Category: General News

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The Art of Scaring by Caring

I’ve written a column for the Review section of The Wall Street Journal, published today, about writing horror.  It’s 700 or so words, and therefore is something less than an exhaustive discussion of the topic (!), but I feel there’s truth in the gist of it.  And what’s the gist?

“The most effective horror writing turns not on the scarer but the scaree: The personal motivations of the character going down into a dark cellar makes a scene frightening and involving, not what he ends up seeing—or perhaps being devoured by—at the bottom of the stairs.”

To illustrate the point I use examples from some scare masters, namely Henry James, Ira Levin and Stephen King, along with some schmuck named Pyper.

You can check out the whole thing here:

“The Art of Scaring by Caring” – The Wall Street Journal

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Seventh Week for The Demonologist!

This is awesome:  The Demonologist is on the Maclean’s Bestseller List for a seventh straight week today!

And in other news, I spoke to students at Sir John A. Macdonald High School in downtown Hamilton this morning and they were great.  Smart and open and they made me feel so welcome.  Thank you.

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If You Need a Good Laugh Today

Here’s a link to the cover of my first “published” book, The Dream.  I was in Grade Five.  (For the biggest laugh – entirely at my own expense – note, in particular, the author’s photo on the back cover.)

Okay, I was a nerd.  Am a nerd.  When you’re born that way, you’ve got no choice but to wear it with pride.

The Dream – By Andrew Pyper, Grade Five

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The Demonologist in the Daily Mail and Sunday Telegraph

The Demonologist is out this week in the UK, and the first couple reviews I’ve seen have been very kind.  Here’s bits from the ones I’ve seen in the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail.

“A stunningly crafted, intelligent and moving horror story… There is an elegance to the storytelling and a command of what evil may mean, that lingers with you long after the end. No surprise that it is development as a major film.” — Daily Mail (UK)

“Milton’s demons pervade The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper.  Speaking through the possessed and dead, they hold a professor’s daughter hostage, wanting him to work for them. Just how emerges slowly during a road tour of America.  Gothic grotesquery. Effective, literate, nightmarish.” — Sunday Telegraph

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Week #5 in the Globe for the Demons!

It’s a super-crappy day here in Toronto, rainsleeting and depresso-skied, the kind of day when good news is especially welcome.  And then…

…the sun came out!  (Well, no, the sun didn’t actually come out.  But there was some good news).

The Demonologist is on The Globe and Mail’s Canadian fiction bestseller list for a 5th week!  You can’t rain on that parade.  (Well, you can, but it’ll still be a good parade).

The Globe and Mail Canadian Bestseller List – April, 2013

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What Makes GONE GIRL Go?

If you’re among the dozen or so people who haven’t read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl yet, you really should.  There hasn’t been a thriller with its kind of word-of-mouth popularity for quite a long while, and it’s all deserved.  It’s the kind of book that has “crossed over” so many sub-markets and sub-genres that it’s prompted a lot of discussion as to why.  What, exactly, makes Gone Girl go?

I’ve written a blog for my UK publisher, Orion, answering this very question.  You can check it out at the Murder Room…

How Gillian Flynn Out-Highsmiths Highsmith