News / Art
A Daughter of Horror
In the company of master storytellers
"He walked the labyrinth of the children’s hospital, enveloped by the whispered prayers of relatives keeping vigil, tortured pleas in all languages: Please God, please help her…’ Don’t let him die… Signora, aiutami…
And then the words he had been waiting for, a fierce, stark vow: I’ll do anything."
This week a New York Times Book Review article named author Alexandra Sokoloff one of "Shelley’s Daughters". Mary Shelley, the author of the horror classic Frankenstein, was one of the original Queens of Horror. And in light of the upcoming Halloween holiday it seems appropriate to look at the current masters – or mistresses - of horror.
One of only a handful of successful female horror writers today, Alexandra Sokoloff has gained attention for each of her novels; The Harrowing (nominated for Bram Stoker and Anthony awards for Best First Novel last year) and The Price (to be released in paperback December 2nd). Recently Ms. Sokoloff was interviewed for the second time on NPR. The mention in The New York Times solidifies her rank among other great female master storytellers.
"Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were true visionaries of the horror genre,” says Sokoloff. “They've been huge influences on the themes and style of my own writing. Being considered along with them is a profound honor - and I'm proud to be recognized along with contemporary talents like Langan, Hand and Gran. Women live with the threat of violence on a much more everyday, intimate level than men do – I think we have a lot to say about horror."
Sokoloff is an experienced, produced screenwriter and a popular speaker on the topics of suspense writing, the paranormal, and supernatural fiction. She has given workshops and talks at World Horror Con, Thrillerfest, Bouchercon, RWA National Convention, and the Pen to Press Writer’s Retreat in New Orleans. She will be doing a workshop at the upcoming Horror Writer’s Association Stoker event in Los Angeles, 2009.
The future looks bright for this queen of darkness, since she just made a deal with Little Brown for UK rights to her books and St. Martin’s Press will release her next thriller, The Unseen, in the summer of 2009, all while she continues working on her fourth novel for St. Martin’s Press, and a fifth for Harlequin Nocturne.
For Sokoloff her career as one of the leading women of horror fiction is an extra treat this Halloween season. For her - and for fans of horror.
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Alexandra Sokoloff is a California native who grew up in both Northern and Southern California. At U.C. Berkeley she majored in theater, writing, directing, and acting in productions from Shakespeare to street theater, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
After college she moved to Los Angeles, where she has made an interesting living writing novel adaptations and original suspense and horror scripts for numerous Hollywood studios (Sony, Fox, Disney, Miramax), for producers such as Michael Bay, David Heyman, Laura Ziskin and Neal Moritz.
The Harrowing, her debut ghost story, was nominated for both a Bram Stoker award (horror) and an Anthony award (mystery), for Best First Novel.
Her second novel of dark suspense, The Price, explores troubling questions of what people will do for love, or personal survival, in the eerie setting of a labyrinthine Boston hospital. She has also contracted with St. Martin's Press for her next two supernatural thrillers, both slated for release in 2009.
Her website is http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com/
She can be found blogging at Murderati.com, and at The Dark Salon.
