Featured Interview With Jennifer Loring
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Portland, Maine and raised in rural western New York. I currently live in Philadelphia, PA with my husband, Zach, and our turtle, Ninja. We will soon be adding dogs to the family.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I had read Stephen King by age 11 and was writing my first horror stories within a year. My first publication was in the Canadian vampire magazine Requiem Aeternam at age 21. After graduating with a BA in studio art, I wrote several novels that thankfully never saw the light of day, dabbled in more short stories (including the first draft of “The Bombay Trash Service”, which in 2004 was awarded an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror), and ran a popular fan fiction group in which members wrote space opera set in the Voltron universe.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I have so many favorites and so many inspirations. Stephen King, Clive Barker, Tanith Lee, Meredith Ann Pierce, Carrie Ryan, Max Brooks, Shirley Jackson, Cormac McCarthy, Mark Z. Danielewski… My favorite genre is horror in all forms–dark fantasy, splatterpunk, psychological, etc.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My newest book is called Those of My Kind. It’s a dark fantasy that began as my grad school thesis project, and it took about two and a half years to write. It was published by Omnium Gatherum on May 11, 2015. One of my goals was to avoid two of horror’s most common tropes–the straight white male protagonist, and the damsel in distress. The four main characters are all young women, two are people of color, and three identify as lesbian though it is never explicitly stated. Most importantly, each performs an active role in moving the plot forward rather than passively allowing herself to be acted upon.
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