My introduction to horror came when I read Stephen King's Pet Sematary. I couldn't have been more than 12 years old at the time, the book was a recent release then, and it totally freaked me out.
Because my first Stephen King novel left such a lasting impression, I've been a fanatical reader of all sorts of horror writings ever since.
I have read practically everything this master of the macabre has published at least once.
I never get sick of it, maybe just a little queasy at times, and I'm always on the lookout for more freakish writings.
We are moving house in a week and I've made a start packing up my stuff on the weekend.
Of course I found that packing all my books is becoming the biggest task of all.
You won't believe how many titles by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and other great horror fiction writers I have in my collection. Most of them are hard covers, too.
But since late last week, I know I don't have to rely on American authors or the odd best-selling Brit anymore to get creeped out by great fiction.
On Friday night, just before bed time, I started reading the book Baby Teeth - Bite-sized Tales of Terror.
It's a book with 37 stories that are all haunting and horrific. They are inspired by the weird and eerie things that little children sometimes say and as a parent, this made reading them so much worse.
I'm a 'the bigger the book the better' type of girl, and usually don't bother with short stories but I found Baby Teeth an awesome read. Tauranga writers Jan Goldie, Alan Lindsay, Piper Mejia, Celine Murray and Lee Murray are among the 27 mostly Kiwi authors who have contributed to this publication full of horror flash fiction.
Baby Teeth - Bite-sized Tales of Terror was launched locally on Halloween night at a Greerton cafe and even though it is definitely not a suitable book to read for children, it is a fundraiser for a children's charity.
Proceeds from all versions of the book - print, e-book, and audio - go to the children's literacy charity, Duffy Books in Homes.
What I find even more interesting is that Baby Teeth was born out of a social media experiment.
It all started by a quirky thread on the social media site www.reddit.com entitled creepy stuff kids say. I found the thread online, it's named "Parents of Reddit, what is the creepiest thing your young child has ever said to you?" and it gave me the shivers.
Just as an example, this is a reply posted on the thread by a user called jelb32: "My five year old son asked me last week 'what do you see through the black circles in my eyes when you're controlling me when I'm at school?"'
A reply from spsprd 1425 said: "Psychologist here: perfect example of the lack of differentiation at that age. Little kids have no idea that minds are separate. That's why you can tell them, 'If you misbehave at school, I will know', and they believe it. That's why, when you ask them what they did at school all day, they are dismissive or have nothing to tell you: they think you already know."
My own children used to believe it when I told them I had eyes everywhere, but when they start talking about death or supernatural things, I quickly change the subject. I don't even want to know where they get these strange ideas from.
My eldest boy is 10 and my love for reading has rubbed off on him. He is begging me to give him Baby Teeth to read as he enjoyed the storytelling on launch night, but I'm hiding the book.
He will have to either forget about it or at least wait for it another few years. Roald Dahl's The Witches is freaky enough at the moment, I'd say.
Wellington writer Dan Rabarts started a Facebook page to continue the theme that began on reddit.com and it didn't take long for the word to spread through the New Zealand writing community.
To get production of the book funded, a crowdfunding campaign started on Pledge Me which was raised in record time. The weird and wonderful collection of dark and sinister works has been picked up by Wellington publisher Paper Road Press and it's now for sale in paperback for $25 and available in local book stores. If you'd like to support local writers and a worthy charity and you enjoy a ghost story or two, then go get yourself a copy.
Local writer Lee Murray's contributions to Baby Teeth impressed me especially. She co-edited the book as well.
Lee is about to launch a new young adult novel, Misplaced, to be released at the end of November. The story is set in Tauranga - at Otumoetai College - and tells how a teen copes when his mother goes missing and never returns.
I can't wait to read it, but don't think I'll give that one to my boys to read yet either. Just in case they get hold of Baby Teeth first.
Martine Rolls is a Tauranga writer and digital strategist.
