The idea of genre is somewhat obvious, and somewhat murky. It can be rigid for some fans, and irrelevant to others.

I was reading some thoughts from readers of various niches that were very particular about what belongs in them and what doesn't. There were some complaints there about ...

In a world with its own Creation story that has its own female God and the Devil, it also includes humans, orcs, trolls, vampires, elves, and aliens. In this world, the good are given gifts and the bad were transformed into less ideal forms. For her creations, God also created ...

Metaphors in Horror



Horror is perfect for metaphor and allegory. In fact, a horror story is often allegorical by default, what with its bizarre landscapes and freaky beasties.

Here are some categories of horror and some thoughts on what they symbolize:

Reality Bites


psycho killer! Qu'est-ce que c'est ...

So if vampires are a hot mess and haters are at the gates what can YOU learn from vampires? Well, a lot, vampires are not the only over extended sub-genre out there. Let's explore another genre that is trying to avoid ending up in a similar space, superheroes, specifically ...

It's a vampire, break out your torches and pitch forks! The geek have inherited the earth, but far from it being an accepting utopia, the acceptable targets have just changed and the haters run free. There are a lot of things that people like to crap on, but few ...

Earlier today Ozoneocean made a pretty interesting post at Facebook, regarding how demons are depicted in modern culture as opposed to how they were earlier, and especially what they symbolized in western culture: they are now generally depicted as sexy, good, glittering, or misunderstood. If they are doing negative things ...

So you've got your maniacs, masked or otherwise. Scary! Or how about savage animals from, whether realistic or altered in some way? Or maybe monsters like vampires, zombies, were-folk and…er…mummies are your jam? Or what about ghosts, spirits and alien beasties?

When it comes to horror fiction ...

METAPHORROR

Hey, they're always tellin' me to recycle!

Last Halloween I did a breakdown of four categories of horror. So I've repurposed it here, images and all, to talk about the metaphorical nature of horror.

Horror is perfect for metaphor and allegory. In fact, a horror story is ...

Welcome to the wonderfully creepy forest of Kellwood, a dank, yet cosy place, home to some very unusual inhabitants of the creepy yet deliciously cute kind… demons, vampires, werewolves and more! Poor Menu is a werewolf with no life skills who's starving, his only asset is an amazingly fantastic ...

-a famous Star Trek episode that was an anvil-on-the-head racism allegory

ALLEGORY
Back in October, I took a little stab, if you will, at separating horror into various categories. Here's the link to that article:

http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2015/oct/07/things-that-go-duck-in-the-night/

What I didn't have ...