Within the horror genre there are several subgenres. Which one do you think is more popular at the moment? What about in the past? What are your predictions for the future?
Horror seems to run in cycles. No matter what's popular now or what was popular yesterday, the themes will eventually make a resurgence somewhere in the future cycles. They might be updated, modernized or given a fresh face but they're still similar underlying themes.
We seem to be in a part of the cycle where there's a glut of slasher/gore-fest and vampire horror around right now. When there's a glut, readers tend to wander off in search of something different. Sales slump and publishers start sniffing around for something else to sell. This makes the market appear flat or stale.
Sooner or later a fresh new style or something completely different to the usual stuff we see will appear and spark reader's interests again. Sales will spike and publishers will rush to grab hold of any copycat styles they can find, which then causes a glut and the market goes stale again until another new writer emerges with something fresh and original to begin it all again.
The great thing about cycles is that you can often sense when the wheel has turned full circle and it's about to launch into a new phase. I think this is what's about to happen to the genre in the near future.
When you look at the history of horror fiction, which type of supernatural "creatures" have had the most success and notoriety under the public eye - witches, ghosts, zombies, monsters, or vampires?
Unfortunately I think vampires have received the most success and notoriety lately. Vampires have been romanticized in recent times almost to the point of being nauseating. That's a shame because there's massive scope within these supernatural beings to create really cool, scary scenarios. Let's hope someone creates some really scary vampires soon and bring them back to their former horror-glory.
What is the scariest book you've ever read?
The books that get the little hairs on the back of my neck tingling most are the ones that affect me in ways I least expect. A good example of what I mean is Stephen King's Pet Sematary. It's not really a scary book, but my black cat, Scruffy had me creeped out for a few days after reading it (actually, he still creeps me out when he stalks my hair in the middle of the night).
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