Bookwild

Cosmic Horror and a Crime Procedural: CJ Leede's Headlights

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This week, I talk with CJ Leede about her new horror novel Headlights!

Listen to hear about:

  • How CJ originally planned to become a medieval historian, but after a professor helped her discover storytelling was what she wanted to pursue.
  • How Headlights began with the idea of people waking up on the side of a highway wearing the skin of strangers, and evolved into a story about grief, mortality, family legacy, and the search for meaning.
  • Why Leede treats setting as a character, using Colorado's beauty, danger, wildlife, and landscapes as metaphors for the novel's larger themes about life, death, and the unknown.
  • How the novel contains investigative thriller and horror elements, but is really a book about confronting sadness, loss, and the things we cannot outrun within ourselves.
  • Why horror can uniquely encompass mysteries, romance, literary fiction, supernatural stories, social commentary, and psychological explorations, making it one of the broadest and most creative genres available.

    • Check Out Author Social Media Packages

    Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

    Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

    Get Bookwild Merch

    Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

    Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

    Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

    Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

    Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

    Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

    MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

     

    ...more
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    BookwildBy Kate Hergott, Bookwild Collective
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