is great when it only gives you a little and lets you use your own imagination, like Hill House. You walk those corridors along with Eleanor.

JGF: What do you think about the different trends we’ve been seeing in horror lately, such as movies that seem to focus on gore and violence or books or movies that have somber, emotional vampires and shape shifters?

RB: I’m not much of a fan of those, but they must have an audience because they keep on crankin’ ‘em out. I’ll never get used to the kid-like vampires and werewolves who pine for each other, emotionally and/or sexually. Aren’t they supposed to be the living undead?! Movies made just for ‘gore-appeal’, exceedingly bloody, are not my cup of tea either. I don’t really need to see someone’s head fly off to know he’s been decapitated. I like to have my imagination and mind’s-eye to paint the scene for my own entertainment.

JGF: CURTIS is a comic strip about two brothers growing up in a poor neighborhood. You have a brother, and you grew up in Harlem. How much of what we see in CURTIS is taken from your experiences growing up? And which brother are you more like, Curtis or Barry?

RB: CURTIS is very much the way my life was growing up in Harlem. I have an older brother, Richard, who was a lot like Curtis. He had a lot of schemes to get the things he wanted, or to get out of things he didn’t want to do. I, like Barry, would tag along and just watch his plans blow up in his face. Of course, some of my own mischief creeps into the character of Curtis. As a youth, I had a crush on a girl much like Michelle, and she couldn’t stand me. There was also a girl like Chutney, who liked me, whom I didn’t like much. Gunther, the barber, is modeled right after my own barber from years ago. The family situation with Curtis’ mom and dad is almost autobiographical. Mom is no-nonsense; the true backbone of the family and dad was a real workaholic.

JGF: You were something of a prodigy, getting your first paid job as a cartoonist at the age of twelve, and your first syndicated comic strip when you were only a couple of years out of college. In the horror biz, that’s like getting your first novel published while your friends are still watching cartoons and then going on to be a best seller while those same friends are trying to get their first jobs. How did early success affect your life?

RB: Since I did start so very young, it sort of separated me from others my age in my neighborhood. I wasn’t into the things that they were. They did drugs and drank and many things that would eventually either kill them, put them in jail, or just hold them back in life, and I didn’t have time for that. I was pretty much an outcast. But it gave me more time to work. I was pretty used to being a loner anyway. My family was very close-knit, so they were my company. When most kids were outside playing after school, I was working on cartooning for magazines and other professional jobs. It was kind of a tradeoff.

JGF: Writing – any artistic endeavor, really – can be a lonely business. We don’t go to an office, we only see associates at conferences, and we struggle to stay objective about our work. For authors, one thing that’s important is having beta readers to look over our work before we send it in to a publisher for consideration. Who do cartoonists use when they need an extra set of eyes or someone to bounce ideas off?

RB: I can’t say about the other ‘toonists because they really haven’t told me, but for myself, I work alone! No other voices to bounce ideas off of, no extra eyes. From the very beginning, I’ve worked alone, and that’s the way I really like it. I’ve been in this industry over forty years now (!) and I’ve done it by myself. In that way I am sort of bohemian. I have no set rules for creating, nor a set time. At times it just hits, ideas coming faster than I can write them down, other times I sit and really think about a certain storyline to make it the best I feel it can be. I do tend to immerse myself in music when I’m creating.

JGF: How far in advance do you plot out your story arcs?

RB: Syndicated cartoonists are to stay at least six weeks ahead of ‘print-date’. That is, whatever you read in today’s newspaper was written and drawn at least six weeks ago. It’s kind of strange when I’m working on some topic that concerns any holiday. I’ll draw a storyline or strips, say about Christmas, six weeks before time. Then in six weeks the holiday really arrives and it feels like I’ve already lived it once. Newspaper déjà-vu, I call it.

JGF: When you’re writing a multi-week story arc, do you outline the entire thing or work from a rough outline and flesh things out as you go along?

RB: I try to work out the entire storyline, but when it lasts for several days or weeks, I do make changes as it goes along. I’m my own editor and can be pretty tough on myself. The outline comes to me early and many times it’s almost completely written out, but it’s always rough. Some days I write all I can, then get up and go do something else. I come back later to the ideas and find they need a lot of shaping. I think that’s why I don’t work with an assistant. I guess I’m sort of eccentric in that way.

JGF: What would you say is the most frightening book you’ve read? How about the most frightening movie you’ve seen?

RB: This will sound silly, but when I was much younger I read A Christmas Carol, and I thought it was the scariest thing I’ve ever read! The thought of three spirits coming to visit scared me to death. As I’ve grown, there are too many to count. I’m an avid reader and I get something from every book I’ve read. The Exorcist, The Haunting of Hill House, and THE SKELETON KEY are some of my scary favorites I can name right now. THE THING remake was scary! I liked some of the Freddy movies-not all, but a couple of them. For me the idea that something could come after you as you slept was horror! You have to sleep! How can you avoid this terror?!

JGF: In the past, CURTIS has had a few story arcs that dealt with serious political or social issues, and then that seemed to stop. But this year you did a hysterical arc where Curtis and Barry save an old woman (and are frightened to death because they think they’re trapped in an apartment with a dead lady!) and then both Obama and Romney show up to use his heroism for their own political agendas and they end up brawling until Curtis’s mother grabs a broom and shoos them out the door. Do you see the strip taking on more issues in the future, or will they remain only occasional story lines?

RB: They will remain only occasional. You see, CURTIS is a type of strip that I can approach ANY idea I like. Sometimes I get the political feel but only when it’s a good storyline. I’m surprised that it’s so accepted by my readers. Usually gag strips are only gag strips, political strips are only political, I’m able to do any idea I feel.

JGF: And there have been some horror-sci/fi ones as well.

RB: Yes, I’ve even done some “horror” in the strip, like the time where Curtis and his best friend Gunk (a character from a place called Flyspeck Island) had to fight off genetically-mutated plants!

JGF: : One of the programs the HWA has is a mentoring program, where established writers provide one-on-one help for those who are just starting out. Your online bio mentions that you have a couple of dozen art students you regularly advise. Does this desire to give back to the industry stem in part from the mentoring you received from well-known cartoonists and artists when you were in school? And, as a corollary to that, have you ever considered teaching an art course at a local school?

RB: I did receive some mentoring from the older well-known cartoonists who took me under their wings. But they also teased me a lot! They called me The Kid because I was so young when we met. But they also challenged me and pushed me to do better, more than I thought I could. I think, on my part, that I do enjoy giving advice to younger hopefuls. Maybe I can help them avoid some of the things I had to find out by practicing. I worked all the time and lost a lot of my childhood because of it. I missed out on doing a lot of things for my art. My hopes are to help young hopefuls achieve their goals a little faster and maybe, just maybe, in less time. I don’t think I could teach a course, where I have to actually show up at some building of learning. I am so unstructured and bohemian. I just know I wouldn’t fit into any set curriculum.

JGF: If you could go back in time, what horror writer or moviemaker would you most like to spend a day with?

RB: Ooh tough question!! I’m sure I’d like to meet Washington Irving, Shirley Jackson; of course H.P. Lovecraft, even Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock! Richard Matheson would be on my list as well as Poe, Robert Bloch, William Blatty, Barker, and King! Like I’ve said, there would be so many. I like to be around writers. They are so very different!

JGF: Who’s your favorite monster?

RB: I think in John Carpenter’s remake of THE THING, that he really came up with a thing!! There was no telling what its definite shape ever was! I like creatures where there is no explanation of where it came from, or if there are any more of them. It was suspenseful and scary!!

JGF: Now that Curtis is reading horror books besides seeing scary movies, do you see more horror story lines in his future? And will this give him even more of an opportunity to scare the pants off his little brother?

RB: Yes, Curtis will be reading more horror stories! And he’ll still visit the movie theatres to see them on the screen. Sometimes you have to feel for little Barry. He’s never ready for the films Curtis likes to see!

JGF: In addition to literacy, you’re very involved in anti-smoking campaigns. Where does that stem from?

RB: Here’s the story-it all came to me at the first STAR WARS film back in the ‘70’s. A friend of mine and I went to a favorite theatre and got pretty good seats-right towards the middle. Of course this during the time before they made it illegal to smoke in public areas. As the film progressed, a cloud of smoke-cigarette and otherwise-began filling the area. At one point, we were straining to see the movie through a heavy cloud of smoke. I began thinking of how much I wanted to kick those cigarettes out of their hands! Mind you, I don’t care what you do to your own body. I just don’t like it when I am forced to breathe in what you’re doing. It was a perfect vehicle for Curtis. When CURTIS made its debut, there were quite a few strips that featured major characters smoking. I sort of broke the mold with Curtis’ thinking towards his father’s smoking.

JGF: Was designing the logo for the HWA’s YA Horror Page the most exciting thing ever (other than the numerous awards and recognition throughout your career!)?

RB: Yes, I just loved it! This was one of those times when the design, with the colors and everything, just sprang into my mind. I knew exactly what it would look like from its inception. That happens rarely but in this case, it just felt right!

JGF: What is your idea of the perfect Saturday night?

RB: Wow! Actually?? Well, hmm, I’m a little boring. Just a single night with nothing at all to do. Just sit back, chill out, play with my Basset hound, watch a film (of course), a little quiet reading, music from my iPod, staring from the window at my studio. I don’t have many nights where I just do nothing! I’m not around so many people, but I do enjoy the movies, theatre, and dining at this great little greasy-spoon I know of. Bad décor, really good food, man!

JGF: Ray, thank you for taking the time out of your hectic schedule to talk to us, and also for working with the HWA to show kids how much fun reading can be.

RB: And let me thank YOU, Greg, for giving me this time to share with you all. I’m glad to have this opportunity to open up and I hope I’ve answered these questions well for you. I really look forward to working along with the HWA. It’s one of the greatest groups in the world, filled with the most creative minds I’ve ever known. Thanks to you all!

Ray Billingsley draws the nationally syndicated comic strip CURTIS, which runs in more than 250 newspapers. He graduated from the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. After completing an internship at Walt Disney Studios, he pursued a career in art that included freelancing for magazines, newspapers, advertising companies, and greeting card companies before he created CURTIS in 1988. You can find out more about Ray at his website, www.billingsleyart.com and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ray.billingsley.

By JG Faherty
www.jgfaherty.com
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The Horror Writers Association is proud to announce a new literacy partnership focusing on Young Adult (YA) readers. Beginning immediately, the HWA will be working with renowned cartoonist Ray Billingsley, creator of the comic strip CURTIS, to promote reading in general, and horror in particular, at conferences, speaking engagements, and libraries.

Ray has graciously created the attached promotional piece for the HWA, for official use at any event where members represent the HWA in some capacity, including booths, panels, library appearances and readings. This piece will be premiered at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in January 2012 and will also be prominently featured on the HWA’s new Young Adult Horror webpage, also set to premier in January.

CURTIS is one of the nation’s most popular comic strips, appearing in more than 372 newspapers daily. Its namesake main character has long been a devoted fan of horror movies and graphic novels, and as part of this new literacy project he will also become a fan of novels. Like his character Curtis, Ray Billingsley is a lifelong fan of things frightening and terrifying, and is a collector of classic horror books and movies.

This partnership offers a unique opportunity for the HWA to reach a completely different audience – one that might not yet be reading novels or short stories. The popularity of the horror and dark fantasy/sci-fi genres continues to grow more rapidly among the YA age groups than among adult readers, and by bringing the HWA and its member works to the attention of children, teens, and YA librarians, we are not only promoting reading in today’s youth, we are building the cornerstone of future adult readers.

HWA thanks JG Faherty for his proactive work in bringing this to fruition. Ray has also joined HWA as an Associate Member.

The CURTIS comic strip ran two panels about HWA and JG’s work recently, which was great exposure!

(This article previously appeared in the VOYA {Voice of Youth Advocates} Magazine as part of the HWA’s YA Literacy program.)

By JG Faherty

There is a revolution happening in reading.

No, I’m not talking about the e-book revolution, although it does play a part in this. The revolution I’m referring to is being led by our children, and it’s one we should all be getting behind.

For years, people – experts and laymen alike – have been bemoaning that today’s youth is reading fewer books than ever, and that the levels of literacy among our children and teens is in a dangerous decline. But over the past couple of years new studies have shown that this information is, in fact, decidedly wrong. Since 2009, young adult readership has actually been increasing in double digits every year.

And I am proud to say that horror and dark fiction have played a major role in that rise.

I am a member of the Horror Writers Association and serve as their current library liaison. One of the HWA’s goals is to promote reading in schools and libraries, and a key part of that is focusing on the YA readers. After all, the more young adults we get reading, the more adult readers we’ll have later on. And that benefits everyone.

It is no secret that young readers love horror, even if they don’t realize it. Young adult literature continues to be the fastest-growing genre, and horror/dark fiction is a key component of that. Of course, today there is a bias against cataloging books as ‘horror,’ so it ends up getting packaged within and under various sub-genres. A little detective work is all it takes, however, to find the dark lurking below the surface.

Novel Novice, a website dedicated to showcasing Young Adult literature, encouraging reading and promoting education, recently polled readers to find out their favorite genres. Here is what they came up with, in no particular order:

Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic. Some might call this sci-fi, but there is plenty of horror in this category. Zombies, vampires, demons, aliens – anything dealing with the apocalypse is going to have some horror element in it. A classic example is Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, which deals with life following a zombie apocalypse.

Paranormal Romance: This is the dominant genre for today’s YA readers. Vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, witches, and pretty much any other supernatural being you can think of fall in love, get in trouble, and have to escape danger while interacting with humankind. Although it might not seem like it when you look at the shelves or go to the movies, there is more to paranormal romance than Twilight. Nancy Holder and John Passarella are two writers who have contributed several books and series in this category.

Gothic: Ghosts, haunted houses, curses, and mysteries. Gothic horror has been around since humans sat around in caves telling stories around a fire, and it continues to be a powerful sub-genre today. Some examples include the Darkest Powers books by Kelley Armstrong or my own Ghosts of Coronado Bay. This sub-genre frequently overlaps with the previous category.

Cyberpunk: Dystopian plots that often include murder, genetically-bred monsters, and bio-warfare – how could anyone say this doesn’t have terrifying aspects? Is the Hunger Games horror or science fiction or fantasy? In truth, it’s all three.

Graphic Novels/Manga/Anime: When we were kids, we called them comic books. Today they are so much more. Whether they are written in the U.S. or come from overseas, the comic novel has evolved into one of the most popular forms of media for teens. The stories range from cute supernatural to downright terrifying horror and cover sci-fi, fantasy, traditional horror, dystopian and apocalyptic alternate realities, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. The popularity of this medium has grown so much that even best-selling writers such as Stephen King, Jonathan Maberry, and David Morrell (First Blood) have gotten into the act.

In addition to the above, Action/Adventure, Urban Fantasy, Steampunk, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy all rated very high. Although these categories are usually separate from horror, there is a lot of overlap (Harry Potter, for example) and together with horror they can all be categorized as speculative fiction.

So where does the HWA fit in to all of this? Well, of course many of today’s popular YA writers are also HWA members; however, the organization is more than just individual writers. As a group, the HWA is actively involved in promoting YA literacy by working with the American Library Association and individual libraries to encourage new activities and programs geared towards YA readers. Authors are available to visit schools and libraries and not only read from their latest works but also discuss books, literature, and language arts. Halloween is a great time for this, because schools and libraries often put on special events and writers can come in and read classic ghost stories and discuss local history as it relates to hauntings and horror.

Each year, the HWA honors books in several categories, including YA Novel and Graphic Novel, with its iconic Bram Stoker Awards®, and provides libraries with catalogs of recommended reading lists and new releases. HWA members are also regular panelists at youth-focused events such as Comic Con and the World Horror Convention.

In a 2010 survey by Scholastic, 43% of children questioned stated that the most important part of reading fiction is to open up the imagination. 62% said they read books to be “inspired by storylines and characters.” I feel safe in saying that very few things open the imagination and provide memorable storylines and characters the way horror/dark fiction can. It can transport you to new worlds, open doors to places that could only exist in the imagination, and having you falling in love or wishing you were the hero who saves the world.

In summary, the best way to get young people to read is to give them books they want to read, and speculative fiction – horror, sci-fi, fantasy – writers are doing just that.

By JG Faherty (www.jgfaherty.com)