Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What's Your Nightmare?

I don't write horror and I usually only read it when my friends write it.  But in my epic fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles, there are some horrific creatures the people of Futhark must battle.  In The Keepers of Sulbreth, the magically gifted Keepers are women dedicating their lives to protecting ordinary people from demons.  The Marshals are the swordsmen who help the Keepers in their duties.

I enjoy creating the monsters plaguing Futhark.  I often doodle and design them during boring inservices and faculty meetings at work.  Not that I'm an artist, but putting a picture with my ideas inspires more ideas. 

Childhood fears and those instinctual fears humans are born with also inspire my demonic creations.  One of the horrible demons introduced in Keepers is a giant snake.  Another is a poisonous rat-like creature that hunts in packs.  Who isn't creeped out by rats and snakes?  I also gave one of my demons wings with jaws and claws, kind of like a velociraptor that can fly and of course travels in flocks.  Then there in one of my favorite, a huge, heavy beast with the personality, body armor and horns of a rhinoceros.  Then I get to name them. 

Some new demon beasts are discovered in the second book in my series, Beyond the Gate, and the Keepers and Marshals have their hands full saving the people from these powerful, fantastical fell beasts. 

What kind of creature might your nightmares create? What animal in real life gives you shivers up the spine? Spiders? Snakes? Rats?

7 comments:

Jess said...

Spiders creep me out!!

It's so cool, because I have to create a lot of creatures in my story as well! I love to draw them so I can see what they look like and get more ideas.

I made up this one thing that looked like a small silvery/white lion. It lives in snowy landscapes and can spit saliva that freezes on contact!

Cate Masters said...

Very cool, Susan! I'd love to see your sketches.

Most of my otherworldly creatures are from the Underworld, and I try to stay true to their descriptions from Greek mythology, but I love adding extra embellishments, along with quirky personality traits.

Christine Rains said...

Spiders, definitely spiders.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Spiders make the top of lots of lists. I have a half-finished novel that has spiders in.

LD Masterson said...

Spiders. Full blown arachnophobia over here. Stemming, I think, from having seen the original Incredible Shrinking Man when I was a kid.

And I do NOT put them in my writing.

Charmaine Clancy said...

Icky hairy spiders for me too.
The hairless, more venomous ones do not scare me, but when I see those long hairy legs moving it freaks me out. I do sometimes have nightmares about the evil little creatures.

Also zombies, just the fact they're all sick and infested and icky - much rather be chased by a fast vicious werewolf than a slow moving brain sucker.

Sounds like you're having fun with 'Beyond the Gate'.

T. M. Crone said...

Spiders are the worse. They have hairy bodies, bony legs, hundreds of eyes that circle their heads and pinchers as mouths that bite the moment they make contact with human flesh. Not to mention their huge cephalothorax, which oozes a stringy substance that sticks to everything.