Women in Horror: Part Sixteen

Women in Horror: Part Sixteen

Hello & welcome back to our feature special series for WiHM! You'll all have noticed a gap in the posting of these articles & I can only apologise for that. I've been down with a horrible virus & couldn't get any work done...but I'm back now & ready to finish what we've started! Today we welcome author & editor Sandy DeLuca. This lovely lady barely needs an introduction, author of Messages from the Dead & Hell's Door amongst many others, artist & anthologist. For our series she decided to concentrate on a Woman in Horror from the world of film, rather than the print...     Gale Anne Hurd of “The…
Women in Horror: Part Fifteen

Women in Horror: Part Fifteen

  Here we are again, still celebrating Women in Horror Month & going strong! Chantal Noordeloos, author of Deeply Twisted & Coyote-The Outlander, is here to talk about stereotypes & categorisation...     Every February we explore the world of ladies in the horror genre. We shine the limelight on female authors, directors, actresses, and perhaps even the female characters in their books. As a woman who writes horror I’m very grateful for this little bit of illumination. Most of us still struggle to make a name for ourselves, and a lot of women suffer from a stigma that’s been…
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…

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…
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…

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: 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.…
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…
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…