In February I received word that my story, “How to Conjure the Spirit of Charles Dickens in the Haunted Mirror at the Omni Parker House” had been accepted for The Feminine Macabre, a new all-women, nonfiction anthology that Amanda Woomer from Spook Eats was developing.
Well, The Feminine Macabre: A Woman’s Journal of All Things Strange and Unusual, was published soon after, in March on International Women’s Day, but I’m just now getting around to writing about it. Once again proving my procrastination is alive and well.
In fact, the submission deadline for the second volume is rapidly approaching. I’m not sure if I’m going to submit anything again though. Time has been sparse because I’ve got several other projects in the works that I’m scrambling to either complete or launch.
However, I did want to finally share that The Feminine Macabre volume 1 is available to buy in paperback. It’s loaded with 30 stories from women in the paranormal. All aspects of it, from paranormal investigators and ghost hunters to psychics and ghost tour and ghost hunt event owners.
And Amanda’s intro to The Feminine Macabre, well…it explained so much.
You see, she had a bunch of the authors (maybe all of us) on for live interviews on the Spook Eats Facebook page. Ahead of time she sent a list of questions she might ask. Among them were:
- What does it mean to be a woman in the paranormal?
- Do you have a role model in the paranormal, preferably female?
I hadn’t received my author copies before the interview so I hadn’t read her Intro yet. But here’s a synopsis of how we answered. (Amanda interviewed us two at a time. I was on with Patty Henderson from Ghosts N’at Paranormal Adventures.)
I’ll start with the second question first.
Patty had a great answer for her role model: her grandma. Her grandma’s advice that she holds dear and shared with the rest of us was essentially don’t let anyone crush your dreams. If you have them, believe in them and pursue them.
I loved Patty’s answer. It was awesome.
I had nothing.
I’d thought about who I’d say the moment I’d gotten the question from Amanda. No women came to mind. For that matter, there weren’t any men either. Although, I did admit I’m rather partial to both Houdini and James Randi, both of whom were magicians but also rooted out the frauds. They appeal to the pragmatic, skeptical, Virgo in me.
But that first question…Tough. I’d never thought of it in terms of “What does it mean to be a woman in the paranormal?” before. I’m just doing what I do. I seem to meet a good mix of both men and women. I don’t really see any difference.
Also, I couldn’t resist pointing out that, having never been a man, I have no idea what life in the paranormal from that gender’s perspective would be like.
However, when I received my author copy and read Amanda’s Intro, I had a whole new appreciation for how women sort of are dismissed in the paranormal. Especially if you look at it from the celebrity side.
Yes, there are women para TV celebrities. But there are no all-women shows. They either co-host with someone, like Amy Allen on The Dead Files, Amy Bruni on Kindred Spirits, and Katrina Weidman on Portals to Hell, or they’re essentially sideshow psychics or have roles where they assist in investigations but don’t lead them.
Yet, I know a bunch of women who head up their own teams, have authored books, or host events. In my realm, they’re well known, but in general they seem to be dismissed and not taken seriously.
I’d never really looked at it from Amanda’s point of view until then, and it was eye opening. It made me even more grateful to be part of something positive like she was doing with The Feminine Macabre.
I asked permission to read my story for a Haunt Jaunts podcast episode, which I also translated into a YouTube video. So you can listen and watch my story for free, but there are 29 other amazing ones to enjoy. All you have to do is buy the book.
