Dark, soulful tales that haunt long after the last page.
reading
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Why I Write Horror — And Why You May Need It
Why I Write Horror—And Why You Might Need It People ask me sometimes—why horror? They ask it like I’ve made a strange, almost impolite choice. Like I could have written something nice. A romance. A cozy mystery. Something where the dog doesn’t die and everyone learns a heartwarming lesson by the end. I’ve written books…
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When Memory Fails, Do the Sins Stay?
What happens to a man’s soul when his mind is gone? It’s a question that haunted me long before I ever wrote The Dead of the Day. I’ve seen people I cared about fade slowly into the fog of dementia—forgetting names, faces, entire chapters of their lives. The body stays, the eyes still open, but…
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Writing the Unlikeable Protagonist—and Making Readers Care
There’s a certain pressure in fiction to make your protagonist likable. Relatable. Sympathetic. You’re supposed to give readers someone they want to root for—someone they’d grab a beer with or follow into battle. But sometimes, the story demands someone worse. Someone angry. Someone broken. Someone who’s said and done things you can’t defend. Someone like…
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Oklahoma Gothic: Horror in Flyover Country
Oklahoma Gothic: Horror in Flyover Country When most people think of Gothic horror, they imagine crumbling castles, fog-drenched moors, or Spanish moss hanging off antebellum mansions. But Gothic doesn’t belong exclusively to Europe or the American South. There’s a different kind of Gothic hiding in the plains and hills of Oklahoma. Maybe we don’t have…
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The Thin Wall Between Life and Death in Nursing Homes
Nursing homes have always creeped me out. My first experience in one was in maybe the 4th grade as a Cub Scout. Our den mother took us to a nearby nursing home to sell raffle tickets or something. I remember old women sitting in a lobby like they were waiting for us. Waiting to take…
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What If You Could Never Confess Your Sins?
Imagine being raised to believe in God and Satan, Heaven and Hell, and choosing to allow your baser nature to govern your actions. You’re mean, selfish, abusive to your wife, children, and animals. But you believe it’ll all be okay because you’ll confess or repent on your deathbed. But then you develop dementia and can’t…
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The Healing Power of Literature
This post isn’t about writing. It’s quite a bit about literature, but really it’s about personal problems and healing. I don’t usually share such personal stuff here, but I feel compelled to do it tonight. If that isn’t for you, skip this post, but come back soon. Books have always been my refuge. As a…
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Six Novels and Their Lessons: A Writer’s Reflection
Driving home from the dog park tonight, a random image from my past popped into my head. It was a scene from the fourth novel I finished sometime back in about 1992. You probably know that Shara was my first published novel, originally released in 2003, but it was the seventh novel I’d completed. I…
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From Failure to Flow: My Writing Revival Story
Writers are emotional creatures. Some of us have hot tempers, fragile egos, narcissism, and a host of other issues. These often come with unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drug and alcohol addiction. I’m lucky in that I don’t have the temper, the narcissism (I think) or the addictions. But, yeah, sometimes my ego takes a…
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2024 Books in Review
There was a time I’d read 50 books a year. I can’t seem to do that anymore. In 2024, I read 33 books. Of those, 11 were rereads (in most cases, it had been decades since I last read them). Only six titles earned my 5-star review, but only one got a 1-star review. Let’s…
Steven E. Wedel 