Talking Scared

Send us a textWe’ve had Cowboys versus Aliens but have you ever considered a threeway fight between gunslingers, vampires and weird cosmic cultists to an Elder God?  If not why not? What do you even think about when you are washing the dishes? But fear not, C.S. Humble has you covered. His weird western trilogy, That Light Sublime is packed with all of the above and more. In The Massacre at Yellow Hill and  A Red Winter in the West Seth introduces a cast of lovable rogues and the stakes of their battle against the worst that this and other worlds can offer. Now, in the concluding volume, The Light of Black Star, he brings it all home, with honour, humour and shattering heartbreak. We talk about broadening the scope of the western, how That Light Sublime links with Seth’s Black Wells series, and he explains his fundamental disagreement with the tenets of cosmic horror. We cover what Mister Rogers has to oteach us about horror writing…and how to write stories that, in Seth’s words… “attain the high romance that the human heart is reaching for.” He’s a poet and a raconteur. I’m also present. Enjoy! The Massacre at Yellow Hill, A Red Winter in the West and The Light of Black Star were all published in 2023 by Cemetery Dance. Books mentioned: East of Eden (1952), by John Steinbeck Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry Merciless Waters (2023), by Rae Knowles Midas (2023), by Tyler Jones Lone Women (2023), by Victor Lavalle Red Rabbit (2023), by Alex Grecian The Legend of Charlie Fish (2023), by Josh Rountree The Demon of Devil’s Canyon (coming 2024), by Brenna LeFaro “Pigeons From Hell” (1938), by Robert E. Howard The Thicket (2013), by Joe R. Lansdale Cold in July (1989), by Joe R. Lansdale The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All (2013), by Laird Barron Moby Dick (1851), by Herman Melville Fevre Dream (1982), by George R. R. Martin Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textSometimes two words can make a jaded horror reader sit up straight.  Ghost is one, Dinosaur is another. Ghost. Dinosaur. Have you ever heard a more beautiful combination, a sweeter symphony of syllables. If “Ghost Dinosaur” doesn’t make you go squeeee and shake your fists in excitement, I don’t know how to help you. Anyway, that’s the focus of Luke Dumas delightful new novel, The Paleontologist. It’s a story about a haunted man, a creepy museum, institutional intrigue, murder and GHOST GODDAMN DINOSAURS!! We talk about all of that and lots more, including humour in horror, how far a book can stretch a reader’s empathy, and why privilege is such a complex issue to tackle.  But yeah. Also Ghost Dinosaurs. Enjoy! The Paleontologist was published 31st October by Atria Books  Books mentioned:  A History of Fear (2022), by Luke Dumas Children of the Fang, and Other Genealogies (2020), by John Langan The Lost World (1912), by Arthur Conan Doyle Jurassic Park (1990), by Michael Crichton Tyrannosaur Canyon (2005), by Douglas Preston The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr Spencer Black (2013), by E.B. Hudspeth The Bonus Room (AKA Bedbugs) (2023) by Ben H. Winters Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textHorror is about finding light in darkness. That’s the mission statement of this podcast, at least. And it’s never been truer than in this week’s episode. Tyler Jones re-joins us on Talking Scared to talk about his new novel, Midas. We cover its original mix of western tropes, Gothic fantasy and cult horror, but it’s family that lies at the heart of both the book and the conversation. Tyler talks us through the real life emotional rollercoaster that inspired this story. It’s a personal conversation. Upsetting in parts, but lit through with love and life and all the good stuff.  And if I’m sounding a little pompous and portentous here, don’t worry – we also slide seamlessly into some nerdy chat about biblical mysteries and ancient alien nonsense. This is an important episode, for me and for Tyler. I hope you enjoy it. p.s – here’s to Goliath the horse! Enjoy! Midas  was published in October by Earthlings Publications  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textHistory is haunted. Ghosts are injustice persevering. So many horror stories hinge on that idea, but for Tananarive Due it’s more personal than that. Her new novel, The Reformatory, is borne from the ghosts hidden in her own family history.  The story takes place in a hideously cruel juvenile correction facility, in a racist town, in the 1950s. As you can imagine, very few good things happen to her child protagonist.  We talk about the link between horror and history, about writing from her family tree, about the very real reformatories that persisted into the modern era, and about looking cruelty full in the face and wrestling it into story. This conversation is the perfect context for a near-perfect novel.  Enjoy! The Reformatory was published October 31st by Saga and Titan Books  Books mentioned:  The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones The Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (2012), by Gilbert King Kindred (1979), by Octavia E. Butler  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textSometimes when you’re doing something scary good company can be a blessing.  Nat Cassidy is good company. And this week he talks me through the haunted hallways and avenues of his New York horror ode, Nestlings – but he also helps me tackle the very real world horror that is turning our newspapers into nightmare-fodder and the Middle East into a tinderbox. But have no fear (well, always have a little fear!) this is no mere despairing, depressing look at reality. We also talk about gargoyles and vampire-adjacent things, about New York winters and longing for home … and of course, about Stephen King.  Enjoy! Nestlings was published October 31st by Tor Nightfire Books mentioned: Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat CassidyNightmares in the Sky (1988), by Stephen King and F-Stop Fitzgerald‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen KingThe Shining (1977), by Stephen KingFrom a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen KingRosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira LevinThe Keep (1981), by F. Paul WilsonI, Claudius (1934) by Robert GravesThe Guns of August (1962), by Barbara W. Tuchman Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textSome stories are just too big for one podcast. Some stories should be too big for one book.  Sam Rebelein’s Edenville is one such story. This 300-something page novel has more crammed into it than your average fantasy trilogy. There is backstory upon backstory, a cosmic framework, and enough different monsters to fill Guillermo del Toro’s minibus. Yet somehow Sam corrals it all into a whimsical horror romp – a well-organised riot. We talk about ideas… about thinking them up, letting them evolve and, most crucially, getting them on paper. We talk narcissistic writers, the power of dreams, the unique eeriness of the Hudson River Valley and the questionable nature of curses. This conversation is a call to arms for writers. It’s a weary acceptance that maybe, just maybe, sitting your arse in the chair is the most important thing you can do all day. Enjoy! Edenville was published October 3rd by Titan Books and HarperCollins Books mentioned:  Echo (2022), by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Camp Damascus (2023), by Chuck Tingle Hannibal (1999), by Thomas Harris  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textSome stories are too short, some are too long, but some stories are just right. It’s the Goldilocks zone: the novella.What is the secret to crafting a longer story but not letting it run away from you? How do you sustain the terror beyond the shortest form? How do you know what to keep in and what to cut out? This is the art of the novella, and I’m joined by a pair of expert practitioners to talk it through. Josh Malerman and Ronald Malfi have both published novella collections this year – Ron’s They Lurk and Josh’s Spin a Black Yarn contain multitudes. From motel-lot self-mutilation to deathbed serial killer confessions, via the Oregon backwoods and the core of Saturn(!!), these stories take us to places without wasting a word.Josh and Ron provide a masterclass on the art of the novella, as well as ALL the enthusiasm you could ever pack into an hour of conversation. This one will put a smile on your face and inspiration in your typin’ fingers! Enjoy. They Lurk was published was published on July 18th by Titan; Spin a Black Yarn was published August 15th by Del Rey Books mentioned: Daphne (2022), by Josh MalermanGoblin (2021), by Josh MalermanGhostwritten (2022), by Ronald MalfiPet Sematary (1983), by Stephen KingThe Long Walk (1979), by Stephen KingMrs Dalloway (1925) by Virginia WoolfHouses Without Doors (1990), by Peter StraubBloom (2023), by Delilah S. DawsonThe Turn of the Screw (1898), by Henry James Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week is a special roundtable episode. An exciting, challenging and very very thought-provoking tour of contemporary Black horror, in the company of three writers at the bleeding edge.  Nnedi Okorafor, Maurice Broaddus and Lesley Nneka Arimah are just three of the contributors to Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. It’s curated by Jordan Peele, who knows a thing or two about that particular landscape, and these three authors present a fantastic cross-section of how versatile Black horror is right now. We talk about their stories, about the anthology as a whole and the broader topic of Black horror. What does that even mean? What is the role of history? Of trauma? And of the future? At times, these guests turn the interview around on me, asking me to reflect on my own presumptions and the baggage I bring to these stories. Like I said, challenging and exciting. Hope you enjoy it. Out There Screaming was published on October 3rd by Picador and Random House Books mentioned:  Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers 92004), ed. Brandon Massey King Maker (2010), by Maurice Broaddus How High We Go in the Dark (2022), by Sequoia Nagamatsu Demon Copperhead (2022), by Barbara Kingsolver The Changeling (2017), by Victor LaValle No Gods, No Monsters (2021), by Cadwell Turnbull The Nesting (2020), by C.J. Cooke Leech (2022), by Hiron Ennes “Africanfuturism Defined.” (2019), by Nnedi OkoraforSupport Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textCome home!! We have to come home!! The House is calling us. Yep, this week we are going back to the most haunted house of all. Hill House. Shirley Jackson’s classic bad place. And we’re going in the company of three-time Shirley Jackson Award Winner, Elizabeth Hand, whose new novel is the first ever sanctioned sequel to Jackson’s classic. A Haunting on the Hill submits four new unwitting victims to the horrors of Hill House. But that’s where the stories diverge. Liz’s take on this soured ground is a whole different thing, full of witchcraft, theatre-drama and weirdness even Jackson didn’t dream up. We talk about Jackson’s huge legacy, the pressures and pleasures of playing in her sandbox, treating Hill House as a character and murder ballads.  Enjoy! Welcome home.  A Haunting on the Hill was published on October 3rd by Mulholland Books and Sphere Books mentioned:  When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), ed. by Ellen Datlow The Shining (1977), by Stephen King Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (2011), by Rob Young The Magic Box: Viewing Britain through the Rectangular Window (2021), by Rob Young Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week on Talking Scared we are joining hands with Chuck Wendig to take the fight to Big Fruit. They have been lying to us about apples all our lives. Chuck’s new novel, Black River Orchard is all about apples. Tasty, evil, corruptive. The book grows from the fertile soil of American small-town horror, and we talk about some texts in that storytelling style, as well as how Chuck himself approaches writing such big books with so many character arcs. We also cover apple-lore, how politics fits into horror fiction, the appeal of violent characters and a whole lot of books we think you should read.  Enjoy. This book is a great way to say goodbye to summer. Black River Orchard was published on September 26th by Del Rey Books mentioned:  Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson Ring Shout (2020), by P. Djèlí Clark The Fisherman (2017), by John Langan The Tommyknockers (1987), by Stephen King ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy Swan Song (1987), by Robert R. McCammon Maeve Fly (2023), by C.J. Leede  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices