His Youth and Education Robert Albert Bloch was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 5 in 1917, to two German Jews, Raphael Bloch and Stella Loeb who, despite their Jewish heritage, had the family attend a Methodist Church. When Bloch was only eight years of age, he attended a screening of Lon Chaney Sr.’s The Phantom of the Opera (1925) on his own, where he was traumatized by … [Read more...] about From Traumatized to Terror Creator, the Life of Robert Bloch
Books
Shirley Jackson: Novels, Short Stories, and Other Works
The Lottery (1948) The Lottery is a short story that Shirley Jackson wrote in 1948—it was written within the month of its first publication. It appeared within the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker and describes a fictional account of a small town that participates in a lottery of sorts. This particular short story has often been described as "one of the most famous … [Read more...] about Shirley Jackson: Novels, Short Stories, and Other Works
Interview with Horror Author John McFarland
PB - Tell me a bit about yourself and what got you started in horror writing.JM: I have always been a fan of horror. As a young kid, I loved the old Universal classic movies, Frankenstein and Dracula and the whole crew, as well as the giant monsters of the 1950s, the postwar dread of the new atomic age. I also loved the Roger Corman Poe films of the 1960s. I mention movies … [Read more...] about Interview with Horror Author John McFarland
The Tormented and Tortured, Troublemaker—Shirley Jackson
Early Life Born December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California--Shirley spent most of her childhood in North Burlingame, California. Shirley's maternal grandmother, a Christian Science faith healer lived with the Jacksons during Shirley's childhood—later she would bitterly recall a time when her little brother broke his arm and instead of taking him to the hospital, her … [Read more...] about The Tormented and Tortured, Troublemaker—Shirley Jackson
Lois Duncan–Making Waves and Winning Awards
If you haven't been following the Dead Author Dedication for the month of July, you might not be aware of Lois Duncan or what she contributed to the literary community. If that's the case, then here's the short of it: she was a warrior of literature who pioneered the Young Adult horror genre, something that has been continued on by well-known authors such as Neil Gaiman and … [Read more...] about Lois Duncan–Making Waves and Winning Awards