[witt19800]

Another thing I've noticed. I've sampled a lot of books on amazon, reading the first few pages.

And I realize now that genre is only part of it. More important is the author's voice. The way he puts one word after another. Where he puts a period, where he puts a comma, where he starts and stops a paragraph, and with which rhythm. The way he fucks around on the page. When a writer writes, he converses with you. You listen to the way he talks and thinks and you know exactly who he is as a person.

Having said that, James Ellroy is a better horror writer than most horror writers I've sampled. He does crime fiction. But his voice is so dark... I was reading LA Confidential and the book is gruesome. Some of the passages are a nightmare. Now that's voice. You could listen to him tell you how to make a casserole and there'd be an undertow of darkness. His mother was murdered when he was young and it shows in every word.

So ideally, I'd like to find a book where there is a marriage between the darkness of the genre (horror) and the darkness of the writer. When I flip through Stephen King or Clive Barker, I get the impression I could kick his ass in a fight. I don't want that. We're dealing with Fear here folks. You should write hard, ferocious sentences.

Don't be afraid of the characters, be afraid of the author.