What makes her different than other horror writers is the way she is able to capture a feminine sensibility. She brings a female voice into the horror genre that is definitely original and needed at this time. Of course this means she creates characters that are, "mothers who are good monsters," and, "monsters who are good mothers," to quote from her site. That being said, there definitely is an experimental edge to her work that adds layers of creativity and sophistication.
Her short fiction has been featured in Subterranean, PseudoPod, Apex Magazine, Postscripts, Nightmare Magazine, and in many other anthologies and publications.
Her short fiction has been featured in Subterranean, PseudoPod, Apex Magazine, Postscripts, Nightmare Magazine, and in many other anthologies and publications.
If you're not already familiar with her writing, here's an excerpt from, "It Feels Better Biting Down," a story about two twin sisters whose similarities grow to be quite grotesque.
"Sister is crying. The mimicry tears, we call them. It’s the kind of crying we do when we don’t really want to cry but we have to, because everyone else is acting a certain way and we need to do the same. Her weeping sounds so far away and hollow, like she’s become one of those empty construction lots, the wind plucking her bones like the metal frames and threading the music back and forth across all the blocks."
To read the whole story go to It Feels Better Biting Down.
You can find a complete list of her publications and other free fiction at her website, http://liviallewellyn.com/ .
As I've grown an interest in Livia, I decided to ask her a few questions.
1. Do you feel that being a female writer in the horror/fantasy genre is an advantage, disadvantage, or neither?
Livia- As far as I know, my being female hasn’t affected my writing “career” – but I could be wrong. I have no idea if any of the rejections I’ve received over the years were due to my being a woman and the editor not wanting to read or publish my work because of it. But to date, I haven’t seen or heard any indication that that’s happened to me – I have no doubt that it does happen, however. As far as the other side of the process goes, maybe my being female has caused potential readers to say “no, I’m not reading this” or “I don’t read horror by women so I’m not buying her collection”. Again, though, if this has happened, it’s happened without my knowing it. I do know that some people genuinely don’t believe women are capable of writing “real” horror, that only men can do that – but that doesn’t affect my work or how I approach it when I sit down to write a story.
2. What do you find most challenging about being a writer?
Livia- Probably finding the time to write. For me, at least – I have a day job whose responsibilities often spill over into the evening and weekend hours, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to carve out an hour or two every day just to sit down and write without interruptions. And I don’t have a family, so I’m not half as challenged by time issues as many writers are! I’m also an extremely slow writer, so finishing a project with such a small amount of time every week to work on it makes it rather demoralizing at times – it takes me twice as long as everyone else to get just a single story out, and I’ve basically given up on ever finding the time to write a novel. Yeah, the time issue is my biggest problem. But it’s not insurmountable – I just have to keep chipping away at the word count, day by day. Every writer has to do this, even if they have all the time in the world.
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