Talking Scared

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**Talking Scared**

Conversations with the biggest names in horror fiction. A podcast for horror readers who want to know where their favourite stories came from . . . and what frightens the people who wrote them.

Latest Episodes:

95 – J.M. Miro and Throwing Your Arms Around the Monsters Jun 07, 2022

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This 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

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Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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94 – Scott Hawkins and a Dog-Eat-Lion World May 31, 2022

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This 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 Books
Other 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/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.

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93 – Kiersten White and Freedom from the Hope of Youth May 24, 2022

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Here 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 Rey

Support 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

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92 – Anne Heltzel and a Big Pile of Dead Baby Dolls May 17, 2022

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This 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/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

91 – Jason Rekulak and Pencil Crayon Jump Scares May 10, 2022

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Do think kids’ drawings are creepy? They are, right? All big smiles and suns with eyes and weird flowers the size of people… and the dead girls in the background.

Right?

Our guest this week has built a whole horror story around these little paper nightmares. Hidden Pictures is a novel that blends text and image in ways that I’ve never seen done before, or never as well. It’s a story of childhood imagination, suburban murder and summer terror. Think Gone Girl with Crayola ghosts.

Jason and I talk about lots of things – the rise of 1% horror; the relationship between image and text, and how to adapt an experimental book for audio. We get into the fairy tale details that I missed, and ask kid’s imaginary friends are just so damn freaky.

Trust me, you’ll never look at your little cherub’s artistic offerings the same way ever again.

Enjoy

Hidden Pictures is published on May 10th by Flatiron Books and Sphere.

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

The Impossible Fortress (2017), by Jason Rekulak
A Kiss Before Dying (1953), Ira Levin
Horrorstör (2014), by Grady Hendrix
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009), by Seth Grahame-Smith
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2011), by Ransom Rigg

My article in Esquire on ‘The 50 Best Horror Novels of All Time’

Support 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

90 – Isabel Cañas and Running Barefoot Through Books May 03, 2022

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It’s a week of deep-dives, haunted-houses and academic horror-stories this week on Talking Scared.

Our guest is Isabel Cañas. And she’s having the busiest week known to (wo)mankind. Not only is she defending her doctoral thesis on Medieval Turkish Poetry, she also has the small matter of her debut novel – a sweetly sinister piece of Latin Gothic called The Hacienda

We talk about everything that could possibly have influenced the novel. From the creepy house she once lived in, to her worldwide travels and her academic studies. It also plays a part – but nothing more so than a childhood spent reading.

As well as diving deep into what made Isabel who she is, we also talk about Latinx horror generally, about mixing Catholicism with something even stranger, how she will never be frightened by the same things as Stephen King, and why it’s so important to keep the literary door ajar once you’ve kicked it open.

It was a pleasure to speak to Isabel. I can’t believe she found the time.

Enjoy

The Hacienda is published on May 3rd by Berkley

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno Garcia (episode 3)
This Strange Way of Dying (2013), by Silvia Moreno Garcia
The House of Hunger (2022), by Alexis Henderson

Support 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

89 – Alma Katsu and the Hatred that Never Seems to Die Apr 26, 2022

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This week Alma Katsu brings her brand of immaculate historical horror to Talking Scared.

After the The Hunger upped the ante on the Donner Party, and The Deep gave us a sinking feeling about the Titanic, Alma is back with The Fervor – a book too dark to write a pun about.

It’s a tale of haunting and conspiracy during the years of Japanese internment in the US. Spanning multiple states, and multiple POV’s, it weaves a story of anger, prejudice and hate that seems all too familiar today.

We talk a lot about the history of internment and anti-asian prejudice in the US, about Alma’s heritage and career, and the unique perspective it gives her on the topic. But don’t worry, just as it’s all about to get worryingly serious –the spider demons pop in to lighten the mood!

Enjoy!

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

The Hunger (2018), by Alma Katsu
The Deep (2020), by Alma Katsu
The Pallbearer’s Club (2022), by Paul Tremblay
The Devil Takes You Home (2022), by Gabino Iglesias
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party (2009), by Daniel James Brown

The Fervor is published on April 26th, by G.P. Putnam. It will be released in the UK in October, by Titan.

Support 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

88 – V. L. Valentine and The Difficult Second Ghost Story Apr 19, 2022

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After much recent politickin’ and metaphor – we’re back with a good old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness ghost story.

And from a friend, no less.

V. L. Valentine came on the show last year (ep.31) to talk about her debut medical horror whodunnit, The Plague Letters. Now she’s back with her sophomore novel, a ripe Gothic treat called Begars Abbey.

It plays with the tropes beautifully. There are secret rooms, sinister histories, mad old relatives, torture, crypts, sinister servants and lots of ghosts. Why the shift, from surgeons to spooks, you may ask.

Well, Vikki and I talk about that. As well as what she learned between book 1 and 2, the elements of pacing, writing problematic women in the age of twitter, the macabre history of old dungeons and the perilous evils of Downton Abbey (ok – that last one is more my soapbox).

Also, Vikki takes me to task about not yet finishing my own novel. Consider me chastened and now writing!

Enjoy!

Begars Abbey is published on April 26th, by Viper.

Support 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

87 – Malcolm Devlin and the Brexit Zombie Story Apr 12, 2022

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I promise this week isn’t a pandemic novel. I know … we all need a break.

No, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up IS about a disease, but not one that makes you cough, vomit or melt. Instead it’s a disease (drum roll), OF THE MIND!!

But even then, it’s not what you think – no rage monsters here. Well, not really.

Instead, this novella is a perfect allegory of how narratives can infect, distort and corrupt. How reality is contingent, and how the truth is more elusive by the day. All that, with zombies (sorta)

Malcolm is a very polite man. So polite that he lets me use his book as a jumping-off point for all manner of cracked pseudo-philosophical theories. I basically forget the first rule of podcasting – DON’T talk more than the guest.

Sorry.

But when I give Malcolm chance to speak, he says great things. We talk about everything from the power of story and culture, to the problems with zombie narratives and how, in times of horror, Left and Right wing doesn’t necessarily mean what you think. Plus, we reminisce about the blue/gold dress illusion, the Bath Salts Cannibal, and other great noughties memes.

Enjoy!

And Then I Woke Up is published on April 12th, by Tor.

Other books mentioned in this episode include:

Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land (2021), by Malcolm Devlin
The Wake (2013), by Elizabeth Knox
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”, by Ted Chiang – found in Exhalation (2019)

Support 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

86 – Alan Baxter and a Stranger in a Strange Town Apr 05, 2022

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Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Australia. I said it before, he liked it, so I’ll say it again. Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Australia.

Perhaps nothing he has written is as weird, or as Australian as the stories set in and around the town of Gulpepper. He took us there in The Gulp and now he’s taking us back in The Fall, the second collection of linked novellas outlining the town and its weird inhabitants.

Bear in mind, when I say nothing he’s written is as weird or as Australian – this is a man who wrote a book about a homicidal kangaroo!

So yeah, The Gulp and The Fall are weird. Weird as hell. Weirdness on toast (with or without vegemite). We talk about that weirdness, about how to make it work and when to reign it in or let it ride. We talk the beauty and threat of Australian wilderness and the monstrous potential of the ocean. We talk winging it when it comes to mythology and how even Alan isn’t sure where Gulpepper goes next.

We talk about all sorts of things. It’s a blast.

Enjoy!

The Fall: Tales from the Gulp 2 is published on April 12th.
Other books mentioned in this episode include: