Title: Escaping Lucidity
Author: Ty Schwamberger
Genre: Dark Horror Anthology
Length: 448 pages
Release Date: August 1, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1511987936
SYNOPSIS:
Escaping Lucidity is the complete short works of Ty Schwamberger. Within this tome you’ll be taken on a terror-filled ride through dark woods, the desert, a graveyard and dark streets, where monsters and strange creatures run amok. The other half of this collection is filled with characters driven to the brink of insanity, coping with the loss of loved ones, spousal abuse and fighting crime on the mean city streets. You’ll also find “Author Notes” after each story written by Schwamberger himself giving insight on why he wrote each particular story, interesting facts about characters, the story’s setting and where the work first appeared.
Are you ready for a mind-bending ride?
If not, don’t say you weren’t warned... ‘cause bad things tend to happen when you’re trying to escape lucidity.
Available Here
AUTHOR INFORMATION & LINKS
Ty Schwamberger is an award-winning author & editor in the horror genre. He is the author of a novel, multiple novellas, collections and editor on several anthologies. In addition, he’s had many short stories published online and in print. Three stories, “Cake Batter” (released in 2010), “House Call” (released in June 2013) and DININ’ (optioned in July 2013), have been optioned for film adaptation. He is an Active Member of the International Thriller Writers. Learn more at http://tyschwamberger or follow along at @SchwambergerTy.
“Horror—Check Yourself at the Door”
by Ty Schwamberger
If you look up ‘horror’ (a noun) in a dictionary, you’ll find something similar to the following—an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror (I particularly like the dictionary’s example of something horrific).
But, I think horror, true horror, is something that is embedded deep within the human psyche and can be different from person to person depending on past experiences you’ve gone through. This also explains why some people like watching or reading scary stuff, while some do not.
Let me explain.
I think, at least to some degree, that all people like to be scared. It is just part of human nature. Have you personally or ever notice someone cover their eyes when watching a scary scene in a movie? Sure you have. These people act like they don’t want to see what is happening, but are still looking through the spaces in between their fingers. Some people say we, as humans, are inherently good. Overall, I believe that is true. But, at the same time we all have a ‘bad’ side. It is that bad side that comes out when we watch the news or almost marvel at the destruction that some mad man just caused on the highway or in someone’s living room. If we didn’t like hearing about other people’s misfortunes we would turn off the news, press the off button on the DVD player or put down the book. But . . . we don’t. Instead we just shake our heads and think (and never or rarely ever say out loud) “I am so glad that it didn’t happen to me.”
Personally, I like writing scary stuff simply because that is what I have always been into (I grew up watching the slasher films from the 1980s). I like how a horror writer can make pretty much anything into something scary.
For example, a horror writer can start a serene story with a man walking a cute dog down the street, enjoying the outdoors, his life and his dog. Now, you can make that scary by having a madman in a car jump the curb, taking them both out. Say the dog dies and the guy ends up in the hospital and has to fight for his life. Then after getting out of the hospital, perhaps the guy goes on a mission to find the reckless driver and put him out of his misery.
See what I mean? Even the everyday things we enjoy (walking a cute dog down a nice quiet street in middle-America suburbia) can turn into someone’s nightmare.
That is what writing horror is all about. Trying new angles on a classic story or character or writing about something no one else has ever thought about before.
As far as those out there that say, “I don’t like watching scary movies or reading scary books”—you better check yourself at the door to your high school English class. Because if you like ‘classic literature’ then you’ve probably read horror before (Romeo and Juliet killing themselves in the name of love is pretty horrific—and pretty much just downright dumb) and might have even enjoyed it (those stories were always too tame for my taste) and if you watch your local news—guess what?—you’re watching horror in real life taking place (which is far worse than any writer could come up with—maybe) and . . . okay, I better stop before I get on too much of a rant here.
Horror is all around us whether you enjoy watching or reading it or not. It’s in your face in the media—the made-up stuff and reports of unfortunate things that happen to innocent people on a daily basis. Some of it is fascinating in a macabre sort of way (the made-up stuff, of course . . . ha ha), while some of it is just downright sick. I guess when it comes down to brass tacks, horror means different things to difference people—but really it’s all the same thing—horror. So, if you’re one of the people that look down on people that like to watch a good scary movie or read a great horror novel, you better watch who you’re bashing, because more than likely you’re just putting yourself down as well.
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