I am EXTREMELY excited to share this conversation with you all as I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Neil McRobert, host of horror podcast Talking Scared.
Now, if you don’t know Neil, I highly, HIGHLY recommend giving Talking Scared a listen as some of the biggest names in horror fiction have been on the show including: Stephen King, Mike Flanagan, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Margaret Atwood, and many, many others. Not only has Neil been able to talk to some of the most influential voices in horror, but the ways in which he talks about the varying aspects of the genre are truly insightful and have enriched my own reading experiences. See why I’d be excited for this conversation?
Before I get into the details of our conversation, I do want to preface with a few things. First of all, the audio on this video seems to lag in some spots at the beginning of our conversation despite my best DIY audio editing efforts. The conversation does remain intact, but, sincerest apologies for that. Also, Neil, ever the interviewer, does flip the script and asks me a few questions around the end of this video. If I were a better host, I would probably pull that section since Neil is extremely complimentary, but there are some parts of that conversation I do think are important to share. Feel free to speed past the last few minutes if you feel so inclined!
Here are the topics we cover (in broad terms):
– why story is so important
– losing yourself in fiction
– where academic reading experience comes in handy
– some of Neil’s most recent reads
– an examination of empathy in horror
– human acceptance and changes of trends in denial in horror fiction
– what’s coming up for Neil on his podcast (he drops some insider info here you won’t want to miss)
– and of course, our love for Chappell Roan
Now, we also cover many authors and books so here is a list of those:
– Clown in a Cornfield Trilogy by Adam Cesare
– Keith Rosson
– Laura Senf
– Stephen King (You Like It Darker, The Dark Tower, Cujo, From a Buick 8)
– Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia
– Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
– American Rapture by CJ Leede
– American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
– Philip Fracassi
– Stephen Graham Jones (Angel of Indian Lake trilogy, I Was a Teenage Slasher)
– Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
– Rosemary’s Baby by Iran Levin
– Laird Barron
– Anna Bogutskaya
– Emily Hughes
– Rachel Harrison
– Clay McLeod Chapman
– Liz Kerin
I truly cannot thank Neil enough for his time and kindness during this conversation. In fact, there’s an open invitation anytime he wants to come back and chat about anything horror.
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