Writing Holiday-Themed Horror – Guest Post by David Vorhees

Growing up, I always loved holidays even if they presented some bad moments.

I grew up with an alcoholic mother who happened to be involved with an abusive boyfriend for many years, and even with that, most of my holidays were uneventful. We had the fun of getting woke up at 3 a.m. because my mother—who was drunk—decided she wanted to open presents. One time, she showed up at my grandmother’s on Christmas Eve for the family get-together drunk, claiming all the presents were stolen. We all knew she had spent the money she was going to use for presents on booze, but even with all that, my holidays were joyous occasions. 

The idea of creating a holiday-themed horror collection of stories stemmed from the first story in the book I had created: “The Feast.” The idea came to me after reading a review of a movie about a turkey killing and eating people on Thanksgiving. At the end of the review the writer asked, “What would your Thanksgiving horror story be?” and I came up with the groundwork for “The Feast.” For years, this story and many others, some of which became the basis for other stories in this collection, bounced around in my imagination.

Understand, at this time I never felt like I could be a writer. It wasn’t until after I worked as a small-town newspaper reporter that I began to believe this was something I could do. I did not last a year as a reporter. There are many reasons for that, one being that my style of writing did not mesh well with the AP style of writing. But my confidence in my ability grew enough to think I could actually be a writer.

Over the next year as I worked on an engine-producing line, I fleshed out that story and many others. One day while talking with a co-worker, I had the epiphany to create a holiday-themed book of short horror stories. Although, the original title for the book was ‘Tis the Season, another conversation with an author advisor got me to change that.

I would also like to say that even though my mother was an alcoholic and we had our moments, she was not a bad mother. She provided for us as best she could and that was usually enough to keep me from knowing the pressures of adulthood too early. She is also the reason I love horror as we use to watch scary shows together when I was little. Movies like Abbott and Costello meets The Wolfman were a norm for me growing up.

Amazon Link: The Feast and Other Horrifying Tales

Recommended Article: The Feast and Other Horrifying Tales – a Review