Talking Scared

Send us a textWhere do you stand on horror and comedy? Can a book be too funny to be scary, or too terrifying to raise a chuckle? Our guest this week would argue not. T. Kingfisher is the author of the critically-acclaimed The Twisted Ones (2019) and her brand-new release The Hollow Places. Both are scorching horror tales, with some hideous imagery, exquisite world-building and nightmare-fuel ideas . . . but they are also both laugh-out-loud funny, at least to us sickos anyway! T (short for ‘The’ or ‘Terrence’, depending on her mood) and I discuss the world’s maddest museums, the practical issues with making your own golem, and whether America is really overrun with phantom kangaroos! We also manage to sneak in some ‘serious’ conversation about how the genre works, and why she finds classic tales such an inspiration. This one will put a smile on your face as October draws to an end. Some of the books discussed in this episode include:  “The White People” in The House of Souls (1906), by Arthur Machen “The Willows”, in The Listener and Other Stories (2007), by Algernon Blackwood It Will Just Be Us (2002), by Jo Kaplan From a Buick Eight (2002), by Stephen King The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman Coraline, by Neil Gaiman Firefly Rain (2008), by Richard Dansky  Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week Emily Danforth takes us back to school. Her new novel, Plain Bad Heroines has a lot to say about the history of queer women, the price of fame, and whether found footage horror is any good. Plain Bad Heroines features heavily on all the best-of lists for the season, and it’s an early reputation that’s well deserved. This tricksy, twisty novel spans centuries to tell the tale of a very peculiar school and the horror film made about it two hundred years later.If you have any interest in experimental fiction, queer writing or American Gothic then, somehow, this book covers all those bases.Emily also tells one hell of a story about why she’s frightened of home invasion. Come, gather round the teacher’s desk and listen . . .Books mentioned in this episode include: The Fingersmith (2002), by Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (2009), by Sarah Waters Ghost Story (1979), by Peter Straub  Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski The Return (2020), by Rachel Harrison “The Talent of the Room”, by Michael Ventura Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textKate Summerscale is our first guest working in the realms of non-fiction. Her back-catalogue proves that the real world is every bit as dark and terrifying as the inside of Stephen King’s head. She’s covered murder in the famous The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008) and now she’s back with a more spiritual crisis in The Haunting of Alma Fielding. The book examines a very odd case of poltergeist activity in the London suburbs between the wars. Famous ghost hunters get involved, much crockery is thrown, jewellery is stolen (all by ghosts honestly!) and terrapins are manifested out of thin air. If all that sounds truly bizarre to you, then trust me, it’s the tip of a very spooky iceberg.Kate is definitely the one to take us through the story. Her research is meticulous, and her historical contextualisation paints a compelling portrait of a nation, a household, and a woman under threat of attack. Books mentioned in this episode include: “Chemical”, in Shocks, by Algernon Blackwood (1935) Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, by Colin Dickey (2017) The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and our Obsession with the Unexplained, by Colin Dickey (2020) The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textAhoy mateys! My guest this week is the locked-room-murder-maestro himself, Stuart Turton. In 2018 Stu burst onto the scene with his genre-splicing triumph, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It won awards and melted some brains with its maddening twists and turns.Stu’s follow-up is equally intricate but this time it’s also seaworthy. The Devil and the Dark Water is a murder mystery set on a 16th Century trading ship, but in true Turton-esque (is that a thing yet) style, it’s also about a dozen other genres too. There is horror aplenty, as the titular demon begins to reveal himself in the shadowy corners of the ship.We discuss all sorts this week, from the depravity of sailing vessels, to the agony of first novels, and we seriously question whether Sherlock Holmes is a d**k? Yep, this week there is swearing! Enjoy.Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks to Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week we get visceral – with the extreme body horror of Robert Jeremy Johnson and his new novel THE LOOP. Jeremy speaks to us from Portland, Oregon, where he’s busy watching the forest fires and working on ways to weaponise his words for good. THE LOOP is a novel all about conspiracy theory, medical mishap, and a class war raging through a small town. Think your favourite 80s teen comedy (with its guts spilling out) mixed with a little bit of 50s pulp Americana and smeared with 2020s political frenzy. That’s THE LOOP and man, it’s a trip!!Oh, and we hear some VERY alarming claims about the octopus!The books we discuss in this episode include:  The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton (1967)  Survivor Song, by Paul Tremblay (2020) IT, by Stephen King (1986) Boy’s Life, by Robert McCammon (1991) Summer of Night, by Dan Simmons (1991) A Collapse of Horses, by Brian Evenson (2016) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks To Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week’s guest is up-and-coming horror extraordinaire, Jo Kaplan. Jo’s new haunted house novel, It Will Just Be Us is a tour-de-force of chills, thrills and things that kill. It’s got everything you could possibly want: creepy old house – check, mysterious locked room – CHECK, a witch who lurks in a swamp – CHECK!!!! It’s also got some of the best female relationships I’ve read in horror for a while, enough to pass the Bechdel test with flying colours.Jo and I talk about Freud’s uncanny and the infamous Winchester House, how to research her locations (or not), and how to make a ghost feel like something new. This chat feels like getting in at the ground floor of what will be a skyscraper career. Listen now, and you can say you were there at the start! The books we discussed this episode include: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959) “Jordan’s End”, by Ellen Glasgow, in The Shadowy Third (1923) The Gone World, by Tom Sweterlitsch (2018) House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000) Don’t Turn Out the Lights:  A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, edited by Jonathan Mayberry (2020) The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones (2020) Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia (2020) Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Thanks To Terry Smith Audio for sound editing.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textThis week we’re in conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the author of Mexican Gothic - 2020's twisted publishing phenomenon. We discuss the novel's roots in British soil, and whether a book can be considered 'too' Mexican or not Mexican enough. Along the way we also consider the classic Mexican horror cinema of Enrique Taboada, why not everything has to be magic realism, and why all aspiring writers should learn to keep their receipts. Silvia has fiery words for those who think every damn book that comes from Mexico needs to feature the day of the dead. It's an intense conversation - challenging and thought-provoking. Just don't dare call Mexican Gothic a romance!  Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or reach out direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIn the second episode i'm in conversation with John Langan, contemporary literary horror superstar and all round scholar of the genre. John is the author of the Bram Stoker Award-Winning classic The Fisherman and his latest collection is Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies. We talk about great influences and literary ventriloquism, what makes a great horror title, and what it's like to be part of the coolest club in the horror community. There are few writers out there with a better understanding of their own genre than John, and this interview is a primer in horror writing for newbies and aficionados alike. Books mentioned in our conversation include:  Robert E. Howard - Wolfshead, and Other Stories Stephen King's Christine, Cujo and Skeleton Crew Laird Barron - "More Dark" in The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All Laird Barron - The Isiah Coleridge series (Blood Standard, Black Mountain, Worse Angels)  Clive Barker - Books of Blood, Volumes 1-6 Stephen Graham Jones - "Raphael" in The Ones That Got Away Henry James · What Maisie Knew  Peter Straub - Ghost Story  Come talk books with us on Twitter @talkscaredpod or reach out direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIn the first ever episode of Talking Scared we speak to horror megastar Paul Tremblay, author of the modern classic, A Head Full of Ghosts and this year's virus-shocker Survivor Song.  There are musings on pandemics real and imaginary, the terror of sharks, and the terrible truth at the heart of horror fiction.Books mentioned in our conversation include: The Stand – Stephen King Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus – Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy Things We Lost in the Fire – Mariana Enriquez 2666 – Roberto Bolano “The Colonel’s Son” – in The Secret of Evil by Robert Bolano Come talk books with us on Twitter @TalkScaredPodSupport the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices