Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc (born April 17, 1969 in Florida) is an American Horror-Sinisteria author. Andrea describes the genre (which she is oftentimes miscredited in creating) defines as “creepy, macabre and sadistic” fiction, which is “not necessarily gory, but makes shivers go up your spine.” Her stories are typically populated with vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

s, zombie

Zombie

Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...

s, shapeshifter

ShapeShifter

ShapeShifter is an Application Enhancer plugin for Mac OS X developed by Unsanity that allows the user to make system-wide modifications to the appearance of the operating system's graphical interface by applying GUI skins through “injection” into running code and without modifying system files,...

s and other supernatural creatures and generally focus on homosexual gothic or twisted coming of age

Coming of age

Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...

 themes. Many of her works revolve around violent occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

 situations.

Van Scoyoc was born and spent most of her early life in Apopka, Florida

Apopka, Florida

Apopka is a city located in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 26,969 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2006, the city grew to 53,563. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area. Apopka is an Indian word for “Potato...

, until 1994 when she moved to the Tampa Bay, Florida area. She graduated from Apopka Senior High School in 1987.

In addition to her novels, Van Scoyoc has also written a book of poetry and two collections of short stories. She also publishes two magazines. Twisted Dreams is a literary horror magazine, while Worlds Within - Worlds Beyond contains dark poetry. She is also the editor-in-chief of The Odd Mind Magazine, which is owned by podcaster Lesa Trapp (otherwise known as Angel Lesa.)

Film

In 2006, Van Scoyoc appeared as a character named Sin in Chris Conklin's independent horror thriller, Killer Spring Break Weekend. Andrea has also appeared in the vampire anthology Always Midnight with actor Joel D. Wynkoop.

Awards and Accolades

Her novel, A Man of Two Worlds was chosen as Preditors and Editors' Best Horror Novel of 2005.

Andrea has also placed in the top-ten Preditors and Editors

Preditors and Editors

Preditors and Editors is a website started in 1997, managed by Dave Kuzminski. The site was designed to be a reference source for the writer, composer, and game designer...

 awards in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, she came in second place, while in 2007, she came in third.

External links

• http://thelosttheforgottenthedamned.com/
• http://myspace.com/twisteddreamsmagazine/