Talking Scared

In our fifth Let Us Palaver, Nat and I dally a little longer in ‘Salem’s Lot to hunt down a few more vamps and follow up some threads mentioned in the main episode.   This is where we get spoilery, so this is just for those who have been to the Tower already. But we talk about Chris’s predictions for Father Callaghan, discuss the moral arc of King’s entire fictional project (no big thing right!) a...

‘Salem’s Lot is FIFTY years old this month. Hellfire, how did that happen? We’re gonna celebrate the bloodsucking and small town shenanigans for all they are worth!!   But some of you know that the Lot sits just to one side of the Path of the Beam – so this is also a key zig in our endless zagging towards The Dark Tower. You may just not know why yet? And neither does Chris, so no one tell him.  ...

Joe Lansdale is here to give us all a smack upside the head.   We are talking about The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale – his brand new career-retrospective, collecting the stories that have defined him for decades as one of the most edgy, provocative writers of the grim and grotesque.   We cover some of the classics, like “Bubba Ho Tep,” “Mr Weed Eater” and “On the Far Side of the Cadillac De...

Mine isn’t the only Good Boy released into the world this week. You may have heard of a little film that shares my books name.   I joke – Ben Leonberger’s Good Boy is everywhere, and rightly so. It’s a haunted house movie told from the POV of Ben’s dog Indy (playing himself). It’s a magic trick of filmmaking and puppy eyes.   Ben came on the show for a generous chat about making the movie. He tell...

Ah the arrogance of writers. Now I am one, officially, I thought I’d better do something fitting.   So I set up a whole episode of my podcast to talk about my own book – Good Boy! My debut novella about small English towns, the bonds between men and dogs, and a battle between bravery and monsters.   Thankfully, I have friends who will facilitate this type of nonsense, so thanks to Nat Cassidy and...

Another day, another episode about the weird-arse end of nowhere!   We remain in the North of England for this second part of a weeklong celebration of the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!).   This time it’s conversation with Matt Wesolowski, about his train-bound folkloric horror, Don’t Call Mum, Jodie Robins, with her magical seasi...

It’s grim up North.   But thankfully, it’s also weird. Deliciously, darkly, disturbingly weird!   This week we are celebrating the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). In this first roundtable, I’ve gathered two of the writers and the genius behind the project, Ariell Cacciola, to talk about Northern literary culture in the North, haun...

What’s even real anymore?   Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between.   Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror  – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night.   We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies,...

This week brings a bumper episode, cos Philip Fracassi never stops. Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of my favourite writers.   First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s ow...

Do you like your vampires slick and suave or rugged and raging? If it’s the latter, you’ll very much enjoy KeithRosson’s Coffin Moon. It’s a 70s-set bareknuckle revenge road trip of a book, with some of the meanest vampires you’ll ever meet (and love).   Keith is back in the show for the second time in a year, to talk all about it. We get into his problem with ‘classic’ vampires aesthetics, the lu...

It’s walk or die this week on Talking Scared, as we’re joined by the screenwriter of The Long Walk.   JT wrote and directed 2024’s cult-hit Strange Darling, and now he’s brought his pen to bear, in finally bringing Stephen King’s beloved early novel to the screen. Along with director, Francis Lawrence, JT has created one of the best King adaptations EVER(!!) and he joins me to talk about exactly h...

School is back in session. Professor Langan is here!   No-one gives good literary conversation like John Langan – and this week he returns to Talking Scared to discuss the watery influences, metafictional experimentation, and snake-legged women in his new collection: Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions.   It’s my favourite collection of John’s so far, and as ever, he merely used it for a jumping...

Ready for some rough rural Gothic?   Kailee Pederson’s Sacrifical Animals was one of my top horror novels of 2024. I missed Kailee first time round, but now the book is out in paperback, I jumped at the chance to speak to her.  I was NOT prepared for how highbrow this would go though. From a story about toxic families, American Gothic and Chinese mythology, we found our way to opera, classic Latin...

And so this infected Summer of the Stand comes to an end. With Part Two of The End of the World As We Know It – more conversations between contributors to this epic anthology, each expanding King’s OG novel in new ways.   This time around we have 8 guests, each armed with a story, pitted together in four short burst of conversation. I’m not saying who, cos that would spoil the fun… but there are B...

No full treatment of The Stand would be complete without a look at Mick Garris’ landmark television adaptation. In 1994 he put together an adjacent epic, transforming 1300 pages into 8 hours of prime-time viewing.   It was my introduction to Stephen King. It is one of my fondest memories with my dad.   So it’s a true honour to get Mick on the show to talk about how it all came together. The script...

The Summer of The Stand continues!   We may have reached the final pages of the novel, but the power of its story expands ever outwards. Now we turn to the brand-new anthology of stories set in King’s plague-shocked world   In The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, editors Brian Keene and Christopher Golden have pulled together 36 of the biggest and brightest na...

The fourth Let Us Palaver Nat is all about The Stand and Randall Flagg, and how it all connects to The Dark Tower – all the stuff that Chris (and you virgin listeners) could not, should not, yet know.   We also get especially geeky (even by OUR standards) about all the easter eggs and Tower references that Nat has packed into his short story for the forthcoming expanded Stand anthology.   If you’v...

So, the circle closes… for now.   Here is the second and final part of our deep dive into Stephen King’s The Stand – the first of many major diversions on our way to The Dark Tower.   Last time we introduced the plague and the all-American heroes who survive it; this time we meet some of the weirder folk from the fringes of this apocalypse.   And we finally tangle with Randall Flagg, the Dark Man,...

Time for a side quest.   Yes, this is the Dark Tower Readalong… you are not mistaken. But there are other worlds, and other books, and some of them have to be read for the fullest, most satisfying experience of Stephen King’s great saga.   In this first (of what will be many) diversions from the Ka-Tet’s quest, Nat, Chris and I turn to The Stand – the titanic tale of two tribes going to war. It’s...

After we spent last week in the muck and mire, this episode takes us up where skies are blue.   Just watch for the mushroom clouds.   The guest is Scott Carson, pseudonym of thriller writer, Michael Koryta, and author of The Chill (2020), Where They Wait (2021), and last year’s phenomenal Lost Man’s Lane. His new novel, Departure 37 is something totally different – it has Cold-War conspiracy, AI a...

Daniel Kraus has never lacked for ambition in his fiction – but Angel Down may be the most audacious horror book of the year. It’s the story of broken men and a fallen angel in the trenches of the First World War.   Oh … and it’s told in one long 300 page sentence. Cos Daniel can. It’s not a gimmick, nor pretentiousness. No, this week, you’ll hear how the medium is very much the message. As well a...

Back on the trails for a mind-melting trip this week.   Wendy Wagner is in the hot-seat, playing shaman as we discuss The Girl in the Creek – her brand new novel of fungoid-terror, eco-thrills and psychedelic strangeness. It’s a beautiful, bewildering hallucination of a book.   Wendy’s inspirationsrange from cutting edge science to the antics of Scooby Doo and the gang, along with a sprinkle of Lo...

This week we’re talking about my Roman Empire. BIGFOOT!!   But this time I have good reason to get geeky – my guest is Giano Cromley, hairy-hominid enthusiast, certified wildlife tracker, and author of the deeply charming American Mythology.   It’s the story of a group of lost souls, joined in their search for the fabled ‘squatch of the North American woods. It’s spooky for sure, but just as conce...

I’m coming to you from the heatwave from hell – and I’ve never been more burdened by my body.  And that is exactly the topic that this week’s guest has written all about. Rose Keating is an Irish writer, whose debut collection, Oddbody, presses enquiring fingers deep into the bizarre meat of our lives. These stories are about the inherent disgust of bodies and their processes.   There are women wh...

Time to talk righteous violence!   S.A. Cosby is a writer on a meteoric rise. After the insane success of Razorblade Tears, and the Gothic horrors of All the Sinners Bleed, he’s back with a fresh crime epic of titanic brutality.   King of Ashes is the tale of a family under threat from criminal forces, and the shocking depths they will go to in their fight back. It’s a challenging book, full of un...