Unlikely inspiration (for the layman)

Back in 2009, when I wrote my fifth novel The Murderers, I would read a short story by Hemingway before I started writing.

It helped.

A lot.

I used to read voraciously.

But as of 2013 (when I rediscovered graphic novels) I've tended to gravitate towards reading either graphic novels, screenplays, autobiographies or short stories.

In summer of 2015 that changed and I began reading novels again.

Only this time I went back to when I was a teenager and began reading paperback horror novels.

See, when I'd go through the paperback horror section of my local used book store, I'd sometimes look for books by authors I knew, or books that had been adapted into my favorite movies (or sometimes even novelizations of my favorite movies), but more often than not, I'd look for books that had the coolest (and sometimes cheesiest cover). Turns out these books (more often than not) would be some of the best literary experiences of my life. They'd be well-written, have three-dimensional characters, original and creative descriptions and plots. They were awesome! And I always wondered why these guys were never as huge as Stephen King or Peter Straub or Dean Koontz.
The short answer is that writing was a second career for these guys. Most of them were doctors, white collar workers or just average joes who sat down to a word processor (or typewriter) and cranked out a novel. They were just happy to see a tiny company like Signet or Fawcet or Tor publish their books and to see them at the check-out counter of the supermarket (and, occasionally, to have them adapted into movies).

Anyhow, I bring this up because this summer I am reading Howling II by Gary Brandner (who, sadly, passed away in 2013); I read the first Howling book in summer 2015 and I immediately ran out and bought every paperback they had of his at Patton Books in Maplewood. Whichever of his books I couldn't find, I bought on Kindle. I did the same thing with Diana Henstell when I first read her book Friend (which Wes Craven made into the film Deadly Friend) in 2011.

Howling II is great inspiration for Personal Demons 2. And I guess it's pretty appropriate that I start out my summer horror paperback reading marathon with a sequel novel just as I am writing the sequel screenplay to one of my favorite scripts. Howling II (which, by the way, has no relation to any of the Howling film sequels... neither does Brandner's Howling III: Echoes... Just like the sequels Robert Bloch wrote to Psycho and their lack of relationship to any of the film sequels) is showing me how extremely well-craft a sequel can be... and how organically they can evolve... but, more, it's showing me how necessary sequels can be when there's more story to tell in a universe that is too big for one story.