Welcome to another year of my Woman In Horror posts! Notice I said year and not month. There are far too many great women horror authors to limit shouting their praises to the short month of February. So, as is my custom, I will extend my Woman In Horror posts into March and beyond.
Starting out my posts is Terri DelCampo, my business partner at Blazing Owl Press, my editor, my formatter, my cover artist, and most importantly, the love of my life.
Terri had a very busy year in 2020. Among her additions to her Amazon resume are 104 issues of her Owl's Eye View Magazine. Yes, you read that right - 104 issues! She completely went through all her issues from the past, deleted some articles because she wanted to maintain a Dark Fiction persona, added more short stories, tightened up some articles, and expanded others. This was an enormous undertaking, but she succeeded in doing what she wanted to do.
Owl's Eye View Magazine is a dark fiction monthly featuring columns, poetry, and short stories written by Terri DelCampo and "Columnists" who are in fact her ongoing fictitious characters.
BLAZING OWL SHORT HORROR BY TERRI DELCAMPO offers up quick ooky fixes that you can squeeze into your day – or night – whenever you have a few minutes to read. Terri's goal is to see how many times she can send a chill up your spine in twenty minutes. Muahaha!
NIGHT OPS, by Terri DelCampo is a total mind-fuck of a story. It is pure psychological horror the whole way. This is definitely one of my favorite stories that she has written. She holds nothing back. Just remember: some people are not to be trifled with. There will be consequences.
Book description;
ARE YOU IN HIS HEAD OR IS HE IN YOURS?
SHOULDN'T HAVE QUESTIONED A HERO'S TOURS.
NOW RICH IS ON A TOUR OF HIS OWN
INTO A LONG-AGO BATTLE ZONE.
WILL HE COME OUT ALIVE – REMAINS TO BE SEEN
DEPENDS ON A LOUIE WHO'S QUITE GREEN
AND THE ENEMY WHO'S CALCULATEDLY CRUEL
EITHER WAY RICHIE'S ABOUT TO GET SCHOOLED.
Read it and find out where Terri's mind roams when the blameless are blamed.
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James Reborn is one of Terri DelCampo's greatest books, if not her best work yet. This is over the top horror. Terri holds nothing back. If you're looking for a great tale of psychological horror, give this novel a try. Terri has given you a generous free sample of the story at
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IW69888/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i117 so you can get a feel for her book.
Happy reading!
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Synopsis:
Writer travels to mountain cabin,
Looking for a peaceful retreat.
On a quiet hike for thinking
A frightening sight her eyes did meet.
Young man imprisoned in a dog pen
Helpless to Pa's sadistic whim.
Writer can't believe the horror
And the injustice done to him.
She becomes involved in drama
More frightening than she's ever known.
For James and Pa bring out her instincts
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Dona Fox, a fantastic horror author, and one of my Women In Horror, wrote a super review for James Reborn, by Terri DelCampo.
Dona Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly Frightening! Will shake you to your core.
March 2, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase
Terri DelCampo is a fabulous writer with a diabolical mind. In James Reborn each new revelation, each unveiling of another, darker level to which the human species is capable of sinking, brought a fresh shock of wonder at the genius behind the relentless evil unfolding on the page. So painful, so physically emotive; I had to set the book aside to breathe. Visceral and truly frightening, though I had to pause for sanity’s sake, I could not stop until the end. If you want a well-written book that will shake you to your core, this is it.
Thank you, Dona! Terri is overwhelmed by your kind words, especially having them coming from such a talented author.
And sides of herself she'd never known.
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Terri DelCampo has some great holiday horror for your ooky palate. Chills has eight stories that will show you a different side of the holiday season. Terri has a charming way about her that will draw you in with mellow prose but will slap you alongside the head too. The one-two punch. Loverly.
So, my friends, once the kids have gone to sleep, slide Chills onto your Kindle, put a spiffy nightcap on, and read away. You'll be glad you did.
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Book description:
Santa F-bombs heard only by some.
From where in the forest should Christmas trees come?
Will Christians to Morningstar be lost?
Who'll win the bet, Vulcan or Frost?
Christmas Eve miracle for a small child.
South Pole festivities horribly wild.
Good kids onto naughty list drift.
Naughty boy tempts hungry gifts.
Classic holiday ditties these stories are not.
But if you want ooky, a sleighful I've got!
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Great review for Chills by fantastic Wendy Howard, a fellow Woman In Horror author!
Wendy Howard
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully gruesome and chilling.
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Witty holiday stories that are delightfully gruesome and chilling. A quick read that entertains start to finish. My favorite story takes Christmas trees to a new level of creative horror.
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The books above are just a sample of what Terri has available for you to read
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From Terri:
Terri DelCampo is the founding editor and writer of Owl's Eye View Magazine, founding partner/writer/editor at Blazing Owl Press, author of 35+ novels, short story collections, children's collections, poetry collections, and multiple individual short stories available right here on Amazon. She pens Broken Old Broad Blogs, is a contributing writer for multiple horror anthologies, freelances poetry as well as non-fiction articles and essays. Terri is an ongoing competitor and winner of NaNoWriMo and Critters/Preditors & Editors Awards.
Terri is married to horror writer Blaze McRob and in 2015 they founded Blazing Owl Press where she is a very hands-on partner. Her duties at BOP include editing, producing book covers, and of course writing.
If you look up write-a-holic in the dictionary, Terri's picture is there.
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Terri DelCampo placed in the top ten in seven categories at Critters Preditors & Editors Annual Readers Poll. Take a look at
https://blazingowlpress.blogspot.com/2021/01/terri-delcampo-does-great-job-at.html and see which ones she's in. Thank you to all who voted for her! It's very much appreciated. Over 2500 votes were cast this year. Terri is honored to have done as well as she did. I'm very proud of her!
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What's to come for Terri this year? She has dark fiction and horror novels to write, non-fiction essays, and poetry of all kinds. In other words, Terri will be working in many genres and will be doing some genre blending, as well. I can't hardly wait to read her new words!
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I'm going to close this post up with some Q&As I've done with Terri over the years. I'm the question guy and Terri is the answer woman. This will put things into her words. Her styling. I think you'll enjoy this.
What drew you into this profession?
When I was little my favorite games to play with my friends were role-playing – I would come up with these scenarios, usually inspired by favorite TV shows or movies, and we would play all day. At age eleven, I had vivid fantasies, and a wicked crush on a teen idol (Bobby Sherman), and decided to write some of those games and fantasies into a story. By the time I was 13 I'd written a 145 page novel called "The Picnic Spot." (Yes, it was a romance – gasp!) A year later I read Poe for the first time, and my writing took a decided turn for the macabre. Et voila! A horror writer was born!
What was the pivotal point that made you say, “I'm a writer.”?
When I cranked the final page of "The Picnic Spot" out of my little manual typewriter. I'd finished a novel. I was a writer.
My 9th grade English teacher, Dr. Peterson, published "Help Me!" a short story I'd written, in the school newspaper – the first time someone else made me feel like I was a writer.
A little tougher question: when did you realize you were an author?
Ah! That is a tougher question! There were a couple of times. When I got my first rejection slip that had a personal note on it from Richard Chizmar at Cemetery Dance Magazine way back in the early '80s. Even though I didn't get accepted, I knew that someone other than my friends and family members had read and acknowledged my work. And then, decades later, I joined the Barnes & Noble Writers Workshop in Alpharetta. There were prize winning authors in that group, and they were giving me compliments on the stories and excerpts I offered for critique. Those were possibly the most validating moments of my writing life. Another one was when you, an established writer and publisher, first reviewed Owl's Eye View Magazine in 2014. I was just starting to publish my novels and collections as Kindle books, and being included in Woman in Horror and reviewed by a publisher was an incredible boost to my confidence.
Who are your favorite authors, past as well as present?
Wow! How many pages can this interview run? Well, there's this one guy – Blaze something-or-other – I'm kindof partial to, and then there's Edgar Alan Poe, Stephen King, Thomas Harris, Jean Auel, Neil Gaiman, CL Hernandez, JD Robb, Donna Lynch (From Ego Likeness), Patricia Cornwell, John Saul, John Steinbeck, Louisa May Alcott, Paul A. Bussard, Irving Stone, George Weinstein, Dr. Seuss, O. Henry, Hermann Hesse, William Peter Blatty, Robert Ludlum, Jack Ketchum, Euripedes, Robin Cook, Anne Rice, Christine McCullough, Bram Stoker, Terry Segal, Andy Deane, Ernest Hemingway, James Fenimore Cooper, James Clavell, Erma Bombeck, William Styron, Anne Rule, Donald Clayton Porter, Tom Clancy, Susan Powter, John Grisham, James Patterson, Tami Hoag, Karin Slaughter, Dennis Miller, Paul Riser, VC Andrews, Harper Lee, JK Rowling, Richard Matheson, Alice Walker, Oscar Wilde, Rebecca Wells, Anne Foskey, Dave Barry, Dan Brown, Teri A. Jacobs, Poppy Z. Brite, CS Lewis, Alan Alda, Leonard Nimoy, Norman Partridge, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Higgins Clark, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Emily Dickinson, Dan Gutman & Jim Paillot, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, Joe Hill, Robert Louis Stevenson, for starters.
You asked – I told you I was eclectic!
Did you have any help with your career along your path?
That came after I'd been writing for decades, when Owl's Eye View Magazine got reviewed on Amazon, and I got mentioned in Woman in Horror for the first time. Shortly after that, Visionary Press asked me to edit for them, and wham! I found myself being interviewed by Renee Shaw, Tony Wolfpaw, and Fiona Mcvie.
As far as support from authors, friends, and family, the list is astounding, especially since the advent of Facebook and Twitter which makes contacting writers, publishers, and editors easy and instantaneous. While the act of writing is solitary, writers today can get feedback on their work that is a tremendous boost to confidence.
How did you find time to write back when you first started?
I used to sit up until three or four in the morning on weekends and vacations when I was a teenager – until my mother would call out, "please stop that damned clackity-clacking! It's time to sleep! At that point I would switch to pencil and paper.
I was married at 19, and I'd get up at 4:30 in the morning every day and hand-write screenplays (which I later expanded into my first novels) so that the typewriter wouldn't wake anyone up.
When I started working for my husband's plumbing business, I would write late at night after he and the kids were in bed.
When I went back to work full time after my divorce I started getting up at 4:30 in the morning again, proofread on my lunch hour, and wrote as soon as I got home.
The silver lining to my becoming disabled in a car accident was that I had unlimited writing time. It gave me the opportunity to produce Owl's Eye View Magazine every month, along with novels each year. Now my editing duties (first at Visionary Press, and now at Blazing Owl Press) crowd my writing time, but I'm getting that under control. I'm planning three different novels that should be coming out in 2017 and 2018. Bottom line is, if you want to write, the only way to do it is the AIC method: Ass in Chair. Even if you can only pound out 500 words a day, it adds up. Writers write. Skip the Sudoku or the computer games and start keying in paragraphs. Take a notebook and pen with you everywhere. Leave voicemails or emails for yourself if an idea strikes at work. Tell your stories – it's what you do.
And today: when do you do your writing?
I prefer early morning when my mind is fresh and sentences just sort of gush onto the page. I hand-write to start, and then switch over to the laptop. In a studio apartment with the hubs, I often sit in the dark with a book light getting it all down if inspiration strikes while he's asleep.
Why do you write in the horror genre?
When I read Poe in 8th Grade English, I fell in love with the macabre. It was scary, thrilling, and opened up a whole slew of writing scenarios. I think horror covers the whole spectrum of emotions – terror, or course, but also love, joy, compassion, anger, and sadness. Horror is part life as much as romance is. If you really love someone, the flip side is dreading all the things that can go wrong for them, including death. If there isn't contrast to the positive, there is no story to tell. So horror allows me to explore the dark side in the safety of my chair.
Also, if someone pisses me off, I can write them into an evil plot, do unspeakable things to them, even knock 'em off, and there is no jail-time. Muahaha!
I first found you through Owl's EyeView Magazine, which I really love. Could you tell us about it?
Owl's Eye View Magazine is my baby. In 2009, I knew I wanted to self-publish, but had no idea how to really accomplish it. So I started the Owl's Eye View Magazine website, releasing an issue each month. I wanted it to be unique. I couldn't afford to pay writers to contribute their work, so I "hired" my ongoing novel characters (Meredith Alden, Nathan Williams, Lisa Galloway, Lucy Bernelli, Larry Nunn, Melanie Mirth, Signe Hannigan, Trudy Shriver, Loren Elliott) as columnists. It's been great fun to get inside their heads and write articles and poetry from their points of view and in their literary voices. And I publish one of my own short stories each month as well. In fact, I'm planning on Owl's Eye View being the only place for my short stories after 2017.
In the meantime, my Yahoo website builder crashed, and I couldn't make it work anymore. So I studied up on how to publish Kindle Books, started creating book covers on Pixlr.com (suggested by CL Hernandez – bless her little dark soul for all the pointers she gave me!) and began publishing OEV as monthly Kindle books. The first time I saw Benny the Owl up on Amazon my heart almost exploded.
Owl's Eye View Magazine kicked off Terri DelCampo's professional career.
What is your opinion of Women In Horror Month? Do you feel it is still as important now as it was when it was first started?
You know, I've always considered myself a feminist. I know women who think that women in this country can relax and pat themselves on the back because American women are freer and treated more as equals to men than any other women on earth. And yes, we've come a long way, baby, I cannot deny that. But then along comes a president whose attitude towards women is reprehensible, and suddenly all the less-evolved men come out of the woodwork thinking that disrespect towards women is allowed again – not just in politics, but in every level of society. So it's important for women to support women, no matter what profession we're discussing. Writing is a tough, competitive profession, especially trying to get one's foot in the proverbial door. It's easier just starting out knowing you have a tribe.
On the other hand, I think women have always had a role in the horror genre, and history sure as hell has given us enough gruesome fodder to weave into novels and stories. Having a showcase for women is encouraging for female writers who need a jumping off point for their careers – like me! I'm glad WIH was around three years ago, and I'm sure many women coming up behind me will feel the same way.
What is your favorite novel of yours that you have written?
Jeez, Blaze, which of your children is your favorite? (Heh, heh.) I wrote different novels for different reasons. I'm proud of Holy Terrors because it brought into focus molester priests, and allowed me to get revenge on them for hurting a dear friend of mine. I like Into the Mist because it was interesting dissecting Dan Wynthrop's conflicted heart, and those of his mother and grandfather as well. And MEDS – remember when I said that I write people who piss me off into evil plots? Well, MEDS would be the best example of that.
All in all I think most writers feel the same way about their novels. A novel isn't at all like a short story or even a novella. You have to be extremely passionate about a story line to sit down every day for months and tell a full-length story. You have to live intimately with your characters for months until you get their story told. You can't come away from that kind of commitment without loving what you produced.
What's your favorite collection?
I like Chills because "Christmas Feast" is in it, and I like that story's nastiness. Owl Guts was my first Kindle collection, so, of course I'm partial to it – and it contains stories I wrote when I was a teenager. OwlMares because it has the story "Jamalia" in it, which was another early one. And I like Romantic Shadows because I thought romance was dead in my heart, and I was proven wrong when it zapped me right through my laptop year before last. Romantic Shadows was released on our first wedding anniversary, and represents my delight and amazement that our romance is still going strong, reality be damned.
What are some of your favorite sayings. This can be anything. Sock it to us!
Okay, anyone who knows me, has heard me say, "Bite me." Not original, but it's concise and effective. I also like "Treat others the way you wish to be treated." It might be the single sentence in the bible I actually agree with. Strings of profanities in no particular order bubble forth when computer/internet issues attack me. And "I love you," because my Hottie Scottie stepped out of my computer and into my arms…forever.
This next part is all yours. Say whatever you wish, Terri. The world is waiting!
You can look back over this 5-page, wordy-ass interview and give me carte blanche? Wow! That's brave!
As most people know, I'm an opinionated bitch. I try for tact, but I have no problem expressing myself. I don't like unfairness, tyrants, condescension, inconsideration, or disrespect. I try and put myself in the other person's place, and give them the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, I won't be a hypocrite and turn my head and allow someone (especially someone in power) to get away with bad behavior. If I can do it with humor, I will, because sometimes that's the best way to make a point. Sometimes I make my point by building a horror plot around an asshole. Sometimes I fire off a blog, but I'd just as soon get things off my chest via my fictional characters. I've been doing that since I was a little girl. It's kept me sane… (stop laughing, Blaze.)
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I guess it's pretty obvious that Terri DelCampo is a Woman In Horror!
Blaze McRob
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