Stephen Kozeniewski's Blog, page 24

The Quintessential 100 WORD HORRORS II

I'm very pleased to announce that my very first published story every, "Clockwork Offal," will be back in print for the first time since 2014, appearing in Kevin J. Kennedy's 100 WORD HORRORS 2.  You can find out more about this collection of drabbles (exactly 100 word stories) around the web:
A mention on Craig Saunders's websiteA mention on Feind Gottes's websiteA mention on Nick Diak's websiteA mention on David Moody's websiteListed on Craig Saunders's curriculum vitae

White Rose Comic Con or Bust!

Hey all!  I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be appearing next weekend, Friday through Saturday March 22, 23, and 24 in York, Pennsylvania for the debut White Rose Comic Con I!


The convention will take place at the York Fairground:
334 Carlisle Ave
York, PA 17404

I'll also be appearing alongside horror luminaries Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, Kelli Owen, Bob Ford, Wesley Southard, Chris Enterline, Somer Canon and many, many more.  Hope to see you there!

New Release Announcement: THE HEMATOPHAGES (Italian Language Edition)

Ciao, amici!  I am double-plus excited to announce that as of today, my work is now bilingual.  THE HEMATOPHAGES is now available in Italian, courtesy of the redoubtable Dunwich Edizioni.  You can purchase it at Amazon Italy or Amazon US (or any Amazon store, really.)
I want to thank Alessio Linder for the stellar translation.  He's been responsible for translations for friends and horror luminaries such as Mary SanGiovanni and Bill Braddock.  (And speaking of Mary...thanks to her for pointing me toward Dunwich in the first place!)
Just for fun I ran the translated synopsis back through Google, so for a little fun you can check that out below as well.

La dottoranda Paige Ambroziak è una “coniglietta di stazione”: non ha mai messo piede fuori dall’avamposto nello spazio profondo in cui è cresciuta. Ma quando le viene offerta una piccola fortuna per unirsi a una missione di recupero clandestina, coglie l’opportunità per lasciarsi alle spalle lo spietato mondo accademico.

Paige è convinta di essere stata arruolata per trovare la leggendaria Manifest Destiny, una nave semina che è andata perduta in un’epoca antecedente al governo delle corporazioni sulla Terra e sulle colonie. Qualunque cosa stia cercando, però, riposa nei mari simili a sangue di un organismo di dimensioni planetarie chiamato mondo di carne.

I pericoli abbondano per Paige e le sue compagne di viaggio. Volare fuori dallo spazio tracciato significa che le corporazioni concorrenti possono sparare a vista piuttosto che rispettare i diritti di recupero. L’area è anche territorio di caccia delle macabre skinwrapper, corsare note per uccidere chiunque non si sottometta.

Ma la più grande minaccia per la missione di Paige sono i ripugnanti parassiti alieni che infestano il mondo di carne. Queste mostruosità simili a lamprede erano solite nuotare in un oceano di sangue e sono pronte a versarne un altro dalle vene delle straniere che hanno contaminato il loro habitat. Nel giro di poche ore, Paige scoprirà che non ci sono limiti alla depravazione e alla violenza dei grotteschi incubi noti come… ematofagi.

(and the reverse translation:)

PhD student Paige Ambroziak is a "station bunny": she never set foot outside the outpost in the deep space she grew up in. But when she is offered a small fortune to join a clandestine recovery mission, she takes the opportunity to leave behind the ruthless academic world.

Paige is convinced that she was enlisted to find the legendary Manifest Destiny , a sowing ship that was lost in an era prior to the government of corporations on Earth and the colonies. Whatever he is looking for, however, he rests in the blood-like seas of a planetary-sized organism called the world of flesh.

The dangers abound for Paige and her traveling companions. Flying out of the traced space means that competing corporations can shoot at sight rather than respect recovery rights. The area is also hunting territory of the macabre skinwrapper, corsing notes to kill anyone who does not submit.

But the greatest threat to Paige's mission is the disgusting alien parasites infesting the world of flesh. These lamprede-like monstrosities used to swim in an ocean of blood and are ready to pour another from the veins of foreigners who have contaminated their habitat. Within a few hours, Paige will discover that there are no limits to the depravity and violence of the grotesque nightmares known as...hematophagous.

New Release Spotlight: CATFISH IN THE CRADLE

I am very pleased to share with you all the good news that my dear friend and writing partner Wile E. Young has released his first novel, CATFISH IN THE CRADLE.  I sincerely hope you'll grab a copy.

Grady Pope has hit bottom; his alligator hunting business is failing and his daughter has abandoned him. Nearly giving up, his life is turned upside down when she reappears and dies giving birth to a son. Grady takes in his erstwhile grandson, vowing to raise him. He soon notices that strange events occur around the child, culminating in the revelation that he isn't entirely human. The ancient forces who dwell in the river want their kin back and Grady Pope must decide whether blood does run thicker than water.

New Release Announcement: 100 WORD HORRORS PART 2

Hey, all!  I sincerely hope you enjoyed Women in Horror Month and all the amazing guests who contributed their time and effort.
Now we're back to my (semi-)regular contributions, and I'm very pleased to kick off March with a new release announcement!
The very talented Scottish horror author Kevin J. Kennedy has compiled an impressive collection of drabbles in 100 WORD HORRORS 2.  A drabble is a microfiction piece consisting of exactly 100 words.
Being published in 100 WORD HORRORS 2 is something of a homecoming for me.  After being out of print for nearly six years, my very first published piece ever, "Clockwork Offal," is finding a new home in this collection.  With the re-release of THE GHOUL ARCHIPELAGO and BILLY AND THE CLONEASAURUS last year, (not to mention the upcoming re-release of BRAINEATER JONES) I feel like I'm really starting to get back to my roots.
But don't just come for me!  A whole bevy of horror luminaries will also be featured, including Sara Tantlinger, James Newman, Michael A. Arnzen, and my old battle buddy Richard Chizmar.  It's available for pre-order now and will be released on Monday.  Enjoy!

Women in Horror Month #13: Nadia Bulkin, Shirley Jackson Award-Nominated Author of SHE SAID DESTROY

Well, folks, thanks for stopping by this month.  I'm very glad to round out 2019's Women in Horror Month interview series with someone I've had the pleasure of meeting and serving on a panel with at Stoker Con 2018.  Let's give a warm welcome to the devilishly talented Nadia Bulkin!


About Nadia Bulkin:

Nadia Bulkin writes scary stories about the scary world we live in, thirteen of which appear in her debut collection, SHE SAID DESTROY (Word Horde, 2017). Her short stories have been included in editions of THE YEAR'S BEST WEIRD FICTION, THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR, and THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR. She has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award five times. She grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, with her Javanese father and American mother, before relocating to Lincoln, Nebraska. She has a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in International Affairs, and lives in Washington, D.C.
You can follow her on Twitter, and her website.

Interview:
SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?

NB:  I write horror stories, mostly (my first collection of said stories, SHE SAID DESTROY, was published by Word Horde in August 2017). I also consider myself just a fan of the genre - since I was a little kid, I've watched an ungodly amount of horror movies, mostly because I enjoy the safe experimentation with danger, and also as a form of therapy. I review them on my Twitter.

SK: Who or what terrifies you?

NB:  From a strictly visual, horror media viewpoint, I'm really scared of Japanese yurei-style ghosts, especially once you introduce the broken, insectoid movement of ghosts like Kayako in "Ju-on." I think it pings some primitive nerve ending in me that says, "that is not natural, that is unpredictable, that is unsafe." I literally have to hide behind the couch if someone puts on "Ju-on" or "Kairo" ("Pulse"), that's how much it gets to me.

In my waking life, particularly as a woman, I'm mostly scared of physical harm being done to me by others. But I also get the heebie-jeebies when uncanny things happen that I can't explain, something that pings that same nerve of "this is not normal, this is not safe." Something that, even if it looks innocuous and just gets filed under "eerie coincidences," still hints that there are larger forces beyond our comprehension capable of messing with our reality. 

SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?

NB:  The two biggest challenges for me are: how to grapple with the fact that a lot of horror rests on the destruction and demonization of women and female bodies, and the very interrelated fact that horror is considered to be the domain of male auteurs. On the one hand, horror has a lot of potential as a subversive genre (and that's why I love it); on the other, a lot of horror is actually very retrograde. Even extremely violent, shocking horror usually just enacts the same violence that's been inflicted on women and children in the name of war for millennia. It gets to be suffocating, at times, being the punching bag of every story. Personally, acknowledging that status quo and surviving within it has been a huge focus for me and for my stories. Besides, surely horror shouldn't feel so "been there, done that"? The only solution, really, is to invite more people who aren't straight men into the genre and to let them tell the stories they want to tell, instead of expecting them to play the same game as everyone else in order to be accepted.

SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

NB:  Katie from "Paranormal Activity." Helen from "Candyman." Eleanor from THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (book, not miniseries).

SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?

NB:  What I can promote right now is the anthology Ashes and Entropy, which features a ton of talented horror writers (Laird Barron, Damien Angelica Walters, John Langan, Kristi DeMeester, Jon Padgett, et al.). I have a sports-themed horror story in it ("Flesh Without Blood"). On a related note, I'm currently working on a sports-themed memoir that's outside genre confines, but is still extremely dark.

About SHE SAID DESTROY:


A dictator craves love--and horrifying sacrifice--from his subjects; a mother raised in a decaying warren fights to reclaim her stolen daughter; a ghost haunts a luxury hotel in a bloodstained land; a new babysitter uncovers a family curse; a final girl confronts a broken-winged monster...

Word Horde presents the debut collection from critically-acclaimed Weird Fiction author Nadia Bulkin. Dreamlike, poignant, and unabashedly socio-political, SHE SAID DESTROY includes three stories nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, four included in Year's Best anthologies, and one original tale.

Women in Horror Month #12: Yvonne Navarro, Author of AFTERAGE

Sometimes I'm truly floored by the level of talent I'm able to attract here on the blog simply by asking.  Today we have a truly seminal author, someone whose work in the vampire subgenre has rippled through the years, including deeply influencing my own HUNTER OF THE DEAD.  Let's give a warm welcome to the one, the only, Yvonne Navarro.


About Yvonne Navarro:

Yvonne is the author of twenty-three published novels and a lot of short stories, articles and a reference dictionary. Her most recent published book isSupernatural: The Usual Sacrifices (based in the Supernatural Universe). Her writing has won a bunch of awards and stuff. She lives way down in the southeastern corner of Arizona, about twenty miles from the Mexican border, where there is no need for a wall.

You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.

Interview:
SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?

YN:  Ha! I never thought of myself as “involved” in the world of horror—it’s just that I’ve always loved a good, scary story. I write what I like to read: tales about interesting people trying to do interesting stuff, who then get into deep... uh... trouble. Because monsters and evil people who creep around in the night.
SK: Who or what terrifies you?

YN:  I get asked this a lot, and over the years—decades—the answered hasn’t changed: People. Do I believe a vampire will float up to my window like in SALEM'S LOT, or do I think a zombie’s going to jump out of the bushes at me when I take out the garbage? No (at least not yet, but with chemicals and fuddling around with viruses and human DNA, I’m starting to get a little unsure about those zombies). Do I think a couple of crackheads might try a home or car invasion one of these days? Oh, yeah. People scare me, because they’re a whole lot of them who are unpredictable, hate-filled, and psycho... and most of the time you wouldn’t know an insane one from a sane one behind you in the grocery line.
SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?

YN:  To me it’s always been irrelevant. I never started out thinking or being told that because I was a woman I couldn’t expect the same treatment as anyone else. I was on a convention panel years ago when another panelist said she had to write like a man to be published. That made me furious. I yanked the microphone out of the hands of the person next to me and snapped, “I don’t write like a man. I write like a writer.” I ended up with a standing ovation.
SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

YN:  Here’s the thing: a lot of the ladies will grab the opportunity to name all their friends here. I appreciate that, but I’m not going to follow suit. I have many, many female friends who write wonderfully. Here, however, I’m going to name a few authors and their books not just because they’re great writers, but because what they wrote haunted me. If a story someone tells does that... wow. Just wow. So:
Claire Kendal - THE BOOK OF YOUAlice Siebold - THE LOVELY BONESMaxine O’Callaghan – DARK VISIONS
You know what? I’ll go back on what I just said and put a shout-out to Elizabeth Massie, because I don’t think she’s ever written a story that didn’t stick in my head and think twice about the dark.
SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?


YN:  I’ve been painting instead of writing for awhile, and really enjoying myself. Still, that story-telling itch has been digging around in my head, so it probably won’t be long until I hit the keyboard again. As to promoting, not too long ago my first novel, AFTERAGE,was reprinted for the first time in sixteen years (in 2002 it came out as a limited edition hardback). The original paperback dates back to 1993, but the reprint is a trade paperback with a stunning new cover. The story is post-apocalyptic, so it never grows old. Folks can pick it up here.

About AFTERAGE:

A plague of vampirism has crept across the country, reducing once-thriving cities to ghost towns. In Chicago, a few scattered survivors hide behind the fortified walls of office buildings and museums, raiding deserted stores for dwindling supplies of clothing and food.

Meanwhile a hungry vampire population also struggles for survival as their prey grows scarce, forcing them to capture alive the last remaining humans as breeding stock for the blood farms that will ensure their future.

Now a small band of humans makes a desperate last stand against their vampire masters, fighting back with the only weapon that can kill the dead...

Women in Horror Month #11: Christina Sng, Stoker Award-Winning Poet Behind A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES

Thanks for stopping by, everybody!  I'm very excited about today's guest, a Bram Stoker Award-winning poet.  Let's meet her briefly and then jump right into the interview.


About Christina Sng:
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Christina Sng is an award-winning poet, writer, and artist. Her work has appeared in numerous venues worldwide, including "Apex Magazine," "Dreams and Nightmares," "Fantastic Stories of the Imagination," "New Myths," and "Polu Texni." She is the author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2017) and Elgin Award winner ASTROPOETRY (Alban Lake Publishing, 2017). Her poems have received nominations in the Rhysling Awards, the Dwarf Stars, as well as honorable mentions in the YEAR'S BEST HORROR AND FANTASY, and the BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR. 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 her at Twitter, Facebook, and her website.

Interview:

SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?

CS:  I write horror poetry and fiction.

SK: Who or what terrifies you?

CS:  The capacity of cruelty in people.

SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?

CS:  I have long admired women writers such as Linda Addison, Marge Simon, Charlee Jacob, Storm Constantine, and Rain Graves who produce incredible, award-winning work and whose stellar reputations always precede them. Since I began submitting poetry for publication in 2000, I have been buoyed by the support the industry has given me and would like to think that my gender is irrelevant.

In any case, promotion is absolutely necessary, particularly in this information era where even the best work can be lost in the masses. Women in Horror Month is a wonderful source of help, but more importantly, has built a community of writers lifting each other up and supporting each other’s work. To me, that sense of camaraderie and family is everything.

SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

CS:  Buffy, Ripley, Jeryline, Elvira, Morticia, Michonne, and Death are my favorite female horror icons. 

SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?

CS:  I’m currently promoting my Bram Stoker Award-winning book of poetry A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES, which features my best published work since 2000.


About A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES:
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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.

Women in Horror Month #10: Kristi DeMeester, Author of BENEATH

Hey, everybody, thanks for stopping by!  I'm very excited about today's guest, so let's waste no time and jump right in!


About Kristi DeMeester:

Kristi DeMeester is the author of BENEATH, a novel published by Word Horde Publications, and EVERYTHING THAT'S UNDERNEATH, a short fiction collection from Apex Books. Her short fiction has appeared in approximately forty magazines, including Ellen Datlow's THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR VOLUME 9, Stephen Jones's BEST NEW HORROR, YEAR'S BEST WEIRD FICTION VOLUMES 1, 3, and 5 in addition to publications such as "Pseudopod," "Black Static," "Fairy Tale Review," and several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.

Interview:
SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?

KD:  I have been writing in the horror and weird fiction genre since 2012. I've always loved horror but never allowed myself to write it until I was a bit older. After I started, I couldn't stop. I wake up every day thrilled to know that not only do I get to be a fan but also an active participant. 

SK: Who or what terrifies you?

KD:  I've always preferred feelings of disquiet or unease to what typically feels like "terror." When the normal world tips ever so slightly on its axis and things that should be comforting are no longer recognizable, that is when I am truly terrified. 

SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?

KD: There is absolutely still a disparity in gender in horror publishing. There's always commentary every year from someone who needs to loudly proclaim that women can't do horror because we are too emotional (we have that pesky, hysteria-inducing womb, after all), or that we just aren't wired to do traditional horror. That we should stick with "dark fantasy." As if those things are truly separate and not two sides of the same coin. There's commentary that TOCs with no or very few women or people of color are only that way because the editor only looks for the best content and can't help if women aren't submitting! To that I say that the editor should advertise more broadly. There are too many women, too many people of color, doing excellent work to have an editor make this claim any longer. There's commentary when women point out this problem of "c'mon...the editor is a really good guy! She really shouldn't have made that comment public but instead gone to the editor directly and asked the question privately." All variations of be quiet, be good, don't cause a scene. These are good guys, these are misinterpretations of the situation, and all of it the woman's fault for just not understanding. What makes situations like these even more frustrating is watching those who claim to be allies talk out of both sides of their mouths: expressing outrage on a woman's page when she's met with this kind of experience but then support and understanding for the man who criticized her. Ask any female horror author her experiences, and you'll hear stories like this one. 

SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

KD: Helen Oyeyimi, our fairy godmother Shirley Jackson, Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, Nalo Hopkinson, Damien Angelica Walters, Livia Llewellyn, Sarah Langan, Gemma Files, Joyce Carol Oates, S.P. Miskowski, Lauren Beukes, Tananarive Due, Toni Morrison. I could go on forever. 

SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?

KD:  I'm currently working with my agent on edits for my second novel, which is all about girls before their bodies become women's, men that sometimes wear the faces of dogs, abandoned theme parks, and what happens when women try to repress themselves. My novel, BENEATH, an apocalyptic book about a snake handling cult, is available from Word Horde, and my first short fiction collection, EVERYTHING THAT'S UNDERNEATH, is available from Apex Books. If you like quiet horror, body horror, weird fiction, ambiguity, or reading about the world gone just wrong enough to set your teeth on edge, you'll like it. 

About BENEATH:


When reporter Cora Mayburn is assigned to cover a story about a snake-handling cult in rural Appalachia, she is dismayed, for the world of cruel fundamentalist stricture, repression, glossolalia, and abuse is something she has long since put behind her in favor of a more tolerant urban existence. But she accepts the assignment, dredging up long-buried memories as she seeks the truth.
As Cora begins to uncover the secrets concealed by a veneer of faith and tradition, something ancient and long concealed begins to awaken. What secrets do the townsfolk know? What might the handsome young pastor be hiding? What will happen when occulted horrors writhe to the surface, when pallid and forgotten things rise to reclaim the Earth?
Will Cora--and the earth--survive? The answers--and pure terror--can only be found in one place: Beneath.

Women in Horror Month #9: Tlotlo Tsamaase, Author of "Murders Fell From Our Wombs" (redirect)

Hey, everybody!  Make sure to swing by my group blog Across the Board to see my interview with Tlotlo Tsamaase.