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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!

Posted on February 29, 2016 by , Reply

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

Posted on February 13, 2016 by , 1 comment

Women in Horror Month: Mary Shelley’s”Hideous Progeny”

And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart. - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley  When writing about women in horror, it’s almost impossible not to mention Mary Shelley.

Who was Mary Shelley? She was the daughter of two brilliant and unconventional thinkers, whose mother died in childbirth. A gifted and unconventional thinker herself, she read and wrote in five languages, and set herself an ambitious reading program. She was a pregnant teenager– just sixteen– who, accompanied by her half-sister, ran away from home with Percy Shelley, an older, married man. Disowned by her father, looked down on because she was an unmarried mother for most of that time, she saw three of her children die at a young age, the first just a few weeks after she was born.

Pregnancy must have been often on her mind often, and the consequences were often unpleasant: Shelley’s wife was pregnant when he ran away with Mary (she eventually committed suicide); and Mary’s half-sister was abandoned by Lord Byron when she announced she was carrying his child. It was in the midst of these events that Mary Shelley birthed her novel, Frankenstein.  Yet, Mary loved being a mother and loved her children. People familiar with the genesis of Frankenstein know the story of the wager made one dark and stormy night at the Villa Diodiati, between Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Mary Shelley; but Mary Shelley’s creation did not emerge from a vacuum. Her birth, which caused her mother’s death; her witness to the abandonment of other pregnant women (Shelley’s wife and her own half-sister); and the early death of her first child, all combined in the emotions and mind of an intellectually advanced teenage girl with intense emotions who was fascinated by the world around her.

In Literary Women, Ellen Moers relates that shortly after the death of Mary’s first child, she wrote “Dream that my little baby came to life again, that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived”. It’s no surprise, then, that the nightmare she wrote is a vision of the terrible power and consequences that accompany the creation,  the possibility of reanimation, and the death of a living creature. In Frankenstein is a synthesis of all the guilt, fear of abandonment, joy, and pain that Mary felt– a story narrated by men and monsters that illuminates a woman’s complex feelings about birth, parenthood, and death.

 

Posted on February 4, 2015 by , Reply
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