Brian and Jeff are joined by author A.C. Wise to talk about joy in horror, her books The Ghost Sequences (2021) and Out of the Drowning Deep (2024), and her new novel Ballad of the Bone Road (Jan. 26, 2026).

Wise describes horror’s joy as an adrenaline-driven extreme emotional response akin to excitement, and traces her horror roots to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, darker fairy tales, and lifelong ghost-story interests.

They discuss how others react to her genre work, her day job at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and shifts in speculative fiction toward mainstream popularity and genre mashups.

Wise explains Out of the Drowning Deep as a noir/horror/science-fantasy blend exploring faith, meaning-making, and a feedback loop between divinity and belief, including inhuman, unsettling angels.

She recounts the near-rights-issue backstory of The Ghost Sequences cover and notes the title story’s inspiration from a ghost-themed art installation.

A.C.'s recent horror joys: Sinners, Staircase in the Woods, The Buffalo Hunter, and the game Dead Take.

A.C. Wise Website