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Article by Cynthia Pelayo at 2011-12-24 17:11:38 Categorized in Blogs,

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Horror Stories

Story telling is truly an old art form in fact it was the first way we had of transferring or passing down knowledge, and sometimes that history that was passed down was in itself terrifying. The first horror stories may have been campfire stories of battle won and lost.

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural.

Supernatural horror stories tend to deal with subjects like folklore, superstition, religion, ghost, or demons. These are all powers that we may not be able to see but still believe that they have power over us. Horror stories like these don’t need blood necessarily to connive fear to the reader.

On the other hand non-supernatural horror stories deal with acts of human nature. In this area you get more into slasher horror, where you might have a serial killer committing acts of violence and terror on people. You won’t see any ghost here but you will more than likely get a lot of blood.

The genre has ancient origins which were reformulated in the eighteenth century as Gothic horror, with publication of the Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole.

Then there were the Gothic Blue Books which were short fictions popular in the 18th and 19th century. They were descendants of the chap book trade and are now a thing of the past. What was a Gothic Blue Book?

Gothic Blue Books were abridgements of full-length Gothic novels. The subjects of the books fell into one of two categories; the first being set in a monastery or convent and the second being set in a castle. In terms of the physicality of the book, they were three and a half to four inches in width and six to seven inches in height, with a page count of thirty-six to seventy-two pages in length.

These little pieces of terror were popular at the time because they were affordable, a sixpence or a shilling each. Their cost affordability led them to be nicknamed Shilling Shockers or Sixpenny Shockers.

Burial Day Books presents its first Gothic Blue Book, The Haunted Edition. The following twelve short stories and two poems honor the Gothic story. Misery, fear, despair, regret and dread are highlighted in the following pages, stirring old ghosts, witches, and awakening death. The following collection of new and established horror authors weave together brilliant tales of terror celebrating the history of the Gothic story with a new twist.

Burial Day Books is a boutique publisher of supernatural horror.  Once a month we feature an established or emerging horror writer. These short supernatural horror stories deal with elements of superstition, folklore or myth. We look for writers that are innovative but can also give a nod to past – classic horror. We feature stories with limited gore and limited extreme violence because of the belief that fear, true fear, comes from the unknown. Go to http://www.burialday.com/ to read these scary horror stories.