Lorelei K Hickman

Ever since childhood, I've always loved ghost stories, horror stories, murder mysteries, and psychological thrillers. I've gravitated to these genres of entertainment almost exclusively. So when I first decided to try my hand at creative writing during and just after college, of course I wanted to write nothing else.

After some early success publishing short horror fiction in the small press of the late '90s- with appearances in genre 'zines such as Mindmares, The Ultimate Unknown, and The Blue Lady- I set writing aside for years to give my blood, sweat, & tears to the veterinary industry, which would later chew me up & spit me out. After being fired for trying to educate cat caregivers about the harmful effects of declawing, I appeared in The Paw Project, a 2013 documentary about the veterinary industry's prioritization of profits over patients.

Further motivated by the poor treatment my cat and I received at the end of her life from two different veterinary hospitals, I returned to writing in 2023 with Your Other Family Doctor, a memoir about my vet-tech years and how they inform my criticism of the industry. Since then, I've been rediscovering writing for enjoyment. Now I'm creating & publishing the same kind of dark psychological and supernatural horror fiction I loved reading & writing in my twenties- and breathing new life into some of the stories I wrote all those years ago.

My influences & favorite authors include (but are not limited to!): Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Poppy Z. Brite, James O'Barr, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Gillian Flynn, Lionel Shriver, Anne Rice, Margaret Atwood, Anthony Burgess, George Orwell, Peter Benchley, Edgar Allan Poe, Kathe Koja... and the '80s/'90s era of splatterpunk horror in general.

I live in one of the weirdest and most haunted cities in America- New Orleans! I did my best to make it come alive as a character in its own right in my novel Conspicuous Consumption.

Thanks for reading!