Because March is Women's History Month, I decided to do this week’s post on a female horror writer. However, before that, I wanted to make sure to read something by one. So, I went to my local library to check out a book last Friday afternoon. The book was "The Magic of Shirley Jackson" first published in 1966 and edited by her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman. It contains several of Jackson’s short Stories, (including the famous "The Lottery") and three of her novels, although only one of these is even only remotely related to horror and is actually more suspense/psychological thriller (“The Bird’s Nest”). So, if you haven't already guessed, the woman horror author I've decided to focus this post on is, surely, Shirley Jackson!

Shirley Jackson: A Brief Bio

Shirley Jackson was born December 14th, 1916 and in 1965, sadly, died an early death at 48 years old. She was a native of San Francisco ("next door" to my home region of Sacramento!) and later would relocate to the east coast, namely New York and Vermont. She became widely known for her short stories and novels in the horror, mystery and suspense genres. Among other forms of writing, she produced six novels and over 200 short stories, at least four of which were published in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction": "Bulletin" (1954); "An Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" (1955); "The Missing Girl" (1957); and "The Omen" (1958). Jackson’s most famous dark fiction novels are two gothic masterpieces: "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959) and "We All Live in the Castle" (1962), the former a ghost story and the latter a mystery-suspense. 

Creature Featured Link: Book-To-Movie: 'The Haunting of Hill House'  

By the way, the monthly Book-To-Movie (BTM) series of reviews, [link] where we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation, is unfortunately still on hiatus. I'm still working on collecting some stories and their movie versions to review. (So far, I have two lined up to read and watch.) But I want to celebrate Women's History month by featuring my BTM of "The Haunting of Hill House" from early last year. In addition to two movie adaptations, Jackson's novel has inspired numerous haunted house stories and films up through today. So, I urge you to take a look at the BTM for the novel and the 1963 movie version both of which were very intelligently made. 

Are you reading (or even watching) anything in science fiction or fantasy for Women's History Month? Have you read anything by Shirley Jackson?

Until next time . . .