Talking Scared

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175 – The Ghost Story Deep Dive, with Alan Baxter, Lauren Bolger & John Langan Dec 24, 2023

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Dickens said that Christmas Eve was a time for ghost stories, and who am I to argue?

It is my show though, so I get to pick the ghost story – and I picked Peter Straub’s classic novel of the name. A tale of old men with horror in their youths, seductive evil and a town besieged by winter and… worse things.

It’s a slippery beast though, this novel. So to really help pin it down, I needed help. I called and help came, in the form of Alan Baxter (author of Sallow Bend, The Gulp and many more), Lauren Bolger (Kill Radio) and John Langan, whose novel, The Fisherman, continues what I think is Straub’s American gothic legacy.

We talk about the book in granular detail – it’s monsters, it’s politics, it’s storytelling and, of course, it’s ghosts. It’s about as jolly a time as you can have talking about ancient evil visiting small towns. But enough about Santa.

Light the fire, pour a drink, enjoy! You’ve earned it.

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174 – State of the Horror Nation 2023, with Emily Hughes, Victor Lavalle & C.J. Leede Dec 19, 2023

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And so we come to the end of another year in horror. Time to look back at the best that 2023 has had to offer, as determined by three of the best in the business.

My trusted horror chancellor, Emily Hughes joins me – alongside C.J. Leede, the author of this year’s gloriously transgressive Maeve Fly, and the maestro of the macabre himself, Victor Lavalle. Together we cover the year’s freshest nightmares in the macro and the micro, looking at wider trends and picking our own favourite horror fiction from this year’s epic crop.

This is a blast. We laugh, we yell, and we declare that the nation is strong, and good, and frightening.

Enjoy!

Books Picked:

Our Share of Night (2023), by Mariana Enriquez
Boys Weekend (2023), by Mattie Lubchansky
Black Sheep (2023), by Rachel Harrison
The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023), ed. Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams
Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023) ed. Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Red Rabbit (2023), by Alex Grecian
Whalefall (2023), by Daniel Kraus

Books Anticipated:

Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch (2024), by Emily Hughes
American Rapture (2024), by C.J. Leede
Ghost Roots (2024), by Pemi Aguda
A Mask of Flies (2024), by Matthew Lyons
The Z Word (2024), by Lindsay King-Miller
Your Shadow Half Remains (2024), by Sunny Moraine
First Light (2024), by Liz Kerin
Bury Your Gays (2024), by Chuck Tingle
I Was a Teenage Slasher (2024), by Stephen Graham Jones
The House of Last Resort (2024), by Christopher Golden
The Book of Love (2024), by Kelly Link
King Nyx (2024), by Kirsten Bakis
Moon of the Turning Leaves (2024), by Waubgeshig Rice
In the Valley of the Headless Men (2024), by L.P. Hernandez
Island Witch (2024), by Amanda Jayatissa
The Haunting of Velkwood (2024), Gwendolyne Kiste
The Redemption of Morgan Bright (2024), by Chris Panatier
Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay
You Like It Darker (2024), by Stephen King

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173 – Michelle Paver & Long Nights of the Body & Soul Dec 12, 2023

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We’re going up in the world this week – longitudinally and latitudinally, with the GOAT of endurance, adventure Gothic, Michelle Paver.

Michelle joins me for a big conversation about her novels Dark Matter and Thin Air – two of the most effective ghost stories of the 21st century. One takes us to the Arctic, the other to a Himalayan peak, both places littered with the dead… who may still be around.

We talk about how ghost stories work, their tradition and what perhaps differentiates them from horror. We consider the challenge of writing heroes with imperial perspectives, and Michelle relates her own, eerie, dangerous experiences out in the frozen wilds.

This is perfect winter listening, even if we did record it in July.

Enjoy!

Books mentioned:

Wolf Brother (2004), by Michelle Paver

The Abominable (2013), by Dan Simmons

30 Days of Night (2002), by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith

The Others of Edenwell (2023), by Verity Holloway

“The Kit Bag” (1908), by Algernon Blackwood

Cold Earth (2009), by Sarah Moss

Number 90 and Other Ghost Stories (2000 rpt)B.M. Croker

A Beleaguered City (1871), by Margaret Oliphant

The Long Tale (Tail) of Dogs in Fiction (Esquire)

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172 – Gemma Amor & The Haunted Penis-Replacement Structure Dec 05, 2023

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Last time Gemma Amor came on the show we had a good ol’ chinwag about our haunted brains. This time around we get to some other ghosts, in her new novel, The Folly.

It’s a sharp slice of coastal Gothic; Cornwall’s answer to The Shining if you will. The story follows Morgan and her aging father to the weird structure of the tital, where they find hauntings of many stripes, some uncannily familiar.

It wouldn’t be a Gemma Amor episode if things didn’t get personal – and we talk about anxieties of identity, father/daughter dynamics and the trauma of the Covid years. But it doesn’t get too real or heavy, cos we the nature of cursed buildings and twists on possession to deal with.

Enjoy our rural Britishness. I think we hide our inner yokel well.

The Folly was published by Polis Books on in December 2023 (US) and January 2024 (UK)

Books mentioned:

Full Immersion (2022), by Gemma Amor
Six Rooms (2021), by Gemma Amor
Rebecca (1938), by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel (1951), by Daphne du Maurier
“The Birds,” (1952), by Daphne du Maurier
Annihilation (2014), by Jeff VanderMeer
The Lamplighters (2021), by Emma Stonex
The Dark Between the Trees (2022), by Fiona Barnett

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171 – C.S. Humble & Come For the Horror, Stay for the Horses Nov 28, 2023

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We’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

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170 – Luke Dumas & The Ghosts That Time Forgot Nov 21, 2023

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Sometimes 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

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169 – Tyler Jones & Journeys Without Maps Nov 14, 2023

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Horror 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

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168 – Tananarive Due & Locked in With the Monsters Nov 07, 2023

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History 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

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167 – Nat Cassidy & A New York State of Death Oct 31, 2023

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Sometimes 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 Cassidy

Nightmares in the Sky (1988), by Stephen King and F-Stop Fitzgerald

‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King

The Shining (1977), by Stephen King

From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King

Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin

The Keep (1981), by F. Paul Wilson

I, Claudius (1934) by Robert Graves

The Guns of August (1962), by Barbara W. Tuchman

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166 – Sam Rebelein & You Had Me At “Tongue-Monster!” Oct 24, 2023

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Some 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: