Women In Horror Month 2024 : An Interview with J.L. Delozier

What inspired you to start writing?  Burnout and boredom. Seriously, though, I always loved to write – submitted my first sci-fi short story to Asimov’s Magazine when I was in elementary school! (It was kindly rejected.) Then I got busy with my medical training and career, and only after I was nearing middle age and retirement did I decide I’d damn well get that book written – I wasn’t getting any younger!   What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it?  I cut my teeth on sci-fi and Stephen King, so I naturally gravitate to horror.…

Women in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Holly Rae Garcia

    What inspired you to start writing? I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. During one particular book club meeting, I found myself criticizing a book and then saying, “But they wrote a book and I didn’t, so what do I know?”. So, in 2019, I wrote a book to see if I could. Readers don’t always comprehend how hard it is to actually write a book. And it is hard. I can almost hear the lifelong authors laughing at me for not realizing this. But it’s also immensely gratifying and addicting. I was hooked.…

Women In Horror Month 2024 : An Interview with Gwendolyn N Nix

What inspired you to start writing? It’s difficult to pinpoint that definitive moment when the lightbulb went on, I picked up the quill, and I decided I was going to become a writer. But I do remember being very, very young, enamored with books, and was devoted to certain literary characters. There was a lot of inspiration building in the background, some of which seem quite obvious when I look back on it. Dragonlance books where the evil mage became my favorite; watching the film 13 Ghosts and loving what I perceived to be the tarot-esque identities of the ghosts;…

Women in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Elana Gomel

    What inspired you to start writing? I have been a storyteller since I remember myself. I was an only child and I spent most of my time immersed in books, making up my own stories to share with my toys. I always wanted to be a writer. However, once I left my birth country (Ukraine) and realized I needed to have a professional job, I decided to study English literature to improve my knowledge of the language. It worked out well for me as I became a Professor of English literature and wrote a number of academic books…

Women In Horror Month 2024 : An Interview with Eda Easter

What inspired you to start writing? Growing up an only child on an isolated horse farm in Texas, I amused myself reading and wandering in nature. The farm animals and barn cats became my captive audience, I’d either read stories to them or tell them stories I made up. Writing the stories down became the next step for me. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? Horror for me was about the thrill of the jump scare, or the dread of creeping terror. But my love of horror has evolved. I don’t believe in true…

Women in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Catherine Cavendish

    What inspired you to start writing? I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil so I think it must be in my genes. My late Mum used to write short stories so that may have been an influencer. What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I love the delicious scares and the fact that these are scares you know are all right. They’re not going to harm you, even though you daren’t raise your head from under the duvet when you’ve switched the light out. I love the compulsive storytelling, complex characters,…

Women In Horror Month 2024 : An Interview with Kate Maruyama

What inspired you to start writing? I was telling stories, and acting out plays with friends before I could write. Then when I could write, my mom started paying me $2 a page to egg me on. I haven’t been paid so well since! Once I got to about four pages, she stopped paying. I never stopped writing.   What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it? I guess I always had a dark sensibility—I’d say the first horror I consumed was L. Frank Baum’s Oz Books (grislier than you remember) and The Blue, Red, and…

Women In Horror Month 2024 : An Introduction by Kathryn Ptacek

    The Journey is Never Done. Kind of Like Housework. Kathryn Ptacek We’ve come a long way, baby. Well, if you were alive many decades ago, you'd recognize that as the advertising jingle—somewhat altered—by a tobacco company for a cigarette that it geared toward women. That was back in the late ’60s and early ’70s when everything was bright and fresh and we could do anything. Except apply for credit cards and buy our own cars. But I digress. Yes, we—that is, women horror writers—have come a long way, but there’s no reason to sit back on our celebratory…