The Monster She Wrote Podcast

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award® winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She is the author of Children of Chicago, The Shoemaker's Magician, Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night, all of which have been nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was also nominated for an Elgin Award. Her collection of poetry, Into the Fo...

If you ever thought to yourself, "I wish Beauty and the Beast had aliens in it," then today's story is for you. In her short story "Beauty," Tanith Lee takes the classic fairy tale out of the castles and forests and into the stars. Recommended in this episode: Ann Patchett's Tom Lake UP NEXT: Interview with author Cythia Pelayo Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

The mysterious Velkwood Vicinity is an occult and paranormal marvel, occupying the interest of scientists and conspiracy theorists alike. But for three friends, Talitha, Brett, and Grace, the Velkwood Vicinity is their painful past. It's the neighborhood they grew up in, and where their families still live–as ghosts. But now, Talitha returns, hoping for answers and maybe closure. The past is never...

Join Lisa and Mel as we talk with author Gwendolyn Kiste about her newest novel,  The Haunting of Velkwood . Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, Pretty Marys All in a Row, and The Haunting of Velkwood . Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Sc...

This episode is a little different from our usual format, but we promise you'll love it. It's all about book recommendations and what Mel and Lisa are loving right now.  UP NEXT: An interview with author Gwendolyn Kiste! Buy Toil and Trouble here!

A rogue adventurer meets a woman with snakes for hair, and he falls under her seductive spell. Luckily, a friend gives our hero a heads up: don't look in her eyes for that leads only to certain doom. No, we aren't talking about the legend of Perseus and Medusa. This is a space adventure story set on Mars, and written by C L Moore. Recommended:  Starling House  and  Never Whistle at Night UP NEXT:...

Kelly Link's "Stone Animals" begins with an unspoken question, immediately throwing readers into an ambiguous but nightmarish journey as a family moves into a new home, where nothing is as it should be. Rabbits are taking over the yard. The children are eating grass and complaining of haunted items. And the husband never wants to come home. But is it really a haunted home? Or has this family made...

What Moves the Dead is T. Kingfisher's retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." More than that though, it's the tale of Alex Easton, a retired soldier, who visits their dying friend, Madeline, at her family manor. Something very sinister is going on, and it's up to Alex, along with their newfound friends, a mycologist and a doctor, to figure it out before it's too late.  Re...

Louisa was raised in isolation in a cottage deep in the woods by a mysterious witch. It sounds like the start of a fairy tale, but this story takes twists and turns as Louisa leaves her home for the outside world. She's no princess…and this is no fairy tale. This is a Gothic tale with plenty of intrigue, led by a rather unusual heroine. Join us as we discuss Tanith Lee's "Louisa the Poisoner." Rec...

We made it to 100 episodes!   Join us as we look back at the writing of the book and as we look to the future of the podcast! UP NEXT: Tanith Lee's "Louisa the Poisoner" Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

We are on hiatus for the December holidays. Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives.  We will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode.  Have a happy holiday season, from Lisa and Mel. 

Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives.  Enjoy your holiday season, and we will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode.     

A young doctor is called into the home of a wealthy man, but rather than seeing the sick patient he is expecting, he is greeted with a seemingly healthy man, who offers him a thousand pounds to attend a death bed. The doctor, who isn't a rich man himself, reluctantly accepts the strange request. Of course, this is a ghost story, so the doctor doesn't know exactly what he is in for…Join us as we di...

Exactly two years after she disappeared, Julie mysteriously comes back, with no memory of where she's been. To celebrate her return, Julie's friends get together for a girls' weekend away at a remote hotel. Things, however, are not all wonderful–Julie doesn't seem like herself at all. Something else, something more sinister and dangerous, is hiding beneath the surface, and it all comes out over th...

Sarah Clayborne is a widow, living alone in an old and stately manor house called Whitegates. One Halloween, Sarah takes a walk and slips on a frozen puddle, injuring her ankle. She takes to bed in her old and lonely home. Her painful broken foot is the least of her troubles, however, as she finds herself in the center of a good old fashioned ghost story.  Recommended in this episode: Netflix's  T...

Happy Halloween from the Monster, She Wrote podcast! UP NEXT: "All Souls" by Edith Wharton Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Ramon left his home in Mexico a long time ago, settling first in California and then in Vancouver. But now, he worries that his past may have followed him, in the form of a homeless woman, a woman he is convinced is a La Llorona. Read the story here .  Recommended in this episode: CJ Leede's Maeve Fly  UP NEXT: A Halloween special episode  Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Today, we are doing things a little differently. Since this is our first episode in October–the best month of the year if you ask us–we thought we'd do an extended recommendations episode, all with the intent of getting you ready for spooky season. UP NEXT: "Lacrimosa" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  Read it here at Nightmare Magazine   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

When Dr. Beverly Crusher's grandmother passes away, she visits her home planet, a place made to look like old world Scotland on Earth, in order to pay her respects. As it turns out, she gets much more than a sad goodbye. Her grandmother had a secret life, complete with a young lover named Ronin, a man who takes an interest in Dr. Crusher. Ronin, however, is much more than he seems, and Dr. Crusher...

Rosalind Ashe's Moths (1976) was marketed as a book for fans of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. And there are some similarities: a beautiful old estate with a crumbling wing. A young wife who moves in determined to make it her own. And a dead woman haunting the home that was once hers. But what would happen if Rebecca had possessed the body of the new wife? That's what Ashe's book posits. So join us...

Last week, we discussed Daphne Du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel . Today, we thought it would be fun to look at the 2017 film adaptation, starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin.    Recommended in this episode: Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird   UP NEXT: Rosalind Ashe's Moths    Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Phillip has lived with his guardian Ambrose Ashley on Ambrose's manor in the English countryside since Philip was a child and his parents' death left him orphaned. Philip's idyllic life is upturned, however, when Ambrose leaves for Italy, where he meets a mysterious woman named Rachel and swiftly marries her. Things take a dark turn when Ambrose dies suddenly–leaving letters behind that suggest pe...

In Margaret St. Clair's "Flowering Evil," Amy Dinsmore is quite the gardener. She loves tending to her collection of Martian and Venusian plants, flowers, and succulents. But one plant, in particular, is a little bit more than she bargained for. Originally published in Planet Stories vol 4 num 7, Summer 1950, this story can be found in audio format  in Pseudopod (825, August 2022) and in text via...

Sadie Hartmann aka Mother Horror is the co-owner of the horror fiction subscription company, Night Worms and the Bram Stoker Awards® nominated editor of her own horror fiction imprint, Dark Hart. Her non-fiction book about horror books titled, 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered for Page Street Books is coming, August 2023. She lives in the PNW with her husband of 20+ years where they...

In Nadia Bulkin's story "Wish You Were Here," Dimas is escorting American tourists on a city tour in Bali. He's only trying to do his job, but the tourists become much more than a simple annoyance when they begin to ask about Jelankung, an Indonesian way of contacting the spirits of the dead.     Read the story here and the interview with Nadia Bulkin here .   Recommended in this episode: Anne Ser...