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Hiya, folks. Today I've turned over my blog to an absolutely wonderful author whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person at the 2014 World Horror Con in Portland. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did. *** Hello, my name is… Loren Rhoads My mother was a librarian, so I grew up surrounded by books.  Once she showed me where the science fiction shelf was, I’d sit down and work my way through it. It didn’t take long for me to notice all the writers (in those misty, far off days) were men.  Even the few women wrote under male names: Andre Norton, C.J. Cherryh, James Tiptree Jr., and the ambiguously gendered (to me) Leigh Brackett and Marion Zimmer Bradley. The message I took from it was that women were welcome in small numbers, as long as they passed socially as men.  It was a message I had already internalized. I never felt like my given name fit me.  From an early age, I called myself George – long before I knew that was the nickname of Nancy ...

Today for Women in Horror month I have a really amazing author/editor I first met in person at WHC 2013. She's one of the most loving people I know and she can spin a yarn that'll make you want more , I give to you, the awesome Stacey Turner .   Hey ya’ll, it’s “Women in Horror Month” again. But I don’t want to talk about glass ceilings, equal rights, or gender discrepancy in the workplace. Mostly because *gasp* I don’t pay a lot of attention to it. Here’s the thing: you can spend a lot of time and effort pondering, bemoaning, and shrieking about something, or you can do your thing. I’m not saying it’s not an issue in the horror (and writing in general) community. I’m just saying I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the issue. I just do me. What I do want to talk about is being a female writer/editor/former publisher. Because gender inequality isn’t restricted to the work place, it’s all over the kitchen/living room/bathroom. I see you working moms out ...

So, my guest for the day is not just an author whose work I admire, she's also one of my dearest friends. She is a fellow proponent for gender equality within the horror genre and an extremely prolific author as well. Without further ado, I give you the ever-awesome Christine Sutton... *** “But, you can’t do that!” This is something I have heard quite often in relation to authors. In relation to me as an author as a matter of fact. In relation to me as a female author. In relation to me as a female horror author, specifically. Women are better at writing romance! I may write a romance one day if the mood strikes me! Le Gasp! Okay, I probably won’t ever write a romance in all honesty, but if I want to, there should be no problems. If I want to write a balls out, gore filled cannibal story that would make Jeffrey Dahmer lose his lunch, there should be no problem with that, either. There are still some naysayers that will tell you that women are no good at wr...

I run a group for women that work in the horror genre (Ladies of Horror) and I met my guest today through that group. She's an extremely kind, hard working, and talented author as well as a pretty damned cool Lady. Without further ado, I turn over my blog to the incomparable Emerian Rich. I'm a Little Goth Writer in a Big Genre Box by Emerian Rich So, you know that movie Jumpin' Jack Flash , starring Whoopi Goldberg? I love that movie. When I was a teenager, I knew all the words and my best friend and I would recite it as it played for the 400th time on cable. You might be asking why a horror author is talking about Jumpin' Jack Flash , it really has nothing to do with writing horror, does it? That's where I'll prove you wrong. Writing horror as a woman is EXACTLY like Jumpin' Jack Flash . First, like Whoopi Goldberg, I always feel like I'm in trouble and being called on the carpet by the higher-ups or about to get fired. Why is it we cons...

Most of you know I suffer from a chronic illness. The last week it kicked my ass. I don't mean like slapped me around a bit. No, I'm talking a real sweep-the-leg-Johnny, crane-kick-to-the-face, wax-on-wax-off complete with bad 80s hairband playing in the background old fashioned ass beating. *Shrugs* It happens from time to time, it still sucks though. "Sweep the leg." While I was dealing with this horrific shoulder pain --that wound up causing a baseball sized lump (not exaggerating here) on the back of my neck-- my husband was rewiring part of our foyer and living room. See, while we have the ceiling open to take care of the restructuring we figured it'd be smart to get rid of the knob and tube wiring and run copper. I have to admit the knob and tube was run so beautifully. With that construction comes torn up floors in our youngest's bedroom (we wanted to save what we originally thought was an original plaster medallion on the foyer ceili...

Well, let me start by saying that though 2015 is only thirteen days old it has brought a lot of amazing changes already. Firstly, I dyed my hair turquoise and blue because, well, why the hell not? It's something I've wanted to do for awhile and I finally decided to do it. I love it, it makes me smile. I tell you, smiling is so much more important than I ever realized. It doesn't just make you feel better but it also cheers up those around you. Smile more, people, it's good for you! The second awesome thing that happened was the release party for my novella collection, The Misadventures of Bob the Zombie. I had so much fun during the festivities. I met some amazing new readers (well, new to Bob) and am so excited to continue with this series.   I have had a lot going on with my house, Havenwood Manor, we are doing some structural support for our second floor and we ripped open our living room ceiling this month to sister in some joists. We are doing all the w...

Today I am lucky enough to be joined by one of the greatest gumshoes of this century. John Smith, a man without knowledge of his past and a private dick determined to figure it out, is here and he has some stuff he wants to talk about. Without further ado I present my guest for the day. *** It’s been an eventful ride, I won’t lie. Usually when you sign up to be a private detective the last thing you expect is to be taken on as the personal on-call dick for both Heaven and Hell, but here we are. …. And where is here, exactly? Somewhere out in the etherverse. I was invited here by the lovely Jaime Johnesee to do a guest blog. I’m a newb at this, to be honest, so be patient, folks. Jaime asked me to talk about my latest case, so here goes. My name is John Smith. It used to be Virgil Calahan a long time ago, circa World War I, but I’ll be damned if I wear that moniker again. Long story. Read the books. Yes, I look great for my age, thank you. I started off taking local c...