282 – CJ Leede & Peeling Back the Skin of the World
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What is the premise of CJ Leede’s new novel *Headlights*?
Hello and welcome to Talking Scared. I'm your host, Neil McRobber, and let's take a scalpel to things, shall we? Our guest is none other than CJ Leed, friend of the show, twisted queen of extreme, an author of Mayfly, American Rapture, and now her new novel, Headlights. In this one, we meet several poor souls who wake from a fugue-like state to find themselves cloaked in someone else's flayed skin. Yeah, buckle up. But Headlights is so, so much more than violence and hurt. In fact, it may be CJ's least blood-soaked book, and we talk about why that is. We also find our way early into big, heavy, existential territory, so due warning for anyone currently experiencing grief. But have no fear, because we soon turn to much more fun stuff like Blucifer the Cursed Statue, John Denver, and whether CJ's new book is set in the same world as King's The Shining.
If you enjoy this, and I'm fairly confident you will, then please, pretty please, leave a nice review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen. And for ad-free listening and loads of bonus episodes, sign up at patreon.com slash talking scared pod. It helps me make the show and people like the extra stuff that they get. For example, I've just uploaded some extra chat with CJ about her top recommendations for extreme fiction by women. It's gnarly. Again, patreon.com slash talking scared pod. But now, come with me to a motel between the mountains and the plains. Inside, on a bed, there are bodies sizzling with pain. Let's talk scared. CJ Leed, welcome back to Talking Scared, good buddy. How are you?
Great to see you. I'm so happy to be here.
Thank you. I mean, it's very early where you are. You got up before the crack of dawn to speak to me. You're very kind. Is your brain even awake?
I would do more to be on Talking Scared. Yeah, well, we're about to find out, so this will be fun.
Right, so we know how you are. You sound great. But where are you? Because you've had quite the year of it.
Yeah, it's been like 15 months of living nowhere and everywhere. So we got a house, bought a house in California. And then a couple months later, right when we were moving in, the fires hit. And then we were like, what now and our evacuation was kind of pretty rough so we kind of needed a change and we have friends and family all over the country and we were like you know what we have free places to stay and we both work from home and we could just kind of airbnb in between and that's kind of what we've been doing and so we've mostly gone where friends and family are but then like we'll be like you know what i want to go to this state and then we just go there and it's been really cool
What a dream. I mean, I I've realized the entire secret reason I'm making this show is so that one day I can do another backpacking trip around the US just staying with people I've befriended by a talking scared. So it is the community. The network is great.
You could do that yesterday.
Oh, yeah, I could do it now. Yeah. I'm just waiting to pull the trigger.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should take the dogs, too. Yeah, I suppose.
So you spent a lot of time on the road, on the highways, byways and hideaways of America, all of which is quite apropos to your new novel, Headlights, which I have read and been both romanced and revolted by. I think is a way of putting it. Did the writing of this, I'm assuming it did, but did it predate your own wanderings?
Yes, but I've lived on the road before. About 10 years ago, I had a year where I lived out of a little two-seater Miata and had a tent that I would just sort of camp a lot and then do motels sometimes. Um, so this isn't the first time and I ended up finishing the book or the sort of draft that became the final after the fires. So this, the book is a lot about home and that was like an interesting thing to sort of like grapple with the idea of like, what is home when we had just been displaced and, um, it's so cheesy, but it's like, you really, you really don't need very much in this life. It feels so obvious, but it's so true.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the premise of CJ Leede’s new novel *Headlights*?
0:11–38:57
2
How did CJ Leede come up with the idea of people waking up in other people’s skin?
38:57–46:03
3
Why does *Headlights* feel more like eco‑horror than a traditional slasher?
46:03–55:46
4
How does *Headlights* connect to Stephen King’s *The Shining* and *Doctor Sleep*?
55:46–1:02:46
5
What role does John Denver’s music play in the themes of the book?
1:02:46–1:12:16
6
What was the writing and editing process like for the graphic sex scene and the book’s fragmented style?
1:12:16–1:16:19
7
Why did CJ choose a male protagonist for this story and how did she develop his voice?
1:16:19–1:19:46
8
What projects is CJ Leede working on next and what should listeners look forward to?
1:19:46–1:20:47
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Talking Scared
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