Welcome back! This week, I’m thrilled to bring you part one in a brand-new author roundtable! For the next two weeks, I’m featuring four incredible horror writers who have just released new books that most definitely belong on your TBR pile.

So without further ado, let’s take it away!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your latest book.

CANDACE NOLA: I am a multiple award-winning author, editor, and publisher from Pittsburgh, PA. I am also the creator of Uncomfortably Dark Horror, an indie horror review platform and indie publishing house. I specialize in all sub-genres of horror, as well as dark fantasy and poetry. My latest book is a collection called Demons in my Bloodstream that was published by Dead Sky Publishing on August 27, 2024. This was my first official collection of short stories and the themes focus on the demons that humans carry inside.

SARAH READ: Thanks so much for having me again, Gwendolyn! I’m Sarah Read and I write horror novels and short stories. Most people know me by my first book, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. But I do have a new book out! The Atropine Tree–a gothic, haunted house novel that takes place in Victorian England, in which an historic family estate is caught up in a matter of questionable inheritance. Only the dead know the truth, so the family turns to both witchcraft and science to try and find answers. But the family ghosts don’t get along any better than the living do. It’s like Downton Abbey but in Hell House.

GERRI LEEN: I’m a writer and poet from Northern Virginia. I live with a disabling chronic illness and a blind/deaf, overly dramatic seventeen-year-old cat; the cat is far more pleasant than the illness. I focus mainly on speculative genres for my work, but I’ve also written some mainstream shorts and poems as well as way too much fanfic (if being paid is my goal), and I’ve dabbled in Romance shorts under the pen name Kim Strattford. My latest book is my first poetry collection Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness, which came out in May. It’s a mix of original and previously published horror poetry and I’m ridiculously proud of it.

VICTORIA DALPE: Hello! I am a writer and painter based out of Providence, Rhode Island. My short fiction has been included in over 45 anthologies to date, my short story collection Les Femmes Grotesques came out with CLASH two years ago and my newest novel, Selene Shade: Resurrectionist for Hire will be out in September 2024. It’s the first of a trilogy, ideally each book will roll out in September of the following year. So that will be keeping me busy for the next two years. Which is great, it’s good to be busy.

What are your favorite subgenres of horror? Are there any types of horror that you haven’t written yet but would like to? Are there any types of horror that you definitely know that you don’t want to write?

CANDACE NOLA: Currently I am exploring all of the subgenres of horror, but my favorite has always been cryptid tales and ghost stories. Not sure if there is a type of horror that I’ve not yet written but I do know that horror-erotica is not my cup of tea. I’m not an erotica fan and can’t see myself writing it on a normal basis.

SARAH READ: Gothic, ghosts, and possession are my favorite subgenres, though I like anything surreal or psychological. I do want to write a possession novel someday. I’ve written some possession-themed short stories and enjoyed that. I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t write. I almost said I don’t think I’d write extreme body horror, but then I remembered I did do that once or twice…and also enjoyed it. So I guess nothing’s off the table.

GERRI LEEN: I’m more than a little addicted to vampires (I blame this on Mom letting me watch Dark Shadows when I was a little kid in the 60’s) and I’d love to do more with that. I love horror that lives right on the edge of normal, where it could almost be a thriller if it wasn’t just a little off. I also love genre-blending like sci fi horror. I don’t tend to love slasher type things, I get a little weirded out by body horror (which is ironic if you saw how many odd medical videos I watch on YouTube for fun), and I don’t like to be scared despite liking dark things. I don’t mind being creeped out or grossed out, but I really don’t want to be frightened. Because I am apparently a wimpy horror writer.

VICTORIA DALPE: My comfort zones are definitely in the gothic with a bit of weird fiction, for sure. But I like playing around within the genre, my first collection has weird westerns, folktales, contemporary horror and a little bit of everything in between. I have never written a straight slasher or anything in crime fiction, as I tend to prefer supernatural/more liminal elements. But it’s something to try down the line! I haven’t written much horror sci-fi, but considering how much I love movies like Event Horizon, Species and Xtro I wonder if I shouldn’t try my hand at some weird erotic sci-fi horror. Who can say what the future holds!

How has your perception of the horror genre changed since you’ve become a professional author? Do you still see it the same way that you did when you were just a fan, or has your outlook on what the genre means altered over the years?

CANDACE NOLA: My perception has not changed a great deal, other than truly discovering all of the different types of horror as they are defined. As a reader, it was all just horror. I still love horror as much now as I did as a reader, maybe even more so. My perception of the industry has greatly changed, however, being on this side of things and seeing that it’s rife with its issues and scandals just like any other industry. That being said, I’ve still met more incredible people here, both peers and fans, that I will still claim the horror people as the nicest group of folks that I’ve been a part of, kindness and compassion runs deep in this group despite the few bad actors.

SARAH READ: I think my love for the genre has grown over the years, especially as I’ve seen more publishers embracing diverse stories and authors, bringing more variety to us readers. As an author, I’ve formed more connections with other authors I might not have known otherwise, if we hadn’t been colleagues or been published together in anthologies. That’s allowed me to discover so much more wonderful work. As a librarian, I love passing those discoveries on to other readers.

GERRI LEEN: I think I’ve actually become more of a fan as a result of writing it. Maybe it was realizing how dark I skew with my own writing–even poetry. It was eye opening that the current trend for Utopian or Solarpunk totally leaves me out because it just doesn’t seem to be where my muse wants to go. I read a lot more horror than I used to and I watch more too.

Also I’ve discovered that horror writers as a group are just the nicest! And I think it’s because we’re all getting our darkness out through our work.

VICTORIA DALPE: I think seeing how that sausage is made has actually given me confidence that there are readers for every kind of writer, you just have to find them. And that is absolutely the challenge, there is a lot of noise and a lot of competition, it’s hard to get books into hands- it’s hard to find effective advertising routes, to get reviews, to do all of that. But hard is not impossible, it just takes a little elbow grease and time. And there is fun from the writing of it all the way to the book signings, for me. I am a total gemini, so I love the long periods of quiet introspection while getting things written/painted and the boisterous social elements of the marketing events, book signings, parties, conventions and the like. I like telling stories and I want people to see those stories and engage with them, so as long as that is happening, it feels like success and keeps me writing.

Thank you so much to our featured authors! Join us next week for part two of our Fall Roundtable as we discuss their favorite books and their future writing plans!

Happy reading!