Castle Talk with Castle Bridge Media

Tonight we’re chatting with Rio Youers, author of the new book Lola on Fire, which releases 2/16 from William Morrow. People have called the book a mix of Killing Eve, John Wick and Kill Bill.

About the book:
Brody Ellis is short on luck and even shorter on cash to buy the medication his sister Molly needs.

Desperate, he robs a convenience store, but on the way out, he bumps into a young woman and loses his wallet. Just when he expects the cops to arrive, the phone rings. It’s Blair Mayo—the woman he bumped into—and she’s got the missing billfold.

Brody will get it back, but only if he does her a favor: steal her late mother’s diamonds from her wicked stepmom. But when he gets to the house, he finds a gruesome crime scene—and a security camera. Brody knows he’s been framed.

Back home, the terrified young man gets another call. The police won’t get the incriminating video footage, Blair says. Instead, her daddy, the notorious mobster Jimmy Latzo, will exact his own kind of revenge.

Brody and Molly realize that they’ve become pawns in a mysterious game—one that involves a notorious enforcer named Lola Bear who brutally crossed paths with Jimmy Latzo twenty-six years before. . . a ghost from the past who is intimately connected to their lives.

About the author:
Rio Youers is the British Fantasy and Sunburst Award–nominated author of Westlake Soul and Halcyon. His 2017 thriller, The Forgotten Girl, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. He is the writer of Sleeping Beauties, a comic book series based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Rio lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife and their two children.

Tonight we’re chatting with Barbara Howe, author of The Wordsmith, which releases worldwide on February 15, 2021 from IFWG.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
THE WORDSMITH by Barbara Howe
Irene van Gelder’s drudge job is killing her, but how can she earn a living as an air witch when her own guild calls her a fraud?
The Fire Warlock doesn’t ask for her credentials, but with tensions rising between the Fire and Air Guilds, proving her value to him is not a safe move. With the White Duchess and her son intent on revenge, what defenses can a failure as an air witch muster? All she has is words. Will that be enough to save herself, and Frankland?
For more, see https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-the-wordsmith/.
About Barbara Howe:
Her bio:
Barbara Howe lives on the third rock from the sun, while her imagination travels the universe and beyond.
Born in the US (North Carolina), she spent most of her adult life in New Jersey, working in the software industry, on projects ranging from low-level kernel ports to multi-million-dollar financial applications. She moved to New Zealand in 2009, gained dual citizenship, and now works as a software developer in the movie industry. She lives in Wellington, in a house overflowing with books and jigsaw puzzles, and wishes she had more time to spend universe hopping.

Tonight we’re chatting with Kaaron Warren, author of the book Slights, which is a re-release from IFWG coming out now.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
When Stevie Searle almost dies in the accident that kills her mother, she doesn’t see a shining path or a golden light.
Instead, she sees everyone she’s ever slighted, waiting to take a piece of her in a cold, dark room. The person whose place she took in the queue, the schoolmate she cheated off, the bus driver she didn’t pay? All waiting. All wanting to take their revenge when she finally crosses over.
Stevie is fascinated by the dark room so she sends herself there again.
And again.
And Again.

About Kaaron Warren
Shirley Jackson award-winner Kaaron Warren published her first short story in 1993 and has had fiction in print every year since. She was recently given the Peter McNamara Lifetime Achievement Award and was Guest of Honour at World Fantasy 2018, Stokercon 2019 and Geysercon 2019. Kaaron was a Fellow at the Museum for Australian Democracy, where she researched prime ministers, artists and serial killers. She’s judged the World Fantasy Awards and the Shirley Jackson Awards.
She has published five multi-award winning novels (Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, The Grief Hole and Tide of Stone) and seven short story collections, including the multi-award winning Through Splintered Walls. She has won the ACT Writers and Publishers Award four times and twice been awarded the Canberra Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Her most recent novella, Into Bones Like Oil (Meerkat Press), was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award and the Bram Stoker Award, winning the Aurealis Award.

Tonight we’re talking to Jordan Graham, director of SATOR, which comes out from 1091 Pictures on February 9. It's a haunting and atmospheric indie horror shockingly inspired by true events, and compellingly dives into the relationship of fact and fiction, and you can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_Ij0S-sBw&feature=youtu.be

Tonight we’re chatting with Venero Armanno, author of the new book The Crying Forest, brand new from IFWG.
The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
Agata Rosso, a once-mighty yet now prematurely aged European witch, believes that the special gifts in a young girl named Lía Munro can restore youth and vitality both to herself and her bedridden husband. She sets a deadly plan in motion to capture and use Lía—but will the girl have enough power to protect herself, plus the father she loves so much?
Armano was born in Brisbane to Sicilian migrant parents. He is the author of two books of short stories and nine critically acclaimed novels.

His book Firehead was shortlisted in the 1999 Queensland Premiers Literary Award for Best Novel of the Year and The Volcano won that award in 2002. The Volcano was also shortlisted for the Courier Mail Best Book of the Year. Also a trained screenwriter, Veny teaches creative writing at University of Queensland.

Tonight we’re chatting with Amanda Dewees, author of the new gothic horror collection THE RATHBURN LEGACY AND OTHER STORIES.
Atlanta author Amanda DeWees received her PhD in English from the University of Georgia and wrote her dissertation on 19th-century vampire literature—the perfect training, although she didn’t know it at the time, for writing Victorian gothic romance novels. Her books include With This Curse, winner of the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award in historical mystery/suspense, and the Sybil Ingram Victorian Mysteries series. Her other passions include costuming, movies, and the elegant deployment of apostrophes.

Award-winning author Amanda DeWees is known for her tales of mystery, suspense, romance, and the supernatural, often in Victorian settings. Now, for the first time, fifteen of her short stories are gathered in one collection—including all seven stories and novelettes featuring Sybil Ingram, Victorian actress, spirit medium, and sleuth. Also included are four stories never before published! Here are a few of the tales inside:

—A Victorian woman photographer finds an unconventional way to save a man who is possessed by a malicious spirit (“The Rathburn Legacy”).

—While pursuing her hobby of taking gravestone rubbings, a gentle spinster encounters the uncanny (“The Woman Who Loved Dogs”).

—On the night of a mysterious butterfly phenomenon, a high school senior tries to rescue a little girl and make big choices about the future (“On Shadowed Wings”).

—A medium who senses emotion through fabric seeks the cause of two poisonings that prevented a wedding (“The Deadly Dress”).

—Sybil Ingram and her husband, Roderick Brooke, solve mysteries involving a haunted violin, a gang of women criminals, a pair of children who may be possessed by malicious spirits, and more.

With an introduction by horror/suspense author Charles R. Rutledge, this collection also features author notes on all the stories. From the charming to the chilling, the tales included here are all unique and unforgettable.

“An enjoyable blend of Austen, Dickens and Mrs. Gaskell – Gothic with a light touch, packed with family curses, mysterious paintings and romantic chills, plus more adventures of the indefatigable psychic, Sybil Ingram.” John Linwood Grant, author of The Assassin’s Coin

“A delightful, oft eerie, romantic, and decidedly splendid set of stories which pay homage to many classic Gothic traditions...offering fresh perspectives and heroines to wholeheartedly cheer for.” – Leanna Renee Hieber, award-winning and bestselling author of the Strangely Beautiful and Spectral City series

“I love this collection of stories. Amanda DeWees sends shivers down your spine, tugs your heartstrings, and creates heroes to die for. She will keep you guessing who done it while turning pages late into the night.” —Raven Hart, author of The Vampire’s Seduction

“While you will find a great deal of wit, charm, and romance [here]…Amanda DeWees knows her way around a horror yarn and she has a few surprises waiting for you.” —Charles R. Rutledge, horror/suspense author

Tonight we’re chatting with Russell Kirkpatrick (based in Canberra, Australia) author of the new book Silent Sorrow from IFWG Publishing International, arriving Feb 1.
This is the first of several interviews on books coming from IFWG International. The publishers at IFWG would like you to know that if you would like to enter a drawing for a free print (or mobi/epub) copy tonight’s book, Silent Sorrow, all you need to do is subscribe to the IFWG newsletter and fill out details for the drawing – just go to ifwgaustralia.com/treasures.
About the book:
Silent Sorrow (The Book of Remezov)

Brilliant and ambitious, Remezov is already recognised as the best earthquake predictor in the business. He travels to the ancient city of Hanemark to be received into the powerful Guild of Geographers, the youngest inductee in decades.On the way he finds a dead scientist’s diary, warning of an imminent invasion. Nonsense, of course—except the diary explains otherwise puzzling occurrences. Does he surrender it to the Guild, risking accusations he killed the scientist and stole the diary—all for an invasion that may never come—or does he keep it and use it to make his name? He has to decide soon, because he’s being hunted by something leaving a trail of mutilated bodies across the city.The lizards are coming…
Russell Kirkpatrick (born 1961, Christchurch, New Zealand) is a geography lecturer, cartographer and a novelist. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Canterbury, and lectured at the University of Waikato in Hamilton until 2014. He is currently living and writing in Australia, and moonlights as a sessional lecturer at the University of Canberra. He has worked on seven atlas projects, including the New Zealand Historical Atlas (1998), and authored the Contemporary Atlas of New Zealand (1999/2004). He also wrote and was photographer for a book about New Zealand waterfalls - Walk to Waterfalls (2011). He has written two fantasy trilogies, Fire of Heaven and Husk. Across the Face of the World was the biggest selling debut fantasy in the United States in 2008. He won the Julius Vogel award in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Tonight we’re chatting with Steven Kostanski, writer and director of the Horror/Comedy PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN, which RLJE Films will release in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on January 22, 2021.

Written and directed by Steven Kostanski (The Void, The Divide, Father’s Day), PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN stars Matthew Ninaber (Transference), Nita-Josee Hanna (Books of Blood, 4teen), Owen Myre (“NOS4A2”, Alternate Ground), Adam Brooks (The Return Father’s Day) and Steven Vlahos (“Alien House”, The Apprentice).

In the film, Siblings Mimi and Luke unwittingly resurrect an ancient alien overlord who was entombed on Earth millions of years ago after a failed attempt to destroy the universe. They nickname the evil creature Psycho Goreman (or PG for short) and use the magical amulet they discovered to force him to obey their childish whims. It isn’t long before PG’s reappearance draws the attention of intergalactic friends and foes from across the cosmos and a rogues’ gallery of alien combatants converges in small-town suburbia to battle for the fate of the galaxy.

Tonight we’re chatting with Shawn Linden, director of Hunter Hunter a new thriller/horror/suspense film to be released by IFC Midnight in select Theaters, On Digital and On Demand on December 18, 2020.
HUNTER HUNTER stars Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Idle Hands), Nick Stahl (Bully, Disturbing Behavior), Camille Sullivan ("The Man in the High Castle") and Summer Howell (Curse of Chucky). The film was directed and written by Shawn Linden (The Good Lie, Nobody).
HUNTER HUNTER follows a family living in the remote wilderness earning a living as fur trappers. Joseph Mersault (Devon Sawa), his wife Anne (Camille Sullivan), and their daughter Renée (Summer H. Howell) struggle to make ends meet and think their traps are being hunted by the return of a rogue wolf. Determined to catch the predator in the act, Joseph leaves his family behind to track the wolf. Anne and Renée grow increasingly anxious during Joseph’s prolonged absence and struggle to survive without him. When they hear a strange noise outside their cabin, Anne hopes it is Joseph but instead finds a man named Lou (Nick Stahl), who has been severely injured and left for dead. The longer Lou stays and Joseph is away, the more paranoid Anne becomes, and the idea of a mysterious predator in the woods slowly becomes a threat much closer to home.
Hunter Hunter is released theatrically in select locations, on Digital and On-Demand on December 18th 2020 by IFC Midnight.