Welcome back to part two of our Women in Horror 2018 round table!

Last week, we discussed how our nine featured authors became enthralled with the horror genre and what Women in Horror Month means to them. This week, we’re delving into how the current political and social climates have affected their work as well as those tales from other female horror writers that deserve even more attention.

So without further adieu, let’s get started!

Far too often, women are underrated in the genre. So to shine a light on those who aren’t as appreciated as they ought to be, what recent story (or stories) have you read in the past year that was written by a female horror author but didn’t get as much attention as you think it deserved?

Anya Martin: That’s a tough one because there are so many women writing great horror today. In terms of collections from the past year, everybody should absolutely get their hands on Nadia Bulkin’s She Said Destroy (Word Horde) and Selena Chambers’ Calls for Submission (Pelekinesis). I was particularly struck by their powerful realistic portrayals of female protagonists. I hope to see both receive awards nominations this year. Also Christina Sng writes incredibly powerful cosmic horror poetry. Her collection A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press) is a must-read, especially if you don’t think poems can profoundly disturb. And for a collection, Sycorax’s Daughters (Cedar Grove Books) features horror stories and poetry by both established and up-and-coming African-American women. I was so happy to see that on the Stoker Awards preliminary ballot and hope it makes the final (Gwendolyn’s note: And it did make the final ballot! HOORAY!). For a more classic author I read last year worthy of discovery, Zenna Henderson is better known for her science fiction People stories, but her horror short stories like “Hush,” in which a little boy creates a “Noise-eater” and his babysitter is helpless to halt its hunger, pack a really tough punch. Start with her collection The Anything Box.

Sumiko Saulson: I’ve been really swamped, but I have managed to read some new and not so new women’s horror… How to Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison, Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra by Anne Rice and her son Christopher Rice. You should check out the black female horror writer’s anthology Sycorax’s Daughters, which came out in 2017. I was in an anthology called Forever Vacancy: Colors in Darkness, which includes a lot of black authors, many of them women.

Catherine Grant: KL Pereira’s A Dream Between Two Rivers: Stories of Liminality is a gorgeous, well-written collection that I don’t see on enough lists. Margaret Killjoy’s anarcho-horror-mystery novella The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion was also really well done but I didn’t see it on any lists. Both KL and Margaret write clean, beautiful prose in a very distinct, fresh voice that is engaging to the reader.

Denise Tapscott: I agree that women are underrated in horror. Female horror authors never get as much attention as they deserve. One of my all time favorite horror writers is Eden Royce. I have an affinity for Southern gothic tales and each of her stories is a treat. When I mention her work to other people, they give me a blank stare. I remind people that there’s more to read than just Stephen King, Then I insist they buy her collection of short stories. Of course, there is also you, Gwendolyn. I love your work! After I drop Eden Royce’s name, I mention you. Your book And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is a great collection of short stories. I won’t drop any spoilers, but there is one story in particular that creeps me out and I love it! I can hardly wait to read Pretty Marys All in a Row. There are many women in horror that inspire me, and both of you lovely ladies stand out in my mind first when it comes to current writers.

Rebecca Allred: Grass by Anya Martin – This was released as a limited chapbook from Dim Shores, so only 150 copies were available, but I really dug it. I hope Anya finds a good reprint market (or includes it in a future collection, hint-hint) so more people can read it.

Nadia Bulkin: I never have a good sense of how much attention anything gets, but I’ll note here a couple stories by authors I hadn’t read before – I really liked “Mental Diplopia” by Julianna Baggott in Tor, a very soulful yet creepy take on an apocalypse, and “The Name, Blurry and Incomplete in His Mind” by Erica Mosley in The Dark, a really nifty interpretation of a broken family.

Carrie Laben: Chavisa Woods’ incredible collection Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country wasn’t marketed as horror, but it contains some of the most chilling fiction of the year including a story called “Zombie” that contains no zombies and a story called “Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street” that does contain a ghost. There are also aliens and devil-worshipers, and goths of course, and the vast horrors of the geopolitical situation and the tiny horrors of living in a close-knit small town.

Brooke Warra: Oh wow, there are really so many fantastic women in horror, yourself included, whose stories have resonated with me over this last year especially. Without giving too much away about the stories themselves, I recently read Tales from a Talking Board and Anya Martin’s “Weegee, Weegee, Tell Me Do” as well as S.P. Miskowski’s “Pins” have been haunting me ever since. I think both stories, for me, were about the secret lives we often live as women, and being more than the sum of crimes that have been perpetrated against us, but also, in the end, having to bear the consequences for those crimes, and really, that can be more horrifying than anything supernatural in the plot, or at least it was for me, personally.

How, if at all, have recent political and social upheavals figured into your work? Do you feel that horror as a genre is uniquely suited to address the current state of the world, or not?

Anya: I’m not sure about horror per se, because some horror can be intrinsically conservative, i.e. maintaining the status quo. But I’d definitely say Weird horror fiction is. The political sphere in the United States is distinctly and disconcertingly Weird. I addressed this directly in my The H Word column, “The Weird at the World’s End” (Nightmare Magazine, Feb. 2017), and Helen Marshall said she sensed a shift already while editing the Year’s Best Weird Fiction, although Trump had not taken office yet in 2016. The challenge may be with the world so Weird, what is Weird any more? I tried to explore the growing sense of unease in “Boisea trivittata,” which I wrote for Looming Low anthology (Dim Shores). That story came out of an infestation I experienced of these seemingly pointless harmless insects which appeared suddenly at my house last January. In my case, they strangely mirrored the building unease for so many of us during the transition of power from President Obama to Trump. In the story, I tried to suggest a fascist shift without making it heavy-handed—which I think is the challenge whenever directly addressing politics in a story, not overpowering the horror or the Weird with too much explanation.

Kenya Moss-Dyme: Horror and sci-fi are perhaps the best genres to address the craziness in the world we live in! When we see social themes occur in comedy, I think it’s too easy to be entertained and then dismiss it. But when we apply an element of horror to something going on in our world, it gets people to pay attention and it unnerves them. They start out thinking, that’s ridiculous, it could never happen. But then, they wonder…could it? Sometimes you need to really scare people to make them listen. I’m working on a couple of things that have strong social themes that might be a little upsetting to read. But if it makes you emotional then that means you’re thinking about it and talking about it, instead of just reading it and walking away.

Sumiko: More and more of my stories seem to resemble the movie Get Out, or an old Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode, so I would have to say that I’ve had an uptick in political horror, as well as afrocentric horror. I’ve always written female-centered, multicultural stories. Feminism has commonly been a theme, but increasingly, I find that issues of racial injustice are taking front and center in my stories. It’s a turn off for some of my original audience members, but I’m more popular than ever and being invited to more and more conventions, and to participate in more and more anthologies, so I guess it’s a trade-off. I am much more competitive as a political horror writer than I was trying to compete with a bunch of mainstream writers and become the next great horror writer or the next Stephen King or Anne Rice. I’m better off sounding like Octavia Butler, even if some find it preachy.

Catherine: Recent political and social upheavals have left me feeling depressed and hopeless, which has affected my work in that it has staunched my productivity. I struggle to form a single, cohesive thought that could translate into a story or novel because I am feeling and thinking so many things at once. Most of my fiction is rooted in a theme that is deeply personal. It is usually a time capsule of a thought that I’ve rolled over in my mind repeatedly, blended with a “what if” scenario. For example, a recent story I wrote is about how siblings often remember their childhoods differently. What if the way they experience a ghost or apparition is affected by how they perceive their memories of that person? I have an inkling that all of what I’m feeling right now about our current administration will eventually roll around in my head until it either is dust or becomes something substantial and is written down.

Denise: Political and social upheavals seem so scary and so painful these days to me, that as a writer I have challenged myself to find a way to address what’s going on. Horror as a genre is perfect for that. We have a larger palette to draw our stories upon.

Rebecca: Parts of my story “When Dark-Eyed Ophelia Sings” were inspired by recent events. And I wouldn’t say horror is uniquely suited to address the current state of affairs, I think sci-fi, bizarro, and other genres also lend themselves quite nicely, but I feel like horror might be the most natural fit for those kinds of stories.

Nadia: I think so much of human existence is horror, unfortunately – the horror we inflict upon each other and upon ourselves. People are cruel. People are desperate. People are afraid. And horror begets horror, of course. I absolutely believe in hope and heroism and virtue; but I believe those things are rare and precious and on a massive uphill battle. That being said, I rarely write directly about things that are actually happening in real-time. I think that’s because I write for the sake of processing, and if events are still ongoing, you don’t have the complete picture yet; maybe also because I believe in putting a little bit of distance between fiction and current events. So I still write about Indonesia in the 1960s-90s through the early years of the post-Suharto era, and then I stop. My story “There Is a Bear in the Woods” (quoting a Reagan campaign ad) is part of an extended alternative universe inspired by a combination of the American Tea Party and the George W. Bush era (which defined my high school and college years), and that’s about as recent as I’ll go. I still believe everything is political, and even a story that doesn’t directly focus on political themes is still written and still read in modern political context. It’s up to the writer to decide how they want to use that fact.

Carrie: Everything that addresses the current state of the world certainly contains elements of horror, so there’s that. For me the source of tension in my writing has always been how precarious life is because the basic assumptions we use to make it bearable are just that – assumptions. I started with the assumption “families love each other” and I’ve recently moved on to the assumption “there’s virtue in hard work” and we’ll see what I termite-chew through next and what collapses.

Brooke: I think now more than ever, the female voice is so powerful and I think horror, and in particular women in horror have the opportunity to address the current social and political climates. Horror has always had the ability to put a face on evils of the real world around us, whether it’s apathy, or prejudice, or violence, horror gives the underdog, the outcast, the preconceived “weak” among us a fighting chance, and so often the things we believe are holding us back turn out to be our greatest weapons in horror. I think it’s a genre that crosses a lot of imaginary lines we draw around ourselves in our daily lives and we can all come together and unite against a common enemy and fight back.

And that’s part two of our Women in Horror Month round table! Come back next week as we discuss these authors’ advice for up-and-coming female writers as well as their hopes for the future of horror!

Happy reading, and happy Women in Horror Month!

Welcome back, and welcome to Part One in our Women in Horror Month 2018 round table discussion! This year, I’m thrilled to interview nine incredible female authors who are creating some of the very best and most cutting edge work in horror literature today.

So let’s get started with the celebration of these awesome women in horror!

As a writer, what attracts you to the horror genre? Was there a particular story or film or even character that made you say, I want to do that, when you were younger?

Sumiko Saulson: Horror is the genre best suited for exercising personal demons and I have enough of them to give me an endless supply of psychologically disturbing and thought-provoking plot ideas. If I didn’t have such a trauma-filled past and sometimes, present, I might have been attracted to a less spine-tingling, chilling kind of genre. When I was a child, my parents took us to tons of horror movies. I think Dawn of the Dead, It Lives, and some sci-fi dystopian films you don’t necessarily think of as horror such as HG Wells’ Time Machine most influenced me to write horror. I also read a great deal, and from an early age, so reading had more of an influence on my decision to write horror than you might imagine. I read my first novel in the fifth grade; Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. I inhaled Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe throughout junior high and high school. Some of the young adult and juvenile fiction I enjoyed was on the scarier side, such as Susan Cooper’s relatively dark fantasy series, Over Sea, Under Stone, of which The Dark is Rising is the most well-known title.

Anya Martin: That’s a tough question because I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawn to horror and monsters. For me, the earliest “gateway” that I remember is Dark Shadows, which my parents were watching daily from when I was 2. By the time I was 3 or 4, my dad started me watching monster movies on TV and my earliest memories are seeing AIP, Universal, and Toho films. The only nightmare I ever remember getting as a child from a horror movie was after seeing House of Wax, with Vincent Price. I always rooted for the monster to survive and find a safe haven away from the mean human race. I also was drawn to the giant monsters, King Kong, Godzilla and Gorgo—which probably was connected to my other early passion—dinosaurs. At age 6, I wanted to be a paleontologist and I’m still a huge dinosaur buff. The one thing that did creep me out, to my mother’s frustration, was dolls. They even smelled bad! That rancid rubber smell—ewwwww!!! I got to confront that fear years later with artist Mado Peña in the comics short, “Stuffed Bunny In Doll-Land,” which appeared in Womanthology (IDW, 2012).

Nadia Bulkin: I grew up in ghost-obsessed Indonesia, and ghost stories have always terrified and intrigued me. I find the idea of the ghost as “a tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again… an emotion suspended in time,” to quote The Devil’s Backbone, to be a very powerful one that incidentally relates very directly to Indonesia’s struggles with traumatic national memory and collective guilt, two concepts I write about a lot. I like to focus on social and political themes, particularly those related to fear and suffering and exclusion and revenge, and in my opinion there’s no better toolkit with which to write about the world than through horror (this may say more about how I see history than anything else!). I’ve always enjoyed the horror genre for the adrenaline and the off-kilter darkness (like the black keys on a keyboard), but it was Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House that made me buy into being a horror writer, because for the first time in any genre I saw a character that I could personally relate to: Eleanor Vance. Reading Jackson convinced me that it was possible to do what I wanted to do within horror.

Catherine Grant: My father gave me a collection of Edgar Allan Poe tales when I was ten after I asked to watch Silver Bullet. I don’t think I was ready to read King at that point, but a year later I found a copy of IT in a box underneath my father’s desk, and then I rented Creepshow on summer vacation and that was it, I was hooked. I found a Stephen King biography in the library when I was twelve. Reading it, it was the first time I realized that being a writer was a career, and I began writing stories with the goal of some day being a published author.

Denise Tapscott: One thing that attracts me to the horror genre is that there is a certain freedom you have creating stories. There aren’t any specific structures or rules you must follow as other writers do in the romance and mystery genres. There’s a short story I read when I was younger, by Stephen King called “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” that really grabbed my attention. I loved the idea that this woman transformed when she drove her car, faster and faster every day. I wished that it were almost true so that I could do the same (I should mention that I used to be a speed demon back when I had a little 1992 Honda CRX SI). The more I thought about it, I wished that I could come up with a clever story with an awesome twist too. It took some time, but I eventually grabbed a ticket on the writing horror train. It’s been a fantastic ride so far.

Kenya Moss-Dyme: Besides required reading in school, one of the books that made me want to write horror was The Amulet, by Michael McDowell. I read it when I was about 14 and it involved an amulet circulating in a small town; whoever possessed it would commit a horrible act of violence against someone they disliked for whatever reason. What I loved about the book is that the characters were motivated by different things, some for as little as irritation, but it had that small hometown feeling similar to a lot of Stephen King’s stories. They’re sweet normal folks who just snap, for no reason other than wearing or holding the amulet. It was still a few more years before I wrote any actual horror, because I spent the next few years writing about teens doing teen-like things.

Rebecca Allred: Writing horror appeals to me because it’s a genre in which I can, more or less, safely explore and attempt to reconcile my own fears and anxieties. Terrible things happen, but there’s a sense of control that comes from creating and resolving conflict, especially if you’re like me and sometimes feel like everything is completely out of your control! The first I’m aware of that I wanted to write stories “like that” was when I got my hands on a copy of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark. I don’t recall which volume it was, but the story “The Furry Collar” scared the CRAP out of me. Even now sometimes when I’m half asleep and hear my cat coming down the stairs, I imagine a headless girl slowly making her way into my room… That said, I was writing “scary stories” well before I was ten. “The Case of the Strange Noises” is my earliest surviving work. Maybe someday it’ll be a collector’s item!

Carrie Laben: It’s funny, I never identified strongly with horror as a kid (although I did very much favor ‘true’ stories about ghosts and cryptids etc.) I thought I was too much of a wuss for “real” horror, which came in the form of movies where girls got cut up. Everyone around me read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Goosebumps, and later V.C. Andrews and Stephen King and Dean Koontz – it didn’t set you apart. I do remember reading Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love when I was about 14 and thinking “wow, there’s no limit to how weird you can get and be published” so that probably helped.

Brooke Warra: I have a very vivid memory of being a young child equally fascinated and terrified of Mora (the turtle monster) from The Never Ending Story, as well as the Harpy from The Last Unicorn. There was a kind of cerebral horror in those characters, they are close enough to creatures that exist in our “real world” that the unnaturalness of them, the danger they represent becomes chilling, and I think that as a toddler in the 80’s, growing up in a house surrounded by acres of forest where such creatures could be lurking, I was really influenced by that and drawn to that sort of thing. I honestly do not remember a time that I did not want to write and tell dark stories, but that decade was a wonderful time to cultivate that dream.

As a female horror writer, what does Women in Horror Month mean to you? Do you have any specific activities planned to commemorate Women in Horror Month in 2018?

Sumiko: I’m very excited about Women in Horror Month every year since I first found out about it and participated in it in 2013. This year I am especially excited, because I am working with Nicole Kurtz and Mocha Memoirs Press to put out an anthology, Black Magic Women, which consists of 20 terrifying tales by black women who write horror. I also compile a list called Black Women in Horror, and look forward to reaching 100 women this year! There will be a book, 100 Black Women in Horror – an update to my 2014 title, 60 Black Women in Horror, slated for release in February. Black Magic Women comes out February 15. I’m also producing the third annual SecondLife Women in Horror Treasure Hunt with author Suzi Madron. Come visit us in Avalon if you’re inworld!

Anya: I’d like to think one day it won’t be necessary, but as long as people—men and women—rattle off their top 10 horror authors or directors, and don’t or barely include women, drawing attention to women authors/filmmakers/artists is needed. I don’t have any specific activities other than this and sharing some of the many great articles which I am sure will be posted this month on social media, but I might do something for my blog ATLRetro.com because there are a number of exciting women horror writers and filmmakers based in Atlanta such as Nancy Collins, Kristi DeMeester, Dayna Noffke, Lynne Hansen and Vanessa Wright who was cofounder of the Women In Horror Film Festival, which debuted in Atlanta last September.

Nadia: I wrote about my feelings on Women in Horror Month last year, and those feelings of frustration at being caught between a rock and a hard place in the midst of this particular culture war hasn’t changed. I think Women in Horror Month comes from a place of good intent, but it also kind of saddens me, and I don’t do anything to commemorate it. What frustrates me these days is twofold. First, the assumption that there is a special “lady-horror” genre and “lady-horror” writer that is separate in content and style from “real horror,” mostly because that does nothing to acknowledge that male horror writers are writing from a particularly male point of view, except that point of view is considered “standard,” though also because I always get nervous when people – including, often, women! – get too specific about the kind of subjects women like to write and read about. I’m all about mean girl drama and witches, but I also do war and sport. Second, mainstream horror continues to astound in its understanding of women primarily as rape victims. Really quite remarkable.

Catherine: Women in Horror Month is a time for the industry to stop doing the dance, look around, and call out peers that might not be getting proper recognition because of their gender. It feels silly writing that out. Should gender discrimination still be a thing in 2018? I’d really love to see a day when special recognition months like WIHM aren’t needed, because our society is so woke that unconscious bias and casual discrimination are no longer a problem. I plan on doing my part by recognizing female authors that have affected my writing, be it as a peer, mentor, or literary influence.

Denise: As a female horror writer, Women in Horror Month means it’s time to celebrate my creative sisters! I don’t have any specific plans to commemorate the month but I will do whatever I can do to support as many women as possible. Perhaps I will find a way to use social media to promote Women in Horror. The least I could do is buy more books! I have lots of stories to read and I’m more than happy to add more to my Kindle.

Kenya: This is such an exciting month for us, with all of the focus on the women in horror, not just writers but I love that we spotlight the actors and curators of the genre as well. I always enjoy learning about talent that I wasn’t aware of and especially the look back at how far we’ve come and the contributions to the industry. Of course, we’re focused on US all year round, but it’s nice to have the stage for one month anyway. It really raises the exposure on just how powerful our voices are, from within. I am planning to highlight some kick-ass female-driven horror stories on my page next month so I’m putting together my list now. As authors, even our work doesn’t always feature strong heroines, so I’d like to showcase that this year!

Carrie: This is the first time I’m really actively participating in any explicitly women-in-horror themed activities. I love that this discussion exists, I’d love to see it exist all year, and I love knowing that every February I’m going to learn the names of new writers I should check out.

Brooke: It’s been a really positive experience every year to see women in this genre support and encourage each other. Every WIH month, I come away with new friends and a to-be-read list as long as my arm. This year, I’d like to focus on promoting other women in horror through my social media and blog posts, whether they are authors or bloggers, podcast producers, voice actors, I mean, the list is endless.

So that’s part one of our Women in Horror 2018 discussion! Head on back here next week as we talk about underrated horror stories by women as well as how the social upheavals of the last year have impacted these authors’ stories.

Happy reading!

Welcome back, and happy Women in Horror Month! Since February is now in full swing, I am beyond excited to announce that this year, I’m doing part two of my Women in Horror round table discussion here on my blog. Last year’s interview series was such a wonderful time, and the 2018 edition promises to be just as terrific.

But before I start unveiling the Q & A later this week, let’s start with introducing the incredible women who are involved with the interview series this year!

*macabre drum roll please!*

Nadia Bulkin is the author of She Said Destroy, her debut short fiction collection available from Word Horde. She has been nominated three times for the Shirley Jackson Award, and her stories have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies including Nightmare, The Dark, She Walks in Shadows, and numerous Year’s Best volumes. Find her online at her author site.

Sumiko Saulson is the speculative fiction author of both short fiction and novels, including Solitude, Happiness and Other Diseases, and The Moon Cried Blood, among others. Sumiko is also the author of the acclaimed nonfiction book, 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction. In 2016, she received the Horror Writers Association’s Scholarship from Hell. Find her at her author site.

Anya Martin is a fiction writer, playwright, and journalist. Her work has appeared in Tales from a Talking Board, Eternal Frankenstein, and Mantid Magazine, and her play, Passage to the Dreamtime, debuted in 2017 from Dunhams Manor Press. She also serves as the associate producer of The Outer Dark and is the founder of ATLRetro.com. Find her at her author site.

Denise Tapscott is the author of Gypsy Kisses and Voodoo Wishes, a Southern Gothic dark fiction novel that is the first book in The Zenobia Tales series. When she’s not writing and traveling, Denise is also an accomplished actress, with her work appearing in television series and short films, in addition to her roles as a voice-over actor. Visit her at her author site.

Rebecca Allred is a speculative fiction writer out of the Pacific Northwest. By day, she’s a doctor of pathology, and at night, she crafts dark and malignant tales. Her work has appeared in LampLight, the Bram Stoker Award-winning Borderlands 6, Nightscript II, and Flame Tree Publishing’s Chilling Horror Short Stories anthology. Check her out at her author site.

Catherine Grant is a horror and dark fantasy author based in Providence. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Shock Totem, Wicked Witches, and Cranial Leakage: Tales from the Grinning Skull, Volume 2. In addition to her writing, she serves as an editor at LampLight, and was recently named the Assistant Director of NecronomiCon Providence. Find her at her author site.

Kenya Moss-Dyme is an accomplished author of both short fiction and novels. A writer since her teens, she has released numerous horror books, including Daymares, The Mixtape (Special Edition), and The Pulpit Chronicles: Prey for Me (Volumes One and Two). She is also the author of A Good Wife, an Amazon-bestselling dark romance novel. Find her online at her author website.

Carrie Laben is a widely published author of horror, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Apex Magazine, and Mixed Up: Cocktail Recipes (and Flash Fiction) for the Discerning Drinker (and Reader). In 2017, she won the Shirley Jackson Award for her short story, “Postcards from Natalie,” published in The Dark. Find her online at her author site.

Brooke Warra is a horror and dark fantasy writer based in the Pacific Northwest. Her short fiction has appeared in Looming Low, Strange Aeons, The Lift, and Sanitarium Magazine, among other publications. She takes much of her inspiration from creepy fairy tales, Finnish folklore, and the darkness lurking in the woods and along the coast. Find her at her author site.

So those are the authors who were kind enough to take time from their busy writing schedules to be involved in my Women in Horror Month discussion. Head on back here later this week and every week for the rest of the month as these female authors sound off on everything from their inspirations as authors to how the social upheavals of the past year have impacted their work. Lots of amazing stuff to come, so definitely stay tuned. Same horror place, same horror time!

Happy reading, and happy Women in Horror Month!