Women in Horror Month: Spotlight on Stephanie Rabig
Stephanie Rabig
Writer
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Stephanie Rabig has been a horror fan all her life, and a horror writer for most of it. She inherited her love of horror from her father, who kept the Stephen King novels where a ten-year old could reach them (thanks, dad!). When not wrangling ten million plot bunnies, she’s wrangling her kids or the cats.
What drew you to horror?
Aside from the Stephen King novels, Twilight Zone episodes were a huge gateway: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and The Invaders, of course (Matheson!!!); the quieter horror of Time Enough at Last and the social truths underneath The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. Also, I cannot say enough good things about Ray Bradbury, specifically The October Country.
Who/What are your biggest inspirations?
*deep breath*
Along with everyone I already mentioned: Darcy Coates is an absolute career inspiration; she’s prolific and consistently fun as hell (From Below is my current favorite). Shirley Jackson– I watched The Haunting enough as a kid to wear out the VHS tape, and Mike Flanagan’s miniseries retelling was beautiful. Mike Flanagan’s stuff in general! Joe Lansdale is a great guy and a hell of a writer. Tananarive Due’s “Ghost Summer” was life-changingly fantastic and I’m slowly but surely gathering everything she’s written. Sir Terry Pratchett, forever and always.
Do you have any advice for folks just getting into the genre?
Don’t be put off by trying one thing and hating it– I still remember a friend complaining that they didn’t like horror because “blood and guts” weren’t their thing. If you’re curious about the genre itself, poke into the subgenres. Horror encompasses so much, and longtime fans are pretty much always willing to give recommendations!
Do you work in other genres, too?
I worked in queer fantasy/romance for a while with my best friend Angie Bee, and those are available on my website.
Is there anyone you want to shout out to who has helped along your own journey?
With the caveat that I *always* forget somebody: Angie Bee, who’s an amazing beta reader/cheerleader. Kealan Patrick Burke was one of the first people I met when I started getting into the online horror community, and he’s the goddamn best. You at Divination Hollow; you’ve kept in touch and been supportive even when it’s been months since I could think of contributing anything. Gemma Amor, Violet Castro, and Jennifer McMahon, who took me under their wing at 2022 StokerCon when I was about to retreat into Panicked Wallflower mode. Janine Pipe and Steve Stred, who were kind enough to provide blurbs for On Stolen Land. So, so many people in the Twitter horror community; I’ve found tons of incredible books/movies thanks to them and they helped make the isolation of a pandemic tolerable.
