Reminder that I'll be at Books on the Square in Providence, RI on September 19, Saturday, 6pm!
The event is called Victoria Dalpe in Conversation with Gillian Daniels. Please drop by!
What a surreal post to make! Y'all, I have a book tour! If you want to come and have a copy of Jenny Will Eat You Now signed, I have good news, because here's a list of places I plan to be.
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I'm so pleased to share a quote from the strong review Booklist has given Jenny Will Eat You Now. I'm beyond delighted the book is continuing to get such kind attention. Also, "plenty of heart--both literal and figurative" cracks me up.
Corporate Horror. Biltmore Ballroom, Graduate 17th Floor
Friday, August 14, 2026 9:30 AM
Cubicles, paperwork, horrible bosses and unseen masters. Ligotti, Ballard, and others have explored the strange and terrifying world that unfolds under the baleful eye and soulless indifference of corporate ownership. Our panelists explore the hellscapes of Late-Stage Capitalism’s 9 5 and how these hellscapes serve as an excellent backdrop for exploring the Cosmic’s most common themes of existentialism and human insignificance. Panelists: John Foster (Moderator), Gillian Daniels, Errick Nunnally, Jeff VanderMeer.
That Abandoned Mall is Still Playing Music: Theory and History of Hauntology. Biltmore Ballroom, Graduate 17th Floor
Woo! You have two weeks to enter a GoodReads giveaway for my debut novel!
I was very lucky last week. My debut novel, Jenny Will Eat You Now, is out on September 29, but trade magazines are already reviewing the book.
This includes Library Journal:
And Publishers Weekly has given my book a glowing review:
I'm so pleased there are people that I don't know who are not just reading the book but who get it. This is wonderful. I started bouncing when the publicist at Gallery/Simon&Schuster sent these my way. I'm really honored.
Outside of trade publications, there are some people on GoodReads with advanced copies who have also left some kind thoughts. I know reviews like this really aren't for authors so much as other readers, but wow. My heart is so full. Thank you for seeing me and certainly thank you for giving Jenny a chance.
Writing Horror in Horrifying Times
Salon A/B Thursday, July 9, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
Terence Taylor (m), F. Brett Cox, Gillian Daniels, Ian Muneshwar, Mike Allen, Scott Edelman
From its opening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Paris specialized in horror shows. In an interview conducted after its closure, its last director explained, 'We could never compete with Buchenwald. Before the war, everyone believed that what happened on stage was purely imaginary; now we know that these things--and worse--are possible." How does one produce meaningful horror fiction when the tools feel blunted by reality? What elements of horror have retained their effectiveness in the face of daily headlines?
Defining the Monstrous
Mike Allen (m), Catt Kingsgrave, F. Brett Cox, Gillian Daniels, Kit Sedia
Salon A/B Thursday, July 9, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT
From Grendel to the cultured medieval werewolf tales of Marie de France to the contemporary novels of John Wiswell, defining and understanding the monstrous has always been a task we set ourselves, alongside defining humanity itself. Who gets to decide what a monster is? How have these definitions changed and shifted? And what does it mean when the boundary between human and monster disappears entirely?
Literary Cannibalism
Lark Morgan Lu (m), Charles Allison, Gillian Daniels, Jessica Levai, Sunny Moraine
Salon C/D Saturday, July 11, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT
In Tender Is the Flesh-Eating: The Literary Cannibal as Exploitation and Desire, Wen-yi Lee asks, "What’s up with all the cannibals right now?" and suggests that "cannibalism is the perfect mechanism to explore different wants to possess a body: be it wanting to exploit, wanting to enact revenge, or wanting as loving desire." Let's discuss the literary cannibal, and what stories about very literally consuming each other accomplish.
This Group Reading Will Eat You Now
Andrea Martinez Corbin, Gillian Daniels, Ian Muneshwar
Empower / Embrace Saturday, July 11, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT
A group reading featuring stories (not all involving cannibalism) by Andrea Martinez Corbin, Gillian Daniels, and Ian Muneshwar.
The Limits of Hope: A Meditation on Fiction as an Activist Force
E. C. Ambrose (m), Daniel José Older, Gillian Daniels, Marissa Lingen, Michael J. DeLuca
Salon C/D Sunday, July 12, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT
In a keynote at the 2025 Locus Awards, Sarah Gailey challenged the focus on literature conferring hope on the reader, asking, "Are we here to provide comfort to the inert? Are we here to reassure people that experiencing a positive feeling is the end of their work?" They noted that hopelessness, fear, and despair all can be motivating, but regardless, "you are also powerful enough to act on your principles even when they oppose your emotions." How can we keep a clear eye about the practical effects of stories? How can we take lessons from fiction and writing and apply them to activism?
In the 20th century, horror moved out of the realm of antiquarians, mad scientists, old dark houses, and forgotten villages–and into the modern world! Richard Matheson pioneered the idea of the common man as a horror protagonist in I Am Legend and The Shrinking Man and decades later, Stephen King made the everyman central to the genre with characters such as Carrie White, Jack Torrance, Johnny Smith, Stu Redman, and others living ordinary lives invaded by horrors they never sought or contemplated. Ira Levin wrote about an ordinary young couple starting out in New York City in Rosemary’s Baby, and Joyce Carol Oates wrote about teenage murderer, Richard Everett, in Expensive People. What made this brand of horror so popular. How has it influenced the genre? Did it hold it back creatively or help expand interest to general readers?
Jenna's a powerhouse agent. I'm so happy she found me.
Want to read the book yourself? For those who are signed up for NetGalley, good news! You can grab an early copy here.
She's here, she's hungry, and she's available for pre-order wherever you get your books, audiobooks, and ebooks! Hope everyone enjoys (and survives) their time with Jenny this coming September!
Instead of four program items for this upcoming Boskone, I'm happy to say I'll now be on five! I volunteered to be on the Censorship & How to Fight It panel. In not just our current national moment, but every moment, this is an important subject. I hope I can do it justice as a panelist.
Body Horror in Fiction & Media Harbor III Fri 7:00 PM Duration: 01:00
Body horror gets under your skin. Is it being embodied as inherently upsetting? How can body horror portray liberating transformation/acceptance of that horror? The term "body horror" didn't seem common in public until 2024--how long has it really been around?
Justin C. Key, Bracken MacLeod, Gillian Daniels, Rebecca Rowland, RJ Taylor, Nicholas Kaufmann
How to Keep Writing When Your First Draft Is Garbage Harbor III Sat 1:00 PM Duration: 01:00
Sometimes you write a draft that either you (or your writers' group) decides it's no good. So what do you do? Do you trash the draft? Do you start something new? Or do you decide to revise again? How do you decide?
Charles Oberndorf, Christine Taylor-Butler, Jeanne Cavelos, Lyndsay Ely, Gillian Daniels
Reading: Gillian Daniels Independence Sat 4:00 PM Duration: 00:25
Poetry Slam Carlton Sun 1:00 PM Duration: 01:00
Listen to poetry from some of Boskone's writers.
Romie Stott, Rob Cameron, Gillian Daniels, Courtney Floyd, Theodora Goss, Michael McAfee, Julia Rios
It happened.
After years of sending out novels to agents, I'm finally getting one published: JENNY WILL EAT YOU NOW.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Friday, July 18, 2025, 3:00 PM
Solo Reading: Gillian Daniels
Envision / Enliven, Duration: 30 mins
Saturday, July 19, 2025, 2:00 PM
Optimism in Horror
Salon I/J, Duration: 60 mins
F. Brett Cox, Gillian Daniels (moderator), Joey Zone, John Wiswell, Kit Mayquist
Conventional wisdom would presume that horror and optimism rarely if ever blend, but does this prove true in practice? Don't many major works of horror have happy—or, well, happy-ish—endings? Is survival enough of an uplifting conclusion, or does a happy ending require the triumph of the protagonist? Even when evil appears set to return for the sequel? What role does optimism play in underscoring but not undermining the unease that horror supplies?
Saturday, July 19, 2025, 6:00 PM
Erotica, Horror, and the Fear of Visceral Fiction
Salon G/H, Duration: 60 mins
Catherine Lundoff, Cecilia Tan, Gillian Daniels (moderator), Ian Muneshwar, Laura Antoniou
Erotica and horror: two genres guaranteed to make certain moms mad when they find the book hidden in your bedroom. Two genres that every other has tried (at least at times) to put down as shlock or trash. Why? What is it about literature that evokes strong visceral physical reactions from the reader that garners such opposition? (And is "paranormal romance" their love child?)
Sunday, July 20, 2025, 12:00 PM
Content Warnings: Pros, Cons, and Purposes
Salon G/H, Duration: 60 mins
Claire Houck/Nina Waters, Gillian Daniels (moderator), Gwynne Garfinkle, Melissa Bobe, Romie Stott
Many romance novels have started including content notes or warnings, which advise readers of potentially sensitive plot elements or themes, such as grief, murder, and self-harm. Content notes appear far less frequently in SFF novels, whereas some venues for speculative short fiction have been including them for years. Panelists will share examples of particularly effective—or ineffective—content notes, while surveying the reasons for their rise in romance and the potential applicability of those reasons to long-form speculative fiction.
Sunday, July 20, 2025, 1:00 PM
Harry Potter and the Undeath of the Author
Create / Collaborate, Duration: 60 mins
Cecilia Tan, Gillian Daniels (moderator), Natalie Luhrs, Rob Cameron, William Alexander
"The death of the author" is a well-worn concept about who, author or audience, owns the meaning of an author's work. Such arguments take on a different valance, however, when the author is not only alive and well but using the funds and power accumulated by their creation as leverage to take extremely public and reactionary political action. When the price of engagement with a work is empowering its living author to publicly abuse others, how can we plausibly claim that the author is dead and our engagement is ours alone?