SLASH-HER Celebration – it’s Red Lagoe Day!

Tell us a little about your story.

Legend of the Nameless Island is told in mini chapters from multiple points of view. There are four women who experienced something traumatic as teens on a little lake island. The women are drawn back to the island as adults and have to face their shameful behavior of the past. It explores our obsession with labeling people, and being unable to see anything beyond that single definition, no matter how much time has passed, and no matter how many other positive qualities a person may have.

Why did you want to write a slasher story and do you feel you brought something different to the table?

I grew up on the slashers of the 80s, so I was all in when I heard about this anthology! I hope I’ve brought something different with this story. Being in different points of view, we get to follow each victim like watching a slasher film, but our characters aren’t simply bloody cannon fodder for the slasher. Instead, they each have a history and a reason why their lives aren’t spared. I’m not saying they’re necessarily justified reasons… but they’re reasons. Haha.

Do you have a favourite slasher story/movie?

I have a sweet spot for Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13^th franchise, because I think it was the first slasher movie I’d ever seen at the mature age of seven years. However, I absolutely adore Ready or Not! It may be a new favorite—even though it’s not a typical slasher film.

Why is it important to you to have a woman led press like Kandisha?

While women are making great progress, and while there are plenty of presses out there publishing oodles of women, there is still a stigma among a lot of people that women can’t write horror as well as men. And until there aren’t as many people out there who will put the horror book back on the shelf because a woman’s name is on the cover, then we need presses dedicated to publishing women. And this way, women have a voice in telling our own story. For so long, men have told our stories. Stories of abuse, of sexual harassment and assault, of child birth and infertility… and, yes, some men do their homework, they talk to women, and they tell the story well. But there are so many more who get it very wrong—to the point where it can be eye-rolling or even offensive. You want to know the true horrors of being a woman? Listen to the woman tell the story.

What’s next for you?

I am working on revisions to my novel called Bloodstains by Gaslight. It’s about a teenager who’s trapped in an abusive relationship, but it’s told through the lens of a vampire story. So it’s a vampire tale, but it’s more about the toxic relationship and what it does to this teenage girl. I hope to start querying within the next couple months. I’ve got my eye on a couple anthology calls for submissions. And, I guess the biggest news is a two-parter: I’ve just announced the opening of my micropress Death Knell Press. My first project will be an anthology of astronomy horror titled Nightmare Sky. I’m finally editing an astronomy horror anthology, which I’ve been dreaming of for a couple years now!