Horror from the High Desert

Happy "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" Week everybody! Come celebrate with Scotty and New Mexico luminary Chad Brummett. Chad is, of course, the noon anchor for Albuquerque's KRQE News 13. He's also a celebrated actor in movies like "3:10 to Yuma" and TV shows like "Longmire," as well as a regional Emmy-winning documentarian for the series "Legendary New Mexico."...

Author M.M. Olivas comes onto the podcast to discuss her novel "Sundown in San Ojuela" (2024, Lanternfish Press), as well as her novelette "¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror" (published in Issue 60 of Uncanny Magazine). She and Scotty talk about her early days as a movie-loving, dinosaur-and-Kaiju-obsessed outcast in Northern California, her initial aspirations as a filmmaker and...

Here's another bonus episode of "The Weirdest Thing" podcast! In a follow-up to their last episode, where Scotty and Amelia discussed the brand-new horror novel "Come Knocking," author Mike Bockoven decided to crash the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the book, his previous hit "FantasticLand" (2018), his work as a journalist, writing, horror, theatre, t...

Author Rachel Eve Moulton ("Tinfoil Butterfly," "The Insatiable Volt Sisters") returns to talk to Scotty about her upcoming novel "Tantrum" (August 5, G.P. Putnam's Sons). They discuss the book's unique look at family, the parasitical horror of pregnancy, the uncanny terror of parenthood, the loneliness of the New Mexican landscape, and more. They also talk about the...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Robert P. Ottone ("The Vile Thing We Created," "There's Something Sinister In Centerfield") returns to the podcast to talk about his new collection "Tear Me Open: Fears Unwrapped" (June 24, Winding Road Stories). He and Scotty have a wide-ranging conversation that encompasses everything from spooky tourist traps, sports and horror, iss...

Author and musician Jeremy Wagner comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about his years as guitarist and lyricist for the seminal death-metal band Broken Hope (also known as the band that broke Scotty's body back in '97), as well as his career as a horror writer with the popular novels "The Armageddon Chord," "Rabid Heart," and the upcoming "Wretch" (look for it in...

This week Jeff and Bethany Stedden join Scotty to talk about creating New Mexico's one and only dedicated horror festival, the Morgue & Krypt Horror Fest. They discuss growing up as a pair of lonely horror geeks in the Albuquerque region, traveling to fan fests throughout the greater Southwest, and how doing so inspired them to start their own event here at home. They describe the challenges o...

Boston-bestie Mandy Connor returns to talk about four movies. She and Scotty start with the best of the bunch: the truly frightening 2024 Irish mystery-horror film "Oddity," by writer/director Damian Mc Carthy and featuring a standout performance from Carolyn Bracken. They then shift gears with 2020's oddball but impressive indie psychological drama/sci-fi horror movie "Horse Girl,&...

For the very first time, Scotty is simultaneously releasing the most recent episode of his other podcast, "The Weirdest Thing," as a bonus episode in the "Horror From the High Desert" feed! He and his cohost Amelia Ampuero take a deep dive into the new Prohibition-era vampire movie "Sinners," starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, and Wunmi Mosaku, and written/...

In the first half of this two-part episode, author Rae Wilde ("Merciless Waters," I Do Not Apologize For My Position on Men") returns to talk about her upcoming novella "I Can Fix Her" (June 3, CLASH Books). They discuss the terror of "nightmare logic," Rae's interest in exploring toxic sapphic romance, the "Wilde Test" (i.e. decentering men altogether...

On this third edition of the Horror From the High Desert "Book Club," author Rachel Eve Moulton ("Tinfoil Butterfly," "The Insatiable Volt Sisters") joins Scotty to discuss Katherine Dunn's 1989 classic "Geek Love." They talk about the novel's strangeness, its unexpected horror elements, its unique take on beauty vs. "freakishness," its unflinching...

Author Ally Russell ("It Came From the Trees," Delacorte Press, 2024) joins Scotty to discuss growing up as a horror fan in the zombie hub of Pittsburgh, taking inspiration from R.L. Stine, Stephen King, and her father's macabre sense of humor, deciding to pursue a career as a writer after working as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, and pursuing an MFA in Children's Literature at Simm...

Author and podcaster Jeff C. Carter comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about how making short films in his parents' basement helped shape his creative aesthetic. They then commiserate about their various film school and Hollywood experiences, talk about the art of creating the perfect flash fiction piece, and discuss Jeff's collection "We Bleed Orange & Black: 31 Fun-Sized Tales For...

On this second installment of the Horror From the High Desert "Book Club," author Daniel Braum ("The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales," "The Serpent's Shadow") joins Scotty to talk about celebrated speculative fiction author Lucius Shepard and his seminal collection of weird stories "The Jaguar Hunter" (1985, Arkham House). They consider Shepard's uniq...

Author Drew Huff ("Free Burn," Dark Matter INK, 2024) joins Scotty for a wide-ranging conversation about splatterpunk, processing trauma through fiction, science-fiction world building, the strange contradictions in H.P. Lovecraft, and more. They also discuss Drew's brand new novel "The Divine Flesh" (March 4, Dark Matter INK) and her sapphic sci-fi novella "Landlocked in...

Author Larry Hinkle returns to talk about his upcoming novella "The Eris Ridge Trail" (March 4, Four Winds Bar Publishing). He and Scotty discuss the book's connection to stories from his previous collection "The Space Between" (2024, Trepidatio Publishing), the differences in his writing process for short fiction vs. longer work, their shared fascination with hidden, abandoned...

Author Sam Rebelein returns to the podcast, this time to talk to Scotty about his upcoming collection of interlinked stories, "The Poorly Made and Other Things" (February 11, William Morrow Paperbacks), which are all set in the same fictional upstate New York county as his debut novel "Edenville" (2023, William Morrow). Sam and Scotty discuss his process in creating the ever-ex...

On this inaugural edition of the Horror From the High Desert "Book Club," Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christa Carmen ("The Daughters of Block Island," "Beneath the Poet's House") returns to the podcast to talk with Scotty about Tracy Sierra's superlative home-invasion thiller "Nightwatching" (2024, Pamela Dorman Books). They discuss the novel's unique h...

Time for another The Weirdest Thing crossover with special guest/cohost Amelia Ampuero. She joins Scotty this week to do a deep dive into AMC's adaptation/re-imagining of Anne Rice's classic novel "Interview With the Vampire" (which just finished its second season this summer). Need something to binge over the holidays? You could sure do a lot worse than this series. WARNING: Spoilers be...

Author Belicia Rhea comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about influences as diverse as Ray Bradbury, Bruno Schulz, and "House of Leaves," terrible elementary school teachers, amazing college professors, and establishing her own voice in the strange netherworld between surrealism, literary fiction, and horror. And they discuss her short fiction, as well as her debut novella "Vor...

Author and filmmaker Joshua Hull comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about making microbudget horror films in Indiana, how his love of alternative movie posters lead to his first nonfiction book project "Underexposed! The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made" (2021, Abrams Books), finding the perfect collaborators in making the acclaimed comedy-horror film "Glorious" (2022, Shudd...

Two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated author V. Castro comes onto the podcast to talk to Scotty about growing up in Texas, her early interest in horror , the inspiration she draws from Mexican culture and history, using her fiction to explore themes of grief and trauma while also creating space for joy, hope, and sexuality in her work, and more. They discuss her acclaimed, Stoker-nominated novella...

Author C.J. Leede returns to the podcast, this time to talk to Scotty about her new novel "American Rapture" (October 15, Tor Nightfire). They discuss the influence of her religious upbringing, her thoughts on purity culture, their mutual anxiety about the apocalypse, their shared love of American kitsch, and more. They also talk about this year's surprise hit "The First Omen,"...

Author N.J. Gallegos returns to the podcast to talk to Scotty about her new novel "The Fatal Mind" (October 15, Winding Road Stories). They talk about N.J.'s day job as an ER doctor, and how that inspired the particular suspense in "The Fatal Mind." They also discuss concussions, moral gray areas, murky ethics, the rush that happens when saving a life...and the specific squick-...

This week Scotty talks to Bram Stoker Award-winning author/editor James Chambers about his upcoming anthology "Where the Silent Ones Watch" (Oct 6, Hippocampus Press). Featuring genre luminaries like John Langan, Nancy Holder, Lee Murray, Michael Cisco, and many more, this anthology is inspired by the work of famed weird fiction writer William Hope Hodgson — author of the classic novels...