This episode is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! We are only THREE patrons to go to hit our goal of 30 patrons—at which time we’ll begin paying authors $25 for short story reprints! We’ve got tons of exclusive content for patrons at every tier. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright and join our community today! Show Notes In this episode, we have a great conversation with the powerhouse women duo behind Fright Girl Summer, a safe and welcoming place for marginalized genders and voices. It was a pleasure to speak with V. Castro and Sonora Taylor about the importance of amplifying diverse voices in horror and beyond. We also discuss why horror is an excellent genre for exploring themes of identity and sex, as well as dismantling harmful systems and stereotypes from the inside out. And so much more! Enjoy. Find V: Website | Twitter | Instagram Find Sonora: Website | Twitter | Instagram Buy V’s books: Hairspray and Switchblades Goddess of Filth Queen of the Cicadas Buy Sonora’s books: Seeing Things Little Paranoias: Stories Without Condition The One That Got Away: Women of Horror Anthology Volume 2 

Ladies of the Fright

LOTF 74: Fright Girl Summer with V. Castro and Sonora Taylor

This episode is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! We are only THREE patrons to go to hit our goal of 30 patrons—at which time we’ll begin paying authors $25 for short story reprints! We’ve got tons of exclusive content for patrons at every tier. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright and join our community today! Show Notes For our seventh tropisode, we're talking PORTALS with Zoraida Córdova. Zoraida Córdova is the acclaimed author of more than a dozen novels and short stories, including the Brooklyn Brujas series, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate, and The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. In addition to writing novels, she serves on the Board of We Need Diverse Books, and is the co-editor of the bestselling anthologyVampires Never Get Old, as well as the cohost of the writing podcast, Deadline City. She writes romance novels as Zoey Castile. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and calls New York City home. When she’s not working, she’s roaming the world in search of magical stories. For more information, visit her at zoraidacordova.com. When we read Zoraida’s novel Labyrinth Lost—which features an incredible portal—we knew she would be an excellent choice for this topic. We’re so glad we had the opportunity to reconnect with her and talk all things portals in fiction! Portals Group “Read” Pan’s Labyrinth film Portals Book and Film Mentions Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis Warriors of Virtue Peter Pan by James Matthew Berry Midsommar Pirates of the Caribbean Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Shades of Magic by VE Schwab His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman A Blade So Black by LL McKinney Sucker Punch Find Zoraida: Website | Twitter | Instagram

LOTF 73: Tropisode #7 | Portals with Zoraida Córdova

We are delight to return as the official podcast for 2021 Summer Scares! This episode is our first installment of a series covering the 2021 Summer Scares library summer reading program. The Horror Writers’ Association has partnered with Book Riot and Library Journal to curate the Summer Scares reading list, which includes three books each in the Adult, YA, and Middle Grade categories. In 2019, we chatted with the liaisons from each category in LOTF 32, LOTF 34, and LOTF 36. In 2020, we had roundtable-style panel conversations with the authors from each category. You can find these here : LOTF 56, LOTF 57, and LOTF 58. And this year, we're shaking things up yet again! This first episode is extra special, because we begin with a conversation with author Silvia Moreno Garcia, this year's Summer Scares author spokesperson. She is the bestselling author of the novels Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Certain Dark Things, and Untamed Shore, among others. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters). Gods of Jade and Shadow was the 2020 American Library Association Reading List winner in the Fantasy category, appeared on many year's best lists, and won the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Silvia is also the publisher of Innsmouth Free Press, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a book reviewer for NPR. You can follow her on Twitter at @silviamg. In the first half of the episode, we talk to Silvia about her writing and reading history, her previous experience with libraries, her passion projects with her small press Innsmouth Free Press, and her involvement with Summer Scares 2021. Find Silvia: Twitter | Website | Innsmouth Free Press In the second half of the show, Mackenzie and Lisa discuss the three adult books for Summer Scares 2021. The adult picks for the 2021 Summer Scares program are: The Hunger by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2018) The Cipher by Kathe Koja (originally published 1991 by Dell but reissued Meerkat Press, 2020) Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, Translator Jonathan Wright (Penguin Books, 2018) To discover more regarding the Summer Scares program (including excellent resources!), check out the Summer Scares information website. And for an in-depth resource, here is the Summer Scares Programming Guide.

LOTF 72: 2021 Summer Scares 1 | Adult Selections | feat. Silvia Moreno Garcia

This episode of Ladies of the Fright is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! Help us reach our goal of 30 patrons so we can pay authors $25 per short story reprint. Only THREE patrons to go! We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Jessica Leonard!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Also, if you haven't already done so, please head over to iTunes and leave us a five star review! It is a free way to support the show and it helps boost our visibility and thus, the visibility of all our wonderful guests. And, we would love it if you'd check out our merch shop, where you'll find all kinds of cool goodies like mugs, t-shirts, notebooks, masks, and more! Show Notes In this episode, we have a great conversation with horror author Gabino Iglesias! We discuss his writing themes and obsessions, his experience with conceptualizing and editing (in real time!) the Halldark Anthology, and what it takes to wear so many different literary hats. Our selection for literary discussion this month is the novel The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. We've been dying to talk about this book, and now that it has won a Ray Bradbury award (!!!) we knew it was finally time! There are spoilers throughout our conversation so listen with caution if you haven't read the book. (And also if you haven't read it, UNFUCK THAT!—I say this with love.) Find Gabino: Twitter | Instagram

LOTF 71: Deeply Flawed Characters with Gabino Iglesias

This episode of Ladies of the Fright is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! Help us reach our goal of 30 patrons so we can pay authors $25 per short story reprint. Only three patrons to go! We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Jessica Guess!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Also, if you haven't already done so, please head over to iTunes and leave us a five star review! It is a free way to support the show and it helps boost our visibility and thus, the visibility of all our wonderful guests. And, we would love it if you'd check out our merch shop, where you'll find all kinds of cool goodies like mugs, t-shirts, notebooks, masks, and more! Show Notes In this episode, we have a great conversation with horror author Gwendolyn Kiste! We discuss the great work she's done with her blog and the importance of leveraging privilege to continually work toward equity in publishing. We talk about her writing but we also reminisce about the old days of recording favorite shows on VHS! Our selection for literary discussion this month is the short story The Lady of the House of Love  by Angela Carter. We absolutely love this decadent gothic tale. Listen along to discover what this story and the film The Love Witch have in common. Find Gwendolyn: Twitter | Website

LOTF 70: Beautiful Horror with Gwendolyn Kiste

This episode of Ladies of the Fright is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! Help us reach our goal of 30 patrons so we can pay authors $25 per short story reprint. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Jessica Guess!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Also, if you haven't already done so, please head over to iTunes and leave us a five star review! It is a free way to support the show and it helps boost our visibility and thus, the visibility of all our wonderful guests. Show Notes In this episode, we have a great conversation with crime author Kerry K. Cox, whose new novel Money Bear: A Nick Tanner Crime Thriller is out now!  We talk about his path from marketing to writing novels, as well as his life long interest in animal rescue and forest rangers. We also discuss the differences and intersections between crime and horror fiction. Our book pick for discussion this month is My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Is it horror? Is it crime? Do characters need to be likable? Tune in to find out. Find Kerry: Website

Crime & Horror with Kerry K. Cox

This episode of Ladies of the Fright is brought to you by the Ladies of the Fright Patreon! We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Hailey Piper!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Show Notes New year, new look, new music! We had such a great time celebrating three years with our live podcast webinar, co-hosted by the talented Kathryn E. McGee, horror author and moderator of the Thing in the Labyrinth horror book club via The Last Bookstore as well as the Skeleton Hour webinar series via the Horror Writers Association. We discussed the early days of the show and shared our vision for the podcast’s evolution in 2021. We were delighted to welcome several surprise pop-in guests—authors who’ve been particularly supportive of us and the show over the years. Special thanks again the following authors for sharing their time and generously giving away a book! Paul Tremblay: Website | Twitter Alma Katsu: Website | Twitter Stephen Graham Jones: Website | Twitter Tod Goldberg: Website | Twitter We were also delighted to be joined by Heather Scheeler, the incredible writer, artist, creator, and friend who designed our wonderful new podcast logo! We had so much fun collaborating (by which we mean, word-vomiting all our ideas in Heather’s general direction and her somehow using all that to create the gloriousness that is our new look!) with her on our podcast rebrand. Make sure you check out her art Instagram as well as The Mountain Practice—a really exciting project she will be kickstarting later this summer! And finally, an ENORMOUS thanks to all of you: our listeners. When we started this show we thought one or two people might listen. Three years and two awards later, you’ve proven us very wrong. Thank you from the very depths of our heart. Here’s to many more years to come! Stay dark & stormy.

LOTF 68: 3 Year Anniversary Special

We on a bit of hiatus for January as we prepare for our three year podcast anniversary and our 2021 podcast line up. We’re reformatting the show for the new year and can't wait to share more on that soon! In the meantime, we’re releasing the last of our interviews recorded in 2020. We also want to point you to our blog space, where we've been posting a lot more written author interviews as well as some reprinted short fiction. For the moment, we are open to fiction reprint submissions, and in particular, we want to raise stories back from the dead. We want stories that were originally published in now-defunct venues. Currently we aren’t able to pay authors but we want that to change. Therefore, we are hosting a Patreon challenge! When we hit 30 patrons, we pledge pay $25 per reprint. We want to keep increasing what we pay so we foresee another Patreon challenge in our future. Baby steps! With that said, we've been making some changes to our podcast tiers. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Hailey Piper!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! One final bit of housekeeping: We are hosting a live three year anniversary special event on Sunday, January 31, at 10:30pm Eastern. We'll be joined by special guest co-host Kathryn E. McGee, horror author and host of the Skeleton Hour webinar series and The Thing in the Labyrinth Horror Bookclub.  We'll reflect on the past three years, share our vision for the podcast's future, answer questions, and party. New logo reveal + surprise pop in guests + giveaways! Come celebrate three years with us. Live event on Zoom - register today. Show Notes Eddie Generous is the owner of Unnerving, which publishes the popular Unnerving Magazine as well as numerous novellas and short stories collections. Eddie has fallen off three different roofs and been lit on fire on multiple occasions. He grew up on a farm and later slept with his shoes under his pillows in homeless shelters. He dropped out of high school to afford rent on a room at a crummy boarding house, but eventually graduated from a mediocre college. He is the author of several small press books, has 2.8 rescue cats (one needed a leg amputation), is a podcast host, and lives on the Pacific Coast of Canada. We recorded this interview with Eddie in the middle of 2020, and since then he has announced that the Rewind or Die novella series will continue into 2021! Eddie also has three books coming out this year: Behemoth Risen (Severed Press), The Walking Son (Seventh Terrace), and Hetty (Omnium Gatherum Media). Find Eddie: Twitter | Author Website | Unnerving Website Recent Books by Eddie Generous: Rawr Trouble at Camp Still Waters Radio Run Rewind or Die #15: Tales from the Meat Wagon Dead is Dead But Not Always

LOTF 67: Rewind or Die with Eddie Generous

We on a bit of hiatus for January as we prepare for our three year podcast anniversary and our 2021 podcast line up. We’re reformatting the show for the new year and can't wait to share more on that soon! In the meantime, we’re releasing the last of our interviews recorded in 2020. We also want to point you to our blog space, where we've been posting a lot more written author interviews as well as some reprinted short fiction. For the moment, we are open to fiction reprint submissions, and in particular, we want to raise stories back from the dead. We want stories that were originally published in now-defunct venues. Currently we aren’t able to pay authors but we want that to change. Therefore, we are hosting a Patreon challenge! When we hit 30 patrons, we pledge pay $25 per reprint. We want to keep increasing what we pay so we foresee another Patreon challenge in our future. Baby steps! With that said, we've been making some changes to our podcast tiers. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Gwendolyn Kiste!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! One final bit of housekeeping: We are hosting a live three year anniversary special event on Sunday, January 31, at 10:30pm Eastern. We'll be joined by special guest co-host Kathryn E. McGee, horror author and host of the Skeleton Hour webinar series and The Thing in the Labyrinth Horror Bookclub.  We'll reflect on the past three years, share our vision for the podcast's future, answer questions, and party. New logo reveal + surprise pop in guests + giveaways! Come celebrate three years with us. Live event on Zoom - register today. Show Notes We are thrilled to bring you this conversation with author, editor, teacher, and overall horror advocate Richard Thomas. Richard spent twenty years in advertising before coming back to writing. Since then he’s been an author, editor, teacher, and publisher. He’s the award-winning author of three novels, three short story collections, two novellas, and over 150 short stories. In addition to teaching at Storyville, he’s also taught at the University of Iowa, LitReactor.com, and Story Studio Chicago. We really loved this conversation with Richard. If you have any new year’s resolutions to dedicate more time to writing, we can’t think of any better way to commit than to sign up for a class with Richard over at Storyville! There are still spots in his Contemporary Dark Fiction classes. He even has one set for summer, May-Aug on London/UK/GMT time which he’s  never done before. It’s 50% sold so check it out if you’re into it. And he also has one running in September. Head on over to storyvilleonline.com for more info!  Find Richard: Twitter | Website | Storyville

LOTF 66: Honing Craft & Mentoring Writers | Richard Thomas

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors (this month we’ve got a special video from author Gwendolyn Kiste!); and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Show Notes In this final episode of 2020, we are delighted to welcome Bob Pastorella back to the show to discuss The Beach House! This December movie chat is officially an annual LOTF podcast tradition. Sadly, 2020 did not see a new Ari Aster film. So we asked Bob what his favorite horror films were this year, and then we did a poll on our twitter. Our listeners asked for The Beach House, and we listened. Listen. Bob Pastorella is a genius. Seriously. He is so smart. Our discussion of this film wouldn’t be nearly as intelligent without his insightful perception—and his thorough understanding of the genre. We had such a great time talking to Bob about this film to wrap up our 2020 lineup. Find Bob: Website | Twitter Purchase They’re Watching! Well, folks, somehow, we made it: this is the end of 2020. And what a year it has been, for all of us. No matter how this year was for you personally, we can’t imagine there’s a single one of you who isn’t happy to see this year out the door. A new year isn’t some magical reset button—all of the issues unearthed in 2020 (both within and without our control) are still coming with us into 2021. And still, a new year brings a collective feeling of a “fresh start”, so we plan to take it one day at a time and make the most of what we’re given. We’re planning a really fun, live three-year anniversary episode event that we’ll be announcing details about very soon! And we’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for the show in the New Year. We can’t wait to share more. Until then, we’ll see you in 2021. May it be a better year for us all. Stay dark and stormy!

LOTF 65: The Beach House Film Discussion feat. Bob Pastorella

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors; and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Show Notes As ever, it is a pleasure to host Ellen Datlow on our show. This time, she’s back to discuss her anthology Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles. As is usual of our conversations with Ellen, we talk about a lot more than that. We discuss how she was coping with the pandemic in New York City (we recorded this episode in the middle of the summer) as well as her complicated relationship with horror movies vs. horror fiction. Other Ellen Datlow favorites Edited By The Devil and the Deep Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories Find Ellen: Website | Twitter

LOTF 64: Ellen Datlow | Final Cuts Anthology

This year for our annual Halloween Special, we thought we’d bring you a conversation about our own spookiest experiences. Lisa and Mackenzie discuss their own views on the supernatural—does it exist? Are ghosts real? Lisa tells the story of an unexplainable experience she had while camping with her friends in the Anza Borrego desert in California. Mackenzie shares her creepy haunted house story, as well as her chilling discovery inside the house’s window seat. In addition to sharing these inexplicable real-life experiences, we also have an exclusive message from two very special guests. Who could it be? Listen to find out! But here is a clue: their awesome new novel is OUT NOW! Purchase They’re Watching here. We continue to be grateful for your support. On horror’s holiest holiday, please stay dark and stormy, but also healthy and safe! Happy Halloween from the Ladies of the Fright.

LOTF 63: 2020 Halloween Special | Ghost Stories

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors; and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Show Notes We are delighted to bring you this special conversation with author Alma Katsu about her most recent historical horror novel, The Deep (2020). One of Ms. Katsu’s many specialties is writing novels that combine historical fiction with supernatural and horror elements. The Hunger (2018), a reimagining of the story of the Donner Party, was named one of NPR’s 100 favorite horror stories, was on numerous Best Books of the Year lists, and continues to be honored as a new classic in horror. Her first book, The Taker (2011), was named one of the top ten debut novels of 2011 by Booklist. In this episode, we talk to Alma about her childhood years as a voracious reader and her early writing life. She also shares stories about growing up in a spooky (maybe haunted?) old home and how that sparked her infatuation with darker tales. We loved hearing about her fascinating career in intelligence as well as why she decided to follow her writing passion. We learned so much in this conversation with Alma, and we think you will, too. Find Alma: Website | Twitter

LOTF 62: Alma Katsu on Writing Historical Horror

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level. We offer cool rewards at every tier, including early, ad-free episodes; bonus written, audio, and video content from special guest authors; and the Patrons-Only podcast LOTF After Dark. Head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright for all the gory details! Show Notes We are delighted to bring you this special conversation with Daniel Kraus. This is our second time bringing him onto the show, so if you’d like to get a peek into his early writing life, discover how writing without the intent to publish helped him cultivate joy in his craft, explore his trademark style of using gorgeous language to describe the grotesque, and learn about his collaborations with Guillermo del Toro, you can hear all that and more in LOTF 42 when you’ve finished this episode! In this episode, we do something a bit more special. Daniel walks us through what it was like to collaborate posthumously with the late great George A. Romero to write The Living Dead. It is a breathtaking story, with many surprising twists and turns. Did Romero reach across time and space to help Daniel write this book? We don’t have the answer to that, and neither does Daniel. Listen to the episode. Hear Daniel share his story. You decide. Find Daniel: Website | Twitter Other books by Daniel Krauss that we love: Rotters The Shape of Water Blood Sugar (EXCELLENT Halloween season reading!)

LOTF 61: Daniel Kraus on Posthumously Collaborating with George A. Romero

We want to remind you that we have a Patreon! We would like to give a special shoutout to our higher tier patrons Eli Ryder and Kerry Cox at the Satanic Panic level, and Bjorn Svartalfson, Jocelyn Codner, Nina Nahvi, Jason M., S. Velos at the Demon Possession level. We’re offering cool rewards we’re offering at every tier (and we’re getting to revamp the whole thing!). If you’d like to check it out, head on over to patreon.com/ladiesofthefright. Show Notes We are delighted to bring you this conversation with Jessica Guess, a writer and English teacher who hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She earned her Creative Writing MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2018 and is the founder of the website Black Girl’s Guide to Horror where she examines horror movies in terms of quality and intersectionality. Her creative work has been featured in Luna Station Quarterly and Mused Bella Online Literary Review. Her debut novella, Cirque Berserk, is available for purchase on Amazon. In this episode, we spoke with Jessica about her early writing life and experiences growing up with horror movies. She shares how horrible professor tried to crush her writing dreams and why it’s important to her now to uplift her own college students. Jessica also talks about her meandering path to writing and how she tried so hard to pursue a “stable career”—hear her story about how she decided pursuing her dreams was more important. She talks about creating A Black Girl’s Guide to Horror, intersectionality in horror, writing Cirque Berserk, and the importance of flipping (often racist) genre tropes. Find Jessica: Website | Twitter Check out A Black Girl’s Guide to Horror: Twitter Disclosure: We are affiliates of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Support indie bookstores; support the show. Win/win!

LOTF 60: Jessica Guess on 90s Horror, Cirque Berserk, & Pursuing Dreams

For writers and readers who like it dark. We talk about our horror and other dark-themed books. In-depth literary analysis of dark fiction. Conversations with authors, editors, and other industry professionals. Hosted by Lisa Quigley and Mackenzie Kiera. We have interviewed Paul Tremblay, Ellen Datlow, Josh Malerman, Grady Hendrix, and more. New episode every other Monday. Subscribe, listen, and leave us a review.

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Ladies of the Fright

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