The authors range from Stephen King to Richardson High School alumna Anne Rice to H.P. Lovecraft.

The styles of texts range from gore, to zombies, to mummies, to vampires with a little bit of religious horror thrown in the mix.

At Eerie Books in Wylie, Randy Ray has taken an interest in horror and turned it into a niche book store on historic Ballard Street.

“The only way I would be able to stay open is to do something different,” Ray, the store’s owner, said.

By being different, he decided to focus his enjoyment for reading and watching horror and siphon it into a unique bookstore, which has been open for a little more than one year so far.

His independent shop, located across the street from First Baptist Church Wylie, has run into several critics in its short life.

“I had an old woman come in and tell me, ‘You’ll never make it, people want to read uplifting books,’ ” Ray recalled, and then chuckled saying, “but I’m still here.”

To help balance the wide range of shoppers who enter his store, Ray also has a corner of Eerie Books dedicated to Christian horror and fiction with writers such as Ted Dekker who penned the best-selling novel THR3E.

Visitors to the shop have found comfort in knowing that their genre is highlighted right in front of them, rather than being scattered around like at a traditional “big bookstore.”

One of the regular visitors to the shop is Wylie author Christopher Fulbright.

“It’s great to have a local outlet that’s genre specific,” Fulbright, a horror writer, said. “It’s so seldom to find something that’s a certain genre to browse.”

Though books are the main staple of the store, other pieces of interest can be found within the walls of the shop including collectables and rare books.

Tucked away in the back room are some of Ray’s prized collections including a cloth bound autographed copy of ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, with special artistic photographs by Jerry Uelsmann.
“If anyone has someone to thank for stores like this, they need to thank Stephen King,” said Forrest Jackson, who sold Ray the book at Rosedale Rare Books in Snider Plaza.

Eerie Factoids

Shop location:205 N. Ballard St., Wylie

Fun Facts: Vampire novels are Randy Ray’s favorite horror sub-genre, because Dracula was “cool and sinister like the ultimate super villain.”

Entertaining texts: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Bubba Ho-Tep, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, The Zombie Survival Guide.

Marcus Murphree is the editor of Garland/Wylie/Sachse neighborsgo and can be reached at 469-330-5692 or via e-mail at mmurphree@neighborsgo.com. Got a story, photo or video you'd like to share? Post them directly on neighborsgo.com. Got a story idea? Send it to me directly. For more about how neighborsgo.com works with our neighborsgo print editions, please visit neighborsgo.com/help.