I remember hearing about the new horror anthology that Stephen King and Bev Vincent were editing. I was really excited, until I read the authors list. I was miffed to find there were no women horror authors listed as contributing to the anthology. I was pleased when a saw a tweet from Word Horde stating that they were producing their horror travel related anthology with only women authors. I was sent a review copy of this masterpiece which was edited by one hell of an author herself, Amber Fallon
Bio
Amber Fallon lives in weird cave in a small town outside Boston, Massachusetts that she shares with her husband and their two dogs. A techie by day and a horror writer by night, Mrs. Fallon has also spent time as a bank manager, motivational speaker, produce wrangler, and apprentice butcher. Her obsessions with sushi, glittery nail polish, and sharp objects have made her a recognized figure around the community.
Amber’s publications include The Terminal, The Warblers, TV Dinners from Hell, Daughters of Inanna, Nasty!, Dead Bait 4, Sharkasaurus, So Long and Thanks for All the Brains, Here Be Clowns, Horror on the Installment Plan, Zombies For a Cure, Quick Bites of Flesh, Mirror, Mirror, Operation Ice Bat, Painted Mayhem, and more!
For more information, please visit her blog at www.amberfallon.net!
Interview
Hi Amber, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
LOHF: I just wanted to take a moment and let you know I thoroughly enjoyed Fright into Flight. It is probably one of my favorite anthologies of the year. From the choice of the stories to their arrangement was spot on.
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I worked so hard on that book, and I am incredibly proud of the end result. Such powerful stories from so many awesome women! I’m honored to have edited it.
LOHF: What inspired you to edit Fright into Flight?
There’s an anthology called Flight or Fright, edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. Not a single female author appears in the table of contents. I found that incredibly disappointing. It’s not as if women haven’t written stories on that subject, after all. So I wanted to do something about it, to show the world that women have written some amazing flight related stories and that they can be just as scary as their male counterparts.
LOHF: Do you feel that men and women write horror the same? Or do you believe that there are different nuances between horror fiction written by men and women?
I think that people write horror differently and that separating writers out by gender doesn’t really work, like a lot of generalizations. I’ve read horror by men that’s been full of emotional impact, deep relationships, sex, and romance and I’ve read horror by women that’s bloody, gory, violent, and extreme. It’s more about the individual author than their gender, in my opinion.
LOHF: The Terminal was over too soon… I really need to know what happened to Dirk. You can tell me is he alive and well in Chicago?
Well… without giving away too much about the upcoming sequel… do you think the events of the book left the possibility of anyone being left alive and/or well for the foreseeable future?
LOHF: Growing up I was often asked why horror? Why did I want to read about monsters and all things that go bump in the night? Have you always been into horror or was there a specific book that introduced you to the genre?
Always. I owe my mother for that. She was an Edgar Allan Poe fanatic and read his stories to me from the day I was born.
LOHF: What are your top 10 Books of all time?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Cursed be the Child by Mort Castle
Borderlands edited by Thomas F. Monteleone
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Survivor by JF Gonzalez
Death Stone by Ruby Jean Jensen
Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
The Drive-In by Joe R. Lansdale
Village of the Mermaids by Carlton Mellick III
LOHF: Who are some up and coming women horror authors that we should be on the lookout for?
Izzy Lee
Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason (The Sisters of Slaughter)
Somer Canon
Kristi DeMeester
Christine Morgan
Larissa Glasser
Chesya Burke
Damien Angelica Walters
Jessica McHugh
LOHF: What is your most anticipated read for fall of 2018?
Deep Silence by Jonathan Maberry. I love the Joe Ledger series!
LOHF: Do you have any WIP that you could share with us? Just a tiny snippet?
Sure! From Meat Wagon coming from Deadite Press in 2019!
Magenta looked up as her old pal, Sergeant Dales approached. He had been her D.A.R.E. officer a few years previous, as well as the arresting officer the first time she decided to purchase a bracelet with the five finger discount. The two went way back. But something about him was… off. He walked stiffly, like the butler from The Addams Family. His face was moving oddly, almost like he was wearing a mask full of live cockroaches over his real face. She had a moment to stare at him, eyebrow raised, trying to figure out what was up, before he offered her the cup full of noxious sludge.
At first, the girl assumed it was hot cocoa. Dales usually brought her a mug while they had their “chats” about her future. But then she caught sight of the greenish, chunky slime inside the cup.
“Ewe!” she said, raising her hands and jumping back in disgust, “What is that?!”
Dales uttered just one word, but it was enough to firmly convince Magenta that something was very, very wrong.
“Drink…” he said in a voice that sounded like ancient slabs of stone rubbing against one another.
LOHF: Because the Ladies of Horror Fiction is made up of reviewers we are always interested in what others are reading. What’s on your night stand?
I like to flit back and forth between a few books, depending on my mood. Right now, the stack is comprised of The People’s Republic of Everything by Nick Mamatas, Beneath by Kristi DeMeester (a reread), and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Synopses
The Terminal: Air travel during the holiday season. Yuck. Stupid people, flight delays, and long lines at security are pretty much the worst things ever – or so Dirk Bradley thought until a horde of bloodthirsty psychopaths from beyond the stars invaded the airport, cutting a swath of death and destruction through everything he knew and loved. Can he survive the attack and live to tell the tale? What hope does an average Joe have against a race of brutal killers bent on world domination?
The Warblers: After the sun would go down, I’d hear them out there, back by the shed, shrieking their twisted warbling cries out there in the night, followed by squeals of whatever prey they’d managed to hunt down.
When his rural farm becomes overrun with terrifying beasts called Warblers capable of eating livestock, dogs, and even people, 14-year-old Dell McDale’s life is torn asunder. He watches through the eyes of a boy on the verge of becoming a man as his father is forced to go to awful lengths to rid the family home of the infestation, culminating in a confrontation between Dell and a local bully-turned-soldier on a night that will change everyone involved, forever.
The Warblers is a mysterious tale of a young m
an learning what fear can do to people and what happens, when in order to fight monsters, one must side with another monster.
TV Dinners From Hell: Don’t touch that dial! TV Dinners from Hell, the debut fiction collection from Amber Fallon, includes 17 stories from the twisted mind that brought you The Terminal and The Warblers! Almost half of the stories have never before been published! From the introduction by celebrated author and reigning queen of weird fiction, Mary SanGiovanni: Citing early influences like J.F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene, Amber’s work is a rich and spicy dish of unflinching violence and unapologetic humanity. Table of Contents: Night Music. The Donor, Pretty Pretty Shiny, Behind the Smile, 78154, The Glen, Something Bit Me, Tequila Sunrise, Dawn of the Death, Beetles, The Shark that ate Everything, Demolition Derby, Blind Tell Me How You Die, Clickers in Space, Odessa, The Dick Measuring Contest at the End of the Universe, Ornamentation.
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