Talking Scared

Send us a text We’re closing out our (very) loose trilogy of episodes devoted to sinister schools and magical children. This week it involves pentagrams and witch-burnings, which are always a good time. Our guest, Stephen Lloyd, is better known for his comedy than his horror. He has spent a career crafting some of the biggest sitcoms of the century (some of which helped my marriage survive lockdown). Now, he has turned his pen to something much less wholesome, in his first novel, Friend of the Devil. We talk about Satanism and D&D and the aftermath of Vietnam – all that stuff that made the 80s such a goddamn fun decade for so many. But we also look at how those tendrils reach into the present set of existential crises. Socio-political shi*tshows aside, Stephen discusses the difference between writing horror and writing comedy, he explains the inner workings of a TV writer’s room – and how penning a novel in isolation is a whole other thing. I even ask him for advice on screenwriting, because my ill-conceived ambition knows no bounds… Enjoy! Friend of the Devil was published on May 30th by G.P. Putnam Other books discussed in this episode include: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83), by Gene Wolf Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (1979), by Syd Field Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983), by William Goldman Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week we go to magic school, but there isn’t a f***ing owl or a talking hat in sight. Instead, it’s a much more macabre affair, as J. M. Miro begins his trilogy of dark sorcery with Ordinary Monsters. J. M. goes by a different name in his other, more prosaic writing life, but here, with us, in the blood and the shadows he writes as his second self. Which is a long-winded and torturous way to say this is a pseudonym. We talk about the creative and practical reasons behind that, as well as his tragic family history, his obsession with Victorian London, female detectives in history and how to write a compelling action scene. And we manage to do all that without saying a single hateful or prejudiced thing. Imagine! Enjoy! Ordinary Monsters was published on June 7th by Bloomsbury and Flatiron Books Other books discussed in this episode include: By Gaslight (2016), by Steven Price (AKA J.M. Miro) Lampedusa (2019), by Steven Price Blood Meridian (1985), by Cormac McCarthy The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974), by Patricia A. McKillip Washington Black (2018), by Esi Edugyan Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week we go behind the curtain to look at the inner workings of a bona-fide modern classic. Our guest is Scott Hawkins, whose debut novel, The Library At Mount Char delighted genre fans back in 2015. Now, to commemorate its first UK publication, Scott joins me for a conversation about its many madcap secrets. We talk about everything from cosmic ethics to kidney stone – he gives us a little until-now-unknown backstory on some of the most mysterious characters, and I take umbrage at how awfully he treats the poor, poor pooches that guard his goddamned library!! This is a lovely conversation about the loveliest book you’ve ever read … that contains scenes of children being roasted alive. Enjoy!The Library At Mount Char was published in the UK on 10th May, by Titan BooksOther books mentioned in this episode include: We Are All Completely Fine (2014), by Daryl Gregory The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition (1990), by Stephen King Titus Groan: Book One of the Gormenghast Trilogy (1946), by Mervyn Peake Sharp Teeth (2007), by Toby Barlow Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris. The Mote in God’s Eye (1974), by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven The Hunger (2018), by Alma Katsu Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party (2009), by Daniel James Brown Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Here I come, ready or not! Our guest this week is Kiersten White. She’s the award-winning author of numerous macabre YA fictions, but now she’s making her debut in adult fiction (not that kind!) with Hide – a tale of life-or-death hide-and-seek. It’s a fantastic premise to begin with. Think The Hunger Games meets Squid Game, or any other kind of game but nastier and with more socio-political heft. Yeah, that’s right. Once again on Talking Scared the guest and I deconstruct society, in particular the capitalist nightmare that is at the core of Kiersten’s novel. We talk about economic inequality horror, American fairytales, the conflict between boomers and millennials, and the difference between mazes and labyrinths. I even ask some good questions about craft. We laugh a lot, but be warned, there is a burning rage behind this book. Enjoy! Hide is published on May 24th by Penguin and Del Rey Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week’s episode couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time. As women’s reproductive rights come under assault in the US, as Roe V Wade gets rolled back and fat, sweaty men in suits make rules they will never have to obey – I’m joined by a writer who wrote a book about the cult of having babies. Anne Heltzel is the author of Just Like Mother, a contemporary Gothic techno-thriller about fertility, pressure, choice and cults. Okay, the real-world context may be heavy, but the book is a blast. It’s both a surface-level thriller and a deep indictment of the way that modern life has got us all under pressure and running just to keep up. Anne and I talk about the creepiness of dolls, whether we give too much importance to twists, our shared experiences of feeling off-course in our twenties, and how everything, anything can be a cult if you just tweak it hard enough. Enjoy! Just Like Mother is published on May 17th by Tor Nightfire Other books mentioned in this episode include: In the Dream House (2019), by Carmen Maria Machado Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin The Seven Visitation of Sydney Burgess (2021), by Andy Marino It Rides a Pale Horse (2022), by Andy Marino You can download your free copy of Ash by Dan Soule from Amazon in your region until May 19th. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Do think kids’ drawings are creepy? They are, right? All big smiles and suns with eyes and weird flowers the size of people… and the dead girls in the background. Right? Our guest this week has built a whole horror story around these little paper nightmares. Hidden Pictures is a novel that blends text and image in ways that I’ve never seen done before, or never as well. It’s a story of childhood imagination, suburban murder and summer terror. Think Gone Girl with Crayola ghosts. Jason and I talk about lots of things – the rise of 1% horror; the relationship between image and text, and how to adapt an experimental book for audio. We get into the fairy tale details that I missed, and ask kid’s imaginary friends are just so damn freaky. Trust me, you’ll never look at your little cherub’s artistic offerings the same way ever again. Enjoy Hidden Pictures is published on May 10th by Flatiron Books and Sphere. Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Impossible Fortress (2017), by Jason Rekulak A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Ira Levin Horrorstör (2014), by Grady Hendrix Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009), by Seth Grahame-Smith Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2011), by Ransom Rigg My article in Esquire on ‘The 50 Best Horror Novels of All Time’ Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text It’s a week of deep-dives, haunted-houses and academic horror-stories this week on Talking Scared. Our guest is Isabel Cañas. And she’s having the busiest week known to (wo)mankind. Not only is she defending her doctoral thesis on Medieval Turkish Poetry, she also has the small matter of her debut novel – a sweetly sinister piece of Latin Gothic called The Hacienda We talk about everything that could possibly have influenced the novel. From the creepy house she once lived in, to her worldwide travels and her academic studies. It also plays a part – but nothing more so than a childhood spent reading. As well as diving deep into what made Isabel who she is, we also talk about Latinx horror generally, about mixing Catholicism with something even stranger, how she will never be frightened by the same things as Stephen King, and why it’s so important to keep the literary door ajar once you’ve kicked it open. It was a pleasure to speak to Isabel. I can’t believe she found the time. Enjoy The Hacienda is published on May 3rd by Berkley Other books mentioned in this episode include: Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno Garcia (episode 3) This Strange Way of Dying (2013), by Silvia Moreno Garcia The House of Hunger (2022), by Alexis Henderson Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week Alma Katsu brings her brand of immaculate historical horror to Talking Scared. After the The Hunger upped the ante on the Donner Party, and The Deep gave us a sinking feeling about the Titanic, Alma is back with The Fervor – a book too dark to write a pun about. It’s a tale of haunting and conspiracy during the years of Japanese internment in the US. Spanning multiple states, and multiple POV’s, it weaves a story of anger, prejudice and hate that seems all too familiar today. We talk a lot about the history of internment and anti-asian prejudice in the US, about Alma’s heritage and career, and the unique perspective it gives her on the topic. But don’t worry, just as it’s all about to get worryingly serious –the spider demons pop in to lighten the mood! Enjoy! Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Hunger (2018), by Alma Katsu The Deep (2020), by Alma Katsu The Pallbearer’s Club (2022), by Paul Tremblay The Devil Takes You Home (2022), by Gabino Iglesias The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party (2009), by Daniel James Brown The Fervor is published on April 26th, by G.P. Putnam. It will be released in the UK in October, by Titan. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text After much recent politickin’ and metaphor – we’re back with a good old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness ghost story. And from a friend, no less. V. L. Valentine came on the show last year (ep.31) to talk about her debut medical horror whodunnit, The Plague Letters. Now she’s back with her sophomore novel, a ripe Gothic treat called Begars Abbey. It plays with the tropes beautifully. There are secret rooms, sinister histories, mad old relatives, torture, crypts, sinister servants and lots of ghosts. Why the shift, from surgeons to spooks, you may ask. Well, Vikki and I talk about that. As well as what she learned between book 1 and 2, the elements of pacing, writing problematic women in the age of twitter, the macabre history of old dungeons and the perilous evils of Downton Abbey (ok – that last one is more my soapbox). Also, Vikki takes me to task about not yet finishing my own novel. Consider me chastened and now writing! Enjoy! Begars Abbey is published on April 26th, by Viper. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text I promise this week isn’t a pandemic novel. I know … we all need a break. No, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up IS about a disease, but not one that makes you cough, vomit or melt. Instead it’s a disease (drum roll), OF THE MIND!! But even then, it’s not what you think – no rage monsters here. Well, not really. Instead, this novella is a perfect allegory of how narratives can infect, distort and corrupt. How reality is contingent, and how the truth is more elusive by the day. All that, with zombies (sorta) Malcolm is a very polite man. So polite that he lets me use his book as a jumping-off point for all manner of cracked pseudo-philosophical theories. I basically forget the first rule of podcasting – DON’T talk more than the guest. Sorry. But when I give Malcolm chance to speak, he says great things. We talk about everything from the power of story and culture, to the problems with zombie narratives and how, in times of horror, Left and Right wing doesn’t necessarily mean what you think. Plus, we reminisce about the blue/gold dress illusion, the Bath Salts Cannibal, and other great noughties memes. Enjoy! And Then I Woke Up is published on April 12th, by Tor. Other books mentioned in this episode include: Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land (2021), by Malcolm Devlin The Wake (2013), by Elizabeth Knox “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”, by Ted Chiang – found in Exhalation (2019) Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Australia. I said it before, he liked it, so I’ll say it again. Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Australia. Perhaps nothing he has written is as weird, or as Australian as the stories set in and around the town of Gulpepper. He took us there in The Gulp and now he’s taking us back in The Fall, the second collection of linked novellas outlining the town and its weird inhabitants. Bear in mind, when I say nothing he’s written is as weird or as Australian – this is a man who wrote a book about a homicidal kangaroo! So yeah, The Gulp and The Fall are weird. Weird as hell. Weirdness on toast (with or without vegemite). We talk about that weirdness, about how to make it work and when to reign it in or let it ride. We talk the beauty and threat of Australian wilderness and the monstrous potential of the ocean. We talk winging it when it comes to mythology and how even Alan isn’t sure where Gulpepper goes next. We talk about all sorts of things. It’s a blast. Enjoy! The Fall: Tales from the Gulp 2 is published on April 12th.Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Gulp (2021), by Alan Baxter The Roo (2020), by Alan Baxter The Fisherman (2016), by John Langan The Great and Secret Show (1989), by Clive Barker The Grief Hole (2016), by Kaaron Warren Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Imagine it’s just you and two other people stuck in a single building for weeks on end. Everyone’s bad habits on display. How long would it take you to turn murderous? That’s just one of the possible questions asked in Emma Stonex’s The Lamplighters. Inspired by the real-world vanishing of the Flannan Isle Lighthouse keepers, but full of incident and weirdness all it’s own, The Lamplighters is equally poetic and paranoid, gentle and cruel, haunting and horrifying. It may be the best thing I’ve read this year. It will either make you want to move to a lighthouse immediately, or never again set foot anywhere but dry land. Emma and I talk about the sea, about bad places and lonely buildings, and we come back again and again to the inexhaustible metaphor of the lighthouse. It all gets very lyrical, but we do also use the word “bonkbuster” at one point, to puncture the profundity. This is a truly fantastic book, and a great conversation with someone who shares our love for the windswept, memory-stained places of the world. Enjoy! The Lamplighters is published in paperback on March 1st in the US and March 31st in the UK. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week is an orgy of horror. There are four of us. That makes it an orgy right? (I’ve never been to one – never got the invitation). Ahem … sorry. I'll start again. This week I am joined by not one, but THREE guests. John F. D. Taff, Livia Llewellyn, and of course, Josh Malerman. We could call them stars from the firmament of horror. Dark Stars perhaps. That would be fitting, considering that’s what they are here to discuss (amongst many, many things). Dark Stars is a benchmark spook fest. An anthology of fiction that attempts to set the tone for where we are in our collective horror moment. John is the editor, Josh and Livia are contributors – amongst nine other names from the very forefront of the genre. Each story is different, with few tropes, little tradition and zero constricting theme. It’s just a collection of darkness, depravity and delight. John, Livia and Josh are old friends, old battle-companions from the horror vanguard. As such I’m essentially redundant this week. I just turned the show over to them and got out of the way. I make an attempt at order and structure – we talk about making horror weird as hell, about drawing fiction from life, about how we use and abuse tropes in this new horror landscape, but mostly it’s about community, friendship and weird, perverse joy in being creepy together. Oh, and Josh and I talk bad drug experiences, whilst Livia joins my fight to put sex back in horror! Enjoy! Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror is published on May 10th by Tor Nightfire in the US and Titan in the UK. Other books mentioned in this episode include: Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror (1980), ed. Kirby McCauley The House Next Door (1978), by Anne Rivers Siddons Rooster (2021), by John C. Foster Dark Factory (2022), by Kathe Koje Every Dead Thing (1999), by John Connolly Ghoul ‘n’ the Cape (2021), by Josh Malerman Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Hey horrorfam – ready for a good ol’ murder mystery? Y’know, with ghosts… Our guest is Simone St. James, the doyenne of ‘Supernatural Suspense’ (as the marketeers love to call it). Her 2020 smash hit The Sundown Motel put her name up in lights, and her latest – The Book of Cold Cases keeps it there, shining cold and bright. It’s a tale of murder, media and misogyny – told in the classic dual-timeline manner that seems to feature in all good supernatural suspense novels – and it features a female serial killer (or is she?), a haunted house (or is it?) and a VERY millennial true crime blogger (or is… yes, yes she is!) It was exactly the kind of story that I needed to blow the nuclear cobwebs off in our freshly frightening times. Simone and I talk about the struggle of plotting, and its rewards for enjoyable stories. We wonder why we don’t get more female serial killers in fiction and the complexity of flipping gender roles within genre. We also tussle with the troubles of setting horror in Canada. …oh, and I try to convince her to start a podcast. Enjoy! Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Are you ready for another apocalypse? Covid and nukes not enough for ya? Well here you go then. Something slightly different. Mike Meginnis’ Drowning Practice is an odder than usual end-of-days. It’s a book in which everyone knows that time is up, and yet they just don’t seem to care. There are few (I won’t say zero) ravening lunatics in this book – but the more chilling realisation is that even at the end of the world, you still have to go to work. Mike and I talk about art and NFT monkeys, about poisoned capitalism and how his book mirrors our own pre-apocalyptic malaise. We also talk about the link between depression and creativity, and we have a friendly disagreement about whether the protagonist of this book is a deeply sinister character. This is a gentler end-of-days than most, but no less horrifying in its implications. Enjoy! Drowning Practice is published March 15th by Ecco Books. Other books mentioned in this conversation include: The Men (2022), by Sandra Newman Never Let Me Go (2005), by Kazuo Ishiguro Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Tyler Jones’ Burn the Plans reminds me of the first time I picked up Stephen King’s Night Shift. I didn’t know who this King guy was, only that his stories were varied, scary, funny, awful and sweet and sweetly awful. In short, a great time. Burn the Plans is the same. The collection dashes from an ever-so-American-Gothic farm to a bloodsoaked art gallery, CIA psychic experimentation to invisible Frankensteinian limb-monsters. Tyler’s imagination runs amok and breaks the crockery. We talk about small presses and self-publishing, the discipline of being your own editor, the writing from the POV of kids and the problems with perfect prose. We also discuss the collection’s theme – that life isn’t safe, that we should learn to expect the unexpected, be ready to live with (and survive crisis). That message has never been so clear as in recent news … and if you listen to this episode, please stick around for my outro as I have something to say, and dedications to make. Enjoy! Burn the Plans was published February 28th by Cemetary Gates Media Other books mentioned in this conversation include: Criterium (2020), by Tyler Jones Almost Ruth (2021), by Tyler Jones The Bone Clocks (2014), by David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010), by David Mitchell Consider This (2020), by Chuck Palahniuk From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Have you ever wondered what fresh testicles taste like? No? I don’t believe you. Our guest this week wants to get you thinking about it … well, that and many more important things. Gretchen Felker-Martin is the author of Manhunt – potentially the most buzzed-about horror novel of 2022. The story follows a pair of trans- protagonists through a blighted landscape of monstrous men and militant feminists – with the prized scrotal orbs being the key to continued life, and the pursuit of happiness. Quite a lot to chew on, right (I’ll stop!). On top of that pulpy set up, the book goes deep, turning the end-of-the-world into the perfect allegory for anti-trans thinking, but also sparing much empathy for the confused, the ignorant and the self-loathing. It’s an angry book, but a thoughtful one. Gretchen and I talk about love and hate, about the fear of involuntary transitioning, about victimhood and caring and fighting back against facism. I went in expecting a polemic but ended the conversation feeling strangely better about the world. I hope you do too. Enjoy! Manhunt is published February 22nd by Tor Nightfire Other books mentioned in this conversation include: Tell Me I’m Worthless (2021), by Alison Rumfitt “The Screwfly Solution” (1977), by Alice Sheldon IT (1986), by Stephen King Gretchen’s interview with Heat Death can be found here. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text February’s focus on the best new Women-in-Horror continues with Leon Craig and her debut collection, Parallel Hells. Leon is a North London writer with a globalised imagination. She’s been published all over the place, but is also a member of the Future’s in the Making, Queer writer’s collective. That perspective is inescapable in this collection. Wherever her stories take us, from an Eastern European pogrom, to a Viking settlement, or a BDSM dungeon frequented by denizens of the underworld – Leon maintains an outsider’s eye and a clear knowledge of the deliciously Gothic possibilities of Queerness. We talk Jewish folklore, emotional angst, mid-20s ennui, and the bright, healthy, happy side of sadomasochism. All that with some demonic-inflection and a good dose of the odd and downright weird. What’s not to like? Enjoy! Parallel Hells is published February 17th by Sceptre Books. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week is my personal Everest. Thomas Olde Heuvelt, bestselling Euro-horror whizzkid author of HEX, joins me to to talk about his newest novel – Echo. It’s a story of mountaineering, and madness, and monsters of the soul. If you follow me on any form of social media you may have seen that this book utterly distressed me. I can’t even say why myself; it just tweaked a nerve. Echo is a wonderfully easter-egg-laden novel, full of references to other horror masterworks. As you’ll hear in this conversation, that is no surprise. Thomas knows what he’s doing. He knows how to twist the knife (or the climbing axe) for maximum effect. We talk about mountains, of rock and of the mind. We talk about the role that those grand peaks play in horror through the ages, and how his own relationship with the mountains is one of both fascination and terror – whereas, for me, it’s just the latter. We also discuss writing horror in translation, about the role of erotic love in horror fiction, and the creepy mountain stories that led to the creation of this nightmarish book. Enjoy! Other books mentioned on the show include: Into Thin Air (1997), by John Krakauer (a phenomenal non fiction account of disaster on Everest) Touching the Void (1988), by Joe Simpson The Raw Shark Texts (2007), by Stephen Hall Maxwell’s Demon (2021), by Stephen Hall Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text In space no one can hear you read! This week our guest is S.A. Barnes – who’s new novel Dead Silence answers the (stupid) question, once and for all, of whether horror can take place in space. It’s a tale of a blue-collar crew, who encounter more than they reckoned for when salvaging a fabled spaceship. You think you’ve seen this play out before, I know. You haven’t. Stacey and I talk about all things “space-horror”, from the looming shadow of Alien and Event Horizon, to the most truly terrifying thing you can now encounter in orbit: a tech bro. We also talk romance in horror, Scottish ghosts, classic X Files episodes, what makes for a great haunted house (corners, amongst other things), and we both lament our shared anxiety when we hear a sound we can’t recognise. This is just a pure fun book, and delightful conversation that boldly goes … etc, etc. Dead Silence is published on February 8th by Tor Nightfire. Enjoy! Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Is it cold where you are? If so, do I have the book for you. Our guest is Ally Wilkes, whose debut novel, All the White Spaces was my pick for the most anticipated horror novel of early 2022. I was NOT disappointed. The book takes us to Antarctica in 1919, just months after the end of the First World War, in the dying years of the Heroic Age of Exploration. There, trapped in the frozen ‘overwinter’ the team of men are forced to confront a malignant presence that draws them out into the cold. Did that give you a shiver? The good kind? Yes! Ally’s book is the springboard for a great conversation about exploration and hauntings. We debate over what the thing in the darkness is. Is it a ghost, a god, an evil sense of anti-human geography? But beyond that we also get into all kinds of meaty, chewy topics, such as how her novel unpicks and deconstructs the long-celebrated ideas of masculinity, heroism, nationhood and empire. Yet, despite all that, the Daily Mail still gave it a good review. It’s THAT good a book. Enjoy!! All the White Spaces is released in the UK on January 25th by Titan Books, and on Mach 22nd by Atria in North America. Other books mentioned in this episode include: Tell Me I’m Worthless (2021), by Alison Rumfitt Dead Silence (2021), by S. A. Barnes Echo (2021), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Road of Bones (2021), by Christopher Golden The Terror (2007), by Dan Simmons Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver The Worst Journey in the World (1922), by Apsley Cherry-Garrard Who Goes There (1938), by John W. Campbell Jr. (basis for the 1982 movie, The Thing) Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week it’s time for good girls and bad girls to unite. Our guest is Kristi DeMeester whose new novel, Such A Pretty Smile sinks its teeth deep into the raised hand of misogyny. It’s a tale of violence and viciousness and vivid nightmares – and a whole new apparatus to explore the evils that men do. At this point I assume we’ve already weeded out the guys who roll their eyes at #metoo!? That’s for the best cos this is a feminism-heavy week. We talk about how horror treats women, from monstering menstruation to imagining female puberty as a threshold into hell. Along the way we cover the awful concept of the ‘lesser’ dead, the question of whether pretty girl privilege is a thing, and whether men really think women are too delicate to write such awful things. We also consider why dogs can be much scarier than wolves. This book started my year off right. Ambiguous, though-provoking, and ANGRY. Kristi is not f*cking around here. Enjoy!! Such a Pretty Smile is released January 18th by St Martin’s Press. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Kicking off the New Year right, by interviewing one of my favourite living writers. John Connolly is the author of the bestselling Charlie Parker series, a 19 book odyssey that takes us from the Maine coast to the darkest corners of the USA (and elsewhere), in the process, transmuting hardboiled detective noir into cosmic horror. After two decades of reading about Parker, you can be sure I have plenty to ask John – about writing American horror as an Irishman, Maine’s hostile spaces, the thrilling allure of literary violence, and whether he has an end in sight. But John is also here to talk about a whole other beast. Shadow Voices: 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction is his mammoth attempt to map the contours of his native literature, and expose the snobbery that has suppressed it. We talk a lot about how genre works (and doesn’t work), and how Irish fiction is at the very bedrock of this horror thing we all love. I’m a fanboy this week, no point denying it. I just did my best not to embarrass myself – especially as we were both enjoying a festive drink! Enjoy!! Shadow Voices: 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction was published October 2021 by Hodder and Stoughton. Other books mentioned in this episode include: Every Dead Thing (1999), by John Connolly – the first Charlie Parker book. Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver All the White Spaces (2022), by Ally Wilkes The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories (2020), by Sinéad Gleeson American Gods (2001), by Neil Gaiman The Godwulf Manuscript (1973), by Robert B. Parker (first appearance of Spenser) Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text It’s just me this week – sneaking one last episode in to talk about my own personal top-10 horror novels (or horror-ish) from the last twelve months. It’s been a stellar year, and picking just ten books was a nightmare all of it’s own. But these things must be done. The world MUST know what one more straight, white guy thinks about culture, or society will collapse. I hope you enjoy this as I get more and more animated as things go on. It’s a good job I’m taking next week off – I’m starting to sound manic. Have a great new year folks, and thanks for all your kindness and support this year. Here’s to 2022… it surely can’t be any worse. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Well, we made it to the end of this nightmare of a year. And though there has been plenty of horrific stuff along the way – war, plague, corruption … literal armed insurrection, at least the fictional horror has been fun. To commemorate a special year in horror, I’m getting the band back together. Sadie Hartmann, AKA Mother Horror, and Emily Hughes of Tor Nightfire (and various other parishes) join me to talk about the stuff they have loved from the second half** of 2021. **if you missed our coverage of Jan-June, you can find it in episode 46. We pick the books that really stood out for us, plus many more that we enjoyed. We discuss the TV and movies that have shaken and stirred us since July, and we look ahead to the bright (dead)lights of horror to come in the New Year. We also pick apart some thorny issues plaguing the genre, like the ridiculousness of rating books by stars, and my own irritation at everything being compared to Get Out. Each of the books we mention is listed below, including an episode number if it has been previously featured on Talking Scared. Don’t look at that yet though; it’ll spoil the surprise. Enjoy, and well done for getting through the year. Books picked My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021), by Stephen Graham Jones **ep 54 Revelator (2021), by Daryl Gregory When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), ed. by Ellen Datlow **ep 66 Cackle (2021), by Rachel Harrison When the Reckoning Comes (2021), by Latanya McQueen The Spirit Engineer (2021), by A.J West **ep 71 Come With Me (2021), by Ronald Malfi **ep 49 The Deer Kings (2021), by Wendy N. Wagner **ep 69 Chasing the Boogeyman (2021), by Richard Chizmar **ep 52 Coming soon Manhunt (Feb 2022), by Gretchen Felker-Martin Such a Pretty Smile (Jan 2022), by Krist DeMeester All the White Spaces (Jan 2022), by Ally Wilkes Other books mentioned Reprieve (2021), by James Han Mattson Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis A Touch of Jen (2021), by Beth Morgan Flowers for the Sea (2021) , by Zin E. Rocklyn Nightbitch (2021), by Rachel Yoder The Last House on Needless Street (2021), by Catriona Ward **ep30 Certain Dark Things (2021), by Silvia Moreno Garcia Nothing But Blackened Teeth (2021), by Cassandra Khaw **ep 61 The Death of Jane Lawrence (2021), by Caitlin Starling **ep 60 Queen of the Cicadas (2021), by V. Castro ** ep 42 The Book of Accidents (2021), by Chuck Wendig **ep 48 Rovers (2021), by Richard Lange The Turnout (2021), by Megan Abbott Comfort Me with Apples (2021), by Catherynne M. Valente ** ep 62 The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell (2021), by Brian Evenson **ep 51 Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week I bring you a ghost story, as befitting the season. Though it’s a little more lurid than Charles Dickens would have liked. The guest is A.J. West; the book is The Spirit Engineer. It’s one of my very favourites of 2021. Set in Belfast between the sinking of the Titanic and the outbreak of war, it’s a tale of science and the supernatural. Of William Crawford, a man who wants proof of the beyond, and will risk everything to grasp it. It’s actually based on real people and events, which I didn’t know, and still find incredible. A.J and I talk about spiritualism and deceit, about the links between sex and seances, and about the rare appearance of a truly unlikeable male protagonist. We disagree a little, AJ thinks William’s he’s an antihero, I think he’s an asshole, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is the standout character of the year for me. I hope you get chance to pour a drink, pull up a chair, and read this book over Christmas. Enjoy You can read more about the story behind The Spirit Engineer on A.J’s website, ajwestauthor.com Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week I am going to utterly ruin your festive mood! My guest is Ross Jeffery – author of Juniper, Tome (for which he was Bram Stoker nominated) and numerous short stories. His work is grim, gritty, gory and other words beginning with G - but they are nothing compared to the sheer horror of his latest work, Only the Stains Remain. Yeah, this is one of those special episodes in which I feel duty-bound to roll out the trigger warnings. Only the Stains Remain is about child abuse, and it pulls no punches. Feeling festive yet, Ho Ho Ho, etc. The novella is a savage revenge-trip of blood and guts in which awful things happen – but thankfully – often to awful people. So, you’ve been warned. But also be reassured. Neither the conversation, nor Ross’s book goes into exploitative details – and we manage to talk about a surprising number of very jolly things - from why Ross is drawn to such extreme projects, why writing for shock alone never really works, what it was like to be Bram Stoker-ed out of the blue, and what the members of Ross’ church make of his writing. It’s a mix of the horrific and the wholesome this week. Which could describe most of my Christmases. Enjoy Books discussed in this episode include: Boys in the Valley (2021), by Philip Fracassi The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum Haunted (2005), by Chuck Palahniuk Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021), by Eric LaRocca Ghoul n’ the Cape (2021), by Josh Malerman Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text I know it’s the middle of winter but this week the book in question is taking us back to summer. And not our current plague-summer – but the halcyon days of 1989. Think kids on bikes, running wild, fights and first loves, demonic deer gods … wait … what? Our guest, Wendy N. Wagner is the editor-in-chief of the prestigious Nightmare Magazine, and the author of epic coming-of-age horror The Deer Kings, as well as the ‘Sawmill Gothic’, The Secret Skin. We talk about both books and how Wendy has transposed both the classic British Gothic and the traditional New England small-town horror story to a Pacific Northwest setting. Bigfoot doesn’t even show his face. We talk about the fervid popularity of coming-of-age horror right now, we plumb the dark, seamy underbelly of rural Oregon, we compare notes on the small towns of our childhoods, and I have the temerity to ask Wendy the best way to get published in Nightmare. There is even doughnut chat. Enjoy! Books discussed in this episode include: The Shadow Year (2008), by Jeffrey Ford IT, by Stephen King (1986) Boy’s Life, by Robert McCammon (1991) Summer of Night, by Dan Simmons (1991) Harvest Home (1973), by Thomas Tryon Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990), by H.G. Bissinger Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text If you are feeling depressed, what with OMICRON emerging like the worst villain in some direct-to-streaming video game adaptation, then do I have the tonic for you. Josh Malerman is back for his second bout of Talking Scared, only 6 months after he was last here. This time, more than ever, he brings joy, wonder, inspiration and a 700 page book that will work your triceps as well as your mind and soul. Ghoul n’ the Cape is Josh’s magnum opus, so far. So far! It’s the truly epic tale of two men fleeing a unique evil across the entire landmass of the United States. It takes in politics, violence, spectacle, horror, friendship, a nation-eating star and a man made entirely of blood. This is not your average horror paperback. Therefore, it gives us plenty to talk about. The Great American Novel™ and the quest narrative amongst much more. But again, and again we come back to the crucial, pivotal role of awe and wonder in our lives. And we talk about how horror, of all things, can help us achieve that. Oh, and at one point I make Josh teary. Win! Enjoy! Books discussed in this episode include: Yours Cruelly, Elvira (2021), by Cassandra Peterson Pearl (2021), by Josh Malerman (previously published as The Day of the Pig) Visions of Kody (1972), by Jack Kerouac and Brice Matthieussent The Talisman (1984), by Peter Straub and Stephen King Ghoul n’ the Cape is published in a limited run in December by Earthling Press. You can buy one of the remaining copies here. Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok Or email direct to [email protected] Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text And now for something a little different. This is a show about scary stories and writing horror… but that doesn’t mean everything has to be on the page. Our guest this week is Richard Maclean Smith, host and producer of Unexplained Podcast, the best show out there on the creepy, mysterious and mystifying events that people like me spend hours reading about on Wikipedia. There is everything from true crime to strange disappearances, ghosts and demons, monsters and UFOs, as well as some more unique oddities, like a woman killed by the ‘little folk’ and a computer that may have communicated through time. God I love me some High Strangeness. Ok, I’ll throw you a bone, he also has a book to complement the podcast. That book – Unexplained: Real Life Supernatural Stories for Uncertain Times delves deeper into a selection of particularly weird events, whilst also giving Richard more room to expand beyond the mystery, into the areas of philosophy, psychology and humanism that really fascinates him. Cos that’s what set’s Unexplained apart – that reflection and interrogation of the human condition. We talk about all that, but I’m a mystery nerd, and I insist on simpler questions like, “what’s your favourite mystery” too, and we talk about vanishing hikers, cursed boxes and possessed murderers, as well as fear of the dark and dreams about Mikhail Gorbachev. I’m always there for you listeners, ready to dumb it down. Enjoy! Follow the link for Richard’s horror fiction podcast, The Fountain Road Files Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text For over three decades Ellen Datlow has been at the centre of the horror community. She is the queen of editors, the doyenne of anthologisers, the person who gets to declare what is the Best Horror of the Year. And she has come back to talk to me after I lost the conversation file the first time around…! That major mishap may have been a blessing in disguise, as since then she has published two standout anthologies, dealing with very different branches of horror. Body Shocks is a bumper collection of extremely nasty body horror; When It Gets Dark is a collection of stories inspired by the life and work of Shirley Jackson. One is icky, one is spooky, one makes you cringe, the other makes you shiver. And both are packed with stellar names. As well as discussing these anthologies, we talk about Ellen’s career in horror, how she does what she does, and what words like ‘horror’ and ‘scary’ mean to her. She talks about big names she worked with, and gives us some ideas on who the big names of tomorrow will be. Oh, and she also lets slip that she collects doll limbs … a perfect little nugget to season this mix. Enjoy. Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror is out now from Tachyon Press When Things Gets Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson is out now from Titan Press Other books mentioned in this episode include: “Shit Happens” (2018), by Michael Marshall Smith, in The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, edited by Ellen Datlow Nothing but Blackened Teeth (2021), by Cassandra Khaw Flyaway (2020), by Kathleen Jennings The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021), by Stephen Graham Jones And Then I Woke Up (2022), by Malcolm Devlin Echo (2022), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reporter (2022), by Daniela Tomova Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week I’m feeling warm and fuzzy (don’t worry it won’t last). Halloween is over, the weather has turned dark, we’ve all got the central heating on and are hunkering down for the end of the year. What better time for a slightly more cosy read? Our guest this week is Mark Stay, author, screenwriter, and one half of the quite wonderful Bestseller Experiment podcast. Usually Mark is in my chair, asking author’s all about how to be a successful writer – but this week I’ve literally turned the table on him. Mark’s latest novel – Babes in the Wood – is the second in his Witches of Woodville series. It continues the small village exploits of Faye, magical ingenue, budding witch, and all-round take-no-nonsense-from-nobody heroine. As the second world war rages over the sea, the tiny village of Woodville comes under attack once more from dark, sorcerous forces (this time it’s NAZIS!!) Told you it sounded cosy! No worries though. Aside from the inherent darkness beneath Mark’s whimsy, we also pack in enough nightmare fuel with a lengthy discussion of the most horrifying 80s kids’ TV characters, the all-too-real horrors of nostalgic nationalism, and I ask Mark for some gossip about the author’s he’s spoken to. There’s a lot to enjoy here. Get the kettle on! Babes in the Wood was published on October 28th by Simon & Schuster Other books mentioned in this episode include: Jack’s Game (2021), by Andrew Chapman Nella Last’s War: The Second World War Diaries of ‘Housewife 49’ (2006), by Nella Last, edited by Richard Broad and Suzi Fleming Trailer for Mark’s new horror-movie Unwelcome Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Halloween is over for another year but there are still plenty of monsters to go around. Our guest this week is Kim Newman, the writer, critic and encyclopaedic authority on horror, pulp and the dark recesses of cinematic history. You may know him as the author of the Anno Dracula series, but that’s only the tip of his imaginative iceberg. Kim’s new novel, Something More than Night, takes all of that arcane knowledge and puts it to use – transporting us back to the Hollywood of the 1930s when fascism is on the rise and it’s hard to tell the movie monsters from the real madmen. Cue the pairing of horror-icon Boris Karloff and gumshoe writer Raymond Chandler, who unite to confront some very strange goings on behind the scenes. In between educating me on the finer points of Hollywood history, Kim talks about the enduring legacy of Frankenstein, imitating Chandler’s unique style, writing novels in a connected universe - and we realise just how similar he is to Quention Tarantino. This one is an absolute blast. Enjoy! Something More than Night was published on November 2nd by Titan Books. Other books mentioned in this episode include: Anno Dracula (1992), by Kim Newman Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (1999), by Kim Newman Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s (1988) by Kim Newman. (latest expanded edition, 2011) The Dark Country (1982), by Dennis Etchison Hollywood the Haunted House (1967), by Paul Mayersberg An Illustrated History of the Horror Film (1967), by Carlos Clarens Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Normally we talk books - but horror movies are a Hallowe’en staple. Turn the lights down, wrap yourself in a blanket, choose your snack of choice and then torment yourself terribly. It’s what we do. Now, Mark Kermode knows a thing or two about scary movies. The UK’s most prominent film critic has a special fondness for horror movies, as well as a grounding in the books that inspired many of the best. I asked him on the show for this Hallowe’en special episode, to talk about his favourite book-to-movie horror adaptations. No one who has ever heard Mark speak for more than ten minutes will have any doubt what his number one is – but the others may surprise you. At the very least, you’ll came away with suggestions for books to read and movies to watch over this most frightful of weekends. Oh, and if you like Mickey Rourke, then just hold out for the last five minutes… Enjoy! Books mentioned in this episode include: The Exorcist (1971), by William Peter Blatty Falling Angel (1978), by William Hjortsberg The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), by John Wyndham The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson “Don’t Look Now”, in Not After Midnight, and Other Stories (1971), by Daphne Du Maurier The Exorcist: BFI Modern Classics (1997), by Mark Kermode Ghost Story (1979), by Peter Straub Link to the Guardian Article on the state of the horror novel – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/29/chapter-and-curse-is-the-horror-novel-entering-a-golden-age Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Perfect places breed hideous crimes – that’s my understanding at least. If you like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or Twin Peaks (or anything by David Lynch) then you’ll get a kick out of Catherynne M. Valente’s Comfort Me with Apples. Despite being a novella of less than 130 pages, it crams in everything from the whole rotten tradition of awful things – from the book of Genesis, via fairytales and the Gothic, all the way up to the most cutting-edge dystopian sci-fi. This tiny tale of a perfect small town and a perfect marriage, all undercut with the sour tang of wrongness. Catherynne talks in detail about the various strands that she has knotted together into this story. We cover religion and the potential for evil within, Disney towns and cartoon police, and we discuss why Bluebeard and his locked cellar door is such a key and recurrent trope in domestic horror. And, as ever, I take the chance to go off on a frothing political rant. Enjoy! Comfort Me with Apples is published by Tor on November 9th Check out Mark Kermode’s rant about the movie Entourage – to prepare for the Hallowe’en special. Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text I’m on holiday but I still give you goodies. ‘Cos that’s the kind of all-round good guy that I am. And what a dark treat of a trick we have this week. The guest is Cassandra Khaw and their novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth will use it’s liquorice-stained smile to chew you up. The book transports us to a crumbling mansion in Japan, where a hideous spectre haunts a group of utterly loathsome tourists. Honestly, you’ll want them dead for their taste in music alone! Despite the slimness of the volume, Cass packs a lot into this book, just as we pack a lot into this conversation. As well as discussing the novella specifically, we also talk our fear and fondness for Ellen Datlow, the rich heritage of South East Asian ghost stories and the haunting house as colonised space. She also gives perhaps the best ever answer to the question “what really scares you?” It is a life lesson. Excuse my whining about my dog. Enjoy Nothing But Blackened Teeth was published on Tor Nightfire on 20th October Books discussed on this episode include: Queen of the Cicadas (2021), by V. Castro When the Reckoning Comes (2021), by LaTanya McQueen The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones Sandman Slim (2009), by Richard Kadrey What Moves the Dead (coming 2022), by T. Kingfisher Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Hello kids. Wanna see a magic trick? Rather than pulling a rabbit from a hat, I offer you Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous Dead and her new Gothic chiller, The Death of Jane Lawrence. Caitlin’s novel takes a familiar Gothic set-up and kicks it around until it is only recognisable from the colour of its blood. Dilapidated house – check. Deceitful husband – check. Magical rites, mysterious walls and ghosts that feed on shame – yeah that’s new! We talk all about magical rites and occult practices, but before things get too esoteric and in-the-weeds, we also discuss Hannibal the TV show, whether there is life after death, and how best to incorporate neurodivergence into a dark gothic fantasy. You’ll come out of this one, entertained, entranced AND with a whole new reading and viewing list. Enjoy The Death of Jane Lawrence was published on October 5th by St Martin’s Press. Unexplained podcast episode featuring Aleister Crowley: http://www.unexplainedpodcast.com/episodes/2016/6/18/episode-10-the-spaces-that-linger Books discussed on this episode include: Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Brontë Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brontë Under the Pendulum Sun (2017), by Jeanette Ng Vita Nostra (2007), by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Welcome to Hallowe’en ’21. If ever a year required us to find the fun in all things grim, dark and depressing then this is the absolute best year since last year. Appropriately for the lead-in to Spooky Season, our guest this week wrote a book all about fear as an attraction. James Han Mattson is the author of Reprieve – a mouthwatering prospect of a novel set in an extreme, full-contact, haunted house escape room. What could go wrong, right? Well, as you’ll hear, James’ novel is less interested in fake blood and rubber axes than it is in the very real damage caused by prejudice and discrimination. That’s what Reprieve has been likened, in yawn-inducing fashion, to Get Out. In fact, it’s something much more interesting than just another social horror satire. James and I talk about a whole lot of heavy stuff, from racial fetishization to the psychology behind liking to be afraid. Meanwhile, I repeatedly seize the chance to put my foot in my mouth with some untypically (according to you guys) dumb questions. Happy October. The fun starts here. Enjoy! Reprieve was published October 5th by William Morrow in North American and Bloomsbury in the UK. Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Vroom vroom! This week’s book is automatic, systematic, highly dramatic … it’s G…G…G…G… Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. That painful Grease reference is due to the fact that this book marries teenage angst with fast cars and hot boys – with or without the quiffs. In reality though, it’s closer to a Springsteen Song – all tortured youth, broken hearts, racing the in the street and darkness on the edge of town. It tells the tale of Andrew – a sexually confused young man who relocates to a Tennessee University town in the wake of his friend’s death. What, and who, he finds there changes his life and his understanding of who, exactly, he is. And it’s all haunted by a fearsomely possessive phantom that just won’t leave Andrew alone. Ghosts aside though, Summer Sons still packs a punch. Lee blends the two sides of southern gothic fiction. On one hand, there’s the supernatural, on the other the very real drama of history and violence that permeates the genre. It also showcases modern masculinity in all its ugliness, with a few strands of beauty, and refracts the whole thing through a dark version of the campus novel. Lee and I talk about how white masculinity often escapes critical appraisal, how academia is the perfect setting for horror, the thrill of living lives that span the class barrier, and we try to pin down exactly what we mean by ‘Southern Gothic’. Oh, and we both complain bitterly about the nightmare that is postgraduate study. Enjoy! Summer Sons was published September 28th by Tor. Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt The Lecturer’s Tale (2001), by James Hynes Black Chalk (2013), by Christopher Yates The Devil All the Time (2011), by Donald Ray Pollock The Blade Between (2020), by Sam J. Miller Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Oh eck! This week I get very northern and my working class roots come to the fore. It’s all my guest’s fault. Tina Baker, the author of Call Me Mummy, is an infectious presence. My typical transatlantic restraint falls away and I follow Tina down endless rabbit-holes – her time as a TV presenter, her childhood mishaps, her cats! Thankfully, her book is fantastic, and gives us something to focus on at least a little. Call Me Mummy is a dark psychological tale of stolen children, toxic media, mental illness and class warfare. That’s a lot to fit into one book but, as you’ll hear, I think Tina pulls it off with aplomb, and delightful black humour. A warning, this episode does feature discussion of infertility and miscarriage. Tina, of course, delivers her own personal experiences with typical good humour, but it is worth mentioning. We also talk about ideals of parenthood, social media trolls, alcoholism, welsh nuns, babies with horns, and the particular British disdain for the middle class Enjoy! Call Me Mummy was published in paperback on 2nd September by Viper Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Last House on Needless Street (2021), by Catriona Ward Shuggie Bain (2020), by Douglas Stuart Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Growth is good, right? That’s what they tell us. Our guest this week might have other ideas. Aliya Whiteley’s is a novelist, short story writer and poet, whose writing is all about growth. In her strange worlds people, plants, entire worlds sprawl and mutate, but often the change is anything but wholesome. In her new collection, From the Neck Up she introduces us to disembodied heads, fleshy scarecrows, parasitical towns, dark ecology and violent agricultural rites. These stories sit on the cusp of a world gone sour, and peel back the curtain to show us how the past and the present may (ahem) grow into an awful future. Before you go thinking these are just run-of-the-mill apocalypses though, be warned and reassured that Aliya’s writing is anything but normal. She blends horror, science-fiction, fantasy, the surreal and absurd and even a sprinkling of dark comedy – all transmuted into something she calls the strange. We try (and fail) to pin her stories down. We talk about how she crafts her stories, where they start and why the often end where we least expect. Along the way we take in the climate crisis, ecology and evolving change, the history of science fiction, the future of folk horror, and the legends of her native Devon. Enjoy! From the Neck Up was published by Titan Books on 14th September Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Beauty (2014), by Aliya Whiteley Memoirs of a Survivor (1974), by Doris Lessing Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell (2021), by Brian Evenson Day of the Triffids (1951), by John Wyndha The Bloody Chamber (1979), by Angela Carter Rebecca (1938), by Daphne du Maurier Lorna Doone (1869), by R. D. Blackmore Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Our show this week is part interview, part homage, all zombie! Daniel Kraus, the author of zombie magnum opus, The Living Dead is in the hotseat. But he isn’t alone. Both he and his novel are accompanied by the spectral presence of the master himself, George Romero. When Romero passed in 2017, he left behind years of work and ambition in telling the whole story of his zombie uprising in novel form. It’s a project that was passed on to Daniel, and he joins us to talk about that book, how it came to be, and what it was like collaborating posthumously with his idol. We also get DEEP into zombie ethics. What they are, how they work, and what they mean! We talk about the pleasure and pressure of playing in Romero’s sandbox, how to integrate detailed research without ruining the flow of story, and I start to sound a bit paranoid in my theories on zombie’s as cultural propaganda. It’s a great chat. Insightful as hell. And I think George would be delighted with how Daniel talks about their work. Enjoy! The Living Dead was published September 7th by Tor Nightfire Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Plague Dogs (1977), by Richard Adams The Cipher (1991), by Kathe Koja Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Talking Scared is a whole year old today, and to celebrate I’ve brought you one of the brightest stars in the horror sky, someone who is getting bigger, better and badder with each book he releases. It’s Stephen Graham Jones! Stephen is here to discuss My Heart is a Chainsaw – his oh-so-meta revision of the slasher movie and the final girl. The book starts dark and gets darker, with references to every single slasher that you’ve seen, as well as plenty you haven’t. If you say you’ve seen them all, you’re lying. This isn’t just a rehash of Wes Craven’s Scream, though. As well as the tricks and references, My Heart is a Chainsaw has… well … HEART. Plenty of it. Just as Stephen says in this conversation: sincerity matters. The story matters. Stephen and I talk about our favourite slashers, the joy of childhood horror viewing, the pros and cons of the final girl trope and how you blend irony and sincerity in a work of fiction. I take him to task for always killing animals in his stories and he DOES not make it better by telling me why. Oh, and we both spend a bit of time idolising Joe R. Lansdale. Thanks to everyone who has listened this past year. I can’t believe how far we’ve come and this show wouldn’t be what it is without you. Thanks so much. Ok, sweetness over with. On with the bloodshed! Enjoy. My Heart is a Chainsaw was published August 31st by Gallery / Saga in North America and Titan in the UK. Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Morning campers! This week we’re off to the great outdoors for a hike, a night under the stars and a spot of psychological terror. Our guest is Zoje Stage. In her previous novels, Babyteeth and Wonderland she took us to dark houses and interior spaces. Her new novel, Getaway, does the opposite, dragging us on the adventure of a lifetime. A week hiking in the Grand Canyon. Just the ticket to blow away the covid claustrophobia. Shame it all goes so horribly wrong! We talk a lot about characters in this conversation – how to build them, how to make them interesting, and why no-one ever thinks they are the villain of the story. Zoje also relates the eerie incident in the Great Outdoors that inspires her novel, and I go on a rant about Thanos and Negan from the Walking Dead (keeping it highbrow!) What we learn, most of all, is that a tent is only a psychological barrier against whatever else is roaming the wilds. Enjoy! Getaway was published August 17th by Mulholland Books Other books mentioned in this episode include: Babyteeth (2018), by Zoje Stage Wonderland (2020), by Zoje Stage Jaws (1974), by Peter Benchley Deliverance (1970), by James Dickey The Ritual (2011) by Adam Nevill The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week the walls between reality and fiction begin to break down. What is truth, what is a lie? Can a story be both? These are the kinds of questions my guest, Richard Chizmar, has become an expert at answering. His new novel (if we can call it that) is Chasing the Boogeyman and it’s a unique beast. Part memoir, part true-crime, part horror fiction – it takes the streets of Rich’s boyhood home, colours them sepia and then lets a serial killer run loose. We talk about the illusion of storytelling, about true-crime and false memories, and the golden-hued horror that we both love. Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and others loom in the background, but Chasing the Boogeyman is uniquely Chizmar, in all the ways a book can be. If that all sounds gorge-risingly poetic then, well, first of all, sod-off, it’s my podcast and I’ll rhapsodise if I want to. Secondly, don’t worry we also talk about monsters and mayhem and the time Rich’s friend crapped in his own hand. In short, something for everyone. Enjoy!! (I really did!) Chasing the Boogeyman was published August 17th by Gallery Books in North America and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. Other books mentioned include: Gwendy’s Button Box (2017), by Richard Chizmar and Stephen King Gwendy’s Magic Feather (2019) by Richard Chizmar I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) by Michelle McNamara True Crime Addict (2016), by James Renner Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis From a Buick Eight (2002), by Stephen King It (1986), by Stephen King Boy’s Life (1991), by Robert McCammon Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text This week’s guest couldn’t be better timed. In a week when we find out the world is not only screwed, it’s REALLY screwed, our guest is Brian Evenson, with his new collection, The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell – which could be a description of many places on the globe right now. These stories transport the reader to strange, deformed, blasted landscapes. Like the worlds they depict, Brian’s tales are harsh and dark and frightening but, as you’ll hear me say, they are also a surprising amount of fun. As well as the end of all things, there are also cults, flying cities, terrifying feathered men, and a murderous leg. So read them and enjoy them – but heed the wakeup call. These monstrous worlds could all too easily be our own (if you want some light relief, here’s the wiki on the Human Interference Task Force – cats and cults and wizards-a-plenty) Enjoy.Other books mentioned in this episode include: “Solution” (2020), by Brian Evenson - Read it Here Altmann’s Tongue (1994) by Brian Evenson Father of Lies (1998) by Brian Evenson The Open Curtain (2006) by Brian Evenson Last Days (2009) by Brian Evenson The Turnip Princess and other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (2015), by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth The Book of the New Sun (1980), by Gene Wolfe The Dying Earth (1950), by Jack Vance. Full series collected as The Compleat Dying Earth (2000) A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr. Thin Places (2020), by Kay Chronister Age of Blight (2016), by Kristine Ong Muslim Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Sisters are doing it for themselves – literally! Our guest this week is Sara Flannery Murphy, author of Girl One – which is either a feminist dystopian nightmare or a superhero origin story, or both. It is an alternative history of genetic science that asks the question of what would happen if women no longer needed men to conceive a child. The answer is simultaneously complex and chilling. Sara and I talk about writing as a feminist in the time of Trump (and living in a Red State), and whether her characters are witches in any sense of the word. We discuss how pathogenesis has always had a home in the horror genre. And I demand to know why, if she was going to rewrite history, she didn’t save poor Kurt Cobain. Enjoy! Girl One was published by on 1st June by FSG in the US and on August 5th by Raven Books in the UK. Other books mentioned in the show include: Carrie (1974), by Stephen King Firestarter (1980), by Stephen King The Return (2020), by Rachel Harrison Marilou is Everywhere (2019), by Sarah Elaine Smith Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Why isn’t there more horror about marriage? Think about it. You marry someone. Spend your life with them. But do you really know them, or what they are capable of. Ronald Malfi’s Come With Me pries open these secrets, sending the protagonist on a tailspinning road trip in pursuit of the truth about the woman he has loved and lost. It’s a big, satisfying, chunky summer novel packed full of murder and monstrosity and motel-stays in the creepier corners of the country. You’ll love it. Ronald joins me to talk about the book, about writing grief and the very real tragedy that underpins Come With Me. Despite the absurd heat at either end of the conversation, we soldier on heroically, taking in local lore, the link between leaded petrol and serial killers, and why ecology may be the new haunting. And yes, we talk about how marriage should be a bigger theme in horror! Next time your wife, or husband, or significant other gets up in the night – think about that. What are they up to in the bathroom? Could be the usual. Could be something evil. Mwah ha ha! Enjoy. Come With Me was published by Titan on 20th July. Other books mentioned in the show include: December Park (2014), by Ronald Malfi Snow (2010), by Ronald Malfi The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) by Michelle McNamara Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Weather this hot demands the cool balm of a book, and do I have one for you. The Book of Accidents is the latest horror-epic from Chuck Wendig – the seeming literary successor to King, Straub, McCammon and Barker. Wendig’s books take you in their embrace and say “you’re mine now” or maybe “we all float down here.” Here, in this case, being a mineshaft in the rural vacancy of Pennsylvania. There is plenty of hype around The Book of Accidents and I’m delighted to say it’s all earned. This is quite simply the kind of big, bombastic storytelling you don’t get much of anymore, a steak-and-lobster-with-ice-cream for after sort of novel that fills you up and leaves you satisfied. The book is so big, and the ideas so grand, that Chuck and I end up forgetting to talk much about the actual story. Instead we discuss what it has to say about society – good and bad – about kindness, and love and the comfort of horror that we all-too often ignore in favour of the viscera. In short, it’s a wholesome conversation about a wholesome book, about a very unwholesome scenario. Oh – and Chuck tells us all about the very real haunted house that inspired it. A house he happens to have grown up in. Enjoy! The Book of Accidents was published by Del Rey on 20th July. Other books mentioned in the show include: Blackbirds: Miriam Black #1 (2012), by Chuck Wendig Wanderers (2018), by Chuck Wendig The Three (2014), by Sarah Lotz Road of Bones (coming 2022), by Christopher Golden Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a text Hello fellow horror-fiends. This week we’re going retro, to the heyday of horror, when men wore masks and women checked basements in their negligee. Our guest is Grady Hendrix, a writer perpetually interested in taking tropes, only to stab them, kill them, and resurrect them as something new. He’s done it with exorcisms, vampires, the devil and … erm .. IKEA. Now he’s taking on the slasher and his counterpart, in The Final Girl Support Group. A novel that takes the bloody, weary body of the female heroine, and gives her the chance to kick the hell out of the monster chasing her. It’s meta, funny, wry and ironic – but it’s also a story with heart. I enjoyed it immensely. Grady and I talk about our favourite slashers (and final girls), why we’re obsessed with nostalgia, what it means that we enjoy films about killing women, and I – once again ­– give away too much of my own psychological frailty. This time it’s my all-consuming terror of Freddy Kruger. This is a book and conversation that will REALLY please the true horror lovers. Enjoy! The Final Girl Support Group is published July 13th by Berkley in North American and Titan in the UK. Books mentioned in this episode include: Paperbacks From Hell (2017), by Grady Hendrix We Sold Our Souls (2018), by Grady Hendrix The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020), by Grady Hendrix Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (1992), by Carol J. Clover The Last Final Girl (2012), by Stephen Graham Jones Final Girls (2017), by Riley Sager The Tribe (1981), by Bari Wood When Darkness Loves Us (1985), by Elizabeth Engstrom Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]. Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices