As Above, So Below

My love of horror dates to my childhood, to Sir Graves Ghastly showing creature features on Saturday afternoons.  Or maybe it dates to Grimm’s Fairy Tales, where the Huntsman cuts Red Riding Hood from the wolf’s stomach and Snow White and Rose Red dance with a bear.  Or maybe it dates to the plagues of Exodus and god drowning the entire world except for a handful of shipbuilders trapped on a boat with increasingly hungry predators. Maybe it was always there.

The first story I had published was a Lovecraft pastiche.  In high school, I published a cross-genre zine called Sanity, Ltd. I got my first fan letter after a dark Star Wars fanfic was published when I was in college.  I’ve been writing horror stories for a long time.

More recently, I’ve published horror about post-apocalyptic Detroit, cutting out an immortal’s heart, sexy vampires, insatiable energy drinkers, a MFA photographer with a death fetish, ghosts, witches, and a certain sympathetic succubus who scores with Led Zeppelin.

Still, I was surprised and very honored to find myself on this list of 10 Bay Area Women who Write Horror.  Never in my wildest dreams did I envision my name on a list with Anne Rice and Jewelle Gomez.

And it’s by no means a comprehensive list.  Right off the top of my head, I would add Dana Fredsti, Seanan McGuire, Kim Richards, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

Who would you add to make it an even 15?