Dead Languages
Authors P.L. McMillan and Carson Winter have joined forces to have lively, irreverent, and hopefully helpful conversations on the craft of writing horror fiction. Expect weird tangents, frank industry discussions, interviews, and more!
Episodes
Pink horror? Mantasy? Guy-fi? Weird Girl Lit? We talk with author CJ Subko about gendered genres and how they kinda suck.
OTHER COOL STUFF
New LINKTREE! Join our Discord, submit to our Drabble contest, buy merch, and MORE: https://linktr.ee/deadlanguagespodcast
Learn more about what's going on CJ Subko's life here: https://cjsubko.com/
This week, we pay tribute to the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest and their celebration of terrible opening lines. We reached out to the spooky coeds for them to submit their own terrible openers and even came up with a couple of our own!
https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
Buy Dead Languages merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/dead-languages-podcast/
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/97EtArJQnP
We continue our look into the HWA's many varied recent tragedies!
Buy Dead Languages merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/dead-languages-podcast/
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/97EtArJQnP
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has been in a constant state of disaster recently, much of it surrounding (now, former) executive director Maxwell I. Gold. In this two-parter, we go over the many recent controversies of the HWA.
Buy Dead Languages merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/dead-languages-podcast/?
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/97EtArJQnP
The spooky professors try out a new format this week!
Raise your hand if you've been rejected by THE DARK.
We read the August 2026 issue of famed horror magazine THE DARK to analyze what they publish and if it matches their submission guidelines!
Discord: https://discord.gg/97EtArJQnP
All writers are mentally ill, so it makes sense that all of our characters are too! We talk about sensitive and insensitive portrayals of mental illness in horror and associated tropes.
Sources
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2020.160110
https://hcpl.net/blogs/post/mental-health-and-horror-a-complicated-history/
https://thetandemcollective.com/community/blog/mentalheathandhorrorfiction
This week, PLMbo finishes up our deep dive into the history of horror!
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/NnZnyQube
Professor PLM keeps hitting her ruler against her palm as she delves into the history of horror in this massive 1 of 2 part series.
Learn the foundations of the genre and discover the commonalities at the core of horror.
Sources
https://www.librarypoint.org/blogs/post/bh-horror-fiction/
https://horrorfilmhistory.com/horror-roots-of-the-genre/
https://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html
AND JOI...
The goblins dive deep into a valuable writing tool: the prompt. How do they like to use prompts in their writing, types of prompts, and they even provide some for their dearest spooky co-eds.
Don't forget to join the discord: https://discord.gg/qx5RRZSUg3
PLMbo steps up to the plate with some juicy, juicy data on the future of horror!
Pull out your spreadsheets and find things to be both optimistic and pessimistic about.
Both of the goblins have experienced big life changes recently. How are we pulling through now that our schedules are all disrupted?
Listen in and learn from our struggles reconciling writing with change.
Several publishers have copped to accepting AI stories. We follow up with some of the latest news stories to react, discuss, and find a path forward.
See what we're talking about here:
https://www.bona-books.com/news/we-bought-an-ai-story
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/blogs/frontpage/ai-statement?srsltid=AfmBOorLQXFMojVmFzC76Vr2GvZmC54mO08cEmJCeNcNkDdviOORvOnI
PLM and Carson are once again entering the Reddit mines for easy content! The goblins answer questions from real horror writers and have some fun along the way.
Also, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/QswkXXDd2
Today the goblins sharpen their scalpels and dissect a willing victim: Kai Delmas, King of Drabbles.
Settle in for a girthy episode on editing techniques, critiquing, and discussion of writing development.
There is no mercy.
Find Kai's remains er we mean fiction: https://www.kaidelmas.com/
Carson pulls on his tweed jacket and talks all about newsletters.
Also, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Dtzfhepue
Writers? Insecure? NEVER.
This week, we take a look at some common writer insecurities and do a bit of commiserating.
And if you haven't heard, we have a Discord! Join up and fan the flames of your parasocial relationship: https://discord.gg/Dtzfhepue
The future of horror is now and the goblins sit down to talk about what they want to see most of in the future of horror.
More weirdness? Less tropes? Tune in and see what the goblins want to see.
The goblins compare their top 5 books for the first half of 2026. PLM's choices will SHOCK.
Why do so many killers have mommy issues? Why are mothers often set as the villains or the victims and rarely ever in between?
Today, the goblins interview Emma E Murray and Dr Nina Miller on the representation of motherhood and mothers in horror.
The goblins have cracked the secret formula to why and how one short story submission gets accepted versus another. They've analyzed thousands of form rejection emails, they've infiltrated presses, they've bribed the editors' cats. They know all.
And they are here to share it all with you!
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