Suspense
Wilderness Thrillers Featuring Fearless Women
.
I’m what you might call a mini-adventurer. I’ve climbed rockfaces, rafted rivers, backpacked into the wilderness and once slithered through a cave tunnel so tight that the only way…
The Magic of Sisterhood: Five Supernatural Sister Stories
.
Halloween season has always been steeped in sisterly magic. Think of the Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus or the Owens sisters in Practical Magic. They set the stage for…
Vanessa Lillie on Writing a Thriller That Explores Native American Issues and Environmental Injustice
.
Vanessa Lillie says she’s “an impatient reader,” a trait that influences her writing: “I really like to create characters who are aggressively seeking justice, even when it puts their…
A Cultural History of the Erotic Thriller
.
The strip mall video rental store was an emporium of illicit dreams. Its doorway in the small town where I came of age, located in between candy store and…
James Kennedy: “Storytellers are manipulative cult leaders.”
.
I missed my chance to be in a cult. In my twenties, a guy on the street handed me a pamphlet to join a “communal farm”—an obvious cult. Nevertheless,…
How Unlikeable Characters Freed Me From Perfectionism
.
I’m hardly the first author to call herself a perfectionist. In fact, I’m sure many of us were once described as “a pleasure to have in class”—which, for me,…
Monster, Survivor, Villain, Victim: The Many Faces of Queer Horror
.
Believe it or not, the first time many young queers feel seen in media isn’t in some sweet romcom, it’s in horror. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a…
What Are Thriller Authors Truly Afraid Of?
.
At Halloween, fear is an emotion that is universally celebrated, but for me, terror has been an ever-present source of inspiration for fiction. My fears are vast, ever-encroaching, sensual….
Setting a Gothic Thriller in the World of Nonprofits
.
When we worked together in the fundraising office of a third-rate law school in San Diego, my friend Melissa and I used to joke that we should write a…