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Title
Horror Writers Association - Welcome
Description
BY STANLEY WIATER
As with most great ideas, the concept for a horror writers association originated in the fevered imagination of one individual -- in this instance, one Robert R. McCammon. In an interview with Publisher's Weekly in 1984, the author (who had already published six horror novels) first publicly expressed his desire for a professional organization specifically geared to the needs of fellow writers of fear. At that point, however, his decidedly colorful name for the then nonexistent organization was "HOWL" (Horror/Occult Writers League.) Even so, reasoned McCammon, mystery writers had their professional organizations, as did science fiction writers. Wasn't it past time that the equally honorable genre of terror, shock, and the supernatural be formally recognized?
Perhaps more than anyone, McCammon was himself shocked at the subsequent -- and often sincere -- interest from the media to his remarks, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Then the B. Dalton and Waldenbooks chains wanted to know more. Horror writers began to hear the HOWL and wrote McCammon to ask where to sign up--though it had always been his intent to first survey every writer he could contact before ever making a formal announcement about the proposed organization. Nevertheless, McCammon was deluged with still more letters of support from writers, editors, and scholars both stateside and overseas ... my own enthusiastic response as a self-styled "horror journalist" included.
Before long, McCammon enlisted the support of two colleagues from Texas who were instrumental in bringing the concept of HOWL snarling into reality: author Joe R. Lansdale and his wife, Karen. They in turn sent out a formal letter of invitation to some 177 writers, of whom 88 subsequently responded with suggestions or a willingness to join.
