Talking Scared

118 – Fiona Barnett & If You Go Down to the Woods Today

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s coming home, it’s coming … horror’s coming home! Alright, no one panic – this isn’t about football. We’ll avoid that...

117 – Erika T. Wurth & Bigfoot in Your Dreams

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text I don’t always talk about Bigfoot … but when I do it’s with the BEST people. Our guest this week is Erika T. Wurth, author, narra...

116 – Brian McAuley & The Delights of Human Evisceration

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Halloween may be over but I trust you aren’t tired of horror?  No? Good. ‘Cos this week’s guest packs a double-whammy – horror...

115 – Andy Davidson & Ornate Maps of Hell

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text The last episode before Halloween and it’s suitably about my favourite book of the year: Andy Davidson’s The Hollow Kind Andy is th...

114 – Erin E. Adams & Monsters in the Rust Belt

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It was Thomas Wolfe who wrote “you can never go home again.” Huh, what did he know? (yes, I understand the metaphor – move on!) T...

113 – Rachel Harrison & Teeth, Needles & Gnomes

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Do you know anyone with hairy palms?  Weird question, but as this week’s novel-in-question will convince you, it’s best to be care...

112 – Jamie Flanagan & Stories as Companions for Loneliness

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text The best and spookiest season starts in earnest, this year on Talking Scared.  Our guest is Jamie Flanagan, actor, screenwriter, and p...

111 – Alexis Henderson and Hot Marxist Bloodletting

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s not only vampires that drink blood. That’s what we find out on this week’s episode.  Our guest is Alexis Henderson – auth...

110 – Clay McLeod Chapman and Unhealthy Obsession with Clear Plastic Tarps

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Wanna get haunted? That’s the delightful proposition offered by Clay McLeod Chapman’s Ghost Eaters – a novel of ghosts, grief and...

109 – Gemma Amor and The Big Mental Health in Horror Bonanza

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text The time has finally come to go to the scariest place imaginable – the inside of the human mind.  Thankfully, we have a friend to ac...

108 – Hailey Piper and Ambulatory Brain Monsters

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Finally, she’s here! After months of waiting for schedules and book releases to align, Hailey Piper is on the show. She’s here to t...

107 – Zin E. Rocklyn and the Commonality of Pain

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Time to get weird and wiggy and wondrous. Our guest this week is Zin E. Rocklyn, author of many short fictions, and her (very) recently...

106 – Gwendolyn Kiste and the Madwomen Bite Back

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Get your bell bottoms, your peace sign, your tie dye and your … crucifix! This week’s guest is Gwendolyn Kiste and her new novel, R...

105 – Agatha Andrews and Danger-Bangs in Haunted Houses

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week we’re crossing the podcast streams again – and broadening our reading at the same time. Agatha Andrews is the host of She...

104 – Michael J. Seidlinger and Strange Footsteps at Midnight

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Are your doors and windows locked? Good. ‘Cos this one is going to scare you! This week I’m joined by Michael J. Seidlinger, author...

103 – Giving Kids Swords: A Middle Grade Special w/ with Ally Malinenko, Dan Poblocki & Lora Senf

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text What scared you as a kid? Monsters? Ghosts? The thing in your closet? The perilous state of the environment and the terrible carbon foo...

102 – Nina Nesseth and How the Gross-Out Can Save Your Life

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Do you like scary movies? Yes, course you do – you’re listening to a horror podcast. Okay, cliched horror quote asides – this wee...

101 – Nat Cassidy and Who Asked for a Body Anyway?

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text We’re heading into largely uncharted horror waters this week with our guest Nat Cassidy.  Nat’s debut horror novel, Mary: An Awake...

100 – Paul Tremblay and the First-Person Asshole Narrator

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text DUM DUM DUM!!! 100 episodes!!  We did it. We reached an utterly abstract threshold together guys and we are DELIGHTED to be here.  I’...

99 – T. Kingfisher and the Fungus-Punk Epidemic

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s been a rough couple of weeks. So, let’s have a laugh: Poe-style! Our guest is T. Kingfisher. She’s an expert in taking dry, ...

98 – Tim McGregor and Blaming the Danish

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Things are a bit fishy this week, as I’m joined by long-time friend-of-the-show Tim McGregor (@TimMcGregor1) to talk about the long h...

97 – A Monstrous Roundtable, with Ellen Datlow, Nathan Ballingrud, Chikodili Emelumadu & Joe R. Lansdale

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week on Talking Scared it’s monsters all day, every day.  To celebrate the release of Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monste...

96 – Stephen Lloyd and Cutting the Treacle

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text We’re closing out our (very) loose trilogy of episodes devoted to sinister schools and magical children. This week it involves pentag...

95 – J.M. Miro and Throwing Your Arms Around the Monsters

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week we go to magic school, but there isn’t a f***ing owl or a talking hat in sight. Instead, it’s a much more macabre affair,...

94 – Scott Hawkins and a Dog-Eat-Lion World

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week we go behind the curtain to look at the inner workings of a bona-fide modern classic.  Our guest is Scott Hawkins, whose deb...

93 – Kiersten White and Freedom from the Hope of Youth

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Here I come, ready or not! Our guest this week is Kiersten White. She’s the award-winning author of numerous macabre YA fictions, but...

92 – Anne Heltzel and a Big Pile of Dead Baby Dolls

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week’s episode couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time. As women’s reproductive rights come under assault in the US, as ...

91 – Jason Rekulak and Pencil Crayon Jump Scares

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Do think kids’ drawings are creepy? They are, right? All big smiles and suns with eyes and weird flowers the size of people… and th...

90 – Isabel Cañas and Running Barefoot Through Books

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s a week of deep-dives, haunted-houses and academic horror-stories this week on Talking Scared. Our guest is Isabel Cañas. And sh...

89 – Alma Katsu and the Hatred that Never Seems to Die

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week Alma Katsu brings her brand of immaculate historical horror to Talking Scared. After the The Hunger upped the ante on the Don...

88 – V. L. Valentine and The Difficult Second Ghost Story

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text After much recent politickin’ and metaphor – we’re back with a good old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness ghost story.  And from a f...

87 – Malcolm Devlin and the Brexit Zombie Story

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text I promise this week isn’t a pandemic novel. I know … we all need a break. No, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up IS about a dise...

86 – Alan Baxter and a Stranger in a Strange Town

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Australia. I said it before, he liked it, so I’ll say it again. Alan Baxter is the Lord of Weird Aus...

85 – Emma Stonex and the Light That Never Goes Out

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Imagine it’s just you and two other people stuck in a single building for weeks on end. Everyone’s bad habits on display. How long ...

84 – Dark Stars Roundtable, with John F.D. Taff, Livia Llewellyn & Josh Malerman

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week is an orgy of horror. There are four of us. That makes it an orgy right? (I’ve never been to one – never got the invitati...

83 – Simone St. James and Good Time, True Crime

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Hey horrorfam – ready for a good ol’ murder mystery? Y’know, with ghosts… Our guest is Simone St. James, the doyenne of ‘Supe...

82 – Mike Meginnis and Things You Should Do Before You Die

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Are you ready for another apocalypse? Covid and nukes not enough for ya?  Well here you go then. Something slightly different.   Mike...

81 – Tyler Jones and Old Eyes in Young Faces

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Tyler Jones’ Burn the Plans reminds me of the first time I picked up Stephen King’s Night Shift. I didn’t know who this King guy ...

80 – Gretchen Felker-Martin and Bustin’ Everyone’s Balls

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Have you ever wondered what fresh testicles taste like? No? I don’t believe you. Our guest this week wants to get you thinking about ...

79 – Leon Craig and the Queerness at the Bottom of the Well

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text February’s focus on the best new Women-in-Horror continues with Leon Craig and her debut collection, Parallel Hells.  Leon is a Nort...

78 – Thomas Olde Heuvelt and the Mountains of (My) Madness

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week is my personal Everest.  Thomas Olde Heuvelt, bestselling Euro-horror whizzkid author of HEX, joins me to to talk about his ...

77 – S.A. Barnes and Every Direction is Down

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text In space no one can hear you read!  This week our guest is S.A. Barnes – who’s new novel Dead Silence answers the (stupid) questio...

76 – Ally Wilkes and Good Reasons to be Afraid of the Dark

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Is it cold where you are? If so, do I have the book for you. Our guest is Ally Wilkes, whose debut novel, All the White Spaces was my p...

75 – Kristi DeMeester and Misogynistic Little Paper Cuts

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week it’s time for good girls and bad girls to unite. Our guest is Kristi DeMeester whose new novel, Such A Pretty Smile sinks i...

74 – John Connolly and the Many Faces of Metaphysical Mystery

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Kicking off the New Year right, by interviewing one of my favourite living writers.   John Connolly is the author of the bestselling C...

73 – The Best Horror-ish Books of 2021

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s just me this week – sneaking one last episode in to talk about my own personal top-10 horror novels (or horror-ish) from the l...

72 – State of the Horror Nation II, with Emily Hughes and Sadie Hartmann

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Well, we made it to the end of this nightmare of a year. And though there has been plenty of horrific stuff along the way – war, plag...

71 – A.J. West and Paranormal Foreplay

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week I bring you a ghost story, as befitting the season. Though it’s a little more lurid than Charles Dickens would have liked. ...

70 – Ross Jeffery and Disturbing the Comfortable

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week I am going to utterly ruin your festive mood! My guest is Ross Jeffery – author of Juniper, Tome (for which he was Bram Sto...

69 – Wendy N. Wagner and Nasty Shenanigans

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text I know it’s the middle of winter but this week the book in question is taking us back to summer. And not our current plague-summer –...

68 – Josh Malerman and Putting the Awe in Awful Things

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text If you are feeling depressed, what with OMICRON emerging like the worst villain in some direct-to-streaming video game adaptation, then...

67 – Richard Maclean Smith and the Ledge of Reason

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text And now for something a little different. This is a show about scary stories and writing horror… but that doesn’t mean everything h...

66 – Ellen Datlow and What Does ‘Scared’ Mean Anyhow?

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text For over three decades Ellen Datlow has been at the centre of the horror community. She is the queen of editors, the doyenne of antholo...

65 – Mark Stay and Cosy Pagan Dread

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week I’m feeling warm and fuzzy (don’t worry it won’t last). Halloween is over, the weather has turned dark, we’ve all got...

64 – Kim Newman and Truly Universal Monsters

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Halloween is over for another year but there are still plenty of monsters to go around. Our guest this week is Kim Newman, the writer, ...

63 – Mark Kermode and Angels, Demons and White Eyed Kids (AKA, the Hallowe’en Special)

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Normally we talk books - but horror movies are a Hallowe’en staple. Turn the lights down, wrap yourself in a blanket, choose your sna...

62 – Catherynne M. Valente and the Homeowners Association from Hell

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Perfect places breed hideous crimes – that’s my understanding at least.  If you like The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or Twin Peak...

61 – Cassandra Khaw and Stories to Tell Death

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text I’m on holiday but I still give you goodies. ‘Cos that’s the kind of all-round good guy that I am. And what a dark treat of a tri...

60 – Caitlin Starling and Emotional Torture Porn

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Hello kids. Wanna see a magic trick?  Rather than pulling a rabbit from a hat, I offer you Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous De...

59 – James Han Mattson and the Fear Fetish Facepalm

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Welcome to Hallowe’en ’21. If ever a year required us to find the fun in all things grim, dark and depressing then this is the abso...

58 – Lee Mandelo & Playing Out with the Boys

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Vroom vroom! This week’s book is automatic, systematic, highly dramatic … it’s G…G…G…G… Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. That ...

57 – Tina Baker and the Working-Class Chips on Our Shoulders

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Oh eck! This week I get very northern and my working class roots come to the fore. It’s all my guest’s fault. Tina Baker, the autho...

56 – Aliya Whiteley and Strange Growths

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Growth is good, right? That’s what they tell us. Our guest this week might have other ideas. Aliya Whiteley’s is a novelist, short ...

55 – Daniel Kraus and a Bag of Squishy Organs in an Elastic Hide

07 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Our show this week is part interview, part homage, all zombie! Daniel Kraus, the author of zombie magnum opus, The Living Dead is in th...

54 – Stephen Graham Jones and Dancing with the Slasher

31 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Talking Scared is a whole year old today, and to celebrate I’ve brought you one of the brightest stars in the horror sky, someone who...

53 – Zoje Stage and What if You're Not a Good Person?

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Morning campers!  This week we’re off to the great outdoors for a hike, a night under the stars and a spot of psychological terror. ...

52 – Richard Chizmar and the Truth Inside the Lie

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week the walls between reality and fiction begin to break down. What is truth, what is a lie? Can a story be both? These are the k...

51 – Brian Evenson and Little Potted Nightmares

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week’s guest couldn’t be better timed. In a week when we find out the world is not only screwed, it’s REALLY screwed, our gu...

50 - Sara Flannery Murphy and the Witches They Couldn't Burn

03 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Sisters are doing it for themselves – literally!  Our guest this week is Sara Flannery Murphy, author of Girl One – which is eithe...

49 – Ronald Malfi and Can Death Do Us Part?

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Why isn’t there more horror about marriage? Think about it. You marry someone. Spend your life with them. But do you really know them...

48 – Chuck Wendig and the Comforting Embrace of Horror

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Weather this hot demands the cool balm of a book, and do I have one for you. The Book of Accidents is the latest horror-epic from Chuck...

47 – Grady Hendrix and Final Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Hello fellow horror-fiends. This week we’re going retro, to the heyday of horror, when men wore masks and women checked basements in ...

46 – The State of the Horror Nation, with Sadie Hartmann and Emily Hughes

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week we’re doing something different. No author and no single book. Instead it’s a roundtable discussion, with Sadie Hartmann ...

45 – Carmen Maria Machado and Literary Kidney Stones

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week I have been forced to up my game.   Our guest is Carmen Maria Machado, and her works is not for the lazy or faint-hearted. F...

44 – Eric LaRocca and Abominable Things You Probably Shouldn’t Be Reading

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s a dirty, grim, glorious time on Talking Scared this week. After a last-minute schedule reshuffle we have Eric LaRocca, here to t...

43 – Joe R. Lansdale and Writing Like Everyone You Know is Dead

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Pour yourself a whisky, grab a seat and listen to the best voice in dark fiction tell you some stories.  Our guest is Joe Lansdale aut...

42 - V. Castro and F**K Your Box

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Maybe it’s the heat but this week we’re getting angry on Talking Scared. Our guest is V. Castro – author of Goddess of Filth and ...

41 – Max Brooks and Harry Eats the Hendersons

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text It’s not often you speak to the author of a book that EVERYONE has heard of. This week I got the chance.  Max Brooks. Max-freaking-B...

40 – Zakiya Dalila Harris and the Fear of Not Being Black Enough

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text If you’re returning to the office any time soon and you’re really bummed about it – this week’s guest will make you feel better...

39 – Josh Malerman and a Local Town for Local People

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Josh Malerman, bestselling wunderkinder of horror, author of Birdbox, Malorie, Unbury Carol and now Goblin, has graced Talking Scared w...

38 – Tananarive Due and Black Girls Doing Magical Things

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week the Queen of black horror is Talking Scared. Tananarive Due is bestowing her patronage on little ol’ me and I’m not quite...

37 – A.J. Gnuse and the People Under Your Sink

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Do you ever feel you’re being watched? Ever caught a flicker from the corner of your eye that you can’t explain? Do you run out of ...

36 - Jeff VanderMeer and Our First On-Air Murder

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Jeff VanderMeer is our guest. Need I say more? First things first though, rest easy, the episode title doesn’t refer to either me or ...

35 – Christina Henry and the Monsters of the Subconscious

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This week, I bring you MOAR monsters!!!  Our guest is Christina Henry, whose new novel, Near the Bone fits so nicely as the unofficial...

34 - Danielle Trussoni and the Spectrum of Human Difference

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text When was the last time a story took you completely by surprise? Danielle Trussoni’s The Ancestor ambushed me into loving it. What see...

33 - Jennifer McMahon and the Green Mountain State of Fear

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Welcome to the Green Mountain State, lovely, liberal . . . haunted!! Our guest is to ghost-stories what Ben and Jerry are to ice cream ...

32 - Clay McLeod Chapman and the Clenching Fist of Satan!

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Does your child draw pentagrams? Have you noticed the neighbours hanging their robes over the washing line? Worst of all, have they sta...

31 – V.L. Valentine and Graphic Descriptions of Medical Maladies

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text We’ve covered our share of plagues on this show during our all-too-real year of sitting indoors and waiting for the pandemic to sod o...

30 – Catriona Ward and the All-Consuming Spoiler Warning

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text This is a big one.  The Last House on Needless Street may be the best pure horror novel I’ve read this decade. Okay, the decade is o...

29 – Angela Slatter and Kelpies not Selkies!!

10 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there was a young woman, bad men, and some homicidal mermaids. It’s fairy tale time. Our gu...

28 – Bethany Clift and Judging an Apocalypse by its Cover

03 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Isolation is a bitch, but it could be worse! Our guest is Bethany Clift and her debut novel is  Last One at the Party – a pandemic n...

27 - Julia Fine and the Postmodern Postpartum

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text If you’ve been homeschooling, in labour, or generally responsible for the life of a small human during lockdown, then this episode is...

26 - Sarah Pearse and the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Murder

17 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Hands up who wants a holiday!  Sarah Pearse’s The Sanatorium could be just the thing to purge your lockdown travel desires. It will ...

25 - Gemma Files and the Witch in Her True Ornaments

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Have you ever had a book scare you so much that part of you wishes you hadn’t read it? That’s the experience I had reading Gemma Fi...

24 - Courtney Summers and Writing for Spite

03 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text When your guest calls herself the “Master of the Bitch” you do wonder what you’re getting into. Courtney Summers, by her own admi...

23 - Laura Purcell and the Art of Darkness

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Let’s get Gothic! Our guest this week is Laura Purcell, doyenne of the dark, heiress of historical fiction (and other alliterative ti...

22 – C.J. Tudor and the Lure of the Oddball Loners

20 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text In a week in which the White House becomes a little less orange, it’s hard to dwell on the nasty side of life. But this is Talking Sc...

21 - Will Dean & The Horror of the Fens

13 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text Ready for the first GREAT book you’ll read this year? Our guest this week is Will Dean, calling all the way from the middle of a Scan...

20 - The Big 2021 Horror Preview AKA Another Annus Horribilis

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text I like this year better than last year already. Ok, we may be plunged back into lockdown 3.0 and it may be cold, and the cinemas may st...

19 - Michael Marshall Smith and Goodbye to 2020

30 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Send us a text 2020 is nearly behind us (woohoo!) but we have time for one more interview with a master of horror. Our guest this week is Michael Mars...