"The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless unexplainable dread of outer forces must be present; and there must be hint expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject of that most terrible conception of the human brain align...a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space."
- H.P. Lovecraft
The traditional definition since the time of one of my greatest influences, H.P. Lovecraft, is a genre that predates 'Horror' or 'Fantasy', that melds the paranormal, scientific and mythical into something of its own, and it cannot be pigeonholed into one category specifically. Contemporary writers and publishers love to make categories in order to better define the many works that are in a profuse number written every year, but in truth many cross over the many lines of style, intentional or not.
While many works try to stay within the perimeters of that defined genre, others do not care and just go with the creative flow inventing a new idea or concept. Personally I do not plan to stick into categories in what I write and I know many people do not either, they just write whatever inspiration tells them to. Enid, and Oklahoma in general, lacks a place where authors can meet and mingle and not feel compelled to join other writing groups and remain on the margins of the rest because of what they write. Poems and general literature is fine, but there are those that are unable to mingle with that crowd. It is a clique of its own.
So to simplify, the OWFS is a gathering place where authors of the many genres (Horror, Gothic, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Weird West) can come together and feel at home. If your work is a poem, that is fine, some of the greatest Weird Fiction authors from the 30's composed amazing poems although they were dark and horrific in subject matter. This is that place to make it possible so there is no worries. No one will be judged or excluded, or feel like they do not belong.
Who knows? Perhaps a new generation of Lovecrafts, Tolkiens, or Poes could spring from this Weird Fiction brain trust and come straight out of Oklahoma? Inspiration is the key primarily, and then productivity. Motivation is sometimes the hardest thing for an author to possess. The will to write and see it through to its end. Once the floodgates are open, the writer should deluge the world with their ideas for better or for worse.
Very soon the first meeting under this new name will be scheduled as well as location, and then some building of members in the OWFS, and then hopefully make some local literary history.
