Talking Scared

Send us a textClay McLeod Chapman returns to Talking Scared to answer some serious questions, the first being what the holy f**k Clay?! Clay has never been a writer to shy away from a high concept challenge (haunted mushrooms, anyone?) but his latest novel, What Kind of Mother goes into the uncharted regions of the mind and soul, dredging the craziest of horrors from the murky waters of his native Chesapeake Bay. We talk the terrors of both adolescence and parenthood, the terrible power of imagination, why Virginia still beckons his storytelling home … and crabs. Ohhhh we’ll get to the crabs! Clay is a great writer, a wonderful person and a good friend of the show. I hope you enjoy this episode.  What Kind of Mother was published on September 12hth by Quirk Books Books mentioned: Spin a Black Yarn (2023), by Josh Malerman They Lurk (2023), by Ronald Malfi Graveyard of Lost Children (2023), by Katrina Monroe Delicate Condition (2023), by Danielle Valentine Just Like Mother (2022), by Anne Heltzel Pet Sematary (1983), by Stephen King The Return (2020), by Rachel Harrison Razorblade Tears (2021), by S. A. Cosby Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis (1976), by Iris M. Owen and Margaret Sparrow Superstition (1997), by David Ambrose  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 textI’m back, partially rested and with some romance lingering in my soul. Good timing, cos this week’s episode focuses on the heart as well as the blood that it pumps.  Isabel Cañas returns to the show to talk about her second novel, Vampires of El Norte – a sweeping historical love-story set against a backdrop of class tumult, war and … yeah… vampires. It’s not a spoiler guys – it’s in the title! Isabel speaks so eloquently about the relationship between vampirism and cultural legacy, about how it isn’t only the undead who invade your space and drain your essence. She describes the intense, insane schedule of writing the book, how landscape invites the supernatural, Mexican boogeymen and boogeywomen, and historical fiction as feminist conundrum. Enjoy. With heart, soul and viscera.  Vampires of El Norte was published on August 15hth by Berkley Books mentioned:  The Hacienda(2022), by Isabel Cañas Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno Garcia Lone Women (2023), by Victor Lavalle Island Witch (forthcoming 2024), by Amanda Jayatissa  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 textWhy do we keep heading back to the woods? WHY?? Nothing good ever happens there.Alexander James would argue otherwise, but he’s clearly made of sterner stuff than me. In his debut novel, The Woodkin, Alex parlays his love of the wild outdoors into a story that heads toward a familiar backwoods nightmares, before veering far off the beaten trail into something stranger and even scarier. In this episode we talk about his love for the woods of the Pacific Northwest (and yes! I ask him about Bigfoot of course). We cover the controversy surrounding an earlier title choice, the influence of D&D on his writing and the trick to realistically depicting fear in fiction.It’s a happy hike into darkness. EnjoyThe Woodkin was published August 22nd by CamCat BooksOther books mentioned in this episode include: Dark Mountain (1992), by Richard Laymon Offseason (1980), by Jack Ketchum Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The Hacienda (2022), by Isabel Cañas I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I Have Some Stories to TellCritStupid Podcast (Alex's D&D podcast)Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textIf you thought The Last House on Needless Street was tricksy, just wait until you hear about Looking Glass Sound. This is Cat’s ode to the Maine of Stephen King, the enigmatic narrators of Shirley Jackson and… well, a host of other comparisons that I foist upon her in the next hour.Above all that though – the book is so typically, inimitably Catriona Ward. It’s a destined Gothic classic that takes the genre, crumples it into a ball before rewriting the whole thing. We cover the purpose of metafiction in horror, how writing a book is like falling in love, the eeriness of the Maine coast and her fascination with the Neverland Ranch. If that isn’t enough Cat also tells us a ghost story that happened to her just the night before.Tricksy, very tricksy…as Gollum would say.EnjoyLooking Glass Sound was published April 20th by Viper Books in the UK and 22nd August by Tor Nightfire in the US.Other books mentioned in this episode include:  Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis The Rules of Attraction (1987), by Bret Easton Ellis The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt My Other Life (1996) by Paul Theroux Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson Death of a Bookseller (2023), by Alice Slater Mrs March (2021), by Virgina Feito  Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textWe’re off to La La Land this week, to talk cursed films, 90s horror nostalgia and Winona Ryder(!!) Our guest is Josh Winning – who has parlayed his years of writing from and about film sets into a horror novel. Burn the Negative is set in the backlots, soundstages, cutting rooms and dank motel rooms of Hollywood. It features a film with a fatal jinx and a whole lotta love for the 90s teen slasher. Amongst all of that, Josh and I also tick off the uncanny creepiness of child stars, the validity of fun in horror and the power of the silhouette in making a really scary horror villain. EnjoyBurn the Negative was published on July 11th by Penguin Random HouseOther books mentioned in this episode include: The Shadow Glass (2022), by Josh Winning The Final Girl Support Group (2021), by Grady Hendrix My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021), by Stephen Graham Jones House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski “N”– in Just After Sunset (2008), by Stephen King Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textSorry not sorry this week. Yes I’m going to destroy your wallet and your bookshelves…but you LOVE IT!!Our guest is Sadie Hartmann, AKA Mother Horror to the likes of us. One of the most influential horror reviewers in the world. The editor in chief of Dark Hart Books and the co-owner of the Night Worms horror subscription service. She knows a thing or two about this haunted library.And she’s written a book to guide the unwary, or the just-plain curious. Or anyone who wants a new book to read. 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered is Sadie’s guide to the horrid books that she loves – the ones that chill her blood, warm her heart and turn her stomach. We talk about her selection process, her blogging origin story, the gatekeeper problem in horror, our shared fear of certain kinds of book and the joy of scary stories featuring kids on bikes. Renew your library card or get ready to buy some books!101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered was published on August 8th by Page Street PublishingOther books mentioned in this episode include: The Devil All the Time (2012), by Donald Ray Pollock Knockemstiff (2008), by Donald Ray Pollock Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran Lord of the Flies (1954), by William Golding Boys in the Valley (2023), by Philip Fracassi The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore (2018), by Kim Fu Devil’s Creek (2020), by Todd Kiesling Gather the Daughters (2017), by Jennie Melamed The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum Along the Path of Torment (2020), by Chandler Morrison Apartment 16 (2010), by Adam Neville Last Days (2012), by Adam Neville The Reddening (2019), by Adam Neville Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry A House with Good Bones (2023), by T. Kingfisher Number One Fan (2020), by Meg Ellison House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski Let the Right One In (2004), by John Ajvide Lindqvist Betty (2020), by Tiffany McDaniel On the Savage Side (2023), by Tiffany McDaniel Whalefall (2023), by Daniel Kraus  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 textOur guest this week is Stephen King.That’s it. That’s the intro.Stephen King. The architect of modern horror and the creative north star of my life, and many of yours. He’s on the show, talking about his new book, Holly and why the central character just won’t let him go. We cover his attitude to academia, horror and hope, how his worldview sits with a fractured reality, and we even hear some exciting, exclusive details about some upcoming books.I lack the words to convey my delight.EnjoyOther books mentioned in this episode include: The Boy on the Bridge (2017), by M.R. Carey DMV (2023), by Bentley Little Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy The Clackity (2022), by Lora Senf The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), by Agatha Christie “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” (1919), by H.P. Lovecraft The Passenger (2023), by Cormac McCarthy Light Perpetual (2021), by Francis Spufford The Deluge (2023), by Stephen Markley  Holly is published on September 5th by Hodder and Scribner Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 textWe’re off on a Goth pilgrimage this week folks, to the motherland, Transylvania, to talk folk-horror and more with Alex Woodroe.Alex is a Romanian writer of dark fictions, the Editor in Chief of Tenebrous Press, and the debut author of Whisperwood. The book brings the monsters of Romanian myth and legend to the fore in a battle of wills with an isolated village. There isn’t a vampire in sight. Bram Stoker didn’t know what he was talking about.Alex does! And we get into lots of things, from the difference between fantasy and folk-legend, political allegory and the recent history of dictatorship, to the very real undead myths in her own family tree.I learned a lot from this conversation.Enjoy!Whisperwood was published by Flame Tree Press on July 11th Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome 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 we’re joined by the man, the myth, the mystery that is Chuck Tingle. Who knows the truth of this enigmatic figure? What visage lies beneath the pink bag that forever encases his face? Does he really have a PhD in massage? Puzzles abound…The one thing that’s certain is the brilliance of his new novel. Camp Damascus is a full-bloodied horror novel set in that most hideous of environs: a religious community and a gay conversion camp. Sounds triggering. It may well be … but Chuck has also invested this story with such hope and joy and yes, LOVE, that it more than salves all the human horror and demonic jump scares.We cover tons in this episode – the stoic seriousness of fictional sex, the maligned trinity of genres, rattling the religious right, the simple trick to writing effective jumpscares and the final, full declaration of why love is real. Enjoy!Camp Damascus was published by Tor Nightfire on July 18th and Titan Books on July 27th An article about Chuck – worth readingOther books mentioned in this episode include:Straight (2021), by Chuck TingleRevival (2014), by Stephen KingDark Matter (2010), by Michelle PaverSupport 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 I’m recording very close to home with Andrew Michael Hurley. Andrew burst onto the folk-horror scene with subtle aplomb (can one burst subtly?) back in 2014, with The Loney. That slice of weirdness was set in the very town in which I spent my wet, dismal childhood holidays. It conjured shivers in more ways than one. Now he is here to talk about the reissue of his 2019 novel, Starve Acre. It’s a bleak, bitter, wintery tale of isolation, grief and ritual, set in the Yorkshire Dales. Where I also spent some holidays – does Andrew know something I don’t? Hmmmm?We talk about his relationship with folk horror, and how it helps us express our communal British angst. We make comparisons to some unexpected movies, discuss authorial freedom, and talk about deep knowledge, invented lore and horror as replacement for spirituality. It’s all a good excuse to yell about the government. Enjoy!Starve Acre was re-issued by Penguin on July 4th.Other books mentioned in this episode include: The Loney (2014), by Andrew Michael Hurley Elmet (2017), by Fiona Mozley The Gallows Pole (2017), by Benjamin Myers Waterland (1983), by Graham Swift Cold Hand in Mine (1975), by Robert Aickman 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