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Book Review: Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror edited by Lynne Jamneck

 

Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror  edited by Lynne Jamneck, illustrations by Daniele Serra

Dark Regions Press, 2016

ISBN 9781626411111 (ebook)

Available: Pre-order Kindle ebook, hardcover, trade paperback

I haven’t contributed financially to many Indiegogo projects, but when I saw the announcement for Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror, I knew I couldn’t pass it up, and I’m very glad I did not.

Dreams from the Witch House is a collection of twenty weird fiction stories, each one set in various times and places with characters and themes that resonate with the reader long after the tales have concluded. I had to take some time to mentally process each tale after I read them. The authors have crafted tales that really impact the reader. It’s hard to even say which one is my favourite since they each have their own distinct qualities. From the firsshadows-of-the-evening-joyce-carol-oates-1000px (1)t story by the legendary Joyce Carol Oates (what a way to start a book!) to the last, each story has so much complexity and succeed in evoking different emotions in such short page space.  I found that I have something to say about every one of these stories, but I have selected a few that really stand out.

“Shadows of the Evening” by Joyce Carol Oates is the story of Magdalena Schӧn told by her granddaughter. After being forced to leave home, Magdalena finds herself living with her wealthy great-aunt, Erica Kistenmacher to whom she is to be a companion. Finding that she has ample free time, she takes to wandering the streets of her new town. She is beckoned by a handsome voice singing a haunting song. She finds the owner of the voice, and he changes her forever.

Tamsyn Muir’s “The Woman in the Hill” is written in the form of a letter from Caroline, a woman who is afraid she is losing her mind. After her friend Elizabeth tells her of finding a door in a hill, she disappears mysteriously. Caroline discovers Elizabeth wasn’t the first to disappear, and most certainly won’t be the last.

“Pippa’s Crayons” by Christine Morgan is a story of a child whose crayons, crafted by her grandfather, display colours not of this world. Despite the short length of this story, Morgan has written an incredibly chilling story.

“Cthulhu’s Mother” by Kelda Circh injects some humour into the collection with a conversation between cultists of Cthulhu and the rather strict mother of the Sleeper of R’lyeh.

In addition the previously named authors, other women who have lent their writing skills to Dreams from the Witch House are, Collen Douglas, Cat Hellison, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Lucy Brady, Marly Youmans, Sanya Taaffe, Gemma Files, Molly Tanzer, Karen Heuler, Lois H. Gresh, Nancy Kilpatrick, E.R. Knightsbridge, Amanda Downum, Storm Constantine, R.A Kaelin, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, with full colour artwork by Daniele Serra. Introduction by editor, Lynne Jamneck.

I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys incredible weird fiction. I was not disappointed with any of the stories. The artwork that Serra created for each story are beautifully rendered. To date, I have only had access to the ebook. The paperback version is still forthcoming.

Highly recommended

Contains: mild body horror, sexuality

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Women in Horror Month: 5 Books By Women Writers That Horror Readers Might Not Know (But Should)

Far be it from me to dictate an entire canon of works (at least today) but there are definitely some books by women authors that deserve to be known better than they are, and they often get shorted because the story of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein is pretty amazing, so everybody writes about her. There are lots of great women writers who aren’t Mary Shelley, though, and I can only claim to have read a few of them, despite my intention to do better. Here are some books you might have heard of but passed on for some reason– or maybe they are unknown to you.

1.) Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Toni TheMorrison is a great American writer, so I hope most people at least recognize her name. Beloved was made into a movie, so it’s you may at least know of that. The story concerns Sethe, an escaped slave, living in Ohio many years after her escape, in a house haunted by a ghostly child.  To say more than that is to give away what was (to me, anyway) the breathtaking, visceral shock of some of  the book’s later events. Morrison uses a nonlinear writing style, and the events move back and forth in time, so this is not a quick, light, beach read. But it is certainly one that will leave an impact.

2.)  The Keep by Jennifer Egan

The Keep is a nested story, with a story about a character situated in a Gothic trope– visiting an acquaintance who is renovating a castle with Gothic terrors and trappings, which is also a playground for bored people who want to imagine they are living in the Gothic… and all of this is framed by yet another story. The Keep does not tie up all of its loose ends, so if that bothers you, be warned. It’s really hard to describe this in just a few sentences without giving up some of the surprises in the plot, but suffice it to say that it is suitably creepy and unsettling. I’d save this for when you have plenty of time.

3.) The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton

The Castle of Los Angeles won a Stoker award in 2010, and was mentioned in the second edition of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror. Two of our reviewers chose to review it independently of each other, and both of the reviews were glowing. Despite her reputation as a horror writer, though, it is possible that you might not have come across this book, because it was published by a small press, Gray Friar Press, that does not (to my knowledge) seem to exist anymore. Cemetery Dance has republished it as an ebook, but hard copies appear to be only available used, so you would probably have to be looking for it specifically, or be blessed with serendipity, to come across it. The Castle of Los Angeles  takes place in a haunted theater, the Castle. While it uses many Gothic tropes, Morton makes them her own, and her eccentric mix of characters and their reasons for living in the Castle make it a unique contribution to the haunted house genre. It is a treasure for lovers of quiet horror.

4.) Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

If you are purely a horror reader you might not have come across the brilliant Connie Willis, who is primarily known as a science fiction writer. Among her other works, she has written a loosely connected series of books about historians in an alternate future who use time travel in their research. In Doomsday Book, history student Kivrin’s research trip to the Middle Ages is derailed when the tech running the machine collapses, having entered incorrect coordinates that send her to the time of the Black Death. The tech turns out to have contracted an unknown and deadly disease that spreads rapidly through the area, and the time travel lab is quarantined due to suspicion that the disease escaped from the past when Kivrin went through, trapping her there. This isn’t horror in the traditional sense, but the reader is a witness, through Kivrin, to the despair and terror caused by the Black Death. The parallel plot of the quarantine during the spread of the unknown disease in the future is more science-fictional, but Willis does not pull her punches, and she doesn’t seem to have compunctions about killing off characters you’ve grown to care about. The story builds over the course of the novel, and it is exhaustive in its detail, so you have to be patient, but it is so worth poking your toe outside the horror genre to delve into the horror and consequences of the spread of an epidemic disease.

5.) Nameless: The Darkness Comes by Mercedes M. Yardley

While she has published short stories and novellas before, this is Mercedes Yardley’s debut novel, and the first book in her Bone Angel trilogy. It’s relatively new, having just been released in December. We just reviewed it here, and when I asked my reviewers for a book by a top woman writer in the horror genre, this is the one that was suggested.  Luna, the protagonist, can see and speak to demons. When her niece is kidnapped by Luna’s brother’s ex-wife, a demon named Sparkles, the game is on! Described as “whimsical”, “gritty”, and “macabre”,  this novel, while technically an urban fantasy, gets high marks from lovers of horror as well.

 

I hope you’ve had a great month of reading women horror writers this month– but don’t stop now! Enjoy!

Writers’ Workshop with Brian Evenson

This is kind of nifty, especially coming on the heels of my finding and posting several articles and reviews of Brian Evenson on our Facebook page. Apparently this summer he will be leading a horror writing workshop… in Transylvania. A perfect location, right?

Here are some links regarding Evenson, his writing, and his newest work, in case you haven’t dropped by our Facebook page recently.

The Dark Fiction of an Ex-Mormon Writer from The New Yorker

Brian Evenson’s Writing Is As Beautiful As It Is Brutal  from VICE

How Do You Live In A World That Is Not The World You Thought It Was? An Interview With Brian Evenson from Tinhouse.com

A Master At Work: A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson (review) from Electric Literature

 

I’m not endorsing anything, and I haven’t read his work, but he sounds like a fascinating guy, with writing worth checking out, even if you don’t have the money or desire to spend a week hanging out with him in Dracula country.

 

Anyway, the press release is below.
Transylvania workshop lets writers explore the ‘Mecca of Horror’

Transylvania has been synonymous with horror since Bram Stoker penned his opus
back in 1897.

Writers & Publishers International <http://www.writersandpublishers.org/about/>
(WPI) offers writers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on a novel or
short story in Transylvania, the birthplace of the infamous Vlad the Impaler.

Running from August 7th to 14th, the Horror Writer’s Workshop is the ultimate
summer vacation for any writer of dark fiction, from extreme horror to
paranormal romance and everything in between. Attendees will dramatically
improve their writing skills while exploring the darkness lurking behind the
beautiful castles and fairytale villages of Romania.

Between visits to some of the region’s most notorious sites, including the
reputedly haunted Bran Castle—one of the inspirations for Stoker’s Dracula,
writers will benefit from the experience and knowledge of instructor Brian
Evenson. Evenson, a multi award-winning horror writer and professor, has
published over a dozen novels and translated many others.

The professor of literary arts at Brown for over a decade, he is now inspiring
students at the California Institute of the Arts.

“Brian has a way of making all the things that stifle writing disappear,
including fear and self-doubt, leaving only stories to be written,” says K.
Scott Forman, a former student of Evenson’s. “His teaching style is conducive to
creativity, to experimentation, and most importantly, is focused on the
individual writer finding his or her own voice.”

The weeklong retreat takes place at Mama Cozonacilor, a charming family-owned
inn located in the stunning mountainous region of Bran, Transylvania. It’s
impossible to remain uninspired while walking the cobblestone streets of
Sighişoara, where Vlad the Impaler was born, or while exploring the eerie Râșnov
Fortress, where two Turkish well diggers met their doom.

“The biggest misconception people have about horror is that it’s gratuitous.
They hear horror and think SAW—the most visceral movie they’ve ever heard of,”
says Evenson. “Most great horror is a serious investigation about the
strangeness of the world. There’s a lot of really interesting, sophisticated
writing going on in the world of horror right now.”

Those interested are encouraged to reserve their spot with a deposit, as there
is limited space available and the workshop will sell out quickly. During the
month of February, WPI is offering a special two-for-one discount—those who book
with a spouse, friend, or family member will get 50 percent off their
registration fees. This deal ends on February 29th.

For more information, please contact:

Tausha Johnson, Program Director

info@workshopwriters.com <mailto:info@workshopwriters.com>

+34 682798328