My zombie beauty pageant story has found a home!

Read “Miss Infection USA” in Other Terrors

Publishing July 2022 from Clarion/Mariner, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Edited by Bram Stoker Award winners Vince Liaguno and Rena Mason.

This story was a weird one, so you know I loved it. “Miss Infection USA” was written as part of Moaner Lawrence’s horror writing workshop Fright Club. If you’re a horror writer, I highly recommend you attend. The community that Moaner has built around Fright Club alums is amazing. Horror Writers Association (HWA) members receive a discount!

In Fright Club, Moaner assigned us to twist a popular genre. What’s more twisted than a zombie beauty pageant? Hairspray your hair and hot glue your finger back on, because it’s showtime!

Yes, there’s humor, because I believe humor and horror are best friends. “Miss Infection USA” is also a social nightmare in the vein of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. After the zombie apocalypse, how would patriarchy and misogyny affect women after death? What rights and protections do women possess when they are undead?