Women in Horror: Part Three.
Hello & welcome to our third day of WiHM!
Today we have J G Faherty with his viewpoint of the female touch to the horror fiction genre. A big reader of horror, especially of the 80’s horror genre, he’s keen to share his views with you all.
Daughters of Darkness
We came to battle baby
We came to win the war
We won’t surrender
Till we get what we’re lookin’ for
Daughters of darkness
Sisters insane
A little evil
Goes a long, long way
-‘Daughters of Darkness’ by Halestorm
The year was 1971. Or maybe 1970. Or 1972. Somewhere around there. I was around 10, that’s all I remember.
And I was reading Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus for the first time. I’d already seen the movie and all its sequels and spawn, read the comic, and put together my Aurora glow-in-the-dark model. But I’d finally reached that age where I wanted to read real books. Poe, Stoker, Verne, Wells – these all sat among my TBR pile, right there with The Hardy Boys and various books on dinosaurs and snakes. Mary Shelley became the first woman to join that list, the first woman to scare me, send shivers up my spine. But not the last.
No, not the last.
I discovered Shirley Jackson through The Lottery, and read everything of hers I could get my hands on. Back then, I was young and naïve and thought she did a great job retelling The Haunting of Hill House. Until my father, an English teacher, set me straight on that.
In the years that followed, I alternated between science fiction and horror as my favorite reading materials. At that time, women were definitely more prevalent in the SF genre. Ursula Le Guin, with her Earthsea books. Tanith Lee, with her dark, chilling fantasy novels like Quest for the White Witch. And later, Anne McCaffrey with her Dragons of Pern series.
But in the 80s and 90s, women stepped up the pace in horror. Not necessarily with terrifying, bloody stories like those of King, Herbert, or Skipp/Spector, but highly entertaining in their own way. Writers like Traci Briery and Karen Taylor with their vampire novels, which helped create the paranormal romance genre. I have no problem admitting that as a high school and college student, those books gave me thrills in more ways than one. Sexy lady vamps? I couldn’t get enough!
Then Nancy Collins came along and turned lady vamps upside down with her kick-ass, no-holds-barred vampire vigilante Sonja Blue. Clad in leather, wearing dark sunglasses, and killing demons like a blood-sucking Dirty Harry, she was a rock-n-roll superstar for fans of vampire fiction. Forget how Collins described her, in my mind she was a supernatural Joan Jett or Chrissie Hynde. Death in heels. Laurell Hamilton, whose Anita Blake was almost as great as Sonja Blue, at least in the first few novels. Anne Rice, who in my mind wrote the greatest-ever mummy tale. P.N Elrod, with her classic vampire detective novels. Tanya Huff, who also did great supernatural detective books.
The decline of horror in the 90s and 2000s hit women harder than men, in my mind. I lost track of the lady writers I enjoyed, until I joined the HWA and discovered the small press. I got to know a new generation of women horror writers. Lisa Morton, Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, Lisa Mannetti. Monica O’Rourke, who demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that women could write fiction just as sick and twisted and violent and messed up as any man.
But what happened to the writers of my youth? The men are still going strong – King, Straub, Koontz, Skipp, Monteleone, Wilson, Morrell, Ketchum, Golden – all thriving. And the guys that have come along since – Keene, McBride, Waggoner, Strand, Moore, so many others! – making names for themselves. But aside from a few hold overs, like Ms. Morton and Ms. Holder, and a couple of talented newcomers such as Rena Mason, the women aren’t finding it easy.
Monica O’Rourke isn’t getting book deals. Nancy Collins is self-publishing eBooks. P.N Elrod is running Kickstarters to get money for a mortgage payment. Beth Massie recently had to do the same for a new roof. Tanya Huff publishes in the fantasy genre now. Karen Taylor’s vampire novels are still published by Pinnacle, but I haven’t seen them in my local B&N, that’s for sure.
There’s no excuse for talented writers – male or female – to dwell in the shadows when so many inferior books get published each year. I’m not turning this blog into a discussion of sexism or publishing issues; it’s about how I’ve enjoyed reading horror written by women. And I’ll continue to do so – not because they are women, but because the books are good.
And in the end, that’s all that matters to me.
JG Faherty is the author of THE BURNING TIME, CEMETERY CLUB, CARNIVAL OF FEAR, THE COLD SPOT, HE WAITS, and the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated GHOSTS OF CORONADO BAY, along with more than 50 short stories. 2014 will see the release of his next novel, HELLRIDER, as well as several short stories and novellas. He writes adult and YA horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. He enjoys urban exploring, photography, hiking, and playing the guitar. His personal slogan is ‘Photo bombing people since 1979’. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/jgfaherty, www.facebook.com/jgfaherty, http://about.me/jgfaherty, and www.jgfaherty.com.
Join us tomorrow when J Lincoln Fenn, author of Poe.
