{"id":7719,"date":"2019-01-22T06:09:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T11:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7719"},"modified":"2019-01-22T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T11:13:08","slug":"notes-from-the-dark-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7719","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Dark Side"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"raven\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s news I like to hear from an anthology editor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrote Lyn Worthen, \u201cI am proud to announce that Quoth the Raven<\/a><\/em>, which was recently named the Best Anthology of 2018 by the Critters Workshop\/Preditors and Editors Annual Reader’s Poll, is now on the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Quoth the Raven,<\/em>\npoets and short story authors tell a contemporary tale, riffing on the style\nand sensibility of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe\u2019s \u201cBerenice\u201d inspired my story, \u201cTooth\nand Nail,\u201d and now some of my family members hesitate to be in a room alone\nwith me . . . Nevertheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Dark Fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fellow QtR<\/em>\nauthor, Tiffany Michelle Brown interviewed several of the collection\u2019s 32\nauthors on why they are attracted to dark fiction. \u201cWhy do you think we like to\nread about the things that terrify us?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emerian Rich, author of the story \u201cMy Annabel\u201d says, \u201cHorror\naddicts like to be scared in a safe, non-harmful way. Creep me out, test my limits,\npush me over the edge as long as in reality I am safe in my warm bed, able to\nswitch on the light and see the monsters are just in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can this predilection be traced to the fight or flight\ninstincts developed over millennia? Susan McCAuley, author of \u201cThe Cask,\u201d thinks\nso. Our world today is relatively safe, she says, and \u201cgoing to scary movies,\nreading scary stories, and going on scary rides, helps fulfill a part of us that\nisn\u2019t being used very often, at least in countries where all our major survival\nneeds are met.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her theory may get some support from Donea Lee Weaver,\nauthor of \u201cThe Ca(t)sualty,\u201d who admits that, for her, the attraction of dark\nfiction is \u201cthe adrenalin rush.\u201d She says she may be covering her eyes, \u201cbut I\u2019m\nstill peeking through my fingers, because I just have to know what happens\nnext.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories that Sonora Taylor, author of \u201cHearts are Just \u2018Likes\u2019\u201d says she\u2019s most drawn to aren\u2019t just about a dark force, but how someone\u2019s responding to that darkness\u201d and is possibly unhinged by it. Understandably, the Poe work that inspired her story was \u201cThe Tell-Tale Heart.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own answer to Tiffany\u2019s question is that \u201csometimes reading about\u2014exposing oneself to\u2014supremely terrifying things makes it easier to deal with the fearful events encountered in everyday life. Some experts suggest this accounts for the popularity among women of a certain kind of thriller. Reading about sexual violence helps readers contemplate not just the terror of such an event, but also its survivability. Maybe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases\u2014a few pennies to put in a jar to pay my WordPress bills. When you make a purchase through the Amazon link at left, you help me fill the jar. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raven artwork by rebeccarawrr, creative commons license. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s news I like to hear from an anthology editor. Wrote Lyn Worthen, \u201cI am proud to announce that Quoth the Raven, which was recently named the Best Anthology of 2018 by the Critters Workshop\/Preditors and Editors Annual Reader’s Poll, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Notes from the Dark Side - why we're attracted to reading--and writing--about the things that terrify us.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,174,1160,513,120,60],"tags":[1448,1429,1428],"class_list":["post-7719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-horror","category-poetry","category-short-story","category-storytelling","tag-edgar-allan-poe","tag-lyn-worthen","tag-quoth-the-raven"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/raven-e1540381756438.png?fit=600%2C376&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-20v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7720,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719\/revisions\/7720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}