A lot of people have asked me “hey, hannah what are YOU going to do for Women in Horror Month?” I have thought long and hard about this question and finally feel like I can answer. But before I get to that I want to address the issue that made the answering of this question so difficult for me. Even though I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York I no longer live there. Instead I spend my time in a small New England town where connecting with people with similar interests is not so simple and finding venues for events is hard enough let alone finding people to actually show up. After talking to a few people I know I am not alone in this experience. This post is about ways you can celebrate/help expose Women in Horror Month without a big budget or means to host a whole convention or film fest. This is for the people who want to do something but feel stuck in how to go about that.  I am obviously only one person with one little brain so these ideas are just what I have come up with while sitting here typing. Please leave a comment with your own awesome idea for how people can help in non-big-event-ways. I will then add your idea to this post!

1. The Twisted Twins (Jen & Sylvia Soska) had a brilliant idea to organize a massive blood drive in honor of Women in Horror Month. Oddly enough my father just had a blood transfusion due to being terminally ill and the issue of giving blood holds even more significance and personal importance that ever before. You don’t need to be in Cananda to do this. One amazing way you can get involved is donate your blood (if your allowed–some of the rules are pretty silly & fucked up  but if your able to please do it). The catch is you must prove you did it so have someone take a photo or video of you and send it in to us. We will make sure you get goodies and a pin that reads “I BLED FOR WOMEN IN HORROR 2010.”  I will be making an offical WiH Blood drive post with info on who and where you can give blood in different parts of that world. In the meantime

Canada (this link will take you the the Facebook event “Bleed For Women In Horror: Canadian Blood Donation Drive.”

USA

UK

Please feel free to send links to your place of residence and i’ll add the link!

2. Giving blood is not something everyone is allowed to do. It’s pretty fucked up actually that in some countries if your gay you are not eligible. I could go off on a whole fucking rant about that but I will save that for another time– however please look into the rules and fight for your right to bleed! That being said another idea is to hold events in your home/apartment. You don’t need to invite strangers either. Gather together some friends and use one of your homes to show films, have a small horror reading (people can read original horror work or find stories by female horror writers and take turns reading the ones they enjoy or never read before), hang up horror art by women on your walls and invite friends over to look at it…there are many small things you can do with friends in your home that would be fun and all the while take pics/video and show us what you all did!

3. Okay- so you don’t want to host an event PERIOD. That is more then okay. In order for Women in Horror Recogniton Month to grow we need people to help spread the word about its very existence.  Right now there are 1000000x female horror fans and only a small number of them know about WiH. Make posts on your website, tell friends, find ways to spread the word. You could even contact local media or people in the horror industry and turn them on to this soon to be revolutionary part of the year.  I will be creating a press kit that you can download to help share with people as a starting point. Do you have a favorite magazine? Write them a letter about this feb and tell them what is happening. Don’t worry if someone already contacted them the more people who buzz in the media ear the more we will be heard. Remember this is about RECOGNITION and like women who fought for any given right we were not inherently given we need to BE LOUD and SCREAM for ourselves to get attention.  It is not something handed to us. So help in the fight by contacting media outlets OR OR OR  telling just ONE new horror fan a day about it even if its a stranger online.  Hey, you might make a friend and shit, right? Don’t be shy. I contact strangers all the time and its amazing how many friends of mine now were once people I randomly sent messages to about various projects.

4. MAKE A PEICE OF ART! Make a collage. Make a short video. Make a podcast. Be creative in shedding light on women in the horror industry in any way your creative brain can conceive.

5. Are you sitting on some money and thinking “I sure don’t know what on earth to spend this on?” Help fund an event already being formed or donate to a organization that helps further women in the arts. Then tell us about it!

5. Your turn. What ways can you suggest a person can help participate if they can’t host a big event?

AND TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE HOSTING BIG EVENTS: I want to see pictures and video of all of it as well!! we are going to make a massive multimedia collage of what everyone did big and small. Although nothing you do is “small” everything is helpful and important in making this work. Everything.  Also, ya know, if you live in an area where events are happening or are able to travel you can attend one of the events on the Events page. Although, that is obvious so I don’t know why I bother even mentioning it

Okay, now back to the question I started this post with: What am I going to do for Women in Horror Month? Okay, here is my long winded answer:

My father has been terminally ill and as of his birthday/first night of Hanukkah (december 11th) we had to call 911. He has been in the hospital ever since on high level oxygen and morphine. We are now in the hospice/end of life care phase which is incredibly fucking surreal and painful. Its bizzare even that I can sit here and type this but i’ll admit it’s good to have distractions sometimes. For over two years I have been working on a mega insane huge awesome issue of my zine Ax Wound: Gender in the Horror Genre but life has kicked me in the cunt and getting it out has been one of the most difficult tasks imaginable.  My original plan was to get it out on Halloween 2009 &  of course that didn’t happen and the emotional pain iv been in has made it impossible to focus on anything but wall staring and repetitive facebook ve status updates. I also had plans to launch Ax Wound Radio but for the same reason couldn’t pull that together. As I watch my dad in the hospital: a man who is the reason I love horror so much and who watched and discussed horror movies with me for my whole life I want to make him proud and honor the fact that I have the ability to finish something and right now he doesn’t. That is a really terrifying thought for anyone, especially as an artist/writer which my dad is. My father actually wrote an article for this unreleased issue of Ax Wound and in his honor I am pushing myself to get the issue out by the end of January and one sale February 1st. I will also be launching Ax Wound Radio in the beginning of February and hosting weekly shows with Women in the horror industry coming on for interviews, panel discussions, etc. I don’t know if my dad will make it to February and it is because of HIM that I consider myself an intelligent horror fan. So, in dedication to him and all the people who put so much energy into AW I will be releasing the long awaited zine, the long awaited radio show, and on top of that donating blood with all my friends followed by a small party at my house to show short films by female horror filmmakers. I’d also like to decorate my walls with art by female horror artists and maybe write a short story to read on the radio. This feels do-able since the zine is really done but just needs to be copied and put together and mailed out and the radio shows will be something I can do from my apartment. I will also be mainting this site and contacting media and being a general contact for people before and during the month.

Now… VISIT THE EVENTS PAGE! There are so many awesome events already planned and more to come. It blows my mind. Its a beautiful bloody thing and I am proud to be associated with each and everyone of you. On a different note:

I have been asked by some people who want to hold screenings where they can get some good short female made horror films. The fact that we need to seek this stuff out underground is a big reason this month is necessary. If you make horror films, art, etc please email me if your willing to send screener copies to events around the world!

womeninhorrormonth@gmail.com