It sounds as if I'm older than most of you. At the risk or dating myself, when "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" came out, I was already a teacher. I also wrote my first, (as yet unpublished) novel that year. My teenage years were during what one critic called the YA Stone Age, which, among other things, had little horror and hardly any supernatural horror. (Lois Duncan wrote "I Know What You Did Las Summer" and similar during the period, but I was unaware of them at the time.) R. L. Stine started "Goosebumps" longer after I was a kid.
When I was in middle school, I remember watching the kind of Gothic soap opera that eventually became outright horror, "Dark Shadows." It wasn't intended for kids, but because it was during the day, the violence level was pretty low. Still, it had vampires, werewolves, witches from the 18th Century, possession, ghosts, time travel, parallel universes, various malevolent spell casters--all on a shockingly low special effects budget. (As if in unintended prophecy of Stephen King, the show was set in a small Maine town.) It also inspired my first attempt at a novel, which thankfully, I never finished. It was a little too close to its original inspiration.
"Carrie" was published in 1974, the year I graduated from high school, and I soon found it and became hooked on King. At some point before that, though, I'd found HP Lovecraft and read every horror story, as well as some of his early fantasy. I read a lot of other fantasy and science fiction as well, but I think Lovecraft and his circle were about the only horror I can immediately remember.
Not very chronological of me, but I should also mention reading D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths as a kid. Not horror (or even fantasy, unless we count all old myths as fantasy), but certainly influential in developing my interest in reading and in non-realistic fiction. But think about Greek myths a little--they're rampant with horror themes, even though the D'Aulaire presentation is pretty mild. Sons castrating their fathers. Sons killing both parents (Oedipus) or just Mom (Orestes). Cronus eating his children. Atreus serving his brother, Thyestes, a feast including the flesh of his murdered sons. Orpheus being ripped to pieces by Maenads. Heracles being driven mad by Hera (more than once) and murdering his own sons. Revenge. Intergenerational curses. Ghosts. Attempted infanticde. The first known werewolf stories (King Lycaon and his sons). Precursors to vampire stories (Empusa, Lamia). Oh, and let's not forget Procrustes, the host who stretched or cut people to fit his guest bed (I'm sure a forgotten precursor to all those motel horror stories.) Perhaps George R.R. Martin should do an adaptation of Greek myths--though that one shouldn't be for the kids.
Everything you mentioned here, I love! I have a friend who wrote some Dark Shadows audio plays. Love Carrie! Adore that collection of Greek Myths as well. Greek mythology was my first intro to monsters. Edith Hamilton to be exact. I was obsessed ever since. Thanks for your really thoughtful comment here. It was awesome to read how you came into horror.
One dark and stormy night three hobos sat around a campfire. One hobo looked at the other two and asked, do you want to hear a scary story? They both said yes and this is how it went. One dark and stormy night three hobos sat around a campfire. One hobo looked at the other two and asked, do you want to hear a scary story? They both said yes and ………..
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark may be mostly responsible for my current predilections. My 2nd grade teacher would read them to us and that rush of fear was instantly addictive. It hasn’t ever left me.
Besides the Goosebumps series, we used to have some pretty stellar YA horror writers here in the Low Lands. One of them was Paul Van Loon, who wrote a series that centered around a bus. One of them was made into a movie: "Gruesome School Trip", though I won't vouch for the quality. All the books were really short story collections with an overarching story (and I'm blanking on the definition of it), where the kids get read spooky stories and gradually they start to realise that there's something off-- you get the point. It was a phenomenal series and one of the only ones for younger children needing a monstrous fix-- like me!
Cool! I'll have to check that out. My youngest definitely needs the fix. Thanks for the rec. I think I found it Defanged Horror "The Spooky Bus". The cover art is cool!
scary stories to tell in the dark had such a huge impact on me as a kid. i was obsessed and i still am. also i had an audiobook version of Shel Silverstein's a light in the attic (on cassette!) that was so insanely weird and spooky that I listened to constantly.
Love Light in the Attic and cassettes! Those stories are very weird a spooky. Yeah, something about those scary stories that we interact with at just the right age. They never truly leave us.
It sounds as if I'm older than most of you. At the risk or dating myself, when "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" came out, I was already a teacher. I also wrote my first, (as yet unpublished) novel that year. My teenage years were during what one critic called the YA Stone Age, which, among other things, had little horror and hardly any supernatural horror. (Lois Duncan wrote "I Know What You Did Las Summer" and similar during the period, but I was unaware of them at the time.) R. L. Stine started "Goosebumps" longer after I was a kid.
When I was in middle school, I remember watching the kind of Gothic soap opera that eventually became outright horror, "Dark Shadows." It wasn't intended for kids, but because it was during the day, the violence level was pretty low. Still, it had vampires, werewolves, witches from the 18th Century, possession, ghosts, time travel, parallel universes, various malevolent spell casters--all on a shockingly low special effects budget. (As if in unintended prophecy of Stephen King, the show was set in a small Maine town.) It also inspired my first attempt at a novel, which thankfully, I never finished. It was a little too close to its original inspiration.
"Carrie" was published in 1974, the year I graduated from high school, and I soon found it and became hooked on King. At some point before that, though, I'd found HP Lovecraft and read every horror story, as well as some of his early fantasy. I read a lot of other fantasy and science fiction as well, but I think Lovecraft and his circle were about the only horror I can immediately remember.
Not very chronological of me, but I should also mention reading D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths as a kid. Not horror (or even fantasy, unless we count all old myths as fantasy), but certainly influential in developing my interest in reading and in non-realistic fiction. But think about Greek myths a little--they're rampant with horror themes, even though the D'Aulaire presentation is pretty mild. Sons castrating their fathers. Sons killing both parents (Oedipus) or just Mom (Orestes). Cronus eating his children. Atreus serving his brother, Thyestes, a feast including the flesh of his murdered sons. Orpheus being ripped to pieces by Maenads. Heracles being driven mad by Hera (more than once) and murdering his own sons. Revenge. Intergenerational curses. Ghosts. Attempted infanticde. The first known werewolf stories (King Lycaon and his sons). Precursors to vampire stories (Empusa, Lamia). Oh, and let's not forget Procrustes, the host who stretched or cut people to fit his guest bed (I'm sure a forgotten precursor to all those motel horror stories.) Perhaps George R.R. Martin should do an adaptation of Greek myths--though that one shouldn't be for the kids.
Everything you mentioned here, I love! I have a friend who wrote some Dark Shadows audio plays. Love Carrie! Adore that collection of Greek Myths as well. Greek mythology was my first intro to monsters. Edith Hamilton to be exact. I was obsessed ever since. Thanks for your really thoughtful comment here. It was awesome to read how you came into horror.
One dark and stormy night three hobos sat around a campfire. One hobo looked at the other two and asked, do you want to hear a scary story? They both said yes and this is how it went. One dark and stormy night three hobos sat around a campfire. One hobo looked at the other two and asked, do you want to hear a scary story? They both said yes and ………..
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark may be mostly responsible for my current predilections. My 2nd grade teacher would read them to us and that rush of fear was instantly addictive. It hasn’t ever left me.
It's so true. There is something about those creepy short stories. Just enough to freak you out forever and get you addicted to horror.
💯
Besides the Goosebumps series, we used to have some pretty stellar YA horror writers here in the Low Lands. One of them was Paul Van Loon, who wrote a series that centered around a bus. One of them was made into a movie: "Gruesome School Trip", though I won't vouch for the quality. All the books were really short story collections with an overarching story (and I'm blanking on the definition of it), where the kids get read spooky stories and gradually they start to realise that there's something off-- you get the point. It was a phenomenal series and one of the only ones for younger children needing a monstrous fix-- like me!
Cool! I'll have to check that out. My youngest definitely needs the fix. Thanks for the rec. I think I found it Defanged Horror "The Spooky Bus". The cover art is cool!
scary stories to tell in the dark had such a huge impact on me as a kid. i was obsessed and i still am. also i had an audiobook version of Shel Silverstein's a light in the attic (on cassette!) that was so insanely weird and spooky that I listened to constantly.
Love Light in the Attic and cassettes! Those stories are very weird a spooky. Yeah, something about those scary stories that we interact with at just the right age. They never truly leave us.