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 We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Well, to put it mildly, it made an impact. At the time, my two sisters and I we were “Latch Key Kids,” told to lock all the doors and keep to ourselves because strangers might want to do us harm. I could absolutely relate to the story.

I sought out more of Jackson’s work, read The Haunting of Hill House and “The Lottery,” and wow. It made me realize women can write scary stuff. I started ordering horror anthologies through Scholastic, and I’d read through the stories written by women first, because I felt I could relate to their stories more. I’d always be disappointed, because there were never more than three or four female authors, out of about twenty stories, and although some of the stories written by men may have been just as good or even better, they tended to lack the emotions I felt when I’d read the previous stories written by women. It’s hard to explain, but I was an early teen then, fed by certain emotions, ravenous for them, actually.

A little older, and desperate for more, I searched the much bigger school library at the middle school, and that’s where I found one of my Gothic favorites, Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story.”

I read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which I found intense and horrifying. Then when I learned it was a “true” story—wow.

I discovered Susan Hill, then had to read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and found that I was more entertained by the “scary” parts than the romance.

Then one day, someone asked me if I’d read Stephen King, and that’s all I did from then on, until I was about sixteen. But I’d grown up a little, changed, and no longer needed the same emotions I once did, so I put my Ladies of Horror away for many years.

Life happened. College came and went, a job, then a husband, and a family. I rarely found the time to read books, and if I read anything at all, they were usually medical journals, nursing journals, and science magazines.

Life slowed down, and some free time came along where I could relax and read, only I’d been out of the “loop” for too long. I bought and read books I saw my circle of friends reading. (Not such a good idea at the time.) I read a book a day for a week, and not a single one of them was the slightest bit entertaining. No excitement, no thrills, or twists. No horror.

And there it was. Yes, I used to love reading horror. What if I could take the books I’d just read and make them about the everyday lives of the people I knew, then turn them into something horrifying? That’s when it came to me that I had to write. My debut novel, The Evolutionist came from it.

Now that I’m settled in life and have a family and grown kids, I once more find myself craving the works of female horror authors who satisfy a hunger for different emotions. These days, there are many more to choose from, too many excellent ones to list, but I still wish there were more. I want to read every woman’s take on what she considers a horrifying story.

Rena Mason is a retired operating room nurse and a longtime horror fan who currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, a member of the Horror Writers Association, and an active member of the International Thriller Writers. She’s written a several short stories published in various anthologies. Her debut novel The Evolutionist was released April 13, 2013 from Nightscape Press. The novella, East End Girls, a part of JournalStone Publishing’s DoubleDown series Book 1 was released June 2013. To learn more about Rena and her upcoming projects, visit these sites: http://www.renamasonwrites.com/

http://www.renamasonwrites.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Rena-Mason/e/B00C7YOVDY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5785510.Rena_Mason?from_search=true