What’s hot and what’s
Gift books, movie tie-ins
are selling in fiction area
By LAURI REESE
Senior Staff Writer
From romances to mysteries
to science fiction and fantasy
books, fiction is selling better
than ever, according to Mer
chandise Bulletin, published by
B. Dalton Bookseller.
Sales of children's books, at
least in B. Dalton stores, are
growing rapidly and will con
tinue to grow as the baby boom
soars, according to the bulletin.
"Care Bears" books were suc
cessful in the last few months,
along with Judy Blume books,
"Chronicles of Narnia," the
"Little House on the Prairie" se
ries, E.B. White's books, "Anne
of Green Gables" and "Walt
Disney World" according to the
bulletin.
Parents have been buying
books they read as youngsters
for their own children, the bul
letin says.
A current trend is the "Sweet
Valley High" series, featuring
twin sisters, one spirited and
the other good and studious,
according to the bulletin, and
books about friendship, like
"Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade,"
are becoming as popular as
teenage romances.
The multiple-ending, reader
participation books have been
enjoying a wide readership for
several years in the picky mar
ketplace of 9 to 13-year-olds,
according to the bulletin. This
winter two new series have
been introduced. One is part
novel and part game. Each book
comes complete with combat
system, monster encounters
and score sheet. The reader
supplies the imagination, dice,
pencil and eraser. The price of
the books is $1.95 each. A few
titles are "Warlock of Firetop
Mountain," "Citadel of Chaos,"
and "Forest of Doom."
In the "Time Machine"
books, the reader is assigned to
a far-off place, is given a certain
background of facts and survi
val gear, and through their own
wit and cunning, the hero —
who is the reader — must make
choices that either advance or
hamper the story toward the
one correct ending. These
books also cost $1.95.
According to the bulletin, in
1983, sales of books with a
Christmas theme increased by
75 percent in 1982. In the best
sellers familiar characters like
the Grinch, Santa Mouse, the
Berenstein Bears, and the Lit-
tlest Angel starred.
Five of B. Dalton's list of 15
Christmas Specific Bestsellers
had a religious theme and three
versions of "The Night Before
Christmas" made the list.
Gift books for all ages like the
"Velveteen Rabbit" in all edi
tions and the "Giving Tree" are
selling well, according to the
bulletin.
David Hamilton works at
Book Land, in Post Oak Mall.
He says he has noticed a trend
in books being made into mini
series on television. In February
alone, three consecutive series
were aired, based on the books
"Celebrity," bv Tommy Thomp
son, "Lace," by Shirley Conan
and "Master of the Game," by
Sidney Sheldon.
HBO's recent mini-series al
ready has provided strong sales
for the book "All the Rivers
Run" and demonstrates the ef
fect of strong promotion,
according to the bulletin.
Many movies have come out
or are coming out in the next
few months that are based on
books and should really boost
sales, according to the bulletin.
In March, Hotel New Hamp
shire, Romancing the Stone,
starring Michael Douglas and
Greystone will be released. The
Natural, starring Robert Duvall
and Robert Redford, The
Bounty, starring Laurence Oliv
ier and Anthony Hopkins and
Firestarter, based on a Stephen
King novel, should be released
in May.
During the summer, the re
lease of several movies based
on books is planned. Some are
Pope of Greenwich Village, Star
Trek III: The Search for Spock,
Stephen Speilberg's Gremlins,
Last Starfighter, Conan: King of
Thieves, Naked Face, based on
a Sidney Sheldon novel. Super
girl, starring Faye Dunaway
and Peter O'Toole and Stick,
starring Burt Reynolds, George
Segal, Candice Bergen and
Charles Duming.
According to the bulletin, the
See "FICTION" page 11
Horror writer
reveals secrets
By LAURI REESE
Senior Staff Writer
"I recognize terror as the fin
est emotion and so I will try to
terrorize the reader. But if I find
that I cannot terrify, I will try to
horrify, and if I find that I can
not horrify, I'll go for the gross-
out. I'm not proud," Stephen
King, one of today's most pop
ular horror story writers, says
in one of his books.
The book, "Danse Macabre,"
gives what he calls "an informal
overview of where the horror
genre has been over the last 30
years."
He says good horror stories
are a dance — a moving, rhyth
mic search for the place where
the viewer or reader lives at his
most primitive level.
It is a search for the room
which may sometimes resemble
the den of a Victorian gen
tleman, sometimes the torture
chamber of the Spanish Inquisi
tion, but — perhaps most fre
quently — the simple and bru
tally plain hole of a Stone Age
cave-dweller, he says.
"The good horror tale will
dance its way to the center of
your life and find the secret
door to the room you believed
no one but you knew of," he
says.
King, the author of current
best seller "Pet Semetary," and
horror stories like "Carrie,"
"Christine," "Cujo," "The Dead
Zone" and "The Shining," to
name a few, says books which
have been the most successful
almost always seem to play
upon and express fears which
exist across a wide spectrum of
people.
Such fears are often political,
economic and psychological
rather than supernatural, he
says in "Danse Macabre." Ter
ror often arises from a pervasive
sense of disestablishment — a
sense that things are in the un
making.
King says horror doesn't hor
rify unless the reader has been
personally touched.
Horror in real life is an emo
tion that one grapples with all
alone, he says. "It is a combat
waged in the secret recesses of
the heart," King says.
Horror, terror, fear and panic
drive wedges between people
and make them alone, he says.
King says horror movies and
horror novels always have been
popular but every 10 or 20 years
they seem to enjoy a cycle of in
creased popularity and visi
bility, usually coinciding with
periods of fairly serious eco
nomic and/or political strain.
For example, horror went
through a boom period in the
1930s as people watched Boris
Karloff creep through the dark
with his cape up over his mouth
in Dracula, he says.
Horror appeals to people be
cause it says things they would
be afraid to say themselves.
King says. It gives them a
chance to exercise emotions
which society demands they
keep closely in hand.
He says the horror film or
novel is an invitation to indulge
in deviant behavior by proxy —
to commit gratuitous acts of vio
lence, to indulge in dreams of
power and to give in to the
most craven fears.
Perhaps more than anything
else, King says, the horror story
says it's okay to join the mob —
to destroy the outsider.
All tales of horror can be di
vided into two groups: those in
which the horror results from
an act of free and conscious will
— a conscious decision to do
evil — and those in which the
horror is predestinate, coming
from outside, he says.
Psychological horror stones
that explore the terrain of the
human heart almost always re
volve arould the free-will con
cept, King says.
Novels and horror stories
which deal with "outside evil"
often are harder to take se
riously, he says. In the end, the
nasty invaders from outer space
are repelled or at the last possi
ble instant the handsome
young scientist comes up with
the perfect solution.
Frankenstein, written by
Mary Shelley when she was 19,
probably has been the subject of
more films than any other liter
ary work in history. King says.
Movies include Frankenstein,
The Bride of Frankenstein,
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-
Man, The Revenge of
Frankenstein, Blackenstein,
Frankenstein 1970 and many
more.
The thing, the vampire and
the werewolf account for a large
block of modem horror fiction.
King says.
Creating horror is much the
same as paralyzing an oppo
nent with the martial arts, he
says. It's the business of finding
vulnerable points and then ap
plying pressure there.
He says the most obvious and
universal psychological pres
sure point is mortality.