Happy Birthday to These 12 Horror Authors Born in March
March marks a change of season
Named after Mars, the Roman god of war, March is a time of change.
It’s either the first month of spring or first month of autumn, depending on where you live in this world.
March includes special days such as ‘National Panda Day’ and ‘World Backup Day’, and even has a Worm Moon. How can a horror fan not be impressed with a Worm Moon? Feels like a story idea tickling the back of my brain.
FearSome Fiction would like to wish everybody born in March a very happy birthday.
We’re celebrating March by eating cake and raising a glass to the following horror authors born in this third month of the year.
Contents
Jason V Brock
Happy birthday to Jason V Brock who was born on 1 March 1970 in North Caroline, USA.
Jason V Brock is an award-winning American horror writer, editor, artist, and filmmaker.
Seven interesting facts about Jason V Brock
- He has dyslexia.
- As a child, he watched old reruns of The Twilight Zone and some Hammer horror movies when he visited his father on weekends and during holidays.
- As a teenager, he was the leader of prog-rock band ChiaroscurO.
- He began working in a comic book shop at the age of 13.
- He worked for four years as Managing Editor, Contributor, and Art Director of Dark Discoveries
- His 2014 non-fiction book Disorders of Magnitude: A Survey of Dark Fantasy was a Bram Stoker Award finalist.
- He and his wife produced a documentary about Charles Beaumont whom he describes as “an intense, driven, fascinating man”.
Some Jason V Brock to check out
The Dark Sea Within
The Dark Sea Within is a collection of stories and poems. Long and short pieces use weirdness, fantasy, and science fiction to probe deeply into the tortuous complexities of the human condition in the face of an indifferent or malignant universe.
Several stories draw upon cosmic terror. Some feature medical horror, the grimness of war, and the power of dreams. This volume also features a two-part post-apocalyptic novella.
Also included are some provocative and transgressive poems, ranging from the Miltonic “Fallen: A Lament and Affirmation” to the poem cycle “Out of Their Heads,” a paean to decapitation in homage to Edgar Lee Masters (Spoon River Anthology).
Discoveries Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy
Edited by James R Beach and James V Brock, Discoveries Best of Horror and Dark Fantasy collects ten years of award nominees, best of stories, fan favorites and honorable mention tales from Dark Discoveries Publishing.
Includes stories by: Paul Bens Jr., Ray Bradbury, Jason V Brock, Kealan Patrick Burke, Elizabeth Engstrom, Paul Finch, Bill Gauthier, Cody Goodfellow, Gerard Houarner, Richard Laymon, Tim Lebbon, John R. Little, Nick Mamatas, Brett McBean, Michael McBride, James Newman, William F. Nolan, Gene O’Neill, Weston Ochse, Wilum H. Pugmire, Stephen Mark Rainey, David A. Riley, Michelle Scalise, John Shirley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Thomas, Tim Waggoner, Matthew Warner.
Peter Straub
2 March 1943 to 4 September 2022
Happy birthday to Peter Straub who was born on 2 March 1943 in Wisconsin, USA.
Peter Straub was an award-winning American writer best known for his horror and supernatural stories. He wrote novels, short fiction, and poetry.
Seven interesting facts about Peter Straub
- He taught himself to read by memorizing comic books and reciting them to friends.
- His father wanted him to be a professional athlete, and his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister.
- When he was 7, he was hit by a car and had to learn to walk again.
- From 1969 to 1979, he lived in Ireland and England before returning to America.
- Ghost Story was his fifth novel and was the one that brought him to the public’s attention.
- In 1979, after moving back to America, he struggled with writing for a while.
- In 1997, he was awarded the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, given to “an author who has contributed greatly to the field of horror”.
Some Peter Straub to check out
Ghost Story
Ghost Story is a supernatural horror story.
Four old men gather to tell each other stories. However, one story from their pasts is coming back to haunt them.
Ghost Story was adapted in 1981 into the movie by the same name: Ghost Story.
The Hellfire Club
The Hellfire Club is a serial killer thriller.
Wealthy middle-aged women are being murdered and Nora fears she may be next. Her publishing-heir husband tells her a story about an obsessed fan from years before.
Things then spin out of control and Nora has to defend herself against accusations as well as a madman.
The Hellfire Club won the 1996 Bram Stoker and was nominated for the 1997 British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award.
Arthur Machen
3 March 1863 to 15 December 1947
Happy birthday to Arthur Machen who was born on 3 March 1863 in Monmouthshire, Wales.
Arthur Machen was a mystic and a writer of horror, supernatural, and fantasy fiction.
Seven interesting facts about Arthur Machen
- Arthur Machen was a pen name. His real name was Arthur Llewellyn Jones.
- A local historian believes Machen developed his interest in the occult at the age of 8 after he read a weekly magazine, Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens.
- His family was too poor for him to be able to go to university. He sat exams to attend a medical school in London, but he failed.
- One of his closest friends was occultist A.E. Waite, who was a co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck.
- His story The Great God Pan was widely denounced for its sexual and horror content, but it sold well enough for a second edition to be printed.
- He became an actor in 1901, two years after the death of his actress wife Amy.
- In 1914, his short story The Bowmen was published in the newspaper he worked at. The story was about phantom bowmen being called by a soldier to destroy a German host. At the time, it wasn’t marked as fiction and, as it was written from a first-hand point of view, a lot of readers thought it was real, including some priests. Even though he told them it was fictional, not everyone believed it.
Some Arthur Machen to check out
The Great God Pan is a horror fantasy novella.
A doctor performs minor brain surgery on a girl as an experiment to open her mind to the spiritual world that’s normally just beyond human sight.
Many years later, the doctor’s friend, who witnessed the experiment, learns of a sinister girl and mysterious events happening in her town.
Available to read for free from Project Gutenberg.
The Hill of Dreams is a semi-autobiographical novel.
It tells the story of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales. The Hill of Dreams is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain.
Later, the novel describes Lucian’s attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art and history.
Available to read for free from Project Gutenberg.
Laird Barron
Happy birthday to Laird Barron who was born on 5 March 1970 in Alaska, USA.
Laird Barron is an award-winning American writer of horror, fantasy, and crime fiction.
Seven interesting facts about Laird Barron
- His parents were book lovers. His father like westerns and his mother was more into fantasy and science fiction.
- He didn’t know that his grandfather was an aspiring writer until the family found stacks of rejected manuscripts in a closet.
- Growing up, his family was very poor so reading and writing was all he had to do.
- In school, he wrote a science fiction story that married Star Trek to Lost in Space.
- In an interview in 2008, he said that he has recurring nightmares and these are vivid enough that he can transfer the highlights onto paper.
- He’s competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race three times.
- The 2016 movie They Remain was based on his short story -30-. Two scientists who share a romantic history are tasked with investigating unnatural animal behaviour on the site of a cult’s compound.
Some Laird Barron to check out
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories is a collection of nine tales of cosmic horror.
Characters include an over-the-hill CIA agent, a grizzled Pinkerton detective, and a failed actor accompanying a group of bounty hunters.
Be prepared for themes of desolation, fear, and masculine identity played out against the backdrop of an indifferent, devouring cosmos.
Swift to Chase
Swift to Chase is a horror short story collection that peers into realities a slice beyond our own.
- All hell breaks loose in a massive apartment complex when a modern-day Jack the Ripper strikes under cover of a blizzard.
- A woman, famous for surviving a massacre, hits the road to flee the limelight and finds her misadventures have only begun.
- While tracking a missing B-movie actor, a team of man hunters crashes in the Yukon Delta and soon realize the Arctic is another name for hell.
- An atomic-powered cyborg war dog loyally assists his master in the overthrow of a far-future dystopian empire.
- Following an occult initiation ritual, a man is stalked by a psychopathic sorority girl and her team of horrifically disfigured henchmen.
- A rich lunatic invites several high school classmates to his mansion for a night of sex, drugs, and CIA-funded black ops experiments.
William F Nolan
6 March 1928 to 15 July 2021
Happy birthday to William F Nolan who was born on 6 March 1928 in Missouri, USA.
William F Nolan was an award-winning American writer of horror, sci-fi, crime, and fantasy fiction, as well as poetry and non-fiction.
Seven interesting facts about William F Nolan
- His father was an adventurer and sportsman, and his mother was a stenographer.
- He wrote verses and illustrated greeting cards for Hallmark cards.
- He co-wrote Logan’s Run (1967) with George Clayton Johnson. He also wrote the second (Logan’s World (1977)) and third (Logan’s Search (1980)) novels in the trilogy, as well as a novella (Logans’ Search (2001)).
- In the 1950s, he was part of the writing ensemble known as “The Group”, which included writers such as Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, Richard Matheson, Johnson, and others, many of whom wrote for The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
- In 2002, he was voted a Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild.
- In 2015, he was named a World Horror Society Grand Master.
- He has over 85 books to his credit, not counting hundreds of scripts, articles, and short stories.
Some William F Nolan to check out
Logan's Run
Logan’s Run is a dystopian horror novel.
In 2116, it’s illegal to live past the age of twenty-one. When the crystal flower in the palm of your hand turns from red to black, you have reached your Lastday and you must report to a Sleepshop for processing. But the human will to survive is strong; stronger than any mere law.
Logan 3 is an enforcer, hunting down Runners who refuse to accept Deep Sleep. The day before Logan’s palmflower shifts to black, a Runner reveals that he was racing toward a goal: Sanctuary. With this information, Logan 3 assumes the role of the hunted and becomes a Runner.
Dark Dimensions
Dark Dimensions is a collection of some of the best tales of Nolan’s career, including:
- “Zachry Revisited” about the strange population of a fictional Maine town
- “Descent” about the personal aftermath of an evil act
- “Child’s Care” about the ulterior motivations of the people we trust the most
- “The Man Who Stalked Hyde”
- “The Death of Sherlock Holmes”
- “To Be With Amy”
- “Stabbed By Rob”
- “Getting Along Just Fine
Algernon Blackwood
14 March 1869 to 10 December 1951
Happy birthday to Algernon Blackwood who was born on 14 March 1869 in Kent, England.
Algernon Blackwood was an English writer of supernatural short and long fiction.
Seven interesting facts about Algernon Blackwood
- For a long time, he didn’t think he had any talent for writing.
- He loved nature and spent as much time as he could in it.
- He was interested in Buddhism and eastern philosophies.
- His parents were revivalists and had very strong religious beliefs.
- He attended many seances run by a friend’s wife but he always wavered between belief and doubt.
- He was conned out of money by a dairy farmer when he moved to Canada as a young man.
- Following his death, his nephew scattered his ashes in the Swiss alps, in the mountains that he loved.
Some Algernon Blackwood to check out
The Willows is a cosmic horror novella.
An unnamed protagonist tells the story of himself and a friend canoeing down the flooding Danube river. They pull up one night on an island covered in stunted willows. The island is slowly breaking away as the flood waters break chunks of the sandy banks away but it’s solid enough for a one-night stay.
They see some things that make them feel uneasy. The narrator tries to be logical and scientific, but he finds that not everything can be easily explained.
The Empty House is a short ghost horror story.
A man and his aunt attempt to spend the night in a haunted house and see and experience things they can’t explain.
John Everson
Happy birthday to John Everson who was born on 14 March 1966 in the USA.
John Everson is an award-winning American writer of long and short horror fiction. He’s also an editor, a digital artist, and a musician.
Seven interesting facts about John Everson
- He records pop-rock songs in his home studio.
- He has a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois.
- His debut novel, The Covenant, won the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for a First Novel.
- His short fiction has been published in over 50 magazines.
- He’s written novelettes for The Vampire Diaries and V-Wars.
- He likes to write ‘not-of-this-Earth’ stories, rather than things that could be found in a reality story.
- He self-published his novel Redemption, book 3 in The Curburide Chronicles trilogy, because the publisher didn’t want it.
Some John Everson to check out
Violet Eyes
Violet Eyes is a monster horror novel.
Rachel and her son move to a small town near the Everglades. What was supposed to be a fresh start, turns into a nightmare.
An unknown breed of flies migrates through the area, leaving painful bites in their wake. The media warns people to stay inside until the swarm passes. But the flies don’t leave.
Then the radios and TVs go silent.
That’s when the spiders come. Spiders that can spin a deadly web large enough to engulf an entire house overnight. Spiders that leave stripped bones behind as they multiply. Spiders that, like the flies, seek hungrily for tender flesh.
The House by the Cemetary
The House by the Cemetery is a haunted house/ghost/witch horror story.
Rumor has it that the abandoned house by the cemetery is haunted by the ghost of a witch.
But rumors won’t stop carpenter Mike Kostner from rehabbing the place as a haunted house attraction.
Soon he’ll learn that fresh wood and nails can’t keep decades of rumors down. There are noises in the walls, and fresh blood on the floor: secrets that would be better not to discover.
And behind the rumors is a real ghost who will do whatever it takes to ensure the house reopens. She needs people to fill her house on Halloween. There’s a dark, horrible ritual to fulfill.
Because while the witch may have been dead, she doesn’t intend to stay that way.
Rosemary Timperley
20 March 1920 to 9 November 1988
Happy birthday to Rosemary Timperley who was born on 20 March 1920 in North London, England.
Rosemary Timperley was a British writer of novels, short fiction, and radio and TV scripts.
Seven interesting facts about Rosemary Timperley
- In 33 years, she published 66 novels and hundreds of short stories.
- After leaving her teaching job, she became a staff writer for Reveille magazine, where she edited the personal advice column and readers’ letters. She also wrote stories, articles, and book reviews.
- She was first attracted to ghost stories after reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
- She was well travelled and held a variety of jobs at the same time as being a freelance writer, all of which helped her to write realistic settings and characters. A sample of jobs she held include teacher, waitress, counter assistant in a police canteen, typist, artist’s model, and auxiliary nurse.
- Although she married in 1952, in 1961 she said that she “lived alone in an old-fashioned flat and existed on black coffee, pink gin and cigarettes”.
- Her first published short story was titled Hot Air – and Penelope.
- No obituaries in local or national newspapers were published following her death.
Some Rosemary Timperley to check out
The Mistress in Black
The Mistress in Black is a ghost story that you can listen to on the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast.
A woman is employed as a new teacher and she keeps seeing a mysterious woman in black throughout the school, but no one else seems to notice this woman.
Shadows of the Past
Shadows of the Past is a radio play that you can listen to on the Internet Archive.
A man who doesn’t remember his childhood looks for answers in the house in which he was grew up.
Terry Dowling
Happy birthday to Terry Dowling who was born on 21 March 1947 in Sydney, Australia.
Terry Dowling is an award-winning Australian writer of speculative fiction, including horror, science fiction, and fantasy. He’s also a songwriter.
Seven interesting facts about Terry Dowling
- He was prefect and editor of his high school magazine.
- In 1967, he wrote the school song at the public school he worked for, and the song is still being used today.
- In the late 1960s, he wrote songs and performed with rock band The Many Moods of Albert.
- During the Vietnam War, he was conscripted as infantryman and admin clerk.
- In the 1970s, he was a songwriter and actor with a theatre company.
- He was musician and songwriter for 8 years on the Australian children’s TV show Mr Squiggle and Friends and is a character in the picture book Mr Squiggle and the Great Moon Robbery.
- Writer Jack Vance named a planet after him in the Vance novel Throy.
Some Terry Dowling to check out
The Night Shop
The Night Shop is a collection of 18 stories that will make you uneasy. Clowns at Midnight
Clowns at Midnight is a psychological horror story.
Following the breakdown of a long-term relationship, crime novelist David Leeton retreats to remote New South Wales. He finds himself accepted into the local community and befriended by Sardinian farmer Carlo Risi, an expert on European folklore and ancient religions.
Leeton has a phobia about clowns and related images and eerie happenings start to disturb him. Things like a masked figure lurking in the bush, and a blood-covered sewing dummy appearing in his attic.
Is it all in his mind or is the community complicit in some arcane ritual beyond his understanding?
Christopher Fowler
26 March 1953 to 3 March 2023
Happy birthday to Christopher Fowler who was born on 26 March 1953 in Greenwich, England.
Christopher Fowler was an English writer of novels, short stories, screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and stage and audio plays.
Seven interesting facts about Christopher Fowler
- He wrote the tagline “In space, no one can hear you scream” for the 1979 movie Alien.
- He once worked as a male model.
- He published around 50 novels and short story collections.
- He released a Christmas pop single that he described as ‘really horrible’.
- At least 6 of his short stories have been adapted into movies.
- He won the British Fantasy Award five times.
- In April 2020, he announced on his blog that he’d been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Some Christopher Fowler to check out
Rune
Rune is a supernatural horror novel.
Across London, people are dying in apparently unconnected freak accidents. Further investigation reveals that some of the bodies have hidden strips of paper carrying angular, indecipherable hieroglyphics with an unknown meaning.
To his horror, advertising executive Harry Buckingham is linked with several of the victims. He is soon avoiding the police and following his own investigation. He discovers a multinational company combining sophisticated technology with ancient mythology.
It seems that the Devil may be at large in the nation’s capital, and only a handful of people can stop the most hostile takeover bid of all time.
Hell Train is a supernatural horror novel.
Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive.
As the Arkangel races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:
- What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of?
- What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them?
- Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men?
- What exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?
Elizabeth Hand
Happy birthday to Elizabeth Hand who was born on 29 March 1957 in California, USA.
Elizabeth Hand is an award-winning American writer of novels, short fiction, and essays that span genres.
Seven interesting facts about Elizabeth Hand
- Her grandfather had a large collection of Gaelic ghost and fairy tales, and her family had a strong religious views.
- She studied drama and anthropology at university, but it took her nine years to graduate.
- Not long before her daughter was born in 1990, she bought a rundown cottage that didn’t have running water or indoor plumbing. She lived there full-time for eight years and gradually fixed it up as she could afford it.
- Many of her characters are artists.
- Many of her themes are about the devastating impacts of climate change.
- She also writes movie and TV series spinoffs, tie-in novels, and novelisations, including Star Wars, The X-Files, Millennium, and 12 Monkeys.
- She’s written a book review column for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for more than 20 years.
Some Elizabeth Hand to check out
Glimmering
Glimmering is an apocalyptic cosmic horror story.
When the confluence of a solar storm and the collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf ignites the atmosphere, those who are able hide behind their walls and masks, seeking the promise of a seductive, and dangerous, future.
Two men find themselves on a bizarre collision course as a dark and powerful force seeks to shape what’s left of humanity’s consciousness.
Department store heir and editor Jack Finnegan faces his own inevitable death from AIDS in his family’s decrepit mansion, until an old friend offers him a miraculous cure.
Christian singer Trip Marlowe has found worldwide success, but the rock star retains his strict morality and faith. Temptation comes in the form of a mysterious blond waif and a new drug more addictive than crack and heroin.
Wylding Hall
Wylding Hall is a supernatural horror story that won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Novella Award.
The young members of a British acid-folk band find themselves at Wylding Hall to record their unique music. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again.
Years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers, meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true?
Dennis Etchison
30 March 1943 to 29 May 2019
Happy birthday to Dennis Etchison who was born on 30 March 1943 in California, USA.
Dennis Etchison was an award-winning American horror and fantasy writer.
Seven interesting facts about Dennis Etchison
- He said that as a child he was spoiled by the women around him and isolated from other children as World War 2 was happening around them.
- He was an avid wrestling fan.
- The first short story he wrote was about a group of teenagers in the woods. He submitted to science fiction magazines, but received only rejections. He finally managed to sell it to a ‘gentleman’s magazine’ for $125.
- He wrote Halloween novelizations under the pseudonym Jack Martin.
- The script he wrote with John Carpenter for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was rejected for being ‘too cerebral’.
- In 1984, his 90-minute radio version of Stephen King’s The Mist was produced by ZBS Media.
- He was president of the Horror Writers Association from 1992 to 1994.
Some Dennis Etchison to check out
The Walk
The Walk is a short story you can read online at Tor.com.
A Hollywood director and a writer have very different ideas about their collaboration.
The Dark Country
The Dark Country is Etchison’s first short story collection, containing 16 stories:
- It Only Comes Out at Night
- Sitting in the Corner, Whimpering Quietly
- The Walking Man
- We Have All Been Here Before
- Daughter of the Golden West
- The Pitch
- You Can Go Now
- Today’s Special
- The Machine Demands a Sacrifice
- Calling All Monsters
- The Dead Line
- The Late Shift
- The Nighthawk
- It Will Be Here Soon
- Deathtracks
- The Dark Country
Published: 7 March 2023
