Stephen King autograph, plus thoughts on horror, Drew Daywalt, and my Little Nightmares art

Page from my childhood autograph album. And yes, I deeply regret using one of those adhesive sticky-tack albums for my collection.

Continuing to go through my office stuff. I also just remembered that I owe a certain blogger photos of stuff in my office, so I figured I'll post some photos here as well.

I used to read a lot of horror when I was a kid, especially Stephen King's early work. I preferred horror books over horror films because I felt I had more control. Loved the idea of being totally freaked out by the creepystuff in the story, but from the safety and comfort of the living room couch. Or beneath the covers in my bed, hugging a pillow to my chest as I read.

My favourite Stephen King book: Different Seasons, a collection of four Stephen King novellas. WONDERFUL storytelling. So not surprised that three of the four novellas in this collection ended up being turned into Hollywood films.

Stephen King novel I found the scariest: The Shining. Especially the hallway scene with the fire hose. If you're familiar with the book, YOU KNOW THE ONE. No, I haven't seen the movie. When it came out, I didn't want to see it because I thought it would be too scary. Now, I don't want to see it because I don't want the movie to dilute my memory of reading the book.

Anyway, I love my Stephen King autograph, which I got by sending a letter and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the author via his publisher at the time. If you look closely, you can see where he made a couple of typos, and fixed one of these with correction fluid.

I still love reading horror nowadays, but lean toward horror for young people. My recent favourite: THE NIGHT GARDENER by Jonathan Auxier.

I still don't watch pure horror films in the theatre because I still don't think I could take it. However, I do have a weakness for zombies, especially if there is humor. Which is why I loved Shaun Of The Dead (this trailer is not for young viewers!):

I also just discovered (and loved) Drew Daywalt's mini horror films on YouTube. Again,  NOT for young viewers:

For fellow kidlit-types out there: Drew Daywalt is also the author of THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT, which was illustrated by Oliver Jeffers and is one of my favourite picture books ever.

And after seeing the above mini-films, I am DYING TO MEET THIS GUY EVEN MORE.

Someday.

Title: "Oh, The Horror!"

I used to do a lot of monster doodles called Little Nightmares. One was included in the portfolio which helped get the attention of publishers at SCBWI-LA in 2010. The original Little Nightmares are too scary for picture books, I think, plus all that black is...well....too BLACK. I haven't given up on doing a Little Nightmare picture book someday, and have started playing around with variations of my monsters. I'll be gradually adding them to my Monster Portfolio, for those curious.

And now I've rambled on way too much about horror and must get back to work. Just got feedback re: my illustration for the cover of WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? from Laurent as well as a rough mockup to work with. I LOOOOOVE Laurent's cover design! Will post when it's finished.

To finish this post, here's my all-time favourite zombie song, which is RE: YOUR BRAINS by Jonathan Coulton: