Talking Scared

Send us a textI’m in literary hero territory again … at least this time it’s sunny! My guest is Scarlett Thomas, the groundbreaking writer of PopCo, Oligarchy, The Seed Collectors and the (post)modern speculative classic, The End of Mr Y. She’s one of my favourite writers, who has never seen five or six separate genres she can’t mash together. This time around we are talking “Hot Gothic” in The Sleepwalkers, a darkly playful tale of a vacation–and a marriage–gone horribly wrong.  We cover accidentally arriving at a structure, the many ways to build characters from scratch, the dark consequences of sex and desire taken too far – and we agree on how hotels are just inherently creepy. Great book. Great guest.  Enjoy! The Sleepwalkers was published on April 9th by Simon and Schuster Other books mentioned:  The End of Mr Y (2006), by Scarlett Thomas The Seed Collectors (2015), by Scarlett Thomas Oligarchy (2019), by Scarlett Thomas Open: An Autobiography (2009), by Andre Agassi The Woman in White (1860), by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone (1868), by Wilkie Collins Gone Girl (2012), by Gillian Flynn The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), by Patricia Highsmith Hangsaman (1951), by Shirley Jackson  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 textCarrie White turns 50 years old today! April 5th, 1974 – the day King’s debut came out, and the world of horror we know live in changed forever.  To celebrate such an auspicious anniversary, there are only two people I could invite to this party. Step up Nat Cassidy and Ally Malinenko – writers who understand King and that bitter, brutal world between childhood and adulthood. We talk about empathy and monsters, about the horror of high school, the abject and the menstruation taboo and about how we are all living in Margaret White’s America now… Raise a glass to the prom queen of horror. She can light her own candles. Enjoy! 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 textAlas, we come to the end! Stephen Graham Jones’s The Angel of Indian Lake brings the most important horror trilogy of the century to its conclusion. For one last time we return to Proofrock, Idaho – to watch Jade Daniels do battle with monsters in the wood and the demons in her head.  SGJ also comes back to Talking Scared to finish our adjacent trilogy of conversations about these books. We talk about slashers and final girls for sure, but as ever with Stephen, these are windows onto something more profound – and he gives us his insight into how horror, justice, violence and luck operate in fiction. This all sounds very profound. It is. But in the coolest way possible. The man is a rock star…. … but I STILL manage to freak him out with a ghost story. Enjoy – it’s been a ride! The Angel of Indian Lake was published on March 26thth by Saga Press and Titan Books Other books mentioned:  Where the Red Fern Grows (1961), by Wilson Rawls Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars #10 (1984), by Jim Shooter In Cold Blood (1965), by Truman Capote Morphology of the Folktale (1928), by Vladimir Propp The Red Badge of Courage (1895), by Stephen Crane The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991), by Jean Baudrillard The Name of the Rose (1980), by Umberto Eco The Hollow Kind (2022), by Andy Davidson Piranesi (2021), by Susannah Clarke A Tale of Two Cities (1859), by Charles Dickens The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s ‘Lost Highway’ (2000), by Slavoj Žižek The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine Arden The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden The Others of Edenwell (2023), by Verity Holloway “A Fish Story” (2002), by Gene Wolfe  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 textChi-Town!! We’re heading to the midwestern metropolis this week, for a conversation with Cina Pelayo – all about murder, mystery, history and strange things in the water. Her new novel, Forgotten Sisters is a heady, dreamlike concoction of Chicago lore and much older horrors. It features a pair of very wyrd sisters and a house by a river that holds nothing good.  As well as all of that, we talk about Cina’s personal journey with the paranormal, mermaid sightings, writing law enforcement, and wrestling with weird voices in fiction.  Oh, and the abject horror of social media!! Enjoy! Forgotten Sisters was published on March 19th by Thomas & Mercer Other books mentioned:  Children of Chicago (2021), by Cynthia Pelayo The Shoemaker’s Magician (2023), by Cynthia Pelayo Loteria (2023), by Cynthia Pelayo Into the Forest and All the Way Through (2020), by Cynthia Pelayo The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due  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 textNever mind the floor is lava. This week the ground has teeth. Joshua Hull is our guest, to talk about his obsession with dangerous, weird holes. He wrote one into his hilarious, grisly horror movie, Glorious (on Shudder) and now he’s given a hole a whole personality in his debut novella, Mouth.  It’s a grindhouse, b-movie celebrations, with larger than life characters, grisly death, and the most lovable monster of the year.  We talk about writing endearing creature features, about forgotten American serial killers, about the difference between writing for books and writing screenplays and, yes, about HOLES!   Enjoy! Mouth was published on March 15th by Tenebrous Press Other books mentioned: The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel HightowerFrankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley 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 textTime to get liminal and haunted.  Gwendolyn Kiste comes back to Talking Scared for another high-concept twist on the Gothic. In The Haunting of Velkwood, and entire street turns ghostly overnight. Yeah, I can’t explain that any more clearly, we’ll leave it to Gwendolyn. Despite this being a book centered on trauma and angst, we do a whole lot of laughing. Amongst the chuckles we also sneak in conversation about the many meanings of the word haunted, child-free horror fiction televisual references, and just what makes the American suburbs so damn creepy! Enjoy! The Haunting of Velkwood was published on March 5th by Saga Press Other books mentioned:  Reluctant Immortals (2022), by Gwendolyn Kiste Suburbia (1973), by Bill Owens Twilight: Photographs (2002), by Gregory Crewdson The Daughters of Block Island (2023), by Christa Carmen  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 you meet someone who just gets you. Like Tim Lebbon. A man who writes riotously good adventure-horror novels, and also likes running outrageous distances up big hills. What a pleasure it was to speak to him. The main topic of conversation is his new novel eco-horror novel, Among the Living. A story of ancient buried history and ‘intelligent’ infection, it blends the paranoia of The Thing with the ragtag group heroism and intensity of Aliens. In short, it’s good! Tim and I talk about eco-horror, about the biological menaces facing mankind in the future, we discuss how writing action helps with writing character, and I tell him why this book freaked me out so much. Oh, and we do spend some time talking about running up big hills. But we try and keep it relevant to the horror and the writing… Give me a break, how often do I meet a soul-brother like this? Enjoy! Among the Living was published on February 6th by Titan Books Other books mentioned:  Eden (2020), by Tim Lebbon The Last Storm (2022), by Tim Lebbon The Hunt (2015), by Tim Lebbon Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran The Bang Bang Sisters (2024), by Rio Yoeurs   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 textBack from a too-short break, but ready to delve into the greatest haunted house of them all! Shirley Jackson’s Hill House. The place where the scary things walk alone. Thankfully, I am not alone. I’m joined by my own group of creepy ghost-hunters: Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, Cabin at the End of the World), Johnny Compton (The Spite House) and Catriona Ward (Last House on Needless Street, Looking Glass Sound). I can think of no better collective to explore the corridors of this book and house. We get INTO it. The crafted magic of that infamous opening paragraph, the long legacy of creepy houses in American fiction, the choice between the haunted void and hideous, mundane reality. Plus, a raft of film recommendations, and a few brief forays into our favourite real haunted places. This one was necessary. Hope you enjoy it. Other books mentioned: House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. DanielewskiCarrie (1974), by Stephen King‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen KingThe Shining (1977),  by Stephen KingThe Spite House (2023), by Johnny ComptonThe Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (1983), by John GardnerThe Letters of Shirley Jackson (2021), edited by Laurence Jackson HymanWhen Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (2021), ed. by Ellen Datlow“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (1904), by M.R. James Support Talking Scared on Patreon Visit the Talking Scared site 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 textYes I put sex in the title to make you download it. Did it work? It shouldn’t be necessary, ‘cos this week’s guest is an absolute literary icon. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, Haunted, Lullaby, Choke, and last year’s Not Forever, But For Now – a writer who helped shape the nihilism and extremity of 90s and noughties fiction. The man who makes people faint with his short stories.  He’s here, talking to us! In this conversation Chuck and I roam all over the blasted map of his fiction. We talk about transgression and provocation, about extremity in life and story, about bad reviews, toxic interviews and toxic masculinity. And yes, we talk about “Guts.” This was a privilege. I hope you are shocked and appalled. Enjoy! Other books mentioned:  Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk Haunted (2005), by Chuck Palahniuk Lullaby (2002), by Chuck Palahniuk Diary (2003), by Chuck Palahniuk Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey (2005), by Chuck Palahniuk Adjustment Day (2018), by Chuck Palahniuk Cold Comfort Farm (1932), by Stella Gibbons Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin “The Lottery” (1948), by Shirley Jackson Interview with the Vampire (1976), by Anne Rice Geek Love (1989), by Katherine Dunn Most Delicious Poison: From Spice to Vices – The Story of Nature’s Toxins (2023), by Noah Whiteman Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021), by Eric LaRocca  Support Talking Scared on Patreon Visit the Talking Scared site 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

Author Ally Wilkes discusses the haunting horrors and cannibalism in her novel 'Where the Dead Wait'. Topics include consuming human meat, queerness in historical horror, links to sci-fi classics, and a near-death experience in the Himalayas.