KNOWHOW Things that go bump in the night
For as long as I can remember, reading and writing spooky things has been to my taste. I guess it could be something to do with being born just after midnight on Halloween - perhaps it was fated! My birthday parties were always Halloween themed - my mum was a dab hand at making a special drawn icing that created spiderwebs on everything. I kept up this tradition for my children - and even got married at Halloween one year, complete with a black wedding dress and Halloween wedding cake.
We were avid readers in our house, so every Saturday my sister and I would rush down to our local second-hand bookshop with our pocket money, buying creepy books and American comic books filled with gothic, horror and science fiction stories. We wanted to get our hands on as many Astounding Stories and Creepy Worlds as we could find.
Ray Bradbury was - and still is - my favourite author. From the Dust Returned is a collection of short stories published in various magazines, brought together into a connected narrative. The stories were about the strangely gothic Elliott family with everything from a strange vampire uncle to a mummified auntie - plus the one 'regular' child. It tells a touching and emotionally resonant story of otherness. I have ADHD, and I think it spoke to my neurodivergent little heart as a child. It helped me to see that it was OK to be different - whatever that means, you can still be valued and loved. Our writing is important - and our themes can help the children who read our books make sense of the world.
Today, as far as my reading, writing and viewing go, I am still obsessed with the uncanny and the abject. I write horror for children and adults - including my academic writing. I even teach about horror in my genres module at Falmouth University.
I have written picture books full of creepy-cute aliens, chapter books about haunted schools and a YA novel about witches - are you sensing a theme yet?
Two books from the Too Ghoul for School series written under the pseudonym B.Strange
In this series of KnowHow articles, I am going to share my experiences and ideas - but in more exciting news, I am going to call on guests to share their tips for writing all things haunted and horrible - so watch this space! But to get you started, here's something to think about, to stir up the spectres and get the ghosts groaning and shaking their chains:
What scared you as a child? Was it the monster lurking under the bed? The branches scraping at the window? The closet door slowly opening...? The creak on the staircase? Lean into those memories and ask the child inside what used to keep them awake at night, peering into the pool of darkness beyond the glow of the night-light. Tapping into that fear will help you to come up with a creepy concept that could just become a bestseller!
Next month we will look at writing gently spooky tales for the tiniest readers.
*Header image: In-house collaboration between Ell Rose and Tita Berredo
* Other images courtesy of Lynn Huggins-Cooper
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Ell Rose is the Illustration Features Editor of Words & Pictures. Follow them on Instagram and X (Twitter) and find their work at www.fourfooteleven.com
Contact them at illustrators@britishscbwi.org
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