Horror from the High Desert

Boston Bestie Mandy Connor returns, this time to discuss a shared favorite: Thomas M. Disch's 1991 classic "The M.D." Scotty and Mandy talk about Disch's use of satire, folkore, and mythology to craft this "Monkey's Paw"-adjacent horror fable. They look at the book's the portrayal of family, Disch's lapsed Catholicism, and the novel's eerie parallels to 2026 America. They also spend some time on a...

Author Taylor Grothe ("Hollow," "Monstrous Beautiful Things") comes onto the podcast to discuss their upcoming novel "Lethal Kiss" (Oct. 20, Tor Nightfire). They and Scotty talk about Grendel and his mother, the dark side of academia, vengeful spirits, misogyny, one of the coolest monsters in Norse mythology, and more. They also look at the 2009 cult classic "Jennifer's Body" (written by Diablo Co...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Robert P. Ottone ("Tear Me Open: Fears Unwrapped," "The Vile Thing We Created") returns, this time to discuss his upcoming novel "Amityville Awakens" (October 6, CLASH Books). He and Scotty talk about their relationship to Amityville iconography, their thoughts on the original 1978 movie, incorporating the larger Amityville community i...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author and editor James Chambers ("On the Night Border," "Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign") returns to discuss his upcoming anthology, "Abandoned Asylum" (October, Raw Dog Screaming Press). This book features stories, photographs, and poetry from many contributors, all inspired by the former Kings Park Psychiatric Cent...

Author John Collins ("The Leeds Point Horror," 2025) returns to discuss his new collection "Altars in Abandoned Houses" (June, Winding Road Stories). He and Scotty talk about balancing fun against fear, when to end a story, getting personal in his writing, abandoned mental hospitals, reinventing a classic monster, and more. They also look at the near-forgotten 1989 anthology ho...

Author Kailee Pedersen ("Sacrificial Animals," 2024) joins Scotty to talk about her new novel "The Minimalist" (August 18, St. Martin's Press). They discuss classical music, problematic creators, the intersection of art and obsession, body horror, mental health, the modern Gothic, and more. They also talk about Darren Aronofsky's 2010 film "Black Swan," and the specif...

Author Clay Vermulm comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about his "Voices From the Cold" novella series -- including "Crevasse" (2025, Dark Forest Press) and "Cairn" (2026, Dark Forest Press) -- as well as his collaborative anthology "Rain Shadows: Dark Tales From Washington State" (2025), co-authored with Tamara Kaye Sellman. They talk about mountainee...

Fellow New Mexico horror writer T.L. Bodine comes onto the podcast to discuss her life and work, including her 2023 novel "Neverest" and her 2025 collection "These Kids Are Not Alright." She and Scotty talk about Stephen King, Clive Barker, fantasy, fairy tales, body horror, grief, children, mental illness, and more. They also talk about the 2015 indie film "They Look Like...

Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Rebecca Rowland ("Eminence Front") returns to talk about her latest collection "Unsettled Score: A Mixtape of Arthouse Horror." She and Scotty discuss the definition of "arthouse horror," and they talk about writing processes, inhabiting the mindset of predators, the responsibility authors have to their own work,...

Author N.J. Gallegos ("The Broken Heart," "The Fatal Mind") is back to discuss her new collection, "Time of Death: A Collection of Medical Horror" (May 26, Winding Road Stories). She and Scotty talk about her day job as an ER doctor, writing as a form of therapy, werewolves, mental health, Swifties, plague doctors, and much more. They also wax poetic about "The A...

Author C.J. Leede ("Maeve Fly," "American Rapture") returns to talk about her new novel "Headlights" (June 9, Tor Nightfire). She and Scotty discuss the borderline between mystery and horror, dark Americana, the importance of having a supportive team in publishing, the forbidding nature of the Rocky Mountains, horrific possibilities in John Denver's music, and more. T...

Author Angela Sylvaine returns, this time to talk about her new YA horror novel "Cold Snap" (March, Dark Matter INK), a sequel to her earlier hit "Frost Bite" (2023, Dark Matter INK). She and Scotty discuss the specific challenges inherent to writing horror for younger audiences, creature horror, hotel/amusement parks, UFOs, an unexpected parallel with "The West Wing,&quot...

Author and friend-of-the-pod Daniel Braum returns to talk about two movies that define the idea of "arthouse Euro horror" -- Czech filmmaker Jaromil Jireš' "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" (1970) and Polish/French filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski's "Possession" (1981). He and Scotty consider each film's distinct style and themes, and they discuss the filmmakers' approaches...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Robert P. Ottone (The Vile Thing We Created," "There's Something Sinister in Center Field") returns, this time to talk about John Langan's masterpiece "The Fisherman." He and Scotty delve into the book's unique voice, nested-narrative structure, and sideways approach to horror. They also discuss the novel's deeper themes including love, gri...

Author Tamika Thompson ("Unshod, Cackling, and Naked," "Salamander Justice") returns to talk to Scotty about her new novel "The Curse of Hester Gardens" (March 31, Erewhon Books). They discuss the intersection of grief and the ghost story, urban landscapes and the Gothic, the horror of economic oppression, looking for meaning in signs, influences from "The Wire&q...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste ("Reluctant Immortals," "The Haunting of Velkwood") comes back onto the podcast to talk about her upcoming collection "The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own" (April 14, Raw Dog Screaming Press). She and Scotty dive into the stories, talk about recurring themes like fairy tales, cinema, weird history, and the unique bond...

Authors Kailee Pedersen ("Sacrificial Animals," 2024) and Briana N. Cox ("Indigent," 2026) come onto the podcast. They talk to Scotty about issues around diversity, identity, and representation in speculative fiction, good vs. bad-faith conversations on the internet, addressing trauma through their fiction, and more. You can find Briana online at https://brianancoxwriter.com Yo...

Author and returning champ Larry Hinkle comes back onto the podcast to discuss his new collection "An Hour Before Dark" (February 24, Four Winds Bar Publishing), which continues his exploration of the Eris Ridge Trail through a batch of standalone but interconnected stories. He and Scotty talk cosmic horror, liminal spaces, terrifying mountain highways, Twin Peaks, Stephen King, planting...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Sara Tantlinger ("To Be Devoured," "The Devil's Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes") comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about her recent fiction collection "Cyanide Constellations" (2025, Dark Matter INK). They talk about her approach to nature in her work, grief narratives, the influence of poetry on her fiction, feminist...

In Part 2 of this episode, Scotty and Lauren look back at "Dead Billy," the ultra low-budget indie feature film that they made in 2012 and 2013. They discuss the initial inspiration, collaborating on both the script and the production, wrestling with the film's difficult subject matter, "planning" vs "pantsing," whether they wish they'd had an intimacy coordinator, an...

Scotty has known and worked with actor/writer/producer/filmmaker/development-executive Lauren Chavez-Myers for over 15 years now. Aside from being friends, they collaborated on a number of shorts before embarking on the feature film "Dead Billy" (2016). In the first part of this two-part episode, Lauren talks about her life as an actor on stage, in movies, and on television, and the tran...

Author Rebecca Rowland ("Optic Nerve," "White Trash and Recycled Nightmares") returns to talk with Scotty about her wintry new horror novel "Eminence Front" (January 20, CLASH Books). They discuss the book's inspiration, its various influences (from Stephen King's "Carrie" to Tim O'Brien's "In the Lake of the Woods"), terrifying weather from around...

Diné author and filmmaker Ramona Emerson comes onto the podcast to talk about growing up as a movie fan in New Mexico, then attending film school in Albuquerque before going on to become a forensic videographer and photographer. She describes how that experience helped shaped her work as a filmmaker before she made the jump into her career as a horror/crime novelist with the novels "Shutter&q...

Author Ally Russell ("It Came From the Trees," 2024) returns to the podcast to discuss her recent middle-grade horror novels "Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave" (Delacorte Press) and "Down Came the Spiders" (Scholastic Paperbacks). Ally and Scotty talk more about writing scary tales for younger audiences, trusting kids to choose their own spooky content, engaging all f...

Author Mia Dalia ("Estate Sale," "Alakazam") joins Scotty to talk about her rapid entry into writing during the lockdown years of the pandemic, how infamous (and beloved) "hardcore horror" author Jack Ketchum served as an influence on her own unique brand of quiet horror, the brilliance of writers like Richard Matheson and Michael Marshall Smith, her "write fast&...