A Point of Pride: Interview with Brent Lambert

Brent Lambert is a Black, queer man who heavily believes in the transformative power of speculative fiction across media formats. As a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine, he turned that belief into action and became part of a Hugo Award-winning team. He resides in San Diego, but spent a lot of time moving around as a military brat. His family roots are in the Cajun country of Louisiana. Currently, he has a novella A Necessary Chaos upcoming from Neon Hemlock and is part of the upcoming cyberpunk/solarpunk anthology Fighting the Future and Black horror anthology All These Sunken Souls.…

A Point of Pride: Interview with James Lefebure

James Lefebure is a Scottish-born, Liverpool-living horror author. Splitting his time between watching horror, reading horror and writing horror, he can often be found arguing with people that Jason would whoop Michael. His two novels The Books of Sarah and God In The Livingroom have proven to his long-suffering, fantasy-reading husband that James will probably never write a story about dragons or an orphan with a destiny. He's a part of two LGBT horror anthologies—We're Here and The Horror Collection: LGBTQIA Edition. He can be found on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. He does have a Twitter, but doesn’t understand how it…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Arley Sorg

Arley Sorg is an associate agent at kt literary and co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. He is an SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist, a two-time Locus Award Finalist, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards. Arley is also a senior editor at Locus, associate editor at both Lightspeed & Nightmare, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He is a guest critiquer for the current Odyssey Workshop and the week five instructor for this year's Clarion West Workshop. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Vince A. Liaguno

Vince A. Liaguno is an award-winning writer, anthologist, editor, and an occasional poet. He is the Bram Stoker Award®-winning editor of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (co-edited with Chad Helder), the acclaimed Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (co-edited with Rena Mason), and the forthcoming Unspeakable Horror 3: Dark Rainbow Rising. His debut novel, 2006’s The Literary Six, was a tribute to the slasher films of the eighties and won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY). Healthcare administrator by day, pop culture enthusiast by night, his jam: books, slasher films, and Jamie Lee Curtis. He is a member (and…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Corey Niles

Corey Niles was born and raised in the Rust Belt, where he garnered his love of horror. His debut horror novel, Blood & Dirt, was released from NineStar Press in August 2022. His writing has appeared in over twenty publications, including issues, anthologies, and collections from Nightmare Magazine, the Horror Writers Association, Ghost Orchid Press, and Lycan Valley Press. You can keep up to date with his recent and forthcoming publications at coreyniles.com. What inspired you to start writing? From an early age, I loved storytelling. I think it was the escapism. Hanging up my problems for a couple of…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Joshua Viola

Joshua Viola is a 2021 Splatterpunk Award nominee, Colorado Book Award winner, and editor of the StokerCon™ 2021 Souvenir Anthology. He is the co-author of the Denver Moon series with Warren Hammond. Their graphic novel, Denver Moon: Metamorphosis, was included on the 2018 Bram Stoker Award® Preliminary Ballot. Viola edited the Denver Post #1 bestselling horror anthology Nightmares Unhinged, and co-edited Cyber World—named one of the best science fiction anthologies of 2016 by Barnes & Noble. His first novel, The Bane of Yoto, won the USA Best Book Awards, National Indie Excellence Awards, International Book Awards, and Independent Publishers Book…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Gretchen Felker-Martin

Gretchen Felker-Martin is Massachusetts-based horror writer and film critic. Her debut novel, Manhunt, is out now from Tor Nightfire. You can follow her work @scumbelievable on Twitter. What inspired you to start writing?  I don’t think it was any one thing. Bob Flanagan, the famous masochist and performance artist, had a wonderful spoken-word poem about the roots of his masochism, and he lists just hundreds and hundreds of factors, and it’s like that for me. The woods of rural New Hampshire, Monica Furlong, James Gurney’s Dinotopia, my childhood asthma, watching Clive Barker movies and Alien too young, being bullied for…

Point of Pride Intro: Always Keep Your Pride, Shatter the Closets by Maxwell I. Gold

By: Maxwell I. Gold A few weeks ago, men dressed in black and red clothes, carrying flags of an evil undeserving to be named. Their chants and slogans—there will be blood—chorused against the backdrop of a cold, Midwestern morning. It was an awful reminder of a time when evil men dared to reshape the world in their hideous image. This wasn’t some fiction, or fatalistic hyperbole, but individuals protesting. Dressed in swastikas and combat gear outside a drag brunch in downtown Columbus, Ohio. No, this wasn’t a protest, but a deliberate display of hatred for members of our community and…

MHI: Mental Monsters by Senah Lloyd

*The following post contains this writer’s individual experiences and opinions.  This post should not be interpreted as mental health diagnosis or treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your nearest mental health center or local emergency services.  (You possibly guessed from that blurb that I am a mental health professional and you’d be correct. I’m also a horror fan and writer and am a person in recovery from a depressive episode that has been my worst one yet.) I’m glad to see efforts to encourage discussion about mental health and to break down stereotypes and stigma.…

Modern Tech Empowers Writers With Disabilities — Here’s How

Writing can be both a passion and a profession. For individuals with disabilities, it also comes with unique challenges. The good thing is that technology continues to advance, and writing is now more inclusive than ever. Using the right tools and platforms, you can now create, publish, and network more easily. Horror Writers Association discusses how technology can empower you as a writer with a disability and help you advance your career. Using Assistive Technology for Your Writing Assistive technology makes writing accessible to people with a range of disabilities. For instance, screen readers can read text aloud and enable…

The Seers’ Table June 2023

Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community   Linda D. Addison recommends: E.E. King is an award-winning painter, performer, writer, and naturalist. She’ll do anything that won’t pay the bills, especially if it involves animals. She’s been published in over 100 magazines and anthologies, including Clarkesworld, Daily Science Fiction, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Short Edition, and Flametree. Her novels include, Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife: All you need to know to choose the right heaven, and several story collections. Ray Bradbury called her stories, “marvelously inventive, wildly funny, and deeply thought-provoking.” Her stories are on Tangent’s…

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Koji Suzuki

Koji Suzuki is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring novels, which have been adapted into other formats, including films, manga, TV series and video games.  Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror? My first novel Paradise was a love story in the South Pacific during the Age of Discovery (my second novel was Ring) and my third novel was also situated in the South…

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Lisa Tuttle

Lisa Tuttle, a Texan by birth, Scottish by inclination and residence, is the author of 13 novels and seven short story collections. Windhaven, written in collaboration with George R.R. Martin, was her first novel and his second and has been almost continuously in print since 1981. She’s also written non-fiction and books for children and worked as a journalist and library assistant. The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies, the third in a series of 1890s-set, supernaturally tinged mysteries, is forthcoming from Jo Fletcher Books, as well as a new collection, Riding the Nightmare, is out from Valancourt this summer.…

The Horror Writers Association Announces the Scholarship from Hell Recipients

The Scholarship from Hell is the only scholarship offered by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University, which takes place during StokerCon®. This year’s recipient is Alex Luceli Jiménez! The StokerCon®2023 Committee Chairs read nearly 60 submissions. They had this to say: "Alex’s essay resonated with the convention committee, who were excited by her dedication toward strengthening her craft. Additionally, Alex’s work showcases unique experiences and points of view that are needed in the horror genre, and that will inspire other writers as her career continues." Alex Luceli…

Asian Heritage in Horror: Interview with Christine Sng

Christina Sng is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Collection of Nightmares, A Collection of Dreamscapes, and Tortured Willows. Her poetry, fiction, essays, and art appear in numerous venues worldwide, including Interstellar Flight Magazine, New Myths, Penumbric, Southwest Review, and The Washington Post. FB, Instagram, Twitter: @christinasng What inspired you to start writing? When I played as a child, I was always telling a story. Writing allowed me to immortalize it on paper.   What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I grew up with it. The 80s was the golden age of…

REVIEW: The Children of Red Peak by Craig Dilouie

Novel Review by Sheri White Plot Summary: David, Deacon, and Beth were friends as children, all three living on a compound. Although run by a man of strong faith and a belief in God, the kids lead a relatively normal life. Then the leader, Jeremiah Peele, goes to check out the scene of a miracle he heard about. He takes the miracle as a sign the apocalypse is imminent. The commune moves to the mountain, now becoming an apocalypse cult. The children’s lives change drastically for the worse. They live in shacks, half starving, no school, no playing. Just praying…

REVIEWS: IT by Stephen King

Welcome to Derry, Maine ... It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ... They were seven pre-teens when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grownups who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro started writing stories at age six; she's still at it. Did you start out writing or working in the horror field, and if so why? If not, what were you writing initially and what compelled you to move into horror? I started out just writing stories of the kind that I like to read, and most of those were genre fiction. I began mainly with fantasy—not entirely fantasy, but for the most part fantasy—and since I’d read an awful lot of science fiction in my late youth and early teens, I decided I'd try my hand at…

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Nancy Holder

Nancy Holder is the former vice president and former board member of HWA. She is New York Times bestselling author of over a hundred book-length projects and hundreds of short stories, essays, and articles. She has received 7 Bram Stoker Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association and was named Faust Grand Master from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. She is known for writing material for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other intellectual properties, as well as novelizing movies such as Wonder Woman and Crimson Peak. She taught in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative…

Celebrating Our Elders: Interview with Paula Guran

Editor, anthologist, and reviewer Paula Guran has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than fifty novels and collections featuring the same. She was senior editor for Prime Books for seven years. Previously, she edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. Guran edits the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series (first ten volumes with Prime; now published by Pyr). In an earlier life, she produced the weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror…