Nuts & Bolts: Advice From Jonathan Maberry on Social Media for Writers

An interview series by Tom Joyce Nuts & Bolts is mainly about people in the horror community helping each other by sharing their expertise and insights. So it was enormously gratifying, if not particularly surprising when one of the first people to respond to the social media team’s call for interviews back in December was Jonathan Maberry — a literary Renaissance man as well known for his willingness to help other writers as he is for his gripping thrillers. And fascinating nonfiction. And comics and anthologies and plays and … just read his bio. It’s quite lengthy and impressive.  Jonathan…

Women in Horror: Interview with Kathryn Ptacek

Kathryn Ptacek has published numerous short stories, novels, and articles in many genres. She edited the landmark anthologies, Women of Darkness I and Women of Darkness II, which came out at a time when few anthologies had women contributors. She edits the HWA Newsletter, the monthly publication for the international organization. Interesting teapots and Gila monster stuff make up some of her many collections, and she likes to garden in her always-messy yard (she loves black flowers); she has four cats. Contact her at gilaqueen@att.net or through her Facebook page. What was it about the horror genre that drew you…

Women in Horror: Interview with Ai Jiang

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and an immigrant from Fujian. She is a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. Her work can be found in Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Dark, Uncanny, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of Linghun. Find her on Twitter (@AiJiang_) and online (http://aijiang.ca). What inspired you to start writing? Instead of speaking about what inspired me to start writing, I want to talk a little about what inspires me now to continue writing and the direction that my writing has now taken. I’ve been…

Women in Horror: Interview with Rachel Harrison

Rachel Harrison is the national bestselling author of Cackle, Such Sharp Teeth, and The Return, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection Bad Dolls. She lives in Western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord. Her fourth novel, Black Sheep, is out September 19th from Berkley. What inspired you to start writing? It’s something I’ve always done. I used to dictate stories to my mother before I could physically…

Women in Horror: Interview with Lindy Ryan

Lindy Ryan is an award-winning author-editor of Into the Forest, Under Her Skin, and others. She is the founder of Black Spot Books, a small press that aims to amplify women’s voices in horror, and a contributor to Rue Morgue, Booktrib, and LitReactor. Lindy is an active member of HWA, ITW, the Brothers Grimm Society of North America, and one of Publishers Weekly’s 2020 Star Watch Honorees. She previously served on the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Board of Directors and is currently co-chair of the HWA Publishers Council. Her debut horror novel, Bless Your Heart, is forthcoming from Minotaur…

About Nuts & Bolts: Practical Advice for Horror Writers

About Nuts & Bolts: Practical Advice for Horror Writers By Tom Joyce First of all: thank you to everyone who responded to the social media team’s call for Nuts & Bolts interviews! If it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, I’m sorry; I promise I haven’t forgotten you. I wasn’t anticipating such a wonderful response, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Speaking as a newbie, I’m continuously blown away by just how welcoming and supportive the horror community can be. Watch for upcoming interviews with some of horror’s most prominent professionals from a wide range of fields—everything from…

Women in Horror: Interview with L. Marie Wood

L Marie Wood is an award-winning dark fiction author, screenwriter, and poet with novels in the psychological horror, mystery, and dark romance genres. She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. She is a recipient of the MICO Award and has won Best Horror, Best Action, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards in national and international film festivals. Wood, a Brand New Weird nominated author, has penned short fiction published in groundbreaking works, including the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology, Sycorax’s Daughters, and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She is also part of the…

Women in Horror: Interview with Stephanie M. Wytovich

Stephanie M. Wytovich is an award-winning poet, novelist, and essayist. She is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, and a recipient of the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Memorial Award, the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant, and the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for nonfiction writing. Follow her at http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter and Instagram @SWytovich​ and @thehauntedbookshelf. You can also find her essays, nonfiction, and class offerings on LitReactor. What inspired you to start writing? I could answer this question a million different ways—and I have—but I think the simplest way to explain it is that I just…

Women in Horror: Interview with Alma Katsu

Alma Katsu has been writing novels since 2011. Her work has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, been featured in the NY Times and Washington Post, and won awards in the U.S. and internationally. THE HUNGER (2018) is probably her best-known novel, was named one of NPR’s 100 favorite horror stories, was on numerous Best Books of the Year lists. She also writes spy novels, with RED LONDON being the latest in the series. almakatsubooks.com What inspired you to start writing? I was one of those introverted kids who always had her nose in a book and I…

Women in Horror: Interview with Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor of the short fiction audio podcast Escape Pod and the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve always loved telling stories—I think that’s a very clichéd thing to say but it’s often true of writers. We like seeing…

Women in Horror: Interview with Lisa Kroger

Lisa Kröger is the author of Monster, She Wrote and Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, as well as co-host of the Know Fear and Monster, She Wrote podcasts. She’s won the Bram Stoker and the Locus Award for nonfiction. She sometimes uses her Ph.D. in Gothic literature to teach, but mostly she uses it to write horror, science fiction, and thrillers. She’s contributed fiction and nonfiction to numerous anthologies and essay collections.  Lisa is a core member of the NYX Horror Collective, a group focused on women-created genre content for film, television, and new media. With…

The Seers’ Table March 2023

Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community Linda Addison introduces: Aiden Thomas is a trans, Latinx, New York Times-bestselling author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color. The Sunbearer Trials (Book One of The Sunbearer Duology) was released September 6, 2022 from Feiwel & Friends, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes. Their 2019 novel, Cemetery…

Beating a Dead Cliché: Women in Horror Month Series Intro by Meghan Arcuri

Meghan Arcuri is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author. Her work can be found in various anthologies, including Borderlands 7 (Borderlands Press), Madhouse (Dark Regions Press), Chiral Mad, and Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards). She is currently the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. Prior to writing, she taught high school math, having earned her B.A. from Colgate University—with a double major in mathematics and English—and her masters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley. Please visit her at meghanarcuri.com, facebook.com/meg.arcuri, or on Twitter (@MeghanArcuri). Welcome to the HWA’s Women in Horror Month…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Paula Ashe

Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection — We Are Here to Hurt Each Other — was released in early ‘22 by Nictitating Books. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and an Associate Editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives in the Midwest (which is best) with her family. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve had the compulsion since childhood. I never wanted to do anything else. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Since childhood I’ve been drawn to things that have a…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Tamika Thompson

Tamika Thompson is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is author of speculative fiction collection, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving Books, 2023), which Publishers Weekly calls “powerful,” “unsettling,” and “terrifying,” as well as author of horror novella Salamander Justice (Madness Heart Press). Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has producing credits at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, as well as at NBC and ABC News. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University…
The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see https://horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 1,800 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/)  Works appearing on this Ballot are Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in their Category, e.g., Novel, and everyone may refer to them as such immediately after the announcement. The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Final Ballot.…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Tracy Cross

Tracy Cross’s work has been featured in several podcasts and mass market anthologies. Her first book, Rootwork, was published by Dark Hart Publishing in 2022. She lives in Washington, DC, and is an active member of the HWA. She loves disco and shares her latest exploits and information on my blog: tracycwritesonline.com. She is on instagram as tracycrosswrites and twitter as tracycwrites. What inspired you to start writing? Subconsciously, it was a lack of representation and a lack of finding the books I wanted. I grew up in the 80's and there were hardly any black writers, outside of academia.…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Mo Moshaty

Mo Moshaty is an Afro-Latina screenwriter, author and producer. Raised within the clash of her mother's Yaqui heritage and her father's strict Southern Baptist upbringing, Mo's work contains worlds in which characters of color strive for identity, sentiment, and belonging within the dark psychological horror genre. Co-founder of the Nyx Horror Collective, she’s partnered with Stowe Story Labs to provide a fellowship for women genre writers over 40 and has also partnered with horror streaming giant, Shudder Channel, to co-produce the 13 Minutes of Horror Film Festival 2021 and 2022. Still engaging with her first love, short horror literature, her…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Candace Nola

Candace Nola is an award-winning horror & dark fiction author. Her work includes Breach, Beyond the Breach (2021 novel of the year from the Horror Authors Guild), Hank Flynn, Bishop, and Earth vs The Lava Spiders. She curated and edited The Baker’s Dozen, the Splatterpunk award-winning, extreme horror anthology, in Dec. 2021. She has various poems and short stories published in several magazines and anthologies with more set to release in the next year. She owns and operates the horror website UncomfortablyDark.com which showcases her work and supports the indie horror community as a whole. The website features weekly author…

Black Heritage in Horror: Interview with Donyae Coles

Donyae Coles is a horror author who has been published in a variety of short fiction venues. She devotes her free time to her other great love, art. Her debut, Midnight Rooms, is forthcoming from Amistad. You can find more of her work on her website, www.donyaecoles.com and follow her on Twitter @okokno. What inspired you to start writing? Writing was always something that I’ve wanted to do, that have been doing, for a long time. Forever, maybe. There’s no moment outside of me where it was like, oh, I can do that? It’s always been, I wanna tell stories…