Lounge Books to hold 'virtual horror festival'

Sam Missingham is set to run a virtual horror festival through her recently-launched website Lounge Books.

The Horror Lounge promises to be a “week-long celebration of all things horror” and will be the first virtual festival from Lounge Books, which started in April.

Missingham revealed that she was inspired to run the festival, which will take place in the week leading up to Halloween (24th to 31st October), after discussing English horror author James Herbert with her followers on Twitter and wondering “why he wasn't talked about much”.

She said: “This conversation led me down a path discussing horror fiction in general and that it doesn't seem to be served in the same way as other genres.”

Missingham also said that the “backdrop” of the success of horror TV and film shows there is a “huge demand for thrilling storytelling and I wonder if books could meet more of this demand”.

The former digital project manager at HarperCollins added: “The Horror Lounge week will explore some well-known horror authors but also introduce new books and authors.”

She has spent months researching the genre and said the festival will be a “collaborative campaign” from the “incredibly active and vibrant community”.

There will be live programme of activity planned between 7pm and 10pm every evening with more details being released over the coming weeks.

Jason Arnopp, author of The Last Days of Jack Sparks (Orbit), which was recently optioned by Ron Howard’s company Imagine Entertainment, is taking part in the Horror Lounge. He described Missingham’s forthcoming festival as “admirable”. He said: "While horror is widely recognised as an evergreen genre in the worlds of film and TV, in book publishing it can so often feel like ‘The Genre That Dare Not Speak Its Name’.”

Missingham launched Loung Books in April to unearth "hidden gems" to help those looking for "people-powered" recommendations to discover new books, with its ultimate aim to help put more books into more hands. It followed news of her departure from HarperCollins after her digital role was made redundant.

For more information, follow #HorrorLounge on Twitter or visit lounge-books.com.