GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Sonora Taylor!
Sonora Taylor is the award-winning author of several books and short stories. Her books include Seeing Things, Little Paranoias: Stories, Without Condition, The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales, and Wither and Other Stories. She also co-edited Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology with Nico Bell. Her short stories have been published by Rooster Republic Press, Kandisha Press, Camden Park Press, Burial Day Press, Cemetery Gates Media, Tales to Terrify, Sirens Call Publications, Ghost Orchid Press, and others.
Her short stories and books frequently appear on “Best of the Year” lists. In 2020, she won two Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards: one for Best Novel (Without Condition) and one for Best Short Story Collection (Little Paranoias: Stories). In 2022, her short story, “Eat Your Colors,” was selected by Tenebrous Press to appear in Brave New Weird: The Best New Weird Horror Vol. 1.
For two years, she co-managed Fright Girl Summer, an online book festival highlighting marginalized authors, with V. Castro. She is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and serves on the board of directors of Scares That Care.
Her latest short story collection, Someone to Share My Nightmares, is now available. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and a rescue dog.
What made you want to become an author? Did you have an “Aha!” moment when you knew you were born to write? Or perhaps a beloved book inspired you?
I’ve written on and off for several years, including a vampire story I wrote in college that never needs to see the light of day. I got serious about it in 2016. I was in a job I didn’t like and I wanted more side hobbies that meant more to me. I also had several story ideas in my head, two of which ended up in my first collection, The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales. Eight years later, I’ve published four collections, three novels, and one anthology; and this year I have a new collection and a new novella!
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I think my two biggest strengths are the cinematic quality of my writing and making a story a flow very vividly and clearly in a readers’ head; and writing dialogue. Dialogue flows much more naturally to me when I’m writing than prose or narrative does. I find the best way to improve a weakness and keep improving a strength is to read more than I write, and to read more than just the genre I write in. Reading replenishes the well.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community? Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I think we are in a boon for independent horror, which is great for variety. I wish there were less barriers for independent horror to be in brick-and-mortar bookstores so that there were more widespread selling opportunities than Amazon. I know it’s possible to be independent from Amazon, but that is not only the most popular bookseller in the U.S., it also has the least amount of barriers for authors and publishers alike to publish and sell their books.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I am prose-driven and mostly write short stories, though I’ve written books (each successive book has been shorter than the last) and also written some poetry. A lot of the fear I focus on is influenced by anxiety—taking something mundane and making it frightening, having the horror’s live in one’s head, and the like. I also like writing about women killers.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
My next release is Recreational Panic: Stories from Cemetery Gates Media. It contains what I believe is some of my best work to date, and shows how I’ve grown as a writer since writing after work in 2016. It features 21 stories and poems, and will be out March 5. It’s currently available to order on Amazon.
In October, my next book, Errant Roots, will be released by Raw Dog Screaming Press as part of R.J. Joseph’s curated novella line, Selected Papers From the Consortium of Anomalous Phenomena. It’s about a young woman who meets her mother’s side of the family when she becomes pregnant—and she quickly learns why she’s been sheltered from them for so long.
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