Tell us a little about your story.
My story takes place in a day camp very similar to the one I once attended. Bored older girls are forced to mingle with younger children. (Gee, what could go wrong?) What better way to relieve your boredom than to terrify the younger kids? But what if the story becomes true? What if you can’t keep up with the truth?
Why did you want to write a slasher story and do you feel you brought something different to the table?
I was once the scared little girl in day camp — the one who heard creepy stories and tried not to let them scare her. I wanted to bring some of that to a slasher story. Then, the writing process went haywire, and the story came out the way it wanted to.
Most slasher stories about camps don’t show a believable camp. Sleepaway Camp was the first one I can remember that included very young children in the storyline. Yet I can’t think of any that explored day camps. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks back to her day camp experiences and thinks, “What the fuck was that?”
Do you have a favourite slasher story/movie?
At the time, my favorite was the Nightmare on Elm Street series because I liked Freddy better as a villain. He wasn’t just a killing machine. Yet over time, I’ve come to appreciate all slashers with strong women characters — both heroic and villainous.
Watching classic slashers with commentary tracks will bring you a whole new insight. Many slashers were criticized for misogynistic elements and “slut shaming.” Yet was that really what was going on? Not always. Check out the commentary track on the original Halloween. Or the DVD with commentary from Betsy Palmer on the original Friday the 13th.
And I managed to slip a Sleepaway Camp “Easter Egg” into my story when I named the camp cook.
Why is it important to you to have a woman led press like Kandisha?
Sadly, in the horror field, some fans are still confused by the idea of “Women in Horror.” They have mistaken perceptions about the types of horror stories that women can (and do) write. They’re going to be surprised when they read our stories in “SLASH-HER”!
Worse, we still hear about horror anthologies where the tables of contents look like a “sausage party.”
Women led presses like Kandisha can help break down some of those old ideas. Women editors also know how to read a story and have a better understanding of when the women in it are fake or real.
What’s next for you?
You know those stories where the distraught heroine is forced to marry a man who is clearly dead? She usually comes running back to her true love, and she almost always gets a miserable and tragic ending. I turned that trope on its head and ended up with a novella with the working title of “The Dead Blue Guy.” (I’m terrible at titles.)
I also wrote a fantasy novel about a troubled young man who seems destined to become the Lord of Death — and that might just be what his world needs.
Where can people find you?
You can find me on Twitter at:
https://twitter.com/AnneMarbleAAR
You can read my true crime stories on Medium at:
https://critteranne.medium.com/
KANDISHA PRESS 
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