3 Authors Who Write Horror 2025

Scary Stories from the Mind

All scary things have to come from somewhere and usually that is the human mind. Spooky and troubling thoughts that make their way to the paper for readers to enjoy are some of these authors favorite things to write about. Let's check out 3 authors who love to write horror and leave us wondering what goes bump in the night.

3 Authors Who Write Horror 2024

Authors of Horror

Anne Rice

Anne Rice, the Queen of Horror herself, wasn't always known with the same name. Instead, she was born in 1941 into a Catholic family as Howard Allen Frances O'Brien. A name her mother thought would have her stand apart as she grew older. As she grew, Howard let the nuns at her Catholic school know she wanted to be called Anne as it was a pretty name and for what she became known as for the rest of her life.

Anne, born to parents who were published authors as well as her siblings jumped from state to state during her college years where she spent a lot of her time studying literature. Between New Orleans, Texas, and California she eventually met and married her husband Stan Rice at the early age of 20.

Between the moves, she wrote her now famous best selling series The Vampire Chronicles which contains Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned. Not only did the Rice family move often, Anne was known to go back and forth with her take on the Catholic church and their beliefs causing issues throughout the communities when it came to her writing.

She also struggled in her personal life, having lost their five year old daughter to leukemia, falling into a coma after a bout of diabetic ketoacidosis, and finally almost died due to an intestinal blockage. This didn't stop her from writing though going on to publish another famous series Lives of the Mayfair Witches, while also going under a different pen name for her more erotic novels.

Her writing career came to an end in 2021 when Anne died after having a stroke. She was laid to rest in New Orleans with her husband and daughter in the Rice family tomb.

Owl Goingback

Another author, known by a different name was born in 1965 as James Russell Heidbrink. After changing his name to Owl Goingback to follow along with his Native American heritage of Choctaw/Cherokee, many in the community including the Tribal Alliance against Frauds claimed he could not take the name as he was born James.

With his novels mostly focused on the Native American history Goingback has change his name legally. Most of his novels including Crota, Coyote, and Darker than Night have gone on to be finalists of winner of the Bram Stoker Awards.

He spends most of his days currently traveling for conferences as well as ghost writing for Hollywood stars.

Christopher Golden

Another Bram Stoker Award winner Christopher Golden, is best known for he co-authored stories and rewrites including the famous Hellboy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though focused on co-authoring he also has written stand alone novels including Road of Bones, The Ghosts of Who You Were, and All Hallows. These works have nominated him for the Eisner Award, Shirley Jackson Award, as well as British Fantasy Award. Golden has gone on to fond the Merrimack Valley Halloween Festival to spread the joys of reading within the community as well as continue to work on comics, videogames, and editing.

Not much is known about his personal life except for the fact that he residents in his home state Massachusetts with his wife and their two children.

Final Thoughts

Have you read any titles from the authors above or seen any adaptations? If not, I highly recommend giving some a read if you are looking for a scare.

Who would you add to the list of authors who write horrors? If you haven't already, subscribe to the blog to stay updated on new and upcoming posts.