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Women in Horror Fiction: Angeline Hawkes

Image of Angeline Hawkes

This month we asked a number of women horror writers to answer some questions for us about who they are, what they write, what it’s like to be a woman writer in the horror genre, and what they read and recommend for horror readers. The first person to respond to our questions was Angeline Hawkes, a writer of historical horror published primarily by small presses and independent publishers.

Angeline Hawkes is the author of Blood Alone (2013 ND3 Press), The Commandments (2012 ND3 Press), Shades of Blood and Shadow (2009 Dark Regions Press) and Symphony for the Forgotten (2008 Daverana Enterprises). She has collaborated with her husband Christopher Fulbright on such books as Sorrow Creek (2012 Delirium Books), Black Mercy Falls (2011 Delirium Books), and Scavengers (2011 Elder Signs Press). Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Frontier Cthulhu: Ancient Horrors in the New World (2007 Chaosium), Beneath the Surface: 13+ Shocking Tales of Terror (2008 Shroud Publishing), and Dark Light (2012 MARLvision Publishing).

1. Can you give our readers a brief introduction?

I have been writing horror and (mostly) dark fantasy professionally since 2000. Before that my earliest publication credit was in 1981 – that makes me sound ancient, but in reality, I was only 11 at the time.  My earliest publications from age 11-19 were poetry and various non-fiction/journalism related work. I went through college on scholarship (East Texas State University which is now Texas A&M University-Commerce) and many of those scholarships were based on my writing and publications. In fact, for most of them my publications were the real selling point that persuaded scholarship committees in my favor.  I taught high school and middle school, then retired to write full-time. Since 2000, I have churned out quite a few short stories, but from 2006 to the present, I have been concentrating on longer works – collections, novellas, novels. I write independently and collaboratively with my husband, Christopher Fulbright. My collection, The Commandments, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist, and I have some short stories in a couple of anthologies that were finalists for various awards.  In my personal life, I’m a mom to four skin babies and 1 fur baby. I don’t do anything “just a little”.  Kids, writing – I’m a hard worker and don’t have an off switch.

 

2. Why do you write horror?  What draws you to the genre?

I have always been drawn to the supernatural. I wrote ghost and monster stories as a young child. I think my earliest horror story was probably written around age eight. I was raised in a very religious environment where there was a heavy influence on sin, Hell, and the general end of the world apocalyptic type of lifestyle. I always say that the Bible is the ultimate horror book. Contained between those pages is just about every horror you can cook up. So, religion would definitely have a huge influence on my draw to the horror genre. The cycle of sin and redemption, good and evil – it all translates well into horror. I didn’t start out to be a horror writer, professionally. I thought I was writing historical fiction. I finally had an editor reply that although he loved everything I had submitted and previously submitted, I just WAS NOT writing historical fiction – I was writing HORROR. Imagine my surprise. I started re-reading everything I had written and came to the same conclusion. I just didn’t see it before it was pointed out.

 

3. Can you describe your writing style or the tone you prefer to set for your stories?

I write primarily historical horror and loosely earth-based heroic fantasy. Both of those require an immersion into the era I’m writing about at the time. So, I tend to find my influences in ages past, more than with modern writers. My writing style has been described by many people as “British” in tone and style. I see that a little. Probably because my biggest literary influences were British writers: Shakespeare, Dickens, Hardy, etc. I was an English teacher with a specialty on British Literature. Makes sense. Also, if you take into consideration my early influences of the King James Bible, that style of writing comes naturally. I think my writing is one of “building”. I like to set a firm foundation full of atmosphere. I want the reader to feel, see, hear, smell – to BE in the story. Then the story climbs to a – sometimes – sudden climax and BAM! – the conclusion is upon you. When I read reviews that mention anything the reviewer “didn’t like”, the comments are always that the story was too short or that the conclusion was too sudden or that they wanted more. I don’t necessarily see these as “bad” reviews. Life isn’t a neat and tidy thing, is it? When the story is done, it’s done. Sometimes the conclusion isn’t all wrapped up with a shiny bow – because in real life, stories aren’t always wrapped up in shiny bows. The reader gets to know what the character(s) gets to know…and sometimes the character never knows. My work has been compared to Lovecraft, Moore and Blackwood. I’m flattered, but I can only hope to stand in the shadow of such masters.

 

 4. Are there any women authors who have particularly inspired you to write?

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, was a big influence in my adolescence. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, was terrifying to me, I think because there were so many elements that I could relate to in my restrictive upbringing. I knew people like the people in her novel. It was scary. Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, George Eliot, Margaret Mitchell, Madeleine L’Engle, C.L. Moore– some of these are typical answers. I’ve never been a reader who selected my material based on the gender of the writer, but on the content of the story. Many of my female writer influences are not horror writers either, so not sure about the psychology behind the meaning of that.

 

5. What authors do you like to read?  Any recommendations?

I read a lot of nonfiction because I’m constantly researching for whatever I’m writing at the time. Some of my favorite fiction writers are Dickens, Tolkien, Moore, Howard, Shakespeare, Stoker, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Burroughs– all dead. Some of my favorite writers still kicking, that I find really fun to read, are Robert Weinberg, C. Dean Andersson, Steven Wedel, Steven Shrewsbury, Jeff Marriott, and of course, Christopher Fulbright.
6. Where can readers find your work?

My websites do not list everything. I try to keep the sites current, with not too many out of print works. A google search will bring up older works. Of course, Amazon has just about anything that is currently for sale – as does Barnes & Noble. As a short story writer, I’ve been fairly prolific in both horror and dark fantasy. I believe most of my longer works and collections are listed, with purchasing links, on my website: http://angelinehawkes.com/ and on Christopher Fulbright’s and my collaborative website: http://www.fulbrightandhawkes.com. I am currently writing for or have written for: Chaosium, DarkFuse, Dark Regions Press, Delirium Books, Elder Signs Press, and many others.

 

Interested in learning more about her, or checking out her work? Here’s a link to Angeline Hawkes’ Amazon page.

Posted on February 3, 2014 by , Reply

Women in Horror Fiction: The Mysteries of Ann Ward Radcliffe (UPDATED)

Ask anyone in the know about the history of horror, and one of the first authors you’ll hear named will be Ann Ward Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho. While Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is considered the first Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, along with Matthew Lewis’ The Monk, are often mentioned in the next breath.

Gothic fiction usually takes place in faraway times and places, in a foreboding atmosphere. There are often castles, mazes, ruined buildings, wild landscapes, and mysterious or supernatural happenings. A dark atmosphere and setting are an essential part of the Gothic novel. Curious heroines, sinister and passionate villains, and irreproachable heroes all populate Gothic tales. The forbidden and hidden add to the thrills and suspense.

At the time she was writing her thrilling novels (and she wrote more than just one) writing was not considered a suitable occupation for a woman, and many women authors wrote anonymously or under a pseudonym. Radcliffe, with the support of her husband, a journalist, wrote her novels under her own name. A bestselling author, the appearance of a new book by Ann Radcliffe was an event in the literary world.

Yet we know very little about who Ann Radcliffe really was.  Born in 1764  to William and Ann Ward, she had an uncle who was able to expose her to literature and art  at a young age, although it is likely she received no more formal education than other young women of her time. Her husband, William Radcliffe, was a journalist, and encouraged her writing. She traveled often, although not always far from home, and her journals are filled with extensive descriptions of scenery and the natural world. This is reflected in her writing– reviews on Amazon vary between praising her gorgeous descriptive writing and skill at establishing setting, and impatience at the pace of the novel, as it slows the action down considerably. What isn’t contained in her journals is anything indicating what she might have been thinking. We don’t know why she wrote what she did, or why, at the young age of thirty two, she set down her pen. Mrs. Radcliffe died on February 7, 1823.  Her works include:  The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789),  A Sicilian Romance (1791), The Romance of the Forest (1792), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794, through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany, with a Return down the Rhine:  to which are added Observations during a Tour to the Lakes of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland (1795) and The Italian (1796). (Gaston de Blondville and some poetry was published posthumously)

Radcliffe was familiar with contemporary works and also with Shakespeare. More than one of her books reflect influences from Macbeth and Hamlet, and her essay “The Supernatural in Poetry” references them directly in establishing her definitions of the difference between terror and horror (Radcliffe considered her works to inspire terror rather than horror, at least as she describes them both) Radcliffe expresses frustration with Shakespeare’s choice to present the witches from Macbeth as ordinary “Scotch women” instead of otherworldly creatures. Terror, she implies, is created by our reaction to the unearthly, and its effect is lost when it collides with the ordinary appearance of mere elderly women. Horror is a different matter entirely, a momentary excitement, rather than the subtle, unseen thrill that builds in a foreboding atmosphere which Radcliffe identifies as terror.  She wrote:

Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them… Where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in the uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreaded evil?

I can’t imagine what Mrs. Radcliffe would think of seeing herself classed with horror writers today!

Even with her attempt to justify her writing as somehow more “highbrow” than horror,   In Ann Radcliffe In Relation To Her Time, Clara McIntyre noted that The Mysteries of Udolpho was written to appeal to the general public, and she posits that Radcliffe was one of the earliest contributors to dramatic structure in fiction– that is, the creation of suspense to drive action, and action to complicate events that later have to be resolved. While today, Radcliffe’s hefty tomes may be slow going, McIntyre writes:

“The greater complication of the plot, the wider range of experience to which we are introduced, the increased number of thrills and surprises, and the really remarkable description of the Castle of Udolpho, all were calculated to appeal to the popular taste. Even now the charm has not wholly departed, if, forgetting to read critically, we submit ourselves to its power. We feel a little shiver of apprehension when the black pall on the .bed slowly begins to rise… ” (42)

It would be interesting to learn more about Mrs. Radcliffe, but there are so few facts to be had. Even if one doubts the literary quality of her work, though, her use of suspense to create a dramatic narrative, her descriptive writing, and her ability to evoke deep emotions and create unearthly chills had a permanent effect on English literature, and especially on the romance and horror genres. It’s worth while to take a moment to consider what Ann Radcliffe’s inner thoughts must have been as she created her fantastic and terrifying stories.

 

Editor’s note: As soon as this blog post was published, The Guardian reported the discovery of a letter by Ann Radcliffe that may offer some insight into her personal life. Evidently she had mother-in-law issues.

Posted on February 2, 2014 by , Reply

It’s Women in Horror Month!

Yes, it’s that time of year again– Women in Horror Month is here! It’s too bad that it takes a special month for horror lovers and makers who are women to be brought up into the light, but that really does seem to be what it takes. While there are a lot of great women writers of horror, very few of them are well known, so this month we’re going to spotlight some of them. I’ll be bringing up some of the older posts we’ve done on some of the great women we have interviewed or had as guest bloggers previously,  sharing some information about writers of the past, suggesting links on women writers that might be of interest, and publishing interviews with some of the wonderful women writers of horror out there who mainstream readers and librarians may not be familiar with. We are working on putting together an index of women horror writers, but that is a BIG project, so whether that will be done by the end of the month I don’t know.

So here’s the thing. Spotlighting women writers in horror doesn’t mean I think you should read or recommend a book JUST because it’s by a woman. But by not knowing about the work of these women writers, you miss out on some really, really good storytelling. The immediate name that comes up when someone says “women writers of horror” is almost always Mary Shelley, followed by Anne Rice and maybe Shirley Jackson. Even in the Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction, Becky Spratford mentions very few women authors outside a short section identifiying five excellent contemporary women writers.(Lisa Morton, Alexandra Sokoloff, Sarah Langan, Sarah Pinborough, and Caitlin Kiernan, as I recall) But there are so many more great books out there that are just MISSED, and I hope that this month we’ll be able to bring some of those to your attention!

Here’s a link to the WiHM Facebook page, which is collecting together posts from a variety of participating sites. And here’s a link to their tumblr– they are collecting donations right now as well. Also check out Becky’s blog, RA for Horror, this month. I know she’s got some great things coming up!

 

Enjoy!

Posted on February 1, 2014 by , 2 comments
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