Fear of horror

I spent the first twenty-seven years of my life completely oblivious that some people thought an interest in horror was ... well, a little abnormal. Stephen King has been asked again and again, to the point of lunacy, why he would want to write about 'that stuff', and during a home screening of the movie Saw last night, someone asked, "Who comes up with this shit?"

I raised my hand, eliciting a look of perplexity (presumably that I should confess to such unnatural deeds).

All serious writers are asked eventually going to be asked where they get their ideas, and the writer of SF, fantasy or horror is going to be asked the most. It seems to me that those who ask the most often have the smallest imaginations, and therefore an active imagination is something strange, even something to fear. Particularly as reality TV and other intellect-sapping pastimes gain precedence, the use of the imagination -- essential to any reader of fiction -- begins to atrophy. What will be the final result of this? I'll leave that up to your imagination...

The Fearless Writer