Women in Horror Month #7: Ania Ahlborn, Bestselling Author of SEED

Hey, everybody, thanks for stopping by.  I'm very pleased to wish serdecznie witamy to today's guest, Ania Ahlborn!  Let's meet her briefly and then jump right in to the interview.

About Ania Ahlborn:

Born in Ciechanow Poland, Ania has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery. She'd spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share.

Ania's first novel, SEED, was self-published. It clawed its way up the Amazon charts to the number one horror spot, earning her a multi-book deal and a key to the kingdom of the macabre. Seven years later, her work has been lauded by the likes of "Publishers Weekly," "New York Daily News," and "The New York Times."

She hopes to one day be invited to dinner at Stephen King's place, where she will immediately be crushed beneath the weight of her imposter syndrome.

Want to connect? Follow Ania on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or her website.

Interview:

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

AA:  I've written seven novels and two novellas, all of which can be considered horror. Though, a few of them do tend to lean a bit more toward the category of dark thriller.

SK: Who or what terrifies you?

AA:  Not a lot used to terrify me, but now that I'm a new mom, spooky babies have become a bit of a weakness. They're terrible, aren't they? 

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

AA:  I like to say that gender is irrelevant, but to dismiss gender completely would be missing the mark. When it comes to women authors, readers have become much more inclined to seek out a well-balanced to-be-read list. If they realize that, hey, the majority of the books they're consuming have been written by men, they tend to balance that out a bit by looking for female authors they're likely to enjoy. I often see posts on social media asking friends and colleagues for book recommendations by female authors, authors of color, etc. And that's fantastic.

That said, I do still see occasional posts about how women can't write horror. To that, I laugh. I mean, it's all you can do, right? To say that a woman can't write a certain genre effectively is ridiculous. So, sure, there are challenges to being a woman in horror. But is it enough to stop us from keeping you up at night? Don't underestimate our power...

SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?

AA:  I'd be lying if I didn't drop some pretty heavy-hitting names here. Shirley Jackson is indispensable when it comes to the genre, as are Anne Rice's VAMPIRE CHRONICLES (INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was my first "adult" horror novel experience). And of course, there's the original woman of horror, Mary Shelley, who wrote a masterpiece in response to a challenge posed to her by...you guessed it, dudes. (Guess who got the last laugh there!) I also always cite Gillian Flynn as a favorite, though she's far more of a dark thriller girl. But even with my work, the label of 'dark thriller' is always lingering. So, really, for me, distinguishing between horror and thrillers that go super-dark is splitting hairs. 

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

AA:  I'm currently revising a novel called IF YOU SEE HER, which I hope to have published mid-2019. I should be promoting it all over the place, but I've got an eight-month-old who thinks otherwise. Consider my mentioning it here a big promotional push. ;) Until then, I've got plenty for horror junkies to check out, from stories of demonic possession to stuff about cults and Ouija boards. Whatever you've got a hankering for, I've probably got something out there that'll satiate your spooky appetite. All my titles can be found on my site. You can also stalk me on Instagram and Facebook. I always keep my readers up-to-date on any new offerings coming their way.

About SEED:

With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at his heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker’s rearview mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he’s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.

When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn’t divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I’ve always been here, and I’ll never leave.

Country comfort is no match for spine-tingling Southern gothic suspense in Ania Ahlborn’s tale of an ordinary man with a demon on his back. Seed plants its page-turning terror deep in your soul, and lets it grow wild.