The Book That Would Not Die: DAY 47

Fresh out of anything remotely interesting to say that doesn't involve Greek mythology, Apocalyptic prophecy or kinky sex with toys -- but fearing the threats of dire retribution from her brilliant and ever-stylish crit partner if she doesn't update soon -- the desperate blogger relies on pimping other folks' posts, making note of a recent review, and blathering on about the difference between dark fantasy and horror.

~Lilith Saintcrow, author of the excellent Dante Valentine series (among others), talks about the "visual writer" over at The Midnight Hour. Nifty.

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~Maura Frankman of the Romance Studio gives DIRTY SHAME four stars and a nice review:

"Joey Fiorello is an out of work actress desperate for a job; she also has the voice of her dead sister constantly nagging her in her head. She answers an ad for a personal assistant and finds herself employed by the notorious Hollywood bad boy Dare Daniels. His agent assures her that she isn’t his type, she is short, dark, and curvy and he likes them tall, thin, and blonde. He also has a stalker who wants to kill him, but he doesn’t know that yet. Advised by his therapist to go home to work out his issues, the two fly to rural Kansas where Dare is definitely not the most popular guy in town. Hopefully the two will both survive the trip.

Joey is one of the best characters that I have read about in a while. She is definitely not the Hollywood ingénue type and she definitely has a Brooklyn attitude. Dare needs someone to kick him in the butt. He spends most of his time drunk or passed out and needs someone like Joey to straighten him out. The stressful situation brings them together and causes conflict at the same time. Dare has a pretty terrible secret in his past and the tabloids would love to get hold of it, they could also have a field day with the pair’s pretty public couplings. The tabloid reporter already in town nearly gets a really big story but for the tough Joey. The would-be murderer was a complete surprise to me, though all the hints were there. This is a very well done romantic suspense story with hotter than average love scenes and two charismatic main characters who really need each other, and don’t forget the bossy ghost!"

(DIRTY SHAME is available in ebook form, and in trade paperback as part of my SIN STREET collection.)

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~I've heard it said that true horror can't be sexy. I'd beg to differ. One of the hottest scenes I've ever read happened in the first third of Uncle Stevie's PET SEMATARY...the bathtub scene? Anybody else remember that?

Yeah, I know, that book ended VERY badly. Or very well, depending on how you feel about the wiping out of an entire family, including the cat. (Okay, the little girl lived, but I'm sure she ended up being raised by the grandparents who caused most of the tragedy by fucking up her mother in the first place.)

I'm writing a book -- which started out as a novella and got away from me in the past week -- that I thought could be called a dark fantasy, but as the story develops, I'm seeing a real edging toward horror in at least two scenes. And I'm not sure where I draw that line, but like porn, I know it when I read it.

What I want to know is this: Where is the line for you? When does dark fantasy become horror? Is it all about the gore? Is it a certain kind of monster or bad guy or supernatural-ity?

Is it about the ending? (Happy ending = fantasy, sad/bad ending = horror. If that's the correct equation, I guess I'm writing dark erotic fantasy with elements of horror...maybe?)

And how do you feel about dark erotic fantasy versus erotic horror?

I'm askin'.

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