Women in Horror Month ’23: Erika T. Wurth

The final interview in my WIHM series this year is with Erika T. Wurth! You can check out our conversation below. Be sure to also check out my interviews with S.C. Parris and Gretchen Felker-Martin!

Erika T. Wurth

Sonora: Tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been writing? Have you always gravitated towards horror and dark fiction?

Erika: I was a big reader as a kid, as long as it involved ghosts, spaceships or elves. But once I got to college, and then did my PhD, they ironed that out of me, and I started writing what some folks call literary fiction, and I would say is better labeled realism. But it was still dark. And eventually, I missed the ghosts.

Sonora: You recently released your third novel, White Horse. What was your inspiration for the story? What was it like writing it? Anything you want to share from the behind-the-scenes of getting it published?

Erika: It is my debut big five novel. I have two books of poetry, two novels and a collection of short stories ending in a novella out. In many ways, the novel is a love song to a dying Denver, where I’m from. And in other ways it’s a celebration of coming back to speculative literature. And it’s also about my grandmother who either suicided or was murdered by her husband, and the chaos that that caused in my family. I think this round it was a bit more joyful, because even though the subject matter is dark, I really loved returning to some of the things that I was passionate about as a kid. I also cared a lot more about structure and plot.

Publishing with a big five doesn’t necessarily mean you get everything you want, though I think that’s the perception that people have when they don’t. It means that IF your book starts to get a little bit of attention, then you get a bit more in the way of resources. But I had someone say pull out that Macmillan credit card! Let me assure you, there is no Macmillan credit card. Not for me. Additionally, on a completely separate note, it’s important to lift your peers up. If you’re continually only trying to get the attention of the big names in your field, or you’re pushing your peers actively down out of envy, it won’t serve you. The best thing you can do is pick a peer group who is writing in the genre and form you’re writing in, folks you really admire—and write articles about that work or at minimum uplift them on social media. Something that their editors might notice once it’s time for you to put that novel out in the world.

Sonora: Indigenous horror is a growing market, with stories from Stephen Graham Jones, Shane Hawk, and the speculative fiction of Louise Erdrich a few examples. What do you think indigenous authors bring to horror that’s unique from other stories?

Erika: I suppose I could see Erdrich in this camp, but I would add Jessica Johns BAD CREE, and V. Castro—she’s a Mexican Indigenous writer who is knocking it out of the park, and I think that THE HAUNTING OF ALEJANDRA is going to blow up. In general, I feel like this is a great time for Indigenous voices. There are those who want it to be only one, or those who want it to be all realism, but I think that Native American Science Fiction and fantasy and horror (and crime!) allows native people to get out of the box that fetishizes us. Horror specifically allows us to process some of the darker parts of our history. And it’s fun. We are allowed to have fun. We should be able to talk about darker subject matter in a speculative way, and we should be able to talk about the bogeyman from our own backgrounds.

Sonora: While many have done better to highlight diverse voices in literature, at least from what I’ve seen, they’ve often fallen short when highlighting Indigenous voices. What are your thoughts on the current state of Indigenous literature in the U.S.? What has gotten better with publishers, booksellers, and readers? What still needs to be improved?

Erika: I think there are those in the Native community and outside of the Native community that like I said, would prefer there to be one Native voice—with a creepy, pseudo-objective agenda as how to measure which one of us is the most authentic and the most tragic. It’s especially nauseating, because it plays right into the way in which Native people have been placed in this fetishistic space where everything has been done to crush our existence, physically and culturally. There needs to be a stronger sense of how complicated our history is, each one of us, each different nation—an understanding that many of us are urban, and have been for generations, and anyone who denies this, regardless of where they’re coming from—has an agenda, and that agenda is completely self-interested.

I have been a part of the movement in making it clear that it’s a much more spiritually and artistically healthy world when different Natives from completely different backgrounds are writing—and thriving— at the same time. And that is what’s happening. There are so many diverse voices writing right now, despite oppression from within and outside of our communities. Also, I would love it if more people would read books by Native Authors not to get a lesson in Native American culture, which you can get from a non-fiction, scholarly source, but because the book sounds fun and smart. It’s cool if you’re educated along the way, but we need to not allow ourselves to be fetish objects, but artists in our own right.

Sonora: Who are some of your favorite writers? What are some of your favorite books?

Erika: In horror, I love Grady Hendrix. Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Victor LaValle. My Indigenous brother from another mother, Stephen Graham Jones. And, of course, my partner in lifeL and in crime writing, David Heska Wanbli Weiden. I’m reading RF Kuang now, and I think she’s a genius. BABEL was groundbreaking in so many ways. And BL Blanchard, a Sci-Fi Anishinabee writer is KILLING IT. And Rebecca Roanhorse has change Native American fiction—in the best ways—forever.

Sonora: What are you currently working on?

Erika: I just signed the next contract with Flatiron for another literary horror novel, ROOM 904. It’s about a woman who finished her PhD in psychology, and just as she was about to go on the job market, her sister suicided, “turning on” the main character’s paranormal abilities. She becomes a paranormal investigator—and when The Brown Palace calls her to investigate a series of paranormal murders, where women check in every nine years and die three weeks later, she realizes it’s her sister who is now haunting the Brown. And then her mother checks in—and has three weeks to live if she doesn’t solve the murders.

Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and BOTM Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She is an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman for books, and Dana Spector for film. She lives in Denver with her partner, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs.

Women in Horror Month ’23: Gretchen Felker-Martin

My Women in Horror Month interview series continues with a conversation with Gretchen Felker-Martin! You can find our conversation below. And in case you missed it, be sure sure to check out last week’s interview with S.C. Parris!

Gretchen Felker-Martin

Sonora: How long have you been writing? Have you always been drawn to horror and dark speculative fiction?

Gretchen: I’ve been writing since I was about 14, and yeah, as a kid I was drawn to things that scared me and disgusted me. There was a sympathy there, I think, because as a fat and obviously queer child I disgusted and frightened many of the people around me.

Sonora: I loved your debut novel, Manhunt. What was it like writing it and then publishing it?

Gretchen: Exhilarating, weird, frightening. From the second I shared the premise I started catching flak from anyone and everyone. TERFs, trans people who didn’t like the kind of story I wanted to tell, polite liberals who thought I was a wrecker trying to disenfranchise the trans rights movement. The best thing to come of it, though, has been the response from trans people after publication, which is strong and varied and vehement. My favorites are people saying “wow, this really makes me feel seen, it puts a voice to these thoughts I don’t feel allowed to speak out loud.” That’s why I wrote it.

Sonora: Horror has had many issues with transphobia and trans erasure. While these issues still exist, there is growing and better representation in both the stories and the authors writing those stories. What do the genre, publishers, and readers do well in terms of trans representation and treatment? How can the treatment and representation of trans people in horror still be improved?

Gretchen: I think in some ways we’re moving ahead and in others we’re falling back. With increased trans visibility comes increased pressure from both cis and trans people to be a model minority, to not “give ammunition” as it were to our ideological and material enemies. You wind up seeing a lot of trans artists voluntarily defang themselves in the hopes of appealing to a more mainstream audience, and you see a lot of anger and vitriol directed at trans artists who refuse to pander.

Trans people are exploding into horror fiction in a really exciting way right now. Alison Rumfit, Eric LaRocca, Eve Harms, Hailey Piper, Briar Ripley Page — and into literature more broadly. Jackie Ess, Torrey Peters, Shola von Reinhold, Davey Davis; all these artists who are bringing their own unique experiences to the field. So, cis publishers and readers are learning to embrace these voices, and trans people are connecting through our art, enriching our shared culture. I think where we still have a lot of room to grow is in getting away from writing everything to cater to and educate a cis audience; I want to see more trans artists write for themselves and their fellow trans people.

Sonora: What unique perspectives do you think trans authors bring to the horror genre?

Gretchen: There’s a tremendously intense consciousness of the body inherent to being trans, a prolonged contact with really fundamental questions of what organs and musculature and skeletal structure mean to yourself and then to the world around you. It lends itself well to body horror, and to any horror about alienation and otherness. I think also a lot of us lead very hunted, vigilant lives, and that dovetails very neatly with capturing the feelings of helplessness and terror that make for great horror writing.

Sonora: In addition to writing fiction, you are a film critic. What draws you to film critique and analysis? Do you have a favorite genre? Favorite era?

Gretchen: I got into film criticism after finding the work of Sean T. Collins, who’s now a good friend of mine, and it just really spurred something in me. I’d always been kind of a casual cinephile, but at that time in my life, in my early 20s, I was so depressed and miserable, it wasn’t much of a challenge to sit down and watch two or three movies in a night, plow through contemporary critical work and books on film theory, and just sort of give myself an ad hoc education on the subject. When I finally started to get my life together, I was lucky enough to catch a series of breaks and start writing film crit professionally.

I love horror, unsurprisingly. It’s definitely my favorite, though film noir and period dramas are close seconds. I’m a big fan of the 70s. Barry Lyndon, The Devils, News from Home, Jaws — it’s an incredibly rich decade for film. You have the birth of the blockbuster, the modern action film is taking shape in the wake of Hong Kong’s martial arts boom, Kubrick is at the height of his career. Exciting stuff.

Sonora: Who are some of your favorite authors? What are some of your favorite books?

Gretchen: George R. R. Martin, Porpentine, Umberto Eco, Alison Rumfit, Torrey Peters, Ursula K. Le Guin, Melanie Tem, Shirley Jackson, Octavia Butler, Borges, John le Carré, Nabokov, Patrick Suskind, Otessa Mossfegh, Pär Lagerkvist, Arundhati Roy, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Dorothy Allison, Cormac McCarthy. Some favorite books: Perfume, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Moby Dick, The Name of the Rose, The Virgin Suicides, The Devils of Loudun, A Feast for Crows, Lolita, Trash, Wilding, Lapvona, A Universal History of Iniquity, Ulysses, Kalpa Imperial. Honestly I could go all day, but that’s a good start.

Sonora: What are you currently working on?

Gretchen: I’m waiting for edits on my second novel, Cuckoo, which is a body snatcher story about queer teens at a conversion therapy camp in the mid nineties, and writing a screenplay adaptation of Manhunt, which has been a fun challenge for me, learning a whole new way of writing. I’m also drafting my third horror novel, Mommy, which is about cannibal witches and intergenerational lesbian relationships — the dreaded “age gap”. Past that you’ll have to wait and see!

Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt, is a Massachusetts-based horror author and film critic. You can follow her work on Twitter and read her fiction and film criticism on Patreon, Nylon Magazine, The Outline, and more.

Women in Horror Month ’23: S.C. Parris

I’m bringing back my Women in Horror Month (WIHM) interview series for 2023! I’ve got conversations with three amazing women lighting up the horror scene, and I’m excited to share our conversations with you.

First up is author S.C. Parris, author of The Dark World series. Check out her website here, and check out our conversation below!

S.C. Parris

Sonora: How long have you been writing? Have you always been drawn to horror?

S.C.: I’ve been writing for all my life. My first published work was poetry that got published in a collection whilst I was in middle school.

I have always been drawn to horror–my mother would watch all the Universal Monster movies while I was in her stomach. I blame my love of horror–and vampires–on her.

Sonora: Tell us about your series, The Dark World. When did you first think of it? What’s it been like writing a series of stories that has spanned 6 books and (hopefully) counting?

S.C.: When Dracula’s secrets are uncovered, The Dark World will never be the same.

Welcome To The Dark World.

A World kept from the eyes of humans where all manner of Dark Creature live, war, and thrive.

But certain Creatures are about to find that there is more to the dark than blood and bite…. The Dark World holds secrets…and the greatest of all are about to be revealed.

The Dark World was an ambitious attempt at writing my first longform prose.

In retrospect I should’ve started with a standalone book and left a series to my second or third writing attempt. I first thought of it after reading a then well-known children’s series and wanted the…special feeling I felt at the time to remain. I sat at my computer and began writing Book 1.

It’s been challenging, exciting, and above-all, a learning experience but the series is done, and there will be no more books from me in that world (knocks on wood). It’s been part of my life for 14 or so years and I was quite relieved to send DRACULA, Book 6, to my editor and close that chapter of my life. I’m super excited to work on new work and I’ve grown so much as a writer from where I started writing The Dark World (at 14!). It’s beyond time for me to put my talents into other work!

Sonora: Vampires are one of horror’s most popular and alluring monsters. What draws you to them? What are some of your favorite things about their lore, and what do you think needs to change?

S.C.: Quite simply, they speak to me. I’m pulled to them for all the things they can represent in the writer’s work, and there’s so many things one can do with them. I, personally, like to explore the foreboding, darkly haunted vampire. They enrapture me, and I find their need for blood (as that’s what I choose to focus on for my vampires) compelling.

It’s in their suaveness, their depiction across books and film, their brutality, their innocence, their need, their resistance. The sheer dichotomy of what makes a vampire, for lack of a better word, tick, is what will always fascinate me. And I love seeing how different authors and directors and game developers create their own takes on these fascinating monsters.

About what needs to change, I believe there needs to be an acknowledgement of the numerous ethnic and wide-reaching vampire stories that are being made all across the world. A focus on the vampire legends that have been told through spoken word and that live in the cultures of many should be explored.

Sonora: Black vampires have also been growing in popularity and representation, from Wesley Snipes in Blade and Aaliyah in Queen of the Damned to Jacob Anderson in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. How do you feel about the ways Black vampires have been treated in horror? What would you like to see more of?

S.C.: I feel Black vampires can be given deeper stories both in spite of and due to their Blackness. TV shows, movies, and stories don’t exist in a vacuum. These stories, despite when they’re being made, can always find an audience provided said stories are marketed, distributed, and preserved well-enough for audiences to find them. Up ‘till now, they’ve been treated as the bad-ass, infallible, often too-cool-for-school characters white audiences love to see Black people as (Blade, Maximillian from Vampire in Brooklyn). However, these characters have also had their comedic moments that have become iconic moments for Black vampire movies (“Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.” And “Evil is good and ass is good, and if you find you a piece of evil ass: woo!).

I, however, would love to see more Black vampires just as we have white vampires–emotional, lost, making mistakes, losing important things, making difficult choices. It just comes down to them being well-written characters which is what I feel is the mark of any good story, whatever the format, being well-written.

Sonora: What have been your experiences writing horror and dark fantasy as a Black woman? What does the publishing world do well in terms of representing Black women, and what do you think needs to change?

S.C.: My experiences have been that I’ve had my work reduced to less-than right to my face by, I’m sure, well-meaning white women, and I’ve had to constantly assure readers who would ask that my books are indeed Fantasy and not capital ‘R’ romance. In my experience, as a Black woman, the expectation is that 1. I don’t write and 2. If I do write, it’s only going to be Romance or ‘Urban.’

I have to introduce myself and my work to everyone I meet (if they even want to know that I write at all), and that’s fine, it’s part of the job, however, I’ve noticed I’ve had to also defend my work’s legitimacy in that I’ve written a well-thought out, lengthy, vampiric gothic fantasy series. There’s always the unspoken “It can’t really be good,” when I speak about my work only for the person to read a chapter or two and come back and go “Wow, you actually can write!”

It’s upsetting and demoralizing.

What needs to change is more Black horror writers, writing. The pride I felt when a young girl met me at a bookstore and her eyes widened when I showed her my series (that her father, rightfully, wouldn’t let her read) was indescribable. I always say if I inspire anyone to do the thing they think they can’t do, I’m happy. But I’d love to inspire more young Black women, nonbinary individuals, and men to write their weird, dark, scary stories with as much daring and belief in themselves as any white man. Nothing will change unless we continue to share our art, publish, flood agents with queries, and show our work demands just as much attention as any white persons.

Sonora: Who are some of your favorite authors? What are some of your favorite books?

S.C.: Some of my favorite authors right now are Rhiannon Frater and her Pretty When She Dies series, Glen Cook and his The Black Company series. Colin Harker’s The Feast of the Innocents has recently warmed my gothic heart, and I’ve just started Nicole Eigener’s Beguiled  by Night which I’m sure will join this list.

Sonora: What are you currently working on?

S.C.: I’m currently writing THE TALES OF SINNER SHARPE: DARK WATERS, my gothic dark fantasy adventure novel about a Black Caribbean mercenary on the last assignment of his life.

I’m also working on my gothic literary novel, VANESSA, a depressing, gothic tale about a Haitian servant who comes into her own as a vampire in 17th-century London, England.

Lastly, I’m working on an urban fantasy Romance featuring a powerful Black witch and the Italian/Mexican lawyer she drags into the darker side of New York City, currently titled SYLVIA.

S.C. Parris is the author of The Dark World series, streams on Twitch during the week, and enjoys a good steaming cup of tea when she’s not working part-time in an academic library.

How to Respond to Bad Reviews

It’s simple, really:

Moxie Pictures » Grindhouse – Don't Trailer

Tongue-in-cheek simplicity aside, authors responding poorly to reviews and reviewers is something that’s been going on far too long; tends to target independent reviewers who read and review on their own time and dime; is unnecessary; is unkind; and in all likelihood is worse for your book than any review will ever be.

When an author disparages a reviewer, I notice that reviewers tend to do the legwork of making the simple plea to be treated like human beings. They should not be the only ones speaking up or writing lengthy posts. I wanted to write in support of reviewers and to let my fellow authors know that being cruel to someone who didn’t shower your book with stars is unacceptable and a surefire way to get me to never read your stuff.

The latest instance that prompted this post is Lauren Hough’s mean and unnecessary tweets attacking a Goodreads reviewer for giving her book 4 stars instead of 5. Yes, a 4-star review. She also responded by calling Goodreads reviewers who round down a 4.5 review to 4 stars (since Goodreads doesn’t allow half-star ratings) as “assholes” and said, “No one likes you.” I purposefully use “attacking” without hyperbole because she is in a position of power and tried to use it to draw attention to a Goodreads reviewer who does not have her following nor her celebrity. It backfired spectacularly, but people put on blast by celebrity Twitter presences aren’t always so lucky.

But celebrities using their power to get their followers to bully someone is for another essay. Hough thought it was acceptable to say these things because of a book review. She thought a book reviewer doing their job warranted calling that reviewer an asshole. A lot of authors act like Hough.

These authors may not flame out as spectacularly as Hough did on Twitter, but they’re out there all the same. They search their name, find poor reviews of their books, then play victim on Twitter because someone didn’t like their book. They call reviewers arrogant, entitled, wrong, children, whiny, bad readers, a multitude of names. They say reviews and reviewers are a scourge ruining books and ruining reading. I think the bigger scourge is authors acting like dicks.

Further, these attacks are usually on reviewers who are: 1) women/women-identifying (especially women of color), 2) independent, and 3) doing the reviews for free as opposed to working for a paying publication. These authors aren’t writing screeds of their suffering against the book reviewer equivalent of Anton Ego in Ratatouille. They’re focusing on book bloggers, bookstagrammers, Goodreads influencers, and other grassroots reviewers that are, in their eyes, an easier target.

It’s always wrong to be cruel. Someone not liking your book, or not liking your book as much as you do, or not worshiping your book at the altar of the #shelfie, is not an open invite to be an asshole. Someone took the time to read your book and write their thoughts on it. Be grateful! As someone who writes for a (side) living, I can barely write more than two sentences about a book I read because reviewing books is hard! These reviewers are working their ass off for something they love. They don’t deserve to be treated like garbage because you can’t handle critique.

Look, no one likes a bad review or even a mediocre review of their work. I don’t look at low-star reviews of my work with a smile and hands clasped saying, “Thank you.” But you know what else I don’t do? Screenshot those reviews and act like a giant asshole on Twitter about it. I brush it off, move on, and keep writing. If it’s particularly harsh, I maybe talk about my hurt feelings with my husband or my editor. But then I move on! Because reviews aren’t personal–but attacking reviewers is, and it’s shitty and needs to stop.

So fellow authors: if you see a review of your work that displeases you, and you’re thinking about calling out the reviewer or even making passive complaints about reviewers in general, I have one piece of advice:

Grindhouse Trailer on Coub

Some Thoughts on “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and Obsessive Fixations

Is anyone else watching HBO’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”? It’s based on the late Michelle McNamara’s book of the same name, which in turn is about the hunt for the Golden State Killer (one that ended after the book was released). However, the docuseries is also an exploration on McNamara’s obsessive personality, and how that both drove her search and led to her death.

I appreciated the focus on McNamara in this manner. It’s very fair—she is not blamed or made out to be a bad person. But it shines an important light on how people with obsessive, anxious tendencies can overdo it to the point of self-harm.

My own anxiety (which I’ve discussed before) used to come out in obsessive fixations. It was never with true crime, but when I’d find a new interest, a new goal, a new puzzle, etc., I would be determined to be the best at it, to solve it, to excel at it and to meet the expectations I thought everyone had of me. I still see it pop up from time-to-time, but I’m better able to manage it with medication and with better awareness of when it’s happening.

An article from Vulture about the series does an excellent job weaving those mental tendencies with an explanation for why women gravitate towards true crime. It creates a false but motivating sense of hope that we’ll find an answer to why men seem determined to hurt us. It gives us a sense of control over our attackers.

But in cases like McNamara, it can also lead us to self-destruct when we don’t find what we’re looking for—a self-destruction made easier by a culture that expects women to take care of themselves while also taking care of their spouses and their children. As such, no one is there for them, at least not until it’s too late.

Give the article a read, and if you have HBO, give the series a watch. It’s really good.

“Women of Horror Vol. 2: Graveyard Smash” is Now Available!

I’m pleased to announce that Women of Horror Vol. 2: Graveyard Smash is now available! It features a new short story from me, called “The Clockmaker,” along with 21 (!) other stories from some of the hottest voices in horror.

GraveYardSmashTWO
Buy Graveyard Smash wherever books are sold!

From Kandisha Press:

Kandisha Press is proud to announce that GRAVEYARD SMASH, the second volume of our WOMEN OF HORROR Anthology series, will be out July 20th 2020 and feature an array of diverse voices from women around the world!

  • A woman suffering from trypophobia, the fear of holes, descends into madness during a global pandemic.
  • Due to overpopulation, the dead are forced to share their graves with strangers- and they’re not sure they like it.
  • On a stormy night, the town’s watchmaker is visited by a mysterious man, who asks him to craft a timepiece from bone.
  • A young girl has the ability to raise the dead, but she just can’t seem to get it right.
  • No one believes Dakota’s story of seeing a girl beneath the ice of Lake Asherah. Nevertheless, the girl exists. And she’s starving.
  • A graverobber has a frightening interaction with an unearthed skeleton, after which she begins a dark and terrible transformation.
  • After a global outbreak, a woman visits the ruins of Templo Mayor, only to have a horrifying vision of the future beneath the ruins.

These are just some of the stories twenty-two women horror authors from around the globe came up with when asked to present their best graveyard tales. Step inside and experience cemetery raves and widow’s dances, Japanese snow-spirits, Aztec magic, Vengeful ghosts, djinn and vampire hunters, and boneyards from all corners of the earth.

Check out the Table of Contents below:

Graveyard Smash3

You can purchase Graveyard Smash at all the following links:

Thanks for reading!

“Seeing Things” is Now Available!

I’m proud to announce that my third novel, Seeing Things, is now available in ebook and paperback!

seeing things by sonora taylor
Cover Art by Doug Puller

The book follows Abby Gillman, who has discovered that with growing up, there comes a lot of blood. But nothing prepares her for the trail of blood she sees in the hallway after class – or the ghost she finds crammed inside an abandoned locker.

No one believes Abby, of course. She’s only seeing things. As much as Abby wants to be believed, what she wants more is to know why she can suddenly see the dead. Unfortunately, they won’t tell her. In fact, none of them will speak to her. At all.

Abby leaves for her annual summer visit to her uncle’s house with tons of questions. The visit will give her answers the ghosts won’t – but she may not like what she finds out.

The book is already generating buzz: see what authors and reviewers have to say about the book so far!

You can purchase Seeing Things in ebook and paperback on Amazon, with more markets to follow soon.

Thanks for reading!

New Flash Piece, “Tea Blossom,” on Spreading the Writer’s Word [reblog]

I have a new story on Spreading the Writer’s Word! Check out “Tea Blossom,” a sinister ode to those beautiful blooming teas you receive in clear pots.

Spreading the Writer's Word

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

May2020_Image_01

Tea Blossom
by Sonora Taylor

Carmen walked down the cobblestone streets in the rain, careful to not slip on the rocks. She’d left her umbrella at home, and of course the taxis had all disappeared with the first splat of rain on a windshield.
Carmen ducked under an awning, then saw a wooden sign with a teapot swinging in the wind. Must be new, she thought as she walked through the door.
Warmth wrapped around her body as water dripped from her coat to the floor. An old woman stood behind a counter with an expectant smile. “Hello,” she said in a cracked voice.
Carmen nodded as she walked inside.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” the woman asked.
“Very much, yes.” Carmen sat at the first empty table. She realized when she sat, though, that all the tables were empty.
“I…

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Ask the Author: A Q&A with Jessica Guess

Jessica Guess
Jessica Guess

First, I hope you all are doing well and staying safe during this pandemic. It’s a scary time, one made even scarier without knowing what the next steps will be, since they seem to change every day. All we can do is practice social distancing, watch for our symptoms, and help our neighbors near and far as safely as we can.

I know a lot of people have spent their extra time indoors reading. Unnerving is still releasing their Rewind or Die series, and I recently spoke with one of the series’ authors, Jessica Guess. Read on for our conversation about haunted carnivals, blogging, and more.

Sonora: How long have you been writing?

Jessica: Since middle school. I’ve been telling stories for forever though. They started as lies I’d tell my younger cousin to scare her into doing something for me. I’d tell her there was a witch who ate little girls who ate more than three cookies so she’d give me the rest of hers or something like that. I know, I know. Horrible. Those are the earliest stories I remembered telling. I only started writing things down in middle school after this one girl read a poem she wrote in class. I remember thinking if she could do it, I could too. I’ve been writing ever since.

Sonora: Tell us about Cirque Berserk, your novella in Unnerving’s “Rewind or Die” series. What inspired the story? What was it like writing it? Submitting it? Having it published?

Jessica: I was watching The Strangers Prey at Night and that movie was so colorful towards the end and had a great soundtrack. That night I was in bed and I got this image of a character on roller skates doing something horrible to the tune of Rhythm of the Night. I was so jarring and vivid. I had to write it. Not long after, I saw the Rewind or Die call for queries, and it seemed perfect for my story idea. At the time I hadn’t written anything yet, but I had an outline. I decided to query it and the publisher said he’d like to read it. That was around June or July. I wrote all summer and got the manuscript to him by September and he accepted it. I’m really lucky because the story came out very naturally. It wasn’t exactly easy to write, but it was easier than a lot of other long form things I’ve written. I was super proud of the story, but I was also a little shocked that he accepted it because I don’t think a lot of people get my writing. So far, the reactions have been good though.

Sonora: The carnival, a place of joy and delight, is a popular setting in horror. What do you think draws us, as readers and writers, to the carnival as a place of terror?

Jessica: Carnivals are supposed to be fun, but there’s a natural element of terror that goes along with them. Those rides are fun, but if you look closely at how rusted they are, or how maybe there’s a screw a little loose, or that the operator looks a little drunk, it gets scary. That’s the thing about carnivals. You’re supposed to only pay attention to the surface of things and not think too hard because that’s when it gets terrifying. In a carnival, things aren’t what they seem. We all know that, but we ignore the scary part for the sake of fun. Horror is the place where you don’t have to ignore it. You can look it right in the eye.

Sonora: Cirque Berserk is, among other things, a throwback to ‘80s slashers. What are some of your favorite slasher flicks?

Jessica: A Nightmare on Elm Street will always have a special place in my heart. It was the first slasher I remember watching as a kid. It’s what made me obsessed with horror movies. Urban Legend is probably my favorite from the 90’s, followed closely by Scream. I know everyone hates the 4th and 5th Halloween movies or pretend they don’t exist, but I really like those two. There’s a part in the 4th one where Jaime (Michael Myer’s niece) askes Michael to show her his face and weirdly he does. It’s a sweet moment where you think he might not be so evil but then he freaks out and goes back to being a monster. I liked that. Lastly, I mentioned The Strangers Prey at Night earlier. That has to be one of my recent faves.

Sonora: What are some of the unique strengths of slasher stories? What are some of their weaknesses?

Jessica: One thing I love about slashers is that no one debates whether they’re horror movies or not. Almost every other subgenre is re-imagined by non-horror lovers to be something else if the movie/book is considered commercially good. You see that with movies like Silence of the Lambs or Hereditary. No one does that with slashers because they are so purely horror. I love that about them. I also love that they all follow a formula. Sure, you can tinker with it, but it’s usually going to be some teens or young adults who are paying the price for something. Either for something they did or they’ve inherited some type of primordial debt from their parents or people who came before them. There’s also a visceral bad guy that either is or seems to be supernatural. That all kind of leads to their weaknesses though. When you don’t do something to tweak that formula or make it new, it becomes stale. A lot of slasher tropes are so overused that they become cringe worthy.

Sonora: When writing your own slasher, what did you want to add to the genre that you thought had been missing?

Jessica: I’ve always wanted a slasher with a black girl as the main character. That was the main thing for me with Cirque Berserk. I thought, what would I have loved to read when I was 16? What character would have satisfied teenage Jessica? Rochelle was born from that. I also wanted the story to be fun. Slashers are so fun to me. Right now, there seems to be this push to make horror serious and elevated. Sure, we can have that, but let’s not lose the fun stuff. Please. There’s room for all of it.

Sonora: Tell us about your blog, Black Girl’s Guide to Horror. When did you start it? What’s been your experience with it since the launch?

Jessica: Honestly, Black Girl’s Guide to Horror started as a way for me to talk in depth about my love for horror movies. I wanted to offer a perspective I wasn’t seeing a lot of or discuss movies I wasn’t seeing people talk much about. I started it right after I finished my MFA program. I was looking for jobs and that was going horribly, so I decided to do something fun and rage about All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. The most successful post was the one I wrote about the importance Rachel True’s character, Rochelle (yes, my character is named after her) in The Craft. There was all this stuff last year about her not being invited to the panels and conventions that the other three actresses were. It’s ridiculous. And racist. BUST magazine reprinted that post with my permission.

Sonora: As you say on your blog, horror is dominated by white protagonists. How can the horror genre improve its treatment and representation of people of color? Of Black people? Of Black women in particular?

Jessica: I feel like people in power need to ask themselves this question more and then act on it. That would be a first step. If you have a publication, or are a literary agent, or an acquiring editor, or have any other position that creates opportunities, look for writers of color. Look for black women writers. We’re out here. It’s really good that some submission calls specify that they are looking for women and writers of color. Unnerving did that with Rewind or Die and that was the only reason I felt confident enough to submit Cirque Berserk. We’ve been left out and pushed to the side for so long that sometimes it’s hard to believe that anyone wants to give us a chance, so specifying that you want to hear from us is good. Also, hire black women as acquiring editors and literary agents. And believe women of color when they tell you something is harmful or damaging.

Sonora: What are some examples of horror stories — be they books, film, TV, anything — that handle diversity well?

Jessica: This is a hard one to answer because I’m not sure how exactly diversity should be handled. It seems that some people think of diversity as these boxes you have to tick off and the more you check, the more diverse you are. Kinda like, do we have a Black person? Check. An Asian person? Check. A gay person? Check. Wow, three checks. Look how diverse we are. But how are you treating those characters? Are they actually doing anything? To me, diversity is giving different types of people the space to tell their stories. Like the movie What Keeps You Alive. That movie had only white women in it, but it was the first horror movie I had ever seen that revolved around a lesbian relationship. Chambers was a show on Netflix that had the first Native American woman in the lead role. It was a great show that revolved around family, Indigenous lore, and cultural appropriation. My Sister the Serial Killer is a great book I read over the summer about a Nigerian woman trying to cover up her sisters string of murders. What I’m trying to say is that those examples didn’t have those characters in there to fulfill some kind of diversity quota, instead it was about creating stories about people we hadn’t had the opportunity to hear a lot from before.

Sonora: What are some cliches about horror’s treatment of people of color that you never want to see again?

Jessica: The only black character dying first. Please just stop doing that. It’s tired. Also, Native American burial grounds. Stop. I cringe every time.

Sonora: What are you working on now?

Jessica: A story about an iguana apocalypse. I know that makes no sense. It’s set in Florida if that helps. We have an iguana infestation that’s pretty bad. I’m also cooking up a gothic werewolf romance. I know that also makes no sense.

Bio:

Jessica Guess is a writer and English teacher who hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She earned her Creative Writing MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2018 and is the founder of the website Black Girl’s Guide to Horror where she examines horror movies in terms of quality and intersectionality. Her creative work has been featured in Luna Station Quarterly and Mused BellaOnline Literary Review. Her debut novella, Cirque Berserk, is for purchase on Amazon.

New Flash Piece, “Wash Me,” on Spreading the Writer’s Word [reblog]

I have a new story up on Nina D’Arcangela’s Spreading the Writer’s Word! Check out “Wash Me,” which is not about hand-washing but does feature dirty hands. Read more at the link below.

Spreading the Writer's Word

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

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Wash Me
by Sonora Taylor

Kayla froze when she approached her car. A message awaited her, scrawled on the front bumper of her number one beauty: WASH ME.
Kayla frowned as she jerked her car keys out from her coat pocket. The nerve. How dare someone touch her beautiful car with their dirty fingers? How could they rub through years worth of desert dust, garden dirt, and human detritus with a swipe of their hand and a flick of their wrist?
“Hey lady!”
Kayla turned and saw a man walking towards her. He held a grocery bag in one hand and held up the other in a motion to stop her. His hand was filthy.
“You forgot this,” he said as he held up the bag.
His fingertips had smudges of dirt. Dirt that had once been on her car.
“You need help with…

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