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Women in Horror Fiction: H.I. Moscato (H.I.M.)

Women in Horror Month is technically over, but we still have more good stuff to share. Today, an interview with H.I. Moscato. If you didn’t know about her already, you might not have discovered her easily on your own. Enjoy!

Product DetailsH.I. Moscato is the author of a two-book vampire series, Vampire’s Song (2009 Amazon) and The Sound of Blood (Vampire’s Song) (2013 Amazon), as well as various short stories.

 

Can you give our readers a brief introduction?

My full name is Hortenzia Ilona Moscato and I publish under my initials, H.I.M., due to its length. I’m an author of a two- book vampire series and several short horror stories. I found my love of writing rather late in life when I caught up on reading all the books that my favorite author of the time had written and was having a hard time finding a replacement read that filled the same void. After a great deal of frustration in not finding what I was looking for I thought it would be fun to write something myself–  never thinking anyone would ever see it. That was all it took to fall in love with the craft. It’s now been 12 years, and my love affair with writing is still going strong.

 

Why do you write horror?  What draws you to the genre?

As all young children I feared the monsters under my bed and somehow early on I realized that the only way to keep them– the monsters– from eating me up was to befriend them with offerings of cookies. Now I chase their friendship on paper.

 

Can you describe your writing style or the tone you prefer to set for your stories?

I prefer to take a seemingly normal start to a story and then slowly twist it into something the reader never saw coming.

 

Who are some of your influences?  Are there any women authors who have particularly inspired you to write?

I find I’m influenced by every author I read. I can’t help but pull out everything I love, hate, got excited about, mad at or cried over out of every story. I’m not sure how you can’t be influenced one way or another– that’s, in my opinion the beauty of reading.

 

What authors do you like to read?  Any Recommendations?

Wow, that’s a tall order to fill. There are so many great writers. I’d have to say the best place to get a taste for an author’s work is through anthologies. I see them as sampler platters for novels.
Where can readers find your work?

I have two novels out, Vampires’ Song and its sequel The Sound of Blood both available on Amazon in hard copy and Kindle, as well as several short stories through Horrified Press and James Kirk Ward Publishing.

 

 

 

Posted on March 14, 2014 by , Reply

Review: Four Elements by Charlee Jacob, Rain Graves, Linda Addison, and Marge Simon

It’s not traditional for us to publish our reviews right here on the blog, but with Women in Horror month just ended and Stoker season already here,  I wanted to share a review here that showcases a book belonging in both categories. This will appear on the site as well, as soon as there’s an opportunity to post it. Sumiko Saulson also published an interview with Linda Addison about Four Elements, which I’ll link to here.

And now, the review.
    Four Elements by Charlee Jacob, Marge Simon, Rain Graves and Linda Addison

Bad Moon Books/Evil Jester Press, 2013

Available: New paperback, Kindle edition

ISBN-13: N/A

 

Four Elements is a collection of poetry and short fiction by four women of horror who are all Bram Stoker Award winning poets. Each writer takes on one of the four elements of nature—earth, air, fire and water—and brings their own vision to each.

“Earth” by Marge Simon contains poems and stories that all deal with various consequences of people’s actions including war, desolation, destruction and death, including “A Time For Planting” about the consequences of love and lust and “Quake” about how short our time can be.

“Water” by Rain Graves which includes many pieces dealing with destruction through mythology, including a series of six poems, which I loved, titled “Hades and Its Five” that encompasses all of the myths of Hades, the river Styx and the ferryman.

“Fire” by Charlee Jacob that includes works dealing with death and destruction.  My favorite here is “Accidental Tourists” about a couple of voyeurs who find love at the scene of a horrific car accident and their many names for the color red—the color of life and death.  There is also a series of ten poems called “Reaching Back to Eden” that involve the consequences of the actions of Adam, Eve, Lilith and Satan.

“Air” by Linda Addison contains poems about the power of the wind to shape life and our environment as well as describing the soul as air versus the body.  “Lost in Translation” is one of my favorites here, about air as a hidden, living being.  “Upon First Seeing Ongtupqa” is a beautiful description about air moving through canyons, wearing away the earth and exposing millennia of past life.

All of the prose and poetry is dark, beautiful and vivid in its imagery. There is emotion behind the words that will draw a visceral response from the reader. All of the poetry by these four amazing women is so powerful you will find yourself reading Four Elements again and again.  I have already read through it twice.  If you are a fan of dark poetry then Four Elements is for you. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Colleen Wanglund

 

Posted on March 2, 2014 by , Reply

Women in Horror Fiction: Women in Horror Month– Introducing “Shelley’s Daughters”, by Colleen Wanglund

 

February is officially Women in Horror Month, and while it began with a focus on women in the horror film industry—including actresses, writers, directors, and others working behind the scenes— our goal is to expand this focus to include female horror authors. There are so many women writing horror, some famous but many who are not well-known. Their work is not published and pushed by the major publishing houses; most female authors are published by small houses and in some instances, they self-publish (hooray for the internet!).  And yet, time and again, “Best of” lists continue to be made up of male writers.  Are the women any less worthy?  Is their work not as good as their male counterparts?  Hell no!  We don’t know why female horror authors, for the most part, are overlooked, but we hope to remedy that. So, here at Monster Librarian, we are going to make an active effort to promote women in horror not just by occasionally publishing interviews, but by compiling an index of published women horror writers from Ann Radcliffe to the present.  It’s an ambitious project, but there is no resource that really addresses this topic: in her Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction, Becky Siegel Spratford was able to spotlight only five women writers, although I know she would have liked to include more.  Colleen Wanglund and I are going to be spearheading this project, which we’re calling “Shelley’s Daughters”, If there are people who would like to contribute, you can contact  me at our general email address, monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com, or at kirsten.kowalewski@monsterlibrarian.com. And now, some words from one of my favorite women in horror, and partner in crime (or at least in promoting women writers of horror), Colleen Wanglund.

 

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Women in Horror Month

by Colleen Wanglund

I am a woman in horror; I am one of Shelley’s Daughters, and I am proud to be able to say that.

I was exposed to horror at an early age, both books and movies, thanks to my parents. When I was in high school I wanted to be a writer, but life got in the way and I got sidetracked. At the age of 39, I was asked to write a book review as a favor for a friend of mine. The book was Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head (2009 Coscom Entertainment). That began my journey back to being a writer. And I cannot thank that friend enough as he has also become a sort of mentor. For years I’ve written book reviews, eventually branching out into film reviews, and the genre I’ve always written about is horror. I have dabbled in fiction here and there, but only recently have I begun to seriously write horror fiction. I won a horror fiction contest for unpublished writers with my short story “Slugs”, I’ve recently sold a short story titled “The Mad Monk of St. Augustine’s” to an upcoming anthology, and I’m working hard on finishing up a novella based on Japanese Pinku (exploitation) films.

But why the love affair with horror? One answer is that I have many fears in this life and horror allows me to face some of those fears at a safe distance. I can put my fears and anxieties to paper as a sort of therapy. It has the potential to help me wrap my brain around some of the horrible atrocities committed by humans all over the world and throughout history. I also find horror to be the most “real” genre out there. Everyone suffers tragedy—in varying degrees, mind you—and horror can act as a catharsis for the feelings associated with those tragedies. We can relate, empathize, or sympathize to what is happening on the page (or on the screen).

As a society horror brings people together to face our collective fears, whether real or imagined. Serial killers, monsters, ghosts—they all represent something for everyone. And I’ve said before that I think women have a unique perspective to bring to the table when it comes to writing horror. We are more emotional and I believe that translates well to the development of characters and the situations they may find themselves in. We live our own horrors in childbirth, letting our children out into the real world, love and loss. We are viewed as the weaker sex, depicted as needing saving, yet at the same time we are expected to be strong for the people around us—our children and loved ones. We are the caregivers and that doesn’t stop because the apocalypse is upon us.

I would like to eventually see Women in Horror Month become unnecessary, but for now it’s needed.  All too often women are being overlooked in a genre they—we—love, and that’s just wrong. I think my main objective is to get the reader to see that gender shouldn’t matter in writing horror stories.  What should matter is the story itself.

 

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Stay tuned and see what we come up with next to promote “Shelley’s Daughters”, and the women of horror fiction!

 

Posted on March 2, 2014 by , Reply
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