The Glass Coffin

“The Glass Coffin” isn’t your grandmother’s Gothic horror (though she’d probably love it). It’s feminist rage given form, resurrection as rebellion, and transformation through terror. Each tale pulses with lyrical fury, weaving vengeance and sisterhood into something beautifully monstrous.

When you try to bury women’s stories, you forget one crucial detail: we’ve been perfecting the art of rising from the dead since the first witch trial, the first “hysteria” diagnosis, the first time someone said, “smile more.” 

Featuring:

“Girl Reporter” by Staci Layne Wilson

· “Roots Beneath the Ashes” by Amber Hassler

· “Sacred Vintage” by Deborah Daughetee

· “Best Served Cold” by Reyna Young

· “Shatterproof” by Alicia Powers

Everlasting e-Book

Only the Kindle version haunts the virtual shelves. Because while flesh decays, digital is forever (or at least until the next apocalypse). 

I absolutely loved writing “Sacred Vintage”. The idea of women coming back from the grave for revenge is right up my alley. I considered a story about honey and bees, but a vineyard felt like a much better fit. And I was right. This is one of those stories that seemed to write itself.

In some ways, it’s a bit like my spiderwoman story in my Kolchak: The Nightstalker book. It’s still a warning that even though our justice system may fail abused women, there are otherworldly sources that punish abusers. It’s a theme I return to again and again. However, I really, really love how I brought it to bear in Sacred Vintage.

Also, my story is the first story in the anthology. That is especially exciting for me. I have two other anthologies where I have the first story: Heritage and Hot Blood: Dark Passions.

The Hot Blood story, a building desire, is told from the Point of view of a hammer. Yeah, I know. When I pitched it to the editors, they told me to write it, but secretly they didn’t think I could pull it off. Neither could my husband. But when I submitted the story, they liked it so much it became the first story in the book. After my husband read it, he hid all the hammers in the house. I’m still known for this story among my MFA alumni.

Heritage is an Alternate Reality anthology rather than horror. Our directive was to choose a woman who, if things had gone differently, would have changed the world in some way. I don’t like writing alternate reality, but I wanted to be in this anthology. So I pulled an idea out of my idea file: what if the men of Salem ran into a real witch? I ended up loving this story, but it was a real struggle to write. You need to know the history of Salem (did you know they never burned a woman at the stake? They were mostly killed by hanging.) Again, it became the first story in the book.

I hope you’ll give Glass Coffin a try. I’d love to know what you think of Sacred Vintage.