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Monday, February 25, 2019

Women in Horror Month #12: Yvonne Navarro, Author of AFTERAGE


Sometimes I'm truly floored by the level of talent I'm able to attract here on the blog simply by asking.  Today we have a truly seminal author, someone whose work in the vampire subgenre has rippled through the years, including deeply influencing my own HUNTER OF THE DEAD.  Let's give a warm welcome to the one, the only, Yvonne Navarro.


About Yvonne Navarro:



Yvonne is the author of twenty-three published novels and a lot of short stories, articles and a reference dictionary. Her most recent published book isSupernatural: The Usual Sacrifices (based in the Supernatural Universe). Her writing has won a bunch of awards and stuff. She lives way down in the southeastern corner of Arizona, about twenty miles from the Mexican border, where there is no need for a wall.

You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.

Interview:


SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?

YN:  Ha! I never thought of myself as “involved” in the world of horror—it’s just that I’ve always loved a good, scary story. I write what I like to read: tales about interesting people trying to do interesting stuff, who then get into deep... uh... trouble. Because monsters and evil people who creep around in the night.

SK: Who or what terrifies you?

YN:  I get asked this a lot, and over the years—decades—the answered hasn’t changed: People. Do I believe a vampire will float up to my window like in SALEM'S LOT, or do I think a zombie’s going to jump out of the bushes at me when I take out the garbage? No (at least not yet, but with chemicals and fuddling around with viruses and human DNA, I’m starting to get a little unsure about those zombies). Do I think a couple of crackheads might try a home or car invasion one of these days? Oh, yeah. People scare me, because they’re a whole lot of them who are unpredictable, hate-filled, and psycho... and most of the time you wouldn’t know an insane one from a sane one behind you in the grocery line.

SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?

YN:  To me it’s always been irrelevant. I never started out thinking or being told that because I was a woman I couldn’t expect the same treatment as anyone else. I was on a convention panel years ago when another panelist said she had to write like a man to be published. That made me furious. I yanked the microphone out of the hands of the person next to me and snapped, “I don’t write like a man. I write like a writer.” I ended up with a standing ovation.

SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

YN:  Here’s the thing: a lot of the ladies will grab the opportunity to name all their friends here. I appreciate that, but I’m not going to follow suit. I have many, many female friends who write wonderfully. Here, however, I’m going to name a few authors and their books not just because they’re great writers, but because what they wrote haunted me. If a story someone tells does that... wow. Just wow. So:


You know what? I’ll go back on what I just said and put a shout-out to Elizabeth Massie, because I don’t think she’s ever written a story that didn’t stick in my head and think twice about the dark.

SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?


YN:  I’ve been painting instead of writing for awhile, and really enjoying myself. Still, that story-telling itch has been digging around in my head, so it probably won’t be long until I hit the keyboard again. As to promoting, not too long ago my first novel, AFTERAGE, was reprinted for the first time in sixteen years (in 2002 it came out as a limited edition hardback). The original paperback dates back to 1993, but the reprint is a trade paperback with a stunning new cover. The story is post-apocalyptic, so it never grows old. Folks can pick it up here.


About AFTERAGE:



A plague of vampirism has crept across the country, reducing once-thriving cities to ghost towns. In Chicago, a few scattered survivors hide behind the fortified walls of office buildings and museums, raiding deserted stores for dwindling supplies of clothing and food.

Meanwhile a hungry vampire population also struggles for survival as their prey grows scarce, forcing them to capture alive the last remaining humans as breeding stock for the blood farms that will ensure their future.

Now a small band of humans makes a desperate last stand against their vampire masters, fighting back with the only weapon that can kill the dead...

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