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Women in Horror Fiction: Romancing the Groan– A Valentine’s Day Guest Post by Tonia Brown

It’s Valentine’s Day! That makes it a PERFECT opportunity to talk about something problematic for women writing in the horror genre– the categorization of anything paranormal written by a woman, especially if it contains romantic elements, as part of the romance or urban fantasy genres.

Er, no. Take a look at this, inspired by a book written by a woman.

By definition, a romance novel has to have an HEA (happily ever after) at the end.

In spite of the hand holding and the bridal gown, this doesn’t qualify.

Yet it is an issue. In the recent discussion on sexism and horror, sponsored by the HWA, Sephera Giron made this comment:

“It’s always assumed I write romance no matter how much black I’m wearing in a bookstore or convention!!!! Where I said I write paranormal romance in the above post, I actually don’t but people perceived it as such because I wrote six books in a series for Ravenous Romance. The romance people wouldn’t read it because they thought it was horror. The horror people wouldn’t read it because they thought it was romance. It’s really erotica with a coven of witches (hey if you like Coven, you’ll probably like these) but everyone likes to pretend that since I’m a woman, it must be paranormal romance. I’m not sure I’ve ever written a happy ending yet.”

Can horror contain romantic elements? Absolutely. Psychology Today tells us that love is addictive, obsessive, and makes us prone to recklessness. We see plenty of all of that in horror fiction, from The Phantom of the Opera to Married With Zombies. And horror with romantic elements is hardly limited to women writers. Phantom was penned by a man, Gaston Leroux.  and adapted into a musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. If you’re looking for a more recent example, well, there’s this book called Lisey’s Story

 

So on that note, here’s a guest post by horror author Tonia Brown, that touches on just this topic. Warning, it’s NSFW.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Romancing the Groan

By Tonia Brown

    It only took a few seconds of prompting for Coil’s lust to kick his worry in the ass and take command. He pushed her to the couch again and continued toying with her. 

“If I wanted a gentleman,” she whispered, “I wouldn’t have worn my naughty undies.”

Coil growled in approval.

“Do you want to see ‘em?” she asked.

“Oh yeah,” he said and leaned back.

Laura  fluttered her dress over her hips, flashing him an eyeful of pink lace before sliding the fabric in place once more. “What do you want to see now?”

“Your naughty undies.”

“Again?” Laura grabbed the hem of her dress, ready to flash him a second time.

Coil snatched up her hand and shook his head, his grin as wild and mischievous as that of a horny teenager. “I wanna see ‘em, all right. I wanna see ‘em on the floor.”

Laura matched his smile with one just as dirty. “That’s more like it. Come here, you.”

Coil fell into her seduction with a joyful ease.

He considered it an hour well spent.

 

The above section is a snippet from my novel Sundowners. From the clip, you could imagine the book to be an erotic romance, or an urban romance, or even a period romance. Steampunk romance? Romantic comedy? The point being, one may assume it is a romance. But wait, here is another snippet from the same novel:

 

She took up the razor and turned it on herself. Naomi cut away her fair share with a few determined slices, not to mention a whole lot of wincing and hissing. Using the corner of the razor, she peeled back the edge of her square, just a bit. She grasped this loose end of flesh and yanked, pulling along the guidelines she had worked into her own calf. The bloody square came away in one piece, then slipped from her trembling fingers with a wet slop to the floor. No bother. A little dirt wouldn’t make it any worse for wear. She planned on washing the whole quilt when she was done anyway.

Lightheaded and nauseated, Naomi picked up her needle and went back to work.

The voice guided her tired hands, assuring her that this was the right thing to do.

For the community.

 

Wait up now? How can the first part be sexy and this be … horror? Simple enough, it is a horror novel with romantic elements. Two of the characters rekindle an old passion and end up exploring those feelings as well as each other all across the pages. Feelings? Romantic sex? Love? Those aren’t elements of horror! What are you thinking, woman!

When folks envision horror, they often forget that romance can play an important element of the story. Yet, many characters in horror novels are driven by romantic intentions. Whether it’s a young man trying to rescue his lady love from the undead, or a wife seeking her husband’s soul in hell, romance can be a valid and powerfully driving plot point. Regardless of this, there is a notion somewhere in the horror community that romance has no place in horror. As if you stop feeling just because there is a nameless terror chasing you down, ready to tear your heart out and eat it. If anything, you feel harder at these times. It is common knowledge that battling stress brings folks closer together, and when folks get close, they can easily develop feelings for one another. Just replace the word ‘stress’ with words like ‘demons’ or ‘zombies’ or ‘Cthulhian nightmares’ and you see how this can work.

More importantly, a romantic subplot brings you, the reader, closer to the characters. Romance brings out the vulnerability of a person. You think it’s hard to escape from the undead? Try opening up to a living person, trusting them with your heart and soul, much less finding the bravery it takes to get naked with them! When a writer gives a hard bitten, zombie fighting, gun slinging guy a romantic interest in the midst of his badassery, it creates a whole new dimension to his makeup. He isn’t just a gun toting killing machine anymore; suddenly he possesses real depth and emotion. Romance humanizes characters. Real people fall in love, why wouldn’t characters who are trying to be real?

Of course there are those who say that as a female writer it is inevitable that I add romance to a story. Believe it or not, I have been told that many, many times before. Recently someone said about my work, “You are a woman, so no surprise there is romance in the book.” It is true many women use romance in horror as a plot point or a driving emotion for their characters. In fact, the list Popular Horror Romance Novels on Goodreads is dominated by women. Authors such as Anne Rice, Karina Halle, and Poppy Z Brite. But romance in horror isn’t exclusive to females. Many male authors work love into the pages of blood soaked terror. Consider Stephen King, the Mack Daddy of horror. He often includes romantic elements in his tales. ‘Salem’s Lot featured a pretty hot and heavy romance between Ben and Susan all while they are battling a master vampire and his thrall. Hell, Lisey’s Story is a love letter to a happy marriage.

My point with all of this is to encourage readers to seek out romantic horror, and encourage other writers to explore romantic subplots.  Real characters deserve real emotions. We don’t stop loving when our lives get difficult. Why would they?

 

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Image of Tonia Brown   Tonia Brown is a southern author with a penchant for Victorian dead things. She lives in the backwoods of North Carolina with her genius husband and an ever fluctuating number of cats. She likes fudgesicles and coffee, though not always together. When not writing she raises unicorns and fights crime with her husband under the code names Dr. Weird and his sexy sidekick Butternut.

Tonia Brown’s short stories can be found in such anthologies as Horror Library, Vol. 5 (2013 Cutting Block Press), D.O.A. Extreme Horror Anthology (2011 Blood Bound Books), Best New Zombie Tales (Vol.3) (2011 Books of the Dead Press), and Bigfoot Terror Tales Vol. 1: Scary Stories of Sasquatch Horror (2012 Coscom Entertainment), among others.  Her novels and novellas include Badass Zombie Road Trip (2012 Books of the Dead Press), Lucky Stiff: Memoirs of an Undead Lover (2010, 2013 CreateSpace), the Railroad! Collection, and the Triple Shot collection.

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Interested in learning more about Tonia? Visit Tonia Brown’s Amazon page, her blog,  www.thebackseatwriter.com, or make friends with her at: www.facebook.com/backseatwriter.

 

Check It Out: HWA Vampire Novel of the Century

 

A couple of months ago we got a press release from the Horror Writers Association. It read, in part:

 

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the international association of writers, publishing professionals, and supporters of horror literature, in conjunction with the Bram Stoker Family Estate and the Rosenbach Museum & Library, proudly announce the nominees for the Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award™, to be presented at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet at World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 31, 2012. The Award will mark the centenary of the death in 1912 of Abraham (Bram) Stoker, the author of Dracula.

A jury composed of writers and scholars selected, from a field of more than 35 preliminary nominees, the six vampire novels that they believe have had the greatest impact on the horror genre since publication of Dracula in 1897. Eligible works must have been first published between 1912 and 2011 and published in or translated into English. The winning book will be announced on March 31, 2012. HWA will also celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary on that date.

 

 

We at MonsterLibrarian.com are here to help you learn a little about these titles. Here’s a link to a page we’ve created with reviews of each of the nominated books. Some of these are now out of print or difficult to find (The Soft Whisper of the Dead was a limited edition of only 2,800 copies) but if you search your existing collection you may find these books are already on your shelves. Even if they aren’t, and you can’t snag yourself a copy, this is a great time to showcase your vampire novels and movies. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has just come out with the twenty-fifth book in her Count Saint-Germain series, Commedia della Morte. Nominee Hotel Transylvania is the first book in that series. Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend has been made into three movies since it was published in 1954.

Want to find out more about the authors and their works? Click on the name of the author of each nominated book on the list below.

 

Nominees for HWA’s Vampire Novel of the Century

The Soft Whisper of the Dead (1983) written by Charles L. Grant.

Salem’s Lot(1975) written by Stephen King.

I Am Legend (1954) written by Richard Matheson.

Anno Dracula (1992) written by Kim Newman.

Interview with the Vampire (1976) written by Anne Rice.

Hotel Transylvania (1978) written by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

 

I personally have a hard time believing that it’s possible to pick ONE vampire novel from the past hundred years as having the most impact on the horror genre. But a list? That’s interesting, and it gives us- reviewers, librarians, educators, and readers- something to talk about and to share with others.  So several of our reviewers volunteered to write reviews for the books on the list. Some of the books were treasured possessions, others were library copies or first time reads.

I learned new things from reading about the books and their authors. Four of the named books were first in a series- Charles L. Grant wrote twelve books set in Oxrun Station; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro just published the 25th title in her Count Saint-Germain series, which begins with nominee Hotel Transylvania; Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula is the first in a trilogy; and Anne Rice followed Interview with the Vampire with so many other vampire tales that I’ve lost count. Three of them were published in the 1970’s- Salem’s Lot, Hotel Transylvania, and Interview With the Vampire. Interview With the Vampire, Salem’s Lot, and I Am Legend have all been made into movies. I was surprised to find that a few of the books are difficult to track down or out of print- Hotel Transylvania is only availalble as an ebook,  Soft Whisper of the Dead had a very limited print run, and reviewer Sheila Shedd had to send away for her copy of Anno Dracula. Again, check  your library shelves to see if you already own these. You might.

Even if you don’t own the books and can’t get them, this is still a great opportunity to showcase your vampire books and movies (no sparkles allowed). Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Commedia della Morte comes out this month, for starters; and if you click here you’ll find a list of additional titles as well as a few links to help you fill out your display. This is also a gold mine for discussion.  Here are some interesting questions to get you thinking…
 

  • Is it possible for there to be one vampire novel with more impact than any other?
  • Do you agree with the novels nominated for the award? Is there another book you’d include?
  • Which book do you think will win the award? Which one would you like to see win the award?
  • Did any of our reviews intrigue you enough to check out the book, if you haven’t already?

This inquiring mind would love to know! Enjoy, and please leave a comment!