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 Allison Mick!
Allison Mick is a Los Angeles-based horror-comedy writer from the Great Lakes. Mick’s writing appears in Trailer Park Boys: Big A$$ Comic Collection (Devil’s Due Comics) and The Hard Times: The First 40 Years (Mariner Books). She was a contributor to the Los Suelos, CA interactive fiction anthology and voices Cougara on Adult Swim Shorts’ series High Moon Queen. Her debut eco-horror novel Humboldt Cut comes out in 2026. You can find all sorts of stuff at allison-mick.com.
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?
My biggest strength is characterization. I write bitches well. Me and everyone I associate with is someone who’s been called a bitch at some point, so I have a lot to draw on from my own life. I trained as a lawyer too, which goes hand in hand with the bitch thing.
Every character I write is an outsider of some sort. They may tell themselves that it’s for one reason when their actions make it obvious that it’s because of something else. Before I started writing prose, a lot of my creative energy was poured into constantly reinventing myself justifying that choices made out of fear or anger were actually quite rational. We all have parts of ourselves that we can’t see, and through every iteration of myself I’ve become more cognizant of the previous version’s flaws.
Tenses will always be my downfall but it’s become a trademark of sorts. I tend to write emotions in the present tense because they feel very immediate to me. Part of it is trying to override the little grammar cop in my brain that tells me that “serious literature is written in past tense” and part of it is habits picked up from screenwriting, which is written in the present tense and is usually the format I start outlining a story for.
Which is to say that when there’s something I know I need to work on I’m like “FUCK IT, it’s part of my artistic voice!”
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I don’t have strong opinions other than everyone should be paid more. Love of the medium shouldn’t be a reason to pay people less or turn all of this into gig work.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I honestly don’t know. I can’t speak to how it used to be or even really how it is. My interaction with the independent book scene has been as a reader and even then, I’m not the kind of reader I would want. I’m too ravenous and impatient.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I write funny intersectional horror, like if Jordan Peele was an angry girl. I love pulp. I’m deeply influenced by movies of all genres. I began my artistic career as a standup comedian in the Bay Area, and then a screenwriter. I fell into prose writing during the Covid pandemic because I couldn’t spend 3 hours every night at open mics, but I still have kept a lot of the voice from Allison Mick the comedian. I’ve always been Allison Mick the death-obsessed weirdo and that stuff plays better on the page than at comedy clubs.
I have a story called “Late Bloomer” that I’m extremely proud of. It’s a very personal and feminine cosmic horror that I describe as “Henrietta Lacks with equity and a destiny”. Every story I write is a self-portrait of sorts– like the photographs of Cindy Sherman but in prose form– and Late Bloomer’s protagonist Garnet O’Slattery is maybe the closest I’ve gotten to an OC that is basically me. Minus all the body horror stuff.
Speaking of body horror I have a podcast called Croniez launching this summer where podcaster Kelly Anneken and I dissect every single one of David Cronenberg’s films.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I’m really proud of the book I have coming out in Spring 2026. Humboldt Cut is an eco-horror about what if the Northern California redwood forest killed humans the same way we’ve tried to kill it. I love trees and if this book can make people scared enough of coast redwoods or intrigued by them, maybe more people will work to save old growth redwood forests and regrow what’s been lost.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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