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…
Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

While I love supernatural horror, realistic horror stories—murders, kidnappings, unexplainable medical phenomena—are the ones that really keep me up at night. There’s something extra terrifying about a fictional story that can, and does, happen to people in real life, so it’s no surprise that authors draw inspiration for their horror (or suspense or thriller) novels from news stories. With a 24-hour news cycle and the Internet vortex, you won’t need to look too far for an idea to rip from the headlines. I read a stack of Sick-Sad-World-worthy YA fiction, and here are some ideas I came away with about…
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.…
Love is a Disease: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary

Love is a Disease: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary

Ever wonder why some books get the horror classification, while others—sometimes with similar plotlines and the exact same monsters—get labeled paranormal romance? The difference is easy—the former has the primary goal of scary, and the latter focuses on a romantic relationship (to the degree that the plots rely on it to function). The real question, then, concerns the tipping point between the two genres, the point at which your young adult novel is less terror and more Twilight. First, a caveat: There’s nothing wrong with paranormal romance; it’s simply a different genre from horror (and the two genres frequently have…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Marge Simon

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Marge Simon who won the Bram Stoker Award for poetry in 2013 for Four Elements, in 2012 for Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls, and in 2007 for VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? MS: 2007: My first was collaboration with the legendary writer/poet Charlee Jacob, VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet” and it…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lisa Mannetti

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Lisa Mannetti, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2008 for her first novel, The Gentling Box.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? LM: The Gentling Box is set in 19th century Hungary and Romania and is the story of Imre, a half-Rom and Hungarian horse trader who is beset by his mother-in-law, a villainous sorceress named Anyeta who relentlessly pursues him and his family…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Corrine De Winter

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Corrine De Winter, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2004 for her poetry collection, “The Women At The Funeral.” Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? CD: My collection of poetry “The Women At The Funeral” was the Stoker Award Winner. I have always leaned toward the dark side in my writing, and this collection was inspired by many writers and as usual, my own experiences…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Rena Mason

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Rena Mason, who won the Bram Stoker award in 2014 for her short story, “Ruminations,” in 2013 for her first novel, The Evolutionist, and won the Silver Hammer Award in 2014 for volunteer work. Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? RM: I wrote The Evolutionist in Olympia, Washington after moving from Las Vegas where I’d lived for nearly a decade. Writing the story was a catharsis of the time I’d…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sèphera Girón

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sèphera Girón who won the Silver Hammer award for volunteer work in 2008. Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing. SG: I joined the Horror Writers Association when it was Horror Writers of America back around 1992 or so. I was one of the ones, back when we used to hang out on an online platform called "Genie" through the SFF-NET community, that rallied for a…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Elizabeth Massie

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Elizabeth Massie, who won the Bram Stoker award in 1990 for her short fiction, “Stephen,” and in 1992 for her first novel, Sineater.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction?  I’ve won the Bram Stoker Award twice, for my first novel Sineater and my novella, “Stephen.” Sineater was inspired, believe it or not, by a made-for-TV movie in which Lindsay Wagner played a nurse who went…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Ellen Datlow

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors and editors. Following is an interview with Ellen Datlow, who has won the Bram Stoker award multiple times for anthologies including: The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, 13th Annual Collection with Terri Windling (2000); The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 17th Annual Collection with Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (2004); Haunted Legends with Nick Mamatas (2010); and Fearful Symmetries (2014). She also won the Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the…

The Scholarship From Hell is now open to applications!

NOW OPEN TO APPLICATIONS! The Scholarship From Hell is the only scholarship offered by HWA that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University. Horror University takes place during HWA’s  StokerCon 2017 aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach CA April 27-30. The winner of the Scholarship From Hell will receive domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from Long Beach, a 4 night stay on the Queen Mary,  free registration to StokerCon2017, and as many workshops as you’d like to attend! Be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you don’t miss…