Transgender Awareness: My Gender is a Chainsaw by Jef Rouner

My Gender is a Chainsaw By Jef Rouner Gender is a construct. You know, like those killer robots in Chopping Mall. And just like them, it has sharp edges. It took me forty years to figure out what gender I was, and frankly the question is still far from answered. I recently settled simply on “not cis,” and when people ask me my pronouns I answer “he/him will do.” It’s not me being a melodramatic pain in the ass… well, not JUST that. The mystery and ambiguity of that label brings me back to the gender heroes of my adolescence:…

Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Larissa Glasser

Catching Up With Larissa Glasser Larissa Glasser is a librarian-archivist from New England. She writes dark fiction centered on the lives of trans women, library science, and heavy metal. Her work is available in Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (William Morrow), Tragedy Queens: stories inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath (Clash Books), and Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Themed Speculative Fiction (Lethe Press). Her debut novella F4 is available from Eraserhead Press. She is on Twitter @larissaeglasser What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or…
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Britney Everlong

Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Britney Everlong

Copyright 2022 The House of Everlong Britney Everlong began writing at an early age, her first book being “The Whatchamacallit”, written at the age of nine. It would be some time before her first published work, “Pegasus Bay”, would come to pass, at the age of eighteen. Now, Britney is a writer, mother, free thinker, occasional actress, lover of music, and all-around weird lady who enjoys writing horror and sci-fi stories in her spare time. What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd…

Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Ridley Harker

Ridley Harker is a gay, transgender author and editor from St. Louis, Missouri. His debut queer body horror novel, Parasite, is available now from Ninestar Press and Amazon. Ridley lives in the Middle of Nowhere with his two dogs, a grumpy old snake, and a host of pet tarantulas. He is currently working on his MFA in Creative Writing. Visit his website at www.ridleyharker.com, and follow him on Twitter @RidleyHarker. What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd like to share with our audiences…

Transgender Awareness Week: Catching Up with Hailey Piper

  Catching Up With Allison Church Catching Up with Hailey Piper Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, The Worm and His Kings, No Gods for Drowning, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, and other books of dark fiction. She is an active member of the HWA, with over ninety short stories appearing in Pseudopod, Vastarien, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and other publications. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where their mad science experiments are secret. Find Hailey at www.haileypiper.com or on Twitter via @HaileyPiperSays. What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new…
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching Up with Allison Church

Transgender Awareness Week: Catching Up with Allison Church

Catching Up With Allison Church Allison Church (a.k.a. DONALD ALLEN KIRCH) is a Transgender Author who lives in the Midwest of the United States. She is an avid lover of horror, science fiction, and fantasy and will challenge ANYONE on her knowledge of TV “pop” culture. A die-hard fan of “Star Trek,” “Babylon 5,” and “Doctor Who,” she does not believe in the “NO Win” scenario! She LOVES everything about the Paranormal! What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd like to share…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Aaron Dries

Author, artist, and filmmaker, Aaron Dries was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. His novels include the award-winning House of Sighs, The Fallen Boys, A Place for Sinners, Where the Dead Go to Die (with Mark Allan Gunnells), and the novellas The Sound of his Bones Breaking, And the Night Growled Back, and the highly acclaimed Dirty Heads. Cut to Care, released in 2022, is his first collection of short stories. Aaron Dries is one host of the popular podcast, Let the Cat In, also co-founded Elsewhere Productions, and is a member of both the Australasian Horror Writers…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Ridley Harker

Ridley Harker is a gay, transgender author and editor from St. Louis, Missouri. His debut queer body horror novel, Parasite, is available from Ninestar Press in June 2022. He was also featured in the transgender and non-binary gothic horror anthology Listen (Ninestar Press, October 2022). Ridley currently lives in the Middle of Nowhere with his two dogs, a grumpy old snake, and a host of pet tarantulas. Please visit his website at www.ridleyharker.com, and follow him on Twitter @RidleyHarker. What inspired you to start writing? I wrote my first ‘book’ in pre-kindergarten. It was about an unseen monster living in…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Mark Allan Gunnells

Mark Allan Gunnells loves to tell stories. He has since he was a kid, penning one-page tales that were Twilight Zone knockoffs. He likes to think he has gotten a little better since then. He loves reader feedback, and above all he loves telling stories. He lives in Greer, SC, with his husband Craig A. Metcalf. What inspired you to start writing? Honestly, my desire to make up stories and write them down goes back so far I can’t say exactly what initially sparked it. I think I just fell in love with stories, and once I realized they were…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Damian Serbu

Damian Serbu is an author of gay horror/speculative fiction. After over twenty years of teaching history at the collegiate level, he now writes full time. He lives in the Chicagoland area with his husband and two dogs. You can find him at www.DamianSerbu.com, or keep up with his latest ramblings at https://twitter.com/DamianSerbu and https://www.facebook.com/damian.serbu. What inspired you to start writing? I was inspired to write because of the stories running around in my head! For as long as I can remember, I created fictional narratives and characters in my mind. I found the process exciting and a release from everyday…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Briana Morgan

Briana Morgan (she/her) a queer, disabled horror author and playwright. Her books include The Reyes Incident, Mouth Full of Ashes, The Tricker-Treater and Other Stories, Unboxed: A Play, and more. She's also a member of the Horror Writers Association. When not writing, you can find her watching horror movies, reading disturbing books, or playing video games. What inspired you to start writing? My grandfather was a storyteller. Whenever he visited us, he’d tell my brother and me all kinds of stories—some recounted from legends and family history, but most of them made-up off the top of his head. He also…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Crystal Romero

Award winning author, Crystal M. Romero, no relation to George A. Romero, writes Lesbian Speculative Fiction (aka: Horror). A graduate of San Jose State University, her first novel, The Veil of Sorrow, printed under the name Crystal Michallet-Romero was a Masters’ final project for a Gothic Literature class in which she was enrolled. It went on to win a Gold Crown Literary Society Award for Speculative Fiction and was nominated for a Gaylatic Spectrum Award. Crystal Fell in love with the zombie genre at a young age. She enjoys both film and television shows depicting post-zombie-apocalypse worlds. Despite this, Valley…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Roberto Carrasco

Roberto Carrasco was that kid who had an imaginary friend called Blue Eye. When they played Dungeons and Dragons he always asked to be a wizard. He wrote stories starring dragons that instead of eyes had pineapples, good monsters, and extraterrestrial princesses. When he was old enough to know the world, he knew the world and lived many adventures thinking that some of them would reveal to him the meaning of life. But life didn't seem to make much sense so he published a rage-filled novel called So Sweet, So Bitter which was read by 172 people. Then he got…

A Point of Pride: Interview with James Bennett

James Bennett is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His travels have furnished him with an abiding love of diverse cultures, history, and mythology. His short fiction has appeared internationally and his debut novel 'Chasing Embers' was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards 2017. His latest fiction can be found in the well-received 'The Book of Queer Saints', BFS Horizons and The Dark magazine. He also has a story in 'There's More of Us Than You Know', a new anthology from Bloodrites Books in support of The Trevor Project, the world's largest suicide prevention…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Steve Berman

Steve Berman is the Lambda Literary Award-winning editor and publisher behind Lethe Press, one of the oldest queer and weird publishers around. He has sold over a hundred articles and short stories. His novel, Vintage, about an adolescent boy who meets the ghost of his dream and discovers this leads to nightmares, was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award. Steve released a collection of gay horror stories last year--Fit for Consumption received a starred review from Kirkus and praise from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Steve works for Deerfield Academy, an eminent boarding school in Western Massachusetts. There may…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Cody Sisco

Cody Sisco is an author, editor, publisher, and literary community organizer. His LGBT psychological science fiction series includes two novels thus far, Broken Mirror and Tortured Echoes. He is a freelance editor specializing in genre-bending fiction and an editor for Running Wild Press. In 2017, he co-founded Made in L.A. Writers, an indie author co-op dedicated to the support and appreciation of independent authors. His startup BookSwell is a literary events and media production company dedicated to lifting up marginalized voices and connecting readers and writers in Southern California and beyond. He serves as a Co-Executive on the Board of Governors for the Editorial Freelancers Association and as…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Lucy A. Snyder

Lucy A. Snyder is the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated and five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 15 books and over 100 published short stories. Her most recent titles are the collections Halloween Season and Exposed Nerves (both from Raw Dog Screaming Press) and the forthcoming apocalyptic horror novel Sister, Maiden, Monster (Tor Nightfire). She lives in Ohio with a jungle of houseplants, a clowder of cats, and an insomnia of housemates. What inspired you to start writing? I wanted to become a writer pretty much from the moment I became an avid reader. And Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time was…
A Point of Pride: Interview with Robert Perez

A Point of Pride: Interview with Robert Perez

Robert Perez sleeps at the bottom of the ocean. Urban legend whispers that the writer can be summoned into your dreams if you read his work to a jack-o-lantern. You can find his poems and stories in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volumes II, III, IV (Special Mention), and V, The Literary Hatchet #13 & #14, Deadlights Magazine #1, Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, and Community of Magic Pens. He is currently working on obtaining a master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. Follow @_TheLeader on twitter to keep up with future projects. What inspired you…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Edwin Brightwater

Edwin Brightwater lives in Taiwan. He was born in New Zealand in the 1970s and educated mostly in Australia. His native language is English. He is also fluent in Chinese, having learned the language in his late twenties. Edwin Brightwater writes horror and suspense fiction that incorporates the unreal—gothic, dark urban fantasy, the paranormal and the magical, thrilling stories of things bizarre, grotesque, or utterly impossible. His favorite authors are Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen and his oldest inspiration is “Doctor Who.” His preferred pastime is reading. His pseudonymous pen name, Edwin Brightwater, reflects his ancestry in the South Island…

A Point of Pride: Interview with Paula D. Ashe

Paula D. Ashe is a writer of dark fiction. Her debut collection, We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, was released in early 2022 from Nictitating Books. She lives in the Midwest with her family. What inspired you to start writing? I’ve been compelled to write since a very young age, I’m not sure why. I’ve always had an affinity for language, storytelling, and a big dark imagination. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? That’s the question, ain’t it? I don’t know what drew me in, but I know what keeps me is the…