Today, we're thrilled to welcome Red Lagoe to Stars and Sabers! Red has contributed a short story to our forthcoming horror anthology, OF DREAD, DECAY, AND DOOM. Read more about Red:
https://www.starsandsabers.com/2026/03/24/anthology-contributor-red-lagoe/

#horror #womeninhorror #books #horrorwriters #horrorbooks

I’m a big fan of Helen’s work. Her stories are clever, atmospheric and often scare-filled, which is already a powerful combination. And then when you add in her exquisitely realistic and researched sense of place, the terror only increases exponentially.

There aren’t too many great writers furthering the pleasing terror agenda of M. R. James, and making it their own, but Helen’s surely one of them—and one of the best.

#SupernaturalHorror #GhostStories #Horror #SupernaturalLiterature #Books #Bookstodon #WomenInHorror @bookstodon https://mas.to/@helengrantsays/116277066752625876

Horror Spotlight: Explore New Weird Coming-of-Rage Novel, “Thirteenth”

GoodReads Stats:

Average rating: 4.54
Ratings: 83
Text Reviews: 27
Want to read: 298
Added to shelves: 408

StoryGraph Stats:

Average rating: 4.25
Reviews: 28

Lovecraftian horror meets kitchen sink drama in this dry, darkly funny tale of toxic families, killers and cannibals, eldritch body horror and antihero female rage.

Katy Porter is the thirteenth child of a thirteenth child in an inbred family of eldritch horrors, and her own eventual metamorphosis will change her into a creature that hungers for her family’s flesh. To some, she’s a threat – to others, a weapon.

Katy needs allies to help her control her Changes, but she’s stuck with her oldest brother, a drug-addled playboy who voted to have her killed but is chaotic enough to have genuinely changed his mind, and her eyeball-eating, god-like cousin, whose idea of protecting her involves abduction, dark rituals, and encouraging her homicidal side.

If anyone is going to survive Katy’s transformation, scores need to be settled and fears need to be faced – and Katy is not the only one who needs to face them.

Title: Thirteenth

Genre: New Weird, Bildungsroman, Paranormal Kitchen Sink Drama, and Urban Fantasy.

Age: Adult

Tropes: Damsel in Distress (will Kill You All), Addiction-Powered Millionaire Playboy (Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know), Creepy Family (Half Human Hybrid Eldritch Abominations who are Inbred and Evil), Poorly Chosen One (she Just Wants to be Normal), Lovecraft Lite (with Body Horror), Angry Teen Mentored by Grumpy Killer (Against Everyone’s Will).

How I feel about it: If anything, I’m even more proud of this one than my debut. I really got into my horror-comedy voice, and allowed myself to have so much fun with another angle of the world I’ve built. This is the book I once compared to Cold Comfort Farm and Slasher: Flesh and Blood with a strong dash of Whyborne and Griffin, so it’s not for everyone!

What surprised me most: Team Wes. What is wrong with you people?! I even made t-shirts and mugs on Redbubble for a short time! People who wanted more of the sombre, creeping dread of the first book often don’t enjoy this one as much, but I wrote this for those who are here for the humour, and the Millionaire Playboys. (Pick up Overexposure as a standalone intro to Wes, and you will understand my confusion).

This is the book that:

I was blown away by the reception to this book. I really loved sharing it with the world, but especially I’ve loved how people have taken my trio of fuck ups to heart.

What Readers Say:

“Like Encanto, but with more gore, incest, impossible geometry, and eldritch abominations from beyond space and time.”

“Thirteenth was such a fun read! I mean, a middle-class family of eldritch abominations living in a sleepy Home Counties town? Sold. Add in familial backstabbing, messy sibling and cousin relationships, a sentient house and a healthy side helping of tentacles, murder and cosmic horror, and you’ve got a fantastic book filled with vibrant characters (who made me feel like a terrible person for snort laughing at some very dark jokes). I look forward to returning to Pagham-On-Sea very soon!”

“This is the perfect series for anyone who likes the creepy cottagecore aesthetic and deeply flawed supernatural beings just trying to survive the next prophecy.”

“If eldritch beings and complicated family relationships has you curious, I definitely recommend this book.”

“This is a story of rotten families, Eldritch monstrosities and a teen girl’s coming of age. … It’s a horrifying and delightfully fun story, where no matter the occasion, someone will still crack a joke and a laugh out of you too. One of the best reads of 2021 so far, filled with horror, fun, laughter, trauma and emotion, it has it all!!”

“completely absurd, violent and absolutely wonderful. perfectly blending eldritch horror with family drama that’s both tender and hilarious.”

Horror Spotlight: Explore Gothic New Weird Novel “The Crows”

GoodReads Stats:

Average rating: 4.15
Ratings: 219
Text Reviews: 78
Want to read: 882
Added to shelves: 1,205

StoryGraph Stats:

Average Rating: 4.10
Reviews: 83

Her fate is sealed. Her death is inevitable.

Carrie Rickard, leaving an abusive relationship back in London, tries to escape her past by throwing herself into her restoration project: Fairwood House, known to locals of Pagham-on-Sea in Sussex as the Crows. Unable to resist as it whispers to her, Carrie’s obsession only grows when she discovers it was the site of a gruesome unsolved murder.

As she digs deeper into the mystery, she awakens dark and dangerous forces. Enter her foul-mouthed neighbor, Ricky Porter, who is as obsessed with the Crows as Carrie is, and who has several secrets of his own…not least of which are what’s really under the hood he wears and what he’s got in the cellar.

Title: The Crows

Genres: New Weird or Gothic Weird, in this case consisting of Gothic Horror, Paranormal, and Urban Fantasy.

Age: Adult

Tropes: Creepy Old House (is Alive), Matriarch (is Evil), Vengeful Spirit (of a Child), Only One Bed (and it’s Disturbing), Boy Next Door (is a Killer), Nancy Drew (and she’s Bad At It), Love Interests (Can’t Be Trusted), Touch-Starved Cannibal (is an Ally), Lovecraftian Abominations (are English Middle Class).

How I feel about it: I’m so proud of this book. It was the best I could do when I wrote it, and that’s that; I think I could re-write it now and it would be very different. However, as a snapshot of 2018-2019 me, and just on its own merits, I love it very much.

What surprised me most: I think I was most surprised by readers’ reactions to Ricky Porter, as I thought he would get mostly negative comments. I’m validated by the fact that readers who say they loved him are also surprised at their own reaction. Overall, I’ve had some amazing responses to this book, where I’m just glad I wrote it for those individuals, even if it was read by nobody else.

This is the book that:

I had no idea it would be this popular, or that it would resonate with readers the way that it has.

What Readers Say:

“It’s weird and gruesome, mysterious yet strangely wholesome. I couldn’t put it down. … The dynamic between the main cast is one that I loved very deeply. I’m a queer, what can I say? I love untraditional love and whatever is going on in Fairwood House is certainly untraditional.”

“A delicate balance between gruesome horror and urban/paranormal fantasy. A fun read!”

“I’m not sure how much of my feelings about this book are actually my own and which have slithered into my brain with slimy tentacles. I am equally horrified as enthralled and I cannot commend the author enough on creating such a riveting tale with the least likeable loveable characters ever imagined. Ricky managed to steal my heart… I’m fairly certain he ate it.”

“…a delightfully disturbing horror, with genuinely funny moments, and brilliant character dynamics.”

“There were heart wrenching moments but I can take it, if characters can make my heart hurt then it means they’ve been written well.”

“C M Rosens has taken some classic elements of a paranormal small town story and created something fresh, interesting and utterly addictive.”

Classic Short Horror Stories by Women

I’ve been looking for some accessible classic horror stories by women for Women in Horror month, particularly the stories that appeared in magazines like Weird Tales alongside the ones by male writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Guy de Maupassant, Algernon Blackwood, and Robert Bloch, who are more frequently cited and celebrated.

I was gratified to find the HorrorBabble podcast had done a lot of this work for me, and so I cracked on with their narrations of as many stories by women that I could listen to this month. These will all appear in my monthly media round-up, which is a longread post detailing the media I enjoyed each month (music, books/audiobooks, podcasts, tv shows, and films).

Here’s a complete list of all their episodes featuring stories by women, from 1833-1964.

As a disclaimer: these stories and their authors aren’t necessarily any less racist, antisemitic, ableist, etc, than ones by their male counterparts, and so reader discretion is advised. If you enjoy one particular story where these prejudices are not present or not obviously so, and you delve into the author’s bibliography for more, be prepared. Yes, this includes the big names like Mary Shelley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Nesbit, et al.

You can find HorrorBabble here, and follow links to your preferred podcast platform. Search for the titles or authors to bring up their episodes. Author links are to their pages on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, where you can find a summary bibliography with all the works hyperlinked.

My personal favourites are marked by an asterisk (*) at the start, and the titles of re-reads/re-listens are in bold. Stories I have not yet listened to/read are marked [TBR].

I have included the HorrorBabble summaries of the episodes with some additional information in some cases, where publication details were missing, and a couple have my own notes added [in square brackets].

HorrorBabble Stories by Women

Click on the years to expand and see the list of stories per decade.

1833-1899+

1833: * “The Mortal Immortal” by Mary Shelley (42:13) – English author. A short story originally published in The Keepsake for 1834 (Dec. 1833), a literary annual. It tells the story of a man named Winzy, who drinks an elixir which makes him immortal. At first, immortality appears to promise him eternal tranquillity. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is cursed to endure eternal psychological torture, as everything he loves dies around him.

1864: The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards (36:16) – English author. First published in All the Year Round, ed. Charles Dickens, Christmas 1864. A classic ghost story that tells of a young man who becomes lost on the moors during a snowstorm. He seeks shelter with a strange and reclusive scientist, who tells him of a stagecoach that might be able to take him home…

1880: * “The Ensouled Violin” by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (01:07:51) – Russian author. A work of horror fiction published in 1880 by Russian occultist and Theosophy founder, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. In great depth, the story explores the relationship between man and music, and the enduring concept of entering into a bargain with the devil to achieve mastery of a musical instrument.

1891: * “The Ebony Frame” by Edith Nesbit (31:41) – English author. First published in the October 1891 issue of Longman’s magazine. It’s the story of a beautiful and curiously carved picture frame, imbued with a mysterious allure.

1892: * “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (39:10) – (USA). A short story first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women’s health, both physical and mental.

1900-1919+

1903: “The Hall Bedroom” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (44:45) – (USA). A short story first published in Collier’s Magazine (March 1903), then collected in Short Story Classics (American) Volume Four (P. F. Collier & Son, New York: 1905). It’s the tale of a peculiar room in a boarding house, told through the journal entries of a missing boarder.

1910: * “Afterward” by Edith Wharton (01:21:01) – (USA). A short story first published in the 1910 edition of The Century Magazine and in her books, The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton and Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910. It is an ironic ghost story about greed and retribution. The ghost comes for one of the main characters long after a business transgression where the character wronged another.

1917: “The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf (23:07) – English author. A short story by British author, Virginia Woolf, in which a trivial observation triggers a tidal wave of introspection, and self-reflection. The story first appeared in 1917 as part of the collection, Two Stories.

[TBR] 1917 (Mar): “At the Gate” by Myla Jo Closser (14:27) – (USA). The tale first appeared in the March 1917 edition of CENTURY MAGAZINE. It offers an answer to the long-held question: what happens to our beloved dogs when they (and we) pass on?

1920-1929+

1924: * “The Sixth Tree” by Edith L. Stewart (13:38) – ?. First published in the May-June-July 1924 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, and was described as follows: “This is a tale of the weirdest game that ever was played…”

1925: “Candle-Light” by Louise Garwood (19:05) – (USA). A classic ghost story by a little-known author, the work debuted in the November 1925 edition of Weird Tales.

1926: * “The Black Crusader” by Alicia Ramsey (37:16) – English author. This story first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in January 1926. It tells of a furtive thief, who, following his despoiling of a legendary tomb, is about to be appropriately punished for his crimes. [I can’t help but imagine the Benny Hill soundtrack behind the chase scene in the climax…]

1928: “The City of Lost Souls” by Genevieve Larsson (33:14) – (USA). A short story first published in Weird Tales in October 1928. The tale revolves around the strange atmosphere of a man’s hometown, after returning, following a ten-year absence.

1930-1939+

[TBR] 1930 (Aug): “The Law of the Hills” by Grace M. Campbell (25:26) – ?. A short story by the one-time Weird Tales author, Grace M. Campbell, first published in the August 1930 edition of the magazine. “A tragic, tender tale of the slim white shape that ran with a wolf-pack over the snow.”

[TBR] 1930 (Sep): The House of the Golden Eyes by Theda Kenyon (33:35) – (USA). A short story by the little-known author, Theda Kenyon (1894-1997), first published in the September 1930 edition of Weird Tales. “There was something bloated, parboiled to a dull red, sliding toward him…”

1930 (Dec): “The Boat on the Beach” by Kadra Maysi (17:19) – (USA). A short story by Kadra Maysi, aka, Katherine Drayton Mayrant Simons, of Charleston, South Carolina. The story first appeared in Weird Tales in December 1930, and was described as follows: “Strange was the woman who came down to the boat at night, and stranger still was the weird event that befell her.”

1931: “Creeping Fingers” by Loretta Burrough (27:49) – (USA). Burrough’s first published story, appearing in Christine Campbell Thomson’s 1931 collection, AT DEAD OF NIGHT. The tale tells of a weary guest, left with no choice but to spend the night in a hotel room with a questionable reputation…

[TBR] 1931 (Sep): “The Dark Castle” by Marion Brandon (35:15) – ?. “The Dark Castle” is one of two short stories penned by the little-known author, Marion Brandon. First appearing in the September 1931 edition of Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, the story was described as follows: “The spirit of Archenfels broods ominously over the two stranded travelers in the deserted castle.”

1933 (Apr): * “The House of Shadows” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (22:48) – (USA). First published in Weird Tales Magazine in April 1933, the story tells of a family whose images would not reflect in the mirror…

1933 (Oct): * “The Cat-Woman” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (13:09) – (USA). A short story first published in Weird Tales in October 1933. The tale involves an unusual case of anthropomorphism in a quiet boarding house. [I think this one is also pretty sapphic…]

[TBR] 1933 (Nov): “The Accursed Isle” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:56) – (USA). A short story first published in the November 1933 edition of Weird Tales. “A hideous fear clutched the hearts of the seven castaways on that accursed isle as they were slain, one by one.”

1934: * “The Three Marked Pennies” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (20:44) – (USA). A classic horror story first published in Weird Tales in August 1934. The magazine provided the following synopsis: “A strange destiny awaited the holders of the pennies, with doom for one and wealth for the others.”

1935: “What Waits in Darkness” by Loretta Burrough (17:47) – (USA). This story first appeared in Weird Tales in March 1935. The magazine described the tale as: “A grim story of a woman’s happiness that was menaced by a dreadful recurrent dream.”

1936: “A Visitor from Far Away” by Loretta Burrough (18:52) – (USA). The story was published by Weird Tales in its February 1936 edition. “During a brutal blizzard, a woman alone in her country house senses an intruder stirring in the darkness.”

1937 (Jul): * “The Ocean Ogre” by Dana Carroll (26:04) – English author. Published in Weird Tales, July 1937, and attributed to Dana Carroll, but this story is remarkably close (almost verbatim) to Frank Belnapp Long’s story, “The Sea Thing”, which was published in 1925. HorrorBabble acknowledges that Carroll “borrowed heavily” from Long’s story. [This could have been with permission, but unclear to me!]

1937 (Dec): “The Black Stone Statue” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (32:40) – (USA). It first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in December 1937, described as “An amazing tale of weird sculpture–the story of a weird deception practised on the world by an obscure artist.”

1938: * “The Snowman” by Loretta Burrough (29:33) – (USA). The story was first published in the December 1938 edition of Weird Tales. The magazine provided the following synopsis: “Her first husband lay at the bottom of a deep crevasse in a Swiss glacier—but why should a snow image in his likeness strike her with such eery terror?”

1939: * “Mommy” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (24:20) – (USA). The story tells of a little girl in an orphanage, who claims to have been visited by her dead mother. It first appeared in Weird Tales in April 1939.

1940-1949+

[TBR] 1940: “Twister” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (33:32) – (USA). First published in the January 1940 edition of Weird Tales. “Ghostly was the village where the newly wedded couple stopped for gasoline, and weird was their experience there.”

1941: * “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen (19:32) – Irish author. The tale was first published in The Listener, November 1941, and tells of a lady, who, during the Second World War, discovers a letter, reminding her of an appointment she made with a soldier many years earlier.

[TBR] 1943 (Jul): “Lost” by Alice-Mary Schnirring (12:20) – (USA). This story, which first appeared in Weird Tales in July 1943, takes place on the marshes, by the dark and forbidding Atlantic Ocean.

1943 (Sep): “Night Must Not Come” by Allison V. Harding (29:44) – (USA). It was first published in Weird Tales in September 1943, and was given the following description: “Ever since the birth of time, fires have been kept at night, and man has never allowed complete darkness, for evil things are waiting out there beyond the light.”

1944 (Jan): * “House of Hate” by Allison V. Harding (32:34) – (USA). The story first appeared in Weird Tales back in January 1944, and was described as follows: “An evil house begets evil dwellers—and silently revels in the black deeds perpetrated within its walls.”

1944 (Mar): * “The Marmot” by Allison V. Harding (23:38) – (USA). The work was first published in the March 1944 edition of Weird Tales Magazine, and was described as follows: “Such a harmless looking tiny creature—but animals possess strange abilities beyond our ken!”

[TBR] 1944 (Jul): “Guard in the Dark” by Allison V. Harding (40:13) – (USA). A short story first appearing in Weird Tales in its July 1944 edition. “There was a reason why the boy demanded toy soldiers, a reason to be found only in the treacherous dark.”

1944 (Sep): “The Seven Seas are One” by Allison V. Harding (36:46) – (USA). First published in Weird Tales in September 1944. “The Captain knew that somehow, some day his fate was coming—out of the sea and the wind!”

1945 (Jul): * “Fog Country” by Allison V. Harding (36:55) – (USA). The work was first published by Weird Tales in its July 1945 edition, and tells of a peculiar mist that occasionally settles over a small, coastal town.

[TBR] 1949: “The Underbody” by Allison V. Harding (48:06) – (USA). The story first appeared in Weird Tales in November 1949, and was described as follows: “A thing that was not a man, yet could not be anything else…”

1950-1964+

1950: “The Tree’s Wife” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (30:28) – (USA). (Weird Tales, March 1950) A curious yarn involving a tryst, and a tree.

[TBR] 1952: “The Artist and the Door” by Dorothy Quick (34:27) – (USA). It was first published in the November 1952 edition of Weird Tales. “The house and contents had been exorcised of evil—but maybe the door had been left open, the holy words lost outside.”

1964: “The Seeking Thing” by Janet Hirsch (13:05) – ?. The story first appeared in the February 1964 edition of Robert A. W. Lowndes’ Magazine of Horror. It relates the tale of a man who runs over something strange in the middle of the road.

Further Recommendations

Read: 100 Women Writers in Horror, the Gothic and Supernatural Fiction from the 18th Century to 2021

Read: The Very Best Classic Ghost Stories, Part 1 (31 Essential Victorian Hauntings 1837–1901) – not all by women, but some women authors recommended.

Read: Ten Women Authored Ghost Stories from the Gilded Age

Read: Classic (pre-1920s) short stories by women.

Read: 10 Great Ghost or Spooky Stories written by Women

Read: 10 Feminist Ghost Stories to Share Around the Campfire

When the Final Girl Story Loses Its Voice: My Thoughts on The Final Girl Support Group

Horror readers love the “final girl” trope for a reason. The last survivor in a slasher story often represents resilience, instinct, and the terrifying strength it takes to live through something unspeakable. So when I picked up The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, I was immediately intrigued. The premise is brilliant: what if the survivors from famous slasher-style massacres were real women who met regularly in a trauma support group years after their ordeals?

It’s a concept that practically begs to be explored. Trauma. Survival. The aftermath of violence. What does life look like for the women who made it out alive when the credits roll?

On paper, this is the kind of horror novel I love. As someone who writes horror myself, I’m always excited when a story pushes beyond the obvious scares and asks deeper questions about what survival actually means.

And for a good portion of the book, I was genuinely invested.

A Premise That Hooks You Instantly

In The Final Girl Support Group, a group of women who survived infamous killing sprees meet regularly in a private support group organized by a therapist. Each of them lived through events that echo classic slasher films. Years later, they’re trying to rebuild their lives while carrying the weight of what happened to them.

But when one of the women disappears, the fragile safety they’ve built begins to collapse. Someone may be hunting the final girls themselves.

It’s a great hook.

The idea that survival doesn’t end the story is powerful. Many horror narratives stop at the moment the survivor defeats the monster, but the emotional reality of trauma is much more complicated than that. A support group made up of these survivors opens the door for a much deeper exploration of that theme.

For the first half of the book, I was genuinely curious to see where the story would go.

The Moment That Made Me Pause

About halfway through the novel, the narrative begins exploring the backstories of each of the survivors and how they became “final girls.”

When the story shifts to the main character, Lynnette, we learn that two years after surviving her traumatic experience, she entered into a relationship with the police officer who rescued her.

She was eighteen.

He was the authority figure who saved her.

I had to stop reading for a while after that moment.

Not because fiction should avoid uncomfortable topics. Horror often deals with difficult realities, and sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones willing to confront them.

But what unsettled me was how casually the situation was presented.

The story simply moves past it. There’s no real reflection on the power imbalance or the vulnerability involved in that kind of relationship. It’s introduced almost as background information and then largely left there.

I kept reading, hoping the story would circle back to it or interrogate that dynamic in some way.

It never really did.

When Violence Starts to Feel Empty

As the story moved into its third act, the violence against the female characters became increasingly intense.

Now, horror is violent by nature. I write horror myself, so that alone isn’t the issue.

But violence in storytelling works best when it serves a purpose. It should deepen the narrative, illuminate character, or reinforce the themes the story is exploring.

By the end of the novel, the violence began to feel excessive in a way that made the earlier unresolved moment even harder to ignore.

The book seemed very interested in depicting the suffering of these women, but less interested in examining the systems or relationships that contributed to that suffering.

That imbalance made the story feel hollow to me.

Writing Horror from a Grain of Truth

As a horror writer, I’m deeply aware that fiction can entertain while still acknowledging real-world harm.

The stories I write often come from what I call a grain of truth. Real experiences, real emotions, real fears that shape the characters and the world they live in.

Horror can be powerful when it reflects those truths thoughtfully.

But when it treats certain kinds of violence as background noise or spectacle, it can start to feel uncomfortable in a different way.

Not scary.

Just unsettling.

A Question I’m Still Sitting With

Reading this book made me wonder about something I’m still processing.

Is it easier for male authors to write stories about violence against women without fully understanding the emotional weight those situations carry?

This isn’t to say male authors shouldn’t write female characters. Many do it incredibly well.

But there are certain lived experiences about being a woman in the world that shape how violence feels when you encounter it in fiction. The line between exploration and normalization can become very noticeable.

For me, that line blurred too much in this novel.

Why I’m Still Glad I Read It

Even though the book didn’t ultimately work for me, I’m still glad I gave it a chance.

The concept behind The Final Girl Support Group is undeniably creative. The idea of exploring what happens to survivors after the horror story ends is fascinating and worth exploring in fiction.

And that’s part of the beauty of reading.

Two people can experience the same story in completely different ways.

A Conversation Worth Having

I’ll be adding my copy of The Final Girl Support Group to the used books section of my shop so it can continue its journey with another reader.

If you decide to read it, I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

Sometimes the most interesting conversations about books happen when readers walk away with completely different interpretations of the same story.

And when it comes to horror, those conversations can be just as powerful as the scares themselves.

When the Final Girl Story Loses Its Voice: My Thoughts on The Final Girl Support Group

A used copy of The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. This horror novel follows the surviving “final girls” of infamous massacres as they meet in a support group years later—until someone begins targeting them again. Good condition with a minor tear on the spine; pages remain fully readable.

Author Spotlight: Horror Author Jillian Maria

Jillian is a sapphic author who loves stories with big feelings and a lot of heart — even if that heart is a little bloody and bruised. When not writing, you can usually find her doting on her cat, listening to music, or gently obsessing over whatever piece of media has currently grabbed her attention.

Author Links:

All links: byjillianmaria.com

Book Sample: Read the first 3 chapters of A Colder Home on Jillian’s website.

Elevator Pitch for Readers/Book Clubs:
Real terror plagues the production of an amateur horror film when a blizzard traps cast and crew in a haunted house. But Cleo finds herself strangely drawn to the ghosts on the other side of her camera…

Your novel, A Colder Home, was just released in February (2026). What has been the most enjoyable part of the whole process for you, from the drafting stage to publication? What parts are you glad to be over?

What a great question! I’m going to have to answer it out of order, though. A Colder Home is, without exaggeration, one of the hardest books I’ve ever written. So when it comes to what I’m glad to be done with, I definitely won’t miss the parts where I stopped a draft halfway through because I couldn’t finish it, or the times where every word felt like pulling teeth.

There were several times where I put away the draft sure that I was shelving it for real this time. I’ve abandoned other projects over far less! But this was one book that I just couldn’t give up on. And I think that made it all the more exciting when the story did finally “click” for me. That moment where I worked out what the story was about was incredibly satisfying, and it made me grateful for every draft — and half draft! — that made it possible.

What inspired this ghost story, and do you have any experience with the paranormal yourself?

I love ghosts as a metaphor. The specters you find in this story are not souls so much as they are manifestations, influenced and warped by the perceptions of those left behind. I was very much inspired by my own experience with grief.

Specifically, the strange feeling of realizing that your memory of a lost loved one is fallible, and for better or for worse, you’re remembering the version of them that you want to remember. Sometimes that means remembering them as better than they were, and sometimes it means magnifying their worst traits to lessen the sting of missing them.

Either way, it’s very difficult to hold onto the whole complex version of someone in your head, especially when they’ve been gone for a long time.

I will say, earlier versions of this story had far more sentient ghosts. Virginia, and to a lesser extent Laura and Gerald, had agendas and goals of their own. But I found that it slowed the story’s momentum, and sort of muddied the message. Having them be a little less human made the story far scarier, and made the themes a lot stronger.

I can’t say I’ve had a genuine paranormal experience, although I’ve had a few that come close! And I’m definitely open to it. I love hearing about local ghost stories when I travel.

The story is about the cast and crew of an amateur horror film; what drew you to these characters, and what made you decide a horror film production would be a good vehicle for this story? 

I knew from the very start that I wanted this story to be about a horror film production, but it wasn’t until much later in the process that I started to grapple with what that actually meant. In early drafts, “horror movie production plagued by real ghosts” just felt like a really fun concept! But somewhere along the way, the story started to ask questions about what it means to be an artist, to make art. And the story eventually became about the creation of art, in a way… how it can be used to process difficult emotions, or how it can be used to wallow in them.

What is your character development process like – how do they take shape from first idea to final form, and who are you most excited for people to meet?

Nothing about the writing of this book has followed my “usual” process, and that includes character development! Building out the initial cast was pretty easy because of the conceit of the book — a film production needs a cast and a crew — but while roles and basic traits have stayed more or less the same, each character evolved along with the plot.

Most changes got made based on the needs of the story.

For example: Cleo, my main character, changed a lot from her initial concept. She was always the film’s cinematographer, but in earlier drafts she was also the main director and the one calling most of the shots. She was a perfectionist and a bit of a control freak, because she had a really hard time trusting other people. But in later drafts, that perfectionism turned inward. She doesn’t trust herself, and it’s paralyzed her so that, in the final version of the story, this is the first time she’s even tried to make a movie in years, and she’s already half given up on it before it’s even begun.

It was odd to realize that I actually needed to make my main character more passive, because it feels like it goes against traditional narrative structure, but for the kind of story I wanted to tell and the themes I was trying to convey, it just made sense. And it made her final arc far more satisfying.

But we needed someone driving the early part of the story, so a lot of early Cleo’s bossiness and determination got shuffled to Noah.

Originally her co-director that she struggled to effectively delegate to, he became the movie’s champion, doing his best to keep things on track even as the supernatural elements of the plot ramped up. I really liked this change in him, because it made him a far more complex character. It also made him really fun to write from Cleo’s perspective! He’s her cousin, and she’s known him for so long that she’s got a lot of preconceived notions about the type of person he is.

The original version of him didn’t actually stray that far from what she thinks of him, but in this draft, we’re able to peel back those layers a bit more. Other characters went through similar changes based on what the narrative needed. Isobel ended up getting a lot more philosophical and thoughtful as the story became more about artistry and what it means to be creative — this had the added bonus of deepening her romance with Cleo, as both of them open up about their aspirations and what their respective arts mean to them. I ended up giving Declan an interest in occultism and spiritualism because his nature made him a good foil for Rhiannon, the resident sceptic.

Andrea and Zander ended up getting more page time as certain events got shuffled around, and it made them far more interesting as a result!

Were there things you cut out of the final draft that you wish you’d kept in, or things that you’ve added that went in fairly late in the drafting stage, and can you tell us anything about them in a spoiler-free way? 

Ooooh, absolutely! There’s plenty that didn’t make it to the final cut that I wish did. A sillier one is an early scene where Cleo and Noah get fast food together. They have this routine where they order one vanilla and one chocolate milkshake, and then Noah splits them in half and mixes them together with his bare hands while Cleo makes a show of being disgusted by him. It was a fun look into their dynamic and unfortunately had to go for pacing, as now we start the book right at the beginning of filming.

One of the final major developmental edits I made was the decision to make Michelle, the owner of the home, a painter. That detail ended up solving a LOT of the issues in earlier drafts, and also helped reinforce that theme of making art! A lot of what you see in the final book is a result of that decision.

Lastly – what has been your favourite ARC reader responses so far?

A few beta readers told me that they cried real tears reading it. That’s pretty special!

Like This? Try These:

• Author Spotlight: Horror/Paranormal Author Amanda Leanne Date May 30, 2025 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Queer Horror Author Kaos Emslie Date October 2, 2024 In relation to Author Interview
• Women in Horror Month 2026: Beware the Ladies of the Night Date March 6, 2026 In relation to Women in Horror Month
• Author Spotlight: Horror Author Emma Murray Date April 25, 2025 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Horror Author Shawn Winchell Date July 25, 2025 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Paranormal Author Jason A. Kilgore Date December 10, 2025 In relation to Author Interview

Women In Horror (Spotlighting Myself)

Thank You So Much!

I’m so grateful to all my supporters and fans (I didn’t think I’d have ‘fans’, but apparently I do, and you’re all amazing!).

I’ve really enjoyed playing in my fictional worlds with everyone who has joined my Ko-Fi so far. I didn’t think I’d get single figures of members, let alone double figures, so again that’s been amazing.

You can check out all the posts, the short fiction available, the rewards to claim, and all the perks, via “My Fiction” in my main menu, above.

My Publishing Journey

It seems very odd to use my own website to highlight myself as a “Woman In Horror”, because you probably know that, or why are you here? But it also seems a bit odd to totally ignore myself while highlighting everyone else.

I started off self-publishing. I had intended from the start to self-publish The Crows, and I had already lined up an illustrator (Tom Brown) to work with. I had been in writing groups on Facebook for years, and had spent a long time querying my Wattpad fantasy series without success. A few people in our group had gone on to get traditional deals or had a very successful self-publishing route. I felt that self-publishing was the way to go for The Crows.

From Twitter Pitch to Self-Publishing

I pitched it on a whim in a Twitter event, and it got a full manuscript request from an editor at Rebellion Publishing, whose imprints include Abaddon and Solaris. It wasn’t what they were looking for in the end, but I had a real boost from the rejection and the feedback. It also cemented for me that I wanted to continue with the self-publishing route.

The Crows went through several beta reader rounds, multiple edits with a professional editor, and I believe it was the best it could have been at the time I wrote it. I think if I wrote that story again, now, it would be a different book; I’m not the same person or writer as I was in 2018-2019.

Its loose sequel took me in a very different direction to the one I thought it would go, and I still think there are stories to be told with a focus on Carrie & Ricky in the intervening months between those two timelines. It had a completely different tone and focus to the one I’d envisioned, but then, The Crows was never meant to be a series.

Thirteenth was received really well – much better than I expected. It was released in 2021, and I am still very proud of it.

How I got Trad Pubbed by Accident

In 2023, I was cold-pitched by the commissioning editor of Canelo Books’ new Horror imprint, Canelo Horror, completely out of the blue. I still don’t know how he found the books in the first place, but he had read both and loved them. I sold the print rights to Canelo for The Crows and Thriteenth, but I wanted to keep to the proposed timetable for The Day We Ate Grandad, which I had advertised to come out in April 2023; the cold-pitch came in March, and was for the first 2 books only.

The Crows and Thriteenth were re-released by Canelo in 2024; Canelo was bought by DK Publishing in 2025, which is in turn an imprint of Penguin Random House, and I now have a Penguin Random House author page.

It’s the consequence of having a good product to start with, and completely random, extreme good luck, that I can’t replicate or explain.

Where We Are Now

I have since published loads more novels and short fiction, and am very happy to be a hybrid author.

I am still unagented – I had a nibble from an agent in 2024, when I was still blown away by the Canelo contract and thought about seeking representation more seriously, but that didn’t come to anything in the end. I remain without representation at this time largely by choice.

I am now an active member of the HWA and British Fantasy Society, and look forward to the next chapter of my author journey.

What’s Next?

You can:

• Sign up to this site so you don’t miss a post
• Sign up to my newsletter for monthly updates
• Sign up via my Draft2Digital mailing list to be alerted to new releases only, rather than get posts and articles/newsletters.
• follow me on Amazon for alerts to new releases
• follow me on Itch for alerts to new releases
• follow me on Ko-Fi (free) for alerts to additions to my shop/new posts
• follow me on social media:
  I’m @cmrosens.com on Bluesky
  @cm.rosens on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads.
  Find me on Facebook, Pillowfort and tumblr at CMRosens.
  I’m very easy to locate!
• follow me on GoodReads or find me on StoryGraph.

You can also:

• Check out all my work via my main landing page, linked in the main menu (“My Fiction“). You can bookmark this page!

Check Out These Authors!

International Women’s Day: Meet my FMCs!

Meet my Main Female Characters this International Women’s Day! I have multiple books, both traditionally published and independently published, but here are the ones with female main characters!

You can grab my novel Yelen & Yelena for $1 in the current Itch bundle sale for International Women’s Day which runs to 10th March, so a few more days to grab 32 titles at $32! Title card graphic by Niranjan, host of the bundle.

FMCs in Eldritch Gothic Horror/Urban Weird Fantasy

Carrie Rickard is the FMC in The Crows, available now from Canelo Horror/Penguin Random House.

This is a Gothic Horror with tentacles tale, about a doomed woman dealing with trauma and a pathological need to fit into her surroundings, and a lonely eldritch abomination makes a friend and gets the house he’s always wanted.

Katy Porter is the FMC in Thirteenth, now available from Canelo Horror/Penguin Random House.

This is an urban weird fantasy featuring eldritch family drama, contemporary small town (English) Gothic undertones, body horror, and dark humour. Katy is a girl transforming into something she doesn’t understand, and her family are divided on how to handle it – some want to use her, some destroy her, and some want to help her… but none of them can stop it.

Katy and Carrie also appear as secondary characters in THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD, which can be read as part of the Pagham-on-Sea series, but you do not not necessarily need to read them in order.

Overexposure is a short story where detail-orientated photographer, Charlie Eversley-Smith, is the FMC. Available wherever eBooks are sold.

The story is a journey of addiction and obsession, when Charlie meets a man whose image cannot be captured – and in her quest to understand him, she falls into a spiral of self-destruction.

Alice is the 10yo autistic-coded FMC in The Snow Child, who may have identified as auti-gender if she hadn’t been born in the early 1900s.

Written for Books of Horror‘s June Pride book box, but now on general sale.

This is a standalone body horror story featuring the fae, set in rural England in 1917.

FMCs in Gothic Dark Fantasy

Yelen & Yelena is a Dark Gothic Fantasy with Yelena as the titular FMC. Available in eBook, audiobook, and paperback.

This book is an aromantic version of Beauty & the Beast, where there is a deep friends-with-benefits connection but no romance. The Beast doesn’t change back into a man, and there is also bisexual and sapphic rep here too. If you’re looking for something dark, Gothic, and with some body horror, this is the book for you.

FMCs in Contemporary Queer Romances

Carrie is the FMC of Birds of a Feather, which is the contemporary romcom version of The Crows.

If eldritch horror in Gothic settings isn’t your thing, but you do want the dynamics of a traumatised woman getting over an abusive relationship with the help of a local self-employed, asexual, ADHD jack-of-most-trades and his elderly St Bernard (to whom nothing bad happens) and there’s an HEA, then try this instead.

Sarah Wheelock is the FMC of Best Friends Bury Bodies.

This is a bisexual whychoose m/m, m/f, f/f second chance romance meets Midsomer Murders novel, with both stable and somewhat messy non-monogamous relationship structures, murder, false identities, addiction recovery, and middle-aged best friends getting up to unwise shenanigans.

Check out Other Bundles and Sales

• A Very Queer March – 01-31st March 2026: 63 titles with a variety of queer rep for $60 – ON NOW.
• Ko-Fi Box Set of all my independently published work – 12 eBooks for £15, less than half what it would cost to buy them individually! This is its usual price for 12 books.
• THE SOUND OF DARKNESS will be a newsletter magnet and downloadable for free in the Occult and Supernatural Giveaway 03 Apr-03 May 2026.

Women in Horror Month 2026: Beware the Ladies of the Night

I have launched a new page on the website for Women In Horror Month, which links to all the features published for Women In Horror. I’ve decided to post the features like this in a few collated lists, so that you don’t get as many emails and notifications if you’ve subscribed to the site!

Each feature is on its own dedicated page, rather than a post, so that they are all nested under the parent page (Women in Horror) and easy to find.

DID YOU KNOW?
You can search this site for tags like:
“Women in Horror” (trans-inclusive),
“Nonbinary People in Horror” (umbrella term which includes genderfluidity and genderqueer identities; I can add other more specific tags on request!)
“Men in Horror” (trans-inclusive), as well as “queer author” to bring up a range of authors and their work.

Women in Horror Month has its own page on this website.

Click the menu link, WOMEN IN HORROR, to go to the carrd landing page for all the features, organised by section.

Check out the features listed below. This is a selection of them – more will be added to the main carrd page as we go through the month.

WOMEN IN HORROR WRITING/PUBLISHING

BOOKSTORE OWNERS

• Christina Rosso is the co-owner of A Novel Idea, an independent bookstore and event space on Passyunk named one of the best bookstores in the region by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Read her Women In Horror feature.

• LCW Allingham, co-founder and executive editor of the indie press, Speculation Publications – Read her Women In Horror feature. No AI accepted.
• Renee S. DeCamillis is a freelance editor of Horror and Dark Fiction – Women In Horror feature
• Staci Layne Wilson, founder of WomenInHorror.com, which publishes reviews, articles, and horror anthologies like The Glass Coffin – Read her Women In Horror feature. AI stance unverified/undisclosed.

• Elizabeth Broadbent – Women In Horror feature
• A.M. Castro – Women In Horror feature
• Leanna Renee Hieber – Women In Horror feature
• Pamela K. Kinney – Women In Horror feature
• Christina Rosso – Women In Horror feature
• Staci Layne Wilson – Women In Horror feature

• Kerry E.B. Black – Women In Horror feature
• Pamela K. Kinney – Women In Horror feature
• Rei Alyssa Murray – Women In Horror feature
• Sumiko Saulson – Women In Horror feature

• LCW Allingham – Women In Horror feature
• Paula D. Ashe – Podcast Interview
• Kerry E.B. Black – Women In Horror feature
• Elizabeth Broadbent – Women In Horror feature
• Samantha Bryant – Women in Horror feature
• Paula Cappa – Women In Horror feature
• A.M. Castro – Women In Horror feature
• Victoria Dalpe – Women In Horror feature
• Jess Hagemann – Women In Horror feature
• Leanna Renee Hieber – Women In Horror feature
• Ashley Huyge – Women In Horror feature
• Pamela K. Kinney – Women In Horror feature
• Briana Morgan – Women In Horror feature
• Iseult Murphy – Women In Horror feature
• Suzan Palumbo – Podcast Interview
• Shantell Powell – Women In Horror feature
• C.M. Rosens – Women In Horror feature
• Christina Rosso – Women In Horror feature
• Claire L. Smith – Women in Horror feature
• Chloe Spencer – Women In Horror feature
• Caitlin Starling – Podcast Interview
• Abby Vail – Women In Horror feature
• Emily Ruth Verona – Women In Horror feature
• Madeleine Swann – Women In Horror feature
• Staci Layne Wilson – Women In Horror feature

• Abby Vail – Women In Horror feature

• Kerry E.B. Black – Women In Horror feature
• Ann Fraistat – Women In Horror feature
• Mel Hammond – Women In Horror feature
• Julie Lew – Women In Horror feature
• Donna Taylor – Women In Horror feature
• Nicole Wolverton – Author Spotlight

• LCW Allingham – Women In Horror feature
• Miranda Kate/MK Boers – Women In Horror feature / Author Spotlight
• Elizabeth Broadbent – Women In Horror feature
• Paula Cappa – Women In Horror feature
• Victoria Dalpe – Women In Horror feature
• Renee S. DeCamillis – Women In Horror feature
• Danielle Gomes – Women In Horror feature
• Jessika Grewe Glover – Women In Horror feature
• Jess Hagemann – Women In Horror feature
• Leanna Renee Hieber – Women In Horror feature
• Pamela K. Kinney – Women In Horror feature
• Julie Lew – Women In Horror feature
• A.M. Loweecey – Women In Horror feature
• Briana Morgan – Women In Horror feature
• Iseult Murphy – Women In Horror feature
• Viggy Parr Hampton – Women In Horror feature
• Shantell Powell – Women In Horror feature
• C.M. Rosens – Women In Horror feature
• Christina Rosso – Women In Horror feature
• Sumiko Saulson – Women In Horror feature
• Claire L. Smith – Women in Horror feature
• Chloe Spencer – Women In Horror feature
• Caitlin Starling – Podcast Interview
• Vivian M. Valentine – Author Spotlight
• Emily Ruth Verona – Women In Horror feature
• Staci Layne Wilson – Women In Horror feature

PODCASTERS

• Viggy Parr Hampton, host of the Horror, Humor, Hunger podcast- Women In Horror feature
• C.M. Rosens, host of the Eldritch Girl: Weird Gothic Stuff & Nonsense podcast – Women In Horror feature

ARTISTS

• LCW Allingham – Women In Horror feature
• Victoria Dalpe – Women In Horror feature
• Iseult Murphy – Women In Horror feature
• Claire L. Smith has illustrated and designed covers for a range of presses and publications including Off Limits Press, Ghost Orchid Press, Cemetery Gates Media, The Ghastling Press, Tenebrous Press and more – Women In Horror feature

ACTORS

• Leanna Renee Hieber – Women In Horror feature

MUSICIANS/SONGWRITERS

• Renee S. DeCamillis – Women In Horror feature
• Abby Vail – Women In Horror feature

FILMMAKERS

• Lucy Rose – Podcast Interview (transcript/episode link)
• Chloe Spencer – Women In Horror feature

GAME DEVS

• Ann Fraistat has developed alternate reality games sponsored by the National Science Foundation – Women In Horror feature
• Chloe Spencer – Women In Horror feature

WEBSITES/RESOURCES

• Staci Layne Wilson, creator of womeninhorror.com, which features interviews with women in horror, reviews, and articles, and publishes anthologies like The Glass Coffin. Read Wilson’s Women In Horror feature