A good scary story is something most of us crave from the age of eight on up. For some of us the craving is a little stronger. Every autumn we find ourselves lingering in the Halloween aisle at the local discount store. We remember fondly the time when we could dress in costume without feeling foolish. And on occasion we might even lament the fact that we can no longer convert our bedrooms into haunted houses, lest our spouses begin to question our mental stability.

I had made a few unsuccessful attempts to write for young readers before it occurred to me to attempt a collection of scary stories. I was working evenings in a college library at the time, and one of the perks of the job was the exposure to titles I might ordinarily overlook.

One night my student worker, who was checking-in some young adult books from the Education Library on the second floor, stumbled across a collection of supernatural stories he remembered from his childhood. He remarked that the book had scared him silly when he was a kid (although those might not have been his exact words) and the fact that he was now a cynical collegian, studying art in his third year at the state university, made him no less eager to revisit the stories. The title was unfamiliar to me, but I was instantly struck by the cover art and subsequent illustrations. The artist clearly had more than a flare for macabre subject matter. The depictions of ghouls, goblins and other miscellaneous bugaboos were beyond eerie and sometimes bordered on the grotesque. Scores of parents must have been aghast, making scores of kids all the more eager to snatch up the book and devour every disturbing word.

I read the book later that evening and soon found myself feeling a bit let down. Granted it was a children’s book, and my tastes were supposed to have matured many years before, but I felt I would have been mildly disappointed even at the age on ten. The narratives were rather short and anecdotal. There was very little dialogue or characterization, and nothing in the way of imagery to compare with those arresting illustrations. It was the author’s stated aim to recount tales from folklore, and it is difficult to argue with the book’s success, yet I couldn’t help but feel as though the storytelling didn’t quite live up to the artwork. I was convinced (and remain so) that kids appreciate the same elements of story — strong characterization, a good plot and an active, descriptive narration — that we all look for in our spare reading material. My student worker (and many, many others) had obviously found the book in question a satisfactorily scary read, but I was convinced I could do better.

And so I finally stopped procrastinating and put pen to paper in an attempt to create my own collection of scary stories. I tried to remember the things I found frightening or compelling when I was a kid. I tried to keep my plots moving, with plenty of action and suspense, but I never meant for the stories to amount to anything more than page-turners.

Then I stumbled upon Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree. It happened to be Halloween night and I had no qualms about spending the remainder of the evening planted in my chair, completely neglecting my duties and reading the short novel.

Afterwards I realized this was the type of story I wanted to create. A story vivid in imagery, peopled with strong characters and fueled by an unrelenting tension. But most of all it was the October chill and the rich colors of autumn, so palpable in Mr. Bradbury’s writing, with which I wished to imbue my own.

The end result has come to be known as Bonechillers: 13 Twisted Tales of Terror. I cannot promise that the book will live up to the short works of a great author like Ray Bradbury, but the stories are indeed quite frightening (or so I hope) and therefore not intended for more sensitive youngsters. I have attempted to put a new spin on the old myths of the vampire and the werewolf, while unleashing a few monsters of my own invention. And, of course, I have tried to tell a few good ghost stories, as they are always the soul (cringe-worthy pun intended) of such a collection. I hope that the readers of the book will find the stories as much fun to read as they were to write. But at the very least I believe Bonechillers will prove to be a true page-turner that makes kids want to read more, maybe even after they have turned the last page. And that should be the ultimate goal of anyone who wishes to write for young readers.