Today, as part of the 47North Author Blog Swap, I am pleased to introduce author J. Lincoln Fenn, whose book Poe won the sci-fi/fantasy category of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Today, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I turn my blog over to her to to talk about the horror and the women who write it.
Fairy Tales: The Original, Original Horror
Ah,
fairy tales. You know, like The Little
Mermaid and its happily ever-after ending, where the doe-eyed mermaid gets her
legs and singing voice back just in time to marry the equally doe-eyed prince.
Or Snow White, where the evil queen
gets her just desserts from an unfortunate lightning strike.
Pure
and utter bullshit.
No,
I’m not on some kind of feminist rant, I simply read fairy tales, and not the
sanitized, consumer friendly versions offered by Disney and other purveyors of
suburban childhood. I grew up with original, original fairy tales, like the Andrew Lang Fairy
Books, a collection of stories and fairy folklore spanning the late 1800’s
to early 1900’s, Grimm's Fairy Tales published
in 1812, and Fairy tales from Hans
Christian Andersen, first published in 1899.
These
versions were a bit more…horrific. Granted, they were designed to be told
around some kind of rustic hearth to instill terror into the hearts of children
so they didn’t go off wandering alone in the woods or moors. But that’s a
nuance lost on a 6 year old.
I
was sure the wild-haired Struwwelpeter, a
tailor with scissors for hands, would cut off my thumb if I continued to suck
it. I heard the screams of the evil queen in Snow White as she was forced to dance to death, wearing red-hot
iron shoes. And the ending of The Little
Mermaid, where she gains a soul but loses her life and turns to foam, was downright
spooky. Don’t even get me started about what really happened to Little Red Riding Hood.
And
people wonder why I write horror.
So
it’s odd that I’ve been told, on more than one occasion, people are surprised
to find out I’m a woman. Yeah I know, the pseudonym doesn’t help, but I think
it’s more the beheading, graphic serial murders, and demonic possession in Poe that throws
them off. Because while the iconic Shelley and breakout stars like Anne Rice
and Shirley Jackson easily come to mind when you think about the genre, women
are only sprinkled through “Best of” horror lists. The question is why. The gender that passed on tales
like Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
where the bears rip poor Goldy apart before devouring her, is strangely
missing.
Maybe
we’re out there, just not being read. To help shine a light on all the fabulous
women writers who know a thing or two about things that go bump in the night,
next month is officially “Women in Horror” month and you can help spread the
word. Share a link, pick a book, and get ready to be afraid. Very, very afraid.
ARTICLES
AND LISTS ABOUT WOMEN IN HORROR
SF Signal: MIND MELD: Our Favorite Women Horror Writers: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/10/mind-meld-favorite-women-in-horror/
Examiner.com:
Women In Horror--The Writers
NYT
Sunday Book Review: Shelley’s Daughters
Hellnotes.com:
TOP 25 WOMEN HORROR WRITERS YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T HEARD OF (BUT SHOULD KNOW)
Sumikosaulson.com:
20 Black Women in Horror Writing