Another interlude

Supernatural Romance must be stopped.
Look, I'm not averse to a Sookie Stackhouse book. They're a fun combination of mystery and soft porn, with monsters and mayhem thrown in for jollies. But I see bookstores increasingly dispersing their horror content across the store into thriller or general fiction settings, to replace that prime shelf space with 'Supernatural Romance'. Twilight books and books with covers where Fabio has been turned into a vampire or werewolf are becoming horribly predominant.

It is a pretty common thing for people to rip on Twilight. I confess, I am more often than not the ringleader of such discussions. But Stephanie Meyer, you have up-ended a proud and noble literary tradition with your series of twonk young romance novels. There's more to horror and the supernatural than getting shagged by a bare-chested vampire.

If you are reading this and care about horror, I urge you, grill your bookstores about why they have no horror section any more. Twilight and its ilk are a passing blip, a trend. Shonky hand shandy material for teens and soccer moms who should know better.

I don't mind if these books try to hang out IN a horror section, but the day they displace the horror section is the day the world goes topsy-turvy. I refuse to see why Poe, Lovecraft, Bierce, LeFanu, Stoker, Barker, King, Rice, Brite, Koontz and everyone else should stand aside for an illiterate Mormon with a penchant for writing domineering vamp boyfriends.

I implore you, stop them before the only place we can find a vampire is writhing on black silk sheets with a blank cypher Mary-Sue. It's not too late.

Rant over peeps. Go back about your business.