Wareham author Greg Gifune’s literary influences might strike some as odd for a man who writes horror novels.

He cites Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly Last Summer" as an example of a "thinking man’s" kind of horror. In this play (and in some of Williams' other plays and short stories) Williams uses cannibalism as a very blunt and macabre metaphor.

“I don’t do the typical horror thing. It’s more cerebral… I never set out to work in any genre really, it’s just that horror and crime novels were what I had published first,” said Gifune. His latest book is entitled "Gardens of Night".

“There’s this assumption that if anyone reads something in the horror genre, they’re a moron, and that’s not true,” Gifune said.

Although he also recognizes more traditional masters of horror, such as John Carpenter, as influential, Gifune's tastes diverge greatly from traditional horror. “Virginia Woolf wrote things that could be considered horror,” he said.

A Wareham native, Gifune has been nominated for a number of awards, including the Bram Stoker Award and the British Fantasy Award. He said he doesn’t have much interest in playing the political game that can play a part in how the awards are handed out.

“There’s two very distinct groups within the horror genre … there’s a lot of people whose careers are based on awards and politics … it makes it harder for the real writers because a lot of people don’t take it seriously," Gifune said.

Gifune credits what he calls “the Steven King effect” as having both a positive and a negative influence on the horror genre. While it brought horror to the mainstream in a big way, Gifune said he feels that King’s prominence has made him the standard against which all other writers in the genre are measured. According to Gifune, this puts writers with styles different from King's at a disadvantage.

“His attitude is ‘I’ll use words everyone can understand,'” Gifune said, describing King’s accessible writing style. While Gifune said he respects King as a writer, he feels that the success King achieved with such a simple writing style “started this glut of people thinking they could all do it.”

In addition to being a full-time writer, Gifune is an Associate Editor at Indiana-based publisher Delirium Books.

Gifune's first book was published in 2001, after he'd published more than 200 short stories. Like most writers, he faced a deluge of rejection before getting his first story published. “I still have a file cabinet filled with rejection letters," he said. He holds on to them to keep himself humble.

He said that the rejection, though disheartening at the time, helped him sharpen his skills and develop his voice as a writer. “Short fiction is a really good way to learn how to write. You have to learn how to make every word count," Gifune said.

Gifune credits his experiences as a child actor working in the theater for building up a tolerance for harsh criticism, which enabled him to overcome the rejection he initially faced. “Anything in the arts, you need to have a thick skin.”

"Gardens of Night" can be purchased at www.uninvitedbooks.com. To check out more of his books, visit www.gregfgifune.com.