Celebrating And Keeping It Real

Last month was an anniversary month here at Fascination with Fear. For four long years I have toiled and plugged away on this blog, sometimes putting it ahead of things I should have been doing. But it is a labor of love. I've never expected to get anywhere with it, and I've always done it strictly out of my inherent need to write and my love of all things horror. 
I've met some exceptionally wonderful people in the course of the last several years - some of which I have formed life-long friendships with, any many of which I talk to more than my family and care for just as much as. I've had great opportunities (joining the Fangoria family for one, writing an article for the exemplary magazine, Paracinema, and being on staff at The Bloodsprayer).
I've also had a few bad times (the horror community can be a feisty bunch) but mostly it has been fantastic, four of the best years of my life.  I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon, just in case you think I'm leading up to the big blog finish.  Not so.  

But in the course of those years, I've went through some rough times "outside the blogosphere" - upsetting changes at my job, my husband lost his job of 20 years due to outsourcing and had to start from scratch, my mother got brain cancer, I had a cancer scare of my own last summer... well, you see what I mean.  A lot of outside factors were stressing me and still, I kept up with the blog. Because it helped me through everything. (Well, that and a terrific marriage.)

Through thick and thin, horror has been there with me - to comfort me and to make me forget about things for awhile. I enjoy writing, even if only a handful of people ever read it. 
But I've been a bit dejected lately because I don't seem to have as much time to blog because of all these outside stressors. I'd become somewhat complacent, figuring not updating and writing on the blog is just the way it is and I'd have to deal with it, life would go on.  But then I felt like I was letting myself (and my ten readers) down.
So it is mostly with excitement - and a tiny bit of trepidation - that I announce I have decided to get some help. 
NO, not psychological help - I see where your mind went there...  Help for the blog.  I've decided to take on another writer.  If it works out, I won't be looking for any additional help.  And I've already got that person lined up and ready to go. 

My blog is my baby, my calm in the storm. So I'm determined to keep it up and running even if it means I had to admit I needed some assistance to stay in the loop.  I will of course, still be the primary writer, and everything has to come through and be approved by me, so it's not like I'm just letting random people post willy-nilly.  

That said,  it is my great pleasure to introduce Marie Robinson.  She contacted me through my blog and just seems to be a good fit.  Only 20 years old, she is what I would have to call an old soul, claiming Roman Polanski as one of her favorite directors and she is well-versed in such authors as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood (If you're looking up who they are then I think you need a slight slap).  She's still a babe in the woods but already knows her horror!  I mean, this is a girl that proclaims The Sentinel as being one of her favorite films. Sounds pretty promising!

I hesitate to call anyone my protége, as I detest the word, but suffice it to say I am happy to allow her the space to profess her love of the genre.
By all means, let me know what you think.

And before I go, I just want to say thanks to anyone and everyone who has read my blog, and special thanks to those who have left comments (the catnip of the blogging world!) I'd also like to do a shout out to  people who have befriended me, others who have given me a chance within the genre to do bigger and better things, and others still that just make my day on a regular basis.  If you don't see your name then it's not because I don't love you.  It's because it's midnight and I'm tired! 
Here goes:

Andre ~ BJ-C ~ Kristy ~ Pax ~ James G. ~ Lance ~ Mike F. ~ Brian S. ~ Zach K. ~ Wes ~ James C. ~ Zach S ~ Christine M. ~ Rebekah M ~  James H. ~ William M. ~ Will E. ~ Matt H. ~ John C. ~ Emily I. ~ John S. ~ Sarah J. ~ Steve J.


Stay tuned for Marie's first contribution, a review of the 2011 British film, The Awakening!


Progress is what happens when impossibility yields to necessity. ~ Arnold H. Glasgow