Lynda E. Rucker's Blog, page 20
February 28, 2012
women in horror: flannery o’connor
With just over 24 hours remaining in Women in Horror month, I’m continuing with my project to write about the women writers of horror fiction who most influenced me early on. Now, you’re either looking at that name up there and thinking “Flannery O’Connor–a horror writer??” Or you’re thinking, “Yes, of course.”
Horror, the grotesque, the gothic–call it what you like, but a vein of horror runs through the fiction of many Southern writers: William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams,...
women in horror: flannery o'connor
With just over 24 hours remaining in Women in Horror month, I'm continuing with my project to write about the women writers of horror fiction who most influenced me early on. Now, you're either looking at that name up there and thinking "Flannery O'Connor–a horror writer??" Or you're thinking, "Yes, of course."
Horror, the grotesque, the gothic–call it what you like, but a vein of horror runs through the fiction of many Southern writers: William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, ...
February 27, 2012
women in horror: lisa tuttle
There's still a little bit left of Women in Horror month (we get an extra day this year!), but it looks like my little project will be extending into the beginning of March which is fine because, well, I am pretty much a woman in horror every day of the year.
I should clarify what I'm doing here: I'm trying to write about the women who inspired and influenced me early on, so I'm not really looking at contemporary work. The 1990s with Kathe Koja is as right-now as we're going to get. In fact...
February 25, 2012
women in horror: kathe koja
Hallucinatory, feverish, dreamlike–I keep writing and erasing these clichés to describe how Kathe Koja's books felt the first time I encountered them in the mid-90s. She was, for me, the antidote to the complacent middle-class families threatened by horror in so much novel-length fiction of the 70s and 80s. Her protagonists were artists, fuckups, obsessives; her books felt dangerous. Performance artist Bibi can't stop cutting her flesh. Tess creates massive SRL-inspired mechanistic...
February 21, 2012
february is women in horror month
I've been terribly remiss. It's Women in Horror month and I haven't done a thing for it. Last year I wrote an appreciation of Caitlin R. Kiernan's The Red Tree for Peter Tennant's Case Notes blog over at TTA Press. The year before that, I wrote about attending a festival of shorts by women at Athens Cine. This year, for what remains of February, I'd like to try to complete a series of blog posts on women horror writers who have been especially important to me personally.
As I say every year...
February 10, 2012
interval
I always find it kind of annoying when people talk in their blogs about how busy they are (except you who are reading this; I am sure if you do this on your blog you do it in a way that's utterly charming). It's not as annoying as "I have thrilling news I can't share," but that's a rant for another day. Anyway, I find it annoying, BUT (does anyone besides me on writing that word hear Pee Wee Herman say to Simone, as they're sitting in the big dinosaur heads, "Tell me about your big but?"...
January 26, 2012
Supernatural Tales acceptance
I've had my first acceptance of 2012. My story "The Wife's Lament" will appear in a future issue of the excellent British magazine Supernatural Tales. Not till next year at the earliest, so I wouldn't advise holding your breath for it or anything, but in the meantime, you could amble on over to that link and take out a subscription. It's a quality publication; you won't be disappointed!
January 23, 2012
for sche schulde than make al the world to wondyr on hir*
Two terrific stories of contemporary women adventurers/explorers:
Dutch teenager Laura Dekker succeeded in sailing solo around the world. I've been following her story since 2009, when the Dutch government denied her permission to set out on this journey at 14, citing child welfare issues. Given what lots of kids endure just by virtue of turning up at school, I find it difficult to sympathize with their position on this. But all's well that ends well, and Laura's been able to complete her...
January 20, 2012
farewell to the poe toaster
This story made me sad. You see, since at least 1940 and some say for even longer, a mysterious figure has turned up at the grave of Edgar Allen Poe on his birthday (January 19) and poured a bit of cognac, toasted, and left behind the bottle of cognac and three red roses arranged in a very specific configuration. Over the years there's been a great deal of speculation as to who may be behind this ceremony. It's said that there was some indication that the tradition was passed on to the next g...
January 17, 2012
writers and compensation
Let's get one thing straight. None of us are in this for the money. There are loads of easier ways to make more money, and I'm not talking day trading or becoming a pro athlete or other careers that would net you millions. I'm talking working as a receptionist, or waiting tables. Yeah, most writers, if they could support themselves and have a little left over at the end of the month from writing alone, would be over the moon.
But I'm not here to whine about how little writers get paid. You...
