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…

809 JACOB STREET by Marty Young

Author: Marty Young 809 JACOB STREET Fourteen year old Byron James wishes he'd never been dragged to Parkton. It's a crazy sideshow of a town in the middle of damn nowhere, and he's stranded there. To make matters worse, his two new friends - his only friends - turn out to be class rejects with an unhealthy interest in monsters. They want to discover the truth to the infamous monster house at number 809 Jacob Street. Joey Blue is an old bluesman who fell into his songs and couldn't find his way out again. Now he's a Gutterbreed, one of…
Strangulation

February in Poetry: “Women in Horror” & Introduction by Peter Adam Salomon, Editor

'Strangulation' by Marge Simon In the ‘November in Poetry’ column, poet Wendy Rathbone touched on an eternal truth that is so vital that I wanted to follow up on it. Wendy spoke of the ‘earliest and best known darker tales’ being poems: “Beowulf,” “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey.” Dark poetry continues throughout known history from Dante’s “Inferno” to Milton’s “Paradise Lost” to William Blake to Poe. This month, I’d like to go back even further in time, to show just how important the darkness has been, not just to poetry, but to all literature. One of the oldest surviving works of literature…

FRESH FEAR by William Cook

Editor: William Cook FRESH FEAR FRESH FEAR: Contem­porary Horror is a collection of horror from some of the genre's best writers of dark fiction. This collection has no central theme other than the stories' ability to scare the hell out of the reader! Tales steeped in psychological horror sit alongside visions of strange worlds and inner landscapes drenched in blood. 'Quiet horror' sits comfortably next to more visceral portrayals of the monsters that lurk deep within the human heart. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famously once said, "where there is no imagination there is no horror" - the horror expressed by…

HORROR LIBRARY VOLUME 5 Edited by R.J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris

Editors: R. J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris HORROR LIBRARY VOLUME 5 Spanning the universe of modern literary horror, this volume features 30 genre rich short stories by 30 cutting edge authors, some well known, some soon to be. If you'd like a snapshot of where horror fiction is headed, you have found the right book. With stories by Bentley Little, Ray Garton, Jeff Strand, Michael A. Arnzen, Tracie McBride, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Shane McKenzie, Taylor Grant, Kristin Dearborn, Charles Colyott, and 20 others! Publisher: Cutting Block Press Publication Date: November 15, 2013
The 2013 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

The 2013 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballots for the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see WWW.HORROR.ORG ) is the premiere writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with over 1,100 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see https://horror.org/AWARDS/STOKERS.HTM). The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on these Preliminary Ballots. Notes about the voting process appear after the ballot listing. UPDATE: The preliminary ballot is now closed for 2013. The Preliminary Ballots are: Superior Achievement in a Novel Michaelbrent Collings…

WHERE YOU LIVE by Gary McMahon

Author: Gary McMahon WHERE YOU LIVE Horror is everywhere… It’s waiting behind a closed door, sitting in an ordinary chair, or following you on a country walk. Perhaps it’s washed up on a tranquil beach, hanging at a local skate park, recorded on an MP3 player hard drive, or even embedded somewhere deep within the design of something as simple and innocuous as a supermarket barcode. Horror is everywhere, in the shadows and in the light. It takes on every shape, comes in every conceivable size. But most of all it’s right where you live. Gary McMahon is a spellbinding…
HWA SUPPORTS WRITER BEWARE

HWA SUPPORTS WRITER BEWARE

As part of our efforts to support our members and ensure the horror publishing industry is conducted in a professional and ethical manner the Horror Writers Association is a supporter of the Writer Beware website and blog. HWA President Rocky Wood said, “We are delighted to formally support Writer Beware, joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and Mystery Writers of America (MWA). We encourage our members to bookmark and visit the site regularly, particularly when considering engaging with publishers or editors they do not know.” Like many genre-focused writers’ groups, SFWA, MWA, and HWA are concerned…
Award Banquet Reservations Open

Award Banquet Reservations Open

You can now reserve your spot at the Bram Stoker Awards® banquet for 2014! It's taking place at the World Horror Convention in Portland, on May 8-11.

THINGS SLIP THROUGH by Kevin Lucia

Author: Kevin Lucia THINGS SLIP THROUGH 2009 British Fantasy Award Winner for Best Collection The twenty-one stories collected in Bull Running for Girls are widely varied, both in setting and subject. From small town life in Madison County to the dangers of bull running in Pamplona, the stories seem, at first blush, unrelated. They are bound, however, by Allyson Bird’s strength. She is a remarkable woman, the stories collected here as personal as they are unsettling. The atmosphere, the tone and mood invoked by the author aside – it is the humanity at the heart of each tale that is…

BULL RUNNING FOR GIRLS by Allyson Bird

Author: Allyson Bird BULL RUNNING FOR GIRLS 2009 British Fantasy Award Winner for Best Collection The twenty-one stories collected in Bull Running for Girls are widely varied, both in setting and subject. From small town life in Madison County to the dangers of bull running in Pamplona, the stories seem, at first blush, unrelated. They are bound, however, by Allyson Bird’s strength. She is a remarkable woman, the stories collected here as personal as they are unsettling. The atmosphere, the tone and mood invoked by the author aside – it is the humanity at the heart of each tale that…
Horror Roundtable 15 – Sexism in Horror

Horror Roundtable 15 – Sexism in Horror

You can follow the Roundtable discussion in the comments section of this post. Note: the page will not auto refresh, so please use the refresh option on your browser to keep up to date with the discussion. * * * * * When: 16 January, 2014 Time: 7pm EST (use the Time Zone Converter to find your local time) Sexism in Horror With so many brilliant female horror writers (think Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Maurier, Lisa Morton, Nancy Holder, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Sarah Langan, Kaaron Warren, and many more), why is it that few of them--if any--ever…

VIOLET EYES by John Everson

Author: John Everson VIOLET EYES Their bites are more than deadly... The small town near the Everglades was supposed to offer Rachel and her son a fresh start. Instead it offered the start of a nightmare, when an unknown breed of flies migrated through the area, leaving painful bites in their wake. The media warned people to stay inside until the swarm passed. But the flies didn't leave. And then the radios and TVs went silent. That's when the spiders came. Spiders that could spin a deadly web large enough to engulf an entire house overnight. Spiders that left stripped…