Scared yet?

[Paul Whybrow]

​

I was sorry to learn of the recent death of novelist Mo Hayder.

I enjoyed several of her novels, including Pig Island.

It was one of the scariest stories I’ve read. I bought copies for two of my friends, interested in their reaction. Both of them were terrified!

Thinking about other titles that have chilled me, I came up with Tim Willock’s Green River Rising and All Involved—written by Ryan Gattis—which I chose as one of my favourite reads of 2017.

All three books involve the innocent threatened by an evil mob run amok. I find human monsters more compelling than dragons, ghouls, aliens, wild creatures and ghosts.

Having said that, being threatened by a host of tiny creatures, impossible to fight, such as insects and reptiles and mice would give me the willies!



What scares you?

 

[RK Wallis]

Heights

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Spiders. And wasps.

 

[RK Wallis]

When 5, my youngest was bitten by a wasp on his face.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

I've been stung by a swarm of wasps. Had to go to hospital (note of caution: don't scream while being stung by wasps or one will sting you in the mouth). For a while, any kind of droning noise had me breaking into a cold sweat. Have only been stung twice since. Cried both times.

 

[RK Wallis]

I've been stung by a swarm of wasps. Had to go to hospital (note of caution: don't scream while being stung by wasps or one will sting you in the mouth). For a while, any kind of droning noise had me breaking into a cold sweat. Have only been stung twice since. Cried both times.

Yikes! Hence the fear

 

[ChandlerJules]

A recurrent unexplained low, thrumming noise. This has been reported in the bay near Sausalito, CA for years without any resolution. Something like that would play on my nerves.

 

[ChandlerJules]

I've been stung by a swarm of wasps. Had to go to hospital (note of caution: don't scream while being stung by wasps or one will sting you in the mouth). For a while, any kind of droning noise had me breaking into a cold sweat. Have only been stung twice since. Cried both times.

Yikes

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'm not afraid of mice, but I do find them irritating. I used to work at a nature centre that kept raptors. There was a breeding pair of barn owls there, and when the babies were fledging, they needed live mice in order to learn how to hunt (adult birds got dead prey--they were all permanently injured and weren't ever going to be released to the wild, but the babies were). Anyway, as you can imagine, mice got away over the years, leading to an incredible mouse problem in the 100-year-old nature centre building (especially since the caretaker didn't believe in killing the pests...). In addition to the pervasive smell of mouse droppings, it made for an annoying office atmosphere--the mice were bold, and regularly ran over my feet as I sat at my desk. One memorable day, I got completely fed up when one mouse decided to tap-dance all afternoon on my feet. I waited until everyone else had left for the day, then set traps all across the building. As I walked back through the building to leave I heard every one of the 10 traps I'd set snap. I turned around, emptied them all, and reset them. Half of them had caught another mouse before I exited the building, and they were all full again by morning. Didn't even begin to dent the population, but it made me feel better (and I did catch the little jerk who was irritating me all day).

 

[Ancora Imparo]

Note to self: avoid irritating @Robinne Weiss

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Note to self: avoid irritating @Robinne Weiss

She be fierce!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Note to self: avoid irritating @Robinne Weiss

LOL! The other day a student was intentionally trying to annoy me (13 year olds...*sigh*), and I warned him that it wasn't a good idea to annoy a writer, because they'd write you into a book and then kill you slowly. He thought it was hilarious. Little does he know ...