What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve written poems since I was eight years old. In third grade, I won third place for a Mother’s Day contest. So, initially, I wrote poems for my mother and stepmother. But it wasn’t until I wrote a poem about childhood trauma for an English class assignment in high school that I connected to writing as a practice to make sense of the most troubling experiences I was facing.
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve written for as long as I can remember, but the instance that made me want to take it seriously was in middle school. We were assigned the task of writing a fictional short story. Any genre, theme, etc. I spent five hours on it and experienced “flow state” for the first time. I read somewhere that whatever gets you there, in that state where the task at hand is all you can think about, where all else melts away for a while, should be something you take seriously. Something to give you purpose and a way to make sense of the world for yourself.
What inspired you to start writing?
I was always a reader and didn't take the chance on my own writing until quite recently. Once I got started, I was hooked on creating worlds--and imaginary friends--and I couldn't stop.
What inspired you to start writing?
At a young age, I’ve always had a love for books—I was that kid who finished all their summer reading plus some. I even used to make my own books with several sheets of folded paper and a stapler. Over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever outgrown that love for storytelling.
What does it mean to be API/AANHPI?
I suppose I will take a more personal approach to this question, as it is definitely one that has persistently popped up throughout my life. For me, it has always been: what does it mean to be Asian, or more specifically in my case, Chinese? As a child, I was born and spent the early years of my life in China, and even after arriving in Canada,
What inspired you to start writing?
I had multiple ideas of what I wanted to be as a child. I said I wanted to be a doctor, an author, and a fashion designer, and sometimes a scientist or witch. But writing and journaling were always my safe place. So, when I could have enough financial cushion to attempt it, I allowed myself to take that risk.
What inspired you to start writing?
Growing up in Hawaii as both a Hawaiian and Filipino, storytelling was a part of my life on my father’s side. Because I loved to tell stories that would scare my classmates, my teacher challenged me to put my stories on paper and to keep up with that challenge, she would submit my stories to different contests that the newspapers and other outlets would have. I haven’t stopped writing since.
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always occupied my time with stories through various mediums like television or books. It was escapism for me. It wasn’t until I started watching the cartoon Super Friends that I began to imagine “what if?” type episodes. Like, what if Superman was flying during a solar eclipse? When the moon passes between the earth and the sun, would Superman lose his ability to fly during the obscuration since the yellow sun gives him his powers? What would that story look like? The inspiration comes from stories or narratives that don’t already exist.
What inspired you to start writing?
I started writing stories before I started drawing. I remember the first time I wrote a story; I was 5 or 6 at a Sunday congregation meeting with my family. My mom told me to take notes on the sermon but I interpreted that as taking notes about whatever. I ended up writing a short story about dragons and angels having a picnic.
The first things that probably come to mind when reading the words, “Pacific Islander,” are hula dances, grass skirts, luaus, tiki huts, and coconuts. You probably don’t think of blood, death, or fear. But you probably should.
A veritable whirlwind of talent, the competition judges for Final Frame represent the same tenacity, perseverance, ingenuity, and passion we see reflected in our finalists’ films. We can’t wait to have them preside over an evening of frights and freak-outs leading up to their selections for Grand Prize, Runner-Up, Best Writing in a Short Film, and more!
Over her long and influential career, editor and anthologist Ellen Datlow has played a major role in shaping not just the genre of horror, but fantasy and science fiction as well. During her pioneering stint as fiction editor at Omni magazine in the 1980s, she acquired and edited stories from writers including William Gibson, Octavia Butler, William Burroughs, and George R.R. Martin. Her Best Horror of the Year, on which she’s currently wrapping up the sixteenth volume, remains essential reading for anyone with a personal or professional interest in the genre. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Ellen shares advice about the craft and business of short-story writing, geared especially toward beginning writers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Specialty Awards. These will be presented on June 1st, 2024, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2024 in San Diego, CA.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These will be presented on June 1st, 2024, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2024 in San Diego, CA.
Lifetime Achievement Award The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 are:
What inspired you to start writing? I started reading at a very early age, and like many other writers, I was voracious. I was also a very introverted and anxious only child. Thus my earliest writing projects were fanfiction: taking scenes from my favorite books and rewriting them to include one of my characters as part of the group, as the love interest, as the hero. Of course, this was all before the internet, so it was a solitary exercise, just me and my notebooks, or just writing in my head at night. After a while, it became one of the ways I could get myself to sleep: imagining the words of a particularly immersive scene.
Going from the privacy of my mind to putting those words out in the world, however, was a much more fraught journey, tangled with working-class expectations, a poorly-timed MFA program, and years working in book production. It was only when I finally crashed from the stress of my publishing job that I started writing again, and all the years of reading and thinking about words (and missing those childhood stories) finally coalesced into a voice.
What inspired you to start reading? I started reading at a young age thanks to Sesame Street and wanted to work with books and reading. I became a librarian after first getting a master's degree in religious studies. After changing my mind about seeking a Ph.D., I got a library science master's and started working in a library branch. Before graduate school, I worked as a manager in a bookstore and managed a comic book store so I have worked with books for a while. Currently, selecting adult fiction is among my responsibilities for my library system.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? My mother was a huge fan of horror. The first adult horror novel I read was Cujo. I was in middle school and ran out of my own books to read on a family vacation so I borrowed one of my mother's books.
What inspired you to start writing? Temporal lobe epilepsy inspired me to begin to write. I have temporal lobe epilepsy and the specific kind I have gives me constant anxiety. Things like heartbeat acceleration for no reason, shaking, memory disorders, and unwanted images in my head, (kind of like dreaming) and my favorite, not recognizing places or familiar faces that I should. It is not a pleasant feeling. It is distracting. It is also frightening. For a time, it ran me. I wasn’t able to do much other than get pummeled by my own bleeding brain. But then something magnificent happened. I learned early on that I could temper it if I did something creative. I discovered it was a ravenous electrical beast. It did not care what it did to me, it only wanted to be fed. It had no rhyme or reason. It was governed by things as hidden as the tide. When I accepted there was no cure, I started to understand that it would eat me unless I fed it. It needed to be occupied or it would turn on me. And writing or artwork seems to work best, plus it brings me joy like no other. I don’t understand it. But for some reason it all goes away as long as I do something creative, write, speak, paint. Things like that. As long as I feed it, I am let be.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I have always been attracted to dark imagery. I never was a ‘normal’ girl. I rode motorcycles and hiked around mountains and explored mines, and I remember feeling the breath of those mines and how it terrified me, but I remember how this kind of fear felt good. It silenced that real-world losing-my-mind fear that the stupid seizures caused. Growing up away from civilization I think also taught me to love horror. Anyone who has been out in those woods alone will begin to sense there are presences out there.
What inspired you to start writing? I started writing twice, once in college and then again almost ten years ago. When I started writing in college, I remember wanting to learn to express aspects of my life that I had never been able to talk about. I'd had a strange childhood and wanted to write about it because whenever I'd tried to speak about it, things had never come through properly. When I started writing again later, it was because I felt a strong need to concentrate on some kind of creative work.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? The wonderful variety of stories being told. I remember feeling very inspired to write again reading Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney as well as the anthology set American Fantastic Tales edited by Peter Straub...
What inspired you to start writing? The magic of getting lost in a story. For a moment in time, whether two hours in a movie or days in a book, you are immersed in another life, experiencing their triumphs and losses, joy and sadness, courage and fear. As a kid, I wanted to live in stories forever, but I didn’t want them to end so I began to create stories of my own.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Fun fact about me, horror wasn’t my first chosen genre, it was escapist fantasy...
What inspired you to start writing? Once I started tabletop gaming, I started writing character stories. Then I started writing plotlines for games. Then I discovered I had other stories I wanted to tell. I’m not one of those people who “always” wanted to be a writer. I was more of a reader. It was a good way to decompress from my tech job. However, once I got the writing bug, I didn’t stop. I started being professionally published when I turned 31.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I vastly prefer supernatural horror over realistic horror.
