This book tells you what kinds of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I’ve reviewed and rated. 21 subgenres and 27 character types were combined, resulting in 621 permutations. The best movies for each subgenre/character combination are listed for inspiration’s sake.

This book tells you what kinds of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I’ve reviewed and rated. 8 moods, 31 subgenres, 9 genres, 33 characters, and 63 antagonist types were randomly combined; one for each page for a total of 300 dark writing prompts. Titles of existing movies belonging to each mood/subgenre/character/genre/antagonist combination are listed to further inspire the reader when available.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A family returns to their hometown—and to the dark past that haunts them still—in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers “The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns—I haven’t felt all this so intensely since The Shining.”—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND LIBRARY JOURNAL Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy who becomes his best friend, a boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic. This dark magic puts them at the heart of a battle of good versus evil and a fight for the soul of the family—and perhaps for all of the world. But the Graves family has a secret weapon in this battle: their love for one another.

This book tells you what kind of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I've reviewed and rated. 21 subgenres and 27 character types were combined, resulting in 621 permutations. The best movies for each subgenre/character combination are listed for inspiration's sake.

The house next door to the Kennedys appears to be haunted by an all-pervasive evil, and the couple watches as a succession of owners becomes engulfed by the sinister force, until the Kennedys set out to destroy the house themselves.

The fifth book in the award-winning Accidental Alchemist Mystery Series by USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian. A blackmailer obsessed with gold. A boyfriend who’s more than he seems. And a treasure hidden on the Oregon coast. Alchemist Zoe Faust’s mentor Nicolas Flamel is back in her life, but catching up with him will have to wait. An elusive blackmailer has threatened to expose a dangerous alchemical secret. Zoe’s boyfriend is out of town protecting secrets of his own. So when rumors of a treasure map reach Zoe, she turns her back on what sounds like no more than a game. Zoe’s mischievous living gargoyle best friend Dorian, who thinks of himself as a modern-day Poirot, is convinced the map is real—and that it’s the key to proving himself as valuable to Zoe as her human family. With the help of the neighborhood teenagers, Dorian sets out to find the treasure, risking more than he planned in the process. Rumors, treasures, and secrets intersect to unearth more than Zoe could have dreamed—and could leave her family changed forever. Can Zoe stop the threat to the family unit she’s created?

In fiction one plays a strange game with ugliness and fear.

Graduate student Jeremy Freirs and Aspiring dancer Carol Conklin, summering in the New Jersey village of Gilead, are trapped in a nightmare of terror, with an evil force emanating from a place once called Maquineanok, the Place of Burning.

**Shortlisted for the 2022 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, the Davitt Award for Best Crime Books by Australian Women and the People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award** Dime Sheppard delivers a smart and witty caper about a crime novelist who recruits her main characters to investigate her maybe-unfaithful fiancé. Evie Howland has problems. Guns. Bombs. Murderers. And that's just on the page... In real life she's meant to be planning a wedding to adorable billionaire Daniel Bradley, but Evie is seriously snarled in the sixteenth book of her successful crime series. In fact, her protagonists are becoming almost impossible to wrangle: NYPD detective Carolyn Harding is volatile after a messy divorce, and Detective Jay Ryan has that heated look in his blue eyes again. They're both sick of being written. And frankly they're getting a little...physical. Evie is beginning to wonder if she's ever going to finish Book Sixteen and get them back into fiction where they belong. But when a disturbingly familiar homicide surfaces in the city papers, it seems as if other, darker characters might have crossed the fiction-frontier too. In which case, Evie is in a lot of real-life trouble. If she's going to survive it, Evie must face her own worst fears, and learn that real love can be the best way of writing her own story. But can she change the ending? Full of high-octane adventure and dry humour, this novel is perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich's action-packed Stephanie Plum novels, or Mary Stewart's stylish romantic suspense. Praise for CRIME WRITER "Such an original and absorbing novel that will surely be spoken of highly in the fiction world. A wonderful debut; an absolute pleasure to read."—City Hub Sydney "‘Crime Writer’ is a thrilling, more-ish novel…I devoured this story in two days."—Others Magazine "A breathlessly fast paced book...terrifically written with great quotes scattered throughout...An excellent read."—Sydney Arts Guide "Dime Sheppard’s story is equal parts detective thriller and meta giggle-fest...impeccably literary; beautifully written and self-aware. I’ve never read anything like it. This is an extraordinarily good and challenging debut."—3D Radio "This novel was a refreshing change that kept me guessing from start to finish."—1079Life Radio "‘Crime Writer’ will…explode away the cobwebs of other formulaic offerings and detonate a desire to play around in their world with a second reading."—Reviews By Judith "I couldn’t put it down!"—98Five FM Find full reviews at www.dimesheppard.com/reviews

Learn how to write a novel from a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author with more than fifty years of writing and publishing experience. The Successful Novelist is one of the best books on writing fiction for aspiring and experienced writers alike. David Morrell, bestselling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose, and The Fifth Profession, tackles everything from the craft of writing and dealing with writer's block to the psychology of being a fiction writer and how to market a book. By reading this book, you'll learn how to overcome common obstacles standing in your way of becoming a successful novelist and creating better fiction in the process. Plus, it's great reference guide if you're participating in NaNoWriMo! Topics covered include: Novel plotting Story structure Character development How to write dialogue Book research Viewpoint/POV Writing descriptions Succeeding in publishing And more! Praise for The Successful Novelist: "Like listening to a beloved brother. I found the acute observations and his narrative philosophy more valuable for the new writer than the contents of any 100 other texts."—Dean Koontz, international bestselling author whose books have sold over 500 million copies "This is the best guidebook to both writing and the business of writing that I've ever read."—Peter Straub, award-winning novelist and poet "The Successful Novelist is the vehicle you want if you plan to drive your way to successful fiction."—Joe R. Lansdale, award-winning author of 45 novels