Talking Scared

Talking Scared

Neil McRobert

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.

228 – Sophie White & An Island of Formless Dread

228 – Sophie White & An Island of Formless Dread

Ready to hear a conversation about some devastatingly dark things? Sophie White and I have got you covered! In this expansive chat, we talk about her calculatingly distressing novel, Where I End – in which an isolated island community plays host to the worst, cruellest kind of loneliness. And that books is a springboard for others things, psychosis, weaponised empathy, real-life atrocity and the way that all that darkness can seep into a place forever. But then we also have a good old chat about

Feb 25, • 1:29:43

227 – Kirsty Logan & Queer as in F**K You

227 – Kirsty Logan & Queer as in F**K You

The title speaks volumes this week. It’s a mission statement. Kirsty Logan is the master of certain kind of edgy, on-the-margins fiction, Queer in every meaning of the word. She can be witchy and folkloric, or contemporary and cutting edge – and all of that range is showcased in her new collection, No & Other Love Stories. We talk about female desire and monstrous fantasy, formal experimentation and the personal logic of stories…and some reassuringly unsettling focus on the erotics of human fles

Feb 18, • 1:17:32

226 – Virginia Feito & A Good Old-Fashioned Bad Girl

226 – Virginia Feito & A Good Old-Fashioned Bad Girl

Time to misbehave. Virginia Feito’s new novel, Victorian Psycho, is all about good behaviour, positive standards and polite conduct…and what happens when you flout all that, by – I dunno – slaughtering a houseload of people. It’s a much buzzed about book that takes the psychopathy of American Psycho back to the straightlaced, be-corseted world of the 19th Century, then let’s rip. We talk about glorious violence, the humour of extremity, Charles Dickens and Bret Easton Ellis…and have a deeply amu

Feb 11, • 1:19:14

225 – Lucy Rose & The Cumbrian Chainsaw Massacre

225 – Lucy Rose & The Cumbrian Chainsaw Massacre

Are you hungry? Depending on your…erm… tastes, the next hour of conversation will do strange things to your appetite. Our guest is Lucy Rose, whose debut novel, The Lamb renders muscle and fat and sorrow down into a rich stew of cannibalism and rural Gothic. We talk about how rooted this book is in the landscape, history and folklore of Northern England – and we also talk a lot about eating people. How to make it sound gross… how to make it sound weirdly poetic. This is a book that’s gonna get p

Feb 4, • 1:18:28

Let Us Palaver #1 – The Dark Tower Debrief

Let Us Palaver #1 – The Dark Tower Debrief

Here is the first Let Us Palaver minisode – in which Nat Cassidy and I kick Chris off the call, and get to grips with the inner workings of The Dark Tower, without spoiling anything for him, or any of you on your first trip through these books.If you still listen after this spoiler warning and the two I give in the first few minutes of the episode… well, you only have yourself to blame.But for seasoned ‘slingers. I hope this is fun. Support Talking Scared on PatreonCome talk books on Twitter @ta

Feb 3, • 25:41

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #1 – The Gunslinger

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #1 – The Gunslinger

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the podcaster followed…” Welcome to the start of what is sure to be an epic journey. Step by step, over more than a dozen episodes, Talking Scared will be following the beam all the way to the Dark Tower – that mad edifice at the heart of Stephen King’s opus. Maybe it’s the heart of every story ever told… time will tell. Unlike Roland Deschain, I don’t go alone. I’m joined by author and fellow King-nut, Nat Cassidy (Mary, Nestlings, When the Wolf Com

Jan 28, • 2:13:08

Dutch Marich & Horror in the High Desert

Dutch Marich & Horror in the High Desert

The latest Off Book episode takes you out to the American desert and leaves you there, cold, alone and confused.We’re speaking with Dutch Marich, the surprisingly lovely mind behind the most terrifying found footage I’ve seen in years – The Horror in the High Desert series.These films are full of a particular kind of fear. Never obscure, but always hidden – leaving you as fascinated as you are scared. It’s the kind of weird, collective storytelling that used to set internet forums alight!In this

Jan 24, • 1:10:20

Susan Barker & The Denial of Death

Susan Barker & The Denial of Death

Tyranny is the key this week on Talking Scared this week. How fitting. Susan Barker’s Old Soul is a globe-trotting, decade-spanning supernatural tour of autocracies, from behind the Iron Curtain to contemporary China. If that isn’t frightening enough, it also features an ageless woman who curses anyone she meets, a grand cosmic entity, and the exhilaration and terror of deep time.  Heady stuff, and Susan and I talk about all of it – and just why she likes to write about as many times and places

Jan 21, • 1:08:38

Kate van der Borgh & A Different Class of Magic

Kate van der Borgh & A Different Class of Magic

It’s a collegial week on Talking Scared. ‘Cos I’m talking dark, occult academia with someone very local to me. Kate van der Borgh’s debut, And He Shall Appear is basically a sinister version of my own life. It’s about a young working class lad, like me, who goes to a prestigious university, like me… but there ours paths diverge, as he meets a fellow student who perhaps has diabolical powers. It’s a twisted, obscure, psychological study of unreliable memory, inescapable guilt, and the haunting of

Jan 14, • 1:20:32

Clay McLeod Chapman & Oh My God, What Have I Done?

Clay McLeod Chapman & Oh My God, What Have I Done?

Welcome back and Happy New Year. 2025 looms ahead. Frightening. Uncertain. Crazy!! Our first guest of the year has written the book that best captures this mad future we’re living in. Clay McLeod Chapman returns to Talking Scared, to talk about Wake Up And Open Your Eyes – his new novel of mass demonic possession, transmitted through poisonous media, and the destruction of families and communities. It’s… disturbing. It’s also gross as hell. Deliciously so. And we talk about that urge for the the

Jan 7, • 1:21:30

221 – The Best Scary Books of 2024

221 – The Best Scary Books of 2024

Send us a textHow else to end 2024 than with an entirely subjective list of the best things I’ve read over the year? How many of you will guess the number one spot? I bet none of you will guess the number two?  Let me know your thoughts – what you loved, and what you think I missed 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 megaph

Dec 31, 2024 • 1:09:24

220 – Grief and Monsters: The From a Buick 8 Deep Dive

220 – Grief and Monsters: The From a Buick 8 Deep Dive

Send us a textIt’s that time of year again. When I celebrate the winter solstice by getting some horror authors to come and talk in deep, emotional detail about a scary book that we like. This time the Christmas Special Deep Dive kicks the tires and looks under the hood of Stephen King’s most underrated novel: From a Buick 8. My friends on this weird-ass-road trip are Ally Malinenko and Nat Cassidy. I asked them to do it for a coupla reasons. 1) They are lovely 2) hey really get King, and 3) the

Dec 23, 2024 • 2:03:21

219 – State of the Horror Nation 2024, with Emily Hughes, Stephanie Gagnon & Anna Dupre

219 – State of the Horror Nation 2024, with Emily Hughes, Stephanie Gagnon & Anna Dupre

Send us a text… and we’re back! Just in time for this seasonal tradition. The State of the Horror Nation 2024 – our expert-led review of the best that the year had to offer in terms of horror writing and pen-and-ink nightmares. I’m joined, as ever by my stalwart co-host for this gig, Emily Hughes, author of Horror For Weenies (go check her mammoth 2025 anticipated horror book list at ReadJumpScares.com) Our special correspondents are Anna Dupre, reviewer and interviewer at Anna Rose Reads, and S

Dec 17, 2024 • 2:16:51

[From the Vault] Catriona Ward & The All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

[From the Vault] Catriona Ward & The All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

Send us a textThis is the last way-back episode before the show returns with a scream next week. But this is an episode worth remembering – my first ever conversation with Catriona Ward, about her game-changing The Last House on Needless Street too! This was a big ask for a novice interviewer. How the hell do you talk about a book that hinges on such a huge secret. Somehow we managed to walk that tightrope, whilst also talking about cats (feline) serial killers, and the haunted bedroom of Cat’s

Dec 10, 2024 • 52:39

[From the Vault] Zakiya Dalila Harris & The Fear of Not Being Black Enough

[From the Vault] Zakiya Dalila Harris & The Fear of Not Being Black Enough

Send us a textA chance to revisit one of my favourite books and favourite ever conversations this week. Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl came out in early 2021, and for once I was ahead of the curve! Right from the start, I adored this novel of workplace micro-aggression and satirical horror in the publishing industry – and I’m glad to see the world has since agreed. It’s a high-concept thriller that blends the paranoia of Rosemary’s Baby with the bite of Get Out – and for once it’s a

Dec 3, 2024 • 56:19

[From the Vault] Laura Purcell & The Art of Darkness

[From the Vault] Laura Purcell & The Art of Darkness

Send us a textI’m feeling Gothic this week. Must be the weather.  In lieu of a new episode, I searched the vault and found this cracker from January 2021, in which Laura Purcell — doyenne of the contemporary British Gothic —  talked me through her Victorian spookshow of mesmerism and haunted silhouettes, The Shape of Darkness.  We also get into the social nightmare of Victorian England – when life was even more gothic than it is now, believe it or not!  Enjoy!  Other books mentioned:  The Reside

Nov 26, 2024 • 48:08

[From the Vault] Gemma Amor & The Start of a Horrific Friendship AKA The Mental Health in Horror Episode

[From the Vault] Gemma Amor & The Start of a Horrific Friendship AKA The Mental Health in Horror Episode

Send us a textThis From the Vault episode is not quite so dusty. Gemma and I recorded this in 2022, but it’s more pertinent than ever. One because Gemma’s great uncanny novella The Folly is being reissued this week, and two, because the world is a mad place right now, and we all need to take care of our minds. This conversation is all about that. An epic conversation about the issue of mental health as creators and consumers of dark stories. We dig DEEP into our own neuroses, and talk about how

Nov 19, 2024 • 1:51:20

[From the Vault] T. Kingfisher & A Bit of Laughter in the Dark

[From the Vault] T. Kingfisher & A Bit of Laughter in the Dark

Send us a textStill on a break – still releasing episodes “From the Vault.” But this week’s was carefully chosen. In a time of darkness and doom-laden days, laughter is the best thing I can lace your horror with. And thankfully T. Kingfisher exists in the world. The funniest horror writer I know. We spoke WAAAAY back in October 2020, in episode 9, when The Hollow Places had just come out.  Yes Ursula and I talk about that book, and The Twisted Ones (2019) and how they twist Weird classics into f

Nov 12, 2024 • 53:51

[From the Vault] – Michael Marshall Smith & Goodbye to a Bad Year

[From the Vault] – Michael Marshall Smith & Goodbye to a Bad Year

Send us a textI’m on a break – but couldn’t resist releasing something.  Especially on today of all days, when lovers of democracy require audio sustenance whilst they wait in line to preserve America. For the first From the Vault episode, I’ve gone back to December of 2020, for an interview with Michael Marshall Smith. We talk about his 30 years of writing horror, fantasy, science fiction and assorted dark imaginings – captured in his career-spanning Best Of collection. Michael gives us all the

Nov 5, 2024 • 58:30

Off Book #5 – Halloween Special – Kaelyn Moore & Heart Starts Pounding

Off Book #5 – Halloween Special – Kaelyn Moore & Heart Starts Pounding

Send us a textHalloween has finally arrived. I’m marking it in grim, macabre style. For this Off Book Samhain Special, I’m joined by Kaelyn Moore, host and creator of Heart Starts Pounding – a podcast for the darkly curious, which offers up a new true-story of horror, hauntings and mystery every week. Kaelyn is a treasure trove of haunted anecdote and freaky facts. We only touch the tip of her knowledge in this conversation, but still manage to cover the grimmest deaths at Disneyland, a South Am

Oct 31, 2024 • 1:29:30

218 – Rachel Harrison & Vampirism is What You Make It

218 – Rachel Harrison & Vampirism is What You Make It

Send us a textThings are heating up as we approach Halloween. I’m joined by a good friend of Talking Scared – Rachel Harrison – to talk about the hot kind of immortality Her new novel, So Thirsty, does much more than that though. It weighs the weaponization of beauty culture, it asks how women can navigate a world in which youth seems to be everything, and it illustrates the sheer social awkwardness of immortality. Plus – it prompts a frank reckoning with just how badly I would cope in an orgy.

Oct 28, 2024 • 1:08:38

217 – Del Sandeen & Giving Southern Gothic Ick!

217 – Del Sandeen & Giving Southern Gothic Ick!

Send us a textAs we gear up for Halloween, we get all gussied up in Gothic. Del Sandeen joins me to talk about the curses, colorism, and all the many influences in her Southern Gothic debut This Cursed House. It’s a novel that twists the sub-genre’s typical reliance on race, for a more subtle, pernicious form of prejudice.  But it’s also chock full of all the haunted house–cursed family–secret rooms–and weird incest that you could want from a truly Gothic novel. It’s a damn good time, as is this

Oct 22, 2024 • 1:06:38

216 – CJ Leede & The Shame of the Human Animal

216 – CJ Leede & The Shame of the Human Animal

Send us a textThings get disinhibited on Talking Scared this week, when CJ Leede joins us for a conversation about her new novel, American Rapture. The novel plunges middle America into a torrid apocalypse, as a sexual plague spreads across the nation, creating “lust hell on earth.” In this framework, C.J crafts a story of sexual awakening, sacrifice, found family, hypocrisy and cruelty.  It’s a book that is both extreme and comforting in equal measure. We talk about that crazy balancing act, ab

Oct 15, 2024 • 1:12:38

215 – Sofia Ajram & The Architecture of Despair

215 – Sofia Ajram & The Architecture of Despair

Send us a textHold hands, we need to stick together. This week’s episode plunges us into the impossible and endless dark, with Sofia Ajram and her experimental, existential headf*ck of a debut novella, Coup de Grâce. It’s the tale of a man who gets lost in an endless subway station – and the monsters inside (and inside himself) We talk about everything from the mythical history of mazes, to legends of the early internet,  the mystery of Elisa Lam and what Sonic the Hedgehog has to tell us about

Oct 8, 2024 • 1:18:03

Off Book #4 – Kate Siegel

Off Book #4 – Kate Siegel

Send us a textI started Off Book so that I could speak to some of the brightest dark stars in the wider universe of horror. This week that plan comes to absolute fruition – ‘cos Kate Siegel is Talking Scared! Yes, Kate Siegel, scream-queen of our generation, horror maven, acting superstar and now director of extraterrestrial found-footage nightmare (!!) ”Stowaway.” (a segment from the new V/H/S Beyond) Kate talks to me about the steep learning curve of making that short, the camera techniques sh

Oct 5, 2024 • 50:57

214 – Lora Senf & The Infinite, Child-Friendly Void

214 – Lora Senf & The Infinite, Child-Friendly Void

Send us a textRelease your inner child!  …I mean through reading, not by letting it burst out of your stomach like some horrible sugar-coated xenomorph. Lora Senf can help. Her Blight Harbor Trilogy is a piece of magic, an umbilicus of imagination between the tired old grump that you’re halfway to becoming, and the wide-eyed wonder you once were.  Lora and I talk about the challenge and reward of writing horror for kids, we talk about the influence of M.C Escher and his mad architecture, we talk

Oct 1, 2024 • 1:09:56

Episode 213 – Johnny Compton & Angels, Demons & Xenomorphs

Episode 213 – Johnny Compton & Angels, Demons & Xenomorphs

Send us a textMore devilish fun on Talking Scared this week when an old friend returns to talk about god, angels, demons and other things out there in the cold reaches of the universe. Johnny Compton is the author of The Spite House, one of my most admired books from 2022. In his newest, Devils Kill Devils, he starts with a compelling question – “what if your Guardian Angel was a murderous threat” – and then heads off in grander directions.  We talk about how Johnny’s childhood religious confusi

Sep 24, 2024 • 1:06:37

212 – Keith Rosson & Punk Rock Death Songs

212 – Keith Rosson & Punk Rock Death Songs

Send us a textKeith Rosson is our first guest to be personally recommended by Stephen King!  And the praise doesn’t stop there. Keith’s Fever House was one of the biggest hits of 2023, and now he’s back with the sequel, The Devil By Name, which takes the contained punk-rock fury of the first book in a whole different, nation-spanning direction. This is an epic tale of occult magic, diabolical messages, punk rock, political machinations and, eventually, apocalypse. So there’s a lot to talk about.

Sep 17, 2024 • 1:10:00

211 – Laird Barron & Cosmic Background Radiation

211 – Laird Barron & Cosmic Background Radiation

Send us a textLaird Barron is on the podcast. This feels like cause for celebration.  Not only is Laird Barron a phenomenal writer. Not only is it wonderful that he’s back to writing and talking about writing. Not only am I lucky to be able to speak to him… We also talked about DOGS!  Granted, a cybernetic, immortal monster hound called Rex – but a dog nonetheless. That’s just one of the crazy concepts that make up the stories in Laird’s new collection, Not a Speck of Light… and I mean crazy. Th

Sep 9, 2024 • 1:11:28

210 – Emily Hughes & The Lover’s Guide to Better Horror

210 – Emily Hughes & The Lover’s Guide to Better Horror

Send us a textAre you a Weenie? Don’t be offended. I am.  Weenies are the curious-but-nervous. Those of us who love horror, but who never feel safe from its power to ruin our sleep (and a week of our life). If that’s you, or if you know someone who suffers from Weenie-ism, then Emily Hughes is here! Emily’s new book, Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch is a public service for the scared. It will save relationships, help ease you into horror

Sep 3, 2024 • 1:07:25

209 – Anna Bogutskaya & A Deep Fear of Things Sincere

209 – Anna Bogutskaya & A Deep Fear of Things Sincere

Send us a textAnna Bogutskaya is one of the UK’s most prominent film critics, with a penchant for horror. She knows her scary onions. And in her new book, Feeding the Monster, she asks an important question (well, important to the likes of you and me) – Why does horror have a hold on us? In concise but free-ranging essays, she looks at the prominent themes that sets the horror oft the last decade apart, peeling back the skin of the genre to see how it’s muscle flex and grip, and also give you to

Aug 27, 2024 • 1:25:33

208 – Adam Cesare & Making Scary Clowns Great Again

208 – Adam Cesare & Making Scary Clowns Great Again

Send us a textSend in the clowns. Tell them not to forget their crossbows and chainsaws. This week our guest is Adam Cesare, who’s Clown in a Cornfield trilogy reaches a climax (I won’t say end) in Book 3: The Church of Frendo. I read all three books in one mad rush and they confounded all of my horror-savvy, slasher-weary expectations. These books are a State of the Nation story for the ages – think George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but with fascist clowns rather than Bolshevik swine. Adam and I hav

Aug 20, 2024 • 1:15:11

207 – Lena Valencia & What Can Lurk Where There Are No Shadows?

207 – Lena Valencia & What Can Lurk Where There Are No Shadows?

Send us a Text Message.Literary or genre fiction? Dumb question. This week’s guest showcases just how dumb! With her debut collection of stories, Mystery Lights showing that horror is literary and literary is horror. These tales of the American desert are full of hauntings, monsters, killers, and other oddities, yet they take a non-typical approach to the strangeness. They care more about the human in the mix than the weird thing in the corner. I loved them – and they proved that every time I th

Aug 13, 2024 • 59:49

Off Book #3 – Trevor Henderson

Off Book #3 – Trevor Henderson

Send us a Text Message.This week’s guest on Talking Scared: Off Book scares children. I mean… that’s not his main job or intent (I don’t think) but he does it anyway. Trevor Henderson is the internet’s favourite horror artist. He creates digital nightmares that have become the fuel for a new generation of nightmares. Trust me, in the few moments that Gen Z aren’t being terrified by climate change or the slide into global racism… it’s Trevor’s “Cartoon Dog” or “Long Horse” – or his iconic Sirenhe

Aug 9, 2024 • 1:13:11

206 – Gabino Iglesias & Doing Really Bad Things for All the Right Reasons

206 – Gabino Iglesias & Doing Really Bad Things for All the Right Reasons

Send us a Text Message.Finally, Gabino Iglesias is on the show.  I tried, and failed, to get him for his break-out Stoker-winning smash, The Devil Takes You Home. Now he’s here to talk about his brand new barrio-noir, House of Bone and Rain. It’s an amalgamation of brutal street violence and Lovecraftian otherness – all taking place in the sweltering eye of a Puerto Rican hurricane. Gabino and I talk about the parts of the book that reflect his own life and youth. We talk about his rapid rise, a

Aug 6, 2024 • 1:22:20

205 – Jonathan Janz & The Bittersweet Magic of Sixteen

205 – Jonathan Janz & The Bittersweet Magic of Sixteen

Send us a Text Message.Remember those books you read in the summer when you were young? Kids fighting evil in their small town? Bikes, and blood brothers and promises to keep?  If you love those kinda stories then you’re in good company. This week Jonathan Janz joins me to talk about the coming-of-age horror in his ongoing epic, Children of the Dark. Book One was rereleased earlier this year, just in time for the sequel The Nightflyer’s to continue the story of Will Burgess and the monstrous sec

Jul 30, 2024 • 1:31:02

204 – Adam Nevill & Watch For the Freak Wave

204 – Adam Nevill & Watch For the Freak Wave

Send us a Text Message.Why is Adam Nevill so scary?  I don’t know. Do you? He’s a nice guy – as you’ll hear in this episode. Yet he tells stories that crawl under your skin and stay there. Stories that squat in your subconscious. His latest novel, All the Fiends of Hell is no exception. Same elusive nightmare mystery, but expanded to a whole epic end-of-the-world canvas. And when Adam says end of the world, he means it. In this conversation we talk about apocalyptic fantasy, about angels and dem

Jul 23, 2024 • 1:17:39

203 – Constant Readers & Celebrating Stephen King’s Short Stories (Part Two)

203 – Constant Readers & Celebrating Stephen King’s Short Stories (Part Two)

Send us a Text Message.Part One was epic. Part Two is just as good. In that way, it’s much better than the adaptation of IT! In the second part of this celebration of King short stories, a whole other roster of Constant Readers come along to talk about their favourites. We have writers for all ages, a fellow podcaster and a filmmaker with important updates.  All of them united by one thing – their love of these little twisted word-worlds that Stephen King has given us over the years.  This was a

Jul 19, 2024 • 2:15:31

202 – Constant Readers & Celebrating Stephen King’s Short Stories (Part One)

202 – Constant Readers & Celebrating Stephen King’s Short Stories (Part One)

Send us a Text Message.What’s your favourite Stephen King story? Everyone has one. Hot off the back of the recent interview with the man himself, it seemed a neat idea to get a few friends on the show to talk about their own preferences from King’s huge back-catalogue of short fiction. I am the architect of my own doom! What was supposed to be a small side project grew, like Grey Matter, or unnatural mist, into FOUR HOURS of top-notch King chat, with some of the best and brightest constant reade

Jul 16, 2024 • 2:12:37

201 – Stephen King & Touching Other Worlds

201 – Stephen King & Touching Other Worlds

Send us a Text Message.Stephen King is back! What other intro do you need? Okay, fine. He talks to me about the stories behind the stories in his new collection, You Like it Darker. I had the audacity to ask him “where he got some of his ideas.”  He also updates us on the potential of a third Jack Sawyer book, to follow The Talisman and Black House. He hints at what’s next from him, and Holly Gibney. He gives a perspective on his view from the top of the horror pyramid, and I finally get to ask

Jul 9, 2024 • 1:06:54

200 – Every-Damn-One and Their Scariest Story

200 – Every-Damn-One and Their Scariest Story

Send us a text200 episodes! Madness. Who knew there could be so much to say about horror?  I knew. You knew. And here we are. It turns out that the real cursed treasure was the friends we made along the way – and how better to celebrate the bicentennial, than by inviting some of the Talking Scared nearest and dearest, to tell us their scariest story? I called, they answered – with tales of voyeuristic ghosts, horrifying roadside encounters, disappearing witches, whispering demons, damaged eyebal

Jul 2, 2024 • 2:40:38

199 – Josh Malerman & The Most Frightening Love Story

199 – Josh Malerman & The Most Frightening Love Story

Send us a Text Message.My unpaid cohost returns. Josh Malerman ladies and gentlemen. Josh has been on the show many times before, but never have I been so excited to speak to him. His latest novel, Incidents Around the House is about as good a horror book as I’ve ever covered on this show… or possibly read in my life. It’s the story of a young girl, her family, and the entity pursuing them, but – as you’ll hear – it goes a whole lot deeper (and unforgivingly darker) than that. Josh tells us abou

Jun 25, 2024 • 1:18:46

Off Book #2 – National Park After Dark

Off Book #2 – National Park After Dark

Send us a Text Message.In the second Off Book episode we get out of our armchairs and go on a real adventure. Well, not really – but we talk to two people who do. Danielle and Cassie are the hosts of National Park After Dark – a podcast catering to the “morbid outdoor enthusiast.” They have skyrocketed to success, with well-researches stories of murder, maulings and mad incidents out in the world’s national parks.  I’ve listened for years now and I’m delighted to finally get the chance to ask th

Jun 21, 2024 • 1:09:11

198 – Paul Tremblay & The Book is Better

198 – Paul Tremblay & The Book is Better

Send us a Text Message.Paul Tremblay returns to Talking Scared on a long orbit, like that fabled Planet X that’s going to kill us all.  He’s back after two years for another discussion of horror aesthetics, introspective terrors and mixed-media nightmares – this time in Horror Movie, his meta-take on cursed cinema and lethal creativity.  Horror Movie is about young filmmakers and the shoot that marks them all, even unto death. It’s also about the making of art, the machinery of fear and the cyni

Jun 18, 2024 • 1:05:24

197 – Elle Nash & Insects in the Ozarks

197 – Elle Nash & Insects in the Ozarks

Send us a Text Message.Elle Nash’s Deliver Me ruined my week. In the best possible way. This book, about a woman so desperate for a child that she does truly terrible, no-good things, contains some of the bleakest, most brutal scenes I’ve read in a while. And it’s not even really being treated as a horror novel.  Elle and I talk about that. We also talk about the hot-button topics of the novel, the patriarchy, the toxic Christianity, the… insect erotica! But we also discuss her wandering heart a

Jun 11, 2024 • 1:15:10

196 – Todd Keisling & The Eras Tour: Horror Version

196 – Todd Keisling & The Eras Tour: Horror Version

Send us a Text Message.Todd Keisling can write the hell out of a short story. So well, in fact, that they may convince you to resist a bully, stop going to church, or tell your boss to f**k off!  Cold, Black and Infinite is full of liminal tales of the between-places. Cosmic “Otherness” that defies religion or belief. Corporate soul-hells that take everything you have…and more. Weird then, that they are so fun. Todd and I talk about all of that connective tissue between his stories. Plus, we map

Jun 4, 2024 • 1:04:19

195 – Emil Ferris & The Patron Saints of our Imperfection

195 – Emil Ferris & The Patron Saints of our Imperfection

Send us a Text Message.Something new for me this week. A bold venture into uncharted territory.  The graphic novel!! As is proper, I’ve started with one of the best. Emil Ferris joins me to talk through the creation of her landmark epic, My Favourite Thing is Monsters. Volume 1 came out in 2017 to rapturous acclaim, and now, Volume 2 picks up exactly where that story of cute werewolves and cherished monsters let off. This is an EVENT!! Emil talks me through this alternative form of storytelling.

May 28, 2024 • 1:15:04

Off Book #1 – Phil Nobile Jr. & Fangoria

Off Book #1 – Phil Nobile Jr. & Fangoria

Send us a Text Message.Believe it or not, there is more to life than just books. Very little, granted… but there is more. Talking Scared: Off Book is a chance for this show to spread its wings a little. To fly further, wider, deeper into the world of horror and come back carrying different kinds of guests in our bloody beak!  (ok, I may have stretched that metaphor too far). Basically, I’ll be talking, now and then, to other kinds of horror creatives. Filmmakers, actors, musicians, podcasters, d

May 24, 2024 • 1:10:14

194 – Alan Baxter & The Flavour of Vintage Blood

194 – Alan Baxter & The Flavour of Vintage Blood

Send us a Text Message.We return to Australia for the second time in a month, to find that (once again), home invasion isn’t the worst thing to happen on a typical day. Alan Baxter’s Blood Covenant is a violent, thrilling story of a threeway battle between an innocent family, a nasty criminal gang of bogans (see, I’m learning!) and an otherworldly force that is even worse! Think, what if The Strangers took place in the Overlook Hotel. It’s a hugely enjoyable book that prompts a conversation abou

May 21, 2024 • 1:09:46

193 – L.P. Hernandez & Kudos On the Cruelty

193 – L.P. Hernandez & Kudos On the Cruelty

Send us a Text Message.A charming man approaches. With dark secrets to tell you. Yeah, that L.P. Hernandez. Author of the novella In the Valley of the Headless Men and the forthcoming collection, No Gods, Only Chaos. Both are great; both are entirely different. One of them will expand your horizons. One of them will shrink you in horror.  I’ll let you find out which.  We talk about both books in this episode, digging into the real historical mystery behind the novella (it’s fascinating) and the

May 14, 2024 • 1:08:23

192 – Robert Ottone & Raising Kids in Langan Country

192 – Robert Ottone & Raising Kids in Langan Country

Send us a Text Message.Opinions are like assholes, they say. Everybody has one. The subtext of that, is that you shouldn’t show them to people. Well my guest and I don’t hold back on ours this week. Robert Ottone joins me for a conversation about his debut novel for adults, The Vile Thing We Created, which is almost exactly one year old.  I loved it, which is more than either of us can say for the one-year old little boy that it is about. This novel skewers the impulse to procreation – presentin

May 6, 2024 • 1:14:28

191 – Chris Panatier & The Goo of Human Nature

191 – Chris Panatier & The Goo of Human Nature

Send us a Text Message.Ah the madhouse. The loony bin. The ASYLUM!! A classic horror location. One of my favourites, but problematic as hell in the wrong hands.Thankfully, I have the right author for the topic. Christ Panatier has the talent and the sensitivity to ensure that his novel, The Redemption of Morgan Bright can engage with the tropes without perpetuating them. He brings something as old-as-time but very new to asylum horror, and the results are dizzying, terrifying, awful. We talk abo

Apr 30, 2024 • 1:22:27

190 – Kaaron Warren & The Un-Cosy House

190 – Kaaron Warren & The Un-Cosy House

Send us a Text Message.We all love a good spooky house. And most of us enjoy a terrifying home-invasion ordeal (or at least, I know I do). What happens when you put them together? Kaaron Warren’s The Underhistory is the answer, but it’s nothing at all like what you’d expect. This new novel by the award-winning Australian writer is a story of memory, of rooms and architecture, of violence and misogyny, and of a very unusual old lady. We talk about all of that and more. It’s a great conversation,

Apr 23, 2024 • 1:13:46

189 – The Black Girl Survives in This One, with Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce

189 – The Black Girl Survives in This One, with Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce

Send us a Text Message.I bite off a lot this week, in a five-way conversation with editors and contributors to the ever-so-of-the-moment anthology The Black Girl Survives in This One. That’s a promise right there on the title page, but as you will find out, survival is not always the same thing as living happily ever after.  Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans, Monica Brashears & Eden Royce talk to me about the vision (and necessity) of the project and where their stories came from? We dis

Apr 16, 2024 • 1:17:05

188 – Scarlett Thomas & Hot Gothic

188 – Scarlett Thomas & Hot Gothic

Send us a Text Message.I’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 cov

Apr 9, 2024 • 1:18:02

187 – The Carrie 50th Anniversary Deep Dive, with Nat Cassidy & Ally Malinenko

187 – The Carrie 50th Anniversary Deep Dive, with Nat Cassidy & Ally Malinenko

Send us a Text Message.Carrie 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 menstruati

Apr 5, 2024 • 1:46:52

186 – Stephen Graham Jones & The Last Stand of the Final Girls

186 – Stephen Graham Jones & The Last Stand of the Final Girls

Send us a Text Message.Alas, 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 w

Apr 2, 2024 • 1:33:44

185 – Cynthia Pelayo & A Mermaid in the Windy City

185 – Cynthia Pelayo & A Mermaid in the Windy City

Send us a Text Message.Chi-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 l

Mar 26, 2024 • 1:07:50

184 – Joshua Hull & It’s a Whole Hole Thing

184 – Joshua Hull & It’s a Whole Hole Thing

Send us a Text Message.Never 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 feature

Mar 19, 2024 • 1:02:02

183 – Gwendolyn Kiste & Working Through Your Ghosts

183 – Gwendolyn Kiste & Working Through Your Ghosts

Send us a Text Message.Time 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 ficti

Mar 12, 2024 • 1:03:38

182 – Tim Lebbon & Running Towards What Scares You

182 – Tim Lebbon & Running Towards What Scares You

Send us a Text Message.Sometimes 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!

Mar 5, 2024 • 1:15:35

181 – Haunting Hill House, with Catriona Ward, Johnny Compton & Paul Tremblay

181 – Haunting Hill House, with Catriona Ward, Johnny Compton & Paul Tremblay

Send us a Text Message.Back 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 cor

Feb 27, 2024 • 1:33:50

180 – Chuck Palahniuk & What Kind of Sex Do You Want?

180 – Chuck Palahniuk & What Kind of Sex Do You Want?

Send us a Text Message.Yes 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 m

Jan 30, 2024 • 1:23:24

179 – Ally Wilkes & The Ethics of Eating Your Friends

179 – Ally Wilkes & The Ethics of Eating Your Friends

Send us a Text Message.Are you hungry?  If so we have a chewy, salty, deeply flavoured feast for you this week. Ally Wilkes returns to Talking Scared to discuss the icebound horrors of her new novel, Where the Dead Wait. It’s a tale of Arctic exploration gone very wrong, complete with haunting, human suffering and the morbid fascination of cannibalism! Don’t pretend that hasn’t whet your appetite. Ally and I get into the raw details of consuming human meat, we talk about queerness in historical

Jan 23, 2024 • 1:15:46

178 – Jenny Kiefer & A Solid Foothold in Horror

178 – Jenny Kiefer & A Solid Foothold in Horror

Send us a Text Message.The first new book coverage of 2024 – and it starts us off on suitably horrific footing. Jenny Kiefer’s debut novel, This Wretched Valley, has been getting a huge amount of early buzz in horror circles. It’s the story of four unlucky adventurers, who head into the Kentucky woods and meet all manner of nasty sh*t.  It’s a tightly wound tale of misadventure, that takes at least some inspiration from the Dyatlov Pass mystery. And if you don’t know what that is… boy have you g

Jan 16, 2024 • 1:01:37

177 – John Langan & Fishing For Mythologies

177 – John Langan & Fishing For Mythologies

Send us a Text Message.To kick off a new year of Talking Scared, I’ve gone and hooked us a big guest, with a whopper of a story. John Langan is the author of The Fisherman. It’s one of the great works of supernatural fiction written this century, but its story doesn’t end at its back-cover. The strange mythology of The Fisherman extends beyond, swimming further downstream, to pop its monstrous head above the surface in John’s wider universe of short stories and novellas. In this special episode,

Jan 9, 2024 • 1:46:19

176 – The Best Horror Novels of 2023

176 – The Best Horror Novels of 2023

Send us a Text Message.Another year done. We squeaked through without another plague or a nuclear apocalypse (don’t tempt fate Neil!!) and along the way, oh the stories we read!  The only thing left to do after mopping away the chalk pentagrams, is to run you through my very favourite books of the year. The so-called Best Horror Novels of 2023, as chosen by me. Ten of them to be precise, cos humans are obsessed with round numbers. Mwaha, in fact I talk about thirteen!! Thanks again for listening

Dec 30, 2023 • 55:51

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

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

Send us a Text Message.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 Gu

Dec 24, 2023 • 1:42:18

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

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

Send us a Text Message.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

Dec 19, 2023 • 2:00:17

173 – Michelle Paver & Long Nights of the Body & Soul

173 – Michelle Paver & Long Nights of the Body & Soul

Send us a Text Message.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 diff

Dec 12, 2023 • 1:29:23

172 – Gemma Amor & The Haunted Penis-Replacement Structure

172 – Gemma Amor & The Haunted Penis-Replacement Structure

Send us a Text Message.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 t

Dec 5, 2023 • 1:18:41

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

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

Send us a Text Message.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

Nov 28, 2023 • 1:21:20

170 – Luke Dumas & The Ghosts That Time Forgot

170 – Luke Dumas & The Ghosts That Time Forgot

Send us a Text Message.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, mur

Nov 21, 2023 • 1:12:47

169 – Tyler Jones & Journeys Without Maps

169 – Tyler Jones & Journeys Without Maps

Send us a Text Message.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’

Nov 14, 2023 • 1:06:09

168 – Tananarive Due & Locked in With the Monsters

168 – Tananarive Due & Locked in With the Monsters

Send us a Text Message.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, abou

Nov 7, 2023 • 1:07:51

167 – Nat Cassidy & A New York State of Death

167 – Nat Cassidy & A New York State of Death

Send us a Text Message.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 ta

Oct 31, 2023 • 1:19:57

166 – Sam Rebelein & You Had Me At “Tongue-Monster!”

166 – Sam Rebelein & You Had Me At “Tongue-Monster!”

Send us a Text Message.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 u

Oct 24, 2023 • 1:07:35

165 – Josh Malerman & Ronald Malfi & The Rock N Roll Rhythm of the Novella

165 – Josh Malerman & Ronald Malfi & The Rock N Roll Rhythm of the Novella

Send us a textSome stories are too short, some are too long, but some stories are just right. It’s the Goldilocks zone: the novella.What is the secret to crafting a longer story but not letting it run away from you? How do you sustain the terror beyond the shortest form? How do you know what to keep in and what to cut out? This is the art of the novella, and I’m joined by a pair of expert practitioners to talk it through. Josh Malerman and Ronald Malfi have both published novella collections thi

Oct 17, 2023 • 1:21:46

164 – Out There Screaming Roundtable, with Nnedi Okorafor, Lesley Nneka Arimah & Maurice Broaddus

164 – Out There Screaming Roundtable, with Nnedi Okorafor, Lesley Nneka Arimah & Maurice Broaddus

Send us a Text Message.This week is a special roundtable episode. An exciting, challenging and very very thought-provoking tour of contemporary Black horror, in the company of three writers at the bleeding edge.  Nnedi Okorafor, Maurice Broaddus and Lesley Nneka Arimah are just three of the contributors to Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. It’s curated by Jordan Peele, who knows a thing or two about that particular landscape, and these three authors present a fantastic cross

Oct 10, 2023 • 1:18:11

163 – Liz Hand & Visiting the Thing That Walks Alone

163 – Liz Hand & Visiting the Thing That Walks Alone

Send us a Text Message.Come home!! We have to come home!! The House is calling us. Yep, this week we are going back to the most haunted house of all. Hill House. Shirley Jackson’s classic bad place. And we’re going in the company of three-time Shirley Jackson Award Winner, Elizabeth Hand, whose new novel is the first ever sanctioned sequel to Jackson’s classic. A Haunting on the Hill submits four new unwitting victims to the horrors of Hill House. But that’s where the stories diverge. Liz’s take

Oct 3, 2023 • 1:09:45

162 – Chuck Wendig & American as Evil Apple Pie

162 – Chuck Wendig & American as Evil Apple Pie

Send us a Text Message.This week on Talking Scared we are joining hands with Chuck Wendig to take the fight to Big Fruit. They have been lying to us about apples all our lives. Chuck’s new novel, Black River Orchard is all about apples. Tasty, evil, corruptive. The book grows from the fertile soil of American small-town horror, and we talk about some texts in that storytelling style, as well as how Chuck himself approaches writing such big books with so many character arcs. We also cover apple-l

Sep 26, 2023 • 1:09:46

161 – Clay McLeod Chapman & The Chesapeake Softshell Shuffle

161 – Clay McLeod Chapman & The Chesapeake Softshell Shuffle

Send us a Text Message.Clay McLeod Chapman returns to Talking Scared to answer some serious questions, the first being what the holy f**k Clay?! Clay has never been a writer to shy away from a high concept challenge (haunted mushrooms, anyone?) but his latest novel, What Kind of Mother goes into the uncharted regions of the mind and soul, dredging the craziest of horrors from the murky waters of his native Chesapeake Bay. We talk the terrors of both adolescence and parenthood, the terrible power

Sep 19, 2023 • 1:17:35

160 – Isabel Cañas & Many Types of Bloodsucker

160 – Isabel Cañas & Many Types of Bloodsucker

Send us a Text Message.I’m back, partially rested and with some romance lingering in my soul. Good timing, cos this week’s episode focuses on the heart as well as the blood that it pumps.  Isabel Cañas returns to the show to talk about her second novel, Vampires of El Norte – a sweeping historical love-story set against a backdrop of class tumult, war and … yeah… vampires. It’s not a spoiler guys – it’s in the title! Isabel speaks so eloquently about the relationship between vampirism and cultur

Sep 12, 2023 • 1:08:12

159 – Alexander James & An Encounter in the Woods

159 – Alexander James & An Encounter in the Woods

Send us a Text Message.Why do we keep heading back to the woods? WHY?? Nothing good ever happens there.Alexander James would argue otherwise, but he’s clearly made of sterner stuff than me. In his debut novel, The Woodkin, Alex parlays his love of the wild outdoors into a story that heads toward a familiar backwoods nightmares, before veering far off the beaten trail into something stranger and even scarier. In this episode we talk about his love for the woods of the Pacific Northwest (and yes!

Sep 5, 2023 • 1:05:37

158 – Catriona Ward & Rewriting the American Gothic (Like, Literally)

158 – Catriona Ward & Rewriting the American Gothic (Like, Literally)

Send us a Text Message.If you thought The Last House on Needless Street was tricksy, just wait until you hear about Looking Glass Sound. This is Cat’s ode to the Maine of Stephen King, the enigmatic narrators of Shirley Jackson and… well, a host of other comparisons that I foist upon her in the next hour.Above all that though – the book is so typically, inimitably Catriona Ward. It’s a destined Gothic classic that takes the genre, crumples it into a ball before rewriting the whole thing. We cove

Aug 29, 2023 • 1:07:14

157 – Josh Winning & The World Through Blood-Tinted Glasses

157 – Josh Winning & The World Through Blood-Tinted Glasses

Send us a textWe’re off to La La Land this week, to talk cursed films, 90s horror nostalgia and Winona Ryder(!!) Our guest is Josh Winning – who has parlayed his years of writing from and about film sets into a horror novel. Burn the Negative is set in the backlots, soundstages, cutting rooms and dank motel rooms of Hollywood. It features a film with a fatal jinx and a whole lotta love for the 90s teen slasher. Amongst all of that, Josh and I also tick off the uncanny creepiness of chil

Aug 22, 2023 • 1:14:37

156 – Sadie Hartmann & The Books of Our Horrid Hearts

156 – Sadie Hartmann & The Books of Our Horrid Hearts

Send us a Text Message.Sorry not sorry this week. Yes I’m going to destroy your wallet and your bookshelves…but you LOVE IT!!Our guest is Sadie Hartmann, AKA Mother Horror to the likes of us. One of the most influential horror reviewers in the world. The editor in chief of Dark Hart Books and the co-owner of the Night Worms horror subscription service. She knows a thing or two about this haunted library.And she’s written a book to guide the unwary, or the just-plain curious. Or anyone who wants

Aug 15, 2023 • 1:21:29

155 – Stephen King & Writing From the Nerve Endings

155 – Stephen King & Writing From the Nerve Endings

Send us a textOur guest this week is Stephen King.That’s it. That’s the intro.Stephen King. The architect of modern horror and the creative north star of my life, and many of yours. He’s on the show, talking about his new book, Holly and why the central character just won’t let him go. We cover his attitude to academia, horror and hope, how his worldview sits with a fractured reality, and we even hear some exciting, exclusive details about some upcoming books.I lack the words to convey

Aug 8, 2023 • 1:10:28

154 – Alex Woodroe & The Sweet Science of Folk Horror

154 – Alex Woodroe & The Sweet Science of Folk Horror

Send us a Text Message.We’re off on a Goth pilgrimage this week folks, to the motherland, Transylvania, to talk folk-horror and more with Alex Woodroe.Alex is a Romanian writer of dark fictions, the Editor in Chief of Tenebrous Press, and the debut author of Whisperwood. The book brings the monsters of Romanian myth and legend to the fore in a battle of wills with an isolated village. There isn’t a vampire in sight. Bram Stoker didn’t know what he was talking about.Alex does! And we get into lot

Aug 1, 2023 • 1:13:16

153 – Chuck Tingle & Riding the Lonesome Train

153 – Chuck Tingle & Riding the Lonesome Train

Send us a textThis week we’re joined by the man, the myth, the mystery that is Chuck Tingle. Who knows the truth of this enigmatic figure? What visage lies beneath the pink bag that forever encases his face? Does he really have a PhD in massage? Puzzles abound…The one thing that’s certain is the brilliance of his new novel. Camp Damascus is a full-bloodied horror novel set in that most hideous of environs: a religious community and a gay conversion camp. Sounds triggering. It may well be … but C

Jul 25, 2023 • 1:26:57

152 – Andrew Michael Hurley & Our Green, Unpleasant Land

152 – Andrew Michael Hurley & Our Green, Unpleasant Land

Send us a Text Message.This week I’m recording very close to home with Andrew Michael Hurley. Andrew burst onto the folk-horror scene with subtle aplomb (can one burst subtly?) back in 2014, with The Loney. That slice of weirdness was set in the very town in which I spent my wet, dismal childhood holidays. It conjured shivers in more ways than one. Now he is here to talk about the reissue of his 2019 novel, Starve Acre. It’s a bleak, bitter, wintery tale of isolation, grief and ritual, set in th

Jul 18, 2023 • 1:13:10

151 – Verity Holloway & The Onion Skin of Trauma

151 – Verity Holloway & The Onion Skin of Trauma

Send us a Text Message.War, what is it good for? Absolutely noth…. well actually, it is quite good for horror stories.Our guest this week doesn’t plumb the usual horrors-of-war route, though. Verity Holloway’s The Others of Edenwell is a supremely subtle, slow-burning excavation of trauma and national nightmares, set in a (supposedly) idyllic spa-cum-convalescent-hospital as battle rages elsewhere.Of course, there are horrors much closer to home.It’s possibly my first foray into the First World

Jul 11, 2023 • 1:09:23

150 – Danielle Trussoni & Puzzling All Over the World

150 – Danielle Trussoni & Puzzling All Over the World

Send us a Text Message.This week Danielle Trussoni arrives at Talking Scared in a rush. She has a meeting to get to, and we have LOTS of things to talk about in less than an hour. Her new novel, The Puzzle Master crams in enough for a whole Discovery Channel series on conspiracy, mysticism and esoteric history, plus dolls, Golems, quantum computing and a cute little Dachshund named Conundrum. How is a host supposed to cover all that at a rush. The answer, drink more coffee and don’t pause to bre

Jul 4, 2023 • 1:01:09

149 – Clowns at Midnight – The Big IT Deep-Dive (Part Two), with Ally Malinenko & Nat Cassidy

149 – Clowns at Midnight – The Big IT Deep-Dive (Part Two), with Ally Malinenko & Nat Cassidy

Send us a Text Message.Thrust your fists against the post and still insist you see the… …oh hello. You came back. Thank Gan. We have a monster to defeat this week. Yes, this is the second part of the Talking Scared dive into Stephen King’s IT. This time we are getting weird. Joined by stalwart friends, Ally Malinenko (Ghost Girl, This Appearing House) and Nat Cassidy (Mary: An Awakening of Terror), I’m delving below ground and into the cosmic tangle that underpins all of King’s fiction. We’re as

Jun 30, 2023 • 1:35:28

148 – Feral Childhoods – The Big IT Deep-Dive (Part One), with Ally Malinenko & Nat Cassidy

148 – Feral Childhoods – The Big IT Deep-Dive (Part One), with Ally Malinenko & Nat Cassidy

Send us a Text Message.Come get a balloon, bring your slingshot, let’s float…it’s here!!!Yes, finally we’re off to Derry, to do battle with that goddamn clown. But as everyone knows, we can’t fight Pennywise alone. That’s why I’m taking my trusty, loyal, brave band of Losers with me. Nat Cassidy (Mary: An Awakening of Terror) and Ally Malinenko (This Appearing House) are joining me for a tour of the sewers, subtext and sociological horrors at the heart of King’s IT. Halfway through we realised t

Jun 26, 2023 • 1:32:52

147 – Mike Flanagan & Lighting Up the Darkness

147 – Mike Flanagan & Lighting Up the Darkness

Send us a Text Message.I’ve rarely been more excited about an episode – for you to hear it or, indeed, about its very contents.We’re joined this week by Mike Flanagan. Yes, that Mike Flanagan. The genius loci of modern visual horror, the writer and director behind Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, The Midnight Club and Oculus. Our most literary horror director and a man who understand that horror is where the heart is. If you think my praise is too gushing then… we’ll just

Jun 13, 2023 • 1:16:53

146 – Paula. D. Ashe & A Bizarre & Bitter Reprieve

146 – Paula. D. Ashe & A Bizarre & Bitter Reprieve

Send us a Text Message. If horror is indeed a broad church, then our guest this week is preaching from the darkest of pulpits. Paula D. Ashe is the author of We Are Here To Hurt Each Other – a collection of short stories that has accrued infamy and acclaim in equal measure over the last 12 months. Her stories are cruel. They present a depraved world of man (and woman’s) direst excesses, a world that rubs against the numinous and the cosmically amoral. Can you say ‘trigger warnings needed’!We tal

Jun 6, 2023 • 1:08:20

145 – Sarah Gailey & The Scariest Place in the House

145 – Sarah Gailey & The Scariest Place in the House

Send us a Text Message.What if the house that shaped you was a broken, haunted place?That’s one of many questions we explore this week, in the company of Sarah Gailey. Their 2022 hit, Just Like Home is out in paperback and … hell … do we get our fingers right into its dusty, cobwebbed corners! We talk about serial-killing fathers and monstrous mothers, the power and pitfalls of descriptive prose. We discuss Freudian metaphors and the profound fears of childhood, offer a fresh take on the thorny

May 30, 2023 • 1:17:52

144 – Nicholas Binge & the Spookiest of Entanglements

144 – Nicholas Binge & the Spookiest of Entanglements

Send us a Text Message.In the immortal words of Creed’s Scott Stapp, “can you take me HIIIGHER?”Yes, I can.Our guest this week is Nicholas Binge, author the new buzzy, horror-sci-fi novel, Ascension. It’s about a very weird, very big mountain that appears out of nowhere to lure the unwary upwards. Nothing good occurs, of course. Again…much like a Creed concert.This is where the comparison’s to terrible post-grunge rock ends (thankfully) cos Nick and I have much more fun making comparisons to the

May 23, 2023 • 1:03:27

143 – Alice Slater & Bookish Murder Vibes

143 – Alice Slater & Bookish Murder Vibes

Send us a Text Message.We are paying tribute to the best of us this week. The booksellers. Keepers of the flame, beacons in the night, purveyors of meaning in a cold, dark universe … usually.Alice Slater used to be a member of that celebrated guild, now she’s written about the light and dark side of the trade in her debut smash, Death of a Bookseller. It pulls back the curtain on an industry we all care deeply about, to reveal the obsession, madness and … murder(?) behind the chai lattes and ins

May 16, 2023 • 1:10:51

142 – Katrina Monroe & Birthing the Ultimate Body Horror

142 – Katrina Monroe & Birthing the Ultimate Body Horror

Send us a Text Message.No book has ever made me so painfully aware of my nipples as Katrina Monroe’s The Graveyard of Lost Children. And I won’t ever have to breastfeed. Katrina’s novel is a full-treatment of the horrors involved in motherhood. Yes there is love, but there is also social pressure, paranoia, loneliness and chafing! And that’s before we even get to the spectral Black-Haired Woman who haunts the unlucky mothers of Katrina’s second novel. Parenting horror has seen a lot of great tit

May 9, 2023 • 1:13:27

141 – Justin Cronin & Telling the Goat Joke

141 – Justin Cronin & Telling the Goat Joke

Send us a Text Message.You will know Justin Cronin as the author of the landmark The Passage. That trilogy set the world of horror and science fiction (and all points in between) alight in the early 2000s and he’s back after eight long years, with The Ferryman. This time he’s swapping vampire plagues for something wholly more subtle … but no less terrifying. I can’t tell you what ‘cos that would ruin it for everyone, but it may shake the very building blocks of your reality.Justin and I discuss

May 2, 2023 • 1:12:07

140 – Andrew F. Sullivan & The Cutest Mould in Fungus City

140 – Andrew F. Sullivan & The Cutest Mould in Fungus City

Send us a Text Message.What if the world ended, not with a bang, but a slow squelch? That’s sort-of the premise of The Marigold, the brand-new novel from Andrew F. Sullivan. In this book a slow apocalypse is corroding Toronto. Above ground, urban development is driving ecological disaster, whilst in the basements and dark places a new fungal menace is squirming from the shadow. You may never look at your own athlete’s foot the same way.Andrew and I talk about many things, mushrooms and mycology,

Apr 25, 2023 • 1:08:52

139 – Ai Jiang & Home is Where the Haunt Is

139 – Ai Jiang & Home is Where the Haunt Is

Send us a textThis week we’re dissecting spectres and excavating the haunted house in Ai Jiang’s word-of-mouth smash, Linghun.Ai’s novella is a blast. A read-in-one-sitting tale of grief and greed and ghosts and what the word HOME really means. We go deep, talking about different cultural iterations of the supernatural, the impact of location on writing style…and the horrors of the Edinburgh vaults. Enjoy!Linghun was published on April 4th by Dark Matter INKSupport Talking Scared on PatreonCome

Apr 18, 2023 • 1:02:24

138 – Rachel Eve Moulton & The Bellybutton of the Beast

138 – Rachel Eve Moulton & The Bellybutton of the Beast

Send us a Text Message.Back to the Island this week! With Rachel Eve Moulton and The Insatiable Volt Sisters.Rachel sophomore novel is the weirdest island story since Lost, or Brexit. It features a strange family with a stranger secret, curses, killer quarry ponds and the wearing of other people’s skin. And yet you probably still want to visit Fowler Island (I did). We talk about working with surrealism, about writing volatile sisters and gendered monsters, and about the wonderful horror-lure of

Apr 11, 2023 • 1:06:42

137 – Kelly Link & Once Upon a Time in a Ghost Story

137 – Kelly Link & Once Upon a Time in a Ghost Story

Send us a Text Message.Fairy tales are the first horror stories, right? Kids being eaten by witches, narcissistic imps who steal your babies. That’s the good stuff. Kelly Link knows a thing or two about the darkness inside fairy tales, and how to (re)tell them for maximum effect. She is a superstar of the short story, a Pultizer nominee and someone who just plain knows a lot of interesting stuff. Her new collection, White Cat, Black Dog takes some of your favourite stories and twists them into n

Apr 4, 2023 • 1:07:18

136 – Max Booth III & Stories With Teeth

136 – Max Booth III & Stories With Teeth

Send us a Text Message.Terrible times and awful words await us this week. Thankfully, on this show that’s a good thing!Our guest is Max Booth III, the wizard behind Ghoulish Books and the author of bathroom-set apocalypse, We Need to Do Something. He’s here to talk about his new collection of uber-dark stories, Abnormal Statistics.These tales are pitch black, treacle-thick pieces of clotted nastiness. Bad things happen to lots of people, most frequently children (but never dogs). Many a mind is

Mar 28, 2023 • 1:09:10

135 – Victor LaValle & The Weird, Weird West

135 – Victor LaValle & The Weird, Weird West

Send us a Text Message.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

Mar 21, 2023 • 1:19:22

134 – Margaret Atwood & Hope in the Dystopia

134 – Margaret Atwood & Hope in the Dystopia

Send us a Text Message.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 an

Mar 14, 2023 • 1:19:22

133 – Jacqueline Holland & At Last! Vampires!

133 – Jacqueline Holland & At Last! Vampires!

Send us a Text Message.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

Mar 7, 2023 • 1:08:35

132 – Matt Ruff & A Hostile Universe Here on Earth

132 – Matt Ruff & A Hostile Universe Here on Earth

Send us a Text Message.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 nerv

Feb 28, 2023 • 1:11:49

131 – Johnny Compton & A Pyroclastic Flow of Negative Energy

131 – Johnny Compton & A Pyroclastic Flow of Negative Energy

Send us a Text Message.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

Feb 21, 2023 • 1:20:46

130 – Mariana Enriquez & This Cruelty is Justified

130 – Mariana Enriquez & This Cruelty is Justified

Send us a Text Message.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 conv

Feb 14, 2023 • 1:31:55

129 – Stephen Graham Jones & Slashers Can Save the World

129 – Stephen Graham Jones & Slashers Can Save the World

Send us a Text Message.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 Amer

Feb 7, 2023 • 1:18:41

128 – C.J. Tudor & Locked Rooms at the End of the World

128 – C.J. Tudor & Locked Rooms at the End of the World

Send us a Text Message.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

Jan 31, 2023 • 1:06:18

127 – Grady Hendrix and the Radical Puppet Collective

127 – Grady Hendrix and the Radical Puppet Collective

Send us a Text Message.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, t

Jan 24, 2023 • 57:55

126 – Stephen Markley & A Guided Tour To Our Future Hell

126 – Stephen Markley & A Guided Tour To Our Future Hell

Send us a Text Message.…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 i

Jan 17, 2023 • 1:15:26

125 – The Best Horror Books of 2022

125 – The Best Horror Books of 2022

Send us a Text Message.The year is almost over. What is left to do except offer you my last-minute ranking of the best books I’ve read and enjoyed in 2022.I will warn you – I am poorly and my voice sounds like ten miles of bad gravel. This sounds like the Reba McIntyre book club. I am HUSKY!!Hang around for the afterword when my voice finally gives out as I labour over a long and elaborate thank-you for listening and supporting the show this year. At times 2022 has felt like a waking nightmare,

Dec 30, 2022 • 54:22

124 – State of the Horror Nation 2022, with Emily Hughes & Janelle Janson

124 – State of the Horror Nation 2022, with Emily Hughes & Janelle Janson

Send us a Text Message.It’s that time of year again. A time to reflect, to look back over a tumultuous twelve months, and to talk about the horror books that helped us survive them.2022 has been a helluva year for the good kind of horror. Far too much for one man to cover. So I’ve drafted in some highly qualified friends – Emily Hughes and Janelle Janson. They have their fingers right on the arterial spurt of the genre – and they have each read far more than me.Together we deliver this year&apos

Dec 27, 2022 • 1:58:48

123 – Rachel Harrison, Josh Malerman & A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Self-Indulgence

123 – Rachel Harrison, Josh Malerman & A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Self-Indulgence

Send us a Text Message.It’s the Christmas Special and with the obligatory requirement to do something different – we’re turning the tables.Yes, I’m the one being interviewed this week.To make that a palatable offering for listeners, the guest interviewers are none other than Rachel Harrison and Josh Malerman. Friends of the show and horror superstars who, out of the goodness of their hearts, devoted an evening to asking me questions. Don’t listen for me; listen for them. Amongst other parts of m

Dec 20, 2022 • 1:37:07

122 – A History of Gothic Horror, with Professor Roger Luckhurst

122 – A History of Gothic Horror, with Professor Roger Luckhurst

Send us a Text Message.Are you ready for some learnin’?This week rather than focusing on any single book, or any single author – I thought we’d have a little look at … y’know … the entire friggin’ history of Horror and Gothic across the centuries. After all, what’s a Christmas break from podcasting if you aren’t doubling the length of your episodes and making the scope infinite? Thankfully, I’m joined by a bona fide expert. Professor Roger Luckhurst, from Birkbeck College, London comes with me t

Dec 13, 2022 • 2:02:35

121 – Craig Engler & What Makes a Shudder Movie?

121 – Craig Engler & What Makes a Shudder Movie?

Send us a textThis week I’m beginning my supposed ‘break’ from reading.There is still an episode, however, and it’s a doozy. You may be glad to hear I’ve put down the books for a short while, ‘cos my guest is a huge name from the cinematic aisle of the horror world – Craig Engler, GM of Shudder is in the house!!He joined me for a conversation back in October, when we were both in the throes of the Halloween build up. Now, listening to this weeks later, you can hardly hear the strain in our voice

Dec 6, 2022 • 1:04:43

120 – Philip Fracassi & A Screaming Inferno of Chaos and Emotion

120 – Philip Fracassi & A Screaming Inferno of Chaos and Emotion

Send us a Text Message.Get ready to be sickened by my praise.My guest this week is Philip Fracassi. Last year his historical horror, The Boys in the Valley got the Stephen King endorsement. He’s already following up with A Child Alone With Strangers - his second novel (or is it his first, or his third – as you’ll hear it’s complicated).This book is an all-timer. It blends the relaxed, character driven storytelling of the best 80s horror, with a contemporary cross-genre style that keeps you shock

Nov 29, 2022 • 1:13:11

119 – Charlotte Northedge & Houses Full of Haunted People

119 – Charlotte Northedge & Houses Full of Haunted People

Send us a textAre you a city mouse or a country mouse? That’s the question at the heart of my conversation with Charlotte Northedge. Her new novel, The People Before argues that though the city may be a hassle, it’s a lot less scary than what waits out there in the fields and farmhouses of this pleasant land. Charlotte is very much a city mouse. She’s also the Head of Books for The Guardian Newspaper, which makes her superbly well-euipped to talk about fiction in general, and this is an episode

Nov 22, 2022 • 1:01:48

118 – Fiona Barnett & If You Go Down to the Woods Today

118 – Fiona Barnett & If You Go Down to the Woods Today

Send us a Text Message.It’s coming home, it’s coming … horror’s coming home!Alright, no one panic – this isn’t about football. We’ll avoid that particular nightmare of human corruption and talk about something much more nourishing – the delights of British Folk Horror.Our guest is Fiona Barnett, and these days it’s seems like a mini-celebration everytime I have a fellow Brit on the show. Her debut novel The Dark Between the Trees is also quintessentially British, mired in the myth and lore and l

Nov 15, 2022 • 1:05:27

117 – Erika T. Wurth & Bigfoot in Your Dreams

117 – Erika T. Wurth & Bigfoot in Your Dreams

Send us a Text Message.I don’t always talk about Bigfoot … but when I do it’s with the BEST people.Our guest this week is Erika T. Wurth, author, narrative artist and creative writing guru. She is of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent and she pours all of that skill and heritage into her new novel White Horse. It’s a tale of haunting, hard-living and violence, with a certain hairy indigenous monster that pops up in your dreams.This is NOT the Bigfoot that you expect, or want to meet. As well as t

Nov 8, 2022 • 1:07:46

116 – Brian McAuley & The Delights of Human Evisceration

116 – Brian McAuley & The Delights of Human Evisceration

Send us a Text Message.Halloween may be over but I trust you aren’t tired of horror? No? Good. ‘Cos this week’s guest packs a double-whammy – horror novels and horror movies all in one. Brian McAuley is a screenwriter and debut novelist. His first book, Curse of the Reaper is a behind-the-scenes look at how the horror movie sausage gets made, featuring the greatest slasher icon never to actually exist, and some of the best ‘bad’ scriptwriting you’ll ever read.Brian and I talk about Hollywood as

Nov 1, 2022 • 1:08:13

115 – Andy Davidson & Ornate Maps of Hell

115 – Andy Davidson & Ornate Maps of Hell

Send us a Text Message.The last episode before Halloween and it’s suitably about my favourite book of the year: Andy Davidson’s The Hollow KindAndy is the Stoker-nominated author of In the Valley of the Sun and The Boatman’s Daughter. The Hollow Kind is his third book and it packs a lot into its 400 pages. It’s as dense and weighty as an imploding paper star. It’s a haunted house story (of sorts), a creature feature (of sorts) and a whole lot of Southern Gothic of many kinds. The prose is lush a

Oct 25, 2022 • 1:13:15

114 – Erin E. Adams & Monsters in the Rust Belt

114 – Erin E. Adams & Monsters in the Rust Belt

Send us a Text Message.It was Thomas Wolfe who wrote “you can never go home again.” Huh, what did he know? (yes, I understand the metaphor – move on!)This week’s guest proves that whilst you can go home, you may not want to. Erin E. Adams is an actor, playwright and now the debut author of JACKAL, a novel of homecomings horrid and awful. Each year, in the small Pennsylvania town of Johnstown, a young Black girl goes missing, taken by whatever lurks in the woods surrounding the town. Helluva prem

Oct 18, 2022 • 1:03:56

113 – Rachel Harrison & Teeth, Needles & Gnomes

113 – Rachel Harrison & Teeth, Needles & Gnomes

Send us a Text Message.Do you know anyone with hairy palms? Weird question, but as this week’s novel-in-question will convince you, it’s best to be careful around the hirsute.Our guest is Rachel Harrison, returning to Talking Scared with her brand new SUCH SHARP TEETH. It’s a tale of small-town relationships, female transformation, love and … werewolves.Anyone who has read either of Rachel’s previous novels, The Return or Cackle, will know that she has a knack for reinventing horror tropes withi

Oct 11, 2022 • 1:02:56

112 – Jamie Flanagan & Stories as Companions for Loneliness

112 – Jamie Flanagan & Stories as Companions for Loneliness

Send us a Text Message.The best and spookiest season starts in earnest, this year on Talking Scared. Our guest is Jamie Flanagan, actor, screenwriter, and part of the team who delivered such televisual delights as The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass and now, The Midnight Club.With The Midnight Club due to land on Netflix worldwide this Friday – I rejigged the schedule to sneak in a chat with Jamie about his work on the show, his relationship with horror-maestro director, Mike Flanagan, and

Oct 4, 2022 • 1:05:36

111 – Alexis Henderson and Hot Marxist Bloodletting

111 – Alexis Henderson and Hot Marxist Bloodletting

Send us a Text Message.It’s not only vampires that drink blood. That’s what we find out on this week’s episode. Our guest is Alexis Henderson – author of The Year of the Witching and now, her sophomore novel, House of Hunger. It’s a luscious, lurid tale of dark fantasy, blood and sex. Y’know … all the good stuff.Oh, and it’s one of my favourite books of the year.Alexis and I discuss the collision of horror and fantasy, the erotics and politics of blood, and the double standards when it comes to

Sep 27, 2022 • 1:07:46

110 – Clay McLeod Chapman and Unhealthy Obsession with Clear Plastic Tarps

110 – Clay McLeod Chapman and Unhealthy Obsession with Clear Plastic Tarps

Send us a textWanna get haunted?That’s the delightful proposition offered by Clay McLeod Chapman’s Ghost Eaters – a novel of ghosts, grief and ghastly narcotics. Just take one pill and you can sell all the phantoms that surround you. What a premise! It’s Clay’s second time on Talking Scared and he’s always welcome. There are few more honest, open, and thoughtful writers out there. This time around we go deep, into the real emotional core of Ghost Eaters, talking about lost friends and long-ago d

Sep 20, 2022 • 1:14:10

109 – Gemma Amor and The Big Mental Health in Horror Bonanza

109 – Gemma Amor and The Big Mental Health in Horror Bonanza

Send us a textThe time has finally come to go to the scariest place imaginable – the inside of the human mind. Thankfully, we have a friend to accompany us on this most hideous of trips. I’m joined this week by Gemma Amor, author of the brand-new techno-horror FULL IMMERSION. It’s a book that deals with trauma, psychosis and experimental treatment, and it’s the perfect springboard for an epic conversation about mental health in horror.Gemma and I cover the autobiographical elements of h

Sep 13, 2022 • 1:56:52

108 – Hailey Piper and Ambulatory Brain Monsters

108 – Hailey Piper and Ambulatory Brain Monsters

Send us a Text Message.Finally, she’s here!After months of waiting for schedules and book releases to align, Hailey Piper is on the show. She’s here to talk about both of her 2022 releases – each is a kidnapping experience. The novella Your Mind is a Terrible Thing takes us up into the void and into creepy inner space. Her forthcoming novel No Gods for Drowning transports us somewhere else entirely. Hailey lets me blather on about social commentary and metaphor before reminding me gently that so

Sep 6, 2022 • 1:04:32

107 – Zin E. Rocklyn and the Commonality of Pain

107 – Zin E. Rocklyn and the Commonality of Pain

Send us a Text Message.Time to get weird and wiggy and wondrous.Our guest this week is Zin E. Rocklyn, author of many short fictions, and her (very) recently award-winning novella Flowers for the Sea.It’s an afro-speculative blend of science fiction, horror, fantasy, myth, dystopia, pre-history and apocalypse – all confined to a single boat in a big, bad ocean, and all told within 100 pages.Phew – it’s dense!Zin and I cover a lot this week. We barrel through her the twin crises of reproductive r

Aug 30, 2022 • 52:48

106 – Gwendolyn Kiste and the Madwomen Bite Back

106 – Gwendolyn Kiste and the Madwomen Bite Back

Send us a textGet your bell bottoms, your peace sign, your tie dye and your … crucifix!This week’s guest is Gwendolyn Kiste and her new novel, Reluctant Immortals, transports us to San Francisco in 1968, the summer after the Summer of Love, when the sun is setting on the hippie movement. Into this chaos comes a quarter of iconic Gothic characters, ready to fight it out all over again.Like the book, the surface of this conversation belies its inner darkness. Yes we talk hippies. Yes we talk Haunt

Aug 23, 2022 • 1:08:37

105 – Agatha Andrews and Danger-Bangs in Haunted Houses

105 – Agatha Andrews and Danger-Bangs in Haunted Houses

Send us a Text Message.This week we’re crossing the podcast streams again – and broadening our reading at the same time.Agatha Andrews is the host of She Wore Black, a Texas-based podcast of Gothic, Mystery and Horror. She’s also my horror-podcasting buddy, the romantic yin to my dark, depraved yang. And she knows a thing or two about Gothic Romance.It turns out it’s not all virgins in nightgowns (though they do make an appearance). Agatha talks me through the complex, overlapping relationships

Aug 16, 2022 • 1:04:45

104 – Michael J. Seidlinger and Strange Footsteps at Midnight

104 – Michael J. Seidlinger and Strange Footsteps at Midnight

Send us a textAre your doors and windows locked? Good. ‘Cos this one is going to scare you!This week I’m joined by Michael J. Seidlinger, author of the new home-invasion nightmare, Anybody Home. You’ve read this scenario before – invasion, torture, death and suffering – but never like this.  We talk about why home invasion is so singularly frightening, about the role of movies and lenses in our hyper-surveillant culture, we disagree on the current state of experimental fiction, and Michael gives

Aug 9, 2022 • 1:13:24

103 – Giving Kids Swords: A Middle Grade Special w/ with Ally Malinenko, Dan Poblocki & Lora Senf

103 – Giving Kids Swords: A Middle Grade Special w/ with Ally Malinenko, Dan Poblocki & Lora Senf

Send us a textWhat scared you as a kid? Monsters? Ghosts? The thing in your closet? The perilous state of the environment and the terrible carbon footprint of children’s toys?If it’s any of the former then you’re in good company. (If it’s the latter then boy did we need you in 1987!) This week’s guests understand the fear that makes the childlike mind tick and tock, they know how to get under young skin, and they know how to inject a little hope into the horror. Ally Malinenko, Dan Poblocki and

Aug 2, 2022 • 1:38:55

102 – Nina Nesseth and How the Gross-Out Can Save Your Life

102 – Nina Nesseth and How the Gross-Out Can Save Your Life

Send us a Text Message.Do you like scary movies? Yes, course you do – you’re listening to a horror podcast.Okay, cliched horror quote asides – this week is something a little different for the show. It’s been a minute since we’ve had some non-fiction, and how better to scratch that itch-for-facts than with a discussion of BRAINZZZZZ?Our guest is Nina Nesseth: scientist, researcher and author of Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films. It does what it says on the cover. Nina guides us through

Jul 26, 2022 • 1:14:02

101 – Nat Cassidy and Who Asked for a Body Anyway?

101 – Nat Cassidy and Who Asked for a Body Anyway?

Send us a Text Message.We’re heading into largely uncharted horror waters this week with our guest Nat Cassidy. Nat’s debut horror novel, Mary: An Awakening of Terror dares to confront one of the last true taboos of horror fiction. No, it’s not cannibalism, or necrophilia, or the bowel movements of Tucker Carlson … no… it’s the menopause. That’s right. Female physiology. The horror, the terror, think of the children!!!Nat and I talk about why horror shies away from the topic of middle age and me

Jul 19, 2022 • 1:09:49

100 – Paul Tremblay and the First-Person Asshole Narrator

100 – Paul Tremblay and the First-Person Asshole Narrator

Send us a Text Message.DUM DUM DUM!!! 100 episodes!! We did it. We reached an utterly abstract threshold together guys and we are DELIGHTED to be here. I’m also delighted to welcome Paul Tremblay back to the show for a neat bit of circularity (as he was the one to kick things off way back in episode 1). Paul’s new novel, The Pallbearer’s Club came out just at the right time to make him the 100th guest. I’m convinced he planned it that way.It’s a tale of weird adolescence, New England folklore, P

Jul 12, 2022 • 1:09:59

99 – T. Kingfisher and the Fungus-Punk Epidemic

99 – T. Kingfisher and the Fungus-Punk Epidemic

Send us a textIt’s been a rough couple of weeks. So, let’s have a laugh: Poe-style!Our guest is T. Kingfisher. She’s an expert in taking dry, dark horror classics and investing them with newfound life. In What Moves the Dead she manages to find the gruesome joy in even the most dolorous of text. What Moves the Dead reconfigures and reapproaches Poe’s classic, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It updates the year, introduces some gender fluidity, and even adds Beatrix Potter’s aunt. Yes, this is

Jul 5, 2022 • 1:08:16

98 – Tim McGregor and Blaming the Danish

98 – Tim McGregor and Blaming the Danish

Send us a Text Message.Things are a bit fishy this week, as I’m joined by long-time friend-of-the-show Tim McGregor (@TimMcGregor1) to talk about the long history of fish-tailed women and why we find them so frightening … and sexy! Tim’s forthcoming novella, Lure, is a mermaid story with bite! No Ariel here; Sebastian the Crab is hiding. Instead it’s about the war of attrition between a brutal patriarchal settlement and the sea-she-creature who holds them to account.(a little fitting for this we

Jun 28, 2022 • 1:10:38

97 – A Monstrous Roundtable, with Ellen Datlow, Nathan Ballingrud, Chikodili  Emelumadu & Joe R. Lansdale

97 – A Monstrous Roundtable, with Ellen Datlow, Nathan Ballingrud, Chikodili Emelumadu & Joe R. Lansdale

Send us a Text Message.This week on Talking Scared it’s monsters all day, every day. To celebrate the release of Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, we gather around the campfire with editor Ellen Datlow and three of her contributors – no less than Nathan Ballingrud, Chikodili Emelumadu and the great Joe R. Lansdale.As a result, this is not your average Talking Scared episode. There is interruption, overlap, argument much good humour. Amidst the chaos we still manage a

Jun 21, 2022 • 1:12:54

96 – Stephen Lloyd and Cutting the Treacle

96 – Stephen Lloyd and Cutting the Treacle

Send us a textWe’re closing out our (very) loose trilogy of episodes devoted to sinister schools and magical children. This week it involves pentagrams and witch-burnings, which are always a good time.Our guest, Stephen Lloyd, is better known for his comedy than his horror. He has spent a career crafting some of the biggest sitcoms of the century (some of which helped my marriage survive lockdown). Now, he has turned his pen to something much less wholesome, in his first novel, Friend of the Dev

Jun 14, 2022 • 58:46

95 – J.M. Miro and Throwing Your Arms Around the Monsters

95 – J.M. Miro and Throwing Your Arms Around the Monsters

Send us a Text Message.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

Jun 7, 2022 • 1:17:55

94 – Scott Hawkins and a Dog-Eat-Lion World

94 – Scott Hawkins and a Dog-Eat-Lion World

Send us a Text Message.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 ta

May 31, 2022 • 1:03:21

93 – Kiersten White and Freedom from the Hope of Youth

93 – Kiersten White and Freedom from the Hope of Youth

Send us a Text Message.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 so

May 24, 2022 • 1:09:11

92 – Anne Heltzel and a Big Pile of Dead Baby Dolls

92 – Anne Heltzel and a Big Pile of Dead Baby Dolls

Send us a textThis 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

May 17, 2022 • 1:09:28

91 – Jason Rekulak and Pencil Crayon Jump Scares

91 – Jason Rekulak and Pencil Crayon Jump Scares

Send us a Text Message.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 g

May 10, 2022 • 1:01:05

90 – Isabel Cañas and Running Barefoot Through Books

90 – Isabel Cañas and Running Barefoot Through Books

Send us a Text Message.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 i

May 3, 2022 • 1:18:59

89 – Alma Katsu and the Hatred that Never Seems to Die

89 – Alma Katsu and the Hatred that Never Seems to Die

Send us a Text Message.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 fa

Apr 26, 2022 • 1:12:50

88 – V. L. Valentine and The Difficult Second Ghost Story

88 – V. L. Valentine and The Difficult Second Ghost Story

Send us a Text Message.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 serva

Apr 19, 2022 • 1:07:02

87 – Malcolm Devlin and the Brexit Zombie Story

87 – Malcolm Devlin and the Brexit Zombie Story

Send us a Text Message.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 d

Apr 12, 2022 • 59:08

86 – Alan Baxter and a Stranger in a Strange Town

86 – Alan Baxter and a Stranger in a Strange Town

Send us a Text Message.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

Apr 5, 2022 • 1:11:17

85 – Emma Stonex and the Light That Never Goes Out

85 – Emma Stonex and the Light That Never Goes Out

Send us a Text Message.Imagine it’s just you and two other people stuck in a single building for weeks on end. Everyone’s bad habits on display. How long would it take you to turn murderous?That’s just one of the possible questions asked in Emma Stonex’s The Lamplighters. Inspired by the real-world vanishing of the Flannan Isle Lighthouse keepers, but full of incident and weirdness all it’s own, The Lamplighters is equally poetic and paranoid, gentle and cruel, haunting and horrifying. It may be

Mar 29, 2022 • 1:10:43

84 – Dark Stars Roundtable, with John F.D. Taff, Livia Llewellyn & Josh Malerman

84 – Dark Stars Roundtable, with John F.D. Taff, Livia Llewellyn & Josh Malerman

Send us a Text Message.This week is an orgy of horror. There are four of us. That makes it an orgy right? (I’ve never been to one – never got the invitation).Ahem … sorry.  I'll start again.This week I am joined by not one, but THREE guests. John F. D. Taff, Livia Llewellyn, and of course, Josh Malerman. We could call them stars from the firmament of horror. Dark Stars perhaps.That would be fitting, considering that’s what they are here to discuss (amongst many, many things). Dark Stars is

Mar 22, 2022 • 1:31:10

83 – Simone St. James and Good Time, True Crime

83 – Simone St. James and Good Time, True Crime

Send us a Text Message.Hey horrorfam – ready for a good ol’ murder mystery? Y’know, with ghosts…Our guest is Simone St. James, the doyenne of ‘Supernatural Suspense’ (as the marketeers love to call it). Her 2020 smash hit The Sundown Motel put her name up in lights, and her latest – The Book of Cold Cases keeps it there, shining cold and bright.It’s a tale of murder, media and misogyny –  told in the classic dual-timeline manner that seems to feature in all good supernatural suspense novels – an

Mar 15, 2022 • 1:01:49

82 – Mike Meginnis and Things You Should Do Before You Die

82 – Mike Meginnis and Things You Should Do Before You Die

Send us a Text Message.Are you ready for another apocalypse? Covid and nukes not enough for ya? Well here you go then. Something slightly different.  Mike Meginnis’ Drowning Practice is an odder than usual end-of-days. It’s a book in which everyone knows that time is up, and yet they just don’t seem to care. There are few (I won’t say zero) ravening lunatics in this book – but the more chilling realisation is that even at the end of the world, you still have to go to work.Mike and I talk about a

Mar 8, 2022 • 1:08:41

81 – Tyler Jones and Old Eyes in Young Faces

81 – Tyler Jones and Old Eyes in Young Faces

Send us a Text Message.Tyler Jones’ Burn the Plans reminds me of the first time I picked up Stephen King’s Night Shift. I didn’t know who this King guy was, only that his stories were varied, scary, funny, awful and sweet and sweetly awful. In short, a great time. Burn the Plans is the same.The collection dashes from an ever-so-American-Gothic farm to a bloodsoaked art gallery, CIA psychic experimentation to invisible Frankensteinian limb-monsters. Tyler’s imagination runs amok and breaks the cr

Mar 1, 2022 • 1:09:12

80 – Gretchen Felker-Martin and Bustin’ Everyone’s Balls

80 – Gretchen Felker-Martin and Bustin’ Everyone’s Balls

Send us a Text Message.Have you ever wondered what fresh testicles taste like? No? I don’t believe you.Our guest this week wants to get you thinking about it … well, that and many more important things. Gretchen Felker-Martin is the author of Manhunt – potentially the most buzzed-about horror novel of 2022. The story follows a pair of trans- protagonists through a blighted landscape of monstrous men and militant feminists – with the prized scrotal orbs being the key to continued life, and the pu

Feb 22, 2022 • 1:05:20

79 – Leon Craig and the Queerness at the Bottom of the Well

79 – Leon Craig and the Queerness at the Bottom of the Well

Send us a textFebruary’s focus on the best new Women-in-Horror continues with Leon Craig and her debut collection, Parallel Hells. Leon is a North London writer with a globalised imagination. She’s been published all over the place, but is also a member of the Future’s in the Making, Queer writer’s collective. That perspective is inescapable in this collection. Wherever her stories take us, from an Eastern European pogrom, to a Viking settlement, or a BDSM dungeon frequented by denizens

Feb 15, 2022 • 1:09:26

78 – Thomas Olde Heuvelt and the Mountains of (My) Madness

78 – Thomas Olde Heuvelt and the Mountains of (My) Madness

Send us a Text Message.This week is my personal Everest. Thomas Olde Heuvelt, bestselling Euro-horror whizzkid author of HEX, joins me to to talk about his newest novel – Echo. It’s a story of mountaineering, and madness, and monsters of the soul.If you follow me on any form of social media you may have seen that this book utterly distressed me. I can’t even say why myself; it just tweaked a nerve. Echo is a wonderfully easter-egg-laden novel, full of references to other horror masterworks. As y

Feb 8, 2022 • 1:07:22

77 – S.A. Barnes and Every Direction is Down

77 – S.A. Barnes and Every Direction is Down

Send us a Text Message.In space no one can hear you read! This week our guest is S.A. Barnes – who’s new novel Dead Silence answers the (stupid) question, once and for all, of whether horror can take place in space. It’s a tale of a blue-collar crew, who encounter more than they reckoned for when salvaging a fabled spaceship. You think you’ve seen this play out before, I know.  You haven’t.Stacey and I talk about all things “space-horror”, from the looming shadow of Alien and Event Horizon, to t

Feb 1, 2022 • 1:09:19

76 – Ally Wilkes and Good Reasons to be Afraid of the Dark

76 – Ally Wilkes and Good Reasons to be Afraid of the Dark

Send us a Text Message.Is it cold where you are? If so, do I have the book for you.Our guest is Ally Wilkes, whose debut novel, All the White Spaces was my pick for the most anticipated horror novel of early 2022. I was NOT disappointed.The book takes us to Antarctica in 1919, just months after the end of the First World War, in the dying years of the Heroic Age of Exploration. There, trapped in the frozen ‘overwinter’ the team of men are forced to confront a malignant presence that draws them o

Jan 25, 2022 • 1:06:11

75 – Kristi DeMeester and Misogynistic Little Paper Cuts

75 – Kristi DeMeester and Misogynistic Little Paper Cuts

Send us a Text Message.This week it’s time for good girls and bad girls to unite.Our guest is Kristi DeMeester whose new novel, Such A Pretty Smile sinks its teeth deep into the raised hand of misogyny. It’s a tale of violence and viciousness and vivid nightmares – and a whole new apparatus to explore the evils that men do. At this point I assume we’ve already weeded out the guys who roll their eyes at #metoo!? That’s for the best cos this is a feminism-heavy week. We talk about how horror treat

Jan 18, 2022 • 1:07:41

74 – John Connolly and the Many Faces of Metaphysical Mystery

74 – John Connolly and the Many Faces of Metaphysical Mystery

Send us a Text Message.Kicking off the New Year right, by interviewing one of my favourite living writers.  John Connolly is the author of the bestselling Charlie Parker series, a 19 book odyssey that takes us from the Maine coast to the darkest corners of the USA (and elsewhere), in the process, transmuting hardboiled detective noir into cosmic horror.After two decades of reading about Parker, you can be sure I have plenty to ask John – about writing American horror as an Irishman, Maine’s host

Jan 11, 2022 • 1:29:56

73 – The Best Horror-ish Books of 2021

73 – The Best Horror-ish Books of 2021

Send us a Text Message.It’s just me this week – sneaking one last episode in to talk about my own personal top-10 horror novels (or horror-ish) from the last twelve months. It’s been a stellar year, and picking just ten books was a nightmare all of it’s own. But these things must be done. The world MUST know what one more straight, white guy thinks about culture, or society will collapse.  I hope you enjoy this as I get more and more animated as things go on. It’s a good job I’m taking next week

Dec 30, 2021 • 47:02

72 – State of the Horror Nation II, with Emily Hughes and Sadie Hartmann

72 – State of the Horror Nation II, with Emily Hughes and Sadie Hartmann

Send us a Text Message.Well, we made it to the end of this nightmare of a year. And though there has been plenty of horrific stuff along the way – war, plague, corruption … literal armed insurrection, at least the fictional horror has been fun. To commemorate a special year in horror, I’m getting the band back together. Sadie  Hartmann, AKA Mother Horror, and Emily Hughes of Tor Nightfire (and various other parishes) join me to talk about the stuff they have loved from the second half** of 2021.

Dec 28, 2021 • 1:53:51

71 – A.J. West and Paranormal Foreplay

71 – A.J. West and Paranormal Foreplay

Send us a Text Message.This week I bring you a ghost story, as befitting the season. Though it’s a little more lurid than Charles Dickens would have liked.The guest is A.J. West;   the book is The Spirit Engineer. It’s one of my very favourites of 2021. Set in Belfast between the sinking of the Titanic and the outbreak of war, it’s a tale of science and the supernatural. Of William Crawford, a man who wants proof of the beyond, and will risk everything to grasp it. It’s actually based on real pe

Dec 21, 2021 • 1:10:18

70 – Ross Jeffery and Disturbing the Comfortable

70 – Ross Jeffery and Disturbing the Comfortable

Send us a Text Message.This week I am going to utterly ruin your festive mood!My guest is Ross Jeffery – author of Juniper, Tome (for which he was Bram Stoker nominated) and numerous short stories. His work is grim, gritty, gory and other words beginning with G - but they are nothing compared to the sheer horror of his latest work, Only the Stains Remain.Yeah, this is one of those special episodes in which I feel duty-bound to roll out the trigger warnings. Only the Stains Remain is about child

Dec 14, 2021 • 1:07:42

69 – Wendy N. Wagner and Nasty Shenanigans

69 – Wendy N. Wagner and Nasty Shenanigans

Send us a Text Message.I know it’s the middle of winter but this week the book in question is taking us back to summer. And not our current plague-summer – but the halcyon days of 1989. Think kids on bikes, running wild, fights and first loves, demonic deer gods … wait … what?Our guest, Wendy N. Wagner is the editor-in-chief of the prestigious Nightmare Magazine, and the author of epic coming-of-age horror The Deer Kings, as well as the ‘Sawmill Gothic’, The Secret Skin. We talk about both books

Dec 7, 2021 • 1:07:28

68 – Josh Malerman and Putting the Awe in Awful Things

68 – Josh Malerman and Putting the Awe in Awful Things

Send us a Text Message.If you are feeling depressed, what with OMICRON emerging like the worst villain in some direct-to-streaming video game adaptation, then do I have the tonic for you.Josh Malerman is back for his second bout of Talking Scared, only 6 months after he was last here. This time, more than ever, he brings joy, wonder, inspiration and a 700 page book that will work your triceps as well as your mind and soul.  Ghoul n’ the Cape is Josh’s magnum opus, so far. So far! It’s the truly

Nov 30, 2021 • 1:11:58

67 – Richard Maclean Smith and the Ledge of Reason

67 – Richard Maclean Smith and the Ledge of Reason

Send us a textAnd now for something a little different.This is a show about scary stories and writing horror… but that doesn’t mean everything has to be on the page. Our guest this week is Richard Maclean Smith, host and producer of Unexplained Podcast, the best show out there on the creepy, mysterious and mystifying events that people like me spend hours reading about on Wikipedia. There is everything from true crime to strange disappearances, ghosts and demons, monsters and UFOs, as well as so

Nov 23, 2021 • 1:16:25

66 – Ellen Datlow and What Does ‘Scared’ Mean Anyhow?

66 – Ellen Datlow and What Does ‘Scared’ Mean Anyhow?

Send us a Text Message.For over three decades Ellen Datlow has been at the centre of the horror community. She is the queen of editors, the doyenne of anthologisers, the person who gets to declare what is the Best Horror of the Year.And she has come back to talk to me after I lost the conversation file the first time around…!That major mishap may have been a blessing in disguise, as since then she has published two standout anthologies, dealing with very different branches of horror. Body Shocks

Nov 16, 2021 • 1:10:09

65 – Mark Stay and Cosy Pagan Dread

65 – Mark Stay and Cosy Pagan Dread

Send us a Text Message.This week I’m feeling warm and fuzzy (don’t worry it won’t last). Halloween is over, the weather has turned dark, we’ve all got the central heating on and are hunkering down for the end of the year. What better time for a slightly more cosy read?Our guest this week is Mark Stay, author, screenwriter, and one half of the quite wonderful Bestseller Experiment podcast. Usually Mark is in my chair, asking author’s all about how to be a successful writer – but this week I’ve li

Nov 9, 2021 • 1:07:34

64 – Kim Newman and Truly Universal Monsters

64 – Kim Newman and Truly Universal Monsters

Send us a Text Message.Halloween is over for another year but there are still plenty of monsters to go around.Our guest this week is Kim Newman, the writer, critic and encyclopaedic authority on horror, pulp and the dark recesses of cinematic history. You may know him as the author of the Anno Dracula series, but that’s only the tip of his imaginative iceberg.Kim’s new novel, Something More than Night, takes all of that arcane knowledge and puts it to use – transporting us back to the Hollywood

Nov 2, 2021 • 1:13:17

63 – Mark Kermode and Angels, Demons and White Eyed Kids (AKA, the Hallowe’en Special)

63 – Mark Kermode and Angels, Demons and White Eyed Kids (AKA, the Hallowe’en Special)

Send us a Text Message.Normally we talk books - but horror movies are a Hallowe’en staple. Turn the lights down, wrap yourself in a blanket, choose your snack of choice and then torment yourself terribly. It’s what we do.Now, Mark Kermode knows a thing or two about scary movies. The UK’s most prominent film critic has a special fondness for horror movies, as well as a grounding in the books that inspired many of the best. I asked him on the show for this Hallowe’en special episode, to talk about

Oct 30, 2021 • 1:06:07

62 – Catherynne M. Valente and the Homeowners Association from Hell

62 – Catherynne M. Valente and the Homeowners Association from Hell

Send us a Text Message.Perfect places breed hideous crimes – that’s my understanding at least. If you like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or Twin Peaks (or anything by David Lynch) then you’ll get a kick out of Catherynne M. Valente’s Comfort Me with Apples.Despite being a novella of less than 130 pages, it crams in everything from the whole rotten tradition of awful things – from the book of Genesis, via fairytales and the Gothic, all the way up to the most cutting-edge dystopian sci-fi. This

Oct 26, 2021 • 59:58

61 – Cassandra Khaw and Stories to Tell Death

61 – Cassandra Khaw and Stories to Tell Death

Send us a Text Message.I’m on holiday but I still give you goodies. ‘Cos that’s the kind of all-round good guy that I am.And what a dark treat of a trick we have this week. The guest is Cassandra Khaw and their novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth will use it’s liquorice-stained smile to chew you up.The book transports us to a crumbling mansion in Japan, where a hideous spectre haunts a group of utterly loathsome tourists. Honestly, you’ll want them dead for their taste in music alone!Despite the

Oct 19, 2021 • 59:59

60 – Caitlin Starling and Emotional Torture Porn

60 – Caitlin Starling and Emotional Torture Porn

Send us a Text Message.Hello kids. Wanna see a magic trick? Rather than pulling a rabbit from a hat, I offer you Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous Dead and her new Gothic chiller, The Death of Jane Lawrence. Caitlin’s novel takes a familiar Gothic set-up and kicks it around until it is only recognisable from the colour of its blood. Dilapidated house – check. Deceitful husband – check. Magical rites, mysterious walls and ghosts that feed on shame – yeah that’s new!We talk all about magica

Oct 12, 2021 • 1:11:18

59 – James Han Mattson and the Fear Fetish Facepalm

59 – James Han Mattson and the Fear Fetish Facepalm

Send us a textWelcome to Hallowe’en ’21. If ever a year required us to find the fun in all things grim, dark and depressing then this is the absolute best year since last year. Appropriately for the lead-in to Spooky Season, our guest this week wrote a book all about fear as an attraction. James Han Mattson is the author of Reprieve – a mouthwatering prospect of a novel set in an extreme, full-contact, haunted house escape room. What could go wrong, right?Well, as you’ll hear, James’ novel is le

Oct 5, 2021 • 1:02:46

58 – Lee Mandelo & Playing Out with the Boys

58 – Lee Mandelo & Playing Out with the Boys

Send us a Text Message.Vroom vroom! This week’s book is automatic, systematic, highly dramatic … it’s G…G…G…G… Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo.That painful Grease reference is due to the fact that this book marries teenage angst with fast cars and hot boys – with or without the quiffs. In reality though, it’s closer to a Springsteen Song – all tortured youth, broken hearts, racing the in the street and darkness on the edge of town.It tells the tale of Andrew – a sexually confused young man who reloca

Sep 28, 2021 • 1:09:51

57 – Tina Baker and the Working-Class Chips on Our Shoulders

57 – Tina Baker and the Working-Class Chips on Our Shoulders

Send us a Text Message.Oh eck! This week I get very northern and my working class roots come to the fore.It’s all my guest’s fault. Tina Baker, the author of Call Me Mummy, is an infectious presence. My typical transatlantic restraint falls away and I follow Tina down endless rabbit-holes – her time as a TV presenter, her childhood mishaps, her cats!Thankfully, her book is fantastic, and gives us something to focus on at least a little.Call Me Mummy is a dark psychological tale of stolen childre

Sep 21, 2021 • 1:18:30

56 – Aliya Whiteley and Strange Growths

56 – Aliya Whiteley and Strange Growths

Send us a Text Message.Growth is good, right? That’s what they tell us.Our guest this week might have other ideas. Aliya Whiteley’s is a novelist, short story writer and poet, whose writing is all about growth. In her strange worlds people, plants, entire worlds sprawl and mutate, but often the change is anything but wholesome. In her new collection, From the Neck Up she introduces us to disembodied heads, fleshy scarecrows, parasitical towns, dark ecology and violent agricultural rites. These s

Sep 14, 2021 • 1:06:48

55 – Daniel Kraus and a Bag of Squishy Organs in an Elastic Hide

55 – Daniel Kraus and a Bag of Squishy Organs in an Elastic Hide

Send us a textOur show this week is part interview, part homage, all zombie!Daniel Kraus, the author of zombie magnum opus, The Living Dead is in the hotseat. But he isn’t alone. Both he and his novel are accompanied by the spectral presence of the master himself, George Romero. When Romero passed in 2017, he left behind years of work and ambition in telling the whole story of his zombie uprising in novel form. It’s a project that was passed on to Daniel, and he joins us to talk about that book,

Sep 7, 2021 • 1:07:03

54 – Stephen Graham Jones and Dancing with the Slasher

54 – Stephen Graham Jones and Dancing with the Slasher

Send us a Text Message.Talking Scared is a whole year old today, and to celebrate I’ve brought you one of the brightest stars in the horror sky, someone who is getting bigger, better and badder with each book he releases. It’s Stephen Graham Jones!Stephen is here to discuss My Heart is a Chainsaw – his oh-so-meta revision of the slasher movie and the final girl. The book starts dark and gets darker, with references to every single slasher that you’ve seen, as well as plenty you haven’t. If you s

Aug 31, 2021 • 1:10:02

53 – Zoje Stage and What if You're Not a Good Person?

53 – Zoje Stage and What if You're Not a Good Person?

Send us a Text Message.Morning campers! This week we’re off to the great outdoors for a hike, a night under the stars and a spot of psychological terror. Our guest is Zoje Stage. In her previous novels, Babyteeth and Wonderland she took us to dark houses and interior spaces. Her new novel, Getaway, does the opposite, dragging us   on the adventure of a lifetime. A week hiking in the Grand Canyon. Just the ticket to blow away the covid claustrophobia.Shame it all goes so horribly wrong!We talk a

Aug 24, 2021 • 1:01:17

52 – Richard Chizmar and the Truth Inside the Lie

52 – Richard Chizmar and the Truth Inside the Lie

Send us a textThis week the walls between reality and fiction begin to break down. What is truth, what is a lie? Can a story be both?These are the kinds of questions my guest, Richard Chizmar, has become an expert at answering. His new novel (if we can call it that) is Chasing the Boogeyman and it’s a unique beast. Part memoir, part true-crime, part horror fiction – it takes the streets of Rich’s boyhood home, colours them sepia and then lets a serial killer run loose. We talk about the illusion

Aug 17, 2021 • 1:12:26

51 – Brian Evenson and Little Potted Nightmares

51 – Brian Evenson and Little Potted Nightmares

Send us a textThis week’s guest couldn’t be better timed. In a week when we find out the world is not only screwed, it’s REALLY screwed, our guest is Brian Evenson, with his new collection, The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell – which could be a description of many places on the globe right now.These stories transport the reader to strange, deformed, blasted landscapes. Like the worlds they depict, Brian’s tales are harsh and dark and frightening but, as you’ll hear me say, they are also a surprisin

Aug 10, 2021 • 1:06:34

50 - Sara Flannery Murphy and the Witches They Couldn't Burn

50 - Sara Flannery Murphy and the Witches They Couldn't Burn

Send us a Text Message.Sisters are doing it for themselves – literally! Our guest this week is Sara Flannery Murphy, author of Girl One – which is either a feminist dystopian nightmare or a superhero origin story, or both. It is an alternative history of genetic science that asks the question of what would happen if women no longer needed men to conceive a child. The answer is simultaneously complex and chilling.Sara and I talk about writing as a feminist in the time of Trump (and living in a Re

Aug 3, 2021 • 1:05:09

49 – Ronald Malfi and Can Death Do Us Part?

49 – Ronald Malfi and Can Death Do Us Part?

Send us a Text Message.Why isn’t there more horror about marriage?Think about it. You marry someone. Spend your life with them. But do you really know them, or what they are capable of.  Ronald Malfi’s Come With Me pries open these secrets, sending the protagonist on a tailspinning road trip in pursuit of the truth about the woman he has loved and lost. It’s a big, satisfying, chunky summer novel packed full of murder and monstrosity and motel-stays in the creepier corners of the country. You’ll

Jul 27, 2021 • 1:01:54

48 – Chuck Wendig and the Comforting Embrace of Horror

48 – Chuck Wendig and the Comforting Embrace of Horror

Send us a Text Message.Weather this hot demands the cool balm of a book, and do I have one for you.The Book of Accidents is the latest horror-epic from Chuck Wendig – the seeming literary successor to King, Straub, McCammon and Barker. Wendig’s books take you in their embrace and say “you’re mine now” or maybe “we all float down here.” Here, in this case, being a mineshaft in the rural vacancy of Pennsylvania. There is plenty of hype around The Book of Accidents and I’m delighted to say it’s all

Jul 20, 2021 • 1:05:50

47 – Grady Hendrix and Final Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

47 – Grady Hendrix and Final Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Send us a Text Message.Hello fellow horror-fiends. This week we’re going retro, to the heyday of horror, when men wore masks and women checked basements in their negligee. Our guest is Grady Hendrix, a writer perpetually interested in taking tropes, only to stab them, kill them, and resurrect them as something new. He’s done it with exorcisms, vampires, the devil and … erm .. IKEA.Now he’s taking on the slasher and his counterpart, in The Final Girl Support Group. A novel that takes the bloody,

Jul 13, 2021 • 1:02:27

46 – The State of the Horror Nation, with Sadie Hartmann and Emily Hughes

46 – The State of the Horror Nation, with Sadie Hartmann and Emily Hughes

Send us a Text Message.This week we’re doing something different. No author and no single book. Instead it’s a roundtable discussion, with Sadie Hartmann (AKA Mother Horror) and Emily Hughes, the genius loci behind Tor Nightfire. Together we look back over the last six months – the highs, the not-so-many-lows and all the endless twitter controversies – to address the state of the horror nation at the midpoint of 2021.All three of us talk about the books we have loved the most so far this year, w

Jul 6, 2021 • 1:51:51

45 – Carmen Maria Machado and Literary Kidney Stones

45 – Carmen Maria Machado and Literary Kidney Stones

Send us a Text Message.This week I have been forced to up my game.  Our guest is Carmen Maria Machado, and her works is not for the lazy or faint-hearted. From her dizzying collection of short fiction, Her Body and Other Parties, to her one-of-a-kind memoir, In the Dream House, Carmen’s writing forces a humble interviewer such as me, to question how we talk about books, author, character, truth, fiction and all the messy space in between.In the Dream House  deconstructs what a memoir is and can

Jun 29, 2021 • 1:13:45

44 – Eric LaRocca and Abominable Things You Probably Shouldn’t Be Reading

44 – Eric LaRocca and Abominable Things You Probably Shouldn’t Be Reading

Send us a Text Message.It’s a dirty, grim, glorious time on Talking Scared this week. After a last-minute schedule reshuffle we have Eric LaRocca, here to talk about his word-of-mouth sensation of a novella – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. Gotten worse is quite the understatement. This book goes so far beyond the pale in terms of horror’s usual comfort level these days. It’s a simple tale of online love, BDSM and self-mutilation, all tinged with some wonderful early noughties nost

Jun 22, 2021 • 1:05:19

43 – Joe R. Lansdale and Writing Like Everyone You Know is Dead

43 – Joe R. Lansdale and Writing Like Everyone You Know is Dead

Send us a Text Message.Pour yourself a whisky, grab a seat and listen to the best voice in dark fiction tell you some stories. Our guest is Joe Lansdale author of so many books I can’t even begin to list them. Oh, ok, I will. Edge of Dark Water, Paradise Sky, The Bottoms, The Thicket, Fender Lizard … “Bubba Ho Tep”, Cold in July … the entire Hap and Leonard series. And he joins me to talk about his newest, Moon Lake. A tale of dark nostalgia, small town politics and murder set on the banks of a

Jun 15, 2021 • 1:15:51

42 - V. Castro and F**K Your Box

42 - V. Castro and F**K Your Box

Send us a textMaybe it’s the heat but this week we’re getting angry on Talking Scared.Our guest is V. Castro – author of Goddess of Filth and her newest, Queen of the Cicadas – and she’s full of rage. Thankfully, it’s not directed at me, despite my hideous attempts at Spanish pronunciation. Queen of the Cicadas is about identity, folklore and the residue of a decades-old crime that stands as representative of all crimes against Latinx people by an uncaring world. The death of a young girl brings

Jun 8, 2021 • 1:00:39

41 – Max Brooks and Harry Eats the Hendersons

41 – Max Brooks and Harry Eats the Hendersons

Send us a Text Message.It’s not often you speak to the author of a book that EVERYONE has heard of. This week I got the chance. Max Brooks. Max-freaking-Brooks, author of global bestseller World War Z is here. But rather than the undead, we’re talking hairy things in the woods, technological dependence and woke hipsters being eaten.Max’s latest novel, Devolution, regales us with the lives (and deaths) of an eco-community living deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Stranded by a disaster

Jun 1, 2021 • 1:03:38

40 – Zakiya Dalila Harris and the Fear of Not Being Black Enough

40 – Zakiya Dalila Harris and the Fear of Not Being Black Enough

Send us a Text Message.If you’re returning to the office any time soon and you’re really bummed about it – this week’s guest will make you feel better …. cos it could be so much worse.Zakiya Dalila Harris is the author of the much-anticipated debut, The Other Black Girl. It’s been touted as Jordan Peele’s Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada and that’s true, there is white conspiracy and awful bosses aplenty, but I’d also suggest more than a little of the paranoid frisson of Rosemary’s Baby and t

May 25, 2021 • 1:01:37

39 – Josh Malerman and a Local Town for Local People

39 – Josh Malerman and a Local Town for Local People

Send us a Text Message.Josh Malerman, bestselling wunderkinder of horror, author of Birdbox, Malorie, Unbury Carol and now Goblin, has graced Talking Scared with his presence. We’re talking about Goblin specifically, his new ‘novel in six novellas’ detailing the lives and losses of people in the weirdest small-town west of Castle Rock. It’s got monstrous owls and more monstrous police, an impossible hedge maze, things in boxes that MUST NOT BE OPENED, and the fear of fear itself. As Josh points

May 18, 2021 • 1:06:43

38 – Tananarive Due and Black Girls Doing Magical Things

38 – Tananarive Due and Black Girls Doing Magical Things

Send us a Text Message.This week the Queen of black horror is Talking Scared. Tananarive Due is bestowing her patronage on little ol’ me and I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.Tananarive ranks amongst the most respected horror writers of the 21st Century, from her breakout effort, The Between, to her British Fantasy Award winning collection, Ghost Summer and her magnum opus (so far at least) The Good House.  She took the time to talk me through her career, from breaking free of the MFA fi

May 11, 2021 • 1:11:08

37 – A.J. Gnuse and the People Under Your Sink

37 – A.J. Gnuse and the People Under Your Sink

Send us a Text Message.Do you ever feel you’re being watched? Ever caught a flicker from the corner of your eye that you can’t explain? Do you run out of milk more than you think you should?Maybe, just maybe, there is someone living in your house.It’s a worldwide phenomenon (just check google) and this week’s guest has turned it into a genre-bending novel that’s tipped as one of THE Gothic reads of 2021. A.J. Gnuse’s debut, Girl in the Walls is a literary chiller about grief, loneliness and what

May 4, 2021 • 1:03:30

36 - Jeff VanderMeer and Our First On-Air Murder

36 - Jeff VanderMeer and Our First On-Air Murder

Send us a Text Message.Jeff VanderMeer is our guest. Need I say more?First things first though, rest easy, the episode title doesn’t refer to either me or Jeff. We both make it out alive.Not everything does though. Listen on for the most on-the-nose display of savage nature, so perfect a backdrop to a conversation about animals, ecological crisis and the horror of extinction. What starts with the brave little hummingbird could end up killing us all.Jeff’s new novel, Hummingbird Salamander is an

Apr 27, 2021 • 1:12:34

35 – Christina Henry and the Monsters of the Subconscious

35 – Christina Henry and the Monsters of the Subconscious

Send us a Text Message.This week, I bring you MOAR monsters!!! Our guest is Christina Henry, whose new novel, Near the Bone fits so nicely as the unofficial second part to a cryptozoology-inflected series that began with Danielle Trussoni last week. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about the Loch Ness Monster for an hour, but the novel does feature a monster, some cryptid hunters and the very violent evils of both man and beast. Christina does manage to get me off the subject of monsters for a while

Apr 20, 2021 • 1:04:22

34 - Danielle Trussoni and the Spectrum of Human Difference

34 - Danielle Trussoni and the Spectrum of Human Difference

Send us a Text Message.When was the last time a story took you completely by surprise? Danielle Trussoni’s The Ancestor ambushed me into loving it. What seems a standard Gothic fiction turns into something wholly weirder … and wilder … as a young American woman inherits a creaky European castle, and the monstrous baggage that comes with it.Dani came on the show – somehow finding time between writing her new novel and being the New York Times’ horror columnist – to talk about The Ancestor’s paper

Apr 13, 2021 • 1:04:52

33 - Jennifer McMahon and the Green Mountain State of Fear

33 - Jennifer McMahon and the Green Mountain State of Fear

Send us a textWelcome to the Green Mountain State, lovely, liberal . . . haunted!!Our guest is to ghost-stories what Ben and Jerry are to ice cream – Vermont’s resident ghost-writer-in-chief, Jennifer McMahon. Her new novel, The Drowning Kind takes us back to the small towns, local stores and eerie histories typical of her fiction, but with an added turning of the screw – it’s not the house that’s haunted, it’s the pool out back. If that sounds cheesy, it ISN’T. The Drowning Kind is an

Apr 6, 2021 • 1:11:13

32 - Clay McLeod Chapman and the Clenching Fist of Satan!

32 - Clay McLeod Chapman and the Clenching Fist of Satan!

Send us a Text Message.Does your child draw pentagrams? Have you noticed the neighbours hanging their robes over the washing line? Worst of all, have they started listening to …. HEAVY METAL??You may be experiencing a satanic panic. Worry not, our guest, Clay McLeod Chapman can diagnose this for you. Clay’s new novel, Whisper Down the Lane is both a homage to the horror of the 80s, and an exploration of how that decade's battle with truth, memory and Satan(!!) lives on today. His story riff

Mar 30, 2021 • 1:03:18

31 – V.L. Valentine and Graphic Descriptions of Medical Maladies

31 – V.L. Valentine and Graphic Descriptions of Medical Maladies

Send us a Text Message.We’ve covered our share of plagues on this show during our all-too-real year of sitting indoors and waiting for the pandemic to sod off. Do you have the guts for one more? You should, but you may empty them.Our guest is V.L. Valentine and her debut novel The Plague Letters transports us to London in 1665. The Great Plague is scouring the population, with only the barest medical expertise to hold it at bay. Into this ghastly furnace comes a killer, hiding in plain sight.It’

Mar 24, 2021 • 1:03:54

30 – Catriona Ward and the All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

30 – Catriona Ward and the All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

Send us a Text Message.This is a big one. The Last House on Needless Street may be the best pure horror novel I’ve read this decade. Okay, the decade is only 3 months old, but check back with me in 9 years and I may still be saying the same.I’m delighted to speak to the author of this latter-day classic, Catriona Ward, about secrets and lies and how the hell you begin to describe a book that is one big spoiler!  Once Cat and I work out how to even talk about the novel without ruining for everyon

Mar 17, 2021 • 59:03

29 – Angela Slatter and Kelpies not Selkies!!

29 – Angela Slatter and Kelpies not Selkies!!

Send us a Text Message.Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there was a young woman, bad men, and some homicidal mermaids. It’s fairy tale time.Our guest is Angela Slatter, who’s new novel All the Murmuring Bones turns the fairy stories that comforted you as a child, into a horrid tale of murder, inheritance, death, sex and entrapment. In this world Hansel and Gretel would be a very tasty pie-filling. Angela has spent years studying the fairy tale tradition and turning it against her reader

Mar 10, 2021 • 57:25

28 – Bethany Clift and Judging an Apocalypse by its Cover

28 – Bethany Clift and Judging an Apocalypse by its Cover

Send us a Text Message.Isolation is a bitch, but it could be worse!Our guest is Bethany Clift and her debut novel is  Last One at the Party – a pandemic novel that reminds you that at least we have Netflix, facetime and the chance to call our friends. Beth’s novel follows an unnamed woman, the last survivor of a global plague that has emptied out the world in just a few weeks. As she struggles through the ruins of a posta-apocalyptic Britain, she also confronts the wreckage of her life in the ‘b

Mar 3, 2021 • 1:02:57

27 - Julia Fine and the Postmodern Postpartum

27 - Julia Fine and the Postmodern Postpartum

Send us a Text Message.If you’ve been homeschooling, in labour, or generally responsible for the life of a small human during lockdown, then this episode is for you. There are people out there, writers with great skill and empathy, who share your pain, and know how you feel.This week’s guest is Julia Fine, the author of Bram Stoker Award Nominated What Should Be Wild, and now the postpartum nightmare, The Upstairs House.Julia’s novel is about new motherhood, societal expectation, the horror of l

Feb 24, 2021 • 57:29

26 - Sarah Pearse and the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Murder

26 - Sarah Pearse and the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Murder

Send us a Text Message.Hands up who wants a holiday! Sarah Pearse’s The Sanatorium could be just the thing to purge your lockdown travel desires. It will either transport you to the ice-white peaks of the Swiss Alps, to luxuriate in the views inside your mind. Or, it’ll make you never ever want to stay in a hotel again.The Sanatorium is Sarah’s debut thriller, a novel that sits uncomfortably (in the best possible way) between crime, mystery and horror – with a hospital-cum-hotel that would rank

Feb 17, 2021 • 58:32

25 - Gemma Files and the Witch in Her True Ornaments

25 - Gemma Files and the Witch in Her True Ornaments

Send us a Text Message.Have you ever had a book scare you so much that part of you wishes you hadn’t read it? That’s the experience I had reading Gemma Files’ latest collection, In That Endlessness, Our End. I don’t know how Gemma does it, but with each story she finds a psychological pressure point that feels specifically mine, and the presses down on it hard with her pen. On more than one occasion I had to stop reading this book because it freaked me out too much. And I mean that as the highes

Feb 10, 2021 • 1:08:55

24 - Courtney Summers and Writing for Spite

24 - Courtney Summers and Writing for Spite

Send us a Text Message.When your guest calls herself the “Master of the Bitch” you do wonder what you’re getting into. Courtney Summers, by her own admission, wants to upset people. Yet she’s a delight! To kick of Women in Horror week we discuss her new novel, The Project, which follows a young woman as she investigates the New York based cult that has swallowed up her sister. This is FAR from your standard cult novel. As Courtney explains, she wanted to get away from the exploitation and the ob

Feb 3, 2021 • 58:49

23 - Laura Purcell and the Art of Darkness

23 - Laura Purcell and the Art of Darkness

Send us a Text Message.Let’s get Gothic! Our guest this week is Laura Purcell, doyenne of the dark, heiress of historical fiction (and other alliterative titles). Laura blew away the cobwebs wrapped around spooky period fiction with her breakout smash, The Silent Companions in 2017. She followed up with The Corset and Bone China and now she’s back with her newest Gothic novel, The Shape of Darkness.  The novel examines all the wrinkles and crannies in the Victorian underbelly, from spirit medium

Jan 27, 2021 • 54:58

22 – C.J. Tudor and the Lure of the Oddball Loners

22 – C.J. Tudor and the Lure of the Oddball Loners

Send us a Text Message.In a week in which the White House becomes a little less orange, it’s hard to dwell on the nasty side of life. But this is Talking Scared and we can find the grim and creepy on even the most optimistic days.Our guest is C.J. Tudor – the current queen of the British thriller. She sits quite comfortably on the cusp of horror and crime, and we get into the subject of exactly where that borderline is. Her new novel, The Burning Girls continues her blending of the fast-paced Am

Jan 20, 2021 • 1:03:18

21 - Will Dean and the Two Faces of Off-Grid Living

21 - Will Dean and the Two Faces of Off-Grid Living

Send us a Text Message.Ready for the first GREAT book you’ll read this year? Our guest this week is Will Dean, calling all the way from the middle of a Scandinavian forest to talk about his new novel, The Last Thing To Burn.I’ve been banging on about this book since I read it in December. It’s a latter-day masterpiece, a read-in-one-sitting, this-has-to-be-a-movie kind of book. Think Misery, think Room and then think how much worse could the horrors be. The truth, a lot worse.Will and I talk abo

Jan 13, 2021 • 59:46

20 - The Big 2021 Horror Preview AKA Another Annus Horribilis

20 - The Big 2021 Horror Preview AKA Another Annus Horribilis

Send us a Text Message.I like this year better than last year already. Ok, we may be plunged back into lockdown 3.0 and it may be cold, and the cinemas may still be shut. But we have a vaccine, Trump looks like he’s got nappy rash … and there’s a whole year of horror fiction to look forward to. Unfortunately for you, there’s no guest this week. Instead, you’re stuck with me as I talk you through the highlights and predicted hits of horror fiction 2021. I’ve already read two books that are fighti

Jan 6, 2021 • 28:14

19 - Michael Marshall Smith and Goodbye to 2020

19 - Michael Marshall Smith and Goodbye to 2020

Send us a Text Message.2020 is nearly behind us (woohoo!) but we have time for one more interview with a master of horror. Our guest this week is Michael Marshall Smith the genre polymath and man of a thousand pseudonyms (all of them involving ‘Michael’.)He is joining me to discuss his new career retrospective, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith, published in a beautiful volume by Subterranean Press. It’s a huge collection of stories, covering Michael’s 30 years of writing, from his recent work,

Dec 30, 2020 • 1:13:51

18 - Gabriel Bergmoser and It's Only a Joke Mate!

18 - Gabriel Bergmoser and It's Only a Joke Mate!

Send us a Text Message.Merry Christmas and/or time-off-work-week! For all of you currently freezing your asses off in cold climes, this week’s episode may make you feel a little too warm under the collar. Our guest is Gabriel Bergmoser, an author who exploded onto the horror scene in early 2020 with The Hunted, a pulpy, violent, visceral hell ride through the Australian wilderness in the company of very human prey and predators. Considering the amount of people hanging from hooks and suffering v

Dec 23, 2020 • 1:21:41

17 - Rachel Harrison and Knowing Who Your Friends Are

17 - Rachel Harrison and Knowing Who Your Friends Are

Send us a Text Message.This late into 2020 we are all craving a) a holiday and b) time with friends. Our guest this week may cast a slightly different perspective on both.  Rachel Harrison is the author of The Return, a novel that looks into the dark heart of friendship and asks “do you REALLY know who your friends are?” The book was published all the way back in March, by Berkley in the US and Hodder in the UK. I finally found time to catch up with Rachel and to tell her why this book scared me

Dec 16, 2020 • 53:07

16 – Christopher Golden and Extreme Social Distancing

16 – Christopher Golden and Extreme Social Distancing

Send us a Text Message.Stand back! Our Guest this week is Christopher Golden, author of all manner of horror, adventure and generally freaky fiction. His latest book is Red Hands, the third featuring Ben Walker, action-hero and expert in the batsh*t weird! I have used the words ‘relevant’ and ‘prescient’ more than ever in 2020 – this being, after all, the year that all our horror stories became true. Even by that standard Red Hands is creepily on the money though. It’s the story of a plague that

Dec 9, 2020 • 57:51

15 - Sam J. Miller and a Hometown Hot Mess

15 - Sam J. Miller and a Hometown Hot Mess

Send us a Text Message.This week our guest is Sam J. Miller, author of The Blade Between - a novel for anyone who  loves or loathes their hometown. It’s a story of small-town ghosts, hidden hatreds and sudden violence. And behind it all looms the issue of gentrification, in all its ugliness and beauty. Listening to Sam talk, you may think differently about that cute little bistro that’s opened down the street. Y’know, the one that took over from that local place that had been there for years . .

Dec 2, 2020 • 1:04:57

14 - Jonathan Sims and the Haunted High-Rise

14 - Jonathan Sims and the Haunted High-Rise

Send us a textIf you’re a fan of podcasts and horror (and of course you are!) then chances are you’ll recognise our guest. Jonathan Sims is the author of Thirteen Storeys, but you may know him (or his voice) as the creator and narrator of The Magnus Archives. Yep, that’s right, I’m interviewing The Archivist himself.  Thirteen Storeys takes a lot of what makes The Magnus Archives great, and blends it with contemporary social realism to create a book that’s horrifying in more ways than one.  It’s

Nov 25, 2020 • 1:01:52

13 - Craig DiLouie and the Cult of the Shredder

13 - Craig DiLouie and the Cult of the Shredder

Send us a Text Message.Things get a little cultish this week on Talking Scared. Our guest is Craig DiLouie, author of the brand-spanking-new creepy commune novel, The Children of Red Peak – released November 18th from RedHook Books. It’s a tale of crazy goings-on in the desert, of ritual mutilation and lasting trauma. All that fun stuff!Craig immediately has me in his thrall, even without the Kool-Aid. (interesting fact, it was actually Flavour Aid that the Jonestown cultists drank). We talk abo

Nov 18, 2020 • 50:19

12 - Rumaan Alam and the Apocalyptic Rorschach Test

12 - Rumaan Alam and the Apocalyptic Rorschach Test

Send us a Text Message.This week Rumaan Alam presents us with a wholly ambiguous end of the world. Rumaan’s new novel, Leave the World Behind has taken the publishing landscape by storm. Reviews are everywhere and critics are shouting its name from the rooftops, with good reason.Leave the World Behind is a strange, uneasy tale of the world going wrong. What begins as a family getaway to Long Island spirals into fear as strangers arrive, bringing news of a blackout in New York City. From there, t

Nov 11, 2020 • 1:03:16

11 - Andrew Pyper and the Demon in the White House

11 - Andrew Pyper and the Demon in the White House

Send us a Text Message.If you are feeling nervous today, or just want something to distract you from the doomscrolling, then welcome to our Election Day special. Our guest is Andrew Pyper whose latest novel, The Residence, is an historical tour around a White House under siege from a demon. This particular spirit is arrogant, spiteful and determined to use the Oval Office for dire purposes – but he’s not orange at least! Andrew is no stranger to creepy, spirit-infested fiction. His previous work

Nov 3, 2020 • 54:07

10 - Colin Dickey and the Obligatory Halloween Special AKA Why We Believe in Monsters

10 - Colin Dickey and the Obligatory Halloween Special AKA Why We Believe in Monsters

Send us a Text Message.It’s Halloween and in lieu of any trick and/or treating this plague year, I offer you a conversation with Colin Dickey, mystery-maestro and curator of the creepy. Colin is the author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places (2016) and The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters and our Obsession with the Unexplained – books that plumb the depths of the human mind and our fixation on the creepy things at the margins of the known world.In this wide-rangi

Oct 31, 2020 • 58:53

09 - T. Kingfisher and Does the Dog Die in This One?

09 - T. Kingfisher and Does the Dog Die in This One?

Send us a Text Message.Where 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

Oct 28, 2020 • 57:37

08 – Emily Danforth and “The Blair Witch X Lesbians”

08 – Emily Danforth and “The Blair Witch X Lesbians”

Send us a Text Message.This 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 yo

Oct 20, 2020 • 1:00:45

07 - Kate Summerscale and the Shoplifting Poltergeist

07 - Kate Summerscale and the Shoplifting Poltergeist

Send us a Text Message.Kate 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 involve

Oct 13, 2020 • 56:03

06 - Stuart Turton and How To Plot a Very Clever Murder

06 - Stuart Turton and How To Plot a Very Clever Murder

Send us a Text Message.Ahoy 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

Oct 6, 2020 • 1:03:57

05 – Jeremy Robert Johnson and Where Did That Octopus Come From?

05 – Jeremy Robert Johnson and Where Did That Octopus Come From?

Send us a Text Message.This 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 sme

Sep 30, 2020 • 57:29

04 - Jo Kaplan and What Makes a Great Haunted House?

04 - Jo Kaplan and What Makes a Great Haunted House?

Send us a Text Message.This 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 abou

Sep 22, 2020 • 50:12

03 - Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Mexican Gothic, NOT Romance

03 - Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Mexican Gothic, NOT Romance

Send us a Text Message.This 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 fie

Sep 16, 2020 • 56:03

02 - John Langan and Writing Under "The Influence"

02 - John Langan and Writing Under "The Influence"

Send us a Text Message.In 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 writ

Sep 8, 2020 • 1:13:15

01 - Paul Tremblay and Why It's Not the End of the World

01 - Paul Tremblay and Why It's Not the End of the World

Send us a Text Message.In 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 KingRabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus – Bill Wasik & Monica Mur

Sep 1, 2020 • 57:30

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