When I was little my darling Mom always took us to new movies. I remember one time we went along and my sisters wanted to see a scary film. Me, being a real wuss, didn't want to go so Mom had to come along with me to watch Annie.

Over the years I started a love-hate relationship with scary books. I hated that they made me scared, but a delicious part of me loved to be scared.

Fast forward many, many years and all I want to read now is scary books. I love thrillers and devour them for dinner. Strange how one goes from being scared of villains to loving them! (So much so, in my case, that I love to create fictional villains and I review writing books on the subject to help me learn how to create memorable baddies.)

Now I love to be so scared, I even climb the walls ~ like when my son and I watched Wrong Turn. I am not into horror but that film scared the pants off me and I was literally climbing the walls, but loving every minute of the thrill ride.

Why Do We Love To Be Scared?

Why do we humans love to be scared? Is it because we want to triumph over evil. Or possibly that delicious moment of catharsis, that release of strong emotions.

In our daily lives, most of us don't have a way to release that kind of emotion or to escape into that kind of world. It's not that we focus on releasing our pent up fears. But when we get the chance, there's a tremendous and immediate benefit.

Be scared and then you get the ... ahh, catharsis moment. Nothing better!

You may want to read about learning to write a killer thriller where you can download my Thrill Seekers Infographic.