Women in Horror: Part Fourteen

Women in Horror: Part Fourteen

Welcome to our next installment of HWA's Women in Horror Month! Today we have the delectable Rena Mason joining us & she's talking about the writers who inspired her...         One of the first “horror” novels I remember reading in my pre-teen years, because it was popular, was Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. It left me wanting more, so as simple as it sounds, I chose my next book because the cover art had a similar “creepy girl” feel to it. Both books also had strong female protagonists. The second book just happened to be…

WOLF CREEK: ORIGIN by Aaron Sterns & Greg McLean

Authors: Aaron Sterns & Greg McLean WOLF CREEK: ORGIN Nature vs nurture turns out to be a bloodbath. The wide open outback offers plenty of space for someone to hide. Or to hide a body. When wiry youngster Mick Taylor starts as a jackaroo at a remote Western Australian sheep station, he tries to keep his head down among the rough company of the farmhands. But he can't keep the devils inside him hidden for long. It turns out he's not the only one with the killer impulse – and the other psychopaths don't appreciate competition. Is Cutter, the station's surly…

Women in Horror: Part Thirteen

Here we are at lucky number thirteen of WiHM!  Today we're joined by author Kami Garcia & she's telling all about the reactions she faced when she announced that she was going to write horror fiction...       Why would you ever want to write a horror novel?—that was the question people kept asking when my solo novel, Unbreakable, released last Fall. The same people who had never questioned my choice of genre when I was writing Southern Gothic were suddenly thrown by the word horror. They associated it with violence and gore, instead of the elements at the…
Women in Horror: Part Twelve

Women in Horror: Part Twelve

Today we are joined by Carol MacAllister, author of The BlackMoor Tales...     Toni Morrison, author, whose work won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 is generally categorized as most interested in presenting the human condition of African Americans through her work. Her characters are African Americans, but even though she addresses racism, it is curious to note that she easily crosses the borders of reality and dips into horror to paint her scenes.   BELOVED, her novel ranked as one of American’s best works, relies on the element of a ghostly main protagonist who follows all the…
Women in Horror: Part Eleven

Women in Horror: Part Eleven

Today we have something a little different, Leigh M Lane covers a few of the theories surrounding the whole role women have i  Horror Fiction... Women’s Roles in Horror—Playing the Victim?   I’ve been thinking a lot lately about roles versus expectations in horror writing. There are many who deny that there continues to exist gender bias in horror, and to those people I must ask: Then why is there a Women in Horror Month? If there were no problem, we’d also have a Men in Horror Month … or would we?   I don’t want to foster any false…
Women in Horror: Part Ten

Women in Horror: Part Ten

Welcome back to HWA's WiHM feature special! We're now at part ten & I'm proud to present to you a little piece by author & journalist, Natasha Ewendt! Embrace the weird   So, you’re a female horror writer? You write about blood and guts and torture and monsters and stuff? That’s a bit unsavoury for a lady, isn't it? Newsflash: A lot of us ladies aren't really ladies. Well, we may have the “lady gear”, but as for the cookie-baking, chick-flick-watching, blinking kind of lady stereotype, that’s a small set of the female population that’s just widely portrayed in the…

DESCENDING LINES by L. Andrew Cooper

Author: L. Andrew Cooper DESCENDING LINES When Megan met Carter Anderson at Harvard, their college romance took a mystical turn thanks to THE ALCHEMY OF WILL, a book by Dr. Allen Fincher that gave them the power to do almost anything, with disastrous results. Years later, they have a six-year-old daughter, Caitlin, dying a slow death from bone cancer. Dr. Fincher’s book offers them a cure: they can save the life of their first-born by sacrificing the life of their second. But Megan and Carter don’t have a second-born… yet. Only half-convinced, Megan, confined to their New York apartment, begins nine…
Women in Horror: Part Nine

Women in Horror: Part Nine

  Today we have something a little different, Michael Randolph takes us right back to our roots...   Ancient Roots Enough cannot be said of the impact that women have had on horror. For more than a millennium women have written stories that chill the heart, laying laid down roots well before the gothic period. If you look into the deep past…far back into the Middle Ages (12th century), you will find the one of the original werewolf stories or Lais written by Marie De France, a noble woman. Marie wrote a series a poems or Lais with the only…

Women in Horror: Part Eight

Hello & welcome to our next installment of our feature for Women in Horror Month! Today we have author Sèphera Girón  sharing her thoughts on one of her inspirational women, Mary Shelley, one of our great Femme Founders.   Mary Shelley and Me  Mary Shelley will be discussed a lot during Women in Horror month on blogs around the world. Of that, I have no doubt. Many of us consider her one of the Queen Bees of the genre. There is no doubt she is responsible for some of the most recognizable icons and slang in modern culture. Her legacy of the…

Women in Horror: Part Seven

Good day to you all! Today we have the delightful company of author Julianne Snow talking about the horrors that our female authors dream up...& she means business!      Women Write Horror? Damn Right They Do!    Ensconced in a community such as this, we’re often insulated from the disbelief some others hold that we (women) write horror. But take us out of that bubble and things change. At times I don’t feel I have the luxury of discussing what it is I do for a living because the people who inhabit my everyday life simply don’t, and won’t,…
Women in Horror Month: Part Six

Women in Horror Month: Part Six

  Today we are joined by Catherine Jordan, author of  Saving Samiel. Here she considers the darker side of Women's horror fiction...       February is Women in Horror Month.  For me, this means I have a great opportunity to learn about other authors as well as promote myself.  It was learning about Mary Shelly and her long ago gathering that inspired me to challenge myself and write a scary novel.  I had to sit and think about what scares me. What came to mind were the bad-ass female characters that I admired, but feared, such as:  Gillian Flynn’s…

THE JACK IN THE GREEN by Frazer Lee

Author: Frazer Lee THE JACK IN THE GREEN A nightmare made real. On Christmas Eve, six year-old Tom McCrae witnessed an unspeakable atrocity that left him orphaned, his childhood in tatters. Now in his mid-thirties, Tom still has terrifying nightmares of that night. When Tom is sent to the remote Scottish village of Douglass to negotiate a land grab for his employer it seems like a golden opportunity for him to start over. But Tom can’t help feeling he’s been to Douglass before, and the terrible dreams from his childhood have begun to spill over into his waking life. As…

Women in Horror Month: Part Four.

Here we are on our fourth installment of Women in Horror Month! Today we have the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Semi-Finalist...J Lincoln Fenn whose novel Poe has wowed readers everywhere.  Fenn lends her humorous & quirky manner to an insightful post of one of WiHM's leading ladies, Mary Shelley.   MARY SHELLEY, GENRE-BENDER     It’s the summer of 1816, Switzerland, although it doesn't feel like it­—the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora has cast the world into a long volcanic winter. What’s a bored girl to do? If you’re 19-year old Mary Shelley, you decide you’re going to win a bet about who can come…
Women in Horror Month: Part Five.

Women in Horror Month: Part Five.

  Hello & welcome to our fifth installment of WiHM! Today we have author Rachel Aukes giving her opinion on the subject of the readership of horror fiction written by women authors...        Why Men Don’t Read Horror Books by Women     “I typically don't read books written by women.”   I’d wanted to write this blog post ever since receiving that comment in an email from a reader in regards to my latest novel, 100 Days in Deadland. Fortunately, that particular reader gave my book a chance anyway and I gained a new fan. But, it raised a…

THE FORGOTTEN by Collie James

Author: Collie James THE FORGOTTEN When young Alley Anderson, moves into her newly acquired home, she soon finds that there's more wrong with the house than the fact that it is over a hundred years old. She doesn't know what exactly, but there's something hidden and horribly off . With the help of her Dashing new friend, Kody Farmer, she sets out to find what haunts the old house before she is attacked again. Will the next assault be worst one thus far, or will they discover a way to end haunting before it's to late? The Forgotten is an…
Women in Horror: Part Three.

Women in Horror: Part Three.

Hello & welcome to our third day of WiHM!  Today we have J G Faherty with his viewpoint of the female touch to the horror fiction genre. A big reader of horror, especially of the 80's horror genre, he's keen to share his views with you all.     Daughters of Darkness  We came to battle baby We came to win the war We won’t surrender Till we get what we're lookin’ for   Daughters of darkness Sisters insane A little evil Goes a long, long way -‘Daughters of Darkness’ by Halestorm   The year was 1971. Or maybe 1970.…

A FEAST OF BUZZARDS by D. Alexander Ward

Author: D. Alexander Ward A FEAST OF BUZZARDS Take a journey through a twisted version of the American South with these stories by author D. Alexander Ward as he draws back the curtain on a world where isolation, faith and transformation all play a part in the struggle between light and dark—and the battles that rage within us all. The ghost of a young boy’s father helps him discover the hero within as he strives to rescue his mother, abducted during a drug deal gone bad. During a trip across Mississippi, a man listens as a voice on the radio…
Women in Horror Month Part Two.

Women in Horror Month Part Two.

Here we are once again on this, our second day of WiHM! Today I'm proud to present the lovely Lisa Morton, a name we all know & love. We share similar thoughts on the subject of female characters within horror fictions novels & tales, as well as the opinion that women should be more forward in their writing. Meanwhile here she is on the subject of the Female Protagonist...       FEMALE PROTAGONISTS IN HORROR A Blog Essay by Lisa Morton     Quick: Name the last horror novel you read with a female protagonist. <Crickets chirp. Distant freeway…

HABEAS CORPSE by Nikki Hopeman

Author: Nikki Hopeman HABEAS CORPSE When a series of grisly murders terrorizes the Steel City, Theo-an undead "Riser" working as a forensic technician for the Pittsburgh police-decides to use his dark gift to hunt the killer. "DEXTER meets Deadite... Nikki Hopeman's book just might be the most clever zombie story to hit the shelves in quite some time." ~ Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Play Dead "If George Romero had created CSI, the result might have been something like Nikki Hopeman's Habeas Corpse. A cross-genre blend of mystery, horror, and urban fantasy, with strong characterization and razor-sharp prose.…
Welcome to Women in Horror Month!

Welcome to Women in Horror Month!

Hello & welcome to Women in Horror Month 2014! I'm proud to be acting as editor for this special month where we all get to celebrate our Femme Fatales of the genre. From the weavers of worlds filled with fear & dread to those of us who work hard at making it all come together, women have an instrumental part to play in the horror fiction genre at large.  Ever since the days of Gothic Literature, women have been an integral part of the horror genre. Our guides being Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, Elizabeth Gaskell & Charlotte Bronte in the…