Aug. 4, 2025

059 - Exploring The Deadlands With Katherine Silva

059 - Exploring The Deadlands With Katherine Silva

Please join the Patreon for Ad-Free episodes, fiction, extra content: https://patreon.com/jason_white Join host Jason on Weird Reads as he delves into Katherine Silva’s The Deadlands—a haunting series rooted in grief, folklore, and post‑apocalyptic...

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Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon

Please join the Patreon for Ad-Free episodes, fiction, extra content: patreon.com/jason_white

Join host Jason on Weird Reads as he delves into Katherine Silva’s The Deadlands—a haunting series rooted in grief, folklore, and post‑apocalyptic landscapes.

In this episode, Katherine talks about:

  • The evolution of Undead Folk, Dead Folk and Nothingland and how they interconnect 
  • Writing through grief, the role of myths in horror fiction, the importance of hope, and world‑building the wasteland of the Deadlands 
  • Her indie author journey, publishing with Strange Wilds Press, and what's next in her writing path 
📚 Books discussed:
  • Undead Folk
  • Dead Folk 
  • Nothingland
  • Vulpine Curse
📚 Authors Mentioned
  • Todd Keisling
  • Amanda Headlee 
  • Tom Rimer 
  • Brandon Lafaro 
  • Pauline Chow 
  • Sam Richard 
  • Kyle Winkler 
  • Rob Smales
Catch Katherine Silva Online: 
Website: https://www.katherinesilvaauthor.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Katherine-Silva/author/B004W4P690

Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/weirdreader
Email me: weirdreadspodcast@gmail.com

Find Jason elsewhere:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jasonsweirdreads 
Join the Weird Reads book club: https://fable.co/club/jasons-weird-reads-book-club-with-jwhite-418694065870?club_type=free#books
Join the discord: https://discord.gg/RTvcHvWuXa

Twitter: 
@Jason_White74
@WeirdReadsPod

Intro music created by DudeAwesome from Freesound.
[Freesound - “Scary Haunting Cinematic Style Mix Sound Effects.flac” by DudeAwesome](https://freesound.org/people/DudeAwesome/sounds/490055/






WEBVTT

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You're listening to the Weird Reader podcast, an extension of

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Jason's Weird Reads found on YouTube. Welcome, Welcome to episode

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fifty nine of the Weird Reads Podcast. I'm your host,

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Jason White, and this week I welcome Katherine Silva to

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this show. Now, you may remember when I was talking

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to Todd Keasling a couple of episodes ago, I asked

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him the typical question who do you wish people were

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talking more about? And Katherine Silva was one of the

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ones who came up. And at first, honestly, I did

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not recognize her name. But when authors go through their lists,

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when they're talking about these authors, there's when I asked

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that question, I always write down. I write down the

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answer as there. You may notice if you watch on

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the videos, I'm writing down their answers. And this time

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it's funny. It's like Catherine Silva. I wrote it down,

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and then I looked at Hi. I'm like, oh, Catherine Silva.

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I know her, not personally. I've never talked to her

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up until this interview, but I've been meaning to read

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her for a long time. And so I went and

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I decided I went and bought her dead Fall series.

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Or at least the first book the novelettes or novel novella.

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I forget how big. It is pretty short though. Anyways,

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I was about halfway to three quarters of the way

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reading through it and I was like, yes, I got

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to talk to Catherine Silva. You may have noticed that

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there is a lack of women writers on the show,

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and I want to fix that. So Catherine is one

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of the first. Hopefully within the next year or so

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you will to hear a lot more women voices, women

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horror authors on the Weird Reads podcast, and we are

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starting with Catherine. Now, before we get started with Catherine,

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I just want to remind everyone if you want to

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support the show, the best way to do so is

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go to Apple Podcasts and rate the show five stars

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and leave a review. Now that helps Apple share the

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show to other listeners and then the show can grow.

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So if you could do that, I would absolutely appreciate it.

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And also, if you want to help me with some money,

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you can join the Patreon. You can join for as

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little as three dollars a month and it only goes

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up to about six dollars a month, and you get

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things like ad free episodes and some extra content that

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I like to record, discussing books and Stephen King stuff,

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also just general stuff here on the Weird reachs channel.

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So my other podcast, Short Bites, is connected to that Patreon,

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so go check it out links for that or in

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the show notes. And I guess it's no better time

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than now to go talk to Katherine Silva. Hello, welcome

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to Weird Reads with Jason White. That's me, of course,

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your host today. I am very happy to have a guest.

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I've been meaning to read and have on the show

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for a long time. Today I welcome Katherine Silva to

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the show. Thank you so much. Catherine. How are you doing.

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I'm good, Thanks for having me on.

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Do you mind giving yourself a quick introduction? Because I

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forgot to write one down I just noticed right now.

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Yeah, I can do that. So hello friends. I am

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Catherine Silva CAT for short, and I am an author

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of grief and existential horror mainly, though I you know,

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can divert into other subgenres here and there, but I'm

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a main author. I identify as ACE and I have

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been writing horror since twenty ten, so I've been in

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the industry for a while.

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Nice now, just as like an Icebreaker, I noticed I

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was I was being a creep and I was going

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through your your Facebook profile today and I was your

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most recent post that I saw anyway, was it showed

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a mug with ghosties on it. Oh yeah, and you

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were mentioned you mentioned that you were listening to music

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while writing, and so I'm always interested in that because

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I'm a writer too, and I'm very finicky about music

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and writing. So what kind of music do you listen

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to while you're writing?

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So it really depends on the project. Some of my

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hard and fast like always works no matter what. Is

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ambient like soundtrack music. So often things that don't have

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words in them that are just kind of like creepy

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and unsettling, and they almost sound liminal. I guess that's

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that's hard to describe, but but it just always conjures

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these images of these sort of vast spaces. And the

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one that I always go back to you no matter what,

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and what I was listening to yesterday morning was the

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soundtrack for a little computer game called Limbo. I guess

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it's not just computer it's video game. And it's a

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black and white, just like side scrolling game about a

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little boy that you're negotiating through what's supposed to be

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Limbower the Afterlife, and it's a puzzle platformer and the

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music is just very stark and just kind of nurtures

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all kinds of frightening feelings. And it's composed by Martin

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Stieg or Stig still don't know how it's pronounced Anderson.

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And he also did music for Inside, which is another game,

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And so those two I've been going back and forth with.

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Yeah, that's sort of a my angle when I said,

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I'm very when I'm writing, I can't have music that

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has words to it or like favorite songs of mine,

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because instead of writing, I'll be like singing along and

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like pounding my fists. And you know, I think it's

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more of it. It can be more of a distraction.

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But if you find that ambient type music, you can

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really you can find the zone sometimes so much better.

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Yeah, I get weird about it. I will just put

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the same song on repeat, Yeah, And I will go

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for hours if I can with just the one song.

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And sometimes I can do it with songs with lyrics

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because you just kind of like blotted out at some

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point you've listened to it so many times. But but yeah,

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normally that's my that's my go to.

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I think it depends if how it emotionally attached you

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are to that song, Because if I'm really emotionally attached

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to a song, it's going to pull me. It's going

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to pull me out of the zone, and I'm not

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going to be able to start. Yeah, being the creep

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that I was, I was also on your your website

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and I noticed that you have playlists attached to a

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lot of your books. I thought that was really cool.

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How do you Because I didn't go through like all

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the songs or anything, but I did play some samples

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and I was just one, how do you? How do

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you create these lists? Do you just do they come

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when you're writing the books or do you kind of

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like sit down after you're done?

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And no, it's it's a little bit of both. I

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guess like most of the time, it's when I'm writing

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a book, a particular song either inspires a character or

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a scene. A lot of the time I can sit

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there and listen to music and then sort of see

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or envision what scene I want to write along to it,

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and that's generally what happens. That's why it ends up

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on the soundtrack. And then sometimes I'll get to the

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end of the book and I'll of the writing phase anyway,

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and I'll go through the editing phase and I'll think

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of something there too. But yeah, the majority of those

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playlists are just yeah, things that I was listening to

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while I was writing. I felt inspired by.

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Nice getting to how I was introduced to you. I

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I was first introduced to you. Actually, I think through TikTok.

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I follow you there, and I remember seeing, like I

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when I first joined TikTok and started actually enjoying TikTok,

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I followed a whole bunch of writers, and you were

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one of them, and you used to have like these, uh,

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these funny little skits that you used. God, yeah, what happened.

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I haven't done those in so long. I you know,

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I had fun with them. And then I get to

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a point. I feel like a lot of writers get

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to this point where they're like, I don't like being

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on camera, Like I don't like I don't like uh,

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just it's like trying to come up with with that

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kind of like funny content sometimes is really hard. And

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and then also just this like like I don't know

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if anybody's getting anything out of this, like I'm getting

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anything out of this, So I'm I did several and

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then things kind of dropped off viewership wise, and then

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I was like, okay, Like I don't need to be

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on every single platform, like trying to juggle TikTok and

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Facebook and Instagram and threads and Blue Sky. It's just

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a lot. So I did kind of like stop using TikTok.

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I still have it on my phone and occasionally something

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goes up every once in a great while, but I

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think it'll probably be a while before I returned to

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that kind of skit making.

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Yeah, they're always fun to watch, though, I'd always stop

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and watch and see what you're going to do next.

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So we're here to talk about you, Kat And as

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I mentioned before, I started reading the Deadlands trilogy and

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I was going to read it. It was just like

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for a summer read, right, just for fun. But about

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halfway through the first they're like short novellas. I was

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about halfway through the first one, I was like, holy shit,

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this is really good. And then I emailed you right

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away once I had that thought and asked you to

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come on. But I so the show was meant to

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be geared towards that, but I ended up in researching

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you found out a whole lot more than I realized.

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So I thought we'd talk about you a little bit

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as well. So I want to know what is your origin,

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your horror origin story.

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So I've always been a fan of spooky things, you know,

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as a kid, I was I was always pulled towards

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you know, the spooky eighties and nineties movies and TV show.

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I loved Halloween. It's my favorite time of the year.

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Grew up in a small town, so Halloween was usually

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a pretty big deal, and and so I just always

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had this affinity for the spooky. And even as early

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as like first grade, I have these stories of that

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I would write that were about like haunted houses or

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ghosts or things like that. I just really enjoyed writing

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about them. And and I think in you know, seventh grade,

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or maybe it was later than that. I know it

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was earlier than that. It was fourth grade, I had

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teachers that would encourage writing of stories, and so I

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wrote a horror story about a sting ray, which we

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hadn't lost Steve Irwin at that point, so maybe it

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was a fore telling the frightening things about stingrays.

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But it's prophecy.

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Yeah. So and then from there, you know, I wrote

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horror or you know, sad horror was definitely a thing

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that I didn't realize I was drawn to until I

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got to I wrote The Wild Dark in twenty twenty one,

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and then I was like, yeah, pretty much everything you've

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written up until now has been sad in some way

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or another. So I guess that is kind of my

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sub genre that I'm drawn to.

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You know. I was curious about that because I've noticed

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a lot of your books have that grief horror tag

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on it, and I was just wondering because I'm kind

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of pulled towards the same thing. Uh, but when I'm writing,

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it tends to come out more silly, like more fun

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and silly centered, if that makes any sense. Like I

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like like doing gory things, but I have written some

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serious stuff and those are the ones that I like

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the most. Though, So I'm wondering, what is it about

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the sadness that pulls at you to write it?

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I I don't know. I think I think there's just

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something like fulfilling about the the ending of it all

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that gets that gets to me. Like I have always

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been drawn to stories where something bad happens to somebody

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and then they they're able to fight through it and

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you know, figure out a way to live with it better.

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And that I mean that goes back to films and

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TV shows and books and so there's just something really

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nice about a story where somebody overcomes their inner grief

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and and I think I just have been drawn to

223
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writing that because you know, I've got things that maybe

224
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I'm also trying to work out within myself, and I

225
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feel like I'm getting some kind of cathartic movement through

226
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writing it. But also there's just something that that kind

227
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of stirs in my in my gut that makes me

228
00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.759
feel better when I write about that kind of thing.

229
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So yeah, it's it's hard to describe. It's really hard

230
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to describe.

231
00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:11.360
I think I know what you mean with that, that

232
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stirring in your gut, Like it's not necessarily like I'm

233
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speaking on my own here, but it's not necessarily correct.

234
00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:21.639
But you just know that you you've nailed something that

235
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you wanted to say.

236
00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:29.360
Yeah, it's and it's I just I like writing things

237
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that make people feel something. Also, it's not like I

238
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I enjoy writing horror I've never been, uh a writer

239
00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:43.960
of like lots of gore necessarily like like some people.

240
00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:49.559
But I do like to induce feelings of dread and

241
00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:58.279
and anxiety and uh and sadness and and compassion, and

242
00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:02.759
that's that all goes hand in hand with writing grief horror,

243
00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.160
and also the questioning of the existential bit of it,

244
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which is like the figuring out where I stand in

245
00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:17.160
the in the midst of everything going on around me

246
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:20.799
and and what is death mean and all that jazz.

247
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So yeah, it's it's I think it's easier to write

248
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maybe in this day and age because of everything that's

249
00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.599
going on in the world right now. It's every day

250
00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.880
is a new nightmare, and you can just it's it's

251
00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.119
like the story after story of people who are going

252
00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.000
through terrible things right now and and not and you know,

253
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there's that fear that you're also going to go through it.

254
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And I think that that fear is something else that

255
00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:57.759
pushes some authors, myself included, to to explore the possibilities,

256
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like the bad possibility when things could go completely so

257
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mm hmm.

258
00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:08.160
Yeah, I there's there's places I won't go, you know,

259
00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.799
in my in my writing that are maybe a little

260
00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:17.799
too close to things that are currently happening. I like,

261
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I want people to be able to escape into the

262
00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:28.119
story without feeling like they're just rehashing a news story.

263
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I guess is the like, there's there's a lot of

264
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bad going on if and U and the last thing

265
00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.720
I want to do is make it feel like they're

266
00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:48.720
I don't know, not not finding an escape in in

267
00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:51.079
my story.

268
00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:56.640
So you mentioned hope earlier. Is hope at least offering

269
00:18:56.680 --> 00:18:59.920
hope to the reader important it is?

270
00:19:01.799 --> 00:19:04.759
You know, there's I I I play off and on

271
00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:07.319
with that because I do think that, especially now, it's

272
00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:14.079
a really good theme to throw into writing. But but

273
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:17.799
I have written things before where I, you know, that

274
00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:21.720
nihilistic point of view where you're just kind of like, yeah,

275
00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:25.079
it's all sense listened and there there really isn't any

276
00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.440
any reason for the things that that happen or why

277
00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:34.440
they happen, and and and I like that kind of

278
00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:37.079
writing too, But that has its place in certain things,

279
00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.960
and and this has its place in certain things. And

280
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and I think I'm kind of on the middle of

281
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:52.039
a hope journey, I guess, in in my writing stuff.

282
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:56.440
So that's kind of the stuff that I'm writing right

283
00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:00.400
now anyway tries to infuse hope.

284
00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:06.079
Yeah, I kind of felt that with the Deadlands and

285
00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.480
a full Pine Curse. But we'll get to that shortly.

286
00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:15.079
I want to go back. I just wanted to know,

287
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.599
because this is something I ask all my guests when

288
00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:21.960
they're on for the first time. I love knowing what

289
00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:24.920
they read when they were a kid. Not just what

290
00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:27.319
they read, but I want to know like the writer

291
00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:30.960
or the or like a group of writers that made

292
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:32.640
you want to become a writer yourself.

293
00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:39.799
Yeah. When I was a little kid, a lot of

294
00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:45.240
the stuff that I would read were you know, I

295
00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:50.079
think Barbar the Elephant was a big one.

296
00:20:51.079 --> 00:20:54.039
I read that too, actually, and a.

297
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.200
Lot of strangely enough, a lot of books that did

298
00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:03.720
not use words, like picture books were huge, like Carl

299
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:12.079
the Rottweiler, all of those books, Tosca the Cat, things

300
00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:16.839
like that were huge. And then you know, we get

301
00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:22.359
to that age where I'm finally starting to introduce myself

302
00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:31.119
to new things, and it got to be things like animorphs, goosebumps,

303
00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:36.880
certainly Nancy Drew, which my mom and I read together.

304
00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:45.720
And then I was lucky enough to have a library

305
00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:48.599
that was within walking distance of my house, so I

306
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:51.839
could just walk up there and check out basically whatever

307
00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:55.039
I wanted, which led to checking out a lot of

308
00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:00.480
books that maybe were beyond my age at the time.

309
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:10.839
So I was reading Michael Crichton and John Grisham and God,

310
00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.680
I'm trying to think what else. I think I took

311
00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:14.680
out Children of Men at one point.

312
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:18.119
That's a pretty heavy book there.

313
00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:21.960
Yeah, it's uh, maybe not you know, not for the

314
00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:27.039
age intended. But then I also was reading you know,

315
00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:30.759
I think in high school some of the books that

316
00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:35.960
I most identified with were vampire novels, believe it or not,

317
00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:41.319
things like Amelia Atwater Rhads. I did read Twilight, and

318
00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:46.400
I liked Twilight. Blood and Chocolate was another big one

319
00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:55.680
for me, Like the the paranormal romance book was was

320
00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:01.480
becoming a thing and then it explodes. Didn't got crazy

321
00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:10.200
ye later. But and it wasn't until twenty twenty that

322
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.720
I really started reading horror, like mainstream horror. I was

323
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:19.119
reading a lot of everything else before then, a lot

324
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:24.400
of nonfiction. The Devil in the White City is one

325
00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:29.839
of my favorite nonfiction books. Anthony Bourdain. It's one of

326
00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:37.599
my favorite authors people and his cook Oh my god,

327
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:38.680
I forgot the name of the book.

328
00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:44.039
It's terrible. I told you about that mindgoing blank thing.

329
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.359
Oh god, Kitchen Confidential. It's one of my favorite books. Also,

330
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:57.240
like just reading people's voices and sort of pulling all

331
00:23:57.279 --> 00:23:58.319
of that in.

332
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:04.880
Yeah, sorry, go ahead, No, no, no, that was it.

333
00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:09.559
That was way I was just I was. I can

334
00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:12.119
segue here because you talked a lot about vampire fiction

335
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:16.359
there and your first I believe your first release was Vox,

336
00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:22.279
which is the beginning of a vampire series, and that's

337
00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:26.480
a I guess reflective of your your love for vampires.

338
00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:30.279
Now with when it comes to a love of vampires,

339
00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:35.039
you're You're very welcome here because I love vampires as well.

340
00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:38.200
I even read Twilight. I didn't read the whole series,

341
00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.319
but I read the first book, and I honestly I

342
00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:43.240
didn't hate it, but I didn't like it enough to continue.

343
00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:47.359
Yeah, I mean again, I was. I was fifteen when

344
00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:50.480
I read Twilight, so that was the that was the

345
00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:55.240
age of time. Yeah, and then I think I got

346
00:24:55.519 --> 00:25:01.519
I went to college and I remembered that I found

347
00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:04.640
out there that there were more because I hadn't heard

348
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:08.079
that there were more, and so I got new Moon,

349
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:12.200
and I read it and I liked it better than

350
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.960
the first one because it was sad and that's and

351
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.880
that was the whole like impetus of it, regardless of

352
00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:26.720
the fact that it was you know, some toxic shit.

353
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:36.400
But uh, but yeah, and then most of my vampire

354
00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:41.720
love did not come from literature. It came from TV

355
00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:47.880
and movies and video games of course, with Vampire the

356
00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:58.160
Masquerade Bloodlines, which is a huge inspiration behind Vox and

357
00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:02.599
and Buffy the Vampires Layer course, So I had those

358
00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:07.240
two things in mind when I was working on this,

359
00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:11.799
and I just kind of was like, Yeah, I want

360
00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:17.759
to write my own vampire world. I want my own

361
00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:20.079
set of rules and everything.

362
00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:24.599
Do you feel you you satisfied that that need or

363
00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:27.119
do you think you'll ever hear do you think you'll

364
00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:28.680
go back to writing vampires?

365
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:32.839
Oh? I absolutely didn't satisfy it, mostly because like those

366
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.680
those books came unfortunately at the end of the vampire trend,

367
00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:46.160
which was like that twenty ten era, and I didn't

368
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:49.880
know a thing about marketing then, so no one read

369
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:55.279
them like it. They just flopped And it took me

370
00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:59.319
several years to figure that out that they weren't, you know,

371
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:02.559
I hadn't gotten to a point where people knew me.

372
00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:08.079
I wasn't getting the books out there distributed well.

373
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.359
So that was it was like back in twenty ten

374
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:14.039
around there, right, and that was like that was a

375
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:18.400
turning point in the publishing history. So I imagine that at

376
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:21.480
that time it was probably looked down upon to self publish.

377
00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.720
Yeah, I mean it was. It was becoming more and more.

378
00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:32.920
I guess you were finding more and more people who

379
00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:37.559
were doing it. But yes, there was a stigma surrounding

380
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:41.400
it that was pretty heavy. Though I don't think that

381
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:45.759
that was anything I ever had an issue with necessarily.

382
00:27:45.799 --> 00:27:47.519
It was mostly just the fact that I didn't know

383
00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:51.880
how to market my stuff and you know, limited resources.

384
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.559
I didn't I couldn't like go travel to shows in

385
00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:04.599
different states necessarily and show it off. So so no,

386
00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:10.279
I definitely do have ideas for other vampire or you know,

387
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:15.039
like vampire things that I'd like to write, but I'm

388
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:18.160
also a little gun shy about it now because I've

389
00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:23.880
gone through that that fright of like, hey, I wrote

390
00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:29.359
three books and no one read them. So that's that's

391
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:31.599
always just a really hard thing when you're a writer,

392
00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:36.559
is really busting your your ass to pardon my French,

393
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:39.720
to write something and you put all this effort into

394
00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:42.960
it and then you put it out there. But because

395
00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:46.599
you don't know what you're doing, it just yeah, no

396
00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:47.200
one reads it.

397
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:52.319
So yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I've been there.

398
00:28:54.079 --> 00:28:58.480
But how has how has your writing changed since that

399
00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:01.119
first book to what you're writing now? How would you

400
00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:02.240
say you have evolved?

401
00:29:04.200 --> 00:29:07.960
Oh? I mean when I wrote that book, I was

402
00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:14.079
very concerned with minute details. I wanted to make sure

403
00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:19.160
that everybody knew every little thing that was in this room,

404
00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:22.960
or what this person looked like, or you know. I

405
00:29:23.079 --> 00:29:27.880
wanted to create the environments, to recreate the environments in

406
00:29:27.960 --> 00:29:32.000
words on the page, and so everything was hyper detailed,

407
00:29:32.599 --> 00:29:39.079
and I focused on using words that maybe the majority

408
00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:42.440
of people didn't know or like. I just I was

409
00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:47.160
trying to write to impress versus trying to write to

410
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:53.000
actually tell a story, and so that that hyper detail

411
00:29:53.720 --> 00:29:59.640
I've now gone swung to the direction of minimalist writing,

412
00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:04.359
which I would very much say on Dead Folk is

413
00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:09.640
is very minimalist. And I like the idea of telling

414
00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:15.480
a story and not giving the reader every single component

415
00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:23.640
and letting them figure things out. You know, just just

416
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:29.640
letting the wheels turn. So I'm I don't know, I

417
00:30:29.680 --> 00:30:35.000
think that I'm finding more ways to have fun with

418
00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:42.799
writing in terms of experimenting with it, with form, with storytelling,

419
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:49.400
with everything, and yeah, I just want to keep doing that.

420
00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:55.039
Yeah, I found that your prose is beautiful. I really

421
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:58.079
kind of like fell into the pros and that was

422
00:30:58.119 --> 00:30:59.640
part of the reason why I fell in love with

423
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:03.559
Undead Folk so quickly. I was just like, this is awesome,

424
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:06.880
this is incredible, and the storytelling, your style of storytelling

425
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.279
was just great. But whenever I run into an author

426
00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:18.200
who writes in this sort of beautiful style, I aim

427
00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:21.079
to do that myself to a degree. And so I

428
00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:24.079
have to ask this question, how do you find yourself

429
00:31:24.119 --> 00:31:27.319
structuring the language within your stories?

430
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:33.240
It depends on the story. This one un Dead Folk.

431
00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:38.799
I knew going into it that I wanted to play

432
00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:43.880
with which words I used, how I described people because

433
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:52.160
I wanted to mislead, and then when the truth is revealed,

434
00:31:52.359 --> 00:31:56.799
I wanted it to be like a, oh shit, that's

435
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:03.519
been the thing this whole time. I just didn't notice,

436
00:32:03.799 --> 00:32:08.799
like spoiler not spoiler. At this point in Undead Folk,

437
00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:12.559
there are moments where I use father and dad and

438
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:17.759
I and I interchange them and to the lay person

439
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.160
who's just reading, they might assume that this is one person,

440
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:25.720
and in reality it's two different people that are being

441
00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:27.400
spoken about.

442
00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:31.799
Yeah, and you don't spend a husband, and you.

443
00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:36.519
Don't get that until you get to the end. So

444
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:40.119
that in itself was fun, and that was easier to

445
00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:44.079
do in a short form story like a novelette like

446
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:52.319
Undead Folk. So again just it depends on the story,

447
00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:57.319
but just and then heavily editing as well. Sure that

448
00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:03.759
things stay consistent, but but that's you know, do.

449
00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:06.920
You find yourself sorry, go ahead and no, no, you're good.

450
00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:12.039
The words just popped out. Do you find yourself playing

451
00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:15.240
with the language when you're going through like edits?

452
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:21.400
Sure? Absolutely, Yeah. There is a saying that is called

453
00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:28.200
rite drunk, edit sober, and it's a fair saying. Editing

454
00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:31.160
is where I do some of my best work. Like

455
00:33:31.839 --> 00:33:37.839
I can, I can get really caught up in the

456
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:41.359
writing portion, just trying to get as much down as

457
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:46.079
I can because I don't want to forget anything, and

458
00:33:46.119 --> 00:33:49.200
then going back over it and editing and cutting things

459
00:33:49.240 --> 00:33:55.160
and refining things is really where the story gets its legs,

460
00:33:55.799 --> 00:34:00.720
So it's very important and it's it's one of the

461
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:04.079
more fun parts of the process for me.

462
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:10.039
Yeah. Another thing that really impressed me about your work

463
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:16.800
is your characters. They're so emotionally layered, and I'm just wondering,

464
00:34:16.840 --> 00:34:22.280
how do you how do you create a character? Like

465
00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:24.800
what goes into creating a character? For if you were

466
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:27.119
just to start a new book right now, how would

467
00:34:27.159 --> 00:34:29.320
you go about creating the character? Is it like, do

468
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:32.719
you hear them talking to you? Or do you just

469
00:34:32.760 --> 00:34:35.559
have like the story idea and the character that comes

470
00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:37.639
along with it.

471
00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:43.519
So it depends. It's generally I will have stand out

472
00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:49.440
characters where I can hear them saying whatever I need

473
00:34:49.480 --> 00:34:52.519
them to say. They have a voice and I can

474
00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:59.559
hear it, and then other characters just present themselves easily,

475
00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:03.239
like I know who they need to be for this

476
00:35:03.400 --> 00:35:08.800
story to make sense. Like Janet was a character that

477
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:11.599
I didn't have any trouble figuring out because I knew

478
00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:21.159
that she was going to be very standoffish and not

479
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:25.360
let anybody in. And writing that is just kind of

480
00:35:25.400 --> 00:35:30.960
easy for me because I can be that way too,

481
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:36.400
whether whether writers realize it or not. You're always pulling

482
00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:41.039
pieces of yourself and putting them into characters. But often enough,

483
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:45.320
when I'm creating a character, I will find some real

484
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:50.480
life version, usually based on an actor or portrayal that

485
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:53.880
I've loved, and I'll take that and be like, what

486
00:35:53.920 --> 00:36:01.599
if this was here in this character, what might they say?

487
00:36:01.639 --> 00:36:06.239
What might they do? It's it's you know, not it's

488
00:36:06.280 --> 00:36:10.239
not that character necessarily as much as it is that

489
00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:16.440
that that type of character in this situation. So when

490
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:21.320
I wrote Vox, my main character was based off of

491
00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:28.559
David Tennant's The Doctor, okay, and I but I wanted

492
00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:34.760
an evil, like a not necessarily evil, but I wanted

493
00:36:34.840 --> 00:36:40.960
a character who wasn't good or bad, you know, just

494
00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:50.000
had a very like ambivalent identity with that same playfulness

495
00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:56.800
that he showed on that TV series in this application.

496
00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:03.159
So that was where and how I applied that, And

497
00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:10.039
the same with amos in on Dead Folk. There's a

498
00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:17.239
character in a film bit part that I really really enjoyed,

499
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:27.239
and he was this like super sarcastic dad and who

500
00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:33.800
just like kind of messed with his kids a lot

501
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:37.639
like and I liked the idea of that, and I

502
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:44.599
wanted to just stick that in this undead animal and

503
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:48.480
see what happens when played and then play it against

504
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:52.840
this other character. So a lot of it is trial

505
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:56.400
and error, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't,

506
00:37:56.519 --> 00:37:59.960
but it works really well for on dead Folk.

507
00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:06.639
Yeah, undead Folk. That's the first book of the Deadlands

508
00:38:06.679 --> 00:38:10.119
sort of a trilogy, but Alpine Curse is definitely in

509
00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:12.280
that world as well. But can you give us a

510
00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:15.599
rundown what the Deadlands series is about.

511
00:38:16.519 --> 00:38:21.400
So the dead Lands is a trilogy of books which

512
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:26.079
is about a young woman who is searching for revenge

513
00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:31.880
on the people who took her parents from her. And

514
00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:37.840
that's putting it kind of broadly, but essentially, she was

515
00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:45.039
orphaned at a young age and lived with this sort

516
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:49.719
of traveling group of survivors. And it's a dystopian world

517
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:56.599
where drought is the main issue. So it's very dry,

518
00:38:56.679 --> 00:39:04.239
there's not a lot of resources for water. And she

519
00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:11.440
has this ability to use sort of a backwoods magic

520
00:39:11.639 --> 00:39:19.360
to bring back dead souls into dead animals or dead

521
00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:26.400
things anyway, And and so it's her story about how

522
00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:31.519
she utilizes this and and and also learns more about

523
00:39:31.559 --> 00:39:37.320
her past to find and get revenge on these people

524
00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:42.920
that took her parents from her. So that was how

525
00:39:42.920 --> 00:39:45.119
it started, and originally it was only meant to be

526
00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:53.239
one book, but you know, gears keep turning, You fall

527
00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:55.280
in love with characters, you don't want to let them go.

528
00:39:55.760 --> 00:40:02.280
You've got ideas, And I kept going, what.

529
00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:06.239
What made you continue it? Because I've heard you talk

530
00:40:06.239 --> 00:40:10.960
about like the Wildfall or sorry, the Wild Dark, that series,

531
00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:13.000
and how you said you were going to maybe write

532
00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:18.440
in that world again. But then Undead Folk came out,

533
00:40:18.599 --> 00:40:21.800
and then two more came out, So what makes you

534
00:40:21.880 --> 00:40:26.199
continue a series rather than than not?

535
00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:31.519
So what's difficult is I will I'll continue a series

536
00:40:31.559 --> 00:40:33.719
if I feel like there's more story to be told.

537
00:40:34.440 --> 00:40:41.519
And The Wild Dark did end with the Wildfall, and

538
00:40:41.559 --> 00:40:47.320
that that was the that was that story was completed,

539
00:40:48.519 --> 00:40:52.320
and there is still stuff I could write from the

540
00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:57.960
universe of the Wild Dark. Certainly Dan and Andy could

541
00:40:58.039 --> 00:41:01.840
have another story. I get bugged at work by real

542
00:41:01.880 --> 00:41:09.360
life Dan about that all the time. But with Undead Folk,

543
00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:13.639
the idea came up while I was recording a podcast

544
00:41:13.719 --> 00:41:17.519
with my friend Lucas and and I was like, yeah,

545
00:41:17.559 --> 00:41:20.039
I really could write another one like I.

546
00:41:22.039 --> 00:41:22.239
This.

547
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:27.559
There was a sort of resolution at the end of

548
00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:33.880
Undead Folk, and really I am all for people. If

549
00:41:33.960 --> 00:41:37.599
that's the kind of resolution that you're good with, then

550
00:41:37.639 --> 00:41:40.679
you don't need to read the rest of the books,

551
00:41:41.079 --> 00:41:51.400
because that's fine. But most often what happens in a

552
00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:54.400
second book is that there's a new problem or there's

553
00:41:54.440 --> 00:42:00.360
a new thing that happens to cause things to kind

554
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:05.199
of fall out of equilibrium. And that's what I decided

555
00:42:05.239 --> 00:42:10.880
to have happen in the second book. And I went

556
00:42:11.039 --> 00:42:15.159
about writing Dead Folk in a very different way than

557
00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:18.920
the first one because I wanted it to feel more

558
00:42:19.079 --> 00:42:24.440
NonStop action. Yeah, I wanted it. And a lot of

559
00:42:24.480 --> 00:42:26.760
people have said that it kind of feels like a

560
00:42:26.840 --> 00:42:29.159
video game almost.

561
00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:33.119
I laugh, because that's actually one of my questions. Yeah,

562
00:42:33.440 --> 00:42:38.360
and each book feels like a level up, and it

563
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:40.679
like the challenge gets harder too.

564
00:42:41.519 --> 00:42:44.400
Yeah, And that's like you're always trying to one up

565
00:42:46.079 --> 00:42:52.519
the next the last book, and with Dead Folk, that's

566
00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:54.880
probably one of the easiest books that I've ever written,

567
00:42:55.239 --> 00:43:01.760
because it just flowed so easily for me. Like writing

568
00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:04.519
action scenes is something that I really enjoy and I

569
00:43:04.559 --> 00:43:09.519
don't do it as much as I used to. But

570
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:15.280
also the idea of just this young woman, like beating

571
00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:19.280
these guys to shit, is awesome to me.

572
00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:21.960
It's awesome.

573
00:43:22.760 --> 00:43:26.000
And when I was writing it, I was also like, Okay,

574
00:43:26.039 --> 00:43:28.559
this can end with this book, and this is what

575
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:31.880
I had intended to do. And then I waffled on

576
00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:33.920
how I was going to finish it, and then I

577
00:43:34.039 --> 00:43:40.199
decided that I needed to have it and a certain way,

578
00:43:40.679 --> 00:43:42.719
and if I did that, then it was going to

579
00:43:42.800 --> 00:43:50.960
require it's another book. And that was entirely for emotional gravitas.

580
00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:59.039
Like I it kills me because this one one review

581
00:43:59.119 --> 00:44:02.519
I got. I know you're not supposed to harp on reviews,

582
00:44:02.559 --> 00:44:04.480
but I did have somebody who got mad at me

583
00:44:04.639 --> 00:44:08.800
because they were like, why didn't you just write it

584
00:44:08.840 --> 00:44:14.960
all as one book? And I didn't know at the

585
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:18.199
time that I was going to be writing all of this,

586
00:44:18.480 --> 00:44:24.920
like it wasn't planned. But also somebody else who left

587
00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:31.679
a very nice review who said that there is that

588
00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:38.119
emotional gravitas after each one that it does, that it's

589
00:44:38.159 --> 00:44:41.360
its own story, it's its own thing, and if they

590
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:49.199
all were together in one book, just digested, it might

591
00:44:49.239 --> 00:44:54.199
not feel the same. Even though that is I.

592
00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:58.039
Can completely agree with that, actually, because as you mentioned

593
00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:02.960
that one positive review, UH says that you get like

594
00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:09.119
an emotional reward sort of of after each book, And

595
00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:12.320
I think, honestly, I would ruin it if you compiled

596
00:45:12.360 --> 00:45:13.360
it all together.

597
00:45:14.920 --> 00:45:17.880
Which unfortunately happen, which you.

598
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:21.760
Know it's it could work too like, but I like

599
00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:26.719
them as novellas, like separate novellas. But seeing it like compile,

600
00:45:26.840 --> 00:45:30.119
like it's different if you know, going in knowing that

601
00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:33.119
this was all separate and now it's just combiled like

602
00:45:33.239 --> 00:45:36.880
into compiled into an ominibus. But if it was released

603
00:45:36.880 --> 00:45:39.079
that way it would have had it would have had

604
00:45:39.079 --> 00:45:40.280
a completely different feel.

605
00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:45.840
Yeah, released as just a one one novel, yeah, it

606
00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:51.920
would not feel the same at all. And so yeah,

607
00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:54.920
I did what I did.

608
00:45:56.920 --> 00:46:00.920
Now, writers hate this question, and I get it, but

609
00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:06.039
I like the way ideas formulate in writers. Head's creative people,

610
00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:09.519
not just writers. I like to know how things are created.

611
00:46:09.559 --> 00:46:12.199
I like to know where it came from. So I

612
00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:15.239
was wondering, do you remember what the original idea for

613
00:46:15.280 --> 00:46:17.039
the Deadlines was and how it came to you?

614
00:46:17.880 --> 00:46:22.599
Yeah, it was supposed to be. Originally I had the

615
00:46:22.639 --> 00:46:25.840
idea of doing a short story collection, and this was

616
00:46:25.920 --> 00:46:28.880
going to be the story that was happening in between

617
00:46:29.800 --> 00:46:33.719
the other stories to kind of bind everything together. And

618
00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:41.920
at some point I'm I'm just not a prolific short

619
00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:46.519
story writer. It's a skill that I would like to

620
00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:50.840
improve at and I'm just not there yet, And so

621
00:46:50.920 --> 00:46:55.360
my writing short stories just doesn't happen on a very

622
00:46:56.800 --> 00:47:00.360
quick basis. So the idea of having a short story

623
00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:05.800
collection would have meant that this whole project would be

624
00:47:06.159 --> 00:47:11.920
years in the future. And who knows if the idea

625
00:47:12.159 --> 00:47:16.440
for that, that story that was supposed to be, you know,

626
00:47:17.239 --> 00:47:19.840
threading through all the other ones, if I would still

627
00:47:19.920 --> 00:47:24.519
feel the same way about it then as I do now.

628
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:32.119
So I decided in a moment of desperation last year

629
00:47:32.360 --> 00:47:40.480
when I really needed money because I had had my

630
00:47:40.559 --> 00:47:46.320
basement flood and my water my hot water heater broke,

631
00:47:47.079 --> 00:47:54.079
my my furnace got flooded and had to be repaired.

632
00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:59.800
So I had all of these issues and I I

633
00:47:59.840 --> 00:48:02.400
was like, Okay, I need, I need to do something.

634
00:48:02.880 --> 00:48:08.880
So I wrote on Dead Folk as a novelette instead

635
00:48:08.920 --> 00:48:13.320
of as a series of short stories for a short

636
00:48:13.320 --> 00:48:17.679
story collection. And it was going to be an exclusive,

637
00:48:18.360 --> 00:48:22.280
you know, hardcover edition that I put out at author

638
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:26.760
Con which I was going to in Williamsburg, and uh

639
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:31.239
and so I put it out. I made the cover

640
00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:34.559
for it before I wrote the book, which I have

641
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:37.880
joked about this. You don't ever do that, just don't.

642
00:48:39.960 --> 00:48:41.800
I made the cover and then I shared it and

643
00:48:41.960 --> 00:48:43.519
was like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do,

644
00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:49.880
and lots and lots of people responded to it and

645
00:48:50.159 --> 00:48:55.880
were insanely excited about it. And then I had to

646
00:48:55.920 --> 00:49:01.239
write it, and I did. I wrote it very quickly

647
00:49:02.360 --> 00:49:05.280
and edited very quickly because it's a very short book.

648
00:49:05.360 --> 00:49:13.159
It's only like seventy pages. And and then was very

649
00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:18.000
lucky enough to have people like Ross Jeffrey and Red

650
00:49:18.039 --> 00:49:22.119
Lego and Candice Nola read it and blurb it for

651
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:30.679
me before it released, And so that was the origin.

652
00:49:33.719 --> 00:49:37.000
I find it funny, well not funny, Like you went

653
00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:41.159
through a pretty hard time there with the flood in

654
00:49:41.199 --> 00:49:44.000
your in your basement that took out your water heater

655
00:49:44.079 --> 00:49:47.760
and furnace. I had something similar happened, just so you know.

656
00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:50.719
So I'm not laughing at you, but I don't know.

657
00:49:51.079 --> 00:49:53.239
I don't think you guys, because Maine is pretty far

658
00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:55.480
away from us, but we had a huge eye storm

659
00:49:55.800 --> 00:49:59.920
in the in the spring or late winter, and it

660
00:50:00.079 --> 00:50:02.079
took out a lot of stuff and ended up flooding

661
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:05.239
our basement and it took out our water heater. But

662
00:50:06.079 --> 00:50:09.400
that's not my reference here. My references like the story

663
00:50:09.519 --> 00:50:13.199
ends up being about an apocalypse where there's a drought,

664
00:50:13.480 --> 00:50:17.880
a serious drought, and lakes and oceans are drying. So

665
00:50:17.960 --> 00:50:20.320
it's like, maybe you're taking revenge on water.

666
00:50:21.320 --> 00:50:24.880
Well, it's it's funny. I don't even know if I

667
00:50:24.920 --> 00:50:30.639
was aware of that necessarily, but it I had another

668
00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:36.280
book that I was writing at the time that was

669
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:49.280
about flooded United States, which is also coming out, so

670
00:50:49.400 --> 00:50:53.159
I already had something that I was doing that that

671
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:59.199
was the opposite. And when I when I was thinking

672
00:50:59.239 --> 00:51:03.920
about writing Undead Folk as part of that short story collection,

673
00:51:04.119 --> 00:51:09.480
I had always pictured there being like marshes and bogs

674
00:51:09.639 --> 00:51:13.559
and things like that, and then for some reason it

675
00:51:13.639 --> 00:51:17.599
just kind of took a more western tone. The whole

676
00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:21.880
thing to the more western tone, so so naturally it

677
00:51:21.960 --> 00:51:24.360
went drier because of that.

678
00:51:25.559 --> 00:51:29.159
Yeah, I think it's interesting too. It's not until I

679
00:51:29.159 --> 00:51:32.159
think book two where we learn of what's going on

680
00:51:32.239 --> 00:51:34.199
in the world. I don't think the first book really

681
00:51:34.239 --> 00:51:38.119
mentions too much about like it being dry. It's just

682
00:51:38.320 --> 00:51:41.679
it just seems dry as we're traveling with Janet. But

683
00:51:41.719 --> 00:51:44.559
then then the second book, we it starts to mention that,

684
00:51:45.119 --> 00:51:47.199
like there's hardly any water.

685
00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:51.599
Yeah, and it's it is talked about in the first one,

686
00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:57.519
but not extensively like it's there. There's mentions of the

687
00:51:57.519 --> 00:52:00.760
fact that the pond in the backyard is has been

688
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:06.960
reduced to just this little puddle of water. And then

689
00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:12.880
when they're going out to the hospice center, Janet is

690
00:52:13.239 --> 00:52:18.639
explaining to Amos what's going on, what's happened. And the

691
00:52:18.679 --> 00:52:22.199
thing that I do not explain is where all of

692
00:52:22.280 --> 00:52:29.920
the rich people went, because it's alluded to it. It's

693
00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:37.159
basically stated that they left, and hysterically at the time,

694
00:52:39.119 --> 00:52:42.400
it was that they had left the planet. They had

695
00:52:42.440 --> 00:52:49.800
gone into space and left because they could afford to

696
00:52:49.880 --> 00:52:56.960
jump on a bunch of rockets and do that. Yeah,

697
00:52:57.400 --> 00:52:59.760
and that was before the election, So.

698
00:53:01.119 --> 00:53:04.920
Well, right now, I wouldn't mind if you know, certain

699
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:07.119
rich people would just go to another planet.

700
00:53:07.599 --> 00:53:11.719
M great, Yeah, it.

701
00:53:11.719 --> 00:53:15.079
Certainly would be great. I know that you're a panther,

702
00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.000
But while reading The Dead Lambs, I noticed that there's

703
00:53:20.760 --> 00:53:23.840
a lot of interesting lore, So I was wondering if

704
00:53:23.840 --> 00:53:25.880
that comes to you while you're writing it, or do

705
00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:28.400
you end up pausing somewhere and saying, okay, I got

706
00:53:28.400 --> 00:53:29.159
to work out the law.

707
00:53:31.719 --> 00:53:34.119
It's kind of just as it goes along, and then

708
00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:36.440
none of the trick is to make sure that it

709
00:53:36.480 --> 00:53:40.239
stays consistent through the rest of the books.

710
00:53:40.639 --> 00:53:48.960
So I also love I love Janet or Ella. She's

711
00:53:48.960 --> 00:53:54.280
a fascinating character. She's very ruthless in her pursuit for revenge.

712
00:53:55.159 --> 00:53:58.639
I was wondering. You mentioned earlier that some like other

713
00:53:58.800 --> 00:54:04.119
characters will influence like that you've consumed will influence characters

714
00:54:04.159 --> 00:54:06.400
of your own, So I was wondering if there's any

715
00:54:07.320 --> 00:54:13.360
any characters that influenced Janet.

716
00:54:13.719 --> 00:54:22.880
Honestly, not really Janet. Typically with my main characters, I

717
00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:26.760
do have something that I pull from. Janet's one of

718
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:28.679
the few where I was just kind of like, yeah,

719
00:54:28.719 --> 00:54:33.000
I know who this is right off the bat, And

720
00:54:33.159 --> 00:54:38.800
I didn't really pull from anybody necessarily. I just I

721
00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:43.239
knew what I wanted that character to be, and I

722
00:54:43.320 --> 00:54:46.639
knew what she had been through to put her into

723
00:54:47.440 --> 00:54:53.159
her mindset. So I I don't know. She was just

724
00:54:53.320 --> 00:55:00.599
very seamless and easy to write and kind of an anomaly,

725
00:55:00.760 --> 00:55:03.920
I guess in reference to a lot of my other

726
00:55:04.039 --> 00:55:08.000
characters that I do find other inspiration from.

727
00:55:09.280 --> 00:55:15.639
M Vulpine Curse. I read that last and I did

728
00:55:15.639 --> 00:55:19.800
not expect it to be in the dead Lands universe.

729
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:21.920
I thought it was just a one off on its own,

730
00:55:22.400 --> 00:55:24.960
and then all these characters as I was like, Oh

731
00:55:24.960 --> 00:55:28.800
my god, Okay, so what was the what was the

732
00:55:28.840 --> 00:55:32.039
idea behind writing Vulpine Curse.

733
00:55:33.719 --> 00:55:39.199
I really really enjoyed writing Hugh in nothing Land, and

734
00:55:39.199 --> 00:55:41.079
and I liked a lot of the characters that I

735
00:55:41.079 --> 00:55:46.320
wrote about nothing Land, and I wanted to bring them back.

736
00:55:47.320 --> 00:55:50.280
But I also was really interested in writing Hugh's story

737
00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:55.280
between what happens to him, you know, kind of after

738
00:55:55.880 --> 00:56:02.920
he and Ella separate, and the moment there. And it

739
00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:07.920
was also this opportunity to write a very transgressive novel

740
00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:12.920
or novella, which I have not experimented with in the past,

741
00:56:14.880 --> 00:56:18.719
much more violent, I would say, more gore than I

742
00:56:18.880 --> 00:56:23.360
usually write. I mean, it was a departure from my

743
00:56:23.519 --> 00:56:30.320
typical style, but I really wanted to just take a

744
00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:33.239
chance on it and see what it was like to

745
00:56:33.280 --> 00:56:38.000
write something like that. And I played a lot with

746
00:56:38.039 --> 00:56:43.679
that one too, just with language and mostly with formatting.

747
00:56:43.840 --> 00:56:48.199
That one. I had a lot more fun in the

748
00:56:48.239 --> 00:56:53.599
formatting in the paperback, and I basically had to write

749
00:56:53.599 --> 00:56:57.440
it as I was formatting it, because that's it all

750
00:56:57.480 --> 00:56:58.360
tied in together.

751
00:57:00.639 --> 00:57:03.599
So I think I might have forget the paperback now

752
00:57:05.159 --> 00:57:06.320
on my on my Cobo.

753
00:57:07.599 --> 00:57:11.199
Some of it translated, okay to ebook, but not you know,

754
00:57:11.360 --> 00:57:16.119
certainly the font that I used, some of the images

755
00:57:16.199 --> 00:57:23.119
that I included, like, yeah, it's it's a whole other,

756
00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:28.360
uh experience in paperback form.

757
00:57:29.119 --> 00:57:32.400
And it's a it's a very vicious story. Like you

758
00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:35.400
get an idea of who Hugh is before we get

759
00:57:35.400 --> 00:57:39.360
to Vulpine Curse, but when we get inside Hugh's head,

760
00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:41.480
it's wow, it's like.

761
00:57:41.599 --> 00:57:45.280
Oh yeah, Well, the thing to keep in mind with

762
00:57:45.320 --> 00:57:50.320
the Deadlands is it's a very vicious world and it

763
00:57:50.440 --> 00:58:00.119
is do or die, and he's basically living. He's killing

764
00:58:00.159 --> 00:58:13.960
so he can live, and that's the just losing losing

765
00:58:14.039 --> 00:58:17.920
that sense of like caring for other human beings as

766
00:58:17.920 --> 00:58:25.079
you go along is kind of well, very indicative of

767
00:58:25.519 --> 00:58:29.480
what it feels like right now in this day and age.

768
00:58:30.519 --> 00:58:33.559
So I mean, there's a lot of parallels to how

769
00:58:33.599 --> 00:58:38.760
I was feeling at the beginning of the year. With

770
00:58:40.480 --> 00:58:48.039
certain things that are nation's leader has done. So it's

771
00:58:48.079 --> 00:58:58.880
a lot of rage and a lot of violence, and.

772
00:58:55.239 --> 00:58:58.079
It's very much a reflection in the sense of our

773
00:58:58.119 --> 00:59:02.559
time right now. Yeah, and it's kind of a hard

774
00:59:02.639 --> 00:59:06.800
read for that, but it's also I mean, it's very dark,

775
00:59:07.199 --> 00:59:09.880
but I had fun reading it at the same time,

776
00:59:10.320 --> 00:59:11.480
if that makes any sense.

777
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:16.400
Yeah, it's it's a hard one. It's uh, you know.

778
00:59:16.559 --> 00:59:19.880
I I went into it also not assuming this was

779
00:59:19.920 --> 00:59:25.679
going to be a fun read anyone. I mean I was.

780
00:59:26.920 --> 00:59:31.079
I I think that a lot of the reason that

781
00:59:31.559 --> 00:59:37.840
people have not necessarily jumped on this one as opposed

782
00:59:37.880 --> 00:59:40.400
to the rest of the series is because of how

783
00:59:40.679 --> 00:59:45.239
different in flavor it is from the others, and it's

784
00:59:45.320 --> 00:59:49.159
maybe a little bit too much like what they're seeing

785
00:59:49.199 --> 00:59:53.480
and hearing on a daily basis in the news. So

786
00:59:55.039 --> 00:59:56.119
it's understandable.

787
00:59:56.920 --> 01:00:03.039
Yeah. Absolutely. Is there any plans to continue the Deadlands

788
01:00:03.039 --> 01:00:06.000
at all? Or is that it? So?

789
01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:11.280
As of right now we are. There is an Omnibus,

790
01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:16.159
a special edition Omnibus that is coming out in end

791
01:00:16.159 --> 01:00:23.159
of September, which includes the first three books and two

792
01:00:23.199 --> 01:00:29.360
short stories that are not published as of now, and

793
01:00:29.400 --> 01:00:34.719
then eventually I did want to write a follow up

794
01:00:36.239 --> 01:00:40.880
to nothing Land, but it's not like the Deadlands as

795
01:00:40.920 --> 01:00:45.639
a series is completed as it were, and I don't

796
01:00:45.679 --> 01:00:51.000
count Vulpine Curse as part of that series. So if

797
01:00:51.039 --> 01:00:59.280
I do write something new, it will be with you know, Janet,

798
01:00:58.480 --> 01:01:04.480
and it will follow a different plot, It'll it'll have

799
01:01:05.719 --> 01:01:08.519
different stakes, I guess the best way to put it.

800
01:01:09.159 --> 01:01:11.679
I think it's important to mention here too, that you

801
01:01:11.760 --> 01:01:15.880
could read Bulpine Curse on its own without having read

802
01:01:16.639 --> 01:01:17.800
the other three books.

803
01:01:18.280 --> 01:01:18.760
You can.

804
01:01:18.960 --> 01:01:22.320
I've had a couple of people say that they that

805
01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:28.440
you couldn't, So it's I think in order to really

806
01:01:28.519 --> 01:01:31.159
appreciate the Easter Eggs, you can.

807
01:01:31.760 --> 01:01:34.719
You know, you can certainly read the others and then

808
01:01:35.679 --> 01:01:38.320
and then you'll know who some of the other characters

809
01:01:38.360 --> 01:01:42.960
are that are mentioned. But I don't think it's necessary

810
01:01:43.079 --> 01:01:46.760
to know exactly who they are. It's it was meant

811
01:01:46.760 --> 01:01:49.800
to be read as a stand alone, whether or not

812
01:01:49.840 --> 01:01:51.960
you had read yeah the rest.

813
01:01:52.360 --> 01:01:54.800
Personally, I like that kind of thing myself, and so

814
01:01:54.960 --> 01:01:58.280
I was glad that, you know, I added Bulpine Curse

815
01:01:58.360 --> 01:02:02.000
to my reading list for this interview because it was

816
01:02:02.239 --> 01:02:04.039
kind of that's where I had the fun, right like

817
01:02:04.239 --> 01:02:08.039
picking out all the things that you recognized from the trilogy.

818
01:02:09.639 --> 01:02:12.440
But I can see how it doesn't necessarily need to

819
01:02:12.480 --> 01:02:16.480
be a part of that of the series. It's just

820
01:02:16.559 --> 01:02:20.480
sort of like a book that's the story is adjacent

821
01:02:20.519 --> 01:02:23.119
to the rest of the Yeah.

822
01:02:22.800 --> 01:02:28.039
Yeah, same world, but very very different feeling.

823
01:02:29.840 --> 01:02:32.679
Absolutely. Now, you do a lot of your own covers

824
01:02:32.719 --> 01:02:38.400
because you work mostly from like your own publishing company. Yeah,

825
01:02:38.519 --> 01:02:40.800
I know you've done a lot of them, at least

826
01:02:40.840 --> 01:02:41.880
I don't know if you do them all.

827
01:02:42.559 --> 01:02:47.079
But I've done all of them except for the book

828
01:02:47.079 --> 01:02:49.679
that's coming out in September is with True Born Press,

829
01:02:49.679 --> 01:02:54.280
and that's the first cover of a book that's mine

830
01:02:54.280 --> 01:02:56.400
that I have not done, and it's really cool.

831
01:02:57.119 --> 01:03:00.039
It is beautiful. It kind of has your style to it,

832
01:03:00.159 --> 01:03:04.519
though I imagine that they may have the book cover

833
01:03:04.639 --> 01:03:07.559
artist must have picked up on your style and used it,

834
01:03:07.639 --> 01:03:11.559
because I was like, this totally Catherine Silva type of

835
01:03:12.360 --> 01:03:15.320
book cover style. But so I was gonna I was

836
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:17.960
going to give you a huge compliment on that book cover,

837
01:03:18.000 --> 01:03:19.920
but well, I guess it goes to the.

838
01:03:21.920 --> 01:03:26.840
Christina Is, who is the editor in chief of Trueborn Press,

839
01:03:26.920 --> 01:03:32.480
does all of the covers for her books, and she's insane.

840
01:03:32.519 --> 01:03:40.159
She started out as a cover artist exclusively before starting Trueborn,

841
01:03:40.559 --> 01:03:43.719
so no, she's very very good.

842
01:03:44.360 --> 01:03:50.960
Nice up until have you? Is this your first time

843
01:03:51.400 --> 01:03:55.159
going with a different publisher? It is? What was what

844
01:03:55.519 --> 01:03:59.960
made you decide to do that? Just Carrious, I.

845
01:04:00.239 --> 01:04:03.480
I mean, I've been self publishing for it's fifteen years.

846
01:04:03.719 --> 01:04:10.599
I honestly, in order to expand my career and take

847
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:15.239
the next step and do something else, I wanted to

848
01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:21.360
start putting my books out there, you know, trying some

849
01:04:21.480 --> 01:04:28.480
different publishing companies, seeing if I can expand, because there's

850
01:04:28.519 --> 01:04:33.320
not really too much further for me to go in

851
01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:37.920
the self publishing industry. It's just like, yeah, I can

852
01:04:38.039 --> 01:04:45.599
keep doing this and I can keep having similar similar

853
01:04:45.639 --> 01:04:48.920
things happen. I guess the best way to put it

854
01:04:49.079 --> 01:04:58.079
financially and in my own like sphere of people knowing

855
01:04:58.119 --> 01:05:01.079
my stuff, but I will know ever have the same

856
01:05:01.199 --> 01:05:09.159
kind of distribution or reach as other publishers do, and

857
01:05:10.199 --> 01:05:14.239
that's just a smart way of branching out.

858
01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:19.639
Yeah, I agree totally. Is this like sort of where

859
01:05:19.679 --> 01:05:23.840
you're planning on going with your career or do you

860
01:05:23.840 --> 01:05:31.159
think you'll always have a hybrid sort of I mean publishing.

861
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:34.840
I really like what Gemma Moore does. She is a

862
01:05:34.920 --> 01:05:43.039
hybrid publisher and writer and some of I mean Todd

863
01:05:43.119 --> 01:05:46.519
Keasling also does it, and he's a good friend, and

864
01:05:46.800 --> 01:05:49.360
I really look up to people who can do both things.

865
01:05:51.039 --> 01:05:54.840
So I will probably still put out my own stuff,

866
01:05:55.400 --> 01:05:59.519
but I would like to be putting out more stuff

867
01:05:59.559 --> 01:06:05.159
with others presses, So I will be submitting more things

868
01:06:05.239 --> 01:06:09.280
to them. It's a question of whether or not it's uh,

869
01:06:09.360 --> 01:06:10.679
it's what they're looking for.

870
01:06:11.159 --> 01:06:15.440
So yeah, I want to give props to Todd keys

871
01:06:15.480 --> 01:06:18.199
Link because I had him on the show recently and

872
01:06:18.440 --> 01:06:20.440
we're going to get to the final question in a

873
01:06:20.480 --> 01:06:23.800
minute here. But when I asked him that question, he

874
01:06:23.920 --> 01:06:27.199
mentioned you, and that's what got me reading your work

875
01:06:27.199 --> 01:06:31.000
in the first place. I was like, Okay, Todd mentioned

876
01:06:32.079 --> 01:06:34.400
Cat's work, and so I'm gonna I'm going to go

877
01:06:34.440 --> 01:06:38.880
and and dive in and so yeah, yeah, that props

878
01:06:38.880 --> 01:06:40.760
to Todd. He's an awesome guy.

879
01:06:41.280 --> 01:06:42.159
Todd's a good guy.

880
01:06:42.519 --> 01:06:45.559
Yeah, all right, just a few more questions here and

881
01:06:45.599 --> 01:06:51.079
then I shall let loose your chain and let you go. So,

882
01:06:52.280 --> 01:06:55.079
since you know, you write dark fiction and a lot

883
01:06:55.079 --> 01:06:58.960
of it goes into like horrifying territory or at least horror.

884
01:06:59.679 --> 01:07:02.840
Have you ever tackled any of your biggest fears in

885
01:07:02.880 --> 01:07:03.880
any of your stories?

886
01:07:08.440 --> 01:07:09.079
Yes and no.

887
01:07:09.320 --> 01:07:09.920
I mean.

888
01:07:11.639 --> 01:07:22.000
A lot of my fears are like, like, I've definitely

889
01:07:22.320 --> 01:07:33.400
tackled what comes with loss and grief multiple times. Being

890
01:07:33.679 --> 01:07:42.559
alone is certainly, uh, something that I've written about many times.

891
01:07:44.280 --> 01:07:51.559
Let's see, you know, it's really it's really just like

892
01:07:51.679 --> 01:07:57.119
little things now that I'm I'm kind of having fun with. Like,

893
01:07:58.559 --> 01:08:04.199
fear of being onunder water is something I don't I

894
01:08:04.239 --> 01:08:08.039
don't talk about very often. I am not a strong swimmer,

895
01:08:09.519 --> 01:08:14.639
so having fear of things in the ocean and things

896
01:08:14.679 --> 01:08:17.520
that are deep in the ocean is something I'm currently

897
01:08:17.560 --> 01:08:21.920
writing about, and I have a few projects going on with.

898
01:08:24.760 --> 01:08:30.880
I had an insane dream last night that was very

899
01:08:31.039 --> 01:08:36.399
visual that I will probably be writing about that definitely

900
01:08:36.520 --> 01:08:43.039
hit on some some fears, you know.

901
01:08:43.880 --> 01:08:46.359
Have you ever done that before? Gotten an idea for

902
01:08:46.439 --> 01:08:48.439
a story from a dream I have?

903
01:08:49.039 --> 01:08:49.479
Yeah?

904
01:08:50.439 --> 01:08:52.680
Do you do you suffer from like very vivid dreams

905
01:08:52.800 --> 01:08:53.319
very often?

906
01:08:54.039 --> 01:08:58.039
No? Not often now. I used to have pretty vivid

907
01:08:58.119 --> 01:09:01.159
dreams when I was younger, but it's it's pretty rare

908
01:09:01.279 --> 01:09:03.680
when I have them now and I had to yesterday,

909
01:09:04.680 --> 01:09:08.039
which I will give the props to that Migraine that

910
01:09:08.119 --> 01:09:12.960
I think I think that might have had something to

911
01:09:12.960 --> 01:09:19.239
do with it. But but no, I wrote my book.

912
01:09:19.279 --> 01:09:24.520
The collection is based on a dream that I had, uh,

913
01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:31.159
which was about all of these taxidermy animals coming to life.

914
01:09:31.840 --> 01:09:35.720
That's sounds terrifying right there. Yeah, I find that whole

915
01:09:35.760 --> 01:09:39.920
taxidermy thing creepy on its own in a sense.

916
01:09:40.800 --> 01:09:45.520
I think they're they're cool, but yeah, the idea of

917
01:09:45.560 --> 01:09:47.680
them coming back to life is really frightening.

918
01:09:48.159 --> 01:09:52.079
Yeah, well it's I have this thing about touching dead things.

919
01:09:52.680 --> 01:09:54.600
Like if you have a pet that dies on you,

920
01:09:54.680 --> 01:09:57.960
like a hamster or something, I couldn't I couldn't touch

921
01:09:58.000 --> 01:10:00.800
it because I was afraid it would come back to

922
01:10:00.840 --> 01:10:01.520
life and bite me.

923
01:10:02.840 --> 01:10:05.800
That's yeah, that's that's a terrifying thought.

924
01:10:06.800 --> 01:10:13.319
It is, especially when they're all stiff, right yeah.

925
01:10:14.279 --> 01:10:16.640
I think I've seen Tony did mice for that to

926
01:10:16.720 --> 01:10:21.720
really worry me. We have you know that New England,

927
01:10:22.039 --> 01:10:26.560
the old New England, you know cape with a million

928
01:10:26.600 --> 01:10:30.359
holes and it's one hundred years old, and there's mice everywhere,

929
01:10:30.439 --> 01:10:31.640
and we have a cat.

930
01:10:31.800 --> 01:10:34.439
So yeah, well I kind of got over that too,

931
01:10:34.479 --> 01:10:38.359
because the similar issues with the cat who loves mousing,

932
01:10:38.520 --> 01:10:44.840
so they often leave your presence. Yes, you don't necessarily.

933
01:10:44.279 --> 01:10:49.039
Want No, he's not as he's not as good a

934
01:10:49.199 --> 01:10:50.560
mouse or as he used to be.

935
01:10:50.640 --> 01:10:54.119
But I was listening to podcasts where your cat made

936
01:10:56.279 --> 01:10:59.880
and it made itself known in that podcast. I forget

937
01:11:00.199 --> 01:11:02.800
podcast it was. But you have the most awesome name

938
01:11:02.880 --> 01:11:06.000
for a cat, lemon jelly. Lemon jelly. That's it.

939
01:11:06.079 --> 01:11:11.720
Yeah. Yeah, he's asleep right now. Otherwise he would be

940
01:11:11.760 --> 01:11:16.119
all up in this. But no, he he left me

941
01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:23.319
half of a mouse on the couch once, uh, which

942
01:11:23.359 --> 01:11:28.479
I was sitting on I didn't realize, not years ago.

943
01:11:28.640 --> 01:11:32.439
But not cool, not cool at all. You're like, I

944
01:11:32.479 --> 01:11:36.439
appreciate the gift, but next time, Uh no, please don't.

945
01:11:39.119 --> 01:11:42.800
Which Which of your books would you like to see

946
01:11:42.840 --> 01:11:46.199
adapted to the big screen or as a television series?

947
01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:53.039
Oh it's hard. I mean, because I love Undead Folk.

948
01:11:54.479 --> 01:11:58.800
I think it could be a really cute short film.

949
01:12:00.039 --> 01:12:02.159
I say cute, but I think it could be a

950
01:12:02.199 --> 01:12:06.359
fun film. Honestly, the Wild Dark probably has the most

951
01:12:06.399 --> 01:12:13.159
cinematic appeal to it. How Lit Oblivion also could could

952
01:12:13.239 --> 01:12:16.960
be of those three.

953
01:12:17.199 --> 01:12:20.520
I think I need to read The Wild Dark. I

954
01:12:20.560 --> 01:12:24.520
bought it. I bought it a while ago because that

955
01:12:24.640 --> 01:12:26.399
was another way I was introduced to you. I think

956
01:12:26.399 --> 01:12:29.239
it was on TikTok. It's either TikTok or book Tube,

957
01:12:30.239 --> 01:12:34.199
where people were going on and praising that book, and

958
01:12:34.279 --> 01:12:36.319
I was so I edited it to my TBR and

959
01:12:36.359 --> 01:12:38.319
I bought it. But you know how, you know how

960
01:12:38.319 --> 01:12:39.840
that goes well.

961
01:12:39.880 --> 01:12:41.319
And it's also sizable.

962
01:12:41.439 --> 01:12:45.279
It's a it's a chunky yeah, it's very chunky. Yeah. Yeah,

963
01:12:46.600 --> 01:12:50.520
all right, So final question. I try to ask this

964
01:12:50.680 --> 01:12:53.640
of everyone. I don't always, but I did manage to

965
01:12:53.680 --> 01:12:57.359
get to it with you. Which authors do you feel

966
01:12:57.680 --> 01:13:01.640
are neglected and you wish more people we're discussing on

967
01:13:01.720 --> 01:13:05.479
social media.

968
01:13:04.279 --> 01:13:12.479
Okay, I have a list. Yeah, I have some wonderful

969
01:13:13.239 --> 01:13:18.319
author friends who are not talked about enough. I mean,

970
01:13:18.479 --> 01:13:23.000
obviously we're going to mention Todd because Todd's writing is

971
01:13:23.039 --> 01:13:25.720
insanely good and he.

972
01:13:25.960 --> 01:13:31.439
Just he is awesome. Hece was like Mind.

973
01:13:32.159 --> 01:13:37.439
Dance is my favorite book of his, and yeah, I

974
01:13:37.640 --> 01:13:43.720
just it's a beautiful book. I am also going to

975
01:13:44.239 --> 01:13:51.439
mention my friend Amanda Hedley, who is a phenomenal writer,

976
01:13:52.399 --> 01:13:56.159
uh and has a book coming at the end of August,

977
01:13:57.079 --> 01:14:01.159
maybe it's end of August, first of Timber something like that,

978
01:14:02.479 --> 01:14:06.039
which I had the good fortune to read early, and

979
01:14:06.560 --> 01:14:08.520
it's it's very good.

980
01:14:08.800 --> 01:14:10.159
What's the title of that book.

981
01:14:10.640 --> 01:14:14.439
It's called How a Villain Is Made? Or This is

982
01:14:14.439 --> 01:14:19.720
How a Villain Is Made, I believe. Also notable people

983
01:14:19.760 --> 01:14:24.279
to mention Tom Raimer, who is a fellow New England

984
01:14:24.319 --> 01:14:34.760
author who writes all kinds of supernatural goodness. Brennan LaFaro

985
01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:40.199
who has a lot of different offerings and certainly some

986
01:14:40.319 --> 01:14:46.039
really kick ass Western offerings. Pauline Chow who I'm reading

987
01:14:46.119 --> 01:14:55.680
right now, mean that Pauline who wrote Chasing Moonflowers, which

988
01:14:55.840 --> 01:15:02.119
just came out recently. Very you nique point of view.

989
01:15:05.479 --> 01:15:09.479
And Kyle Winkler is another.

990
01:15:09.680 --> 01:15:12.319
Okay, I've talked to him on the show.

991
01:15:12.279 --> 01:15:16.319
And I'm reading his book right now, Beyond the Peerless,

992
01:15:16.640 --> 01:15:21.680
and it's fantastic and zany and weird and it's so

993
01:15:21.960 --> 01:15:23.640
good awesome.

994
01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:27.680
Now you've met you mentioned a couple of times your show.

995
01:15:27.760 --> 01:15:28.880
What is that exactly?

996
01:15:29.840 --> 01:15:35.279
So I do a an interview series during the winter

997
01:15:35.520 --> 01:15:40.079
and it's called Winterviews because I'm terrible with puns and

998
01:15:40.119 --> 01:15:43.279
it's it's in its It will be the fifth season

999
01:15:43.319 --> 01:15:49.359
next year, but I do I've interviewed usually it's like

1000
01:15:49.439 --> 01:15:52.399
eight people a season, and it's only between the months

1001
01:15:52.399 --> 01:15:57.399
of January and uh and then like early April when

1002
01:15:57.399 --> 01:16:01.319
I have downtime and we talk about authors and their

1003
01:16:01.399 --> 01:16:06.359
favorite sub genres and horror, and we usually keep it

1004
01:16:06.399 --> 01:16:15.000
pretty fluent, like there's not a lot of crossover, so

1005
01:16:15.279 --> 01:16:17.319
we do. I mean, we've talked about grief horror a

1006
01:16:17.359 --> 01:16:20.199
lot because that one just naturally comes up.

1007
01:16:20.800 --> 01:16:24.600
Yeah, but where can people where can people find that?

1008
01:16:25.880 --> 01:16:29.520
It's on YouTube. It's on my YouTube channel, so there's

1009
01:16:29.640 --> 01:16:33.800
there's four seasons of that.

1010
01:16:33.800 --> 01:16:37.039
That's awesome. I'm gonna go check that out. That that's

1011
01:16:37.039 --> 01:16:40.159
something I did not come I heard it in passing,

1012
01:16:40.359 --> 01:16:43.960
I think on other podcasts and then you mentioning it

1013
01:16:44.000 --> 01:16:47.520
here and there. But it's very silly.

1014
01:16:47.840 --> 01:16:52.880
That's fine, that's fine, But that does that does make

1015
01:16:52.960 --> 01:16:55.880
me think of more people that I want to mention,

1016
01:16:57.920 --> 01:17:04.039
especially because grief wour is my jam and Sam Richard, who.

1017
01:17:03.880 --> 01:17:09.960
Is the editor in chief of Weird Punk Press, definitely

1018
01:17:12.159 --> 01:17:19.880
is somebody that people should read more. Awesome, Yeah, Sam,

1019
01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:25.680
is is good people, and I feel like there was

1020
01:17:25.720 --> 01:17:28.880
another one that floated up into my mind and I

1021
01:17:29.119 --> 01:17:31.159
and now it's like gone back down and I feel

1022
01:17:31.199 --> 01:17:32.079
really really bad.

1023
01:17:33.560 --> 01:17:35.680
You know that happens. That happens.

1024
01:17:36.399 --> 01:17:44.880
Oh Rob Smalls, that's who is and it's uh Smalls

1025
01:17:45.640 --> 01:17:53.880
s M A L. E. S. Phenomenal short fiction author,

1026
01:17:54.520 --> 01:18:02.079
has a ton of stuff out there, definitely worth looking up.

1027
01:18:02.520 --> 01:18:07.359
That that's a great list of authors. There's only two

1028
01:18:07.399 --> 01:18:10.760
of them that I've read, so I I've got some

1029
01:18:10.840 --> 01:18:16.239
homework to do. Cool all right, before we go? Where

1030
01:18:16.279 --> 01:18:19.680
can people catch you online if they want to keep updated?

1031
01:18:21.039 --> 01:18:27.800
So I am very active on Instagram. I'd say that's

1032
01:18:27.880 --> 01:18:31.760
one of my one of the best places, and Blue

1033
01:18:31.800 --> 01:18:38.600
Sky is another one. And I am also on Facebook

1034
01:18:38.760 --> 01:18:44.039
and on threads, but less active in those two.

1035
01:18:45.239 --> 01:18:47.840
Awesome all right, So I want to thank you for

1036
01:18:47.880 --> 01:18:51.680
coming on. I had had a great time talking to

1037
01:18:51.720 --> 01:18:55.119
you about your books and and your writing process. And

1038
01:18:55.680 --> 01:19:02.239
I want to extend an invitation to come back if

1039
01:19:02.520 --> 01:19:08.560
you had fun here, yeah, sometime in the future. And yeah,

1040
01:19:08.640 --> 01:19:11.600
So I think that's it, unless you have anything else

1041
01:19:11.640 --> 01:19:13.000
you'd like to say.

1042
01:19:14.399 --> 01:19:18.000
I'm just going to mention the book that's coming out

1043
01:19:18.119 --> 01:19:25.199
in September. If people are interested in the only book

1044
01:19:25.239 --> 01:19:28.560
that I have not self published, which is called Where

1045
01:19:28.600 --> 01:19:31.640
the Soul Goes, and it's coming from True Born Press

1046
01:19:31.840 --> 01:19:36.880
September ninth, and pre orders are available right now, and

1047
01:19:36.920 --> 01:19:46.119
it is grief horror and with like footy happiness. It's

1048
01:19:46.119 --> 01:19:48.840
got influences from like the Bear. I think would be

1049
01:19:49.239 --> 01:19:52.319
probably the best thing to throw in there.

1050
01:19:54.720 --> 01:19:58.199
And yeah, I want to thank you for sending me

1051
01:19:59.279 --> 01:20:02.239
an e ark for that. I was hoping. I was

1052
01:20:02.319 --> 01:20:05.239
hoping to, uh, at least read some of it, but

1053
01:20:05.319 --> 01:20:07.640
you know how weekends go. You think you're going to

1054
01:20:07.720 --> 01:20:11.159
have all this time to read, but it just doesn't happen. Yeah,

1055
01:20:11.199 --> 01:20:14.000
So I was. I was being pretty ambitious with you

1056
01:20:14.319 --> 01:20:16.359
over the emails, saying, oh, I'm going to get this

1057
01:20:16.479 --> 01:20:17.439
read before Monday.

1058
01:20:17.640 --> 01:20:17.840
Yeah.

1059
01:20:17.920 --> 01:20:23.840
I was like, yeah, there's always that niggling thought in

1060
01:20:23.880 --> 01:20:27.840
the back of your skulls, like come on, man, get real.

1061
01:20:29.359 --> 01:20:32.640
But I totally plan on reading it because because I

1062
01:20:32.640 --> 01:20:36.039
absolutely love your work. And thank you again for coming

1063
01:20:36.079 --> 01:20:37.800
on and we'll talk to you soon.

1064
01:20:38.399 --> 01:20:39.520
All right, sounds good.

1065
01:21:07.840 --> 01:21:10.439
Thank you so much for listening to my discussion with

1066
01:21:10.520 --> 01:21:13.199
kat Silva about the Dead Land series. I had a

1067
01:21:13.199 --> 01:21:15.359
lot of fun talking with her, and I can't wait

1068
01:21:15.399 --> 01:21:18.399
to read her new book. I kind of had to

1069
01:21:18.479 --> 01:21:21.560
hit myself at the end of that because I meant

1070
01:21:21.600 --> 01:21:24.680
to discuss her book that's coming out in September, and

1071
01:21:24.760 --> 01:21:29.800
I completely gapped it until she went into the synopsis

1072
01:21:29.880 --> 01:21:33.439
right at the end there. So I highly recommend if

1073
01:21:33.439 --> 01:21:36.920
you haven't read Catherine Silva, I think you need to

1074
01:21:36.960 --> 01:21:41.039
fix that. She's an awesome, awesome writer. Her pros is beautiful,

1075
01:21:41.359 --> 01:21:45.520
Her characters are rather vicious, especially in the Deadland series,

1076
01:21:46.119 --> 01:21:49.520
and there's a lot of emotion. There's grief, there's hatred,

1077
01:21:49.560 --> 01:21:55.920
there's anger, there's retribution. Check her out. You won't be sorry.

1078
01:21:56.800 --> 01:22:03.199
Now coming up, Actually, let me backtrack a little bit.

1079
01:22:03.239 --> 01:22:05.920
You may have noticed that the podcast here has been

1080
01:22:06.000 --> 01:22:08.840
a little slow during the summer months, and that's because

1081
01:22:08.880 --> 01:22:11.680
I've been taking a break while I do my summer

1082
01:22:11.720 --> 01:22:15.760
hours at work, and I've been trying to focus on

1083
01:22:15.800 --> 01:22:18.880
the writing, which hasn't gone well because everything shifts for

1084
01:22:18.960 --> 01:22:22.600
me in the summer. But in September, I plan on

1085
01:22:22.640 --> 01:22:25.439
coming back full force, and we have quite the few

1086
01:22:25.479 --> 01:22:28.760
authors that I have planned to come on the show,

1087
01:22:28.840 --> 01:22:31.520
and I'm really excited to talk to these people. As

1088
01:22:31.520 --> 01:22:34.359
I mentioned earlier, I want a stronger female sense. But

1089
01:22:34.439 --> 01:22:37.199
I do have like three other dudes lined up, and

1090
01:22:37.319 --> 01:22:39.439
I'm not going to say who, because anything can happen.

1091
01:22:39.800 --> 01:22:42.119
Come along and ruin it. And if anyone listening this

1092
01:22:42.279 --> 01:22:46.960
far sees one of their favorites and then is disappointed,

1093
01:22:47.079 --> 01:22:50.039
well that's on me, right. So you're just gonna have

1094
01:22:50.039 --> 01:22:52.159
to wait and see. But there's some big ones coming up,

1095
01:22:52.319 --> 01:22:54.800
and I want to keep talking to indie authors. I

1096
01:22:54.800 --> 01:22:58.720
think that's what weird reads is known for. So stay tuned,

1097
01:22:59.039 --> 01:23:00.720
and if you want to help so report the show,

1098
01:23:00.760 --> 01:23:05.920
please do so by going to Patreon forward slash Jason White.

1099
01:23:06.119 --> 01:23:09.079
I think that's the address, but it might not be,

1100
01:23:09.159 --> 01:23:12.159
so please check the show notes and join the Patreon.

1101
01:23:13.079 --> 01:23:16.600
There's three or I think you know what. I think

1102
01:23:16.640 --> 01:23:21.399
there's three levels, and one is three dollars, the second

1103
01:23:21.439 --> 01:23:24.399
one is four dollars, and the last one is six dollars,

1104
01:23:25.039 --> 01:23:28.479
and you get quite a few different things on there.

1105
01:23:28.520 --> 01:23:33.199
It's I hope you know, if you know what, I'm

1106
01:23:33.239 --> 01:23:36.840
screwing this all if you don't have the money, which

1107
01:23:36.880 --> 01:23:39.640
is totally understandable. These are hard times and they're only

1108
01:23:39.680 --> 01:23:43.239
getting harder with a psychopath in the well, you know what.

1109
01:23:43.479 --> 01:23:46.159
You know where I'm going with that. If you want

1110
01:23:46.159 --> 01:23:49.640
to help the show free without any cost to you,

1111
01:23:50.720 --> 01:23:53.640
then I asked that you please go to either Spotify

1112
01:23:53.960 --> 01:23:58.720
and rate the show there, or you can go to

1113
01:23:58.840 --> 01:24:02.000
Apple podcast. And this is the big one. If you

1114
01:24:02.000 --> 01:24:05.680
can go to Apple podcast and rate the show five

1115
01:24:05.720 --> 01:24:09.079
stars and leave a review, that will help the show grow.

1116
01:24:09.439 --> 01:24:12.119
Apple will be more willing the more we of those

1117
01:24:12.199 --> 01:24:14.960
we get, Apple will be willing to share our show,

1118
01:24:16.439 --> 01:24:20.359
and it'll help the show grow. And so that's what

1119
01:24:20.399 --> 01:24:22.600
I'm hoping to do, and I hope that you don't

1120
01:24:22.640 --> 01:24:24.760
mind helping me with that. All right, thank you so

1121
01:24:24.840 --> 01:24:27.680
much for listening everyone. I'm gonna stop rambling now and

1122
01:24:27.760 --> 01:24:30.520
we will catch you next time. So until then, keep

1123
01:24:30.560 --> 01:24:34.760
being weird because weirdness being weird is important these days.

1124
01:24:35.600 --> 01:24:38.199
And also stay safe and I'll catch you in the

1125
01:24:38.239 --> 01:25:14.319
next podcast.