Kendra Moreno

1. Why did you choose to write horror?

I've always personally been into horror. My dad used to sit me down and we'd watch those B movies where everyone makes the dumbest mistakes and suddenly there's now an octopus shark hybrid and Oh, no! Not another one that no one knew about! lol. My preference tends to lean more towards the graphic and weird rather than the stuff that keeps me up at night (Don't you dare bring a Ouija board near me, demon-child!) but I thoroughly enjoy horror, so when I started writing books, it was only natural to incorporate my love in. 

2. What is your favorite thing about the genre?

For me, it's the variety. Everyone has a fear and sometimes we don't even realize it until we watch it or read it in a movie. I mean, Chrinstine by Stephen King. Who would have thought to have a murderous car? And why am I suddenly talking to my own car like it's sentient? lol. The fact that there are so many options, so many fears to play off of, that really makes horror my favorite. 

3. Tell us about your latest book.

My Horror-infused books are actually fairytale retellings. My latest one is called Vicious as a Darling which is book one in the Daughters of Neverland. It's a continued spin-off series from my first series, Sons of Wonderland. I call it Horror Romance because Romance plays a heavy hand in the books but the world around them has all the Horror. In VAAD, Wendy Darling is a pirate of her own ship and dancing around Captain Hook but the true villian is someone entirely different. You'll find grotesque creatures, the Lost Boys who grow horns based on power and drink blood when their able, a very dark Peter Pan. Tink is the Queen of the pixies and as wicked as can be. Tiger Lily will rip out your throat is wears a headdress of a giant bat-like creature. The world is dark and terrifying but amidst all that, there's some happy thoughts that'll be sure to get everyone killed. 

4. If you had one piece of advice about writing horror, what would it be?

Don't stick to just the normal fears. We're all scared of spiders and snakes and various other creatures, but it takes some real talent to make me afraid of my car. Create fears that stick with people, and then flick on a candle and remind them it's fiction. It won't help them sleep any better but hey, you tried and you succeeded. lol

5. Who are your favorite women in horror?
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I really like Madeleine Roux (asylums have always interested me). She's really great. A lot of what I read tends to fall closer to the dark fantasy vibe but she's the first that comes to mind with more of the horror. 

EXCERPT - FROM MAD AS A HATTER (SONS OF WONDERLAND BOOK ONE)
“You were supposed to be my friend!” Alice shouted. “You were supposed to be there for me! Where were you, Hatter? Where were you when I needed you?”
“We didn’t know, Alice,” the Hatter pleaded. He was manacled to the wall, blood dripping down his arms to his bare chest. His hat and his long coat had been stripped from him the moment Alice had ordered him to be thrown in the dungeons. The manacles were covered in odd symbols, the likes Hatter had never seen before. They glowed with the slightest movement and sent needles of pain into his wrists. “Time moves differently here. It isn’t linear. You could have left yesterday, or tomorrow, or a year before. There’s no way to track it.”
“I left twenty-five years ago,” she snarled. “As soon as I left Wonderland and started spewing stories of talking flowers and rabbits and Hatters, I was thrown in the asylum. My own parents paid them to take me away for fear of embarrassment. They thought I was crazy! Do you know what they do to mad people in my world?”
“Please, Alice,” the Hatter tried again. “We were friends. This isn’t what you want to do.”
Alice grinned, stepping closer to him. She ignored his comment, continuing on as if she never heard him speak.
“Electroshock treatments. Lobotomies. Did you know they cut into my brain? Said they would fix the part that suffered from insanity. Ask me if it worked. Ask me if I screamed, and screamed, and screamed.” Rage dripped from her voice, coating every word.
“You’re not my Alice,” he rasped, his voice already growing weak. Whatever was in the manacles was taking its toll.
“This is exactly who I am, who I’m meant to be. The treatments didn’t work. They just made me angry. Angry at the doctor cutting into me. Angry with Wonderland for showing itself to me to begin with. Angry at you for abandoning me. Now, I want to see if you can die, Hatter.” She thrust her hand into his bare chest, her claws wrapping around his still beating heart. The Hatter screamed in agony, blood trickling from the corner of his lips and flowing from where her hand still lay nestled in his chest.
“Alice,” the Hatter gurgled, his head slumping to his chest. “Alice.” His voice was barely a whisper, the pain shutting down his body.
“No,” she sneered, laughing maniacally as she ripped his heart completely from the cavity. She brought it to her lips and licked the blood, letting it drop down her chin and onto her chest. “Not Alice. Not anymore.” She smiled, a deranged curl, as she crushed the heart in her hand. “I’m the Red Queen.”

Bio
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Kendra Moreno was born and raised in Texas where, if the locusts don’t drive you mad, the fire ants and sticker burrs will. Iced tea, or aptly called straight sugar, fuels her for battling the forces of evil and washing the never ending dishes her son dirties. She has one husband who listens to her spin tall tales constantly without fail. Although he doesn’t always know what she’s talking about, he supports her like a pair of expensive compression socks. Kendra has one son who will one day read her stories. For now she’s teaching him books are meant to be cherished and not destroyed. Her two Hellhounds keep her company while she writes. If she isn’t writing, you can usually find Kendra elbows deep in anything from paint to cookie dough or obsessing about her newest geeky addiction.

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