API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Jessica Gleason

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Jessica Gleason

    What is your novel about?  Easy Bake Covenant is personal for me. I poured a lot of myself into the MC, Laura. At its heart, Easy Bake Covenant is a story about a little girl working through her demons, both literal and metaphorical. She’s gifted a peculiar Easy Bake Oven and, through it, she unwittingly makes a deal with the devil. She’s lost and angry, but grabs her power back and uses it to become strong and independent. To be clear, it’s not a fairy tale. Laura is fierce and funny, and her happy ending may not be…
API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Kelsea Yu

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Kelsea Yu

  What is your novella about? My next book, Demon Song (out from Titan Books on September 30), is a modern gothic horror novella inspired by The Phantom of the Opera. The main character, Megan, is a Chinese American teenager who—along with her mom—is on the run from an abusive man. They seek refuge in an ancient Beijing opera house. There, Megan finds a Chinese mythology book and begins reading the tale of Baigujing, the White Bone Demon. Soon, myths begin to bleed into her life as dreams and reality blur, and Megan must discover the true, horrifying secret of…
API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror: An Interview with Geneve Flynn

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror: An Interview with Geneve Flynn

  What is your story about? “If I Am to Earn My Tether” is a horror short story about sand piracy, colonialism, and living with the choices our ancestors made. It features the Malaysian myth of the polong, a tiny homunculus born from the blood of a murder victim, and her pet grasshopper, the pelesit. It was published in Silk and Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora by Bad Hand Books in May this year. The collection is edited by Kristy Park Kulski and includes short fiction and poetry by Ai Jiang, Nadia Bulkin, Christina Sng,…
An Introduction to API/AANHPI Month by Frances Lu Pai Ippolito

An Introduction to API/AANHPI Month by Frances Lu Pai Ippolito

  The first thing I think of when I sit down to write this introduction is a well. It’s a deep one, made of chipped stone blocks in the courtyard of an abandoned house somewhere between Anhui and Guangdong in the late 1930s. My 7-year-old grandmother is hiding in an empty residence with the women of her family – her mother, Popo, Nai Nai, and her 5-year-old sister. Her brother and father are missing, and the oldest sisters fled their Anhui home weeks ago with neighbors. The well is important because that is where my grandmother encounters her first ghost.…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Abigail F. Taylor

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Abigail F. Taylor

  What is your novel about? Maryneal, 1962, is American Werewolf in London meets American Graffiti… With the full moon approaching and no salvation in sight, Delah is faced with an unconscionable decision: If she can’t find a cure, she’ll have to kill the boy next door. Despite its monsters and all things that go bump in the night, at its core, Maryneal is about grief and how concealing identities can devour us. Delah is learning how to navigate her sexuality with an unexpected crush developing on one of her girlfriends, and it hits her at the worst possible time:…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Newton Webb

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Newton Webb

  What is your book about? My books explore the horrors humans inflict on one another, cannibalism, gaslighting, serial killers, and mad science. I’ve published fifteen books now. Even though I include supernatural creatures and cryptids in many of my stories, I always focus on the human element. Beneath the gore and the ghosts, there is a consistent theme: power, the abuse of it, and what happens when ordinary people are pushed too far. I write my stories to unsettle, to provoke, and to tell my personal truth through the lens of horror. I’ve written nearly a hundred short stories…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Mia Dalia

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Mia Dalia

  What is your novel about? My novel, Haven, is about a family who stays at an inherited house for a month of August. And all the things that go terribly wrong. So, on the surface, it’s a “dream vacation turns nightmare” story, but there’s a lot more to it. Both the novel and the house have a backstory of a woman wronged and determined to rise above. But a terrible injustice calls for a revenge in whatever way it finds it, and the past never truly stops bleeding into the present. Haven is far from an idyllic lake house,…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Briana Morgan

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Briana Morgan

  What is your novel about? I write psychological, character-driven horror featuring ghosts, demons, monsters, and the scariest thing of all—the dark side of humanity. So far, I’ve written books and plays that run the gamut from queer vampires to killer mermaids and influencer horror. What are you looking to express to readers with your work? More than anything, I want readers to feel seen. I want them to see how even flawed characters can do great things. As a queer, neurodivergent, disabled author, I haven’t often seen myself represented in books. I’d like to change that for my readers.…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Azzurra Nox

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Azzurra Nox

  What is your novel about? I actually have two novels out right now. The first one is Into the Dread Unknown, the fifth book in my Women in Horror series, and the second is Panico! a historical poetry collection that borders on the macabre. Into the Dread Unknown is an exploration of Gothic literature through sharp, feminist lenses. Some of the authors featured are familiar voices I’ve had the pleasure of including in past anthologies, while others are new additions to the Women in Horror series. I’m especially thrilled to have two Bram Stoker Award-nominated authors in this latest…

NUTS & BOLTS: Lisa Morton Discusses Dennis Etchison

Lisa Morton describes Dennis Etchison’s work as a “brain bombshell” that changed her idea of what horror fiction could do. When she was just starting out, Etchison had a major influence on both her art and her career. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Lisa discusses Etchison’s writing technique, his influence on her own work, and what writers today can learn from the late horror legend.

Nuts & Bolts: Interview With John Harrison, Netflix Series Creator, Author of Residue: Paramentals Rising

Early in his career, writer and director John Harrison picked up techniques about telling a horror story from collaborating with George Romero. He’s spent decades refining those techniques as a screenwriter, director, and novelist – most recently in a new novel that released on the 11th of this month, Residue: Paramentals Rising, based on the Netflix series he created. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, John shares his thoughts about telling a horror story and storytelling in general. He also gives advice about releasing a book, and getting into TV writing.

Black Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Marc L. Abbott

What inspired you to start writing?

This is always a difficult question to answer because I have always loved writing. My imagination was always running wild and growing up, rather than paying attention to lessons in class, I was writing stories in the middle of my notebooks. I used to look forward to doing creative writing with spelling words in elementary school. But my inspiration for starting to take writing seriously was in high school. I had a teacher, Mr. Dolan, who was always encouraging me to tell my stories. One open school night he told my parents “Your son is a writer and is really good at it. You should help him nurture that talent because he can go far with it.” He was one of those teachers who always believed in what I could do. I had told my parents I wanted to be a writer, and they weren’t a hundred percent behind it as a profession with my father saying that I had to be good at the craft to make it. That was before Mr. Dolan told him this news. And until I heard Mr. Dolan say this, I thought about finding something else to pursue. But he confirmed that small belief I had in myself, and it inspired me to go forward with it.

Black Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Jamal Hodge

What inspired you to start writing?

Pain, uncertainty, and hope. Honestly, I was a naive child, filled with joy at the thought of meeting another face. But when homelessness found my family in the South Bronx, I quickly learned that people weren’t always safe. Being exposed to ‘American history’ in school further revealed what it meant to be Black in this country, a trauma, in my view, that demands mental health support, like counseling, in schools. These harsh realities made me dream of a better world. I found that place within the pages of books, the ink of a pen, and the boundless depths of my own imagination.

NUTS & BOLTS: Interview With Kasey and Joe R. Lansdale

Whether they come by way of Oz, Wonderland, or the Brothers Grimm, nightmare-inducing children’s stories are the gateway for many nascent fans into the strange, terrifying, and delightful genre of horror fiction. Joe R. Lansdale took a crack at children’s horror fiction with the Ray Bradbury-influenced Something Lumber This Way Comes, which is being rereleased by Pandi Press this month. Kasey Lansdale, executive editor of Pandi Press, provides some useful information about the publishing industry for aspiring authors in this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts.  And Joe gives some tips on writing children’s fiction.

Nuts & Bolts: Author Clay McLeod Chapman on Building a Catalogue

The market is crowded, the rules of social media are constantly changing, and the logistics of building a catalogue are more complicated than ever. The good news, according to author Clay McLeod Chapman, is that time-tested strategies such as supporting other authors and finding a unique voice will still get the job done. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, he gives advice for beginning authors about getting their material in print.

Nuts & Bolts: “Rambo” Creator David Morrell Discusses His Mentor

Before he could create Vietnam veteran John J. Rambo in First Blood, thriller and horror author David Morrell had to find that pesky “ferret.” That’s how his mentor Philip Klass, aka legendary science fiction author William Tenn, used to describe it. Professor Klass, who’d taken David under his wing at Penn State University, used to say that if you’re a writer, a dominant emotion fuels your craft. No exceptions. It could be anger or joy. Sorrow or lust. Like it or not, you’re stuck with it because it’s an integral part of you. The professor compared it to a ferret rooting around in your psyche. Elusive. Ravenous. And worst of all, unwilling to be found.

Nuts & Bolts: The Value of Creative Writing Courses With Author Ray Cluley

Taking a creative writing course is a concept that some of Ray Cluley’s fellow authors seem to find puzzling. Even objectionable. If you’re calling yourself a writer, shouldn’t you already know how to write? Since it’s such a personal endeavor, how can it even be taught?

In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Ray discusses the full range of benefits from a creative writing course, and how even seasoned professionals can use one to hone their craft.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Iona Wayland

What inspired you to start writing?

To be honest, it was a group of alley cats. Even before I could write, I’d literally scribble and loopity-loop in a composition notebook about the cat families I saw outside from my window. The way I portrayed their stray lives was often like an anthropomorphized telenovela and I remember being frustrated when no one could read what I’d written.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Ericca Chavez

What inspired you to start writing?

I was inspired to start writing because of the ghost stories I would hear as a kid, in particular, La Llorona; they sparked my imagination. I made up worlds in my mind and found myself lost in them—still am most days. Then one day, I decided to bring these worlds to life by actually putting them down on paper.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Erick Mancilla

What inspired you to start writing?

For a long time, I wanted to be a comic book writer/creator. I wrote various stories in the comic book medium. Unfortunately, the search for an artist/collaborator was a difficult task. After quite some time of fruitless searches, I did some deep soul-searching and made the jump to writing genre fiction where I had no one but myself to rely on. It has turned out to be the best decision I could have ever made for my creativity.