Talking Scared

• 237 – Joe Abercrombie & The International Brotherhood of the Blade

  Let’s get grim and dark with Lord Grimdark!   Perhaps the greatest benefit of having a book podcast like mine is the opportunity to speak to my very favourite authors. I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s violent, world-weary dark fantasy for TWENTY years! And now he’s on the show.   Consider me excited.   His new book may be called The Devils, and it may contain werewolves, vampires, necromancers and oceans of blood – but it’s quite a cheery affair for Joe. I have never laughed so much in preparation for an interview.   We talk writing the most anti of antiheroes, gender-flipping the catholic church, and why you shouldn’t sleep with people who own swords.   It’s a lot of fun.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   A Game of Thrones (1996), by George R. R. Martin Wizard of Earthsea (1968), by Usula K. Le Guin LA Confidential (1990) by James Ellroy Blood Meridian (1995), by Cormac McCarthy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 236 – Brian Keene & Living in the Splatter

  Brian Keene has written so many damn books! …and I had never read any of them.   This absolute horror faux-pas (and my embarrassment) is the reason that it’s taken so long to get Brian on the show. But I set a week aside and read as many Keene books as I could and here we are… on a leisurely stroll through Brian’s life and career,both of which he has devoted to stories of really nasty s*** happening to undeserving people. We talk abouthis bleak coming-of-age novel, Ghoul, his story of a homicidal nightfrom hell, The Complex, and his sombre study of mortality and writing inthe 21st century, The End of the Road. And between all that we cover hope and nihilism, we ask if horror could help shore up the failing centre, and Brian talks me through all the great writers I missed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to horror. Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Rising (2003), by Brian Keene Entombed (2011), by Brian Keene Ghoul (2007), by Brian Keene End of the Road (2020), by Brian Keene The Cellar (1980), by Richard Laymon The Beast House (1986), by Richard Laymon The Island (1995), by Richard Laymon A Writer’s Tale (1998), by Richard Laymon The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum Survivor (2002), by J.F. Gonzalez A Choir of Ill Children (2007) by Tom Piccirilli “Sticks” (1974), by Karl Edward Wagner “West Of Matamoros, South of Hell” (2017), by Brian Hodge (in Best Horror of the Year, Volume 10, edited by Ellen Datlow) The Day of the Door (2024), by Laurel Hightower The Better To Eat You With (2024), by Wesley Southard   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 235 – Nat Cassidy & Emotional Doomsday Prepping

  I’ve been looking forward to releasing this one…   Nat Cassidy comes to Talk Scared about When the Wolf Comes Home, his new novel that I –and people like me – are already calling out as one of the Best Books of the Year™.   It’s a shaggy, undisciplined, sprinting beast of a book that obeys no rules. You may think it’s a werewolf novel, and you may be right... but also very wrong. It’s a book about transformations of many kinds, about fatherhood and the very nature of fear itself. But it’s also funny, scary and sad as hell.   You’ll love the damn thing, and this conversation.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy Play Nice (forthcoming, 2025), by Rachel Harrison   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Off Book #8 – Kyle McConaghy & Dead Mail

  Back to the 80s this week for one of the most singular horror movies of the year – now streaming on Shudder. Dead Mail is an ode to the era, but there are no neon fonts or leg warmers (or Olivia Newton Johns) here. Instead we’re in the drear of the decade, for a story about a synth-obsessed man who keeps his business partner captive in his flock-wallpapered bathroom. The poor victim’s only hope is the investigative ‘Dead Mail’ department of his local post office. If that sounds mad… well, it is. And I’m joined by Kyle McConaghy, one half of the writing/directing duo behind the movie. We talk about scripting the crazy, about the hands-on reality of low-budget filmmaking, replicating 80s aesthetics, and a big bucket full of rubber rats. Enjoy! Dead Mail is streaming on Shudder from Friday 18th April   Support Talking Scared on Patreon Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 234 – Katherine Arden & The Devil’s Train Timetable

  In the week that the world changed, we’re talking about the last time things got this crazy.   Katherine Arden is the author of The Warm Hands of Ghosts — a novel set in the trenches of the First World War and on the borderline between horror and fantasy. It’s a Faustian pact made in No-Man’s Land, where our memories are the price we pay for keeping ourselves alive.   In this episode we talk a lot about history, about inflection points and moments of no-return. We talk about how systems of power can seem so complex that they lead only to ruin – but we also talk devils and fairies and angels and brave, brave nurses with scarred hands.   It’s a joy of a conversation, about the most hideous time to be alive.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones Wasteland: The Great War and the Origin of Modern Horror (2018), by W. Scott Pool Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), by Susanna Clarke The Master and the Margarita (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov Lud in the Mist (1926), by Hope Mirrlees Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War (1968), by Will R. Bird Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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