Horror author, Graham Masterton, turned seventy-five today. With nearly one hundred novels under his belt and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers' Association on his mantel, Mr. Masterton can look back on quite the career.

I owe a special debt to Graham Masterton. He introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft. HPL's writings and Mythos, anyway. I was about twelve when a friend of the family loaned me her battered copy of Masterton's The Manitou. I'm not sure what brought that on, other than I was wildly interested in Native Americans at the time and the novel had a Native American theme. Then again, Diane was just that way.

The movie tie-in cover, which is the edition I first read.

The novel opened with a quote attributed to Lovecraft. I learned years later that it was from the Lovecraft-Derleth novel, The Lurker at the Threshold. From there, it was a phantasmagorical hell-ride through the environs of New York City. By the end, an NYC hospital is a bloody shambles and a--barely disguised--Great Old One is about to break through to our reality.

That book blew my tweener mind. If this was what Lovecraft's stuff was like, I had to get some. It took about a year and a half, but I got ahold of some actual HPL. As it turned out, Masterton and Lovecraft are quite different in many ways, but that is how I became an HPL fan and the debt is still owed to Masterton.

Graham's road to writing horror started when he was seventeen, fifty-eight years ago. Here's how he puts it:

"The best thing that ever happened to me was being expelled from school and starting work as a trainee journalist at the age of 17. By the time I was 21, I had four years’ experience as a news reporter and feature writer and so I was able to land a job as deputy editor of Mayfair, the new [British] men’s magazine [at the time]."

After a few years, Masterton jumped over to the offices of the British version of Penthouse, where he soon rose to the position of executive editor. It wasn't long before he submitted the manuscript of The Manitou to a publisher. Within six months, that had sold half a million copies and Masterton became a full-time novelist.

Horror epics like The Djinn, The Sphinx, Charnel House and The Demons of D-Day soon followed, all selling well. Then, Graham decided to try his hand at writing some historical novels and take a break from horror. Those novels were successful, but Masterton feels that his taking that break from horror resulted in "lost momentum".

Still, when Graham threw the saddle back on the night-mare with 1983's Tengu, it was obvious his base of horror fans was still there. Tengu sold well and Masterton followed it with literally scores of more horror novels right up until the present day, albeit with various side-jaunts into the realms of crime fiction and thrillers

Now is probably as good a time as any to discuss Masterton's style and approach to horror. As one would expect from a journalist-turned-novelist, his style of writing is quite 'clean' and unadorned. In other words, journalistic. He also tends to present people, places and events in a straightforward manner...before unleashing hell. As Graham once put it:

"Make your characters and your settings utterly believable. The more believable they are, the scarier the threat will seem to be."

Masterton, at least in his novels that I've read, also tends to get fairly apocalyptic, with high stakes riding on the outcome. He has the reputation for going "over the top". To me, that's fine, just as long as he can pull it off. As one reviewer put it, Graham has the ability to make "the ridiculous seem plausible". He is quite adept at piling horror upon horror, raising the stakes as he goes until it all culminates in a thunderous and horrific climax. One could almost liken it to the Lester Dent Formula, but applied to horror rather than adventure fiction.

Another thing I've noticed is that Masterton will sometimes 'riff on' or 'paraphrase' horror tales from the past. The Manitou drew several key elements from The Lurker at the Threshold. Picture of Evil was inspired by The Picture of Dorian Grey. Prey was obviously inspired by "Dreams in the Witch-House". However, in each case, the reader would have no idea how the novel actually ends, even if they did notice the inspiration.

One cover blurb described the "trademark elements" of Graham Masterton's style as, "violence, sex, shocks and surprises". Sounds accurate to me. He can certainly depict horrific violence without--in my opinion--seeming voyeuristic or sadistic. Masterton knows how to do "shocks and surprises". He is a master at throwing in twists and turns so that, once you reach the end of the book, you're saying, "How the hell did we end up here?" In a good way.

Masterton has been described as "cheesy" and “pulpish”. He certainly doesn't write 'literary horror'. You know what? I don't care. Here is why. In the end, any horror writer I read is ultimately judged by one ichor-dripping iron standard: did his story send a chill down my spine? If it did, much can be forgiven. If it didn't...what was the point? Graham Masterton knows how to push my buttons. Which is his job. Plenty of 'literary horror' writers are basically incapable of doing so.

I would, especially, point writers of sword and sorcery toward some of Masterton's better novels. S&S isn't just 'swashbuckling'. It is swashbuckling plus horror. Sure, there are S&S classics that have little or no horror, but that is the standard and sword and sorcery authors--aspiring or seasoned--would do well to keep it in mind. Also, as noted, Masterton knows how to craft interesting plots and write memorable scenes of violence. His ability to go from a mundane beginning and lead the reader to a truly apocalyptic ending is not all that common, believe me.

One other applicable aspect of his novels is his wide range of inspiration, drawn from mythologies around the world. Here are excerpts from two of his interviews:

"There are interesting stories everywhere you look. That was another thing that my four years of training as a reporter taught me. My first horror novel The Manitou was based on Native American mythology which only Algernon Blackwood had touched on in his terrific story about the Wendigo. (...) There are so many fascinating demons and ghosts and terrifying spirits in the mythology of other cultures that you could never run out of fascinating ideas."
"I take a basic legend then tell it to suit my own purposes. I always have a lot of fun changing and reinterpreting well-known stories and legends (such as Alice Through the Looking Glass and The Picture of Dorian Gray) and I hope that readers do, too. This is fiction, this is pure entertainment, and so there is no need to adhere strictly to the original story, as long as you come out at the end feeling that you've had one hell of a ride."

What are some of Masterton's "better novels"? The Manitou is a confirmed classic and is also one of Graham's personal favorites. Out of all the others, I’m partial to the ending to The Pariah, which seems to be a nod toward one of Clark Ashton Smith's classic tales. Prey is a bit more low-key, but several scenes in it gave me goosebumps. Honestly, Graham has written almost one hundred novels. Read The Manitou and then, if that went well, check reviews online to see what sounds cool to you.

Masterton's official website is here, packed with info. The bibliography section can be found here.

Thanks for one hell of a ride, Graham.