Even horror needs love

First, I'd like to thank Ginger for having me here today. I always tell her I got her back and today she's given me a forum so she now has my back. When she asked for authors to come out and speak during the month of love, I held my hand up. Yes...Even a horror author has a heart.
But what's funny is I'm starting to move away from horror and into more of a tragedy genre in writing. I'm still holding onto some of my demented personality and, yes, I do keep aspects of love in my horror, but something about a tragedy has gripped my mind, broken my heart and made my soul ache.

Maybe it's because I used to be a fan of Shakespearian Tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet. Maybe I just like to cry and make others cry with me. But there's something about a tragedy that makes us appreciate what we have or could have.

I'm about to submit my first tragedy about a man who's true love is killed and he's left with a wife that doesn't love him and only uses his loss against him. Being a man of horror, I had to keep some of my roots by adding a supernatural aspect to the story, but nonetheless, it remains a tragedy that even makes me cry.

With that said, I'd like to share a short excerpt of my my soon-to-be-submitted short story, Ghosts of the Storm:

"I've heard the rumors."

"Like hell! I'm amazed she hasn't tried to get you in the sack with her." I felt a pang of guilt seize my chest but I fought it back. It's not like I screwed the woman, regardless of what fleshy parts she tried rubbing against me at the Pig.

"Joe, you're starting to confuse me. What's this gotta--" Joe waved his hand at me in a shooing nature and I knew I was out in left field so I shut my mouth to see what he had to say.

"I know she's been sleeping 'round on me. It's part of the deal we made a while back." Joe stopped and looked at the spot in the road again. I couldn't help but look with him. What did he see that the rest of us kept taking for granite?

"I have to tell you, Bobby. Not because she'll be blabbing to everyone in town--"

"You know no one will believe her Joe." He gave me the wave again.

"I have to tell you because if I don't, the rest will seem even more crazy than it already does."

I could see the street lights refracting through the tears in his eyes. Seeing a man of thirty-five crying in the dead of night just ain't something anyone should see. A man of Joe's age is supposed to be vibrant, robust; past the age of trying to stick his dick into everything, yet still young enough to feel life flowing throughout his body. Joe looked like a man who made his peace with death.

"Oh did I love that girl. And what many didn't know is that she loved me too. That boy Michael was just window decorations for her. As long as everyone thought the two of them were a couple and he kept being an asshole, they'd never dare think the two of us were a thing.

Fact is, we would’ve been married had I not been stupid. We'd known each other for years but my being five years older never set right until after she turned twenty-four. A twenty-five-year-old seeing a twenty-year-old doesn't sound nearly as bad as a twenty-year-old seeing a fifteen-year-old. By the time she turned eighteen, I was graduating college and she was heading to it. Then there came Becky.

I tried to catch a falling star when I started seeing Becky. Oh you could get close enough to make a wish but trying to hold on for the ride? Never possible with her 'cause she'd burn you right up. The first month with Becky I could never described but by month two, everything started to crumble. Then came the scare of pregnancy and of course what did I do? I went off and hitched myself to a falling star, burning up in the atmosphere each second after we both said 'I do.'

A miscarriage and two years later, Amanda comes home from college and I'm stuck married to a woman that can't keep her drawers in the up position and I can't seem to catch her in the act." Joe stuck his hand in the air, seeming to know what I was going to ask.

"I know the stories, Bobby. That didn't happen until after Amanda's death."

"So Amanda finds me after so many years and we feel it. That sense that there's a happily ever after. You ever feel that, Bobby?"

Again, I'd like to thank everyone for coming by to see me today and hope to see more of you in the future. Love is always around us and takes many forms. If you're lucky, you'll see and snatch it when you can because life is nothing without love...and neither is anything worth writing.