Women In Horror Month

February is “Women in Horror” Month. In honor, I thought I’d put up a list of some of my favorite female horror writers. Note: this is not an exhaustive list. As I’m posting this kind of off-the-cuff as it were, I’m sure I’ll accidentally leave some wonderful creators out. It’s not intentional at all, and certainly not meant to be a slight.

Damien Angelica Walters: While Damien’s short stories may cross genres, her novels have been pretty solidly horror: Ink was about possessed tattoos, Paper Tigers about a possessed photo album, and her most recent, The Dead Girls Club, is about storytelling and the ways in which real-life and sleepover-story horrors relate and interact. Her two short story collections, Sing Me Your Scars and Cry Your Way Home, contain a number of psychological and supernatural horror stories.

Lucy A. Snyder: I haven’t checked out any of her novels (yet), but Lucy writes some of the most disturbing short stories I’ve ever read. “Magdala Amygdala” is one of the few zombie stories I will intentionally reread, knowing it is going to gross me out. Check out her collection Soft Apocalypses.

Mira Grant: Sure, some of the short fiction Seanan McGuire publishes under her own name contains horror elements, usually more on the “dark fantasy” side. But when she writes as “her own evil twin sister,” Mira Grant, the horror takes center stage and the other genre elements (science fiction and fantasy) are extra flavor. The Newsflesh novels (zombies); the Parasitology trilogy (medicine gone amok); ); and a string of novellas from Subterranean Press that cover mermaids, slashers, plagues, and Lovecraftian horror (including Rolling in the Deep, Final Girls, In the Kingdom of Needle and Bone, and In The Shadow of Spindrift House) are among my favorite horror books ever.

Elizabeth Hand: Just on the strength of Wylding Hall alone, Elizabeth Hand is one of my favorite horror writers. I need to read more of her longer work.

Sabrina Vourvoulias: Sabrina’s stories co-mingle Latinx life and legends with alternate history or every-day life, but her near-future novel INK is a horror potentially unfolding in front of us on a daily basis, and everyone should read it. Check out her short fiction in various magazines and anthologies as well.

Kaaron Warren: I reviewed Kaaron’s most recent novella, Into Bones Like Oil, a few days ago here on the blog. Every story of hers I’ve read had snuck into my hind-brain and stayed there.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: From the near-future vampires of Certain Dark Things to the music-based magic of Signal to Noise and everywhere in between, Silvia writes some of the most compelling horror out there. She’s also the editor of The Dark magazine, cultivating horror from marginalized voices.

Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. “The Lottery.” Of course Jackson is on any list of favorite horror writers I might compile.

Octavia Butler: I am not sure how many years it’s been since I read Fledgling and I still can’t get certain scenes out of my mind. Butler is an author I long-since should have read more of, and I’m working to correct that.

Caitlín R. Keirnan: Caitlín’s short fiction, collected in volumes like The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, is phenomenal. Her novel The Drowning Girl haunted me for months after finishing it.

Ellen Datlow: Okay, Ellen is not an author. But she curates, both in anthologies like The Best Horror of the Year series and as a novella editor for Tor.com, a wide range of horror from the explicit to the classic to the subtle. No list of “women in horror” would be complete without Ellen’s name on it.

Okay, your turn readers. There are a lot of female horror writers I’ve read who aren’t on this list, sins of omission based on a deadline and work-loads and such, and plenty who I’ve never read. Who do you think I should be reading? Give me names in the comments!

MIRA GRANT, Author of "PARASITE" - Interview

Mira Grant, author of the NEWSFLESH trilogy (one of the few zombie books I’ve enjoyed) has a new book out today: PARASITE. She’s graciously agreed to answer a few questions….

ANTHONY: Let’s start with the basics: What is PARASITE about?

MIRA: Parasites.  No, that isn’t fair, even if it’s accurate!  It’s about genetic engineering, and the uneasy marriage of science and profitability, that place where smart people do stupid things in the name of making a buck.  It’s about finding yourself.  And it’s about that sharply indrawn breath before the end of the world.

ANTHONY: I had the chance to read the first chapters, which were included in the ebook edition of LIGHTSPEED magazine’s October issue. And I have to say:  even in that short space, you managed to make me shiver. I anticipate a lot more seat-squirming before the book is done. Should readers expect a lot of bodily fluids to fly, since we’re dealing with intestinal parasites?

MIRA: Not as many as you might think!  Parasite is an intentionally ‘dry’ book in the body fluids sense, because there’s so much horror inherent in the concept that dumping buckets of blood on top just seemed, well…silly.  Like, why would you bother, when everything has already been ruined forever by the sheer existence of intestinal parasites?  I brought a big box of nope to page one, and spend a lot of time unpacking it.

ANTHONY: One of the things I love about your writing is the strong, but often emotionally damaged, female protagonists. Can you tell us a bit about Sally Mitchell?

MIRA: Sally Mitchell–who prefers to be called “Sal,” thank you, Sally was another country–was in a very bad accident several years before the start of the book, and she’s still dealing with the after effects, which are mostly psychological at this point.  She’s dyslexic, she has a severe fear of cars, and she has no memory of her life before the crash.  She’s a very kind person.  She wants to be good.  She’s just not always completely certain that she understands what that means.

ANTHONY: This takes place only a decade in the future, correct?  I know you love to research, so I’m curious as to what current medical breakthroughs you see leading to this potential future?

MIRA: I think that the breakthrough described in this book, harnessing controlled parasites to deal with certain allergies and auto-immune disorders, is coming.  I think we’re a little bit more, well, balanced about it than the people in this book.  I also think that we’re sort of holding our breath right now, because we need to get the politics out of science and really look at the human body–male and female–without ideological blinders getting in the way.

ANTHONY: If memory serves, this is the first Mira Grant book to debut in hardcover. How does that feel?

MIRA: Terrifying.

ANTHONY: PARASITE is the first of a duology called “Parasitology.” Any hints as to when we can expect the second book and what it will be called?

MIRA: Nope!  I don’t mean to be stubborn, but I can’t really say much about the second book without giving spoilers for the first, and we’re still debating the title a little bit.  I’m hoping it’ll be sorted soon.

ANTHONY: You know I have to ask at least one question related to your Newsflesh universe. As we discussed on #sffwrtcht on Twitter a few weeks back, Mahir Gowda has become a fan favorite. What is is about him (as opposed to, say, Georgia and Shaun Mason) that people seem to gravitate to?

MIRA: Mahir is the Horatio of the piece.  He’s the guy who exists to see things unfold, and he’s not untouched by them, he’s not some omniscient narrator: he’s a part of the story he observes.  He just doesn’t get to have a glorious death or an unequivocally happy ending.  He’s us.  He’s still searching for his answers, and he always will be.  I love him so much.

ANTHONY: Okay, two questions. The novella “How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea” was released in July, featuring Mahir exploring how the Uprising affected Australia. Can we expect more world travels in novella form in the near future? Perhaps next summer?

MIRA: There are currently no further Newsflesh novellas under contract with Orbit.

ANTHONY: The internet cannot see the Sad Face I’m making, but I’ll hold out hope that there’s an unspoken “yet” at the end of that answer.  Now, we’ve chatted so many times now that my usual “favorite book” closing question is probably a bit played out. So here’s a variation: What one text on virology/parasitology would you recommend to someone who becomes interested in the topic because of reading PARASITE?

MIRA: Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex is probably the ‘pop science’ work on parasites.  It’s factual but accessible, and will provide an amazing jumping-off point if you want to learn more about the factual world of our intestinal buddies.

Want to know more about the SymboGen company and their work? Go to Symbogen’s website.

You can follow Mira Grant, aka Seanan McGuire, on Twitter @seananmcguire. You can check out both her Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire websites. And of course you can buy PARASITE on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble as well as purchasing it from all respectable (and probably some not-so-respectable) brick-and-mortar bookstores.

MIRA GRANT, Author - Interview

Mira Grant is the author of the NEWSFLESH trilogy (comprised of FEED, DEADLINE and the recently-released BLACKOUT). Per the bio from her website:

Mira Grant

Mira Grant was born and raised in Northern California, where she has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the “Swamp Cannibals” scenario remains unchallenged. Currently, Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

In her guise as mild-mannered urban fantasy authorSeanan McGuire, Mira was the recipient of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. You can find her works as both Mira and Seanan at her main bibliography page. Seanan’s website is the best place to find information on where both she and Mira will be appearing.

Both Feed and Deadline have been nominated for Hugo Awards, as has “Countdown,” the first novella in the Newsflesh universe.

ANTHONY: So, Mira, how does it feel to have the final book in the Newsflesh Trilogy finally in the hands of readers?

MIRA: It’s a huge relief.  It’s also terrifying, because the series is closed now: it’s over.  If everyone hated BLACKOUT, there would be nothing I could do.  Luckily, the book has been pretty well received so far, but it’s been a really nerve-wracking experience.

ANTHONY: In reviews, I’ve described FEED as “a political thriller set against the zombie apocalypse” and DEADLINE as “a medical thriller set against the zombie apocalypse.” I think BLACKOUT is going to get tagged as an “end of the world thriller set against the zombie apocalypse.” Did you intend each book to have a different genre feel, or am I imagining things?

MIRA: They were all very different stories–in fact, that’s why DEADLINE ended when it did.  It ended at the moment that the genre transitioned from medical thriller to fringe science/conspiracy thriller.  The fact that this came in the midst of a lot of stuff exploding was sort of secondary to pursuing the themes I wanted to pursue.

ANTHONY: Newsflesh was always intended as a tightly-written trilogy, correct?  Now that all is said and done, do you wish it was an open-ended series, or are you truly done with Shaun and Georgia Mason and their friends and foes?

MIRA: No, I don’t: I’m glad to have written a closed world, because now the survivors get to go off and lead their lives without me.  I’ll still do things in that universe, but unless something changes dramatically, I’m genuinely done with those people.  They’ve earned it.

Blackout

ANTHONY: You’ve written several short stories linked to the trilogy. “Countdown” details the events leading up to the advent of the Kellis-Amberlee virus. I found that reading this story while already being aware of what the world is like post-KA only increased my sense of horror. Do you think that’s a prime part of effective horror, letting the reader know things the characters themselves don’t know?

MIRA: Yes, often.

ANTHONY: Even though the book trilogy is completed, you have plans to release further Newsflesh-related short stories, correct? When can we look forward to seeing those? And where can readers find the stories that have already been published?

MIRA: Well, “Everglades” was published in THE LIVING DEAD 2, and is available from Night Shade Books.  “Countdown” is available as an e-book from the Orbit Short Fiction Program, and will be available as a gorgeous limited edition hardcover from Subterranean Press this October.  “San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats” will be published electronically by the Orbit Short Fiction Program on July 11th, 2012.

ANTHONY: Outside of the world of Newsflesh, what else are you working on, and when can we look forward to seeing it?

MIRA: I’m working on two books under my real name, Seanan McGuire–CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, in the October Daye series, and HALF-OFF RAGNAROK, in the InCryptid series–and one book as Mira Grant, PARASITE, which kicks off the Forced Evolutions duology.  All three will be released over the course of the next two years.

ANTHONY: Some authors hate this question, but it seems appropriate in this context: if the Newflesh Trilogy were optioned for film (or better yet, for HBO), who do you picture filling the roles of Shaun, Georgia, Mahir, Buffy, and the rest?

MIRA: They have been optioned for film, and I can’t wait to see who gets cast!

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

MIRA: My favorite book in all the world is IT, by Stephen King.  I think it may be the best book about childhood, and adulthood, and growing up, that’s ever been written.  Also, much of what I say will make more sense if you read this book.  Seriously.