Little Miss Zombie

50 Kindle Horror Books Written By Women

2012-02-09T20:19:00.003-05:00

This year, I never planned anything special for Women in Horror Recognition Month. My posts lately have been pretty sporadic (Sorry about that!) because I've been really busy lately, so I didn't think I could commit to a month-long project. But I wanted to write at least one post for Women in Horror Recognition Month this year, so I bring you this post.

Last year I interviewed several women horror authors (the list of interviews is here) and have decided to do another literature-related post. I think it would be great if every horror fan read a horror book written by a woman this month. And since I'm Kindle-obsessed, I decided to make a list of horror titles written by women available for Kindle. I'm sure they're also available for Kobo, Nook, or whatever your e-reader of preference. So pick one that interests you and get reading!

Suffer the Flesh by Monica J. O'Rourke
$3.99
144 pages

Zoey Masterson didn’t know what pain was before, but she’s learning fast. Kidnapped off the Manhattan streets and whisked away from the safe, normal world she once knew, she finds herself the victim of one reprehensible man’s vision.

Forced to witness the depravities of the seedy underworld where lust, rape, torture, and mutilation are a way of life, stripped of clothing, pride, and spirit, Zoey must play their games, bear their torture—but for how long? Somehow she must learn to survive the daily perversions … but how can Zoey survive? How could anyone?

Somewhere between ecstasy and pain, learn to Suffer the Flesh.

Also check out Jasmine & Garlic.

For Emmy by Mary SanGiovanni
$2.99
107 pages

Sometimes no matter how vigilant you are, you can't keep loved ones save. Dana McCluskey and her father know very well that there can be dangers around every corner. They wanted to keep Emmy safe. But it is impossible to see some dangers coming. And there are those corners that you'd never see, out-of-the-way places just beyond our grasp where loved ones can get very lost — and the danger there is very real indeed.

Also check out Thrall.

The Neighborhood by Kelli Owen
$2.99
105 pages

A missing girl. A found fingertip. A puddle of blood without a body. --- A small town neighborhood full of rumors and imagination through the eyes of its youth. Their world is a combination of grass stains and dried mud—the badges of childhood, that often look like blood in the right light.

Also check out Waiting Out Winter.

The Fear Report by Elizabeth Massie
$4.99
450 pages

Originally published by Bloodletting Press, this edition is illustrated by Cortney Skinner, features a new introduction, and contains thirty-two stories, including her Bram Stoker Award winner (“Stephen”) and two stories that were not in the Bloodletting edition. Massie’s fiction is known for its quality of strangeness, off-beat humor, deceiving simplicity, and haunting prose.

Also check out Afraid, Sundown, Abed, Sineater and Wire Mesh Mothers.

AfterAge by Yvonne Navarro
$2.99
360 pages

A plague of vampirism has crept across the country, reducing once-thriving cities to ghost towns. In Chicago, a few scattered survivors hide behind the fortified walls of office buildings and museums, raiding deserted stores for dwindling supplies of clothing and food.

Meanwhile a hungry vampire population also struggles for survival as their prey grows scarce, forcing them to capture alive the last remaining humans as breeding stock for the blood farms that will ensure their future.

Now a small band of humans makes a despearate last stand against their vampire masters, fighting back with the only weapon that can kill the dead...

Also check out Mirror Me.

Deathwatch by Lisa Mannetti
$2.99
176 pages

In Dissolution, Stuart Granville is a would-be medical student from the South who's been expelled for drinking and believes he's heading north to Hyde Park, New York to tutor twin girls. Instead, he discovers that his charges, Abby and Eleanor, have never been to school of any kind. They are also Siamese twins and their father, a doctor with grandiose dreams, means to separate them surgically. He intends to take advantage of Stuart's expertise and vulnerability; but unbeknown to both men, the supernatural force in the house has an agenda--and a will--of its own.

In The Sheila Na Gig, Tom Smith is on a ship in steerage and bound for New York from his native Ireland after facing down the constraints imposed by his family, overcoming the loss of his first love, circumventing his grandmother's wiles and occult knowledge, and trying to save his younger, mentally challenged sister, Delia, from both witchcraft and sexual abuse.

Also check out The Gentling Box.

The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton
$2.99
94 pages

Ashley, a twentysomething California girl, is a postpunk who would rather be called Spike and who worries about money, her family, and freeway traffic. She’s also a violent paranoid schizophrenic living in a state facility west of Los Angeles, her disorder kept under control by confinement and the drug Prolixin.

One day Spike is shocked to find her cell door open and so she ventures out, only to find the walls smeared with blood and the staff missing or dead. She escapes and ventures into a world that’s been driven mad by waking nightmares, where she’s now the sanest person alive. Searching for answers, Spike embarks on a road trip that will lead her from Beverly Hills to a nightmarish Texas compound to the highest office in the land...

Also check out The Samhanach.

A House Divided by Deborah LeBlanc
$2.99
340 pages

Keith Lafleur, Louisiana's largest and greediest building contractor, thinks he's cut the deal of a lifetime. The huge old, two-story, clapboard house is his for the taking as long as he can move it to a new location. It's too big to move as it is, but Lafleur's solution is simple: divide it in half. He has no idea, though, that by splitting the house he'll be dividing a family- a family long dead, a family that still exists in the house, including a mother who will destroy anyone who keeps her apart from her children.

Also check out Family Inheritance, Grave Intent, Water Witch, Morbid Curiosity, White Hot, Bottom Feeder and The Wolven.

Eternal Sunset by Sèphera Girón
$2.99
248 pages

Vanessa moves away to college after an extended break of hard living, casual sex, and dabbling in the occult. But little does she know what fate has in store for her where she accepts a gift from her new friend: an ancient book that holds the secret to eternal life...

Prodigal by Melanie Tem
$2.99
204 pages

Her brother Ethan is dead. then why does he visit and why does he leave the doors open for Lucy and her sisters -- doors that whisper of the place that claimed Ethan's body and mind?

"Don't be afraid, Lucy."

The world of sleepy houses and glimmering summer lawns is losing its hold on Lucy Brill. Her parents don't have the answers - they don't even have the questions. ethan has changed everything. Ethan, whose drug-racked body lies in the morgue...Ethan, who beckons Lucy to follow.

"Welcome, Lucy, Welcome."

Lucy will follow, blinded by light, her head filled with anger. lucy Brill is going away...to the place that took her brother's life, where evil waits with open arms.

Also check out Slain in the Spirit, Blood Moon, The Ice Downstream & Other Stories and Daughters.

When Darkness Loves Us by Elizabeth Engstrom
$2.99
217 pages

Sally Ann is a bright and bubbling farm girl, still caught in the thrill of a brand-new husband and a shining future ahead. When a careless exploration leaves her trapped underground, she learns to live again in the absence of everything she once knew. Even driven by love and light, Sally Ann finds the deepest darkness within herself in When Darkness Loves Us.

Old Martha Mannes has been a part of Morgan, Illinois since her birth. The whole town knows her as the dim-witted woman who was born without a nose, but Martha’s mind wasn’t always a blank slate. Unlocking the monster buried deep in her memories may bring back the sparkling child she once was…or it may send those around her crashing down into the nightmares of a little girl gone wrong.

A reprinting of Elizabeth Engstrom’s first book, this two-novella collection twists together the beauty and horror underlying the seeming simplicity of small town life.

Also check out Lizzie Borden.

The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor
$4.99
284 pages

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel from the Horror Writers Association! Val leads a very nomadic life. She travels from one city to another, from one bed to another, in search of a 'new' thrill -- something that will fill the void inside of herself. From whispers and gossip, Val learns of a place called the 'City,' a place that makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like Little House of the Prairie. Val becomes obsessed with finding this place and sampling all it has to offer.

Also check out Unspeakable and Other Stories and The Silence Between the Screams.

House of Fallen Trees by Gina Ranalli
$2.99
266 pages

"Two men have the carcass." These words, heard over a crackling telephone line, change writer Karen Lewis's life for the worse. Months earlier, her brother went missing in the small rural town of Fallen Trees, Washington. And now she finds out he willed his half of a bizarre bed and breakfast to her. "Two men have the carcass." Is this ominous phrase enough to draw her into the mystery of Fallen Trees? Is the answer to her brother's disappearance located there? Or is it just a trap, something designed to draw her into a nightmare world and break her sanity? What horror awaits Karen in the House of Fallen Trees?

Also check out Chemical Gardens, Suicide Girls in the Afterlife, Brainfused Colorwheel, Peppermint Twist, Praise the Dead, Mother Puncher, Sky Tongues, Unearthed and Wall of Kiss.

Descent by Sandy DeLuca
$4.95
211 pages

In the ’70s Julia accompanied a mad man on an unforgettable road trip from Providence to Miami. She encountered demons, decadence and death. She was helpless and subservient as pain and blood became a fact of her life. She finally escaped from that hell on earth. However, the demons and the dead followed her throughout her life. For twenty-one years they came to her in dreams. They manifested onto her painter’s canvas and they called to her from the darkness.

When another murder occurs, true madness begins to unfold. Guilt, longing and terror erupt. A secret caller lures Julia to her descent, haunting and tempting her until she realizes that she must confront her past and perhaps the Devil himself.

Also check out Darkness Conjured, Into the Red, Paths of Destiny and From Ashes.

How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison
$4.99
112 pages

Who doesn’t need to know How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend? From the first African-American to receive the HWA Bram Stoker award, this collection of both horror and science fiction short stories and poetry reveals demons in the most likely people (like a jealous ghost across the street) or in unlikely places (like the dimension-shifting dreams of an American Indian). Recognition is the first step, what you do with your friends/demons after that is up to you.

In Silence Sealed by Kathryn Ptacek
$4.99
320 pages

In Silence Sealed by Kathryn Ptacek first appeared in 1987. It is a brilliant period piece, evoking that brief, shining decade that produced the great Romantics in England. It also produced the Gothic Novel, a precursor to the modern horror novel. Ptacek's lamia sisters are monsters, incredibly sensual monsters who first seduce and then destroy victims. Only this time the men they are after are England's greatest poets — Byron, Shelley and Keats.

Also check out Gila.

Guises by Charlee Jacob
$5.99
288 pages

Delirium's second collection by Charlee Jacob features 7 short stories and 3 brand new novelettes. This new collection showcases her unique talents as one of the premier storytellers of the genre.

Also check out Dread in the Beast, Up, Out of Cities That Blow Hot and Cold, This Symbiotic Fascination, Soma, Still, Vestal and Geek Poems.

Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder
$7.93
428 pages

The shipwrecked, vacationing passengers of the ill-fated freighter, Morris, are picked up by the H.M.S. Pandora and sail into a cruise of metaphysical terror, madness, and death.

Search and Destroy by Nancy A. Collins
$2.99

Sonja Blue is back! In a world full of sparkling vampires, it's time someone finally brought the hurt! Before there was Sookie Stackhouse, Anita Blake, or even Buffy, there was Sonja Blue, the Stoker Award-winning tough-as-nails, wisecracking vampire/vampire slayer. Just as Iggy Pop set the tone for the Punk Revolution, Sonja Blue blazed the trail for the multitude of urban fantasy heroines that would follow her. And now she's back with a vengeance in Search And Destroy, her first original short story in 10 years. Homeless people are disappearing from the suburban No Man's Land known as The Scrub, and Sonja Blue is there to find out why--and put an end to it as only she can.

Also check out A Dozen Black Roses.

Child of the Night by Nancy Kilpatrick
$2.99
244 pages

Child of the Night is the first book in the Power of the Blood world.

Carol Robins is vacationing in Bordeaux, France trying to recover from the tragic failure of her marriage and the possibility that she has been infected with a fatal disease. At a small sidewalk café she meets the enigmatic Andre and her life changes forever in a brutal and shocking way. Andre is not a man but a vampire, cruel, intent on making Carol his next kill, and she has to find a way to save herself.

Carol’s bargain with the devil leads to her being dragged further and further down into the murky world of darkness, leaving her at the mercy of the merciless blood drinker. Suddenly, the impossible happens, and both mortal and immortal are swept to the edge of madness. Her one thought becomes an obsession: escape Andre and this nest of vampires!

But soon Carol is forced to return to the lair of the undead Andre because now more than just her life is on the line. In a final tension-packed life-or-death confrontation, Carol is desperate to prevent the disastrous outcome that both she and Andre foresee as inevitable.

Also check out Near Death (Book Two in the Power of the Blood World), Reborn (Book Three in the Power of the Blood World), Bloodlover (Book Four in the Power of the Blood World) and Eternal City.

Donor by Elena Hearty
$4.24
224 pages

Richard is a modern vampire who likes to eat in. That's why he always keeps a fresh victim trapped in his home. All of his captives eventually die; Lenore hopes to be the first to escape.

Life at Richard's is short but never dull. Not with Richard's vampire friend, Paul, constantly popping in. Paul loves toying with Richard's victims before they die. But is Paul getting too attached to his plaything? His human servant, Charles, certainly thinks so. Charles is next in line to be turned and wants to eliminate the competition.

If Charles's schemes don't kill Lenore, then Richard's hunger surely will. Lenore has a plan to survive, but someone will have to die in her place. She now has something terrible in common with her captor: she must kill in order to live.

Voice of the Blood by Jemiah Jefferson
$6.99
288 pages

The ordinary life of a grad student was so boring for Ariane. She was desperate for some change, some excitement to shake things up. She had no idea she was only one step away from a whole new world—a world of darkness and decay, of eternal life and eternal death. But once she fell prey to Ricari she would learn more about this world than she ever dreamed possible. More than anyone should dare to know . . . if they value their soul.

Also check out Wounds, Fiend, A Drop of Scarlet and Mixtape for the Apocalypse.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite
$6.39
387 pages

Launching the Abyss imprint for Delacorte, this stylishly written, daringly provocative first novel plays on the appeal of vampires as romantic antiheroes.

In Missing Mile, North Carolina, in search of supple young flesh and thirsting for blood, three beautiful vampires--Molochai, Twig, and Zillah--follow vampires Nothing and Ann on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans.

Also check out Drawing Blood, Wormwood, Are you Loathsome Tonight? and Exquisite Corpse.

Mama's Boy and Other Stories by Fran Friel
$4.99
280 pages

The Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella “Mama’s Boy” is the cornerstone of this 14-story collection from author Fran Friel and Apex Publications. A man whose mother’s demented love for him has turned him from an innocent boy to a serial killer to a near-comatose mental patient opens his world to a psychologist determined to reach him as a way of dealing with her own mother’s battle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But is she helping, or is there more damage to be done?

In “Mashed,” a son’s simple request for potatoes with his birthday dinner opens up a world of past fears and childhood torments for his mother, while the flash fiction story “Close Shave” presents a horrifically funny solution to an everyday women’s issue.

From mother and son to broader family ties, Friel explores the bonds of human connection into every dark turn. The humorous yet wickedly creepy “Under the Dryer” begins as a tale told by the family dog and ends in a bloodbath; “Special Prayers,” perhaps the most disturbing offering in the collection, exposes a family secret of abuse and power; and the tragically soft and beautiful “Orange and Golden” explores the purest form of the human-animal bond as the sun sets on a natural disaster.

Also check out Beach of Dreams.

Regret by Gabrielle Faust
$2.99
140 pages

Humanity is renowned for placing the blame for their most unspeakable actions in the palms of their "demons." It would seem that for every crime, every indecency there is a minion of the Underworld assigned to it. The lucky ones balance precariously on the edge of damnation, always managing at the last minute to halt their impending doom. The unlucky ones succumb entirely or, in Marcus Glenfield's case, find themselves following a much darker path than they ever could have imagined. After a strangely brutal twist of fate, Marcus becomes his own inner demon, that of the Demon of Regret. As he begins his new life as a tempter and collector of mortal souls, his path of damnation unfortunately crosses with that of Sonnellion, the Demon of Hatred, Cresil, the Demon of Slovenliness, Vetis, the Tempter of the Holy and finally Belial himself, the Prince of Wickedness. Through each of his interactions, Marcus gleans valuable insight into the purpose of his fellow demons within the greater hierarchy of existence, assisting his personal mission to collect the one soul that continues to preoccupy his every thought. However, will the wisdom of Hell's ancient minions be enough to save him from a deadly encounter with Belial or does Hell have another plan for Marcus altogether?

Barbed Wire Hearts by Cate Gardner
$4.99
199 pages

"A hand poked from the soil like a pale flower…"

Eddie Stock's heart dislodges from his chest, drops to his bowels and dribbles down his thighs when the girl he likes laughs at him. Well the girl he likes and his entire school year. Finding himself in a forest, which has mysteriously sprouted about his town, Eddie meets a man named Ghoate.

Ghoate collects hearts. They hang from his ceiling and they rot within his jars. Ghoate also collects minions and it appears Eddie is his latest.

Elsewhere in the forest, a dead girl is waking. Rose Lovering's heart wasn't strong enough to allow her to live and isn't weak enough to end this living death.

Can Rose help Eddie regain his heart and save their town? And, can Eddie save her?

Also check out Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits and Theatre of Curious Acts.

Engines of Desire: Tales of Love and Other Horrors by Livia Llewellyn
$6.99
214 pages

Death and pleasure. Freud’s Todestrieb, his statement that “libido has the task of making the destroying instinct innocuous, and it fulfills the task by diverting that instinct to a great extent outwards....The instinct is then called the destructive instinct, the instinct for mastery, or the will to power.” Few authors have spun stories of Thanatos and Eros as skillfully and powerfully as Livia Llewellyn.

In his introduction to this volume, Laird Barron writes “Scant difference exists between exquisite pleasure and pain.” An orphan girl with a mind for anthracite falls into the hands of a cult worshiping an entombed god. In the Pacific Northwest, evergreens lull prepubescent girls into their trunks to serve as wombs. A suburban housewife troubled by her present encounters the sixteen-year-old girl she ached to touch in her dreams. These ten stories promise to indulge the reader’s sensibilities, their fears and desires.

Blanket of White by Amy Grech
$4.50
146 pages

Blanket of White - True love knows no bounds.

Crosshairs - A young boy learns the perils of hunting fare game firsthand.

Prevention - Murderous twins help their dear mother into and out of trouble.

Perishables - A nuclear fallout survivor finds sustenance in an unlikely place.

Plus two more never before published storied by Amy Grech. A total of fourteen dark tales in all!

Also check out The Act of Deception.

Widow by Billie Sue Mosiman
$3.99
356 pages

NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR NOVEL.

First her husband killed their children, then himself. Now she's on her own, and she's bent on making sure it never happens to another woman. It's too late for her…she's already damaged. Yet when she stops the evil she's felt compelled to commit, the murders continue. Someone is a copycat, pinning crimes on her, stalking her, teasing her with his devious plan. She can't make him stop. There may be no way out of the trap she's created out of loss, out of desperation.

There's another problem--she's falling in love with the detective who is in charge of tracking her down. Life is a complex series of paradoxes, a spiral of fear and murder where nothing is as it seems.

Also check out Legions of the Dark, Rise of the Legend and Hunter of the Dead.

Facade by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
$5.99
400 pages

Originally published by Dell Abyss in 1993.

Thomas fell in love with the Oregon Coast while filming his signature role as Anthony Short. Then his estranged daughter, Heather, died there, and Thomas fled.

He’s returned now, not to solve his daughter’s murder, but to see if he can live with himself and his past.

Only someone leaves mysterious notes, signed Your Daughter, and birds die on his porch. Strangers report a man in a cloak who looks just like Thomas, but the fans who follow him everywhere don’t see anyone.

But Thomas knows something strange is going on. Then more people die and Thomas realizes he holds the key to it all. He can solve the crisis, if he only dares…

Also check out Sins of the Blood.

Nightmare by S.K. Epperson
$3.99
284 pages

On a remote ranch deep in the Flint Hills at a clinic for women diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, patients are dying in extremely violent ways. The staff has invited Dr. Bryan Raleigh and his team, along with his journalist brother, David, to write about the clinic, and from the moment of their arrival they begin unwillingly to unravel secrets about the family who owns the ranch, including a strange blood ritual practiced by the hemophiliac son and even more bizarre rites performed by the grotesque, voyeuristic wife of the clinic's director. Soon David and the others begin to suspect the rude, imperious woman who never leaves the third floor may be somehow responsible for the deaths of traumatized patients dying one by one, and the closer they get to the truth, the bigger the threat becomes to their own safety.

Also check out Green Lake and The Neighborhood.

A Twisted Ladder by Rhodi Hawk
$10.62
541 pages

Psychologist Madeleine LeBlanc has spent her whole career trying to determine the cause of her father's schizophrenia. She always felt that she could unravel its origins and cure the man who left her and her brother, Marc, to practically raise themselves on the Louisiana Bayou. But when Marc takes his own life on a fishing boat in the middle of Bayou Black, Madeleine embarks on a journey into her family history---to a time when the antebellum era was crumbling, and the line between servant and master was starting to fade. And the more she pries the more she reveals her family’s dark past, rife with conjured demons and river magic gone awry. Madeleine’s only hope to save herself is to face the ghosts of the past, the dangers of the present, and the twisted ladder that links them all together.

Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan
$9.19
430 pages

Built on the Upper West Side, the elegant Breviary claims a regal history. But despite 14B's astonishingly low rental price, the recent tragedy within its walls has frightened away all potential tenants . . . except for Audrey Lucas.

No stranger to tragedy at thirty-two—a survivor of a fatherless childhood and a mother's hopeless dementia— Audrey is obsessively determined to make her own way in a city that often strangles the weak. But is it something otherworldly or Audrey's own increasing instability that's to blame for the dark visions that haunt her . . . and for the voice that demands that she build a door? A door it would be true madness to open . . .

Also check out The Keeper and The Missing.

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff
$2.99
320 pages

Baird College's Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it's only gathering itself for the coming weekend.

As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine---and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It's only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what's become of them. But for now it's just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants and no one will miss.

Also check out The Price, The Unseen and Book of Shadows.

Ghosts and Other Lovers by Lisa Tuttle
$5.87
143 pages

The introduction begins, "I'm fascinated by ghosts, and entertain all sorts of theories about what they really are. That hauntings are caused by the uneasy dead, by spirits unable to find rest, seems to me the least likely explan- ation. . . ." Veteran fantasy and horror author Lisa Tuttle has assembled thirteen of her imaginative inquiries into the nature of ghosts and the people they visit, covering territory from gothic romance to the just plain creepy. Incisive, sexy, and unsettling, Ghosts and Other Lovers should appeal to both fans of classic ghost stories and those seeking bold psychological fantasy.

Also check out My Pathology.

Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan
$10.41
368 pages

Spyder Baxter is the patron saint of the alienated and lost. She invites them into her mesmerizing world of ritual and ceremony, blood and fire...a realm of vengeful gods, of exiled spirits harboring the dark secrets of Hell-and the darker secrets of Heaven. But is she their guardian angel-or a much more terrifying force sent not to redeem, but to destroy?

Also check out The Red Tree, Low Red Moon, Daughter of Hounds, Threshold and Murder of Angels.

A Book of Tongues: Volume One of the Hexslinger Series by Gemma Files
$9.95
280 pages

Two years after the Civil War, Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow has gone undercover with one of the weird West's most dangerous outlaw gangs-the troop led by "Reverend" Asher Rook, ex-Confederate chaplain turned "hexslinger," and his notorious lieutenant (and lover) Chess Pargeter. Morrow's task: get close enough to map the extent of Rook's power, then bring that knowledge back to help Professor Joachim Asbury unlock the secrets of magic itself.

Magicians, cursed by their gift to a solitary and painful existence, have never been more than a footnote in history. But Rook, driven by desperation, has a plan to shatter the natural law that prevents hexes from cooperation, and change the face of the world-a plan sealed by an unholy marriage-oath with the goddess Ixchel, mother of all hanged men. To accomplish this, he must raise her bloodthirsty pantheon from its collective grave through sacrifice, destruction, and apotheosis.

Caught between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, Rook's witchery, and the ruthless calculations of his own masters, Morrow's only real hope of survival lies with the man without whom Rook cannot succeed: Chess Pargeter himself. But Morrow and Chess will have to literally ride through Hell before the truth of Chess's fate comes clear-the doom written for him, and the entire world.

Also check out A Rope of Thorns: Volume Two of the Hexslinger Series.

Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinborough
$5.75
356 pages

Life was good for Matt and Chloe. They were in love and looking forward to their new baby. But what Chloe gave birth to isn’t a baby. It isn’t even human. It’s an entirely new species that uses humans only for food—and as hosts for their young.

As Matt soon learns, though, he is not alone in his terror. Women all over town have begun to give birth to these hideous creatures, spidery nightmares that live to kill—and feed. As the infestation spreads and the countryside is reduced to a series of web-shrouded ghost towns, will the survivors find a way to fight back? Or is it only a matter of time before all of mankind is reduced to a…Breeding Ground.

Also check out Feeding Ground, The Taken, The Reckoning, Tower Hill and The Hidden.

Seed by Ania Ahlborn
$0.99
169 pages

In the vine-twisted swamps of Louisiana, the shadows have teeth.

Jack Winter has spent his entire life running from something no one else can see. His childhood is his darkest secret, but after a near fatal accident along a deserted road, the darkness he was sure he’d escaped rears its ugly head… and smiles.

But this time, he isn’t the only one who sees the soulless eyes of his past. This time, his six-year-old daughter Charlie leans into his ear and whispers: "Daddy, I saw it too."

And then she begins to change.

Faced with reliving the nightmares of his childhood, Jack watches his daughter spiral into the shadows that had nearly consumed him twenty years before.

But Charlie isn’t the only one who’s changing.

Jack never outran the darkness. It’s been with him all along.

And it’s hungrier than ever.

A new breed of dark fiction: the subtlety of Seed will haunt you, and the end will wickedly satisfy.

Badass Zombie Road Trip by Tonia Brown
$3.99

Jonah has seven days to find his best friend’s soul, or lose his own,
dragging a zombie across the country with a stripper who has an agenda of her own,
while being pursued for a crime he didn’t commit...
...and dealing with Satan.

2,000 miles. Seven days. Two souls.
One zombie.
Satan.

Also check out Lucky Stiff.

Frightliner & Other Tales of the Undead by Colleen Drippe' Karina Fabian
$2.99
59 pages

When Jay Carlson has a run in with a strange, dark truck on a lonely road, his life goes south. He sees things that others don't see. He learns things he wishes he could forget, and he is drawn into an ancient battle he wouldn't have believed in even a day in the past. This time, even country music and the open road can't save him. Join authors Colleen Drippe' and Karina Fabian as they take you to the darkest places on the road. Also includes two extra stories and an excerpt from the novel Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator by Karina Fabian, available now from DAMNATION BOOKS.

Also check out Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.

Dead Spell by Belinda Frisch
$1.99
198 pages

Harmony Wolcott's darkest secret has clawed its way back from the grave and is haunting her.

Afraid to ask for help, Harmony searches for answers in the wreckage of her childhood home where the truth is buried under the rubble of a family plagued by mental illness.

Dead Spell is about a ghost with a past and a girl who would die to forget it.

Also check out Crisis Hospital: Dark Tales from the Ward, the World, and the Bedside.

Come Closer by Sara Gran
$8.99
180 pages

In this sparsely constructed and compellingly succinct gem of a novel, Gran's heroine leads a normal life until things suddenly and mystifyingly go wrong. Amanda does hear noises and experience bizarre situations, yet as a vague but tantalizing feeling of unease settles in, Amanda's fear feeds her needs and desires. Gran's premise, that we accept the impossible, for to do otherwise is to foolishly court disaster, informs the subtle tension beneath this deliciously wicked tale. A short book, it is nonetheless long on style, thanks to Gran's talent for quickly and convincingly portraying Amanda's reluctant terror, abject denial, and, finally, resigned acceptance of the malevolent force commandeering her life.

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
$4.76
281 pages

Cass Neary made her name in the 1970s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures of the musicians and hangers on, the infamous, the damned, and the dead, got her into art galleries and a book deal. But 30 years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out. Then an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Downeast, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and into one final shot at redemption.

Also check out Illyria.

Sympathy for the Dead by P.D. Cacek
$4.99
196 pages

Sympathy for the Dead is an outstanding collection of short stories by a Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Award winner.

Feed by Mira Grant
$7.99
609 pages

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

Also check out Deadline, Blackout and Countdown.

Voracious by Alice Henderson
$10.41
320 pages

Madeline Keye’s gift—to touch someone and see flashes of the past—has set her apart from family and friends. She finds sanctuary in the wilderness, until a backcountry hike in Glacier National Park turns into a hunt—with her as the prey. Because something that’s not human is out there. And it’s hungry.

Also check out Useful Information and Simone.

Drowned Sorrow by Vanessa Morgan
$8.95 pages
191 pages

Megan Blackwood has just lost her only son in a terrible accident. Now she has come to Moonlight Creek with her teenage daughter Jenna, hoping a change of scenery might help to put her life and that of her daughter back together.

But something odd is going on in Moonlight Creek.

When rain falls over the village, its inhabitants commit grisly murders, leaving the place deserted with the first rays of sunshine.

Beneath the lake’s surface, an eerie presence watches … and waits …. Waits to reveal a tragic past drowned in mystery and fear. One that doesn’t bode well for visitors.

By the time Megan realizes that her life, as well as that of her daughter, is in danger, it may be too late to escape.

Also check out The Strangers Outside.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
$7.49
211 pages

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. Unaware of the tragic secrets which lie there, wreathed in fog and mystery, it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Free
134 pages

"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion." A summer evening's ghost stories, lonely insomnia in a moonlit Alpine's room, and a runaway imagination--fired by philosophical discussions with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley about science, galvanism, and the origins of life--conspired to produce for Marry Shelley this haunting night specter. By morning, it had become the germ of her Romantic masterpiece, Frankenstein. Written in 1816 when she was only nineteen, Mary Shelley's novel of "The Modern Prometheus" chillingly dramatized the dangerous potential of life begotten upon a laboratory table. A frightening creation myth for our own time, Frankenstein remains one of the greatest horror stories ever written and is an undisputed classic of its kind.

Also check out The Last Man.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:20:00.000-05:00

I hope you all have a great Christmas! This picture is from an awesome Tales From the Crypt episode called "And All Through the House" and it features a very creepy Santa.

10 Awesome Black Christmas (1974) Quotes

2011-12-12T19:36:00.000-05:00

1. "I didn't send my daughter here to be drinking and picking up boys!" - Mr. Harrison

2. "I didn't send my daughter here to be drinking and picking up boys! (imitating Mr. Harrison) Tough shit! Like I'm supposed to be responsible for the morals of every girl in this goddamn house! These broads would hump the Leaning Tower of Pisa if they could get up there! I do my best! I don't know what the bastards expect of me for Christ sake." - Mrs. MacHenry

3. Sergeant Nash: Excuse me? Could you give me the number at the sorority house? Please?
Barb Coard: Yeah, sure. It's, ah... Fellatio 20880. Fellatio. It's a new exchange, FE.
Sergeant Nash: That's a new one on me. How do you spell it?
Barb Coard: Capital F, E, little L, L, A, T, I, O.
Sergeant Nash: Thanks.
Barb Coard: Don't mention it.

4. Lieutenant Kennet Fuller: What's this?
Sergeant Nash: Oh, that's the number at the sorority house.
Lieutenant Kennet Fuller: Fellatio?
Sergeant Nash: Yeah, it's a new exchange: FE.

Lieutenant Kennet Fuller: New exchange?

Sergeant Nash: Yeah, Fellatio. One of the girls that was in this afternoon gave it to me.

Lieutenant Kennet Fuller: She gave it to you?

Sergeant Nash: Yeah!
Lieutenant Kennet Fuller: Nash, I don't think you could pick your nose without written instructions.
Sergeant Nash: I know! It's something dirty, ain't it?

5. Clare Harrison: But you know that town girl was raped a couple of weeks ago.
Barb Coard: Darling, you can't rape a townie.

Clare Harrison: You really are too much, Barb.

Barb Coard: Oh, come on, this is a sorority house not a convent.

6. "Godammit Claude, you little prick!" - Mrs. MacHenry

7. "I think the little bugger's schnockered, son of a bitch." - Barb

8. "Well, thank you, girls. It's lovely really... Got about as much use for this as I do a chastity belt. Jesus, I wouldn't wear this to have my liver out!" - Mrs. MacHenry

9. Clare Harrison: Could that really be just one person?
Barb Coard: No Claire, it's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir making their annual obscene phone call.

10. Barb Coard: Did you know, this is a very little known fact, but... did you know that there's a certain species of turtle that... there's a certain species of turtle that can screw for three days without stopping. You don't believe me, do you? Well, I mean, how could I make something like that up?
Mrs. MacHenry: Ah, Barb, dear, ah, I-I-I-ah...
Barb Coard: No, really! They just... three days, 24 hours a day, wha-voom! Wha-voom! Wha-voom! Can you believe that, three days? I'm lucky if I get three minutes! Do you know how I know this? Because I went down to the zoo and I watched them. It was very boring. Well actually, um, I, uh, didn't stay for the whole three days, I went over and I watched the zebras, because they only take thirty seconds! Premature ejaculation!

R.L. STINE BOOK OF THE WEEK: Silent Night

2011-12-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

From the back cover:

Santa's bringing Reva three presents...each one full of holiday fear!

In Silent Night Reva Dalby was the richest, snobbiest, nastiest person in Shadyside. Three Christmases ago, Reva went too far, and found herself being followed everywhere. By someone who wanted revenge.

Reva escaped and promised that she'd change.

But she didn't stay on Santa's nice list for long. The next Christmas, she went back to being her old, spoiled self. Until she was kidnapped - by men who wanted her rich father's money.

Now, in Silent Night 3, Reva is home from college for the holidays. She's determined to have a good time this year. But she doesn't know that once again, Santa's leaving terror in her stocking. And it's going to be another scary Christmas!

From the front:

HAPPY HORROR-DAYS!

It's that time of year again. Time for snow, presents, family - and mean, nasty Reva Dalby!

Yes, Reva is up to her old tricks. She's still the snobbiest, cruelest girl in Shadyside. And she's still making plenty of people angry. People who are close to her - close enough to take their revenge!

Poor Reva. She has no idea what horrifying "presents" Santa's leaving for her on Fear Street!

So curl up by the fire with some chestnuts, some eggnog, and these terrifying R.L. Stine tales.

They're sure to make this a very Scary Christmas - and a Happy New Fear!

My thoughts:

To get myself (and anyone who reads this blog) into the Christmas spirit, I'm going to feature the Silent Night trilogy for R.L. Stine Book of the Week over the next few weeks. My copy of the book is the "Collector's Edition" which has all three Silent Night books in it, if you're wondering why the description is for three different books.

Silent Night tells the story of Reva Dalby - a snobby, spoiled brat whose father owns the Dalby's department store chain. When someone starts pulling cruel pranks on her - putting a needle in her lipstick, sending her a perfume bottle filled with blood - she doesn't know who to blame because everyone hates her.

I actually liked Reva. It was fun to read about her because she's such a bitch. She breaks up with Hank when she's driving him home - she just pulls over in the middle of nowhere and tells him to get out of her car. Then she moves onto Mitch, kissing him in front of his girlfriend, Lissa, and when they break up and Mitch asks her out, Reva tells him she's not interested. She also refuses to help her poor cousin, Pam, get a job at the store. Reva Dalby is the ultimate snotty rich kid (move over Summer Roberts) and I loved to hate her.

Since I work at Sears, I could relate to working at a department store during Christmas (it's nuts). The descriptions of the store were very accurate - how busy it is, the creepiness of being in an empty store after it is closed.

The other storyline about Reva's poor cousin, Pam, robbing Dalby's was also interesting and suspenseful. There was a car chase and Clay - one of the boys she robbed the store with - was kind of creepy.

For the most part, I enjoyed Silent Night. The only aspect of the book I didn't like was how predictable the ending was.

Rating: 4/5

PG-13 Gore: Reva took out her lipstick from the drawer, pulled off the top, and twisted the tube. She turned the round countertop mirror so that she could see herself better, leaned toward it, puckered her full lips into a pout, and began spreading the magenta lipstick on them.

It took a second for the pain to register.

Then she let out a horrified shriek and dropped the lipstick.

Gasping in pain and surprise, she stared into the small mirror and saw blood pouring down her chin.

Her lips throbbed with pain.

She stood frozen in horror. So much blood! Frantically she grabbed up tissues, mopping gently at her lips.

I'm cut. I'm cut.

I can't stop the bleeding.

What has happened here?

Pressing a wad of tissues against her mouth, she saw large drips of blood on the glass countertop.

Breathing hard, she bent down and searched the floor for the lipstick tube. It had rolled under the counter. She snatched at it and brought it up to the light to examine it.

Trying to hold the tube steady in her trembling hand, Reva saw at once what had cut her.

A needle. It poked out from the center of the tube.

Body Count: 2

Next Week: Silent Night 2

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:56:00.001-04:00

I hope you all have a terrific Halloween and have fun with whatever you've got planned. I'm just staying in tonight and watching horror movies - I'm actually watching Halloween as I type this.

What are your plans for tonight?

T.V. REVIEW: Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXII

2011-10-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

Hurray! The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXII is actually airing before Halloween this year! So I thought I should review it since I haven't blogged about anything Halloween-related yet this year (sorry about that!).

In the opening sequence, Marge is a Switch Witch. After the kids eat some of their candy, she takes the rest and replaces it with toothbrushes, dental floss and mouthwash. Then Homer is supposed to drop it off at Candy for Troops, but instead he drives to Candy Eating Peak to gorge himself and falls down a canyon, getting stuck under a rock in a funny spoof of 127 Hours.

This Treehouse of Horror episode was a bit of a disappointment compared to some of my favourites (read a list of my Top 10 Treehouse of Horror Segments here), or even last year's episode (read my review here), but that is probably because I haven't seen any of the movies/T.V. shows which are spoofed. Here are the segments:

The Diving Bell and the Butterball

In this parody of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Homer is paralyzed by a spider bite and learns to communicate through farting.

This segment is mostly fart jokes, so I didn't find it very funny. Also, not only have I not seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I have no idea what it's about and have never heard of it until now. At least with the others, I have an idea of what they're about. But there are still a few laughs at the end when another spider bites Homer and he becomes a Spiderman who shoots webs from his ass when he farts.

Dial "D" for Diddly

Ned Flanders begins murdering "evil" people when he believes God is telling him to in this parody of Dexter.

As I've already said, I've never seen Dexter - I know I should probably watch it, I'm sure I'll get to it eventually - but despite this, I still found this segment to be the funniest of the episode. I especially enjoyed the scene where Ned kills Patty and Selma. He puts a sign on the side of the road that says "Free Cigarettes" and then shoves a boulder on top of their car a la Wile E. Coyote.

In the Na'vi

In the future, Bart and Milhouse are sent to another planet to harvest Hilarium for Krusty the Clown, in a spoof of Avatar.

I found this to be the least funny episode of the segment. Unlike the others, this one just has Avatar-related jokes. I enjoyed seeing what Bart and Milhouse would look like if they were part of Kang and Kodos' race of aliens, but that was the only fun part of this segment.

Overall, I felt pretty "meh" about this year's episode. But it's worth watching for Dial "D" for Diddly and the opening.

Rating: 3/5

BOOK NEWS: Robert McCammon E-Books

2011-10-18T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today nine of Robert McCammon's books are being released in e-book format from Open Road Media: Swan Song, Boy's Life, Gone South, Mine, Stinger, Mystery Walk, Usher's Passing, The Wolf's Hour and Blue World.

The books are available from Amazon, Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Google eBookstore, Kobo Books, OverDrive and Sony Reader Store.

The price per e-book is between $9.99 and $12, depending on which website you buy from.

Watch Robert McCammon talk about writing in this video:

Book Sale Finds

2011-10-16T22:17:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago I went to a book sale and bought quite a few horror novels and thought I would share my purchases with everyone.

Sins of the Flesh by Don Davis & Jay Davis

The Wages of Sin is Death!

An innocent mound of grass-covered earth. A weathered wooden door. A root cellar, shelter from violent storms, storage for the farm's produce. On Walter Sikes' farm, the root cellar hides a dark and dangerous secret. A monster slumbers there, imprisoned by powerful magics - a monster that once was Walter Sikes' eldest son.

Transformed by a madman's curse, Jesse Sikes is a killing machine. Twenty years ago he cut a bloody swath through the small town of Gideon - until his mother struck him down with her own occult powers. Now Eleanor Sikes is dying. The bonds that hold the monster are weakening.

Soon Jesse will be free.

No one in Gideon will be safe.

Fear by Ronald Kelly

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN?

It was a legend in Fear County... a hideous, flesh-eating creature - part snake, part earthbound demon - that feasted on the blood of innocent children in the cold black heart of the Tennessee backwoods.

But ten-year-old Jeb Sweeny knows the horrible stories are true. His best friend Mandy just up and disappeared. He also knows that no one has ever had the courage to go after the monster and put an end to its raging, bestial hunger.

Until now.

But Evil is well guarded. And for young Jeb Sweeny, who is about to cross over into the forbidden land of Fear County and the lair of the unknown, passage through the gates of Hell comes with a terrible price. Everlasting...FEAR!

Darklings by Ray Garton

Are you safe in your house?

Look around you. Is your world familiar? Comfortable? Does it seem the same today as it was yesterday? It isn't.

Something is loose in your world that wasn't there before. Some terrible.

It is born of the devil, nurtured in evil, and set loose to do its vile work. It moves its foul form with a sleek, sudden malevolent grace. It comes, it touches, it takes over. Then the horror begins. An aging surgeon, a captured fugitive, a pregnant mother, an innocent hospital worker - each is its victim, driven by a grotesque impulse to acts of murder, mayhem, nymphomania, infanticide, cannibalism... Can it be stopped? Perhaps... But the battle will be waged by a few brave, desperate souls on the edge of Hell, while Satan awaits the triumph of his cherished...DARKLINGS.

Nightmare Child by Daniel Ransom

From the silence of the grave...

Jeff and Mindy McKay are young, attractive and willing to stop at nothing to have it all - even if it means murdering Mindy's little sister, Jenny, to collect her part of an enormous inheritance. With Jenny out of the way, Jeff and Mindy can begin to enjoy luxury beyond their wildest dreams...

Then one day, months after Mindy and Jeff have buried the little girl, they answer a knock at the door. Standing there, staring at them with frightening blank eyes, is Jenny. She has returned -to their house, to their lives - to exact a revenge that goes beyond death.

The Pines by Robert Dunbar

EVIL OMEN

After her husband died, Athena Monroe often wondered why she stayed in the dilapidated old farmhouse, buried deep in the harsh, blighted New Jersey pine barrens. Perhaps it was because her mysteriously afflicted young son seemed to feel such strong ties to the area's primeval swaps and stunted forests - such an affinity for the pines. She didn't guess that his psychic connection was with something evil - until ranting fits and night terrors gripped him in a vise of horror. Athena was afraid her inability to really love the boy was now causing his strange behavior, but the old-timers in the region recognized something more sinister. To them it was an omen of things to come - a sign that the monstrous Jersey Devil was about to reappear...

The Pluto Pact by Guy N. Smith

A black magician screaming curses of hatred...
A fiery object hurtling from the sky...
A patch of earth where no blade of grass will grow...

Centuries have passed since that terrible night of reckoning, but still the dark shadow hangs over a Scottish valley.

Bob Coyle believes that his home town is menaced by a new centre for disposing of nuclear waste - a lethally dangerous project he calls 'Holocaust'. Yet his efforts to alert the people fall upon deaf - or angry - ears. For them the center means new-found prosperity.

But a series of strange deaths and brutal killings at last starts to bring home the danger... and if Coyle's worst fears are realized, countless millions will die in agony.

Then the terrible curse of Balzur will be fulfilled.

The Reckoning by Ruby Jean Jensen

THE NIGHT THE CHILDREN CAME HOME

It all started the night of Dalton Walsh's revival meeting... when the earth beneath his tent trembled with a kind of vengeance. It was as if some force from beyond knew about the terrible crimes that had transpired in this little town and finally wanted to reveal the evil that lived there.

Then the sightings began. All those lost, almost forgotten children; kids who hadn't aged a day in all the years since their disappearance - like the teenage boy who still wore the same clothes he'd last been seen in, or the golden-haired little girl who still clutched that same doll.

Reverend Dalton didn't know why the children had picked this moment to come home, but he did know one thing; now was the time for a terrible truth to finally be revealed. Now was the time for...THE RECKONING.

Bethany's Sin by Robert McCammon

EVEN GOD STAYS AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE OF BETHANY'S SIN

For Evan Reid, his wife Kay, and their small daughter Laurie, the beautiful house in the small village was too good a bargain to pass up. Bethany's Sin was a weird name, but the village was quaint and far from the noise and pollution of the city.

But Bethany's Sin was too quiet. There were no sounds at all...almost as if the night had been frightened into silence.

Evan began to notice that there were very few men in the village, and that most of them were crippled. And then there was the sound of galloping horses. Women on horses. Riding in the night.

Soon he would learn their superhuman secret. And soon he would watch in terror as first his wife, then his daughter, entered their sinister cabal.

An ancient evil rejoiced in Bethany's Sin. A horror that happened only at night...and only to men.

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

Inch by inch, day by day, Scott Carey is getting smaller. Once an unremarkable husband and father, Scott finds himself shrinking with no end in sight. His wife and family turn into unreachable giants, the family cat becomes a predatory menace, and Scott must struggle to survive in a world that seems to be growing ever larger and more perilous--until he faces the ultimate limits of fear and existence.

Also contains several more tales by Richard Matheson including Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Button, Button and Duel.

X,Y by Michael Blumlein

TEASE ME

Frankie watched herself in the mirror as she danced in the strip joint - it was the only way to get through her act. But then the fat man came into the club, and the siren screamed, and Frankie's world shattered like a thousand shards of glass.

TALK TO ME

In the morning, she isn't Frankie anymore. She doesn't remember who she is. She knows for certain only one solid truth: that she is a man. As for Terry, her boyfriend, he cannot understand what his little sex object is trying to tell him...

PUNISH ME

Frankie, trapped and livid, slowly learns to live as a captive in a woman's skin, and learns to rule over her poor lover. She makes him work for her. She makes him wait on her. She uses her stranger's body to torture hi with his own desire.

X,Y

They are an ordinary couple in their private hell: A man and a woman in changed places; a man and a woman exploring all the cruelty and darkness and horror that once was hidden between a woman and a man.

This Perfect Day by Ira Levin

"THE FAMILY" WAS EVERWHERE

For centuries mankind longed for a world without suffering or war. The family made that dream come true.

They had triumphed. Programmed, every need satisfied, they knew nothing of struggle or pain.

THEY HAD MASTERED... PERFECTED THE EARTH

But for one man, perfection was not enough. For Chip, it was a nightmare. The Family was a suffocating force of evil. His dream was to escape...and destroy!

Afterimage by Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Kevin J. Anderson

He was known as the Joan of Arc killer - a sadistic rapist who burned his victims before he murdered them.

Rebecca Tamerlane had been staring into this monster's face as he hovered over her broken body, the smell of gasoline in the air. But suddenly her body felt completely whole and surprisingly strong...only it wasn't her body.

Rescued at the last minute by a group of shapeshifters, Rebecca had been transformed into the likeness of the last image in her mind before her death. Now she was the image of her killer, with his odious identity and the police on her trail. There was no other way to save herself except to search desperately for this maniac who held the key to the magic restoration of her true body. But among the shapeshifters, a more sinister force had other ideas...

Blaze by Stephen King

Once upon a time, a fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 ("cancer of the pseudonym"), but this last gripping Bachman novel resurfaced after being hidden away for decades -- an unforgettable crime story tinged with sadness and suspense.

Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze's partner in crime is dead. Or is he?

Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

FIRST THEY TOOK HIS DAUGHTER. NOW THEY'VE COME BACK FOR HIM.

On Christmas Eve four-year-old Naomi Hillenbrand disappears from her father's side in a crowded toy store; on Christmas day, her mutilated body is discovered in a field. But part of Naomi remains, unwilling or unable to leave this world. Ghostly photographs capture her playing with two other little girls dressed in Victorian garb while a sinister man in black watches...watches them all.

Charles Hillenbrand is tormented by grief. When sinister whispers in the night begin to taunt him, he tries to uncover the evil truth behind Naomi's death. But long-buried secrets await him and threaten to take him beyond the brink of sanity, to a place where he could lose his very soul.

Have you read any of these books? What do you think of them?

BOOK REVIEW: Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters

2011-09-06T16:24:00.000-04:00

When Susan and her husband, Alex, find the perfect Brooklyn apartment for a great price on Craigslist, they don't set their hopes too high. But the place exceeds their expectations - it even has an extra room where Susan can paint. They manage to charm the landlady with the help of their toddler, Emma, and the apartment is theirs.

But after they move in strange things occur. There is a horrible stench coming from Susan's new art studio. Their landlady becomes increasingly odd. Alex is too busy at work to notice, but Susan is convinced there is something sinister about the apartment. Then Susan finds a bite on her arm which she insists is from a bedbug, although neither Alex nor Emma have bites, and there is no evidence of the bugs. Susan desperately tries to prove the existence of bedbugs in their apartment, to no avail. Do they have bedbugs or is Susan going crazy?

Bedbugs is reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby. It features a couple moving into a strange new place and a quirky but friendly old lady.

The book starts off slow, gradually revealing problems with the apartment - the smell in the room, a strange "ping" noise, a seemingly incompetent handyman, odd phrases the landlady says - but manages to never be boring.

I enjoyed how the bedbug is portrayed in the novel - instead of simply being a disgusting bug that feeds off your dead skin while you sleep, they are evil.

The novel mostly focuses on Susan, and she's a well-written and likable character, albeit a bit selfish and dense at times. She stays at home to paint - but never seems to get around to it, even though she has a nanny take care of Emma during the day - while her husband works long hours at a job he hates to support them. Okay, that doesn't sound too horrible, but Alex is also an artist and gave up his dreams to take care of his family. I felt sorry for him.

The landlady, Andrea, is an interesting character and manages to be creepy even though she's mostly described as a harmless old lady.

Bedbugs is an atmospheric horror novel and if the bedbugs don't make your skin crawl, the actions of the peculiar landlady will. Available now as a paperback or in Kindle format.

Rating: 4/5

BOOK NEWS: Samhain Horror

2011-07-29T16:37:00.001-04:00

Horror fiction fans were devastated when Dorchester Publishing announced their switch from mass-market paperbacks to e-books and print-on-demand trade paperbacks, and subsequently let go of long-time horror editor, Don D'Auria.

But luckily for us, D'Auria is now the editor of a new horror imprint from Samhain Publishing, simply titled Samhain Horror.

It will launch this October, releasing books initially in e-book format with paperbacks following three months later. In celebration of their launch, they will be releasing 10 books in October, but will normally be releasing two per month.

Here are their October, November and December releases:

OCTOBER

The Seven Days of Cain by Ramsey Campbell

Is anyone really innocent?

On two continents, weeks apart, two people are brutally murdered: a Barcelona street performer and a New York playwright are each gruesomely tortured to death. In Britain, photographer Andy Bentley begins receiving mysterious emails. The messages refer to the killings and contain hints that the murderer has a personal connection to Andy. But what is it? Are the emails coming from the killer himself? And what, if anything, does Andy’s past have to do with the deaths? As the answers begin to take shape Andy will be forced to confront not only the consequences of his actions, but also the uncertainly of reality itself. Before that happens, how much that he loves will be destroyed?

Obsession by Ramsey Campbell (re-print)

The deal seemed too good to be true. Until it came time to pay.

The letters said, “Whatever you most need, I do. The price is something that you do not value and which you may regain.” To four teenagers, it seemed an offer too good to pass up. They filled out the enclosed forms. Indeed, they soon got what they needed most, but in shocking ways they never imagined. Twenty-five years later, they have never been able to forget the horror. But it’s not over yet. In fact, it’s about to get much worse. Now it’s time to pay the price.

The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell (re-print)

A town trapped in the grip of spreading evil.

Isolated on the moors of northern England, the town of Moonwell has remained faithful to their Druid traditions and kept their old rituals alive. Right-wing evangelist Godwin Mann isn’t about to let that continue, and his intolerant brand of fundamentalism has struck a chord with the residents. But Mann goes too far when he descends into the pit where the ancient being who’s been worshipped by the Druids for centuries is said to dwell….

What emerges is no longer Mann, but a demon in Mann’s shape, and only the town’s outcasts can see that something is horribly wrong. Slowly, as the evil spreads, Moonwell becomes cut off from the rest of the world. Telephone lines become disconnected. Roads no longer lead out of town. And the monster’s power only grows…and grows.

Dark Companions by Ramsey Campbell (re-print)

A brilliant collection of stories by one of the masters of horror.

Not all companions are friendly. There are many that you most definitely do not want to see. When Elaine was working late at the office, she thought she was all alone. But something sinister was in the elevator shaft…working its way to her floor. Miles, too, thought he was alone in his new house, the house of a murderer, but he, too, had an unwanted companion. And Knox will never forget what was waiting for him in the dense fog.

Come and meet all of these companions and more in this chilling collection of horror tales by award-winning master of terror Ramsey Campbell. That clawing sound you hear, the haunting singing, the moving shadow—they all mean that something is waiting to make your acquaintance.

Contains “The Companion,” the story Stephen King called “one of the three finest horror stories I have ever read.”

Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell (re-print)

A lost horror film holds the key to terrifying secrets.

The legends have persisted for decades of a lost horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi that was never released. Rumor has it that, for reasons long forgotten, powerful forces suppressed the film and burned all known prints. Nobody now living has seen the finished film. But that might no longer be true…

Film researcher Sandy Allan is invited to a screening of a newly-discovered sole-surviving print, but then the film disappears and the real horror begins. Sandy’s search for the film leads her to Redfield, a rural community known its rich soil, fertilized by blood from an ancient massacre. But Redfield guards its secrets closely, with good reason. During every step of her search, Sandy is watched, shadowed by strange figures. Is it paranoia, or is someone—or something—determined to keep the lost film and the secrets it reveals buried forever?

Wolf's Edge by W.D. Gagliani

Can one werewolf stop a pack of super-wolves?

Nick Lupo is a homicide cop with a difference. He’s a werewolf. He’s worked hard to control his condition, but it isn’t easy to contain the beast inside him. It also means he has some very powerful enemies. Wolfpaw Security Services is a mercenary organization that wants Lupo dead. They want to infiltrate the US military with their own werewolves and they can’t let anyone—especially a fellow-werewolf like Lupo—stand in their way.

Wolfpaw’s genetic experiments have created a “super-wolf” nearly invulnerable to silver, and soon their ranks will be filled with these invincible warriors. Can one wolf—even a fierce beast like Lupo—face the fangs and claws of a pack of these killers and hope to survive?

Angel Board by Kristopher Rufty

Not all angels are sane.

Someone saved David Barker’s life, but he doesn’t know who—or what—she is. Now he’s haunted by the image of that beautiful, nebulous vision with the features of a woman and determined to find out why she appeared when he almost died. David uses an angel board in hopes of contacting her, and unfortunately for him, he succeeds. This angel has loved him all his life, guarded him and protected him. And she’ll hurt anyone who interferes with that love. David’s guardian angel is obsessive, possessive…and homicidal. Her unyielding love for him will leave a trail of grisly “accidents” and murders as she eliminates all those who want to hurt David. Or love him.

Dead of Winter by Brian Moreland

A predator stalks the frozen woods.

At a fort deep in the Ontario wilderness in 1878, a ghastly predator is attacking colonists and spreading a gruesome plague—his victims turn into ravenous cannibals with an unending hunger for human flesh. Inspector Tom Hatcher has faced a madman before, when he tracked down Montreal’s infamous Cannery Cannibal. But can even he stop the slaughter this time?

In Montreal exorcist Father Xavier visits an asylum where the Cannery Cannibal is imprisoned. But the killer who murdered thirteen women is more than just a madman who craves human meat. He is possessed by a shape-shifting demon. Inspector Hatcher and Father Xavier must unravel a mystery that has spanned centuries and confront a predator that has turned the frozen woods into a killing ground where evil has come to feed.

Forest of Shadows by Hunter Shea

The dead still hate!

John Backman specializes in inexplicable phenomena. The weirder the better. So when he gets a letter from a terrified man describing an old log home with odd whisperings, shadows that come alive, and rooms that disappear, he can’t resist the call. But the violence only escalates as soon as John arrives in the remote Alaskan village of Shida. Something dreadful happened there. Something monstrous. The shadows are closing in…and they’re out for blood.

Borealis by Ronald Malfi (novella)

On a routine crabbing expedition in the Bering Sea, Charlie Mears and the rest of the men aboard the trawler Borealis discover something unbelievable: a young woman running naked along the ridge of a passing iceberg. Just as the trawler pulls alongside the floe, the woman collapses into the snow, unconscious. The girl is rescued and brought aboard the boat, where she is cared for by the crew…only to infect them with a poison that brings about unimaginable ruination.

NOVEMBER

Dark Inspiration by Russell James

Doug and Laura thought they bought Galaxy Farm, but the old house is possessing them instead.

Doug and Laura Locke are New Yorkers who need a fresh start, so they move to Galaxy Farm, an old thoroughbred stable in Tennessee. There Doug finds inspiration to write his epic novel and Laura renews her love of teaching. They also rediscover the love that first drew them together.

But the home has many secrets. There’s a graveyard hidden at the property’s edge, and tragic deaths stalked the previous owners. Doug has become entranced by the abandoned taxidermy he discovers in the attic. And Laura falls under the spell of the ghosts of twin girls she meets in the old nursery. Only a local antiques dealer senses the danger. She has gruesome premonitions of horrible events to come. She knows she must convince Laura of the threat before the dark force in the house can execute its plan. But time is short, and something seems to be very wrong with Doug…

The Lamplighters by Frazer Lee

Life on Meditrine Island is luxurious…but brief.

Marla Neuborn has found the best post-grad job in the world – as a 'Lamplighter' working on Meditrine Island, an exclusive idyllic paradise owned and operated by a consortium of billionaires. All Lamplighters have to do is tend to the mansions, cook and clean, and turn on lights to make it appear the owners are home. But the job comes with conditions. Marla will not know the exact location of the island, and she will have no contact with the outside world for the duration of her stay.

Once on the island, Marla quickly learns the billionaire lifestyle is not all it is made out to be. The chief of security rules Meditrine with an iron fist. His private police force patrols the shores night and day, and CCTV cameras watch the Lamplighters relentlessly. Soon Marla will also discover first-hand that the island hides a terrible secret. She’ll meet the resident known as the Skin Mechanic. And she’ll find out why so few Lamplighters ever leave the island alive.

Catching Hell by Greg F. Gifune (novella)

Summer, 1983.

As fall approaches and the summer stock theaters on Cape Cod close for the season, three promising young actors and a stagehand pile into an old Ford Fairlane and head for a vacation resort in Maine. Hoping for a relaxing getaway before pursuing their dreams in New York City or going on to college, they instead encounter a bizarre storm while on a lonely stretch of state highway and soon find themselves stranded in the strange rural community of Boxer Hills.

At first glance it seems a harmless little backwoods town, but Boxer Hills has a horrible secret and a deadly history. It is a place of horrific age-old rituals and a legendary evil that will let no one escape without paying a terrible price.

Before the sun rises on a new day, they will have to fight their way through the night and out of town, or risk falling prey to an endless cycle of depravity and violence at the hands of a demonic creature so profane few will even speak its name.

They were young, reckless and chasing hell.

What they hadn't counted on was actually catching it.

DECEMBER

The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz

Something is trapped in the castle, and it wants to feed!

The Sorrows, an island off the coast of northern California, and its castle have been uninhabited since a series of gruesome, unexplained murders in 1925. But its owner needs money, so he allows film composers Ben and Eddie and a couple of their female friends to stay a month in Castle Blackwood. Eddie is certain an eerie and reportedly haunted castle is just the setting Ben needs to find musical inspiration for a horror film.

But what they find is more horrific than any movie. For something is waiting for them in the castle. A being, once worshipped, now imprisoned, has been trapped for nearly a century. And he’s ready to feed.

Donor by Elena Hearty

The life of a vampire’s live-in food supply is never long.

Richard is a modern vampire who likes to eat in. That's why he always keeps a fresh victim trapped in his home. All of his captives eventually die; Lenore hopes to be the first to escape.

Life at Richard's is short but never dull. Not with Richard's vampire friend, Paul, constantly popping in. Paul loves toying with Richard's victims before they die. But is Paul getting too attached to his plaything? His human servant, Charles, certainly thinks so. Charles is next in line to be turned and wants to eliminate the competition.

If Charles's schemes don't kill Lenore, then Richard's hunger surely will. Lenore has a plan to survive, but someone will have to die in her place. She now has something terrible in common with her captor: she must kill in order to live.

BOOK REVIEW: Chilling Tales edited by Michael Kelly

2011-07-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

This will be the last review of my special Canada day weekend.

Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd Did I Live edited by Michael Kelly is an anthology of 18 horror and dark fantasy tales by Canadian authors.

I didn't enjoy this anthology as much as the previous two I reviewed. I only enjoyed a handful of stories and didn't find any remotely creepy. The plots of most the stories are dull and unoriginal.

But I found a few entertaining. Here are my favourites:

In "Tom Chestnutt's Midnight Blues" by Robert J. Wiersma, a musician is haunted by the love of his life. An interesting story, or at least until the anti-climactic ending.

"Sympathy For the Devil" by Nancy Kilpatrick tells the tale of an awful man who is the cause of a fatal car accident and how he gets his comeuppance. A well-written story that actually has the reader rooting against the main character.

"The Needle's Eye" by Suzanne Church is about a virus that blinds those infected and has a vaccine that will make you cringe. An emotional story that makes you appreciate doctors, family and sight.

In "Looker" by David Nickle, a man becomes romantically involved with a strange woman. I know that isn't much of a description, but I don't want to reveal too much. This is my favourite story in the book because it's so strange. I've never read anything like it before.

Chilling Tales is an okay anthology. The best stories are worth reading, but because the others are disappointing, I would recommend getting it from a library or used. Submissions for volume two, Chilling Tales: In Words, Alas, Drown I, are currently being accepted.

Rating: 3/5

BOOK REVIEW: Evolve edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

2011-07-02T11:01:00.001-04:00

I'm not a huge vampire fan. I've read a few vampire novels, but wasn't crazy about them because I found them predictable. More often than not, it ends with a stake in the heart. But I thought I would give this anthology a chance since it features stories about the "New Undead." I'm glad I did because none of these stories are predictable or end with a stake. These vampire stories are unique and fascinating.

Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead is edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and features 23 stories and one poem written by Canadian authors. The plot of every story involves the "twenty-first century vampire." Many of the vampires are accepted in society, many don't succumb to the usual vampire traditions (dying in the sun, etc.) and while similar to the bloodsuckers in classics like Dracula, they are all unique, new breeds of vampire.

"An Ember Amongst the Fallen" by Colleen Anderson is the most original story of the bunch, and my favourite. In this story, vampires are the dominant species and use humans as "cattle". There is much more to the plot than that, but I don't want to give anything away. It goes in a direction I never expected, and I ended up being a bit shocked by the events in the story. Reading the anthology just for this story would be worth it; definitely one of the best short stories I've read.

In "A Murder of Vampires" by Bev Vincent, vampires are common and live in a bad part of town. When vampires are being murdered, a detective tries to find the killer. I love detective and serial killer stories, so I enjoyed this story a lot. The twist of a human detective finding a killer who is murdering vampires, which most people consider monsters, makes this story interesting.

"The Greatest Trick" by Steve Vernon is about a vampire who wants to be a politician, but when he finds it difficult to convince the public to choose a vampire over the other candidates, he finds ways to even the competition. This story is gory and humorous, making me laugh quite a bit. Here's an example of a joke from the story:

"Nobody is going to vote for a vampire," Jessome said, after I explained what I wanted of him.

"They voted for Schwarzenegger," I pointed out. "And he married one."

In "Soulfinger" by Rio Youers, a journalist goes to a blues bar to see legendary blues musician, Soulfinger, for an article he's researching, unaware that it's a bar for vampires. This is the creepiest and most atmospheric story in the anthology. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just leave it at that.

In "How Magnificent is the Universal Donor" by Jerome Stueart, a virus called Beijing Blood Disease - a.k.a. Baby Dee - has infected most of the population and the World Health Organization (WHO) is trying to save everyone with blood transfusions. But Jacob knows there is a secret the WHO is trying to hide. And when he is told his perfectly healthy partner has died from Baby Dee, he sneaks into the hospital to find him. There is tons of suspense when Jacob is sneaking around the hospital, trying not to get caught by the doctors of the WHO, and an eerie scene in the morgue.

Overall, Evolve is a must-read for vampire lovers, and anyone who is tired of the same old vampire cliches. Evolve 2: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead will be released August 15, and will be about vampires in 2012 and beyond, once again edited by Nancy Kilpatrick.

Rating: 4/5

BOOK REVIEW: Tesseracts Thirteen edited by Nancy Kilpatrick & David Morrell

2011-07-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Canada Day!

Last year to celebrate my country's birthday, I posted a list of 20 Great Canadian Horror Films. This year I've decided to highlight Canadian horror literature by reviewing three anthologies this weekend which contain stories written by Canadian writers.

Tesseracts Thirteen is an anthology containing 23 short stories and one essay, edited by Canadian authors Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell.

The Tesseracts series of award-winning anthologies features speculative fiction short stories by Canadian writers. Because this is the 13th edition of Tesseracts, the stories focus on horror.

Rather than write about every story in the book, I'll just mention a few of my favourite stories.

In "Kids These Days" by Rebecca Bradley, a virus turns all children into zombies, but they can be controlled with medication. The story has a unique spin on zombies and a surprising and satisfying twist ending, making it my favourite story from the anthology.

"Quints" by Edo van Belkom is about a doctor who delivers quintuplets, reminding him of the Dionne quints and how they were exploited, prompting him to do something unthinkable. I found the plot of the story intriguing. The main character's thoughts and actions made me angry, but I think that just shows how well-written the story is.

"Silence" by Stephanie Short is a different version of the Pied Piper legend where the Piper controls children with his flute, but the kids come up with a plan to break free from him. This story is a bit gory and made me cringe at the end.

"The Tear Closet" by Suzanne Church deals with the difficult subject matter of spousal abuse and child molestation. It's a very well-written and emotional story, making me tear up a few times.

"His One True Love" by Catherine MacLeod is the story that terrified me the most, out of all the stories in the anthology because I have a fear of birds. The main character in this story is also afraid of birds and is terrorized by a blue jay that flies into her house just as she returns from her husband's funeral.

The anthology also includes a short essay on the history of Canadian horror literature, "Out of the Barrens: Two Centuries of Canadian Dark Fantasy & Horror" by Robert Knowlton, which is very thorough and cites many novels by Canadian horror authors, that I will now be checking out thanks to this essay.

Tesseracts Thirteen encompasses a variety of dark plots including zombies, abuse, super heroes and myths, making me experience several different emotions such as anger, sadness, disbelief and disgust. As with pretty much every anthology I've read, I didn't love every story, but I enjoyed most of them and would say this book is worth a read.

Rating: 4/5

Guest Post by S.L. Schmitz

2011-05-14T20:55:00.007-04:00

CALLING ALL STATIONS, CLEAR THE AIRLANES, CLEAR ALL AIRLANES, FOR THE BIG BROADCAST!!!

By S.L. Schmitz, Author of Let It Bleed

Anybody who grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the suburbs of Chicago remembers when there used to be only 6 television stations. There was the obligatory ABC, NBC, and CBS, and PBS stations, as well as WGN-Chicago which was on Channel 9. But then there was the Holy Grail of pre-cable TV – the elusive independent UHF station known as WFLD Channel 32, which showed a non-network extravaganza of programming such as cartoons, syndicated shows, Sox Baseball and Bulls Basketball, and the beloved Horror Hosts Svengoolie (Jerry G. Bishop, 1971-1973) and the Son of Svengoolie (Rich Koz, 1979-1986). The Svengoolie show went off the air for a few years, but then In 1995 the station, now known as WCIU, re-introduced the show back to the Chicago airways. Rich Koz returned to his infamous role, all grown up and no longer needing to be the ‘son of’anyone. 32 years later, he is still going strong!

For years and years, on Saturday afternoons and weekend nights, Svengoolie has entertained us with his bad movies, his silly Bela Lugosi accent, and his rubber chickens. He has sung song parodies with trusty piano player Doug Scharf (AKA Doug Graves), laughed at the Chicago suburb with the unfortunate name of Berwyn, run around the set having conversations with a talking skull called Zallman T. Tombstone or a pair of disembodied arms, and told lots of CORNY jokes. How can you not love a guy in zombie clown makeup who reads viewer mail and holds up pictures of himself drawn by 2^nd graders, then proceeds to use Sven-surround to talk over the soundtracks of the many B and even C level movies from such classic (and not-so-classic) studios as Hammer and Universal? He would screen such gems as the 1956 “Godzilla”, and in the middle of the show he and Doug would break out into a song parody of “Godzilla’s Back”, sung to the tune of “My Boyfriend’s Back”. Every show always ended with him being backed into his graffiti-covered coffin while spouting one-liners and puns as the stagehands and camera crew threw rubber chickens at his head. It was magic!

Here is a little trivia that many people don’t know about Rich Koz – he is a really nice guy. Whether it is accepting his 2008 Rondo Award for Favorite Horror Host or taking pictures and signing rubber chickens with fans at the White Castle in Berwyn, he is just an overall favorite personality. But Koz’s success is bittersweet because for 32 years, the show did not air in any other market except the Chicagoland area. If you moved out of state, there was no way to get your weekly dose of Svengoolie, other than clips available on the web. That is why so many people have been begging him for years to either syndicate or at least post his shows on the internet using streaming video. Due to various licensing and contract problems with the companies who owned the rights to the movies, the Svengoolie show could never be available as an internet download.

And then, in 2011, the great announcement was made! Neal Sabin, corporate executive and long-term Svengoolie supporter, let the world know that Svengoolie was joining the Me-TV Network as a nationally syndicated show. And to ensure that Koz had the best material to work with, Sabin acquired the rights to some of the best old monster cult movies ever made – including such long-lost black and whites as the Bride of Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Original Dracula, and many other Horror classics. The Me-TV show enables former Chicagoans to see and hear completely new shows, as well as allow people who have only heard but never seen a Svengoolie show to become a part of the old tradition of Horror Hosts.

So, on Saturday nights around 9 or 10 pm, if you happen to be flipping through the channels and see that Svengoolie is on, I urge you to gather the kids around the set and watch the hilarity unfold. Rick Koz and the character he has created is a part of monster movie history. So pop some popcorn, turn out the lights, and get those cards and letters ready. Svengoolie is officially on the air, coast to coast!

This dedication to Svengoolie is Tombstone approved –a Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe Production

Want more info on Svengoolie? Visit http://svengoolie.tvheaven.com/main.html

Let It Bleed is available in both E-book and soft cover through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. S.L. Schmitz lives in North Carolina, and spends her days chasing a five-year old and keeping 4 felines happy. Please visit her website at www.thedeadgirl.com.

Guest Post: Story Excerpt From Mental Shrillness by Todd Russell

2011-05-04T06:00:00.003-04:00

Todd Russell is the author of short story collection Mental Shrillness. This month he is on a blog tour and has stopped here to share an exclusive Mental Shrillness excerpt. You can find out more about Todd and the other stops on his blog tour at his website.

The Illusion
by
Todd Russell
A special excerpt from one of six stories in Mental Shrillness

     It was his quest for the suspension of reality that held Damon Brooks captive.
     He pressed another key on his laptop and wished that he could POOF! Disappear like the magician he'd always wanted to be. Life had become hideously normal. He was happily married, gainfully employed, overstocked with worldly belongings. He had everything but the daughter Linda's doctor said they'd never have without the aid of adoption.
     A sound stirred his daze.
     "Linda, you hear that?"
     Linda snored softly, rhythmically, her half-finished romance novel guarding her breasts. Damon peeled back the blinds and saw the bushes rustling. He heard the guttural sound again.
     His breath caught upon seeing its depthless green-orange eyes. Damon edged his nose closer to the glass. He put a hand against the cool pane.
     "What the hell are you?" he whispered.
     It crept slowly from the bush, half-crawling, half-walking away. The streetlight's faint beam grazed its face and Damon gasped, pulling instinctively away. His nose and breath left a pregnant fog.
     Whatever creature it was its gestures were universally familiar.
     It was wounded.
     Damon turned to Linda who remained shackled by her dream. He pushed past his unfinished paperwork and unclosed briefcase, entering the hallway. Moving quicker, he slipped on his black loafers and moved into the kitchen. He grabbed a flashlight and his gun from the compartment beneath the sink.
     He checked to see that it was still loaded. Linda was forever the spooked one when it came to prowlers and insisted upon it. Flicking on the flashlight, Damon stepped into the night and turned toward the bush.
     "Nrrro liiight," the voice grated across Damon's brain. He quickly snapped the light off, but kept the queer target centered.
     He started to ask what it was again and it rose what faintly resembled a paw. The paw-thing was wet and gleamed in the faint light. Bloody.
     "Are you a dream?"
     "I am an Illusion."
     "Illusion?" Damon said, stepping closer. The gun wavered in his hand. "You are neither man nor animal, what are you?"
     "No time for further explanation, Damon."
     It knows my name, Damon mouthed but made no sound. His finger twitched on the trigger.
     "Y-you a-are a d-dream."
     "I am dying."
     "What happened?"
     The bloody paw rose again and the Illusion made a loud, strangled throaty sound.
     "I'll call 911," Damon started away.
     "NRRO!"
     Damon froze.
     "Only you can help me. You must take it to Harry. Your turn. Youuu." It raised the paw even higher into the faint beam of the streetlight. Harry moved closer, the gun practically shaking from his hand.
     He moved closer.
     Closer.
     "Nrrrooo tiiiiimmme."
     He saw the bloody paw and his stomach somersaulted. Closer.
     "Harry, youuu."
     Damon reached. Only inches from the mangled paw.
     The Illusion jerked and knocked the gun out of Damon's hand.
     (touch meeeee)
     The neighbor Doberman’s started barking.
     Damon raised the flashlight in defense but almost instantly realized the illusion wasn't fighting. The pungent odor struck his nostrils next. He blinked several times, watching its death spasms.
     Damon lowered himself and re-clicked the flashlight. The light's beam sawed through the flesh of the Illusion, melting it like a candle. He saw its eyes fuse with its long bony nose. Its three red-white teeth outside its face pooled in the hot beam of the light.
     As Damon watched the light rapidly cremate the Illusion, the realization of what was in its mangled paw seized his mind.
     Nothing.

-2-

     Damon awoke the next morning, showered, shaved and went straight for his jeans. Linda watched, just pulling down her covers.
     "Damon, it's Friday, dear. Not Saturday."
     "Not going to work today, honey."
     Linda reeled from the bed. "Not feeling well?"
     "You could say that," Damon pulled up his jeans and buttoned his shirt. "I've got to find Harry."
     "Harry who?"
     "The carnival in town. He works there. A magician, I think."
     "What....why?"
     Damon slapped his tennis shoes on and kissed Linda. "An unfulfilled dream."

* * *

     Karper & Sons Carnival inhabited the outskirts of Medina like a storm cloud. Once a year it fell over Medina and sucked money from the townspeople. A week later sunshine reappeared. Damon Brooks penetrated the open gate on its second day of business.
     He passed the carnies and various rip-off midway games. The nearly impossible ring toss, the slightly bent machinegun with red star gag, the dart--
     "Three for five bucks, mister, give it a try." The carnie started lowering the darts and quickly reclaimed them upon catching Damon's odd stare.
     Damon's mind stirred with the picture of the enigmatic Harry. He'd woken with Harry's visage etched in his mind. Damon started to ask where to find Harry when a hand tapped his shoulder.
     "This way," the tattooed-faced man said. His entire face was a jigsaw puzzle.
     Damon followed the short man across the midway and into a huge black tent.
     Inside there were rows of bleachers and a short set of stairs leading up to a vacant stage.
     "Harry will come."
     "Wait. How do you know who I'm here for?"
     "Call me Stag." He rolled up his white sleeve and showed Damon a tattoo of a set of haunting orange-green eyes on his right bicep.
     ONLY YOU CAN HELP ME. YOU MUST TAKE IT TO HARRY. YOUR TURN. YOUUUU.
     Stag started walking away.
     "Wait! What am I doing here? Why am--Stag, please!"
     Damon wanted to run, jet as far away from the carnival but his legs were uncooperative. Instead he turned toward the stage.
     Slowly his legs moved him down the aisle and up the stage. There was a table with a red tablecloth and black magician's cap. He reached, touched, and felt it crawl up his arm and under his skin.
     The scream surfaced in his throat but lodged unspent.
     He picked up the hat and placed it on his head.
     He turned to the crowd and Mom and his stepfather Denny clapped.
     "For my next trick I will pull a rabbit out of this..." He reached into the hat and paused. Staring into the small crowd he caught his mother's mascara-smeared eyes. She looked up but wouldn't lock eyes with him.
     Damon reached into the hat and felt the mousetrap SNAP! his fingers.
     The laughing in his head began. The crowd unwittingly applauded. There was Denny in the front row grinning evilly. The drunk from the abyss. He'd never belonged in either of their lives. He was the crack in the mirror, continuing to ripple and fragment until he--
     "--took her to Satan?"
     Damon turned, startled.
     A tall man with straight black hair and a knobby face nodded slowly.
     "She was a good woman -- my mother -- but Denny brought her misery."
     "And that mousetrap thing... that was his idea of a joke?"
     Damon raised his right index and middle fingers. "Broke them in two places."
     "Denny blamed it on you, too. What were you, only ten years old?"
     "Yes, said it was me just craving attention. Nobody ever believed me."
     The man moved closer into the spotlight and took the magician's hat. He held his hand out. "I am Harry, Damon."

-3-

     Damon shook Harry's hand, managing a smile. He was disturbed that everyone seemed to know him.
     "Your confusion right now is warranted. An Illusion escaped last night."
     "Escaped?"
     "We've known of its insecurities and instabilities around here for some time. It wanted out. For its own, well, complicated reasons. Stag was its guardian and friend. He felt betrayed and despondent. We almost had two tragedies last night."
     "What the hell did it do to me? I feel...not right."
     "Quid pro quo. It took your normal life in exchange for..."
     Damon's eyes raised and then darted around the empty auditorium. "Wait one damn minute I'm not..."
     "You're not what?" Harry replied slowly.
     Damon tried picturing what happened to his real father. He could only focus on his stepfather's wicked scowl. It was one of many first pieces that had eerily vanished from his memory.
     "I...I'm having trouble..."
     "This is how it begins. Soon you will lose all but pertinent pieces of your identity, Damon. Don't fear, we will assist you with the process. You are among us, now."
     Damon fell to one knee and then a sitting position. He stared ahead, falling, falling deeper into the chasm inside his mind while Harry spoke steadily in his ear.
     "You dreamed of being a magician more than anything, remember?"

Read the conclusion of "The Illusion" and five other twist ending horrror short stories in Mental Shrillness

MOVIE REVIEW: Scream 4

2011-04-16T17:06:00.008-04:00

I was only nine when the first Scream film came out in 1996. I'll never forget the first time I watched it. I rented it with my family and my dad had to leave during the movie to pick up my uncle. My mom, my brother and I were too scared to be left alone, so we piled in the car with him.

The first scene got under my skin, particularly when Casey says "I'm two seconds away from calling the police!" and Ghostface replies "They'll never make it in time." Which is a disturbing thought, especially since I lived in the middle of nowhere at the time.

After watching Scream, I became obsessed with it. In addition to watching it enough times to recite the dialogue, I did other obsessive things. At the time, my hair was very long and I got it cut into a bob, just like Drew Barrymore in the movie. I invented a game called "Scream" which I played with my friends and was basically just hide and seek except the seeker would "kill" you when found. And I had to go see Scream 3 in the theatre, which was a big deal for me because I rarely watched movies in the theatre as a child (I don't know where I was for Scream 2). I was only 12 at the time, so my best friend and I had to go with her grandpa and I felt like a baby, but I didn't care because I wanted see Scream 3 that badly.

So, 11 years after I sat in a theatre and watched Sidney Prescott try to get on with her life in the aftermath of the Woodsboro murders, I was psyched to do it all over again. And it was great to revisit Woodsboro and catch up with the characters. Sidney's just as tough as I remember, kicking ass against Ghostface, Dewey is just as dumb and Gale is just as bitchy and ruthless, doing whatever it takes to catch the killer.

Sidney (Neve Campbell) seems to have pieced her life back together and has written a self-help memoir, Out of the Darkness. She returns to Woodsboro for her book tour, on the anniversary of the murders. Meanwhile, Sidney's cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts), begins getting sinister prank calls. And then the murders begin. Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) is on the case and his wife, Gale (Courtney Cox), is there to help.

While Scream 4 isn't as good as the first Scream film, it comes close and is definitely better than the other sequels. It has more gore than the previous movies - probably more than all of them combined. And more humour than the others, making me - and the rest of the audience - laugh out loud several times.

Scream 4 is more like a reboot than a sequel. Instead of focusing on Sidney, the storyline follows the new generation of teens, which are very similar to the original cast. There's Jill, the good girl (Sidney), Trevor, the creepy boyfriend (Billy), Kirby, Jill's hot best friend (Tatum) and Charlie, horror movie fanatic (Randy). This is probably the only aspect of the film that disappointed me. I was expecting the film to centre around Sidney, Dewey and Gale, and instead it's about a whole new set of characters. But the film is still entertaining and still includes Sid, Dewey and Gale, even if it doesn't revolve around them.

The film boasts an impressive cast, including appearances by Hayden Panettiere (Heroes), Rory Culkin (Signs), Erik Knudsen (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Adam Brody (The O.C.), Anthony Anderson (Urban Legends: Final Cut), Alison Brie (Community), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars), Shenae Grimes (90210), Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), in addition to the actors I've already mentioned.

Scream 4 is a lot of fun and has everything you've come to expect from a film in the Scream franchise: a shocking opening sequence, creepy phone calls, a surprising ending and lots of self-referential horror humour. Definitely a must-see for Scream fans.

Rating: 4/5

BOOK REVIEW: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith

2011-04-02T21:56:00.010-04:00

When Fitzwilliam Darcy is bitten by a zombie - or a dreadful, as they're known as in the book - his wife, Elizabeth, fears that he will succumb to the strange plague. Fortunately, Darcy's aunt - and Elizabeth's nemesis - Lady Catherine de Bourgh knows of a cure. But there's a catch: it's made in small amounts for only "those of special interest to the Crown" and is located in a heavily guarded hospital. The only chance Elizabeth has to save her husband is to go to London and attempt to obtain it.

I haven't read Pride and Prejudice (or anything by Jane Austen), or the first two novels in this trilogy: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls. But you don't have to read any of these before Dreadfully Ever After to understand and enjoy it. I liked this novel so much that I'm sure I'll be reading the first two soon. Perhaps even Pride and Prejudice, but I don't think I'll find it nearly as entertaining without zombies.

The plot of Dreadfully Ever After has everything: action, romance, comedy, gore, duels, pranks, zombies, ninjas and more. There is rarely a dull moment. There's always a dreadful to slay, or a ninja to fight, or something comical happening...with the exception of a few chapters focusing on Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.

As I already shared, I haven't read Pride and Prejudice, so I'm not familiar with any of the characters. But in this novel, I found the main characters Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy to be pretty dull. Elizabeth didn't do anything but worry about Darcy, and Darcy only wondered why Elizabeth wasn't by his side. Luckily the other characters - especially Elizabeth's sisters Kitty and Mary - were funny and interesting.

Dreadfully Ever After is a fun read and I highly recommend it for zombie lovers. It is available now from Quirk Books, who have also published several other mash-up novels including Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Android Karenina and more.

Rating: 4/5

T-Shirt Bordello

2011-04-01T22:34:00.000-04:00

I just got a package from the awesome website T-Shirt Bordello containing the items pictured above: an Amity Island t-shirt, an Amity Island keychain, a Zombie Care Bears t-shirt and Zombie Outbreak Barricade Tape. The t-shirts are 100% cotton, good quality (not too thin, soft to the touch) and I LOVE the designs.

They have tons of other cool t-shirts as well, and they're only $14.99 each! And if you buy 3, you get 1 FREE! Here are a few other designs I love:

A Nightmare on Sesame Street

Cthulhu Tequila

Camp Crystal Lake Counselor

Hello Zombie

And they sell more than just t-shirts. In addition to the aforementioned keychains and Zombie Outbreak Barricade Tape, they sell hats, mugs, glasses, ashtrays, wallets, a Zombie Survival Poster and Zombie Targets. Here are a few examples:

Bates Motel Mug

Winchester Tavern Glass

Overlook Hotel Ashtray

T-Shirt Bordello has a huge selection of t-shirts, and not just horror-related ones. Check out their website and see for yourself.

Guest Post: The Secret of the WILD Zombies by Lincoln Crisler

2011-03-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

Lincoln Crisler is the author of WILD, a zombie/western novella. This month he is doing a blog tour to promote WILD. Find out more about Lincoln on his website.

Melissa asked me to share some background on the zombies I created for my Weird Western novella, WILD, which made its paperback and digital format debut this month from Damnation Books. It's a fair question to ask; anyone who's read zombie books or watched zombie movies, even those produced in just the past few years, has seen, at a minimum, the following:

· slow reanimated dead (Romero-style, baby!)

· fast reanimated dead (Zombieland)

· demon-possessed corpses (Brian Keene's The Rising)

· infected living humans that act just like zombies (Joe McKinney's Dead World series)

All of these different sort of zombies (and I'm almost certainly forgetting a category or two) are good for something and serve a certain purpose; McKinney's infected living, for instance, raise a moral question that simply blasting the dead back to their graves just doesn't raise. Fast-moving dead are far more of a threat than slow-moving dead (though a creator does get bonus points for having a rationale behind rotting carcasses that are as spry as the living).

My zombies, however, are a little different from any of these. When my protagonists, a mysterious stranger; a sheriff's deputy; a dangerous outlaw and a former Army medic, meet the zombies, they're pretty much Romero-esque. They've crawled out of graves, they're rotten, et cetera. However, at the end of the book, someone living is slipped a mickey and turned into a mindless zombie. This might seem like a contradiction, but it's not. You won't find any of what I'm about to share in the pages of WILD, but this should shed a little light on the matter for those who like a look behind the scenes.

The drink my black magician dumps down the poor character's throat is a mixture of magic and pseudo-science, though it would all seem like magic to someone from the 1800s. Basically, from their perspective, the potion makes the person crazy and hungry for flesh and eventually kills him or her, with the magic still powering the now-decaying body. Where the pseudo-science comes in is from research indicating that damage to certain areas of the brain, like the amygdala, could cause a person to act much like a zombie. The drink does this damage. The magic is from ingredients in the drink that allow the magician to control the zombies, by commanding them to lay in graves until some meddling cowboys come calling, for instance, and in the animation of the corpse after death, which would have to be accomplished by magical means. Simple enough, right?

While I chose not to bog WILD down with the details, you can rest assured this potion and the zombies it spawns haven't had their last day in the spotlight. I have at least two more storylines in mind, and at least one of them is set in a time just a little more distant than Old West El Paso. Lets just say there isn't really all that much difference between zombies and mummies!

SHORT STORY REVIEW: The Green Man by Lee Mather

2011-03-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

The Green Man is Peter's mother's way of dealing with death. Prior to the death of someone close to her, he appears to comfort her. Just before Peter boards a flight, his mother calls to beg him not to get on the plane because she just saw The Green Man. Peter ignores her warning because he doesn't believe in him. But he should have listened because The Green Man is real.

There isn't much to the plot. The story is basically Peter describing the horrors of his flight and how it changed his faith. But it still manages to be exciting and even a bit gory.

The main character, Peter, is just an average guy and I really empathize with him and understand his skepticism about the existence of The Green Man.

My one complaint is that the story is fairly predictable. About halfway through the story I knew how it was going to end. But that didn't make me enjoy the story any less.

"The Green Man" is an interesting short story about faith and how a traumatic experience can change your life. It's available as an e-book from Damnation Books for $2.99.

Rating: 4/5

BOOK REVIEW: Shades of Green by Ian Woodhead

2011-03-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

One day Holburn is the average small English town, and the next it is transformed into a Hell with killer plants, monstrous spiders, demons and other horrors. Survivors Damian, his girlfriend, Jen, his brother, Alan, Jen's uncle, Pete, his friend, Dave, an old man, Arthur, and a hobo, Ernest, struggle to escape the town and attempt to figure out what is happening.

Shades of Green has an interesting, but convoluted, concept. At the beginning, the reader is placed in the middle of the action and it takes awhile to get into the book because you have no idea what is going on. There are also several dream sequences which make you question whether what you're reading is real, or just another dream. I was unsure of what was happening throughout the book and I still don't fully understand because the resolution was confusing as well.

The typos don't help to understand the plot either. The book is full of major errors, which change the meaning of sentences. I had to re-read some sentences several times and guess at what word Woodhead actually meant to use. For example, in the first chapter the names of the two brothers are reversed. Damian is described as the older brother who has a fear of germs and Alan is the younger brother who is dating Jennifer. Then in Chapter 2, they are the opposite. It was incredibly confusing and I didn't know which was the mistake.

The characters aren't developed well and are basically just names on a page. I constantly confused Arthur, Dave and Pete because they were all referred to as "old men" and didn't have many other discerning qualities.

But Woodhead writes great descriptions of the disturbing scenery in Holburn, making it easy to picture the ruined town and also creates some very gruesome images.

Shades of Green would be a decent novel if it was edited better. If you don't mind typos, you can buy it for only 99 cents on Amazon. But I would recommend skipping this one.

Rating: 2/5

2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

2011-03-03T23:50:00.001-05:00

The 2010 Bram Stoker Award nominees have been announced. They will be presented at Stoker Weekend, which is from June 16-19 in Long Island, New York. Congratulations to all the nominees! Here's the list:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Horns by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster)

Dead Love by Linda Watanabe McFerrin (Stone Bridge Press)

Apocalypse of the Dead by Joe McKinney (Pinnacle)

Dweller by Jeff Strand (Leisure/Dark Regions Press)

A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (DoubleDay)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Bad Moon Books)

A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files (Chizine Publications)

The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press)

Spellbent by Lucy Snyder (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance)

Dissolution by Lisa Mannetti (Deathwatch)

Monsters Among Us by Kirstyn McDermott (Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears)

The Samhanach by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)

Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Return to Mariabronn by Gary Braunbeck (Haunted Legends)

The Folding Man by Joe R. Lansdale (Haunted Legends)

1925: A Fall River Halloween by Lisa Mannetti (Shroud Magazine #10)

In the Middle of Poplar Street by Nate Southard (Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology)

Final Draft by Mark W. Worthen (Horror Library IV)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Dark Faith edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon (Apex Publications)

Horror Library IV edited by R.J. Cavender and, Boyd E. Harris (Cutting Block Press)

Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young (Brimstone Press)

Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor)

The New Dead edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martin's Griffin)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

Occultation by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)

Blood and Gristle by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (Simon and Schuster)

The Ones That Got Away by Stephen Graham Jones (Prime Books)

A Host of Shadows by Harry Shannon (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck (Apex Publications)

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti (Hippocampus Press)

Wanted Undead or Alive by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman (Citadel)

Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews by Sam Weller (Melville House Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Dark Matters by Bruce Boston (Bad Moon Books)

Wild Hunt of the Stars by Ann K. Schwader (Sam's Dot)

Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist by Robin Spriggs (Anomalous Books)

Vicious Romantic by Wrath James White (Bandersnatch Books)

Women in Horror Interview List

2011-03-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

Women in Horror Recognition Month has come to an end and I would like to thank the talented authors/editors who took the time to answer my questions.

I hope you all enjoyed reading them. In case you missed any, here is the complete list:

Lisa Morton
Nancy A. Collins
Sèphera Girón
Lisa Tuttle
Alexandra Sokoloff
Kathe Koja
Nancy Kilpatrick
Deborah LeBlanc
Gemma Files
Ellen Datlow
Lisa Mannetti
Amy Grech
Sarah Langan
Elizabeth Massie
Vanessa Morgan
Nancy Holder
Melanie Tem
Mary SanGiovanni
Yvonne Navarro
Fran Friel
Monica J. O'Rourke
Allyson Bird
Kathryn Ptacek

Interview with Kathryn Ptacek

2011-02-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

Kathryn Ptacek is the author of many novels in several different genres including horror, historical fiction, historical romance, fantasy and suspense. Her horror novels include Shadoweyes, Blood Autumn, Kachina, In Silence Sealed and Ghost Dance. She edited the anthologies Women of Darkness, Women of Darkness II and Women of the West. She is also the editor of a market newsletter, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets. You can find out more about Kathryn at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I guess I’ve always been drawn to dark things. If goth had been around when I was a teen, I’m sure I would have been one. I read Dracula when I was 14, and I think I was pretty much hooked from then on. Everything I wrote as a teen had a dark aspect to it, and even when I first started writing historical romances, my agent remarked that a current of darkness ran through them. So I guess it was a natural progression to horror.

What scares you?

I find personal things scary--loss of a loved one, a horrible illness in the family ... that kind of grim reality-based stuff. I’ve faced all that, and I guess I survived somewhat intact, and I don’t know that much scares me after that. I do get creeped out occasionally with supernatural things, but it’s usually ghost-type material. I like to read about werewolves and vampires (not so much since they’re everywhere in the genre now) and unusual critters/monsters. As for zombies ... I’m not a fan, although there are a couple of zombie movies I like. I enjoy psychological horror/thrillers, but not the torture stuff. Thanks, but no thanks.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

I don’t know. Maybe there’s a perception that horror is for guys, romance for women ... and yet I’ve known men who write romance. I think there are lots of women writing horror, but I just don’t think there are as many “big” name women horror writers. Again, with the perception thing--I know that women are often thought to write “soft” horror, and that’s not at all true. Good horror is just that, no matter the gender of the writer.

You were the editor of Women of Darkness and Women of Darkness II, horror anthologies comprised of stories by women writers. How did they come about?

Back in the ‘80s I was reading a lot of anthologies, and one day I realized that few of these books had many women contributors. And then because I get a little obsessive about things now and then, I started looking through dozens of anthologies and counting the women writers ... Most books had one or two women contributors; that was it. The exception was the Shadows series, edited by Charles L. Grant. Yet I knew there were lots of women horror writers out there, but for whatever reason their stuff just wasn’t showing up in books. So I decided to do something about it, which is why I came up with the Women of Darkness anthologies. By the way, I was accused by some folks as being sexist. That really irked the heck out of me, I have to say--especially when I pointed out that these same people weren’t saying the same thing about the all-male anthologies. All I wanted to do with those two books was feature the women I knew who were “out there” waiting to be read.

It’s never been about quotas. I don’t think you have to have a certain number of men or women in a book; it would just be nice to see more of a mix.

And I would love to edit a third Women of Darkness volume ... Stay tuned!

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Heh ... I don’t want to step on any toes here, so I’m going to say that I enjoy a number of stories and novels by horror women, past and present. How’s that for waffling? Heh.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

Write, write, write. And keep sending your stories and novels out. And don’t get upset when your work is bounced; send it back out the next day; don’t let it sit around any longer than 24 hours. I was reading some posts on a list one day, and a woman had her novel rejected, and she was practically taking to her bed--she was that despondent. I don’t recall if she was sobbing, but it was close to that. Really, you have to be tougher than that. If each rejection hits you so hard you go into such a tailspin that you can’t function for days, then you’ll be an emotional puddle before long and won’t get much done. You have to have a thick skin in the writing business. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to like rejections, of course--no one does--but you have to realize, too, that everyone gets rejected. You just can’t let that stop you ... or even slow you down.

What are your favourite horror novels?

Hmmm ... where to start. I’m partial to mine ... of course! And I loved the Oxrun Station novels that Charlie wrote. Well, this list could get quite lengthy, I think. Stoker’s Dracula will always have a special spot for me.

What is your favourite novel you’ve written and your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

My favorite novel is In Silence Sealed ... which is the TRUE story of what happened to Byron, Keats, and Shelley. I just really enjoyed doing that book ... bringing all the stories of those three young but doomed poets--plus Mary Shelley--together ...

My favorite character is Chato from Shadoweyes. He’s an Apache in modern-day New Mexico; I’d like to use him in some mysteries.

In addition to horror, you’ve also written historical fiction, romance, suspense and fantasy. How did you end up writing in so many different genres? Do you have a favourite genre?

I enjoy reading many different genres, so it was only natural that I write in several, as well. I do believe it’s not good to write just one kind of thing ... if there’s a down-turn in that genre, then you’re stuck. But if you can write many different ways, then you have numerous options open to you. I also encourage fiction writers to try their hand at nonfiction or poetry. My favorite genre is pretty much historical anything. I just really enjoy it ... I have a lot of history in all my books, and someday I’d like to write a straight historical novel.

You are the editor and publisher of the market newsletter, The Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets. When and how did you start it? Do you have any advice on getting published?

I started the newsletter back in late ‘88. I had just had an operation, and I was looking for something fun to do ... I was between book projects. For a while I’d been sending market news to friends in letters, and I kept joking that I ought to start a newsletter with all these bits of info I was collecting. So then I got to thinking that maybe that wasn’t a bad idea. The newsletter started out as a page or two, then kept getting larger and larger and more elaborate until finally I had a lengthy newsletter (never less than 20 pages and often more than 30) coming out on a monthly basis. This was back in its print days. I did that for many years, and it involved a lot of hard work, but I really enjoyed it. Then eventually I changed the newsletter to an E-mail format; it now comes out six times a year.

I’ve read a lot of guidelines from publishers over the years, and the one thing that almost all magazine editors say is: Read several issues so you know what we’re all about. I think that’s the best thing a new writer can do ... read those back issues! Do you homework! Be prepared! On the other hand, don’t be afraid to send something “out there” now and then ... you just never know. A fiction writer can do this more easily than a nonfiction one; magazine editors look for something particular in the articles they buy, so do adhere to their guidelines.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry? Do you plan on making your older novels available as e-books?

Currently, I don’t have an e-reader, but I will probably get one fairly soon. I had been resisting for a while, because I don’t much care for reading things on a screen--I spend so much time in front of the computer, so I do want to get away from that. But e-books are the way of the future--or one way--so it’s good to know about them. Plus one of my novels, In Silence Sealed, will be published as an e-book, and that’s made me a whole lot more excited about e-readers and e-books. Heh.

I think that print books are here to stay, but I think they will be sharing mental shelf space, as it were, with e-books. Everyone I know who has an e-reader says they’re not giving up their print editions, and they buy both.

I do hope to make my backlist available in the e-book format ... and in print again as well. I don’t think any writer can ignore e-publishing; it’s here to stay, and we might as well find a way to make money from it!

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

I hope readers will be entertained. And maybe if they learn a thing or two that would be good as well.

What are you currently working on?

A friend wants to collaborate with me on a novel, and that will be interesting. I’ve co-written some short stories years ago, but never written anything that long with another person. Also, I have some other items that have been floating around for a while; maybe it’s time to tether them and see what I could make of them.

Interview with Allyson Bird

2011-02-27T17:27:00.000-05:00

Allyson Bird is the author of two collections: Bull Running for Girls and Wine and Rank Poison. She has co-edited with Joel Lane the anthology, Never Again. Her debut novel, Isis Unbound, is due out in the summer from Dark Regions Press. She won The British Fantasy Society award for best collection, for Bull Running for Girls, in 2009. You can find out more about Allyson Bird on her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

It started in childhood. I lived at the entrance to a dark wood and during the day I would run out of the house and down the wide path into it. I could be totally alone to think about stories. At night from my bedroom window, the entrance looked like an enormous abyss, and I imagined that anything could dwell there. I had quite a lot of freedom from the age of ten and would wander through the wood to the village graveyard and sit amongst the graves reading the names and dates. One headstone was for a family who had died of the plague in the sixteen hundreds. I liked ghost stories and anything to do with witches, goblins and monsters. I read anything I could get my hands on, including Marvel Comics. DC Comic Wonder Woman was a favourite. My father was a fan of American pulps, so I read Edgar Rice Burroughs, and detective stories. I read horror stories to have my emotions heightened, in other words I wanted to be afraid, and feel the excitement from that.

As an adult I can't think of a better genre than horror to convey emotion and I've used it to explore the horror which is actually in the world around us as well as the strange and weird. Everything from misogyny, to genocide, to personal loss, and fear of the unknown.

What scares you?

The thought of losing my mind one day. When my sister was very ill she said she saw demons and the thought of that is horrible. Doesn't matter if they aren't there...if you believe they are, they are. The thought that the supernatural could exist is a frightening prospect, too. Something that happened a long time ago terrified me. I either had a breakdown, or was drugged, or the supernatural really does exist. I wrote about what happened to me in "Shadow Upon Shadow," in Bull Running for Girls. I'm damn well sure the circumstances that led up to it won't happen again...well, I hope not. The problem is if you really believe that something strange is going on you can create your own reality, and that way leads to madness.

Also the horror and suffering we see around the world each day. The thought that there is a country not far away where people stone women and men for adultery. Shocking. The thought, that on the orders of some despot, or other, people can 'disappear.' That sex slavery exists and that witch hunting still happens in Africa.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

Men will write to a publisher/editor and ask to be included in an anthology...women seem to hold back a little. They don't seem as confident as men in the genre. Nancy Kilpatrick goes into it in great detail in her interview on this site. It wasn't such a long time ago that it was a common belief that women couldn't or shouldn't achieve in the areas men had traditionally dominated, including writing, especially horror, even though Mary Shelley wrote one of the most memorable horror stories of all time.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Lisa Tuttle is outstanding. I'll forget someone if I mention others.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

Never give up. Push yourself forward and if that means self-promotion just get on with it. Publishers expect you to now, anyway. The small press have no budget for advertising so it really is up to the author to tell people their news about their books where ever they can. Women have been practically invisible to some people for long enough. We have spent years in the background and have been forgotten by history, in science and in the arts. Don't let it happen to you.

What are your favourite horror novels?

Horror...for me, can be within the strange, the weird, the fantastic, and the cruelty and terror in every day life so I'll not mention any particular novel. I'd like to mention my two favourite strange/weird collections. The Wine Dark Sea by Robert Aickman and Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle. Both writers have been a great influence on me.

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

Mikhail Bulgakov, Angela Carter, Sylvia Plath, Robert Aickman, Lisa Tuttle, Peter Hoeg, Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradbury, and Shakespeare. Of all I think Angela Carter has influenced me the most. And I've always appreciated poetry, especially William Blake, Swinburne, Keats and Yeats.

You’ve written several short stories. Do you have a favourite? Why?

Two of my favourites are companion stories. The Black Swan of Odessa, is a homage to Mikhail Bulgakov and will appear in an anthology dedicated to him, this year. It is, on one level, about the actual chair in a play by Ilf and Petrov, Russian writers in the 1920's, and the second story, The Twelfth Chair, is set in modern day, in the same place in Odessa, and is connected to the first. One theme in the first is greed and the dominant theme in the second story is abuse of women.

Your first novel, Isis Unbound, is coming out soon. Can you tell us about it?

Inspired by Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley's, Prometheus Unbound, and Rider Haggard/R.E.Howard to some extent, Isis Unbound is set in 1890's Manceastre, Britanniae, ruled by a new governor general, Clovis Domitius Corbulo. He is related to Cleopatra LV descendant of Anthony and Cleopatra who won the battle of Actium two thousand years ago. Only a god can kill a god. Nepythys has killed her sister, Isis, and therefore the dead cannot pass over to the underworld. Ella, eighteen and Loli - age ten, are the daughters of Ptolemy Child. The sons and daughters of embalmers are expected to begin instruction in the embalming process at an unusually young age. Against this background we follow the girls on their adventure in Manceastre and Alexandria to discover the greatest mystery of all - involving Isis herself. An Isis who will stop at nothing to ensure her own survival…

You were a co-editor for the anthology, Never Again, which features stories against fascism and racism. Can you tell us about it?

Joel Lane asked me to co-edit the anthology with him and we are happy with the depth and scope of the work sent to us. There were a few reprints we went after...actually Joe Lansdale gave us the choice of three and we chose The Night They Missed the Horror Show instead of the longer Mad Dog Summer. I definately wanted Rob Shearman's, Hitler's Dog, and Stephen Volk's After the Ape in there, too. We had twenty three stories in all. We very much knew we were preaching to the converted in that those who would buy already had strong feelings about injustice, intolerance and persecution. The authors asked to contribute felt that they wanted to nail their colours to the mast. Some quite amazing stories have been written. I'm delighted to say that Amnesty International have agreed to stock the book, also.

Do you own an e-reader?

I don't own an e-reader. At the moment I prefer the feel of an actual book but will consider it in a year or two.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

Enjoyment. Transportation away from every day life for a time. Empathy.

What are you currently working on?

I'm working on a few short stories for anthologies and about to collaborate on a book with the artist, Dani Serra.

Interview with Monica J. O'Rourke

2011-02-27T06:00:00.002-05:00

Monica J. O'Rourke is the author of the novels Suffer the Flesh and Poisoning Eros (with Wrath James White), the collection Experiments in Human Nature and was the editor of anthologies Decadence, Decadence 2, Dreaming of Angels (with Gord Rollo), Fear of the Unknown (with Kfir Luzzatto) and Royal Aspirations III.

What drew you to the horror genre?

My paternal grandmother was a big horror fan. I remember as a kid curling up beside her on the couch to watch b-movies. They scared the heck out of me. Then I moved on to the horror novels she read. Even though she probably would have given me permission, I would sneak them. I felt like I was doing something wrong. I was the rare ten-year-old reading The Exorcist, Amityville Horror, and Jaws. Flowers in the Attic has an incest scene that made me drop the book.

What scares you?

Serial killers. Drunk drivers. Pedophiles. “Real” monsters.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

There aren’t. We just aren’t as aggressive about getting published. Besides, there are plenty of women who have written “horror”—Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Sebold, Alice Walker, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, et al.—but they are published mainly as “mainstream” writers.

Your books have a reputation for being extremely gruesome. Are people surprised that, as a woman, you would write something so gory? Is there a misconception that women aren’t comfortable with gore?

Absolutely! In fact, my co-author (Wrath James White) said he approached me to write Poisoning Eros with him after reading Suffer the Flesh because he was shocked a woman had written it. I get that a lot, how people are surprised a woman could write something so extreme. I’ve been told I “write like a guy.”

Some of my favorite “extreme” horror writers are women, such as Elizabeth Massie, Poppy Z. Brite and Charlee Jacob. P. D. Cacek wrote a story called “Metalica” that’ll make any woman keep her legs crossed for a week. There are some women (some people) who aren’t comfortable with gore, and I can appreciate that. I can’t stand reading stories where animals are hurt or killed (yet even I wrote a story, “Ginger,” involving the potential death of a dog). I’ll try to skim or skip those parts of the book. For example, in King’s It, a dog is locked in an abandoned fridge and doesn’t die for days. That scene has stayed with me for twenty-five years now. I’m pretty sure I regret not skipping those pages, lol.

Who are some women horror authors you admire?

See above. I also enjoy Teri Jacobs’s work. She’s a close friend, and it’s a shame she’s no longer writing. Sèphera Girón writes stuff that blows me away. Lisa Mannetti is an amazing writer, and I adore Charlaine Harris’s “Sookie” series.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

The same as I would say to any person (myself included): keep writing. As Wrath told me recently (admonishing me for not writing often enough), “It’s just five hundred words a day. You can do that!”

What are your favourite horror novels?

The Exorcist (Blatty); Let’s Go Play at the Adams’ by Mendal Johnson (such a shame he died before anything else of his was published). It’s extreme extreme, this book. Just about anything by T. M. Wright (trust me—the man’s books will blow you away); Off Season (Ketchum); The Talisman; ’Salem’s Lot; Speed Queen (Stewart O'Nan); most Richard Laymon novels are fast, fun, nasty reads (read The Cellar). There are so many horror novels I’ve enjoyed, but the ones I’ve mentioned here are those I’ve read more than once and make me keep coming back for more. And more.

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

Well, going with the cliché, Stephen King made me want to be a horror writer. I was twelve when ’Salem’s Lot came out on TV, and it scared me so badly I read everything the man had written until then. And then I discovered Clive Barker because King had blurbed his Books of Blood. (My first really “extreme” story, “Experiments in Human Nature” was inspired by Barker’s “Dread.”) Jack Ketchum is a favorite writer (he has a lean, mean approach to writing, conserving his words, yet somehow his prose is often beautiful). Dennis Lehane should be required reading for anyone, especially aspiring writers.

I turn to Poppy Brite, T.C Boyle, Joe Lansdale, Carson McCullers, James M. Cain, Linda Addison, Cormac McCarthy, Peter Straub, T.M. Wright, Flannery O’Connor, and others for inspiration. Their writing is so beautiful and amazing, it makes me scream in jealousy.

Who is your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

It’s a new character I’ve been introducing to more and more of my short fiction, and he’s the focus of the novel I’m (still!) working on. He’s a Nephilim named Sheshai. Kind of a nasty bugger without a conscience, yet he seeks knowledge. Kind of a dangerous combination, considering his methods for obtaining that knowledge. I’m enjoying the no-holds-barred approach to writing whatever I (he) wants.

Can you tell us about your upcoming releases Poisoning Eros Part I and II?

Wrath (James White), my co-author, and I are very excited about this. Tom Moran is not only the publisher (Sideshow Press), he’s our illustrator. Some of his illos seem nastier than Wrath’s and my words! Tom’s an amazing artist and publisher, and we’re thrilled to be working with him.

Poisoning Eros Part II has never been published before. Poisoning Eros’s publisher shut down shortly after the first book was published, so very few people have had a chance to read it. This created quite a buzz about the book, and an underground following. One copy sold on eBay for $325. For a trade paperback.

Poisoning Eros Part I and II is about Gloria, an aging former porn star, and her rapid fall from the top. Of course this story is nasty as can be, and it’s supernatural (her journey includes Earth, heaven, and hell). It’s quite disgusting, actually. One “reader” told us she had to stop reading in the middle of the first page. This is exactly what Wrath and I were hoping for. Well, not for people to stop reading. But we did want them to be shocked and disgusted. I’m fairly sure they were.

Wrath and I have been writing “torture porn” (together and separately) long before “torture porn” was even a phrase. I think we were both inspired by writers like Edward Lee, John Skipp (“Mr. Splatterpunk” himself), Dick Laymon, and other extreme horror writers.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry?

The only e-reader I use is a free download (from either Amazon or BN; I forget which!). You can download a book or story for a buck or two and read them online. I never bought an e-reader like a Nook or Kindle because when I was still living in NYC I started working from home as an editor and no longer had to commute to work on the subway. I didn’t see the need to buy one, since I can (and do) read a regular old book at home. When I travel, I bring along paperbacks and notebooks (I tend to write when I travel). Again, no need for an e-reader.

But yeah, it’s not like I don’t recognize the technology. I’m sure I’ll get one eventually. And anything that gets people to read, no matter the format, is a good thing. Smart, ahead-of-the-curve writers like J.A. Konrath have been quite successful launching an e-reader platform approach to publishing.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

The older you get, the more your ambitions change and hopefully grow (says the woman-of-all-clichés). So ten years ago, I just wanted to shock readers or gross them out. Now I want them to enjoy the story and hope they’ll come back for more. And, occasionally, I hope something I write makes people think. And still get grossed out. ;)

What are you currently working on?

I keep dusting off my post-apocalyptic vampire novel because I think it has merit. I refuse to give up on it and may one day finish the edit. I’m working on my Nephilim novel (still). I just wish I wrote more often, but it seems every chance I get I’m editing someone else’s book (for work).

Interview with Fran Friel

2011-02-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Fran Friel is the author of the collection Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales. You can find out more about Fran at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

Hi Melissa. It's a pleasure to be here with you and your kind readers.

The horror genre and I found each other purely by accident, if there really is such a thing. I was a big sci-fi fan and only a light horror reader, mostly biggies like King, Rice, Koontz and Gaiman, but when I started writing seriously, a friend of mine mentioned The Horror Library (an online group--part of the Zoetrope.com writing community). They said that THL was doing a story competition, and the winner would be published with their regular contributors. Well, I was hungry for publication, so I submitted a story called, "Wings with Hot Sauce" about the devil and his favorite pub food (er, angel wings). The story won first place in the competition, The Horror Library published my very first story, and I suppose you could say, I found a welcoming home in the horror community. They're some of the nicest people I know in the world!

What scares you?

Spiders creep me out. Just today on Mark Rainey's facebook page, I saw a picture of a gigantic wolf spider with tiny babies crowded on her back. Gah! Spiders can't help they look the way they do, but good grief, really?

Have you ever written something that scared you?

I've never written anything that scared me, but I've written some nasty things that made me giggle. Kind of like, "I can't believe you just wrote that, Fran. Yikes! But dang, that's wicked." So, I guess I've scared myself, wondering how I could be so self-entertainingly twisted.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

There are likely a number of factors at work there, but I suspect most of us are raised to be good girls, and good girls certainly don't write nasty things, do we? Or do we? *big grin*

Your flash fiction story, "Close Shave," is one of the most gruesome stories I’ve read. Are people surprised that, as a woman, you would write something so gory? Is there a misconception that women aren’t comfortable with gore?

I'm glad you "enjoyed" that little piece. It was a 50 word Gross Out Contest winner (3rd place--1st place was fabulously gross!), hence the intense terse language. And heaven knows where that stuff comes from, Melissa. I'm really not a big fan of gore myself, but I just get inspired. What can I say?

I actually think a lot of people aren't comfortable with gore, but again, I suppose the good girl thing comes into play for women. We're suppose to scream and say, "Eww..." when the gross stuff comes along. But in real life, I think women deal with gore better than many men. We frequently contend with blood, barfing kids, poopy diapers, toxic (hair) chemicals, science projects in the fridge and animal carcasses for dinner. Heck, have you ever pulled the giblets out of a turkey? Now that's gross!

And yes, people are surprised that stories like "Mama's Boy" and "Under the Dryer" come from my mild mannered self, but horror is in all of us. Some of us are just more willing to go there, to take a look and see what's in the shadows. I was a holistic therapist for many years, and the dark side tends to come up in that business. If you can't go there personally, you can't go there as a therapist or as a writer, for that matter.

Like I said earlier, horror writers are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I suspect purging those dark places in the act of storytelling helps us clear the way to seeing the lighter side of life. Conversely, I hear that comedians can be a pretty melancholy lot. So go figure.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

These questions always make me nervous. After the interview is published, I inevitably realize that I have forgotten someone wonderful. So ahead of time, I apologize to anyone I've missed. You know who you are!

Let's see, I read a lot Anne Rice before becoming a writer, so I guess some of her wicked ways seeped into my psyche. I'm a big Julian May fan. She's SF/Fantasy, but she writes great gore and suspense! Cat Valente, Jennifer Pelland, Justine Musk, Lucy Snyder, Elizabeth Massie, Lisa Morton, Alethea Kontis, Lisa Mannetti, Deborah LeBlanc, Louise Bohmer, Sara M. Harvey and so many others--they all inspire the heck out of me!

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

My advice is the same for all writers: be brave. Write the story that inspires YOU and write the truth of your characters, even when it's not comfortable, perhaps especially when it's not comfortable. I personally think all writers should write horror for a time. I believe it fosters the ability to go deeper, where a lot of writers fear to tread. The truth is the truth even when it's ugly, and if you can't go there, your characters won't go there, and your work will likely be flat or fluffy.

What are your favourite horror novels?

Stephen King's, It, disturbed the hell out of me. I read it when I had chicken pox in my thirties. I suppose being delirious with fever had something to do with it, but that one really got to me. More recently, I loved King's, Duma Key. It got mixed reviews, but I swam in the velvety pacing and was in awe the expert handling of his characters. Made me envious, to tell you the truth. I wondered if I could ever handle a work of that length with such seamless control and fluidity.

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

Dr. Seuss was my first inspiration as a young writer. I was completely obsessed with Green Eggs and Ham. Nearly drove my mother mad with reading and re-reading it, memorizing it and trying my own hand at the a little Seussery. Oh, that Sam I Am. My first Seuss-esque poem was published in a community newsletter when I was six. I was bitten by the bug quite early.

My more current inspirations:

Gary Braunbeck and John R. Little for their tender humanity and poignant touch. Gaiman for his whimsy and care of the child within us. Tom Piccirilli and Lucy Snyder for lyrical word painting. Peter K. Hamilton for precision and control of complex plot lines. Philip K. Dick for bending my imagination. Asimov, May, Bradbury, Vance and Ellison for storytelling that makes my mind soar. And AJ Brown for sheer perseverance and love of writing!

I credit Neil Gaiman for pushing me over the edge to finally choose to write professionally. My endlessly encouraging husband (my greatest influence, in truth) gave me a copy of Gaiman's collection, Smoke and Mirrors. Something in that lot of story brilliance just sparked the final blaze for me. I will be forever grateful to him (or curse him, depending on the day).

What is your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

Dang, that's a hard one. I truly love them all, even the twisted ones. I suppose Goliath, the Bull Mastiff from "Under the Dryer" is a contender. He's noble and deeply loyal. I would like to sit with him by the fire, stroke his fur, and feed him biscuits. And there's young Will Pennycock from "The Sea Orphan." He was a very brave boy, who remained kind and good hearted even in the face of terrible tragedy and danger.

Yup, too many to mention, but I do love them...and often miss them.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry?

I own a first-gen Kindle, a new Kindle (a gift from my husband), and an iPad with Kindle, Nook and iBook apps. The Nook looks beautiful, but considering my cadre of readers, I can't exactly justify buying another. Right? I use my iPad every day for reading, and my Kindle a few times a week. I've slowly moved to reading more on the e-readers than physical books. It's just a matter of convenience for me.

I think e-readers are good for the business. Perhaps an equalizer, in some ways, making more titles available than the large publishing houses are able or willing to produce. Ultimately, I hope it makes reading more affordable. Traditionally published books are so darn expensive to produce, transport and market, that the average writer isn't making their fair share of a book's profits. Plus, our faithful readers are shelling out serious cash, which may limit how much they get to read.

If e-readers and e-books become affordable (I think many are overpriced at the moment), it seems to reason that more books will be available to everyone. I love seeing that libraries are getting into the game, as well. Plus, perhaps we'll see a broader range of books to choose from if the gate keepers (often the marketing folks, not the editors) have a little more competition in the publishing world.

Also, I believe hardcopy books will be more treasured, as the very beautiful and special things that they are. Many of us have taken them for granted for a long time.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

Escape. Few things give me the special pleasure that a great book offers--that magical escape from my norm to someplace fascinating with a cast of characters who are there just to entertain me. That's my goal as a writer, to give my readers that same gift I hold so precious.

What are you currently working on?

I've been on a long hiatus due to illness. A series of stressful life events hit me with a one-two punch, followed by a good kick in the arse, and I fell into the deep well of clinical depression. It was hellish and seemed like I would never come to the surface again, but I did, and it was ultimately a good thing. As I recover, I'm learning to mitigate stress (a brain killer and depression trigger for me), which has freed-up my writing dramatically. It's actually a pleasure to write again. For a long time, it felt like pushing my brain through a grinder every time I sat down to write. I had endless ideas, but getting the words on the page was a form of self-torture. Ugh. It was untenable for me to write in that state. I can't tell you what a relief it is, and on so many levels, to have moved out of that horror show.

So, to actually answer your question, I'm working on whatever tickles my fancy. I'm enjoying writing again, which is such a blessing. For now, I have a short story coming out in April with Necrotic Tissue, and I'm working on a novella project for Michael Knost. I also have two novels in progress. One is stewing away on the back burner, and the other is waiting for my attention in early Spring. If you're mad enough to follow my antics, I'll keep you posted on the progress at facebook.com/franfriel and @franfriel at twitter.com.

Interview with Yvonne Navarro

2011-02-25T06:00:00.001-05:00

Yvonne Navarro is the author of novels AfterAge, Mirror Me, DeadTimes, deadrush, That's Not My Name, Final Impact, Red Shadows, Highborn (Dark Redemption Series Book One) and several media tie-in novels. You can find out more about Yvonne at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I really can't say. I know that's not much of an answer, but for as long as I can remember, I've loved watching scary movies and reading scary stories. Maybe it's the thrill, that rush of adrenaline in a really good story when

you "feel" for the character.

What scares you?

People. I'm not kidding. Do I really think a vampire's going to scratch at my window, or a zombie's going to leap from the shadows at the side of my garage? No. Do I lock my car door when I get in it or check to see who's at the door before I answer it? You bet. Sadly, the things that people do to people are far, far worse than anything I could ever invent in a story. That stuff I can read in the papers or listen to on the news every day.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

That's an interesting question, and another one I'm not sure I can answer. Perhaps it's just a matter of taste, society and culture. As time passes, we're getting away from the notion that girls should only wear pink bows and ribbons and watch love stories, and more into the realm (at least I hope so) of girls should follow their own tastes. I was lucky in that my Mom liked pink, boys and love stories, but she also liked blue jeans and Creature Features on Friday nights. In this day and age, I really believe that women write what they want. If I've ever had it held against me that I'm a women as to getting my submission read, no one's ever had the ****s to admit it. Ha ha.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Elizabeth Massie, Sephera Giron, Maria Alexander, Maxine O'Callahan, others I can't think of right now. Alas, I don't have a statistical brain and I'm just not prone to remember names.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

Don't write like a woman. Don't write like a man. Write like a writer. Do the best job you can, write a lot. Let your stuff sit for a week, then read it out loud before you send it somewhere.

What are your favourite horror novels?

They Thirst by Robert McCammon

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Dark Visions by Maxine O'Callahan

There are a bunch of others, but again, that non-statistical brain thwarts

me.

What is your favourite novel you’ve written and your favourite character

you’ve created? Why?

That's a hard one, like choosing one child as your favorite over another. It's a toss-up between my first novel, AfterAge, and Final Impact. The reason is the same: I felt like the characters were really alive, not only to me, but to everyone. Of course, I strive for that in every book I write. I've never considered that one of my characters was a specific favorite, but the first character that always comes to mind is Simon Chanowitz from Final Impact. He was a horribly abused child and a mind reader, and he struggled mightily with his gift through two books (Final Impact and Red Shadows).

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

Well, see the above list for favorite authors and novels. Robert McCammon influenced me the most, not only by being a role model and an excellent writer, but by being supportive to me when I was in the absolute baby-stages of my career. He rocks.

You have written novelizations of television shows and films. How are media tie-in novels different to write than regular fiction? Which do you prefer?

In a media tie-in novel, such as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer books, you're writing in someone else's world and you have to follow their rules. You can create and add things, but only to a point. The bigger the series, the more you have to consider the rulebook, whether it's unwritten or not, what others have written in their books, and what's going on in the television series or movies. It can get immensely complicated, such as in the Star Wars books. In a movie tie-in, you might try to add some backstory or more depth to the characters, but you're still under someone else's rules. I prefer (and I think most authors agree with me) to write my own novels, where I create everything and can write absolutely what I want.

Can you tell us about your most recent novel, Highborn?

Highborn is the story of a fallen angel, a demon, who wants to reverse her choice and find forgiveness so that she can revert to what she started as-- a true angel. She escapes from Hell (and her lover, Lucifer, doesn't take that very well and sends Hunters after her) and comes to Earth, trying to find a way to redemption. On Earth she must learn to live among the humans she tormented for eons and also empathize with them because they are her only way to the forgiveness she seeks. Highborn is part of the Dark Redemption Series, and book 2, Concrete Savior, comes out in June 2011.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry? Do you plan on making your older novels available as e-books?

I don't own an e-reader I already spend 12 to 16 hours a day (I am not kidding) staring at a computer screen, plus I have a pile of nearly 200 books that are waiting to be read. I have very little time to read, but I can't stop buying them. I'm old-fashioned in that I like the look, feel and smell of books. I think that if I had a virtual stack of 200 unread books, I would just forget about them-- out of sight, out of mind-- and never get the chance to read most of them because they'd be overrun by new stuff all the time. Others like e-readers a lot, and that's great-- good for them. I'm already moving toward that. AfterAge is already available in a variety of electronic formats from Crossroads Press.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

The same thing I get out of a really good book (and I'm REALLY picky): a story that literally makes you forget you're reading, so much so that you don't even remember you're turning the page and everything around you just kind of fades out as the story plays itself out in your mind.

What are you currently working on?

I'm kind of jumping around from idea to idea right now. I have a series idea that I keep changing around (I think I'm in its third version right now) and it's a lot of fun. I have a number of things "waiting to be written," including a full outline and 60 pages written on a thriller. So many ideas, so little me!

Interview with Mary SanGiovanni

2011-02-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

Mary SanGiovanni is the author of novels The Hollower and Found You and the collection Under Cover of Night. Her next novel, Thrall, will be released from Thunderstorm Books in early- to mid-March. You can find out more about Mary at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

The horror genre has always appealed to me for its scope, for the endlessness of possibilities about worlds beyond our own. I really believe the best horror fiction (and movies) looks at the unbelievable, often heretofore undiscovered strength of the human spirit, and its ability to overcome in the face of incredible dangers.

What scares you?

Realistically, anything bad happening to loved ones. Sickness. Despair. Fire. Probably very, very tight spaces, since I seem to have claustrophobia nightmares lately. I also have a sort of irrational fear of masks, gurneys, hospitals, and faceless things.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

I think horror's pulp roots, following in the footsteps of old-school sf, were written by men primarily for men. Traditional gender roles would suggest that the violence inherent in pulp horror, generally directed toward women, might turn women off. I think there used to be a pervasive belief that women didn't have the constitution to write, read, or watch horror. Our empathy made us more susceptible, maybe. But that's just it – horror is a genre hinged more on the effective conveyance of emotion than nearly any other genre. It's gut instinct and survival. It's the empathic link with the hero (or heroine) that makes us feel the horror they feel. Horror's boundaries have shifted, and what constitutes horror has broadened as well. I think women bring a different psychological bent to horror; we relate to the world in a different way. The industry has realized this just in the decade or so I've been in the business, and I'm seeing more and more readers and members of the general public branching out from the safe horror islands of King and Koontz. I think as we make our mark as equals in society, more people will come to accept the unique, sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal take that women bring to horror.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Shirley Jackson. Sarah Langan. Beth Massie. Poppy Brite (although she is lately working outside of the genre). These women masterfully use the written word to convey the complex and often incredibly disturbing aspects of the human character, and the worlds beyond casual, general human experience.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

I think my advice would be to consider yourselves writers first; if marketing folk choose to label you a woman writer or a horror writer or an African American writer or any other neat little promotional pigeonhole they can find, let them. Don't be afraid to be both beautiful and dangerous. Say something; I mean, really say what's in your soul, what you feel passionate about – that's what “writing what you know” REALLY means.

What are your favourite horror novels?

The Shining. It. The Haunting of Hill House. Legion. Ghost Story. I'm considering adding Audrey's Door to that as well, but I haven't finished it yet. ;)

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

Stephen King, of course – I think he's influenced my entire generation of writers. Richard Matheson. Peter Straub, who could describe a grocery list and make it sound beautiful. Shirley Jackson, whose subtlety is delicious. Brian Keene, for the utter heart-wrenching realness of his characters. Gary Braunbeck, whose prose can often move me to tears. I'd say I learned something from each of these writers about the beauty of the written word, but also about the psychology of horror, about the true nature of people's fears, and how less is so often more.

Who is your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

Hmmm. I'd have to say Tom Wyatt, from Thrall. To me, he's the quintessential hero: brave nearly to the point of being reckless, selfless to the point of being damn near suicidal, funny and serious, lightning quick and very smooth. I'm also partial to my monsters; the Primary Hollower from Found You, for example. It's mean, it's utterly alien, and it can take the form not only of your worst fears, but of your deepest, most secret and shameful insecurities. The Hollowers are the total of all my worst fears about me.

As an author who was published by Dorchester in the past, what do you think of their switch to trade paperbacks and e-books, eliminating mass-market paperbacks?

Let's see how I can answer this diplomatically...I think that, given that their business model relies primarily on sales from outlets and chains like Walmart, Shop-Rite, airports, etc., that their switch seems an unusual decision. I realize that like any business, the e-book component is their move to keep up with ever-evolving technology. However, I'm not sure all their decisions are in the best interest of the stable of writers, past (like myself) or present. I'm interested to see whether their financial issues are resolved in a way that allows us either the rights back to authors' back-logs, or to the often overdue royalty statements and payments owed to their writers.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry?

I don't, but I often get audiobooks for my iPod. I have mixed feelings about e-readers. On one hand, they're green, they're cost- and space-effective, they give authors new subsidiary rights to negotiate, and they allow for the possibility of literature becoming a more interactive or multimedia-incorporated experience beyond merely reading the story. There could be embedded links to cool side stories or backstory info, there could be interactive cover art, all kinds of cool things. However, with e-reader software comes the facility of making ones own books and flooding the market with work that is sub-par in terms of quality, formatting, editing, etc. I'd hate to see new technologies that could innovate and enhance the reading experience cause some kind of horror boom, bust, and fizzle like it did in the 90's.

Can you tell us about your upcoming novel, Thrall?

This book is my favorite thing I've ever written. It's a story about a man whose life has been one of running and hiding – from the truth about the very unusual things that used to happen in his hometown, to the people he left behind there. After receiving an urgent phone call from his ex about a daughter he never knew he had, he heads off to find them in a town overrun with deadly monsters. The influences are very much visual, and in my mind, capture the tortured and guilt-ridden soul that carries its own demons into the heart of a supernatural and psychological hell – there are shades of Silent Hill in there, as well as shades of Dark City. There are shades of In the Mouth of Madness and Lovecraft's larger-than-life cosmic horror. This is, to date, my big bad-ass monster story, and I really hope readers enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

Honestly, I hope readers will feel a sense of connectedness and ability to relate to the characters. I'd like them to feel that they are not alone. I'd like them to believe that all the strengths and tools one needs to survive are inside a person, and that it's just a matter of tapping into what he or she does well to find them. I'd like readers to see my work as scary, terrifying, disturbing, gets-under-your-skin-and-makes-you-think-about-it-days-later kind of writing. But above all, I want to convey the (possibly overoptimistic) belief I have in the innate goodness of even the most flawed humans, and their natural ability to rise above and beyond themselves to keep the nightmares of this world (and others) at bay.

What are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on a new novel and two short stories, all supernatural, all very psychological, maybe moreso than my last three books. Possibly a bit more surreal than the Hollower books, too. They'll still have the subtle connections to the other books, just as both The Hollower and Found You have subtle connections to Thrall. I'm open to taking on new projects, and really building my career from the foundations I made at Leisure and now with Thunderstorm.

Interview with Melanie Tem

2011-02-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Melanie Tem is the author of novels Prodigal, Blood Moon, Wilding, Making Love (with Nancy Holder), Revenant, Desmodus, Witch-Light (with Nancy Holder), The Tides, Black River, Daughters (with Steve Rasnic Tem), Slain in the Spirit, The Deceiver and short story collections Daddy's Side, Beautiful Stranger (with Steve Rasnic Tem) and The Ice Downstream. She won Bram Stoker Awards for her novel Prodigal and her novella The Man on the Ceiling (with Steve Rasnic Tem). Find out more about Melanie at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I wouldn't say I'm "drawn to" any genre. I'm drawn to write particular stories and write them in whatever form, length, language style, voice, person, tense, genre that seems to suit them best. Besides horror, I've written in the science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, children's literature, mainstream genres as well as poetry and plays.

What scares you?

the phrase "home invasion" because of the juxtaposition of two such contradictory images

the inevitability of loss

the thought that I might never be a good enough writer to write some of the stories I want to tell

Have you ever written something that scared you?

Writing is for me a way of giving form to whatever the underlying emotions are. So if I'm writing a joyous piece, or one about love, or one about a very cold day, I am not made joyous or loving or cold by it. It's the same with being scared. I don't write for the purpose of scaring anybody, including myself. I write to explore and to invite others to explore all possible dimensions of the human experience.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

I have no idea. This isn't something I think about much.

Who are some women authors that you admire?

I want to be Toni Morrison when I grow up.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

Write!

What are your favourite novels?

Toni Morrison's BELOVED

Markus Zusak's THE BOOK THIEF

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

I'm not consciously influenced by any particular authors, and I'll leave it to others to observe by whom I might have been influenced without being really aware of it. I don't think I have "favorite" authors so much as favorite works, and there are many many of those. Among the authors who have created works I love are Amy Hempel, Amy Bloom, Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Frost, Mary Doria Russell, John Keats, Marianne Moore, Mary Oliver, Connie Willis, Dan Simmons, Steve Rasnic Tem, Edward Bryant, Markus Zusak, Elizabeth Bishop....

What is your favourite novel you’ve written and your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

As with other people's work, I don't so much have a favorite among my works as a feeling of pride and affection toward different novels and short stories and poems and characters at different moments of my life and for different reasons. My novel REVENANT is one I like a great deal, partly because so many readers have talked about in terms like "life-changing." I'm fond of my as-yet-unsold novel YELLOW WOOD because of its idiosyncratic take on parent-child relationships. I like Cecilia, the protagonist in my novel THE DECEIVER, because she was modeled on a dear friend of mine who was, like Cecilia (I hope), interesting and complex and full of stories and funny and loving and irascible and entirely her own person. I am pleased by my science fiction story "Corn Teeth," which will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine sometime this year, because it was a challenge and a stretch for me to write it and I think it works pretty well. I like the character called Little Shit in my story of the same name, which will be in the anthology SUPERNATURAL NOIR edited by Ellen Datlow, also due out this year, because she's both steely and vulnerable and also very eccentric; I have notes for a sort of crime series about her.

But if I were to answer this question on another day, I might single out other things.

You have written novels with Nancy Holder and your husband, Steve Rasnic Tem. Do you prefer to write with others, or by yourself?

I've also collaborated on an as-yet-unsold novel with Janet Gluckman Berliner called WHAT YOU REMEMBER I DID.

I don't prefer one approach over the other. Some ideas are one-author ideas. Others are collaborative in nature. Sometimes two voices add to the telling, and sometimes a third voice emerges that neither writer could have achieved alone. Playwriting is another form of collaboration; once I turn over a script to a director and actors, it isn't "mine" anymore, but "ours," and I find that exciting. But I'm also nourished by the solitary writing life.

How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry? Are you planning on making your older novels available in e-book format?

I don't know yet how e-books will change publishing; I'm watching with interest. Several of my titles have been available in e-format from Richard Curtis's eReads for some years. David Niall Wilson's Crossroad Press is now doing several in both e-format and audio.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

New or deeper or exciting or touching or disturbing or in some other way authentic ways of experiencing human life

What are you currently working on?

a play inspired by an incident a decade ago in which a child died during a "re-birthing" therapy session

a YA time travel novel (in collaboration with Steve)

a short story that might turn out to be science fiction or dark fantasy, or not

Interview with Nancy Holder

2011-02-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

Nancy Holder is the author of several novels and short stories. She is a four-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award, which she won for her short stories, "Lady Madonna," "I Hear the Mermaids Singing" and "Cafe Endless: Spring Rain" and her novel, Dead in the Water. You can find out more about Nancy at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I don’t really know. I have always been interested in horror, even when I was a little girl. I would read scary comics and write movie scripts and then I would be too terrified to go to sleep. I would give my Barbie’s Viking funerals. I would dig a pit, dress a Barbie in a Kleenex toga, and lay her on a rock for a bier. Then I’d line the pit with newspapers and set them on fire. My mom, totally ignorant of all this, would sing out, “What are you doing, sweetie?” And I would say, “Playing Barbie’s!” And all was right with the world.

I started reading Shirley Jackson, and then Stephen King. I used to go the bookstore and look for “books with black covers.” I liked “scary movies.” I didn’t know there was such a thing as a horror genre. When I grew up, I decided I wanted to write all this creepy stuff, too. When I’m working on a horror story, I watch a horror movie every morning. Poor me.

What scares you?

Just about everything! Ghosts, zombies, witches, vampires...and slow, creeping diseases. I think that just about covers it.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

I’m not sure that there are fewer. It may be that fewer are being published.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

At the risk of forgetting friends, let me say Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, Lisa Morton, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Maria Alexander, Alexandra Sokoloff, and Carrie Ryan.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

The same as for men: read, read, read, write, write, write. Never give up. A man once said to me, “Well, you know, women could never write splatterpunk.” The sisterhood has since proved him wrong.

What are your favourite horror novels?

I have so many friends in the field that I would not want to hurt feelings. I used to read THE SHINING every year. I’m reading Carrie Ryan right now--I finished THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, and am halfway through THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES. Her novels are marketed as YA. Zombie apocalypse.

What is your favourite novel you’ve written and your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

They are all mine (and Debbie Viguié’s!) and I would not want to choose one over the other. At the moment, I am totally in love with Antonio (CRUSADE) because he is trying so very hard to live life as a good man, even though he isn’t one.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Lindsay, my heroine in the POSSESSIONS series. Lindsay has been through so much, and she has dark moments where she doubts her sanity. In the last book of the trilogy, THE SCREAMING SEASON (out on March 17th of this year), she really has to pull it together. I admire Lindsay more than I can say.

You have written several books with other authors. Do you prefer to write with others, or by yourself?

I like both, but I am so glad Debbie Viguié and I continue to write together. Cuz we throw the best parties! Debbie is such a great writer and a fantastic friend. We are both Disney kids and we love to go to Disney to celebrate at the end of author tours.

You have written novels in several different genres including horror, romance, young adult and historical fiction. Why have you written in so many different genres, some of which seem to be opposites? Do you have a favourite genre?

I don’t really see them as opposites. For example, I think horror and romance have found each other in paranormal romance. I have written in many genres because I like exploring how to tell a story in different ways. Thanks to my education at UC San Diego and the Romance Writers of America, I have a firm grounding in craft--the elements of fiction--that I can then port to different genres. Characterization, plotting, point of view, etc. All that can be learned. Then I apply those tools in different ways.

You have written novelizations of several television shows. How are media tie-in novels different to write than regular fiction?

In some ways, they’re more difficult, because you have to please both your editor and the company that owns the copyright of the show you’re working on (often, that’s Twentieth Century Fox, for me) as well as the show creator and showrunner, if they’re different. But in other ways, there’s more freedom, because since the characters are well developed and their world is already established, you can write different kinds of stories--a caper, a mystery, a comedy, etc. I love writing tie-ins.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry? Do you plan on publishing your older novels as e-books?

I do, but I feel kind of bad about it because I have many friends who own independent bookstores. I’m glad indies are getting into the game of selling e-books. I would like to publish my older novels as e-books. Some of my publishers are already doing that for me.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

I hope they can become engrossed in a new world with characters they can root for and identify with. That’s what I look for when I’m reading.

What are you currently working on?

I am promoting THE SCREAMING SEASON, which comes out on March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day!)

Debbie and I are in the final stages of the next CRUSADE novel, which is titled DAMNED.

Debbie and I have just turned in UNLEASHED, which is the first novel in THE WOLF SPRINGS CHRONICLES. It will come out from Delacorte in December 2011.

BTW, if anyone is going to Gallifrey One in Los Angeles this month, or ConDor in San Diego, please come by and say hi!

Interview with Vanessa Morgan

2011-02-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

Vanessa Morgan is the author of Drowned Sorrow and The Strangers Outside. The latter is currently being made into a film.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I’ve always been fascinated with horror movies and the paranormal. I don’t know where it comes from; I just know it’s been there ever since I was born. As a child, I tortured my Barbie dolls and I loved going to video stores to look at the covers of horror movies, hoping that I would be able to see them one day. It was natural for me to start writing horror books and screenplays.

What scares you?

Horror movies and books never frighten me anymore, but in real life I’m scared of almost everything. I would never do something remotely risky such as a parachute jump or a rollercoaster ride. I’m also scared to fail and to lose someone I love.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

That’s a good question. It got me thinking. I believe that for me, writing horror is a way to cope with fears from real life, but does that mean that women are generally less anxious? Maybe it’s the contrary… maybe women are too fragile to have something to do with horror. I’m just thinking out loud here, but I don’t really have an answer.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

I can’t think of any. Who knows, I might discover some wonderful female authors now that it’s the Women in Horror Month.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

The same as to any other writer: be honest in what you write, don’t give up, improve yourself, write what you want to read, and don’t forget to have fun and live a little while doing this.

What are your favourite horror novels?

Almost everything by John Saul, especially Second Child and Shadows… but also Salem’s Lot, The Shining and Pet Sematary from Stephen King… Blood Bar from Daph Nobody… The Ruins by Scott B. Smith… Off Season by Jack Ketchum…

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

My favourite authors are Michel Houellebeck, Carol Drinkwater, Wei Hui, Daph Nobody, John Saul, Michael Chrichton and many others; not many horror authors as you can see. My influences come primarily from horror movies though. I think it shows. My stories are visual, fast-paced and to-the-point. The movies from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village) come close to my own work, as well as those from Jaume Balaguero (The Nameless, Darkness) and Hideo Nakata (The Ring, Dark Water).

Who is your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

My favourite character is Jennifer in my short story The Strangers Outside because I based her on my younger sister. Jennifer is the kind of girl that seems cursed with bad luck and I think that many people might recognize themselves in her.

Can you tell us about your book, Drowned Sorrow?

Drowned Sorrow is the story of a remote New England village where water has become a supernatural element that can think, move… and kill. A mother who has lost her son in a family tragedy travels to the village with her daughter, but by the time she realizes that her daughter’s life is in danger, it might already be too late.

Your novella, The Strangers Outside, is being made into a movie. Can you tell us about it?

The Strangers Outside is actually being made into a film as we speak. It’s a Belgian production starring Pierre Lekeux, Iulia Alexandra Nastase and my cat Avalon. The filming is finished and they are now in the editing stage. I’ve posted photos of the filming locations on my blog at http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2010/08/strangers-outside-filming-locations.html and another set of photos of the film shoot at http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2010/09/behind-scenes-of-strangers-outside.html. Images of The Strangers Outside have also been used for the music video of Alex Corbi’s latest track (http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2011/01/strangers-outside-in-music-video.html).

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry?

No, not yet. I’m planning on purchasing a Kindle, but I have approaching deadlines for several screenplays and other stories and not enough time to read right now. Apparently, more e-books have been sold last year than normal books, but many people still seem hesitant to use an e-reader, especially in Europe. It’s good though that with e-books everyone can be a published author these days. It’s still hard work if you want to do it good, but writers are so much closer to seeing their dreams come true.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

Both Drowned Sorrow and The Strangers Outside are terrifying. They will definitely freak you out. There hasn’t been one review that didn’t talk about the creepy aspect of those books. Drowned Sorrow has even been called ‘the scariest story of the year’.

What are you currently working on?

Even though I will continue to write horror novels and short stories, I am currently concentrating on my work as a screenwriter just because I get more contracts there. I’m in the middle of writing a vampire movie for Radowski Films. I’m also doing a weekly online cartoon starring my cat Avalon (http://avalon-lion.blogspot.com).

Interview with Elizabeth Massie

2011-02-18T06:00:00.007-05:00

Elizabeth Massie is the author of novels Sineater, Welcome Back to the Night, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Power of Persuasion, Wire Mesh Mothers, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (co authored with Stephen Mark Rainey), Twisted Branch (written under the pen name "Chris Blaine"), Homeplace, The Tudors: King Takes Queen, The Tudors: Thy Will Be Done, DD Murphry, Secret Policeman (co authored with Alan M. Clark), Homegrown; several young adult historical novels including the Young Founders series, the Daughters of Liberty trilogy, and The Great Chicago Fire: 1871; comic book Julie Walker is The Phantom in Race Against Death!; and short story collections Southern Discomfort, Shadow Dreams, The Fear Report, A Little Magenta Book of Mean Stories and Afraid. She won Bram Stoker Awards for her novel, Sineater and her novella, Stephen. You can find out more about Elizabeth at her website.

What drew you to the horror genre?

I've always been both intrigued and disturbed by the frightening things in life. As a child I was quite the scairdy-cat, yet I wanted to watch The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and all those great shows. I wanted to read scary stories and novels that then made me cower in my bed at night. I think I hoped that if I looked hard enough and long enough, I would understand it somehow. And in understanding, all would be well. Or at least better. In a way, I still feel that way. When I write, I delve into the darkness to understand what is going on, and to see how my characters will manage. I give them (whether they want it or not!) the chance to rise or fall in the direst of circumstances. I learn from what they go through.

What scares you?

People who have ultimate power over others - be it short term or long term. That is what scares me most. Power has the ability to corrupt in the worst of ways. A number of my stories and novels deal with the wielding of power. I'm also quite claustrophobic. And I don't like heights. Oh, and the thought of having to eat a piece of cheese will make me run for the hills.

Have you ever written something that scared you?

Just about everything I've written that deals with the misuse of power has scared me to some degree. Sineater, Wire Mesh Mothers, Welcome Back to the Night, Homeplace, and Twisted Branch for example, as well as many of my short stories...they are all rooted in misuse of power and the terror that creates, whether from a human or a supernatural source. Speaking of my short fiction, my short story, "Brazo de Dios," still scares me.

Why do you think there are fewer women writing horror than men?

Without meaning to stereotype, I just think on average, less women like horror. If you put men and women along a graph line, I think you'd find many more men on the "loves horror" end than women. Maybe it's a cultural thing but I also think its a sex (or gender) thing, too. Now before I get myself into trouble here let me say that there are lots of women who love horror and plenty of men who don't. You could also look at the question, "why are there fewer men writing heterosexual gothic romances?" (As opposed to gay romance, which tend to be written by men.) For now, in our current times, it just seems to be more of a boy/girl thing. No reason to sweat it. It is what it is. And there are kick-ass, talented female horror authors out there, offering genuine, no-holds-barred terrors.

Who are some women horror authors that you admire?

Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, Lucy Snyder, Lisa Mannetti, Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, Fran Friel, to name a few.

What is your advice to aspiring women horror writers?

What I would advise anyone writing horror, be they male, female, or intersexed... write what you want to read. Write honestly and openly. Don't write as if your mother is watching over your shoulder.

What are your favourite horror novels?

I have so very many! Here are a few. The Other (Tryon), The Road (McCarthy), Psycho (Bloch), Interview with the Vampire (Rice), The Stand (King), 'Salem's Lot (King), The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson), Afterage (Navarro).

Who are your favourite authors? Who influenced you the most?

I read novels of all kinds. Authors who are favorites and have influenced me include Stephen King, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, Anne Tyler, Haven Kimmel, Thomas Tryon, Dalton Trumbo, Katherine Dunn. I suppose Stephen King influenced me the most. His stories are not only terrifying but are also character-driven and often heart-wrenching.

What is your favourite novel you’ve written and your favourite character you’ve created? Why?

If I had to pick (I still love them all for various reasons), I'd say Sineater is my favorite novel. It deals with isolation, power, religion, superstitions, and, ultimately, courage and hope. There might be a tie for favorite character between Joel Barker, the boy in Sineater, a shunned yet oddly optimistic outcast who comes of age in the story and Sam Ford, the teacher in Twisted Branch (which I wrote under the pseudonym Chris Blaine) who finds himself running headlong into a terrifying, ghost-ridden world while trying to escape his own troubled past.

You have written novelizations of The Tudors and Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. How are media tie-in novels different to write than fiction?

Well, you're playing in someone else's sandbox and with someone else's toys, so it is quite different. The universe is set, you just have to put yourself into it, figure out the lay of the sand and the function of the toys, and go from there. However, I find it just as challenging creatively. You need to fashion a good story that will draw readers in and make them want to explore that universe with you.

Do you own an e-reader? How do you think e-readers are changing the publishing industry? Do you plan on making your older novels available as e-books?

I don't have an e-book reader. E-books are changing the publishing industry much as self-publishing has in the past few years. Anyone can self-publish. Anyone can create an e-book. At the moment, I see it as a muddy, stirred-up mess, with so many more books now (and some of them poorly written, poorly conceived, poorly edited) in the offering. However, the silt will settle eventually. I can't really predict how it will be in a few years, though, except to say that e-book readers are here to stay. And yes, some of my earlier novels are out as e-books. Sineater is available through Crossroad Press. My massive short story collection, The Fear Report, is available from Necon E-books. Wire Mesh Mothers and Welcome Back to the Night are slated to become e-books. And I put together a new short story collection called Afraid, which just came out as an e-book from Crossroad Press.

What do you hope readers get out of your work?

I write to explore the depths of human emotion and the stripped-bare situations where personas and facades are of no help, where characters come face to face with their greatest fears and have the opportunity to reach for something within themselves they didn't know they had in order to survive. It's my hope readers will relate to this exploration and who knows, maybe project themselves into the story, connect to the universal struggles of the characters, and discover something in themselves, as well.

What are you currently working on?

My first mainstream novel, Homegrown, is newly out as an e-book and should be out as a trade paperback within a month through Crossroad Press and my new collection, Afraid, just came out this week from Crossroad Press. I'm also writing a YA supernatural horror novel called Freezer Burn as well as a new vampire story and new demon story. And a play about hens who must go to rehab at the "Fowl Gone A-Foul" center for troubled chickens but that's a whole 'nother story! :)