Indie Editors Series: Eda Easter
“While looking for Jim Morrison’s grave in a Paris graveyard, I met a publisher of a heavy metal music magazine, he gave me the best advice ever: You want to make a little money in publishing? Spend a lot of money on publishing. It’s the love of the game. Even the big names are paying that much anymore. If you don’t love it with all your heart, don’t bother.”
US-based Last Girls’ Club: The Witches’ Cosmo is redefining the femme-horror genre while channeling that forgotten riot-grrl energy of the 90s. Born of the COVID era, Last Girls’ Club has since expanded the team, found themselves featured on hot lists and are determined to bring that lightning-in-a-bottle-angry-lyrical-critical injection into the literary space.
We talked to founder and editor-in-chief Eda Easter about the evolution of the magazine, body image in literature, the love and perils of being an editor and how horror is becoming more accessible for readers.
Tell us a little about your background as a writer and editor. How did you get your start?
As an only child growing up on a remote Texas horse farm, imagination kept me going. Writing was a natural offshoot of that. Being an editor came later in life. I was the opinions editor for my college newspaper in 2005. Didn’t do anything with it for 15 years. My editorial skills lay dormant until 2021, when the COVID shutdown stole my livelihood. Out of absolute boredom and to avoid drinking myself to death I started a magazine I wished already existed. As for writing, I started writing about the time I learned to spell. When I was young, the world was a magical place, I saw stories everywhere. You could ask me or show me anything and I could create an entire universe and backstory for it.
What were you doing the moment you decided to start Last Girls’ Club?
Six months into lockdown in Los Angeles County, which was like New York or Madrid, if you weren’t essential, you sat your butt at home and went nowhere. I was drinking boxed wine that I had on a shelf in my closet, watching the news, wearing a T-shirt and nothing else (full on Pooh bear style) hence the closet wine, since I didn’t want to walk past my living room windows bottomless to get to the kitchen. Sitting on my bed, daydrunk at 11am, thinking: Well, if I’m going toes up in this dumpster fire, what do I wish I’d really done in this life? The answer: Riot Grrrl fanzine for horror. Addams Family panache, with a dash of Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ lessons for witches, and a chain-wrapped fist of Harley Quinn’s joyful chaos.
For new readers – give us the elevator pitch of Last Girls’ Club for a human having their first day on earth.
Last Girls’ Club is the witches’ Cosmo. Cemetery tours, profiles of salty women throughout history, movie and book reviews, academic horror deep dives, herbal profiles and recipes for the green witches, silly quizzes, horoscopes by a real moon priestess and seer, and a selection of international indie horror stories. We are the way modern witches keep a pointed fingernail on the carotid artery of fear.
What's coming up for Last Girls’ Club and how can new readers get involved?
As always, new authors, themes, concepts, and venues. Subscribe to our Patreon as a paid member to get the magazine (PDF and print), posts and tarot readings for free members. Subscribe to our Insta, Facebook and Substack for mid-month writing prompts, general news and groovy articles.
What have been the highlights or most exciting moments at Last Girls’ Club for you?
The feedback from the authors and readers. The Simon & Schuster list was definitely a SQUEEEE moment, but having people all over the world reach out with ideas and stories has really blown the top of my skull off. Our last issue I had a guy from Nigeria contact me about writing a column about the manosphere and its terminology casting dark spells of self-hatred on vulnerable young males. Blew my mind. On a nice day, I was fine with us dropping the whole incel culture on an island and letting them devour each other Lord of the Flies style, but after reading his work I felt compassion for them. That’s powerful and yes, you can read it in our Summer 2026 issue. It’s titled ‘The Incantation of the Incel’ by Osagie Aromose. Every issue, someone changes my mind, inspires me, teaches me, or just generally impresses the hell out of me. All I can hope is that it’s doing that for the readers too.
In past interviews you’ve mentioned you’d like to see more body positivity in the horror and spec-fic genre. How can publishers, writers and anyone in the industry help make this a reality?
Make it a description, not a moral failure or indication of evil. Hell, make being sturdy, stocky, fleshy, bountiful, thicc, abundant, melon tittied, big bootied have the same vibe as being jacked for a dude. The kind of chick who lights a match on a wall to fire up a cigar. The sarge that can fireman-carry a fallen comrade. The fat friend that can linebacker tackle someone trying to nab the both of you or Hodors the door while you flee the frost giants. Don’t make them sad for existing. The world already works hard enough to try to do that to us. We need our Ripleys, our Maxxines, our Grace Le Domas, our Thomasin, our Asia Reaves. Name me one fat shero that wasn’t a clown or clowned for her weight. I’ll wait. Exactly. Representation matters across the board.
Do you have a favourite kind of story or sub-genre you love to see in your submission inbox?
Always love a good revenge fantasy, especially with our social justice themes. Our Secret Police issue (Winter 2025) had a story where a crocodile god flips out in a hotel hallway on the bad guys and another where a 12-year-old girl goes full Becky on ICE agents raiding her neighborhood, because her mom taught her how to have a Mad Max style bug out/raid bag. I’m all ‘bout that ‘Good for Her’ action. We need it right now.
Where do you see Last Girls’ Club going in the next 5 years?
Hopefully being seen by a lot more people. Simon & Schuster had us on their 36 Femme Forward Lit Mags list. But we need more readers and subscribers. Every penny goes to production and paying the contributors. We’re at semi-pro rates and I want to kick that up to pro rates. The field is built, now it’s time to see who shows up to watch the games. I want LGC to be the Heavy Metal of horror, to be the magazine where future horror greats got their break. LGC is going to leave a big damn footprint on this industry.
As an editor who often has to close submissions early because Last Girls’ Club always hits capacity before deadline – what are some of the key things that you keep in mind when you’re making that tough call on what to select for publication?
Theme, clarity, good story arc, clear beginning-middle-end. It’s pretty simple and since we take all-comers, you’d be surprised how few authors hit those basic marks. Some issues were scrabbling to find good stories. At the worst, I had maybe three that I debated which to keep because they were all good, but too similar. Hell, a handful don’t even pay attention to word count, just email us a 10,000 word novella out of the blue. I used to try and steer them to our submissions guidelines page, now I do what every other editor who’s been doing this for a couple of years does – shake my head and delete it.
Any words of wisdom for folks out there who are considering becoming an editor or starting their own magazine?
Get professional help, any therapist will do. Just kidding. Modify your expectations and really consider why you want to do this. While looking for Jim Morrison’s grave in a Paris graveyard, I met a publisher of a heavy metal music magazine, he gave me the best advice ever: You want to make a little money in publishing? Spend a lot of money on publishing. It’s the love of the game. Even the big names are paying that much anymore. If you don’t love it with all your heart, don’t bother.
Lastly, if folks want to find more of your own work, where should they look?
This year I’m in two anthologies: Horror en America and Beyond and The Devil's Justice in New Arona out 10/10/2026. Solstice Publishing has my novella Killer RV available on Amazon. Hidden deep on our website, I have a trio of tales I published on our Wicked Tales page.
Last Girls’ Club will open up their next round of submissions from October 1st. You can follow them on Instagram, Facebook or Substack for updates.
Eda Easter is a lifelong horror and surrealism fan. A Texas-based writer and editor who has written in multiple genres and been published in e-zines and print journals; she’s into jazz, classic horror, animal allegories, and traveling. Her horror influences are Robert Bloch, Ari Aster, Poppy Z Brite, John Carpenter, Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker and Tarsem Singh. Embracing the quarantine like a Bronte sister, she wrote the splatterpunk novella Killer RV: Nothing like a bucket list with a body count.
Meredith McLean is a writer from Australia living in Japan. Her short stories, articles, and reviews have been featured in various publications as well as short-listed for the Griffith Review. You can find her collection of works at linktree.