Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with M.M. Olivas

What inspired you to start writing?

I started writing fiction around my junior year of high school. Unlike many of my writing peers, I hadn’t grown up doing it, nor was I much of a reader. I was dyslexic and gravitated more toward visual media: comics, shows, and movies. Oh, so many movies. I didn’t have a ton of adult supervision growing up, so I saw Alien and The Exorcist when I was six or seven—having one parent hospitalized due to lung cancer while the other tends to them will do that to ya.

Halloween Haunts: A Night at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia

Halloween Haunts: A Night at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia by Nicole M. Wolverton We clustered in groups at the hulking gray-stone entrance of the prison. Twilight deepened, purple to gray. Nothing stirred beyond our nervous laughter. We waited for what came next, shivering in the late October cold. “Are you sure this is safe?” my then-boyfriend asked. “I’ve never heard of anyone dying on the tour,” I joked. “The liability waivers and hard hats are probably just for show.” At that point Eastern State Penitentiary had only been open for limited public tours for a few years, and only…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: IT’S AN EMINENCE FRONT

Halloween Haunts: It’s An Eminence Front by Mark Matthews       Trigger Warning: This post addresses mental health. Halloween is a magical night when we can transform ourselves into something else, something we may have always longed to be, whether it be superhero or super monster. Put on a mask, or craft some makeup, and we spend a night parading as a whole new being. A whole new persona. Then we walk door to door, walking on front porches, ringing doorbells, looking for others to bear witness: See, look what I’ve become? I’m no longer me.  Often we become…

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Luis Medina

What inspired you to start writing?

I have been writing since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I went to Acting School in New York that I had to write a one-act play. That assignment focused on how to create compelling characters and situations, and how to tell a story. Years later, play/scriptwriting shifted to short horror stories for anthologies.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Juan Martinez

What inspired you to start writing?

I loved to read. I mean, I still love to read, but I was a voracious reader, and that’s what drew me to writing. I love stories.

Tell us about your work in 25 words or less.

Strange, off-kilter, disturbing, sometimes absurd.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Jessica L. Sparrow

What inspired you to start writing?

I’ve dreamed of being a writer since I could form sentences but what really ignited me was a Halloween short story I did back in the 5th grade. As I advanced through middle school, high school, and college, my passion for writing increased into an obsession almost. I truly felt that I would cease to breathe if I could not put pen to paper and bleed out my imagination all over the page. Writing is my sanctuary; it always has been a way for me to deal with my living nightmares.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Jennifer Givhan

What inspired you to start writing?

I’ve been storytelling since I was a little girl and knew I wanted to be a published author from the time I could write. I’d cast my family and friends in productions I’d created and make everyone from family fiestas to block parties and watch all the kids put on my shows. Yes, I was a bit of a showboat, but that passion has carried me through the writing life of rejections and disappointments, deadlines, and poor sales or sunken platforms. I’m still crossing my fingers and writing my heart out every day that I can, despite a chronic illness that sometimes impedes my process but has also allowed me to adapt and transform. More than anything, I write because I’ve felt deep in my heart from a young age that Latinas and Indigenous women have been systemically overlooked and underappreciated in our society, and I’ve wanted to change that and empower other women and femmes of color to share their stories and voices.

REVIEW: “Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell” by Christa Carmen

Short-Story Review by Lee Murray “Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell” (a short story by Christa Carmen, published in In Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror, edited by Mark Matthews Plot Summary: In Christa Carmen’s weird science through-the-looking-glass tale, a braided story juxtaposing two timelines, Allie/Alice is back at the detox centre for the 13th time and bunking with the irrepressible Judy, when she is offered a virtual reality simulation recovery, a programme which offers addicts a glimpse at their future without drugs. There is no doubt that the author knows this horror. In fact, Carmen has been refreshingly…

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Katherine Vega

What inspired you to start writing?

I guess the same thing as every other writer: I couldn’t find what I wanted to read, so I decided to write it myself.

Tell us about your work in 25 words or less.

I’m chaotic and don’t stick to any literary genre: I write everything from horror to romance.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Daniel A. Olivas

What inspired you to start writing?

I had always loved telling stories going back to when I first learned how to read and write. Through grammar and high school, college, and even law school, I worked on journals where I could write and also draw (I was a prolific cartoonist back in the day). But when I became a lawyer, I focused on my profession as well as raising a family though I did write essays on the law quite often for the Daily Journal, the well-established newspaper serving the Los Angeles legal community. But then at the age of 39, my wife suffered the fifth of what would be seven miscarriages. I supported her and our young son in their grief, but I was not handling my own grief very well. So I started to write what would eventually be my first book, a novella titled The Courtship of María Rivera Peña, which is now out of print.

NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “No Flesh over Our Bones” by Mariana Enríquez

NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “No Flesh over Our Bones” by Mariana Enríquez Reviewed by Belicia Rhea Short story in Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez. Hoggarth, 2017. Trigger Warning: This review addresses eating disorders and mental health. Synopsis “No Flesh over Our Bones” by Mariana Enríquez follows a narrator obsessed with a human skull she finds in the street. She then isolates with it in her room, fantasizing about becoming a skeleton. “A week after giving up food, my body changes. If I raise my arms my ribs show through, although not much. I dream: someday, when I…

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Celso Hurtado

What inspired you to start writing?

I read a lot growing up, becoming particularly obsessed with Encyclopedia Brown. As I grew older and moved on to King and others, I’d sometimes wonder if I had it in me to write a book. I eventually gave it a try and came to understand just how hard it really was! I gave up many times but my thoughts always returned to finishing the book, which eventually became The Ghost Tracks.

NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “Know Your Code” by Ramsey Campbell

NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “Know Your Code” by Ramsey Campbell Reviewed by Penny Jones. Short story published in Chiral Mad 3: An anthology of psychological horror, edited by Michael Bailey, published by Written Backwards. Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health. Synopsis: A retired teacher encounters a down-on-his-luck former student at the cash dispenser, prompting him to change his security numbers in a tale of spiralling paranoia and memory loss. The horror you feel reading Ramsey Campbell’s story “Know Your Code” may be a quiet, creeping horror, but it is one that we all feel. In the story, as in our…

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Ananda Lima

What inspired you to start writing?

I am often inspired by trippy things, the uncanny, and stories involving divergent perspectives. For my latest book, I was inspired by a lot of different things that came together in strange and fun ways. One big one was the history of the future of the Devil and its many cool manifestations in fiction. Another was storytelling in general and the way we talk about writing Craft. Another inspiration was the experience of being an immigrant writer and anti-immigrant narratives. Also Brazilian literature and 1980’s and 1990’s movies like The Fly and Gremlins 2. This and more was part of the brew that ended up becoming Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Alejandro Gomez

What inspired you to start writing?

When I started my self-published comic book series, one of the many roles alongside drawing was the writing process. Being a visual person, writing out details to convey the image to the reader is important. Music certainly has its inspiration, especially the lyrics. My love for Siouxsie and The Banshees’ music inspires me because their songs read like stories, and always painted a vivid image for me to draw on.

NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “Moira” by Jamie Flanagan

While mental illness is conventionally seen as emanating from the mind—the brain malfunctioning— and expressed through the body—physical responses such as insomnia or nausea, Jaimie Flanagan’s short story “Moira” identifies the true locus of mental illness—the soul—and names this state “soul-sick,” emphasizing how mental illness affects the very core of our being, our identity and sense of self. Review written by E.S. Magill.

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Aleco Julius

What inspired you to start writing?

I’ve been a longtime collector of magazines, zines, and journals about all kinds of art, music, folklore--you name it. The more obscure and the strange, the better. I had written a little about books and literature previously, but about six years ago I realized I could be a contributor to many of these magazines and journals. So, I was inspired by all the passionate authors out there writing essays and articles on topics such as folk horror, metal music, phenomenology, and weird studies. So, I put my pen to paper and soon found my work among the pages of the publications I collected! These include Vastarien, Hellebore, Myth & Lore, Dark Matter Magazine, anthologies by Anathema Publishing, and more.