Chain of Evil: The JournalStone Guide to Writing Darkness, by Michael R. Collings, approaches the question of writing from multiple directions. The essays in this volume range from the abstract and philosophical to the concrete and specific; from reminiscences as they relate to the art of writing to near-scholarly studies of the nature of genre, in particular horror; and from general discussions of literary forms and what they can achieve to practical advice on where to place commas, exclamation marks, and quotation marks. Dr. Collings' expertise emerges from nearly thirty years teaching writing and composition at the university level, gaining acclaim as an astute voice in science-fiction, fantasy, and horror studies, as well as from the more than one hundred books-novels, scholarship, collections of poetry and short fiction, criticism, and bibliographies-he has published over the past four decades.
