Talking Scared

Send us a textWe’re heading into largely uncharted horror waters this week with our guest Nat Cassidy. Nat’s debut horror novel, Mary: An Awakening of Terror dares to confront one of the last true taboos of horror fiction. No, it’s not cannibalism, or necrophilia, or the bowel movements of Tucker Carlson … no… it’s the menopause. That’s right. Female physiology. The horror, the terror, think of the children!!!Nat and I talk about why horror shies away from the topic of middle age and menopause, and why he was inspired to tell this story when he was just thirteen years old. We talk about Stephen King and Carrie and their lasting influence. And we look back at the worse year of Nat’s life, and how it helped fuel the writing of Mary.We also promise (and fail) to talk about Bruce Springsteen, our shared north star. Watch this space for more on that in the future.Enjoy!Mary: An Awakening of Terror is published on July 19thth by Tor NightfireOther books discussed in this episode include: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (1998), by Philip Gourevitch Carrie (1974), by Stephen King Parasite (1980), by Ramsey Campbell 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 textDUM DUM DUM!!! 100 episodes!! We did it. We reached an utterly abstract threshold together guys and we are DELIGHTED to be here. I’m also delighted to welcome Paul Tremblay back to the show for a neat bit of circularity (as he was the one to kick things off way back in episode 1). Paul’s new novel, The Pallbearer’s Club came out just at the right time to make him the 100th guest. I’m convinced he planned it that way.It’s a tale of weird adolescence, New England folklore, Punk Rock and loneliness. Sounds typically bleak right? Well it is, but it also has jokes, a heartwarming friendship and argumentative notes in the margins – so it’s both a homecoming and a departure for Paul.We talk about his early desire to be a musician, his obsessions with misinformation, the art of fictionalising the truth, and the fear that inspires his uniquely uncanny set-pieces.Oh, and we also mention a certain film adaptation that may be in the works.Enjoy!The Pallbearers Club was published on July 5th by William Morrow and Titan BooksOther books discussed in this episode include:  The Bus on Thursday (2018), by Shirley Barrett Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis A Confederacy of Dunces (1980), by John Kennedy Toole House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski Our Share of Night (2023), by Mariana Enriquez 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 textIt’s been a rough couple of weeks. So, let’s have a laugh: Poe-style!Our guest is T. Kingfisher. She’s an expert in taking dry, dark horror classics and investing them with newfound life. In What Moves the Dead she manages to find the gruesome joy in even the most dolorous of text. What Moves the Dead reconfigures and reapproaches Poe’s classic, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It updates the year, introduces some gender fluidity, and even adds Beatrix Potter’s aunt. Yes, this is not your usual rewrite.It also involves mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms.Consequently, we talk a lot about mycology – but we also get plenty of other fun stuff. Like whether we enjoy explanations in horror, how Albanian inheritance laws inspired her novella’s gender dynamics, and how her grandmother would have excelled at polygamy had it been invented.This episode is a sprinkle of zest into the rancid stew of life. Enjoy!What Moves the Dead is published on July 12th by Tor NightfireOther books discussed in this episode include:  The Twisted Ones (2019), by T. Kingfisher The Hollow Places (2020), by T. Kingfisher Perdido Street Station (2000), by China Mievelle Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno Garcia Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThings are a bit fishy this week, as I’m joined by long-time friend-of-the-show Tim McGregor (@TimMcGregor1) to talk about the long history of fish-tailed women and why we find them so frightening … and sexy! Tim’s forthcoming novella, Lure, is a mermaid story with bite! No Ariel here; Sebastian the Crab is hiding. Instead it’s about the war of attrition between a brutal patriarchal settlement and the sea-she-creature who holds them to account.(a little fitting for this week’s misogyny-a-thon in the Supreme Court) As well as mermaid lore, we also talk about Tim’s upbringing in the Ontarian wilds … and his father’s axe … as well as disagreeing on heroes and villains, and delving into Tim’s experiences on the periphery of one of the year’s biggest horror meltdowns.  Enjoy! Lure is published on July 18th by Tenebrous PressOther books discussed in this episode include: Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buelhman Into the Drowning Deep (2017), by Mira Grant All the Murmuring Bones (2021), by Angela Slatter – (episode 29) The Essex Serpent (2016), by Sarah Perry The Monsters of Templeton (2008), by Lauren Groff Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week on Talking Scared it’s monsters all day, every day. To celebrate the release of Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, we gather around the campfire with editor Ellen Datlow and three of her contributors – no less than Nathan Ballingrud, Chikodili Emelumadu and the great Joe R. Lansdale.As a result, this is not your average Talking Scared episode. There is interruption, overlap, argument much good humour. Amidst the chaos we still manage a fascinating conversation about the creatures that lurk in the wilds and those who walk amongst us. We talk about what makes a monster, why we love them, and where they fit in our modern hyperconnected world.(and they have the audacity to tell me that Bigfoot isn’t real!)Enjoy!Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous was published on June 7th by Tor NightfireOther books discussed in this episode include: The Wilds (2014), by Julia Elliot Ormeshadow (2019), by Priya Sharma Sundial (2022), by Catriona Ward Road of Bones (2022), by Christopher Golden And Then I Woke Up (2022), by Malcolm Devlin (episode 87) The Last Storm (2022), by Tim Lebbon Eden (2020), by Tim Lebbon Anybody Home (2022), by Michael Siedlinger Cunning Women: A Feminist Tale of Forbidden Love After the Witch Trials (2021), by Elizabeth Lee Hemingway's Widow: The Life and Legacy of Mary Welsh Hemingway (2022), by Timothy Christian The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five (2021), by Tom Rosten African Monsters: Volume 2 (2015), edited by Margret Hellgadotir and Jo Thomas.  Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textWe’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. PutnamOther 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/TalkingScaredPodCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis 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/TalkingScaredPodCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis 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/TalkingScaredPodCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textHere 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 ReySupport Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis 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/TalkingScaredPodCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices