Talking Scared

Here be dragons!   I’m celebrating Halloween week on Talking Scared with the very cream of the bucket list. Joe Hill is finally on the show!   The author of Heart Shaped Box, NOS4A2, “The Black Phone” and Lock & Key is back with his first novel in nearly a decade, and it’s a beast!   King Sorrow is an epic of dragons, diabolical deals, decade-spanning friendships, love and hate and everything in between. It’s bloody brilliant!   Joe talks about the triple inspiration of The Hobbit, The Secret History and Friends. We tackle tech-bros and trolls (literally), and the formidable role of his mother, Tabitha King. And if we disagree on certain characters in King Sorrow, we’re certainly on the same page when it comes to the role of love in life and writing.   This is a special one for me. A special book and a special conversation.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: 20th Century Ghosts (2005), by Joe Hill Heart Shaped Box (2007), by Joe Hill The Fireman (2016), by Joe Hill The Hobbit (1937), by J.R.R. Tolkien The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt The Dead Zone (1979), by Stephen King Cloud Atlas (2004), by David Mitchell Old Soul (2025), by Susan Barker The Trap (1985), by Tabitha King “The Jewbird” (1963), by Bernard Malamud Coffin Moon (2025), by Keith Rosson   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our fifth Let Us Palaver, Nat and I dally a little longer in ‘Salem’s Lot to hunt down a few more vamps and follow up some threads mentioned in the main episode.   This is where we get spoilery, so this is just for those who have been to the Tower already. But we talk about Chris’s predictions for Father Callaghan, discuss the moral arc of King’s entire fictional project (no big thing right!) and even congratulate the man on his steadfast marriage.   Also, my wife makes an appearance bearing tea.   Enjoy.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Salem’s Lot is FIFTY years old this month. Hellfire, how did that happen? We’re gonna celebrate the bloodsucking and small town shenanigans for all they are worth!!   But some of you know that the Lot sits just to one side of the Path of the Beam – so this is also a key zig in our endless zagging towards The Dark Tower. You may just not know why yet? And neither does Chris, so no one tell him.   So in this two-fer episode we honour a true horror classic of 20th century literature, and we inch one step closer to the nexus of all things. Efficient!   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned: “Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One For the Road,” both in Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King Shitshow (2025), by Chris Panatier The Rats (1974), by James Herbert Dracula (1898), by Bram Stoker The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Harvest Home (1973), by Thomas Tryon   As mentioned – here is my Vulture list of the Best Horror Books of 2025 (so far).   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Lansdale is here to give us all a smack upside the head.   We are talking about The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale – his brand new career-retrospective, collecting the stories that have defined him for decades as one of the most edgy, provocative writers of the grim and grotesque.   We cover some of the classics, like “Bubba Ho Tep,” “Mr Weed Eater” and “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” – asking where the craziness came from, and finding the roots in Joe’s colourful life.   But we also discuss more serious matters, such as the hatred depicted in “The Night They Missed the Horror Show,” and what it means in our current puritanical, easily-outraged era.   Enjoy! Beware!   Other books mentioned: The Thicket (2013), by Joe R. Lansdale Paradise Sky (2015), by Joe R. Lansdale The Nightrunners (1987), by Joe R. Lansdale “A Rose For Emily” (1930), by William Faulkner “Cannibalism in the Cars” (1868), by Mark Twain “Duel” (1971), by Richard Matheson Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), by Mark Twain Neither Beg Nor Yield: Stories With an S&S Attitude (2024), edited by Jason M. Waltz Swords in the Shadows (2025), edited by Cullen Bunn The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild (2025), by Bryan Burrough Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mine isn’t the only Good Boy released into the world this week. You may have heard of a little film that shares my books name.   I joke – Ben Leonberger’s Good Boy is everywhere, and rightly so. It’s a haunted house movie told from the POV of Ben’s dog Indy (playing himself). It’s a magic trick of filmmaking and puppy eyes.   Ben came on the show for a generous chat about making the movie. He tells us about the technical hurdles to be jumped, the mammoth 400 day shoot, the portrayal of fear through a dog’s eyes… but mostly we talk about his bond with Indy and why we both believe dogs are the ultimate horror movie heroes.   This is a dog-lover’s delight. Happy Friday!   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ah the arrogance of writers. Now I am one, officially, I thought I’d better do something fitting.   So I set up a whole episode of my podcast to talk about my own book – Good Boy! My debut novella about small English towns, the bonds between men and dogs, and a battle between bravery and monsters.   Thankfully, I have friends who will facilitate this type of nonsense, so thanks to Nat Cassidy and Rachel Harrison for asking me questions and flattering my ego.   We talk about literary and personal inspirations, about what I’ve learned from 5 years of interviewing authors, about local folklore and the composition of monsters… and of course, about dogs!   This was the greatest pleasure for me. I hope you enjoy it half as much.   Other books mentioned: IT (1986), by Stephen King From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King The Fisherman (2016), by John Langan Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd The October Film Haunt (2025), by Michael Wehunt   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another day, another episode about the weird-arse end of nowhere!   We remain in the North of England for this second part of a weeklong celebration of the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!).   This time it’s conversation with Matt Wesolowski, about his train-bound folkloric horror, Don’t Call Mum, Jodie Robins, with her magical seaside lament for lost youth, The Off Season, and Stephen Howard, who has sent the uncanny home into a whole new paroxysm of sorrow, withThis House is Not Haunted But We Are.   We moan about the weather. About trains. About southerners. It’s all very northern and grim.   But there are also ghosts, monsters, mad circuses and VAMPIRE RABBITS!!!   Other books mentioned: Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brönte “Rawhead Rex”, in Books of Blood Volume 3 (1986), by Clive Barker Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury The Iceman Cometh (1940), by Eugene O’Neill White is for Witching (2009), by Helen Oyeyemi Mr Fox (2011), by Helen Oyeyemi Skin Thief: Stories (2023), by Suzan Palumbo Nowhere Burning (2026), by Catriona Ward Quest for the Hexham Heads (2012), by Paul Screeton   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s grim up North.   But thankfully, it’s also weird. Deliciously, darkly, disturbingly weird!   This week we are celebrating the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). In this first roundtable, I’ve gathered two of the writers and the genius behind the project, Ariell Cacciola, to talk about Northern literary culture in the North, haunted landscapes, isolated oddness, and the North/South divide.   Gemma Fairclough brings The Retreat, her story of creepy wellness culture in the Lake District, and Katherine Clements has written a psycho-geographic haunting of the Yorkshire moors in Turbine 34. Yet whilst displaying the diversity of northern weirdness, these two novellas are twinned and entwined in fascinating ways.   Enjoy – there’s more coming all week.   Other books mentioned: Bear Season (2024), by Gemma Fairclough The Coffin Path (2018), by Katherine Clements Every Day is Mother’s Day (1985), by Hilary Mantel Beyond Black (2005), by Hilary Mantel A Place of Greater Safety (1992), by Hilary Mantel Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver The Night Ocean (2017), by Paul LaFarge   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s even real anymore?   Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between.   Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror  – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night.   We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies, and whether we need a new ethics for online storytelling. It’s a deep, intelligent chat (just like the book).   Enjoy. Don’t open strange emails or watch unmarked VHS tapes. WhiteFace Explained - Bloody Disgusting I'm A Search and Rescue Office For the US Forest Service...   Other books mentioned: Greener Pastures (2016), by Michael Wehunt Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), by Carl Sagan If You Knew Me (2025), by S.P. Miskowksi Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week brings a bumper episode, cos Philip Fracassi never stops. Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of my favourite writers.   First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s own loss transformed the novel. Then we take a tour through some of his other books, including the modern classic Boys in the Valley and the nasty demonic desk romp, Gothic.   Plus, a lot of info about future books and movie adaptations.   Enjoy! Phil is fantastic company.   Other books mentioned:   St Joseph's Orphanage - Buzzfeed Article Boys in the Valley (2021), by Philip Fracassi Gothic (2022), by Philip Fracassi A Child Alone With Strangers (2022), by Philip Fracassi No One Is Safe (2024), by Philip Fracassi The Third Rule of Time Travel (2025), by Philip Fracassi Serafina (2026), by Philip Fracassi The Thursday Murder Club (2020), by Richard Osman Fahrenheit-182 (2025), by Mark Hoppus “The Veldt” (1950), by Ray Bradbury Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror (2025), by Ashley Cullins   EVENT LINKS Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets     Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices