Talking Scared

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135 – Victor LaValle & The Weird, Weird West Mar 21, 2023

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Wagons West this week, with a guest I’ve been trying to get on the show since the early days. It’s Victor Lavalle.

I had always wanted to speak to him about The Ballad of Black Tom in the dream that we could join together to call Lovecraft names. As it turns out, that will have to wait, cos he’s brought out a brand-new novel … and it’s a Weird Western.

Cue squealing!! It’s one of my favourite sub-genres.

We talk about homesteading and wilderness, about bad neighbours and New York City, about family and fidelity to truth and the need for happy endings … and there’s an awful lot of chat about monsters.

This is one of the best episodes of the year so far. You’ll learn, you’ll laugh, you’ll almost certainly cry. Why aren’t you crying? What’s wrong with you? Are you heartless??

Enjoy!

Lone Women was published by on March 28thth by One World

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

The Ballad of Black Tom (2016), by Victor Lavalle
The Changeling (2017), by Victor Lavalle
The Devil in Silver (2012), by Victor Lavalle
Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One’s Own (2009), by Dr Sarah Carter
The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), by Jamaica Kincaid

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134 – Margaret Atwood & Hope in the Dystopia Mar 14, 2023

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There is no cool and collected way to introduce this week’s episode. Our guest is Margaret Atwood.

Yes, that Margaret Atwood. The author of The Handmaid’s Tale. One of the few writer’s who genuinely deserves to be called an icon (though she may be tired of the term). She published her first novel in 1969 and now as she enters her seventh decade of writing, her stories are no less challenging or surprising.

Her new collection, Old Babes in the Wood is a feast of darkness and light. It swerves from myth to sci-fi, to body horror, all bookended by stories about love and loss and grief. And she came on this little show to talk about it.

We unveil the inspirations behind some of the stories. We talk about disease and dystopia through history, the dangers of Canadian wilderness, men who turn into bears, the relationship of horror and slapstick, and her own haunted house.

It was a privilege.

Enjoy!

Old Babes in the Wood was published by on March 7th by Vintage and Doubleday

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

Bunny (2019), by Mona Awad
Carmilla (1872), by Sheridan Le Fanu
The Handmaids Tale (1984), by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake (2003), by Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace (1996), by Margaret Atwood
Lady Oracle (1976), by Margaret Atwood
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature (1983), ed. Alberto Manguel
Dark Arrows: Chronicles of Revenge (1985), ed. Alberto Manguel
On Writing (2000), by Stephen King
The Death of Grass (1956), by John Christopher

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133 – Jacqueline Holland & At Last! Vampires! Mar 07, 2023

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Vampires, finally! After years of recording a horror podcast, I’ve finally recorded a conversation about the first thing you all probably think of if I said “horror monster.” Actually, at this very moment, maybe you’d name a Floridian politician but you get my drift…

I’m delighted to be joined by Jacqueline Holland, to talk about her new novel of bloodsucking and cursed immortality, The God of Endings. As with so many books featured on this show, it’s an offbeat look at an old trope, with a vampire that has no problem with garlic and who is not at all horny! She’s also a pre-school teacher in the 80s. That’s REALLY hardcore!

Jacqueline and I talk about horror imposter-syndrome, the history of New England vampires, monstrous mothers, the terror of living forever, and how she has always been…in her own words… a dark weirdo.

Enjoy!

The God of Endings was published by on February 7th by Flatiron Books

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

What I Didn’t See, and Other Stories (2002), by Karen Joy Fowler
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013), by Karen Joy Fowler
Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires (2001), by Michael Bell
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles (1950), by Ray Bradbury
The Shining (1977), by Stephen King
Just Like Mother (2022), by Anne Heltzel – Episode 92
The Upstairs House (2021), by Julia Fine – Episode 27

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132 – Matt Ruff & A Hostile Universe Here on Earth Feb 28, 2023

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This week I take a road trip with Matt Ruff, into the more monstrous corners of the universe. Sure, some of them are alien planets… but some are here on earth, with the racists!

Matt is best known as the author of 2016’s Lovecraft Country. He never planned to write a sequel, yet here it is. The Destroyer of Worlds picks up several years later, when Atticus, Letetia, Montrose and Hipolyta et al are still battling malign forces both human and otherworldly.

I went into it nervously, thinking surely a white author can’t pull of a story about Black characters in Jim Crow America without really sh***ing the bed. I was wrong!

Matt and I debate the responsibility and potential pitfalls of the project, and what his books get right that other ventriloquised stories get wrong. But we also talk about monsters and comic horror and the terror and joy of a wide-open universe. And of course, Lovecraft. Though, not kindly.

Enjoy!
The Destroyer of Worlds was published by on February 21st by HarperCollins

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131 – Johnny Compton & A Pyroclastic Flow of Negative Energy Feb 21, 2023

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I like my ghosts like I like my podcasts – weird and slightly furious.

Thankfully, this week delivers on both counts – with Johnny Compton’s The Spite House delivering more ghosts than you think you could fit into 250-pages … and none of them are anything less than fuming!

Johnny talks us through the odd, off-kilter history of spite houses, we trace the legacy of the American haunted house novel, discuss ghost lore and dismiss orbs. We talk about complex father figures and I have my smuggest ever moment of being accidentally right about something.

It’s a blast. Johnny is a joy to talk to and his book gives great ghostliness.

Enjoy!

The Spite House was published by on February 7th by Tor Nightfire.

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130 – Mariana Enriquez & This Cruelty is Justified Feb 14, 2023

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It’s a Valentine’s day episode and what better to celebrate today than a conversation about cruelty, brutal folklore, political terror and black magic? Don’t tell me I don’t understand my audience.

I’m beyond delighted to welcome Mariana Enriquez to the show to talk about her massive novel, Our Share of Night. It features all of the above ingredients, in a 700+ page roam through decades of Argentinian history, demonic misconduct.

This ranks amongst the most unstructured conversations I’ve had on this show. I just say some words and then let Mariana let rip. But to give you a taster – we cover her current boredom with the short story, the double standard of harming kids in fiction, houses that eat people, Freddie Krueger and Heathclife and why horror is inevitable in Argentinian fiction

Enjoy!

Our Share of Night was published by Granta in the UK in October, 2022 and in the US on 7th February, 2023 by Hogarth

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Black Maybe: Liminal Tales (2022), by Attila Veres
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (2009), by Mariana Enriquez
Things We Lost in the Fire (2017), by Mariana Enriquez
Shuggie Bain (2020), by Douglas Stuart
In Patagonia (1977), by Bruce Chatwin
Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy

READ: Smithsonian article about Chiloe and the imbunche

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129 – Stephen Graham Jones & Slashers Can Save the World Feb 07, 2023

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Are you ready for another bloody confrontation? Same rules, different setting (actually still my attic bedroom) and more gore?

Stephen Graham Jones AKA Professor Slasher, returns to Talking Scared to discuss Don’t Fear the Reaper, the sequel to his zeitgeist-blasting slasher-ode, My Heart is a Chainsaw. Reaper takes us back to Proofrock, Idaho for a freezing night of rage and bloodshed, with returning favourites and a whole new killer who reads like the distillation of American carnage.

That all sounds suitably epic. Hopefully this conversation matches. Stephen and I talk about favourite slasher sequels, minority monsters in fiction, getting to know Jade Daniels even better, and the importance of writing yourself into a corner.

This is an episode a lot of you have been waiting for. Enjoy. And watch out for hook-handed men.

Enjoy!

Don’t Fear the Reaper was published by Saga and Titan Books on 7th February, 2023

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Maeve Fly (2023), by C.J. Leade
My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Final Girl Support Group (2021), by Grady Hendrix
Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), by Waubgeshig Rice

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128 – C.J. Tudor & Locked Rooms at the End of the World Jan 31, 2023

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It’s not even the end of January and we’re already dealing with the second apocalypse of the year.

This one is written by CJ Tudor, whose new novel, The Drift, moves her out of the crime chillers she is best-known for, into a whole other world of horror.

It’s a series of locked room mysteries, occurring in the hideous aftermath of global pandemic. And if you are a little sick of global pandemics (who isn’t?) then at least this one has rage zombies and lots of murder.

CJ and I talk about many things, from genre expectations, to failed novels, grief to TV adaptation – but the pandemic is a dominant theme. We talk about about some personal loss, so if that would be a trigger for you, go in pre-warned.

But mostly, it’s a lovely chat with “Britain’s answer to Stephen King.”

Enjoy!

The Drift was published by Penguin on Jan 19th in the UK and Jan 31st in the US.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Burning Girls (2021), by C.J. Tudor

The Chalk Man (2018), by C.J. Tudor

Sign Here (2022), by Claudia Lux

To contribute to Laird Barron’s GoFundMe, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/laird-barron-hospital-costs-medication-costs.

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127 – Grady Hendrix and the Radical Puppet Collective Jan 24, 2023

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When it comes to stress, they say selling a house is up there with divorce and death. Now imagine that house is haunted… by demonic puppets.

Yeah – that’s the premise of Grady Hendrix’s brand-new horror novel, How to Sell a Haunted House. It combines Grady’s trademark humour, genre-knowledge and playfulness, with a genuinely frightening story about homes, and all the things they contain, both comforting and downright nasty.

Grady and I dive into the economics of haunting, the value of earnestness in a world of irony, and we discover the difference between marionettes and hand puppets … which is more frightening that you would expect.

It’s a fun conversation, about a joyfully creepy book.

Enjoy!

How To Sell A Haunted House was published by Berkley on Jan 17th 2003.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Final Girl Support Group (2020), by Grady Hendrix
Horrorstör (2014), by Grady Hendrix
We Sold Our Souls (2018), by Grady Hendrix
My Heart is a Chainsaw (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Pallbearer’s Club (2022), by Paul Tremblay
Moth Manor (1978), by Martha Sherman Bacon

To donate to the fundraiser for Laird Barron, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/laird-barron-hospital-costs-medication-costs, and thanks SO much.

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126 – Stephen Markley & A Guided Tour To Our Future Hell Jan 17, 2023

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…AAAND WE’RE BACK!

I hope you’re slipping into 2023 like it’s a warm bath, but either way this week’s episode will be a cold, sharp system shock.

The guest is Stephen Markley; the book is The Deluge – a 900-page beast of ecological and societal disintegration, and the best book I have read in decades.Imagine The Stand was based on rigorous scientific research and was, y’know, about to happen to us all for real.

Yeah! This is a scary one, even if it would never be listed in the horror part of the bookshop.

Stephen and I talk about (re)considering apocalyptic fiction, choosing characters, how real events outpaced the writing of the book, and how the climate crisis forces us to ask some uncomfortable questions about social issues.

Like the book I question, this episode is heavy and challenging and frightening, but maybe… just maybe… it will give you some hope.

Enjoy!

The Deluge was published by Simon & Schuster on Jan 10th 2003.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Big Fix: Seven Practical Steps to Save Our Planet (2022) by Hal Harvey and Justin Gillis
World War Z (2006), by Max Brooks
Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (2021), by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Stand (1990), by Stephen King

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