Scary Stuff: A Guest Post by Sara Brooke

People often ask me, what do you think is scary?  Not only is that a loaded question, but it seems as if every horror author is expected to come up with a profound answer. So, I’ve decided to share some things that scare me in an unconventional manner. Maybe not in the “suspense” or “horrific” way you’d expect, but can still be quite frightening.

Here goes:

1.       The deli counter – Ok, right now you might be wondering if I had too many shots of vodka before writing this, but the truth is, the deli counter at my local grocery store is one scary place.  For starters, some of the meat staring back at me is pink, brown, gray, and red.  That is scary in the mere fact that eating some of that stuff could make me sick for days, maybe even a month. But the more frightening aspect is that you could virtually get stuck waiting for your meat, for hours.  And, you can’t leave because your number might get called…but you really don’t want to stay either.  All you can do is stand there watching as the butcher slices through pound after pound of faceless, nameless animal flesh.  Quite horrific actually.

2.       Flying – But, I don’t mean in the conventional sense.  Yes, fear of flying is a very valid thing and the fear of crashing might be even worse.  But, the fear I’m describing is when you find your seat on a plane and have to wait to see who will sit next to you for the next 4-5 hours.  Will the person be obese?  Smelly?  Have insane dandruff?  Or a nonstop talker?  We’ve all been there.  Watching as people make their way to their seats, waiting to see if the screaming baby will be placed next to you on your way from Miami to Los Angeles.  It’s scary stuff.

3.      Waiting on an important check in the mail – It never fails.  You wait and wait, but for some reason, the ONE most important piece of mail that you need containing a large check, somehow always manages to get lost in the mail.  This doesn’t frighten me as often because I rarely get large checks (I am an author after all) but every time someone tells me “It’s in the mail”, my heart rate increases and I break out in a cold sweat.  Then, each day, the walk to the mailbox is excruciating. Will it arrive?  And the dread when the check is still not in the box. 

That being said, I do think my first novel Still Lake is pretty creepy and working on the prequel has proven to be even more frightening. Will I make my deadline?  Will my publisher require hundreds of edits?  Like I said, sometimes reality can be scarier than fiction.