Horror from the High Desert

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 Simmons University in Boston. She talks...

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 Halloween" and the many diffe...

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 unique legacy in the sci-fi, fantasy, a...

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 Foreign Skin" (January 28, ind...

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, and empty spaces, the bonds betw...

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-expanding "Rebel-verse," hi...

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 horror elements, its disconcerting u...

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 begin at 42:05

Listen to Scotty's or...

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 "Voracious" (2024, Dark Matter Ink...

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, Shudder), the unexpected online conversa...

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 "Goddess of Filth" (2021,...

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," and how it works as both a prequel...

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-factor inherent in the type of body...

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 "The Boats of the Glen Carrig&...

This week Scotty talks to authors Rae Wilde and C.S. Humble about Rae's forthcoming dark fiction collection "I Do Not Apologize About My Position on Men" (November 2024, Off Limits Press). They discuss the individual stories, feminist and sapphic horror in general, Rae's unique connection to and fascination with the sea, the practice of decentering men in her fiction, the act of depicting personal struggle with both bruta...

Listen to Part 2 of this special BONUS EPISODE featuring the new anthology “The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks,” edited by Tom Deady and published September 3, 2024 by Greymore Publishing.

In Part 2, Scotty talks to:

Cover Artist Lynne Hansen

Author Johnny Compton (“A Devil We Used to Know”)

Author Rebecca Rowland ("Better By You, Better Than Me”)

Author Richard Chizmar (“A Nightmare on Elm Lane”)

Author C...

Listen to Part 1 of a special BONUS EPISODE featuring the new anthology “The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks,” edited by Tom Deady and published September 3, 2024 by Greymore Publishing.

In Part 1, Scotty talks to:

Editor Tom Deady

Author Christa Carmen (“Blood of My Blood”)

Author Larry Hinkle (That Chemical Glow”)

Author Candace Nola (“They Look Back”)

Author Ronald Malfi (“Other Things Have Happened”)

Click h...

This week Scotty talks to Christa Carmen about her Bram Stoker Award-winning and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated first novel "The Daughters of Block Island" (2023, Thomas & Mercer), as well as her upcoming novel "Beneath the Poet's House" (due in December of this year). They discuss the importance of Stephen King's "On Writing" on her early career, the influence of classic authors like Agatha Chris...

Scotty talks to award-winning author Rena Mason about her upbringing in both northern California and upstate New York, her early introduction to horror through "Godzilla" and Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are," how a bad experience with an English professor, family obligations, and her career as an OR nurse steered her away from a literary career, but how a frustrating encounter with a disappointing &q...