Interview with Horror University instructor Johnny Worthen

Here's the second of our interviews with StokerCon 2017's Horror University instructors. Take it away, Johnny Worthen! Johnny Worthen: Mistakes Were Made Concrete advice on tightening your writing from an editor, author and student of the craft. We’ll concentrate on specific issues and hot buttons. See what doesn’t work. See how to fix it. From passive voice to head-hopping to adverbs and scaffolding, a dense class in modern style to please editors, readers and writers. Johnny Worthen grew up in the high desert snows and warm summer winds of the Wasatch Mountains. He graduated with a B.A. in English, minor in Classics and a…

Interview with Horror University instructor Patrick Freivald

This is the first in a series of interviews with our StokerCon 2017 Horror University instructors. At Horror University, you'll find award-winning and best-selling authors offering intensive two-hour workshops on all aspects of horror writing. Today we're talking with multiple Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author Patrick Freivald about his Saying More With Less workshop. About Saying More With Less: Writing styles are as varied as writers themselves, but a common complaint among editors and publishers of horror fiction is that writers use too many words to say what they mean to say. This interactive workshop will focus on squeezing every ounce…

Women in Horror Month Interview – Charlee Jacob

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Charlee Jacob, who won for Novel in 2005 (Dread in the Beast), Poetry Collection in 2005 (Sineater), Poetry Collection in 2007 (VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet, co-written with Marge Simon), and Poetry Collection in 2013 (Four Elements, co-written with Linda Addison, Rain Graves, and Marge Simon). Special thanks by Sanda Jelcic and Alessandro Manzetti for conducting this interview.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning works. Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Beth Gwinn

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Beth Gwinn, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2001 for Dark Dreamers: Facing the Masters of Fear.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? BG: At the time of creating the book, it took over 10 years to have produced. Being the photographer for Locus helped me to be taken seriously. Talk about winning the award – how surprised were you? Did winning pay off in…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sarah Langan

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sarah Langan, who has won the Bram Stoker Award twice for her novels and once for short fiction. Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? SL: The Keeper, The Missing, and a short story called “The Lost” have all received Bram Stoker awards, for which I’m grateful. The Keeper was a book-of-the-month-club main selection in the US and UK. As it happens, it was the lowest rated BOMC…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sandra Kasturi

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sandra Kasturi who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2000 for her work on the specialty press, Chiaroscuro Magazine.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction?  SK: Brett Savory and I and the Chiaroscuro Magazine (chizine.com) team won for editing back in... I think it was 2001? It feels like it was a different world back then. . . . We were at World Horror in Seattle,…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Kathryn Ptacek

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Kathryn Ptacek, who won the Silver Hammer Award in 2009 for her volunteer work.   Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing.  KP: I’ve been in the organization since the start when it was H.O.W.L., and almost from the beginning I was preparing market reports for the newsletter. Somewhere along the line I became the newsletter editor, and I still do the market reports. (By the…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Elizabeth Monteleone

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Elizabeth Monteleone, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2003 for the anthology Borderlands 5.       Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? EM: As with most things in my life, I tend to back into many of the successes that happen to me. If I  decide to take on task (such as editing the Borderlands series with my husband and then taking over the small…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with P.D. Cacek

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with P.D. Cacek, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 1996 for her short fiction, "Metalica."   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? PDC: I won a Bram Stoker in 1996 for my short story, Metalica: a “touching” story about a woman and her speculum. Yes, you read correctly: speculum. Now, in case you’re not sure what a speculum is, let me explain that it is a…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Donna K. Fitch

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Donna K. Fitch, who won the Silver Hammer Award in 2006 for her volunteer work.   Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing. DKF: I’ve been a member of HWA for about 17 or 18 years. It’s been amazing being associated with so many talented writers. I’m not active in discussion boards, but volunteering behind the scenes has given me insight into the workings of the association. I’ve…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lucy A. Snyder

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Lucy A. Snyder, who has won the Bram Stoker Award five times for works including her fiction collection, While the Black Stars Burn (2015); fiction collection, Soft Apocalypses (2014); non-fiction, Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide (2014); short fiction, “Magdala Amygdala” (2012); and poetry collection, Chimeric Machines (2009).   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? SL: Five of my works…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Nancy Holder

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Nancy Holder, who has won the Bram Stoker Award five times for her short fiction and novels.      Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? NH: I have received five Bram Stoker awards. This is my list: Dead in the Water – Novel 1994 "Lady Madonna" – Short Fiction 1991 "I Hear the Mermaids Singing" – Short Fiction 1993 “Café Endless: Spring Rain” – Short Fiction 1994…
Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lucy Taylor

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lucy Taylor

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Lucy Taylor, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 1995 for her first novel, The Safety of Unknown Cities.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? LT:  I was fortunate enough to win a Bram Stoker for Best First Novel in 1995 for my erotic horror novel THE SAFETY OF UNKNOWN CITIES. The protagonist, Val, goes in search of a mythic city of unlimited and inventive debauchery…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Yvonne Navarro

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Yvonne Navarro, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2001 for her Young Readers novel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Willow Files Vol. 2.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? YN:  Gosh, I’m not nearly as complicated as that question sounds. My novelization, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Willow Files Vol. 2, won the 2001 Bram Stoker for Young Readers. I was one of the core Buffy…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Allyson Bird

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Allyson Bird, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2011 for her first novel, Isis Unbound.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? AB: Isis Unbound won for first novel. It was inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Prometheus Unbound, and the works of Rider Haggard and R.E.Howard. Set in an alternate history timeline, an '1890's' steampunk version of Manceastre, Britanniae, ruled by a new governor general...the descendant…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lisa Morton

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Lisa Morton, who has won the Bram Stoker Award six times for works including her short story, "Tested" (2006); non-fiction, A Hallowe'en Anthology (2008); long fiction, The Lucid Dreaming (2009); first novel, Castle of Los Angeles (2010); graphic novel, Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times with Rocky Wood (2012); and non-fiction, Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (2012). Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? LM: I’ve won six times now,…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.   Tell us a little about your award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? CQY: Since the Stoker Award was a Lifetime Achievement Award, I knew it was coming in advance, so there were no surprises. Talk about winning the award – how surprised were you? Did winning pay off in any interesting ways? CQY: It was very nice to get the award ---…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Rain Graves

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Rain Graves who has won the Bram Stoker Award twice for poetry, including for The Gossamer Eye in 2002 and The Four Elements in 2013.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? RG: I received two awards; one for THE GOSSAMER EYE (written with David N. Wilson and Mark McLaughlin in 2002), and one for THE FOUR ELEMENTS (written with Linda Addison, Charlee Jacob, and Marge Simon in 2013). BARFODDER: Poetry…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Angel Leigh McCoy

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Angel Leigh McCoy who won the Silver Hammer award in 2010 for volunteer work.   Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing. ALM: I could never express all the ways the HWA has influenced me as a writer. I’m sure there are even ways I’m unaware of. Here’s just a few that come to mind, in no particular order: I have found mentors who have taught…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Maria Alexander

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Maria Alexander, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2014 for her first novel, Mr. Wicker.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? MA: Thanks so much for having me! Mr. Wicker’s history is long and torturous. It started many years ago as a novelette that I very quickly adapted to a screenplay, which, in turn, was a Quarterfinalist in the Academy Nicholls Fellowships in Screenwriting.…