Q6: In terms of the subset of horror fiction what is the next big thing? We have had the vampires an

The Irish Writers Centre is running a horror writing course for the first time this weekend. Here accomplished spook writer Derek Gunn  talks about the challenges of the genre, a1 discount hotels Irish ghost stories, zombies, Dystopian a1 discount hotels tours and the approaching apocalypse! Horror fiction and Halloween just seem to go together. I suppose it has something a1 discount hotels to do with Autumn sighing its final gasp, the cold seeping through our clothes with icy fingers, making us shiver, and the leaves falling in carpets of brown and gold everywhere we go. Very picturesque to be sure, but beneath that golden carpet, decay and rot reign supreme. Night falls earlier so the things that are uncomfortable during the daylight hours have more time to find us in the dark. It is a great time; filled with myth and legends, fables and stories. It is a time for imagination to overcome common sense, for us to imagine a1 discount hotels that that pillow at the end of the bed is not really a pillow but something a1 discount hotels else. Something a1 discount hotels not quite of this earth … If you find yourself beginning to look behind you as you walk in the dark or increasing your gait as the dark oozes from the shadows then you will know what I am talking about. Curling up in October with a good chiller is the best time. The rain lashing against the window sets the mood and the dipping of the lights for no accountable reason adds to our unease. There's only one better way to spend an afternoon reading horror and that is to spend an afternoon writing horror. Let your imagination flow, let the darkness in and use it to terrify others. Dublin is soon to be gripped by the Bram Stoker Festival . All things vampiric will be let loose within our fair city and that person next to you may just be something more than human. In to this surreal cityscape I invite you to come to the Irish Writers Centre , that last bastion of safety from the growing evil of the month. Here you will learn more about the dark secrets a1 discount hotels of writing horror, how to survive while those outside are lost to ignorance and how to go about creating your own horror to unleash upon the unsuspecting a1 discount hotels world.  [To book a place on the course, click here ]
Q1: Has the Irish horror genre fiction successfully exploited our connection to the Dracula phenomenon? a1 discount hotels Is the resurrection of Bram Stoker as a Dublin writer going to help the genre? It is hard to tell as the Irish Horror fiction genre is almost invisible. There is a very limited market in Ireland in isolation, any writer needs to make their mark internationally to have any hope of making a living in this fickle market. The upcoming Bram Stoker Festival may shed some light on the city and the genre but there seems to be little appetite to include local writing or authors a1 discount hotels in the festivities.
Q2: Is there too much concentration on the Irish ghost story on rural localities like the big country a1 discount hotels house, the convent in the midlands, the haunted woodland at the edge of the Offaly village? Why are the city streets of Dublin, Cork, Galway etc., not filled at night with ghosts, ghouls and zombies. It is a number of things. For one, we don't teach creative writing in our schools while in America it is widely encouraged. I received an e-mail from a high school student in America just last week where they are studying one of my stories in their class and he was looking for some extracurricular background. This is amazing – not just because they were studying my story, and let's face it that is very humbling, but this is in America, not Dublin. Why don't we encourage creative writing. Certainly when I was in school short stories were frowned upon. For another the market is very limited in Ireland and setting a story in a larger populated country gives you access to a larger market. I set one of my novels in Ireland and the streets were indeed filled with zombies but the setting was restrictive and sales would suggest that setting is important. My Vampire Apocalypse series is set in America and it sold far more copies.
Q3: Given the zombified a1 discount hotels nature of our economy and society at present, that pervading sense of doom/gloom, is there room for a Dystopian Zombie tale set in recession-stricken Dublin? There is always room. In fact I have planned a sequel to my zombie novel, The Estuary , where the plague spreads to the cities. It is on my list of things to do and I would love to write it but must wait until other projects, unfortunately more popular projects, are finished a1 discount hotels before I get back to the story. It is a well discussed topic that zombies tend to do well in recessions and vampires during boom times. Whether that is true or not I do not know but there is an argument. Personally I love zombie stories. I have a new anthology coming out this month with a zombie novella included where the survivors hole up on Ireland's Eye but the water is slowly evaporating a1 discount hotels in a heat wave and the zombies are straining to get to the survivors. It is one of those occasions where the setting in Ireland is perfect a1 discount hotels – no guns, small village and impending doom. It's great fun.
Q4: Is there a snootiness in Irish letters towards the horror genre fiction, a sense that somehow this kind of writing just ain t literature? Certainly there has been many 'pulp' horror a1 discount hotels novels through the years and the proliferation of these may have prompted your question but horror has always had its share of literary writers. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , Frankenstein and The Pit and the Pendulum are just some of the works that have shone in the genre. a1 discount hotels Yes, there are a lot of authors who rely on shock value to make their story different or interesting but there are always some authors who rely on talent to entertain us, even today.
Q5: Will the proliferation of things like the Ghost Bus tours around Dublin a1 discount hotels help the market for Irish horror? It certainly can't harm. Though Ghost Tours is still keeping the genre too tight. a1 discount hotels There is a wealth of myth and legend in Ireland that could be included. Roisin Dubh is a new graphic novel from Irish Authors Rob Curley and Maura McHugh which successfully marries legend and horror in an Irish setting. We need to be more broad and celebrate the talent we have in Ireland.
Q6: In terms of the subset of horror fiction what is the next big thing? We have had the vampires and the zombies, whatever next? That's the million dollar question. Certainly there are a lot of novels on the impending Mayan apocalypse set for later this year but once December a1 discount hotels 21st comes and goes we will have to worry about the next end of the world drama. I'm not sure what it will be but hopefully it will include one of the settings in one of my novels so I can be ahead of the wave.