In Memoriam: Bruce Boston

Bruce Boston: an Appreciation by Mary A. Turzillo Bruce David Boston, emperor of the weird, the esoteric, the absurd.  Once a year at least, my husband Geoffrey Landis and I would sit around the table in his and Marge Simon's house in Ocala, drinking wine and eating cheesecake or dried fruit.  The conversations were esoteric, comical, scandalous, divine.  There were other meetings, although as years went by, Bruce became more retiring and skipped Conference on the Fantastic, where he'd been a Creative, and other conferences where he would have been lionized, and even StokerCon.             There was no one like Bruce.  His work was galactic and…

Nuts & Bolts: Interview With Magic Historian Anthony Grafton

The great thinkers of the Renaissance get plenty of credit for their indelible mark on art, science, and architecture. But maybe they don’t get enough credit for another field to which they made an enormous contribution – horror tropes. Demon-summoning rituals? Deals with the devil? Spellbooks full of dark secrets that must not fall into the wrong hands? All part of the legend surrounding Renaissance-era “magi,” who straddled the line between scientist and sorcerer, and who inspired literary accounts of Faust and Prospero. Anthony Grafton, a Princeton University history professor, tells their fascinating story in Magus, his study of Renaissance-era magic and its practitioners, which should provide plenty of inspiration for horror or fantasy writers who want to add an element of historical accuracy to their fictional sorcerers.

Black Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Kai Leakes

What inspired you to start writing? My inspiration to write came from just growing up and aching to see myself reflected in the stories that I loved. I used to have to do a cognitive dissonance as a child where I’d replace the white characters with BIPOC and myself because I became over-saturated with being given stories about children who did not look like me. It also didn’t help that I loved books so much that I was reading out of my grade level. This led to me developing my own stories In my mind. As I grew up, I…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Ray Zacek

Ray Zacek is a retired federal officer living in Tampa, Florida, with his wife, artist Theresa Beck. A flaneur and inveterate scribbler, Ray writes horror, dark fiction, and crime/noir. His work has been published by Critical Blast, Denver Horror Collective, Tule Fog, Allegory Online, All Due Respect, Shotgun Honey, among other venues. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association.

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: C.C. Winchester

C.C. Winchester Biography C.C. Winchester’s love of horror began at the tender age of five, when she started sneaking into the living room late at night to watch zombie movies with her parents. Her mother said that though her infiltration was discovered, and she was promptly removed, she would return in what she thought was stealth mode, only to be removed again. She currently writes in Dallas, Texas. Book Recommendation: Don’t Break the Oath, the fourth Women of Horror anthology published by Kandisha Press The following is part of a blog post I did about my first officially published story:…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: David Rose

David Rose Biography David Rose served in the United States Marine Corps from 2002 to 2006, during which deploying to Iraq to participate in the second battle of Fallujah. Since trading the sword for the almighty pen, he’s crafted multiple collections and composite novels: Forsaken Fantastic and Amden Bog being fine examples. A forthcoming work is Monsters in the Bush, a collection of Lovecraftian military tales, soon brought to the world by Screaming Banshee Press. He lives in Orlando, Florida. He is a founder and co-chair of the HWA committee Veterans in Horror. Book Recommendation: The Scrolls of Sin I…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Luciano Marano

Luciano Marano Biography Luciano Marano is an award-winning writer, journalist, and photographer, the author of a trilogy of werewolf novellas, The Ambush Moon Cycle, and many short stories which have appeared in anthologies such as Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, The Best New Weird Horror, Monsters, Movies & Mayhem, and Crash Code, as well as Nightscript, PseudoPod, and Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. His written and photographic reporting has earned a number of industry accolades, and he was twice named a Feature Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. A U.S. Navy veteran originally from rural western Pennsylvania,…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Xavier Poe Kane

  Xavier Poe Kane Biography Xavier served 6 years in the Air Force after which he spent 14 in the Air National Guard, retiring in 2020. He currently lives in St. Louis with his wife, Morticia, in a state of mutual weirdness with their dogs Chuck Norris and the three-legged Jabba the Hutt. Thanks to the GI Bill, he has a MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Xavier has published three books: The Hidden Lives of Dick & Mary, Broken Hearts & Other Horrors, and A Mother’s Torment. He also writes short horror for the Fear From The Heartland…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Douglass Hoover

  Douglass Hoover Biography Douglass Hoover is the author of The North Woods, The Accursed Huntsman, and The Homestead. He is a Marine Corps infantry combat veteran and holds an MFA from Emerson College. His days are spent writing, hunting, and blacksmithing on his small farm in rural Maine with his wife, Patience, and their three mutts, Bug, Furiosa, and Skootcha Nunchuck Monsterface.   Book Recommendation:  The North Woods Follow their adventures on Instagram @StripedDogForge, @DouglassHooverAuthor, or at www.stripeddogforge.com Over three million acres of dense woodlands make up the North Maine Woods. There are no major towns. No public roads. Nothing…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Pamela K. Kinney

Pamela K. Kinney Biography Pamela K. Kinney gave up long ago ignoring the demanding voices in her head and has written been writing ever since. Her horror short story, “Bottled Spirits,” was runner-up for the 2013 WSFA Small Press Award and considered one of the seven best genre short fiction for that year. She has various short stories and poems published in fiction and nonfiction anthologies, magazines, and online zines, a science fiction novella, an urban fantasy novel, five nonfiction ghost books, and a nonfiction cryptid book. Her horror poem, “Dementia,” got her mentioned in Best Horror of the Year,…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Jeremy Eads

  Jeremy Eads Biography My name is Jeremy Eads. I was a counterintelligence agent for the United States Army from 2002 through 2007. I mainly specialized in push ups, cutting grass, and turning the rocks over so they didn't get sunburned. I’m an invited contributor to The New Guard IX and made it to the final rounds of The New Guard's 2020 Fiction competition. I was long listed in Madville Publishing’s 2021 Blue Moon Novel Competition. The Lodge is my debut novel and I'm extremely proud of it. Thus far it has over 80 ratings/reviews on Amazon with a 4.6…

Veterans in Horror Spotlight 2023: Zachariah Jones

Zachariah Jones Biography I have been serving in the US Army (National Guard) since 2006. I enlisted at age 17 to be a 12B (Combat Engineer). After several years and earning my college degree from St. John’s University, I commissioned as an Engineer Officer. In 2018, I transitioned to full-time in the Army National Guard where I currently serve as a Battalion Executive Officer. I currently reside in Stillwater, a small river town in eastern Minnesota, with my husband (Josh) and dog (Delta). In my free time I lift weights, run, cook, yardwork/garden, and of course write. Instagram: @the_zachariah_jones /…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Pedro Iniguez

Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American horror and science-fiction writer from Los Angeles, California. He is a Rhysling Award finalist and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Award for his speculative poetry. His fiction and poetry has appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror, Shadows Over Main Street 3, A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories, Worlds of Possibility, Tiny Nightmares, Star*Line, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers, and Infinite Constellations, among others. He can be found online at www.pedroiniguezauthor.com What inspired you to start writing? Growing up sheltered and overprotected as…

VETERANS IN HORROR SPOTLIGHT: THIS NOVEMBER

The time has come again. The HWA is going to be running the month-long Veterans in Horror Spotlight this November, coordinated by David Rose and Chance Fortune. We’re talking books this year. If you are an HWA member and a military veteran (defined as a former service member of any uniformed, national military), we invite you to join us. Please send us an email message to veterans@horror.org by October 20, 2023. In this message, please include: Your name Headshot (we didn’t keep the ones from last year) Bio (under 100 words) A write-up (under 250 words) on a horror book…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Carlos E. Rivera

Carlos E. Rivera is a Costa Rican queer writer and former English teacher. His debut novel The Local Truth: White Harbor Book 1, peaked at #4 in Amazon's new releases in horror by LGBTQ+ authors. As an anxious, introverted kid growing up in Costa Rica during the 80s and 90s, he always felt like something of an outsider. His refuge was escaping into and devouring sci-fi, fantasy, drama, crime thrillers, and above all things, HORROR. For years, these books, movies, comics, and even video games became his life. He plunged into the horror-next-door of Stephen King, the ineffable cosmic abominations…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Luisa Colón

Born and raised in New York City, Luisa began her career as a journalist in the late 90s; her work has appeared in numerous print and online publications such as New York, Latina, USA Today, The New York Times, and many more. Her other creative work includes illustration and two murals currently displayed at the World Trade Center. Inspired by her fascination with the cinema, Luisa also made a brief but successful foray into acting, starring in the award-winning 2006 indie film Day Night Day Night as well as the titular role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2007 short film Anna.…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Jonathan Reddoch

Jonathan Reddoch is co-owner of Collective Tales Publishing. He is a father, writer, editor, and publisher. He writes sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and especially horror. He has been working on his enormous sci-fi novel for over a decade and would like to finish it in this lifetime if possible. Find him on Instagram: @Allusions_of_Grandeur_ What inspired you to start writing? I have always been a writer; ever since I learned how to write I was making stories and inventing crazy aliens and monsters. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? The funny thing is growing up…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Vincent Tirado

Vincent Tirado is a non-binary Afro-Latine Bronx native. They ventured out to Pennsylvania and Ohio to get their Bachelor’s degree in biology and Master’s degree in bioethics. Their first novel, Burn Down, Rise Up (2022) was recognized with the Pura Belpré Award, and nominated for both the Bram Stoker and Lambda Literary Award. We Don’t Swim Here (2023) is their newest novel. When they're not writing, you can catch them playing video games or making digital art. Find them on Twitter @v_e_tirado or visit them on their website www.v-e-tirado.com for more information. What inspired you to start writing? I feel…

Bisexual Awareness Week — B Stands for Bisexual by Angel Leigh McCoy

LGBTQ+ — B Stands for Bisexual Our job as fiction writers requires us to step into the hearts, minds, and bodies of other people. For this reason, writers are some of the most empathic beings I know. We’re skilled at using our imaginations. We use that tool to choose the actions, thoughts, and feelings experienced by our characters. The diversity of our characters and their stories can attract a broader audience to our writing, add stronger storytelling to our works, and—dare I say it—open our readers’ minds to empathy and compassion. We learn to avoid stereotypes and clichés in our…

MHI: HOW HORROR CAN OFFER SOLACE

The following post contains this writer’s individual experiences and opinions.  This post should not be interpreted as mental health diagnosis or treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your nearest mental health center or local emergency services.  Written by Nicole Henning [Trigger Warning: This article addresses mental health/illness] Straining to see in the darkness, the slightest shift of light looks like movement in the perpetual gloom. Your ears are homing in on any sound for an indication of what direction the impending danger could come from. In this experience of veritable sensory deprivation, you may find…