What Influenced Writing Scary Stories?

What Influenced Writing Scary Stories?

After contemplating this question I believe a reality moment happened today. You see, before I would always say that I never really had any kind of horror or scary related influence because I was never a horror movie fan. Well, I should clarify that I had seen a few scary movies in my youth such as Jaws, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. but I never considered myself a horror movie watcher. I know people who are hardcore horror buffs, but I never thought of myself as such…in fact, not even close. I spent much of my 20’s thru my 40’s never really looking for scary things to watch or read. It honestly never dawned on me until recently that I actually did have quite a bit of influence growing up…
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As a kid, I remember watching shows with my mother like The Munsters, The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Tales From The Dark Side, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, and late night weekends watching Elvira. I also remember movies like Dark Night of the Scarecrow (still one of my first favorites), The Lost Boys (one of my all time favorites), and even eating the famous monster cereals Frankenberry, Count Chocula, Yummy Mummy, Fruit Brut and Boo Berry. ..and do you remember Freakies cereal?

I believe honestly I spent a good 20 years of my life in denial when it came to the horror or scary genre of books, movies and shows. Not exactly sure why. In my mid-40’s I got hooked…and I mean hooked…on all the new ghost reality shows that came out; Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Towns, Haunted Asylums, Paranormal Caught on Camera, My Haunted House, Haunted Woods, and on and on.

Now with all of that, I have to give the biggest credit to my daughter Sadrie. She’s really the one who “jump started” my spooky story writing. It was a night on the screened in porch the fall of 2017. My wife, son and daughter and I had dinner on the porch and somehow we got to talking about scary movies and stories. I think I mentioned something about writing some type of spooky story (never honestly thinking the idea would go any further) but having doubt on whether I could actually pull it off.   And my daughter just says “Why don’t you just write one Dad.” So, I replied, “You know what, why don’t I.” and as if a bolt of lighting hit me (figuratively) I grabbed a notebook and started writing.

When I sat down on the porch to write I heard the train that often goes by our subdivision. A story suddenly and immediately popped into my head and my hand couldn’t write fast enough for my churning brain. My first spooky story “Stone Hollow” was born. And to this day it’s still my favorite of all my stories.