For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

Cheryl Zaidan author of “The Girl with the Peculiar Smile”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story wasn’t based on a specific work by Stephen King but rather I played with some of the concepts he uses – including supernatural elements and traumatic family dynamics. King also writes great child protagonists, so I wanted to make my main character a smart, wise-beyond-her-years girl who is also still very much a child – much like Trisha McFarland in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Gwendolyn Kiste has been a favorite for a while now. And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is an amazing collection of her short stories. Beautifully written and quite creepy.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

I was thinking I didn’t have one and oddly enough Strange Little Girl by The Stranglers popped up on my shuffle. It fits (and it’s also a great song.)

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

It sounds like a cliché but I adore Nancy from the original Nightmare on Elm Street. She comes across as a nice, sweet girl but when things get tough, she’s ready to fight. When Nancy says, “I’m into survival”, you know she means it.

Sealey Andrews author of “Emily Mine”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story was inspired by Stephen King’sCujo.The influencing elements were a slow-burning domestic tension and an exploration of the dichotomy between feelings of resentment toward motherhood versus the inherent need to protect one’s child from danger. And, of course, there is a crazed animal with an agenda of his own.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

One of my favorite modern female authors is Louise Erdrich. Her novel Future Home of the Living Godis particularly outstanding.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover author of “Let The Rain Settle It”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My favorite short story of King’s is “Rainy Season,” which has always been an unpopular choice—it’s been accused of being too similar to Jackson’s “The Lottery” and in general, its reviews aren’t positive. But it’s been said the experience of a story is different for each reader, because it depends on what that person brings to the table. I didn’t read it until it was reprinted in his 1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection. As a starry-eyed twenty-two year old who was, at the time, blissfully unaware she was engaged in a toxic relationship, I connected most with the subtle clues King presents about the broken young couple heading toward not just physical demise, but an eventual emotional disaster if they did survive. While John and Elise aren’t the focus of King’s narrative—the spotlight, as always, shines on unsettling Mainers—they’re clearly in a place where the ordinary drudge of life and its reactionary transgressions have squelched the blush of love and romance. The blinders are off, they see each other for who they really are, and it’s not pretty. This is something we face in our every day lives, and so, if we look deeper, it’s an important commentary on the real world. “Rainy Season” isn’t just another folk horror tale or creature feature. It’s a warning that the killer toads of life are always at your romantic door, and sometimes, it’s just better to let them in.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

The contemporary female writer I love the most as far as the short form goes is Gina Ochsner. Her collections The People I Wanted to Be and The Necessary Grace to Fall are fantastic in both emotional timbre and light infusion of the supernatural, and I read them over and over. Her work is definitely worth examining.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

“Barren Ground” by Bruce Hornsby & the Range.

What are some of your current writing projects?

I have a LOT of irons in the fire. My new collection, Songs for a Dying World, is slated for 2024, and a new novel, Tidings—provided I get it finished—is slated for 2025. But I write a lot of stuff in between for specific calls, or stories that just show up. My non-writing time is all spent on 34 Orchard. I’m also currently editing Wicked Sick for the New England Horror Writers.

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

I’m not exactly sure that she’d be considered a “final girl,” but my favorite female in a horror film has always been Rachel Keller from The Ring. She’s got pluck, confidence, drive and ambition; she’s passionate and crackerjack in her career; she’s a single mom to a precocious child. But she’s also vulnerable in many ways: she’s an emotionally damaged person, although we don’t know quite why; her life is disorganized and chaotic—probably fallout from trauma; she has all the hallmarks of a trauma survivor—and she does her best even though she often fails. She’s also, clearly, still hurt by and in love with her son’s father—who has moved on—but is headstrong enough to go to him for help. It’s her vulnerability that makes her stronger—because she knows how to put that vulnerability aside and do what she has to do when it matters. It fuels her ultimate success, and that’s the true definition of a strong female heroine.

Read Cheryl Zaidan, Sealey Andrews & Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

DID YOU ENJOY WHAT YOU JUST READ? IF YES, THEN SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG, GIVE THE POST A LIKE, OR LEAVE A COMMENT! NEW POSTS ARE UP EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY!

For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

Rachel Bolton author of “Sharp Teeth”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

Carrie inspired “Sharp Teeth.” I always had sympathy for Carrie, more than Stephen King did. In On Writing he considers her a girl version of Harris and Klebold, which I disagree with. Part of me wanted her to win. For this anthology, I didn’t want to write an exact reinterpretation. I took certain themes from the book and played around with them under different circumstances. The biggest difference is that Ann wanted her powers.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

My two favorite modern female authors are Carmen Maria Machado and Gretchen Felker-Martin. They both write very differently from each other, but their work is beautiful, frightening, and deeply political. All things great horror should be. All things I want to achieve as a writer. 

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

I can’t think of a specific one, but any 50’s pop song would be fitting. Especially if it’s by a girl group. 

What are some of your current writing projects?

Oh boy, I have a lot going on. I’m trying to finish a novella, I have numerous short stories in progress, and there is a full length comic script that desperately needs a full second rewrite. I hope to have a short story collection out in the next few years. I also write a Kennedy themed substack called Trapped in Camelot. 

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

Ellen Ripley! She’s tough, vulnerable, and always handles herself whenever she’s surrounded by idiots. “Get away from her, you bitch!” Best line ever. 

Jane Nightshade author of “The Sorting”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

My story The Sorting was loosely inspired by the Loser’s Club from Stephen King’s IT. The Loser’s Club of a gang of misfit kids ring true to the way I grew up in an era where neighborhood kids hung out together and rode all over town without having to tell their parents where they were going. A different time.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

I don’t know if they qualify as “modern” but the horror stories of Shirley Jackson and Daphne DuMaurier are big favorites.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

Since my short story takes place on Halloween, I’d say it would be a great Halloween song like “Little Ghost” from Paranorman.

What are some of your current writing projects?

Working on a full-length novel that’s an origin story for one of my more successful short tales, Rockin’ Around the Murder Tree. Continuing to write at least one or two short stories a month as well. Also, getting ready for the publication of my collection of short stories, “A Scream Full of Ghosts,” coming out sometime next year from Dark Ink.

Who’s your favorite final girl and why?

My favorite final girl is Olivia Hussey in the original “Black Christmas.” She’s a very good actress.

Read Rachel Bolton & Jane Nightshade’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

DID YOU ENJOY WHAT YOU JUST READ? IF YES, THEN SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG, GIVE THE POST A LIKE, OR LEAVE A COMMENT! NEW POSTS ARE UP EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY!

For the month of March, in order to celebrate Women in Horror, I’ll be highlighting interviews with some of the authors that appear in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster – Stories Inspired by Stephen King Women in Horror Anthology.

L.E. Daniels author of “Silk”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

First published in Cavalier magazine in 1972, “The Mangler” was later included in Stephen King’s 1978 Night Shift collection. An industrial laundry press is exposed to magical elements of nightshade, a bat, and virgin’s blood, summoning a demon that possesses the machine and attacks the workers. Also peering into the dark side of industrialization, my story “Silk” explores the conditions of the child workforce in the early twentieth-century New England mills. My grandmother, a child of Italian immigrants, survived polio and worked in such a mill. At five, her first job was pulling dead silk moth caterpillars from their boiled cocoons.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

Lately, I’ve been reading short story anthologies like Sara Tantlinger’s Chromophobia, James Aquilone’s Classic Monsters Unleashed, and Other Terrors edited by Rena Mason and Vince A. Liaguno and the rising tide of female voices within from these pages is exquisite. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d go with Geneve Flynn. She fearlessly tackles edgy themes within narratives loaded with the residue of intergenerational trauma and deeply-informed cultural nuance. She’s a total badass.

Which song would be the soundtrack to your story?

Since the story spans the 1920s, recording of “America the Beautiful” performed by Louise Homer in 1924 would cast a shadow over images of children working the aisles of the New England mills.

For a sensation of being completely out of control for the big finish, the 1929 recording of “You Were Meant for Me” by Nat Shilkret with Dick Robertson on vocals might also leave us breathless.

What are some of your current writing projects?

This week, I’m currently braiding a few true ghost stories together into one narrative for Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s 34 Orchard literary journal.

Rebecca Rowland author of “The Clawset”

Which Stephen King novel/short story inspired your short story?

“The Clawset” is a feminist reimagining of King’s “The Boogeyman” from his Night Shift (1978) collection. My father was a huge King fan, so his paperbacks filled our bookcase when I was growing up, and I remember reading Night Shift when I was pretty young. I loved a number of the stories in that collection, but “The Boogeyman” flat out terrified me and the imagery stayed with me. Even as a freshman in college, I could not sleep with the closet door ajar.

For the culmination of my graduate degree in English literature, I analyzed King’s female characters in (what was at the time) his more recent releases: Dolores Claiborne, Gerald’s Game, Insomnia, Rose Madder, and Needful Things. So many of his twentieth-century stories portray women as either the victims of men or the monsters who destroy them. I reread “The Boogeyman” recently, and his portrayal of the one woman who appears (tangentially) in it is very telling of the time in which King penned it nearly fifty years ago. I wanted “The Clawset” to be a 2020s version of his tale with an all-female cast, and I named the characters very purposefully. It’s my love letter to Stephen King and the influence his stories had—and continue to have—on my writing.

Who’s your favorite modern female author?

There are so many to choose from, it’s difficult to name one as a favorite. I adore Gwendolyn Kiste’s writing: it’s feminist with a whip smart wit I adore, and I’ll read anything she puts her hand to. As a fan of short fiction in particular, I love seeing the names of women writers whose work I’m familiar with in thematic anthologies and reading their interpretations of those themes, women like KC Grifant, EV Knight, Kenzie Jennings, Ruthann Jagge, Candace Nola, Holly Rae Garcia, Bridgett Nelson, Stephanie Ellis, Hailey Piper, C.O. Davidson, Elin Olausson, and of course, three of the kick ass women I share space with in this anthology: Amy Grech, L.E. Daniels, and Kristi Petersen-Schoonover. The stuff all of these women are crafting is simply genius: it’s horrific and original and more than anything, smart as hell.

What are some of your current writing projects?

My seventh curated anthology, American Cannibal, drops just a few days after this anthology, and it’s a true juggernaut with twenty stories from some of the biggest names writing horror today: I can’t wait for readers to take a bite out of it. My own stories will be appearing in anthologies here and there throughout 2023, including in Sinister Smile Press’ Just a Girl women in horror collection later this month (March 2023). My next novelette, Rock of Ages, debuts in a horror anthology that benefits a Texas-area food bank in June, and my next short fiction collection, White Trash & Recycled Nightmares, drops from Stygian Sky Media in late summer. I maintain a (likely obnoxious) website, RowlandBooks.com, and a (definitely silly) Instagram, @Rebecca_Rowland_books. I hope readers will give them a look.

It’s certainly easier being a woman in horror today than it was thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago, but it still isn’t a piece of cake: there will always be INCELs and boys’ club naysayers lurking about, trolling social media and slapping blind, one-star reviews on anything they see is penned by a woman. I’m endlessly appreciative of small presses, reviewers, and influencers that take the time to spotlight the women who write horror. We may still be in the minority, but make no mistake: we are a force to be reckoned with.

Read L.E. Daniels & Rebecca Rowland’s stories in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster along with other amazing authors!

Purchase book here!

DID YOU ENJOY WHAT YOU JUST READ? IF YES, THEN SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG, GIVE THE POST A LIKE, OR LEAVE A COMMENT! NEW POSTS ARE UP EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY!