West Footscray author Anna Dusk will launch her horror novel In Human at the Sun Bookshop on Saturday, and two days later Bob Franklin will read from his unsettling short-story collection Under Stones at the Corner Shop.

Dusk said she had no plans to write frightening fiction until after she began the story of 16-year-old Sally Hunter's transformation into a werewolf. "One day I heard a voice that said, 'I'm a werewolf'. It was a very distinctive voice that I kept hearing. It was truly out of the blue and I just took that opportunity."

She said the story came to her fast and furious, but publication was a typically long and tortuous process. It's common for parallels to be drawn between her book and the Twilight series, but she considers those bestselling books very different to her own.

Franklin, known better for comedy, has been writing short stories for more than 15 years, but this is his first collection to be published.

His stories are not horror in the traditional sense - they are set in familiar surroundings but all have unnerving and disturbing edges.

"I think the more familiar you can make the surroundings the better when you're dealing with this sort of thing [fiction] ... I like to take familiar things and twist them in ways I find interesting," Franklin said.

He said there was never a shortage of inspiration in the real world - something Dusk agrees with.

"I think the world is a terrible place and people who don't find it terrible have blinkers on," she said.

"That dark side is in all of our natures. Humans can do terrible things, we are all capable of it. It's hard to confront that dark side but really important to do so."

Age columnist and author Toni Jordan will help launch In Human at 2pm on Saturday at the Sun Bookshop, 10 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Bob Franklin will read from Under Stones at 6.30pm on Monday at the Corner Shop, 11 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Bookings: 96890661.