In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.

Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving.

Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the surest way to reach a hungry readership is to build on the fortune and flair of your literary colleagues.

The mind is perhaps our greatest resource. When our heads are working well, feeling positive, the world seems a much easier place to navigate. But in this volume our authors ponder a different question for us. A horror story of the mind that cleverly opens us up to dread and despair that evil can saunter through, causing agony and mayhem as it takes us into the shadows.

01 - Foundations of Fiction - Psychological Horror - An Introduction

2 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

3 - The Picture In The House by H P Lovecraft

4 - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

5 - The Devil In Manuscript by Nathaniel Hawthorne

6 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

7 - Was It An Illusion. A Parson's Story by Amelia Edwards

8 - The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood

9 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

10 - The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

11 - Cool Air by H P Lovecraft

12 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

13 - The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce

14 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

15 - The Call of Cthulhu by H P Lovecraft