April 2019: Monthly Recap

We hope everyone had a fantastic April! It was National Poetry Month, and we shared several amazing guest posts from some of our favorite horror poets: Donna Lynch, Sara Tantlinger, Cina Pelayo, and Christina Sng. If you missed any during the month, be sure to check them out (and the rest of our daily posts from April) below!

Reviews

Hysteria by Stephanie M. Wytovich Review

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling Review

A Collection of Nightmares by Christina Sng

While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt Review

Witches by Donna Lynch Review

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What We’ve Been Reading #1

We started a new style of posting reviews this month! We are excited to continue sharing what we are reading and reviewing. Let us know what you think!

News and Announcements

April 2019 LOHF New Releases

National Poetry Month

Community Wide Readalong: The Winter People

Special Topics and Guest Posts

LOHF Shelf Edition: Jen

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Donna Lynch

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Sara Tantlinger

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Cina Pelayo

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Christina Sng

Instagram Challenge Recap

Five Things We Learned from the #LadiesOfHorrorFiction Instagram Challenge

We’ve reached the end of our first #LadiesofHorrorFiction Instagram Challenge recap. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the challenge and helped us kicked off the Ladies of Horror Fiction!

More 2019 Monthly Recaps

January 2019 Monthly Recap
February 2019: Monthly Recap
March 2019: Monthly Recap

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Thank you so much for joining us for National Poetry Month and for celebrating all things ladies of horror. We hope you are planning to join us throughout the month of May. We are planning to put the spotlight on the horrors of motherhood! Stay tuned!

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Christina Sng

Hong Kong Swordfighting Sagas of my Childhood

by Christina Sng

I’ve often been asked why I write horror. This goes back to the advice I’m often given, write what you know. My answer is simply that it’s familiar and comforting, and it is the genre I grew up with.

Growing up with a much-older brother who loved horror, I was quickly introduced to The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist before I was 10. If the TV was on at home or my grandmother’s house, it was tuned to Hong Kong swordfighting sagas which almost always had a sprinkling of the supernatural. They were a staple favorite of my family. The 1980s was the perfect era for horror fare.

This carried on right through my 20s. I remember we used to rent countless Hong Kong swordfighting series, spanning 30-100 episodes on some 10-30 video tapes from the video rental shop and spend evenings and weekends watching them with my Dad and Grandma who loved them.

There were ghosts, vampires, magic, and sorcery in many of these stories. The channeling of one’s inner force into martial arts mastery and accelerated healing, the ability to fly, and the physical transference of one’s skills to another were feats of awe I marveled at in the heroes and villains. The 1983 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes starring Felix Wong and the late Barbara Yung is my favorite. Many consider it the best version filmed.

The horror of swordfighting sagas is often that man is the true monster, a tenet I find myself subscribing to more the older I get. Common themes include vengeance for a family wiped out, brother betraying brother, women treated like property, the enemy is your best friend, a cruel emperor who needs to be overthrown, princes killing princes for the throne, princes killing the commoner woman they love for the throne, martial artists competing against each other to be number one in the world. It rarely ends well, the endings bittersweet. Often the good guy with integrity dies. Sometimes he lives but is forever scarred.

Rarely are there stories of a giant monster trampling the cities where our heroes kill it and triumph. It is always about the horrors of human nature and how we live with it, endure it, or destroy it. Kind of like real life.

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About Christina Sng

Christina Sng is an award-winning poet, writer, and artist. Her work has been published in numerous print and online venues worldwide and translated into six languages. She is the author of A Constellation of Songs (Origami Poems Project), Catku (Allegra Press), 2017 Elgin Award nominee An Assortment of Sky Things (Allegra Press), 2018 Elgin Award runner-up Astropoetry (Alban Lake Publishing), and 2017 Bram Stoker Award® winner A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press).

Since 2001, her science fiction, horror, and fantasy poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous venues across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. These include Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aoife’s Kiss, Apex Magazine, Astronomers Without Borders, Bare Bone, Beyond Centauri, Black Petals, Blood Rose, Bloodbond, ChiZine, Dark Animus, Disturbed Digest, Dreams and Nightmares, Electric Velocipede, Eye to the Telescope, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Flesh & Blood, Grievous Angel, Hadrosaur Tales, Illumen, The Journal, Jupiter Magazine, LONTAR, Lunatic Chameleon, The Martian Wave, Mythic Delirium, NewMyths.com, Night to Dawn, Outposts of Beyond, The Pedestal Magazine, Penny Dreadful, Penumbric, Poe Little Thing, Polu Texni, Scifaikuest, Space & Time, Spaceports & Spidersilk, Spectral Realms, Star*Line, Story House, Tales of the Talisman, Trunk Stories, Wicked Hollow, and Yellow Bat Review.

In 2002, 2003, and 2004, her poems “The Marvel of Flight” and “Crimes of Our Youth” (Wicked Hollow #1 and #4), “The Bone Carver” (ChiZine), “The Art of Weaving” (Flesh & Blood #14), and “Asunder” with Mike Allen (Star*Line), received Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Annual Editions, respectively. In 2007 and 2014, her poems “Medusa in LA” and “Allegra” (Tales of the Talisman Vol. 1 Issue 1 and Vol. 10 Issue 3) were nominated for the Rhysling Award in the short and long poem categories. In 2016, her poems “Twenty Years” (New Myths 32) and “The Woman in the Coffee Shop” (LONTAR #5) were nominated in the long poem category and her scifaiku, “The Man with Red Eyes” was nominated for the Dwarf Stars Award. Her long poem “The Leviathans of Europa” (Polu Texni) was nominated for the 2017 Rhysling Awards. 2018 Rhysling nominees include short poem “Starlight” (Space & Time), and two long poems, “Moonlight in the Playground” (Spectral Realms) and “Little Red” (Polu Texni). 4 short poems were nominated for the 2018 Dwarf Stars Awards: “Bloody Spindle”, “Ruby Sky”, “Seconds Before”, and “Multiverse Theory”. Her haiku sequence “Little Red in Haiku”, which first appeared in Star*Line 40.4 in 2017, received an Honourable Mention in the Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten.

She is a Lifetime member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

From late 2015, Christina began to study haiku, finding it immensely beautiful and therapeutic. Now she writes daily to document her thoughts and days. Her haiku, senryu, haiga, and tanka have since received numerous honours and accolades, including most recently, winning the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize and the Third Annual Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition. Her work has appeared all around the world in journals such as A Hundred Gourds, Akisame, Akitsu Quarterly, Asahi Haikuist, bear creek haiku, cattails, Cricket, Failed Haiku, Frameless Sky, Frogpond, Haikuniverse, Haiku Masters, hedgerow, Mayfly, otata, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Shamrock, The Bamboo Hut, The Cicada’s Cry, and Wild Plum, among others.

As an artist, she paints in oil, watercolour, and ink. In 2017, she began to market her art to magazines. Her oil painting “The Last Day” appeared on the cover of Gnarled Oak in January 2018 and her black and white watercolour painting “Waiting Together” was the cover art for Dreams and Nightmares #109, which is incidentally, the same magazine that gave her her first two poetry sales back in 2000.

Christina is also an avid gardener and an accomplished musician, and can be found most days in a dark corner deadheading her flowers while humming Vivaldi to the swaying branches.

What We've Been Reading #1

We at Ladies of Horror Fiction want to do things a little differently than the typical horror fiction review website. Our goal is to lift our ladies up and give them as much exposure as we possibly can so that all of you lovely people will discover them, buy their books and get some beautiful word of mouth going. We have decided to (mostly) stop posting standard reviews and instead post a weekly (or bi-weekly depending on our work load) round-up of what we are reading and what we have been reviewing. We will still include links to our full reviews but this new format will allow for a more current snapshot of what we are reading and enjoying and allow you to find the books at a quicker pace. It will also give some books more exposure as we often read the same books but on a different timeline. We hope you enjoy our new format and that you find some amazing five star reads and a slew of new authors to haunt!

This week the Ladies of Horror Fiction crew have been reading and enjoying:

Shattered by J.M. White

Where there is darkness, there isn’t always light… Dayna Harris thought her problems began in her bedroom. More specifically in her bed, the bed she’d shared with her husband, Richard, for twenty-six years. The bed where she witnessed Richard cheating on her with a woman half his age. But maybe they really began in the motel room that day. What conjured the dark figure Dayna first glimpsed in the motel mirror? The dark figure that continues to haunt her as her marriage to Richard crumbles. Consumed by Richard’s infidelity, Dayna begins unravelling his lies revealing a husband she never knew. Now, psychologically imprisoned by a manipulative and dangerous husband, can Dayna find the courage to leave, and can she discover if the very real shadow that torments her is a figment of her imagination or something more sinister? In this edgy paranormal psychological thriller, author J.M. White takes us into the realms of the unknown, lives that are built on lies, forces we can’t always explain and the emotional torture of domestic abuse. It shows one woman’s search or light in the darkness.

SHATTERED releases on 4/26/19 but you can get your pre-orders in now!

Amazon | Better World Books | Goodreads

Emily’s Teaser Review

Shattered is J.M. White’s debut novel, and it caught my attention from the beginning. This book is a blend of domestic suspense and paranormal horror

Emily ‘s full review can be read at Goodreads.

A Hawk In The Woods by Carrie Laben

When newscaster Abby Waite is diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness, she decides to do the logical thing… break her twin sister Martha out of prison and hit the road. Their destination is the Waite family cabin in Minnesota where Abby plans a family reunion of sorts. But when you come from a family where your grandfather frequently took control of your body during your youth, where your mother tried to inhabit your mind and suck your youthful energies out of you, and where so many dark secrets–and bodies, even–are buried, such a family meeting promises to be nothing short of complicated…

Amazon | Better World Books | Goodreads

Emily’s Teaser Review

I absolutely loved the idea of this book. It sounded so fascinating, and I read it as soon as I got my hands on it.

Emily’s full review can be read at Goodreads.

Jen’s Teaser Review

There’s a lot to process in A Hawk in the Woods! I know I’ll continue to think about it for quite some time. Books like this one tend to grow in my mind and in my heart as all of the pieces continue to meld together. It’s a little bit like a movie you want to start back from the beginning once you have reached the end so you can experience it again knowing all of the secrets. 

Jen’s full review can be read at Book Den.

The Lady From The Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara

The Lady from the Black Lagoon uncovers the life and work of Milicent Patrick—one of Disney’s first female animators and the only woman in history to create one of Hollywood’s classic movie monsters.

As a teenager, Mallory O’Meara was thrilled to discover that one of her favorite movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, featured a monster designed by a woman, Milicent Patrick. But for someone who should have been hailed as a pioneer in the genre there was little information available. For, as O’Meara soon discovered, Patrick’s contribution had been claimed by a jealous male colleague, her career had been cut short and she soon after had disappeared from film history. No one even knew if she was still alive.

As a young woman working in the horror film industry, O’Meara set out to right the wrong, and in the process discovered the full, fascinating story of an ambitious, artistic woman ahead of her time. Patrick’s contribution to special effects proved to be just the latest chapter in a remarkable, unconventional life, from her youth growing up in the shadow of Hearst Castle, to her career as one of Disney’s first female animators. And at last, O’Meara discovered what really had happened to Patrick after The Creature’s success, and where she went.

A true-life detective story and a celebration of a forgotten feminist trailblazer, Mallory O’Meara’s The Lady from the Black Lagoon establishes Patrick in her rightful place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little has changed since.

Amazon | Better World Books | Goodreads

Toni’s Teaser Review

Dear loard….this book gave me all the feels. I was mad and fascinated and sad all at the same time. I wanted to take to the internet to scream about this book as loud as I possibly could. I wanted to thrust it into the hands of my nearest and dearest and tell them to read it.

Toni’s full review can be read at The Misadventures Of A Reader.

Laurie’s Mini Review

Laurie also read this book and recommends it to all the little girls who were ever told “you’re too sweet to read that scary stuff” (or any variant of that backhanded compliment) and were denigrated for their love of the scarier things and/or ever had a superior take credit for their hard work. Basically all of us, right?

That’s what some of our crew have been up to this week. What about you? Share your most recent LOHF reads in the comments. We’re always looking for more books to add to our tbr piles!

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Cina Pelayo

Tapping into the Horror Poet

By Cina Pelayo

One took us down the unassuming hallways in H.H. Holmes’ murder castle. Another marched us into war. I was told of exquisite artifacts and vampire fortunetellers. I heard whispered promises of bleeding saffron. Then, I was invited to kiss and dance with the witches.

The nominees for the 2018 Horror Writers Association award in Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection are Bruce Boston for ARTIFACTS (Independent Legions Publishing), David E. Cowen for BLEEDING SAFFRON (Weasel Press), Donna Lynch for WITCHES (Raw Dog Screaming Press), Marge Simon and Alessandro Manzetti for WAR (Crystal Lake Publishing) and Sara Tantlinger for THE DEVIL’S DREAMLAND (Strangehouse Books).

I spent a few days reading each poetry collection nominated and taking in not only the beauty of their words, but the fear and terror they generated. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t know that horror poetry was an awarded category. I’m sure a lot of people probably didn’t even know that horror poetry was a category of writing altogether. I honestly never thought of myself as a poet. I began writing as a journalist and then it took me a few years working through a Master of Fine Arts in Writing at The School of the Art Institute at Chicago to discover what kind of writer I was. I didn’t know any of the formal mechanics of fiction writing at that time. All I knew is that I wanted to write about the terrible things I had seen while working as a journalist, but I did not want to write journalism or non-fiction any further. I wanted to communicate pain through story.

In some classes we of course read poetry. I remember reading the works of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and others, but it wasn’t until I started reading some genuinely painful poetry that I finally connected to poems. The first time I read Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Five in the Afternoon” I think I cried hysterically. I felt it hit me in my core, because I knew he was writing about injustice and death. Then, when I read Jorge Luis Borges’ collection POEMS OF MY NIGHT I recall very vividly closing the book when I had finished the last poem and then opening the book again and rereading the entire collection again in that same sitting. I felt like I had discovered electricity or even another sense beyond sight, feel, touch, taste and smell. I had found artists who were able to communicate pain and suffering and beauty with words. And don’t even get me started on how many times I have read and shouted at the top of my lungs the words of Pedro Pietri’s “Puerto Rican Obituary.” Those words cut, they slice, and they express the pain of a people who work themselves to blood and bone, and that alone is horror.

Again, I don’t think of myself as a poet, mainly because I just hold poets on such a perfect pedestal that I do not think I am quite there yet. I am a horror fiction writer who happens to write horror poetry. I feel like poets have to be skilled, not only as a writer, but as a visual artist, have a good understanding of sound and music, and understand psychology and emotion and texture and love and light – and darkness –  all of these things that you just can’t reach out and touch.

The poetry I have written is in the style, I would like to think, of Lorca or Borges. I write of human suffering, our personal failures, or paranoia, the monsters we think we see and the monsters that are really there. Perhaps there’s something about us Latin American writers and poets, something about the unfortunate instability our countries and regions have seen, the suffering we have experienced through various regimes and socio-political shifts that allows us to tap into that language of pain, of poetry, and it is a language.

Poetry isn’t validated by rhyme, or by iambic pentameter. Poetry is validated by what the artist is able to express in words, how the artist is able to position the words across the page, and I would say how the artist is able to make you feel.

Each of the words that I have read nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in poetry are exquisite examples of horror poetry. They are beautiful, and tragic. They are the calming strings of a violin and the panicked beats of a drum. I’m looking forward to being present when the winner is awarded and of course looking forward to both reading and writing more horror poetry.

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About Cina Pelayo 

Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo is the author of LOTERIA, SANTA MUERTE, THE MISSING, and POEMS OF MY NIGHT. She is an International Latino Book Award winning author, and an Elgin Award nominee. She is represented by Amy Brewer at Metamorphosis Literary. Check out her website at www.cinapelayo.com.

LOHF Shelf Edition: Jen

Here’s another segment of Ladies of Horror Fiction: Shelf Edition! LOHF team member Jen is showing off her books this time. Jen is a blogger, bookstagrammer, and reviewer with tons of great recommendations!

Do you have any recent favorite LOHF books?

Yes! I just read and loved The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (see our LOHF review here). I also recently enjoyed Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods.

What LOHF books do you have on your TBR?

This month I’m planning to read Second Lives by P.D. Cacek, Last Things by Jacqueline West, and The Invited by Jennifer McMahon.

Where do you find recommendations? Are there any LOHF books that have been recommended to you that you loved?

My biggest source of recommendations is our team at Ladies of Horror Fiction. We talk women horror writers every day, and I love it!

Twitter and Instagram have also been a great source for discovering LOHF books. I’ve had Tananarive Due on my shelf for years, but the Twitter praise and then the LOHF Readalong got me to finally read one of her books. Now I’m moving them all up the TBR!

Where do you shop for books?

Amazon, Book Depository, Fleur Fine Books, 2nd and Charles, local thrift shops, and ThriftBooks.

(I’m also a big library user.)

Are there any upcoming LOHF releases you’re excited about?

Yes! Along with the ARCs I’m planning to read this month, I’m really looking forward to reading Ann Dávila Cardinal’s Five Midnights.

Where can people find you on social media?

My book blog: www.bookden.net

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bookden

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bookdenjen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1384646-jen-book-den

If you would like to show off your shelves in a future edition of LOHF Shelf Edition we would love to have you! Please reach out in the comments.

Witches by Donna Lynch Review

Steven Archer and Donna Lynch collaborate once again for a collection of illustrated poems and short stories about witches—some familiar and some secret; some based in history and lore, and some manifested directly from the minds of their creators. This 7″ by 10″, full-color art book includes more than 30 poems and paintings and is the sequel to Daughters of Lilith, their collaborative work released in 2010.

Goodreads | Amazon | Better World Books

Emily, Toni and Tracy have read Witches, this is what they have to say!

Emily’s Teaser Review

It’s entertaining as a whole, and I loved that it was mainly focused on women.

Click here to see the full review on Emily’s Goodreads

Toni’s Teaser Review

The poetry was viscera and I loved the history that was sprinkled throughout like little gifts.

Click here to see the full review on The Misadventures of a Reader

Tracy’s Teaser Review

Each one of these poems highlights a famous witch throughout history.

Click here to see the full review on Tracy’s Goodreads

About Donna Lynch

Donna Lynch is a novelist, poet, and musician currently living in Maryland. She is the co-founder along with her husband, artist and musician Steven Archer, of the industrial/ darkwave band Ego Likeness. 

Her first novel ‘Isabel Burning‘ was published in 2008 by Raw Dog Screaming Press, and her other written works include the poetry collections ‘In My Mouth‘ (2000) ‘Ladies & Other Vicious Creatures‘ (2007), and ‘Daughters of Lilith‘ (2010); a novella, ‘Driving Through the Desert‘ (Thunderstorm Books 2012), as well as several short stories.
‘Isabel Burning’ will be republished in German through Voodoo Press (EU) in the winter of 2012, and her second novel, the prequel to ‘Isabel Burning’, ‘Red Horses‘ (RDSP) will be released in the US in early 2013. She is an active member of The Horror Writers Association.

Five Things We Learned from the #LadiesOfHorrorFiction Instagram Challenge

We learned several things doing the challenge that was the first step in getting Ladies of Horror Fiction established. We thought we’d take a minute to reflect.

1. Posting a new picture for a prompt every day is a pain in the butt and many of us salute you all who do it regularly. (Seriously, how do you have enough books to do a post every day?! Let alone the motivation!)
2. As we suspected, lots of people hadn’t heard of many of the women that were suddenly being brought to attention. What surprised us was how happily eager everyone was to learn more and to read more! We all went into this knowing that we wanted to focus on women horror writers, but we’d each admit also that we didn’t exactly have vast libraries of horror written by women ourselves. So we were learning new names and new books right along with everyone.
3. You bookstagrammers rock! Seriously. Even though we chose just a handful to recap for every post there were so many gorgeous photos posted that highlighted so many amazing women. (And some of us (Lilyn!) are definitely jealous on how you manage to put so many things together into a picture that looks good!)
4. Ladies of Horror Fiction (LOHF) forming was something that needed to be done. Women are sometimes afraid to self-promote as much as men. Women often face the (stupid) perception that they can’t write horror as good as men. Women are consistently overlooked by publishers unless it’s in an acceptable genre (Romance, Kidlit), but nowhere is it more evident than it is in horror.
5. We were surprised by how instantly accepted we were by many men in the community who instantly acknowledged that we were a need! I don’t think any of us knew what to expect, but when men started talking us up, shouting us out, pointing out what we were doing, it gave us all the warm’n’fuzzies on a massive level.

Thank you to everyone who participated in that first challenge (and everyone who participated in our second!) We know we don’t have the space to highlight every bookstagrammer who took part, but we would like to shout-out several of you for making gorgeous photos and helping to spread the word.

• booksinthefreezer
• carissa_reads
• dlgillis
• drunk_on_bookz
• gowsy33
• grumplstiltskin
• heylittlethrifter
• kimberlyyerina6466
• missbonnie13
• mother.horror
• ouija.doodle.reads
• puzzledbooks
• readswithdogs
• risky_oak.s_book_den
• shriekingviolets428
• tamsparks
• tarasbookaddiction
• thaatswhatsheread
• whatmeworry_reads

Again there were many, many more who participated in the challenge, but it is it late the person that is writing this post is very, very tired, so blame the need for sleep if you were left off this list!

Thank you again, ladies and gents, for giving Ladies of Horror Fiction the kick-off of a lifetime. We are so happy to be a part of this horror community!

We thought it appropriate to end with this picture from our very own Tracy.

View this post on Instagram

I have love for this book. Love. I'm finishing up a little reading/personal journey that began this summer; I'll be sharing soon. This book by Tiffany McDaniel was such a large part of it. . . . While not technically horror, there are some horrific elements and I promise this book stays with you. Lingers. There was no other choice for me when it came to Day 22 of the #ladiesofhorrorfiction challenge: "summer". The last parts of the novel shattered me; I'm still finding pieces here and there. McDaniel's prose is a thing of beauty and there are moments when her knowledge of the English language and how it can be used just left me staring. Have you read this? Thoughts? . . . . #bookphotography #photochallenge #booksofig #booknerd #womenempoweringwomen #thesummerthatmeltedeverything #tiffanymcdaniel #bookish #bookworm #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #summerreading #constantreader #readersofinstagram #bookfeaturepage #bookstoread #booklover

A post shared by Tracy (@tracy_reads79) on Aug 22, 2018 at 1:51pm PDT

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Sara Tantlinger

Killing the Tortured Artist

By Sara Tantlinger

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines poetry as “writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.”

Poetry is about how we experience life, whether the poems are personal or taking on a fictional arc or characters. As I think about some of my favorite classic poets (Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton), it’s difficult not to remember their suffering, how tragedy dogged their footsteps and tortured their minds. Since their deaths, as along with other writers who suffered immensely, as readers, we tend to sometimes glorify such suffering as the whole “tortured artist” stereotype that I not only hate, but fiercely believe is detrimental to creativity.

Misery loves company, or so we’re told. Though I’d argue misery most likely enjoys isolating us in dark corners instead. As writers and poets, we have an amazing gift where we can exorcise the pain out through our words. It becomes therapeutic. Writing horror, particularly horror poetry, has been a cathartic blessing for me as a way to deal with all the internalized pain, anger, and general frustration I tend to harbor. Again, poetry is about experience and emotions, but I also need to remind myself that one does not have to constantly live the life of a “tortured artist” to write well and be productive.

Since I was thirteen, poetry has been my outlet for the whirlwind of emotions I contain – the ones I probably won’t ever talk about because I have that whole introverted writer with more emotional baggage than you’ll ever know thing going on. Nice, right? (It’s not). And because it’s not, I get livid when these conversations or threads or Facebook posts pop up where it seems people praise the whole idea of WOE IS ME – like they have to be the most miserable person around and declare their melancholy for the world to see – not in a way where they share it to let others know what’s happening or are simply venting or are maybe trying to reach out to others in similar situations. I’m talking about those posts where it becomes a pissing contest among writers to win the almighty golden “I Am the Most Miserable Person” crown – because why? That person has suffered the greatest amount and therefore must write the most raw, creative, heartbreaking stuff?

This is a sick notion. There is a difference between writing as a cathartic exercise versus believing we must be miserable to be good writers of horror or poetry or whatever your artform is. We do not need to invite suffering into our lives in order to be strong writers (no matter your genre), but I think particularly for those of us who write horror, this dangerous idea that you need to live your horror and suffer more than your counterparts sometimes infects its way into minds.

A lot of writers have been through the trenches, I know and understand that intimately. However, the idea of keeping yourself down in those trenches of woe is what perpetuates a dangerous idea – one that could so easily lead down the road to self-destruction. I don’t want my fellow poets and writers to be the next Poe or Plath because I think we deserve better experiences and emotions.

When bad things happen, poetry will always be there for us, like a good friend we can confide our worst thoughts and secrets to. A good friend we can count on to hug us despite the tears and blood pouring from our wounds. When the darkness is poured out, a little bit often stays with us. Bad experiences become moments we remember, lessons we learn, and heartache that shapes our character. However, we have to remember that the light is okay, too. We have to acknowledge happiness and brighter days when they appear because if we only believe tragedy and torture make us good creators, then at the end of the day we may only have our writing and nothing or no one else. That didn’t end well for Hemingway or Plath or Sexton.

I understand pain. I’ve lived it, and continue dealing with it in the ways I know how. I will continue dispensing the emotions I may one day better process into my writing, especially my poetry because it is real, and therapeutic, and it’s something I need to do. I still have a lot of darkness to exorcise, and poetry (especially horror) will always be there, waiting for me to bleed those ghosts onto the page, but I refuse to give into the twisted notion that I have to be miserable and beaten down to write well.

And maybe many of you already know this, but it’s something that has taken me the past decade or so to even try and understand. The poems I needed to write the most, the ones about losing my dad and other family, about complicated friendships and relationships, about the wreckage of love and even love that builds me up, I have written and tucked them into a collection I may one day have the courage to publish, so I understand the need to use poetry as liberation for life’s range of experiences, and I am thankful so many of us can connect to each other through our work.

Write your pain. Share that darkness with others but know that you are more than your pain and your worst days. Know that you do not have to continue to suffer in order to be an amazing storyteller, an amazing poet, and an amazing person.

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About Sara Tantlinger

Sara Tantlinger resides outside of Pittsburgh on a hill in the woods. She graduated fromSeton Hill University with a BA in English literature and creative writing, and later with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. Her love of horror started in middle school where she discovered the Fear Street and Goosebumps books. Some of her favorite writers include Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Kate Chopin, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, Caroline Kepnes, Clive Barker, Gillian Flynn, Richard Siken, Sierra DeMulder, and Catherynne Valente. Sara’s debut poetry collection, Love For Slaughter, was released in 2017 with StrangeHouse Books. Her most recent collection is the Stoker-nominated The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes (see our LOHF review here).

When she’s not writing, reading, or researching, Sara enjoys coffee, music, movies, and is prone to over-attachment to fictional characters and cats. She also possesses a collection of sea glass and shark teeth
fossils, which make her want to move to the seaside as soon as possible. She is a member of the SFPA, an active member of the HWA, a poetry editor for the Oddville Press, a writing coach for a small publishing company, and a college instructor.

Stalk her here:
Twitter– @sarajane524
Instagram– @inkychaotics

While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt Review

It begins, they say, with a woman screaming . . .

On a remote Scottish island, the McBride house stands guard over its secrets. A century ago, a young widow and her son died mysteriously there; just last year a local boy, visiting for a dare, disappeared without a trace.

For Zoe Adams, newly arrived from America, the house offers a refuge from her failing marriage. But her peaceful retreat is disrupted by strange and disturbing events: nighttime intrusions; unknown voices; a constant sense of being watched.

The locals want her to believe that these incidents are echoes of the McBrides’ dark past. Zoe is convinced the danger is closer at hand, and all too real—but can she uncover the truth before she is silenced?

Goodreads | Amazon |Better World Books

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Two of our LOHF crew recently read and reviewed While You Sleep and here’s a little of what they had to say:

Graciecat’s Teaser Review

The writing was very good. the atmosphere, secondary characters…everything was pretty top-notch.

Click here to see Graciecat’s full review at Sci-fi and Scary.

Laurie’s Teaser Review

While You Sleep is a book dripping in beautifully written atmosphere and eerie goings-on.

Click here to see Laurie’s full review at Horror After Dark.

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About Stephanie Merritt

(Also writes under the pseudonym S.J. Parris)

Stephanie Merritt (born 1974 in Surrey) to Jim and Rita Merritt is a critic and feature writer for various publications including The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman, Zembla and Die Welt. She has also been Deputy Literary Editor and a staff writer at The Observer.

Merritt graduated in English from Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1996. Prior to this, she attended Godalming College in Surrey.

She is the author of two novels, Gaveston (Faber & Faber) which won a Betty Trask Award of £4,000 from the Society of Authors in 2002 [2:], and Real (2005), for which she is currently writing a screenplay. She has also written a memoir, The Devil Within, published by Vermilion is 2008, which discusses her experiences living with depression.

Meritt has appeared regularly as a critic and panellist on BBC Radio 4 and BBC7, has been a judge for the BBC and Channel 4 new comedy awards as well as the Perrier Award, and appeared as interviewer and author at various literary festivals, as well as the National Theatre and the English National Opera.

Visit her website here: http://www.sjparris.com/

A Collection of Nightmares by Christina Sng

Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.

These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.

Dream carefully.
You’ve already made your bed.
The nightmares you have now will not be kind.
And you have no one to blame but yourself.

Goodreads | Amazon | Better World Books | Raw Dog Screaming Press

LOHF team members Emily and Toni are dark poetry fans and have a few things to say about A Collection of Nightmares.

Emily’s Teaser Review

This book is definitely dark, but it’s not as bleak as some others I have read. There’s still some hope in these poems even though they are focused on nightmares. A Collection of Nightmares is a great book, and I would love to read more from Christina Sng!

Click here to see Emily’s full review at Goodreads.

Toni’s Teaser Review

I really loved Sng’s writing style. I had a really hard time putting this collection down. The art on the cover was beautiful. This collection made my heart happy and I can’t wait to read more from Sng. If everything else is as wonderful as A Collection of Nightmares then I can’t wait!!

Click here to see Toni’s full review at The Misadventures of a Reader

About Christina Sng

Christina Sng is an award-winning poet, writer, and artist. Her work has been published in numerous print and online venues worldwide and translated into six languages. She is the author of A Constellation of Songs (Origami Poems Project), Catku (Allegra Press), 2017 Elgin Award nominee An Assortment of Sky Things (Allegra Press), 2018 Elgin Award runner-up Astropoetry (Alban Lake Publishing), and 2017 Bram Stoker Award® winner A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press).

Since 2001, her science fiction, horror, and fantasy poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous venues across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore. These include Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aoife’s Kiss, Apex Magazine, Astronomers Without Borders, Bare Bone, Beyond Centauri, Black Petals, Blood Rose, Bloodbond, ChiZine, Dark Animus, Disturbed Digest, Dreams and Nightmares, Electric Velocipede, Eye to the Telescope, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Flesh & Blood, Grievous Angel, Hadrosaur Tales, Illumen, The Journal, Jupiter Magazine, LONTAR, Lunatic Chameleon, The Martian Wave, Mythic Delirium, NewMyths.com, Night to Dawn, Outposts of Beyond, The Pedestal Magazine, Penny Dreadful, Penumbric, Poe Little Thing, Polu Texni, Scifaikuest, Space & Time, Spaceports & Spidersilk, Spectral Realms, Star*Line, Story House, Tales of the Talisman, Trunk Stories, Wicked Hollow, and Yellow Bat Review.

In 2002, 2003, and 2004, her poems “The Marvel of Flight” and “Crimes of Our Youth” (Wicked Hollow #1 and #4), “The Bone Carver” (ChiZine), “The Art of Weaving” (Flesh & Blood #14), and “Asunder” with Mike Allen (Star*Line), received Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Annual Editions, respectively. In 2007 and 2014, her poems “Medusa in LA” and “Allegra” (Tales of the Talisman Vol. 1 Issue 1 and Vol. 10 Issue 3) were nominated for the Rhysling Award in the short and long poem categories. In 2016, her poems “Twenty Years” (New Myths 32) and “The Woman in the Coffee Shop” (LONTAR #5) were nominated in the long poem category and her scifaiku, “The Man with Red Eyes” was nominated for the Dwarf Stars Award. Her long poem “The Leviathans of Europa” (Polu Texni) was nominated for the 2017 Rhysling Awards. 2018 Rhysling nominees include short poem “Starlight” (Space & Time), and two long poems, “Moonlight in the Playground” (Spectral Realms) and “Little Red” (Polu Texni). 4 short poems were nominated for the 2018 Dwarf Stars Awards: “Bloody Spindle”, “Ruby Sky”, “Seconds Before”, and “Multiverse Theory”. Her haiku sequence “Little Red in Haiku”, which first appeared in Star*Line 40.4 in 2017, received an Honourable Mention in the Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten.

She is a Lifetime member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

From late 2015, Christina began to study haiku, finding it immensely beautiful and therapeutic. Now she writes daily to document her thoughts and days. Her haiku, senryu, haiga, and tanka have since received numerous honours and accolades, including most recently, winning the 2018 Jane Reichhold International Prize and the Third Annual Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition. Her work has appeared all around the world in journals such as A Hundred Gourds, Akisame, Akitsu Quarterly, Asahi Haikuist, bear creek haiku, cattails, Cricket, Failed Haiku, Frameless Sky, Frogpond, Haikuniverse, Haiku Masters, hedgerow, Mayfly, otata, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Shamrock, The Bamboo Hut, The Cicada’s Cry, and Wild Plum, among others.

As an artist, she paints in oil, watercolour, and ink. In 2017, she began to market her art to magazines. Her oil painting “The Last Day” appeared on the cover of Gnarled Oak in January 2018 and her black and white watercolour painting “Waiting Together” was the cover art for Dreams and Nightmares #109, which is incidentally, the same magazine that gave her her first two poetry sales back in 2000.

Christina is also an avid gardener and an accomplished musician, and can be found most days in a dark corner deadheading her flowers while humming Vivaldi to the swaying branches.

Visit Christina at her website: http://christinasng.com/index.html

Community Wide Readalong: The Winter People

We are getting really excited about our next Ladies of Horror Fiction readalong! Starting May 5 we will be reading The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon.

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother’s bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

The Winter People Readalong Schedule

The Winter People readalong will begin on Sunday, May 5. Each Sunday we will post discussion questions (and our thoughts!) for each section of the readalong.

May 5

We will kickoff the readalong of The Winter People with a post on May 5. Drop by and let us know you are joining in!

May 5 – 11

The first week we will be reading the following sections:

1908
January 2

May 12

On May 12 we will post some week one discussion questions. We would love for you to join in the discussion by posting on your blog, sharing your thoughts on social media (#LOHFReadalong), or answering our questions right here in the comments.

May 12 – 18

During week two, we will read these sections:

1908
January 3
1908

May 19

We will post week two’s discussion questions on May 19.

May 19 – 25

We will read the following sections during week three:

January 4
1908
1886

May 26

Week three’s discussion questions will be posted on May 26.

May 26 – June 1

During the final week of the readalong, we will read the following sections:

January 4
1908
January 4
1908
January 4
1910
January 4
January 5
1939

June 2

We will post our final discussion questions on June 2. If you post a review of The Winter People on your blog, Goodreads, or on social media, we would love for you to leave those links for others to read as well!

Sharing the Readalong

Please feel free to grab the readalong graphic and share across your platforms to let everyone know you are joining in.

Be sure to use the #LOHFReadalong hashtag so we can find and share your posts!

Join the Readalong

Will you be joining us in May? Let us know! We can’t wait to read The Winter People with you!

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling Review

A thrilling, atmospheric debut with the intensive drive of The Martian and Gravity and the creeping dread of Annihilation, in which a caver on a foreign planet finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival.

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.

But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?

Goodreads | Amazon | Better World Books

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Two of our LOHF crew recently read and reviewed The Luminous Dead and here’s a little of what they had to say:

Emily’s Teaser Review

I loved this book, and tore through it since I had to know what was going on.

Click here to see Emily’s full review at Goodreads.

Jen’s Teaser Review

I absolutely loved The Luminous Dead. It’s so rare for me to pick up a book, be immediately hooked, and stay that way through the entirety of the novel. 

Click here to see Jen’s full review at Book Den.

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About Caitlin Starling

Caitlin Starling is a writer and spreadsheet-wrangler who lives near Portland, Oregon. Equipped with an anthropology degree and an unhealthy interest in the dark and macabre, she writes horror-tinged speculative fiction of all flavors. Her first novel, The Luminous Dead, comes out from Harper Voyager in April of 2019. It tells the story of a caver on a foreign planet who finds herself trapped, with only her wits and the unreliable voice on her radio to help her back to the surface. Caitlin is also embarking into the world of narrative design for interactive theater and games, and is always on the lookout for new ways to inflict insomnia.

Caitlin is represented by Caitlin McDonald at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Visit Caitlin’s website here: https://www.caitlinstarling.com/

National Poetry Month Guest Post: Donna Lynch

Beautiful Little Terrors: 

Horror Poetry’s Place in the Genre 

By Donna Lynch

I’ve had the honor and good fortune to be nominated this year for a Bram Stoker Superior Achievement in Poetry Award for a collection titled WITCHES, beautifully illustrated and designed by my collaborator Steven Archer.

The most common query, upon sharing the news, has been: There’s such a thing as horror poetry?

I’m not surprised. In the “mainstream” world, it’s been a very long time since people gathered in parlors to entertain one another with these dark, lyrical gems—my younger years as a goth teen hanging with friends in graveyards notwithstanding.

Once we’ve established that there is, indeed, such a thing as horror poetry, the next natural question would be: What purpose does it serve?

As with most art—far beneath the myriad large-scale impacts upon societies—I can only tell you how this particular medium serves me.

I’ve written two horror novels and a novella, and it felt like it took an eternity. I had histories and backstories for every character that never made it to the page. I researched, outlined, dreamed, and fretted over the details of their lives, and though I enjoyed it, that process eventually removed me from the fear and ugliness I was trying to convey. It became matter-of-fact and clinical after all those months, and all I really wanted was to be back in their dark world. In the end, I got there, but it was not a simple journey.

Poems—those brief moments of terror or pain—allow for that immersion. The horror novel may be the long, quiet walk down the hall that you know can’t end well. The horror poem is the shrouded figure with bone-cutting shears rushing at you from behind.

Poetry is that nightmare that didn’t make enough sense to tell a comprehensive story. It was just a brief, unsettling moment of pictures and feelings, your brain desperately trying to find patterns in chaos.

It is the challenge of simplifying trauma and fear, and manipulating it into a sweet-sounding  rhyme or a piece no longer than a shopping list.

The horror novel may be hundreds of needles inserted into flesh over the course of days or weeks, but the poem—if done right—can be an ax right to the torso.

And what a power to wield. As a poet I want to entertain you but I also want to make you hurt. I want you to be uncomfortable. I want you to be afraid and unsettled. And I want to do it with the smallest, most unassuming tool possible.

For the horror poet, the possibilities of creativity and villainy are endless, because if you can scare someone with ten words, imagine what you could do with ten-thousand.

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About Donna Lynch

Donna Lynch is a dark fiction writer and the co-founder—along with her husband, artist and musician Steven Archer—of the dark electro-rock band Ego Likeness (Metropolis Records). Her written works include Isabel Burning, Driving Through the Desert, Ladies & Other Vicious Creatures, Daughters of Lilith, and In My Mouth. She and her husband live in Maryland.