Halloween Haunts: The Spooky Place by Stephen Mark Rainey

From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, the local chapter of the Jaycees in my Virginia hometown put on an annual haunted castle event, set in a massive, abandoned warehouse in a nearby hamlet called Koehler (which could well have qualified as a real-life model for H.P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich). The old warehouse is a hulking stone monstrosity set in a forested area on the banks of the Smith River. No matter the season, the place looks like an honest-to-god haunted castle. For Halloween, one could hardly choose a more imposing and appropriate location to host a fearsome good time. From the…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Susan X. Bradley

Susan spent her childhood in South Texas, about ten miles from the U.S.-Mexican border. As a child, she spent the summers in Mexico with her grandparents and extended family. Inspired by Nancy Drew, Susan frequently created mysteries that her siblings and cousins could solve during these vacations. She began writing young adult mystery novels featuring strong Latina characters and is committed to creating and celebrating diverse characters. Her books, Unraveled and Uncovered, were published by Evernight Teen while she was completing her Master in Fine Arts: Writing for Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her class curriculum exposed her to…

Halloween Haunts: For the Love of a (Mostly) Black Cat by Sumiko Saulson

On October 31, 2009 something magical happened. That was the day that my then-fiance Gregory Hug and I adopted the approximately three-year-old predominantly black tuxedo cat we would come to know as Bootsy Catlins from Oakland Animal Services. We had been looking for a cat on Craiglist when we found a special Oakland Animal Services had on black and mostly black cats for Halloween. As a couple of goths, we were completely tickled by the idea of adopting a black cat, so we came in. The kind woman working at Oakland Animal Services explained to us that thousands of years…

Halloween Haunts 2022 – It Begins

Welcome, one and all, to the Halloween Haunts for 2022. 31 days of essays, stories, images and ideas that show why the Halloween People are the best people. Visit each day to hear from a wide variety of members of the Horror Writers Associations as they share their tales of All Hallow's. Kevin Wetmore Halloween Haunts Coordinator 2022

MEET POET TIMOTHY P. FLYNN

The HWA has a rich tradition of dark poetry even before the late Peter Adam Salomon founded both the acclaimed Poetry Showcase series and National Dark Poetry Day, celebrated every year on October 7, the day Edgar Allan Poe died. The HWA poetry blog is proud to share poets of all experience levels that write dark things with poetic flourish. From that rich vein, I'm proud to share an interview with Timothy P. Flynn, winner of of the 2021 HWA Dark Poetry Scholarship, as interviewed by Angela Yuriko Smith. MEET POET TIMOTHY P. FLYNN What was your first exposure to poetry,…

Nuts and Bolts: Interview with Aurora Gorealis

In the tradition of such sinister seductresses as Vampira and Elvira, Aurora Gorealis is a Baltimore-based horror host who weaves dark magic from a combination of campy movies, sassy attitude, and the occasional pun of dubious quality. Since 2017, Aurora (aka: Melissa LaMartina) has been playing the character during “Shocktail Hour” at the Golden West Café in Baltimore, combining live comedy and screenings of off-the-wall classics such as “Phantom of the Paradise” and “House on Haunted Hill” (complete with William Castle-style gimmicks). In the October issue of the Horror Writers Association newsletter, available to members only, she shares some personal…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Juan Manuel Pérez

Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of Indigenous descent and the Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of numerous poetry books including Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O' Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin's Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume I (2014), Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), Space In Pieces (2020), Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems (2020), Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets: Seasons One And Two (2021), Casual…

MHI: Life Goes On The Way It Does — How Writing Is My Saviour

Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health. Life Goes On The Way It Does — How Writing Is My Saviour By Claire Fitzpatrick “It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative—whichever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.” ― Silvia Plath This is my second attempt at writing this. Well, that’s lie. I did write a draft and then didn’t edit it. Because I couldn’t. Not because I didn’t want to. But because I physically couldn’t. Over the past few months, for various reasons, I’ve felt as…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Robert Perez

Robert Perez sleeps at the bottom of the ocean. Urban legend whispers that the writer can be summoned into your dreams if you read his work to a jack-o-lantern. You can find his poems and stories in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volumes II, III, IV (Special Mention), and V, The Literary Hatchet #13 & #14, Deadlights Magazine #1, Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, and Community of Magic Pens. He is currently working on obtaining a master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. Follow @_TheLeader on twitter to keep up with future projects. What inspired…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Michael J Moore

My name is Michael J Moore. I'm the author of Highway Twenty, which made the 2019 Bram Stoker preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in a Novel, as well a other books and short stories. I'm an active member of the HWA, and a journalist who writes with an emphasis on social and racial justice. I'm Mexican on my mother's side, and though white-passable, I strongly identify with my Latinx heritage. Please feel free to Google "Michael J Moore author" to learn more about me. What inspired you to start writing? Life. Love. Hate. Joy. Instability. I’ve always been somebody who…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Amparo Ortiz

Amparo Ortiz is the author of the BLAZEWRATH GAMES duology. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and currently lives on the island’s northeastern coast. She’s published short story comics in MARVEL’S VOICES: COMUNIDADES #1 and in the Eisner-award winning PUERTO RICO STRONG. She’s also co-editor of OUR SHADOWS HAVE CLAWS, a horror anthology featuring myths and monsters from Latin America. When she's not writing, she teaches ESL as a college professor and watches a lot of Kpop videos. Learn more about her projects at www.amparoortiz.com What inspired you to start writing? Horror and fantasy movies! I watched so…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Rosemary Thorne

Rosemary Thorne (she/her) is a bilingual Spanish writer, researcher, and translator living in Madrid, Spain. She was born in 1968, year of shocking revolutions, beautiful women and great wine. Due to the fact that in the 90s Spanish publishing companies would not consider Horror, her first stories in her mother tongue are abominable entities that want to terrify but can’t. Her first novel, El Pacto de las 12 uvas, took her twenty years to finish, and she finally published it in December 2021. In 2019 she became an HWA member and began to write horror in English,  setting free her…

StokerCon® 2023 Update

Pittsburgh is thrilled to host StokerCon® 2023 at the Station Square Sheraton on June 15-18, 2023! We appreciate the excitement we’ve received so far. We know attendees are anxious to present panel ideas. Please note that everyone who is registered for StokerCon® will receive a survey a few months before June 2023, in which you can indicate your interest to participate on panels and submit programming suggestions. Due to the expected number of attendees, we cannot guarantee everyone who is interested in participating on a panel will be able to, but we promise to do our best to create a…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with María Pilar Conn

My name is María Pilar Conn and I am an established writer of gothic mystery and poetry in the Spanish language. I live in Spain, in the region of Murcia in a small fishing town, Cabo de Palos. My mother was born here, in Sevilla, and I grew up between both countries, though I am still a US citizen. I have two published mystery novels, La Casa del Marqués, and my new novel, La Canción del Baladre, two poetry books, La Almendra y el Maíz and Paseando con Schopenhauer, plus a book on cake sculpture. I am translating at this…

Latinx in Horror: Interview with Nathan Castellanos

I was born and raised in Highland Park, CA. My mother came to California in the 80s after my Abuelo had worked the fields here in LA county, saving money to bring his family from Guadalajara. She married my father, who came from an Anglo/Jewish background. Cultural differences instigated their divorce when I was fairly young, which led to me developing a very independent (and sometimes rebellious) nature early on. This sparked my interest in things such as punk rock music, existentialist philosophy, Buddhism, comic books, sci and horror novels, and alternative subcultures of various sorts. Essentially, having a mother…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with B.F. Vega

My name is Beulah Vega (she/her), but I write and am listed as a member of the HWA under B.F. Vega. I am both a first-generation American and a descendant of some of the first colonists. My father was an undocumented worker from a small town in Mexico, and he met my mother (who had ancestors on the Mayflower) while they were both migrant workers. I am, of course, mixed race, and I think that's important to focus on these days. There are so many of us, Mixt, and we rarely get the recognition or belonging that 'pure' blood does.…

Latinx in Horror: Interview with Katherine Quevedo

Katherine Quevedo was born and raised near Portland, Oregon, where she works as an analyst and lives with her husband and two sons. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Nightmare Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Triangulation: Habitats, Factor Four Magazine, Apparition Literary Magazine, Flame Tree Publishing’s Christmas Gothic, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award and been longlisted for the Kingdoms in the Wild 2022 Poetry Prize. Her debut mini-chapbook, The Inca Weaver’s Tales, is forthcoming from Sword & Kettle Press in their New Cosmologies series. Find her at www.katherinequevedo.com What inspired you to start writing? I’ve been drawn to writing ever…

HWA Election Results 2022

HWA Election Results 2022 Los Angeles CA September 22, 2022 The Horror Writers Association (HWA) held its annual election in September. We had an unprecedented number of candidates for the three open positions of Trustee. Offices of President and Secretary ran unopposed. Our members have voted, and we are pleased to share the results. Please welcome our new president, John Edward Lawson; the re-election of our Secretary, Becky Spratford; and the re-election of our three Trustees: Linda Addison, James Chambers, and Ellen Datlow.   The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on October 31st at midnight. …

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Angela Acosta

Angela Acosta (she/her/ella) is a poet and scholar of Mexican and European descent who grew up in Gainesville, Florida. She won the 2015 Rhina P. Espaillat Award from West Chester University. Her speculative poetry has or will appear in On Spec, Eye to the Telescope, Radon Journal, MacroMacrocosm, and Shoreline of Infinity. Her work has been featured in Latinx magazines like Panochazine, Somos en Escrito, and Latinx Audio Lit Mag. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Iberian Studies at The Ohio State University and resides in Columbus, Ohio. She enjoys rock climbing and biking in her free time. Professional…

Latinx in Horror: Interview with Valerie Valdes

Valerie Valdes lives in an elaborate meme palace with her husband and kids, where she writes, edits and moonlights as a muse. When she isn’t working, she enjoys playing video games and admiring the outdoors from the safety of her living room. Her debut novel Chilling Effect was shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and was named one of Library Journal’s best SF/fantasy novels of 2019. Valerie is co-editor of Escape Pod, and her short fiction and poetry have been featured in Uncanny Magazine and Nightmare Magazine. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve had the writing tide…