Fear
is what pushes us to survive and survival is the chief human
instinct. So fear can be no less than the most basic human emotion. I
know love is way more fun, but in the human condition our sexual
instinct is a poor second. Fear comes first. It might not feel good
to be scared, people (like the military) may have made us think that
it is something we ought to be ashamed of, but the truth of the
matter is that fear is good. Take fear away from humans and you
wouldn't have a human race. Take fear away from a thriller and you
wouldn't have a thriller.
So
when I sit with my laptop in a seaside hotel and make-up a story to
thrill you, do you think that it sort of happens that the story will
scare you? Would I leave the most important ingredient of my story to
chance? Reader, I have a confession to make. Getting you scared is no
accident. I conspire against you. I sit for hours on end to answer a
single question: How can I make you shit in your pants?
