Limits? What Limits? I’m a Horror Writer

by

Alex Laybourne

When creating anything that is going out into the public domain, there is always that question of, The Line. That imaginary boundary that limits the artist, that keeps them within the borders of the socially acceptable.

Luckily, I’m a horror writer. I truly believe that horror is the last genre to be unhindered by boundaries. There is not one idea or story that could not be successfully written about in a horror novel. There are no taboos when talking about horror. Sure, as a writer we would all have our own personal limits. Certain stories or plot twists that we would not use. That does not make it a boundary through, not in the sense of what is acceptable to the public. Horror should, in varying measures, terrify, sicken and disturb. It should make people shudder and to want to shut the pages, avert their eyes and thing of rainbows and unicorns. That is what makes horror so great. 

We are the final literary adventurers. A dying breed of writers who stand proud and write not only what people want to read, but need to. I will go as far as saying that Horror needs to push the boundaries further and further. Horror cannot have a limit because humanity is the sickest and most terrifying of all characters, and as long as real life keeps creating fresh monsters, so fiction must adapt to keep the terror on the pages alive. 

Realities are there to be stretched, horror, unlike any other genre, should not just be about the words on the page, or the story within the book. True horror should stay with you long after the book closed. Take The Shining from Stephen King or pretty much anything by Clive Barker. Those books are great stories, but even better works of horror, for they leave something behind, clinging to the soul. It is impossible shake. Reading those books changes you, in some small, unnoticeable way. You don’t generate that effect by staying within the limits of the socially acceptable, or by writing mainstream pop culture monsters. You get it by being a visionary, by taking an idea and twisting it into something hideous. Starve it. Poke it with a stick. Then release it out into the world.

Highway to Hell by Alex Laybourne

Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demons, these things were once considered opposites, but now you will see that they are neighbors, allies…. friends.

Marcus, Becky, Richard, Helen, Sammy and Graham. All complete strangers, different ages, backgrounds and even countries, but they all have one major thing in common…

They all must DIE.

Sentenced to offer their penance in the many chambers of Hell, their lives are nothing but a torturous experience. They are brought face to face with their past, their mistakes and the implications that had for others. Until one by one they are rescued and thrown together. Waking in a dying world, they are introduced to their rescuers who do anything but conform to their angelic stereotype.

Together, bonded by an unknown destiny the group is set on their quest; to find one individual buried deep within the many Hell worlds. Not only does the fate of their world rest on their shoulders, but that of existence itself.

Purchase Links:
Amazon.com 
Amazon.de  
Amazon.co.uk 
Smashwords 
Blog