Writing for Two - (Horror!) Stories for Children

I took my daughter for her first curry this afternoon.

I had the chicken curry with rice and a meat samosa and she ... fell asleep. She’s only 10 days old, so that can be forgiven. She’s got a while during which she can get away with drooling too. Me on the other hand – if I fall asleep in a restaurant and start drooling, someone calls an ambulance.

I’m looking forward to creating stories, which I can write, read or recite for her. Having a predilection for horror, slime, nastiness, blood, beasties and irresponsible characters with telekinesis, however, I’m not sure how this is going to go down. I’d really like to share with her the one about the thing at the bottom of the bed, but I should probably wait until she’s old enough – like 18.

A friend of mine suggested that I wouldn’t be able to write horror once she was born, because my protective, parental instincts would kick in; all the more so because we’ve had a girl. She’s already helped me with ideas for 3 stories though and that’s not including The Thing at the Bottom of the Bed.