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Haunted Halloween with Chloe Jacobs and a Giveaway

The Biology of Scary by Chloe Jacobs I’m a huge fan of Halloween. I love everything scary, but for the longest time I couldn’t watch horror movies. It’s not that they were too scary. Just the opposite, in fact. Scary movies left me bored because the cinematography could never match up to the ambition of the storyline. It was always so obviously fake I was annoyed instead of scared, which feels like a rip-off when you’ve paid the money to go to the theatre and you want to come out of there on the adrenaline high from a really good scare. Granted, movies have gotten better as the ability to make them look and sound more real advances, but what really gets me is a good scary book!
But what makes a story really scary, w hether it be a movie or a book? Of course, the answers can be found in human psychology and our own biology. The hormonal storm that trips through you just before, during and after a frightfully fun moment is like nothing else. It covers everything from anticipation to anxiety to experiencing the fear and having the adrenaline rush, to coming down afterward. Fear and hilarity are very close to each other. The same neurotransmitter is being engaged. That’s why a lot of times when you’re startled you’ll find that the very next reaction is to laugh to release that tension.

It also explains why so many of us love to be scared by movies/books/costumes/haunted houses/etc: It’s an internal roller coaster ride that delivers a safe, but chemical surge of controlled danger. Your body can’t discern between the intentional thrill you ignite by, say, parachuting for sport and the anxiety that grips you if you stumble into true peril. The old “fight or flight” reaction is a major building block of our evolution. Development and civilization might have calmed everybody down but we began to feel restless, missing the excitement of living on the edge.

In an alarming situation, your adrenal glands (which sit atop your kidneys) dump the hormone epinephrine into your blood stream. That gush triggers a series of bodily reactions including a burst in heart rate and breathing. The very exciting experiences, the anxious experiences, and the sexually stimulating experiences are so close as to be difficult to differentiate just on a physiological level. So if you’re going bungee jumping or you’re having a panic attack, being scared out of your skin, or having the best orgasm of your life, biologically speaking, it’s almost identical.

After the initial burst of adrenaline lifts, the body unleashes a wave of hormones to restore heart and breathing rates, giving you that peaceful, relaxed after-glow. People get addicted to that feeling as much as they get addicted to the excitement.

Horror is an emotion. An extreme one. And while we might lie and say we have an aversion to real violence, why does everyone crane their heads to stare at the scene of a car accident on the side of the highway? Because on some level we are drawn to it, attracted to it.

The great thing is that horror can be about reality-based situations (ie. serial killers), or it can be supernatural in theme (werewolves or aliens). It can be soft, psychological, weird, graphic, etc. There’s no limit, especially in books, because the reader isn’t hampered by limited technology and cinematography.

What do you think about scary movies v. scary books? Which is better? Do you have a favourite?

Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs Publisher: Entangled Pub ishing (November 13th, 2012) Reading Level: Young Adult Pa perback: 400 pages Series: Mylen a Chr onicles, #1 While trying to save her brother from the witch three years ago, Greta was thrown into the fire herself, falling through a portal to a dangerous world where humans are the enemy, and every ogre, goblin, and ghoul has a dark side that comes out with the full moon. To survive, 17-year-old Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young Goblin King, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her determination to escape. But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. The full moon is mere days away, and an ancient evil being knows she’s the key to opening the portal. If Greta fails, she and the boys she finds stranded in the woods will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back..

Prize:

  • 1 winner will receive a n ebook copy of Greta and the Goblin Kin g.
Rules:
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  • Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
  • Contest is International and ends November 9th.
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Haunted Halloween with Chloe Jacobs and a Giveaway + TIME