Horror? Or fun?

When I looked at the cat­e­go­ry under which my newest book, School of the Dead, was list­ed, it was “Hor­ror.” I admit; I was tak­en aback. True, I have writ­ten many dif­fer­ent kinds of books, and that includes ghost sto­ries, books like Some­thing Upstairs, Seer of Shad­ows, The Book With­out Words.  They are all tales which have mur­ders and a fair degree of may­hem in them.

School of the Dead con­cerns a boy who becomes involved with his weird uncle. Indeed, the book’s open­ing lines are: “The first time Uncle Char­lie came to live with us he was alive. The sec­ond time he came, he was dead.”

For the most part the sto­ry takes place in a pri­vate school, which in essence is being run (or haunt­ed) to keep the school’s founder—and friends—alive. They do this by tak­ing the soul of a stu­dent once every sev­en years.

Tony, my hero, is the intend­ed victim.

Yes, it’s meant to be creepy, full of sus­pense, what is called a page turn­er. And it is focused on Hal­loween. It’s the kind of sto­ry I hope will be read aloud to a class by a teacher and/or librar­i­an, with the kids sit­ting on the edge of their chairs, say­ing, “No, don’t stop!  Keep reading!”

Not, from my point of view, a hor­ri­ble expe­ri­ence. Maybe even—dare I say it—fun.