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’s story “Always In My Ear” is featured in PRETEND YOU DON’T SEE HER: THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (Kandisha Press 2025 Women of Horror Anthology.)
SONORA TAYLOR (she/her) is the award-winning author of several books and short stories. Her books include Someone to Share My Nightmares: Stories, 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, PseudoPod, Kandisha Press, Camden Park 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. In 2024, her nonfiction essay, “Anything But Cooking, Please,” was a Top 15 finalist in Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club essay contest.
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, Recreational Panic, is now available from Cemetery Gates Media. Her latest novella, Errant Roots, is now available from Raw Dog Screaming Press.
She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and a rescue dog.
***Sonora’s story in this anthology, Always In My Ear, was originally published in her collection, Little Paranoias: Stories, in 2019.***
Your characters, Brooke and Victoria, are a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, or perhaps even a reboot of Natural Born Killers. How did you come up with the idea for these two characters? And why do you think killers often gravitate to each other in the real world?
The story was originally centered completely around the podcast and the tech by which people listened to it, called beetles – little bug-shaped pods that clasped to your ear and didn’t let go (think a more sinister air pod). I think I may have wanted to write something for a David Cronenberg anthology and thought of how the beetles themselves could be more horrific, boring into your ears and such. However, I tend to focus more on characters than on the tech involved or the implications thereof, so the story grew accordingly. I also found the idea of a true crime podcast being run by a serial killer getting listeners to do their dirty work darkly funny and twisted, which is where a lot of my stories began. As I wrote, though, I started to see a deeper story about two people with shared darkness driven apart by the same tech that brings them to so many new people, be they listeners, victims, or a combination of the two.
I’m not sure how often killers gravitate towards each other in the real world, as serial killers tend to work alone and, despite some of my fiction, couple with people who aren’t killers and (purportedly) none the wiser about their darker impulses. There’s the easier answer that birds of a feather kill together, but sometimes I think it has more to do with group think and one leader of the pack taking advantage of someone’s darker impulses and allowing them to indulge in that in their presence. We often say those we love should make us feel like our most authentic selves. When my killer couples — romantic or friends — do this, it’s a perversion of this idea, because they’re allowing each other to be their worst selves. This is a toxic relationship, but in my fiction, I like to see what allowing that toxic relationship to flourish and grow says – it’s more interesting, and scarier, to me than having one of the two wise up at the end.
How can the ordinary, every day “invisible woman” relate to Brooke and Victoria?
I think many of us have had a friend that isn’t good for us, even if they bring out the parts of us that make us feel more authentic, more bold, more true. When the person doing this is toxic, though, they’re bringing out lies about ourselves that keep us bound to them and their power. For instance – and I don’t say this to excuse Brooke, simply as a thought – Brooke cannot detach from Victoria even though Victoria ignores all her boundaries and endangers the both of them with her insistence on going viral. Brooke spends their time apart looking for her. She can’t stay away from this person, even though between the two of them, Victoria is more dangerous, more selfish, and more reckless. This is not a healthy friendship, one that women who feel emboldened by someone else – be it friend or lover – can surely relate to and see the danger of even without the added murder element to it.
What does your creative process look like when you’re writing? Do you have any special rituals or routines?
I spend more time crafting stories in my head than writing them, but when I write, I put on music, sit down, and try to write what feels right to complete in that moment. I aim for word counts when I’m on a deadline, but otherwise, I find that going at the story’s pace helps me get to know the characters and flesh out their story better than if I’m following arbitrary word counts and set hours.
What else are you working on? Any projects you’re especially excited about?
It’s funny you mention Natural Born Killers – I’m pitching my current novella on sub as Natural Born Killers meets The Pioneer Woman. I’m shopping that one around and will make edits to it once it finds a home. Otherwise, I’m mapping out some short story ideas I’ve had, including a ghost story set on Assateague Island, and a reverse Pinocchio story about an AI being who wants to be less human.
I also recently released an omnibus of my work, All the Pieces Coming Together, which was published by Manta Press. You can find it here.
KANDISHA PRESS 
Awesome! Great interview!
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