Ink Heist - A Podcast for Readers of Dark Fiction

This week, we had a great time talking with Damien Angelica Walters, whose gripping new novel, The Dead Girls Club, is out now through Crooked Lane Books. We talked to Damien extensively about The Dead Girls Club, the origin of The Red Lady, the benefits of outlining, the importance of female “coming of age” novels, her exciting Work in Progress, and so much more. We had a lot of fun talking with Damien, who is easily one of our favorite writers when it comes to both novels and short stories. Don’t be surprised to see The Dead Girls Club high on our “End of the Year” lists. Shane and I definitely look forward to having her on again in the future. Check out our conversation with Damien now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

This week, we had a great time talking with Jeremy Hepler, who recently released his second novel, Cricket Hunters, with Silver Shamrock Publishing. We talked to Jeremy extensively about Cricket Hunters and  The Boulevard Monster, working with Silver Shamrock and Bloodshot Books, his experience reading slush, the humorous story about how he came up with "cricket hunting" and so much more. We had a lot of fun talking with Jeremy, who is super easy to talk to and gives some great writing advice. Shane and I definitely look forward to having him on again in the future. Check out our conversation with Jeremy now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

This week, we had a great time talking with Betty Rocksteady, who recently released her first short story collection, In Dreams We Rot, with Trepidatio Publishing. We talked to Betty about In Dreams We Rot and some of the themes, her illustration style, lucid dreaming, cartoons, Boy Meets World, and a host of other topics. I had a lot of fun talking with Betty and we shared quite a few laughs. Shane and I definitely look forward to having her on again in the future. Check out our conversation with Betty now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

This week we're happy to present this conversation between Daniel Braum and the great Peter Straub at the Lovecraft Bar in NYC. There are no words to express how much this means to us or how fantastic it is. Peter is a highly intelligent, engaging, and often funny individual and when it comes to favorite authors, well, they don't get any more goddamn esteemed than this. Do yourself, and us, a favor and give this one a listen ASAP. It's sure to become one of your new favorite things. And this is just the first of what we hope will be many episodes in this series of interviews so you're going to want to watch this space.

This week, we are sharing our fourth conversation with horror author John F.D. Taff as part of our recurring “In This Episode…” series focused on The Fearing. Each book in The Fearing will have its own episode where we take a deep dive into the events of the story and uncover some behind the scenes insight from John. This time around, we take an in-depth look at Book Three, Air and Dust. This time around, we talk to John about the progression of Mark and Monday’s relationship, the introduction of human threats, the arrival of The Darkness, how The Fearing has influenced some of Taff’s upcoming works, and much more. We go pretty deep into Air and Dust, but we also kind of go off script and just talk to John about things he’s working on and writing in general. It’s always a fun time when we sit down to record these episodes with John and if we could, we’d have him on every week! We had a blast talking to John as always and if you missed our previous conversations, you can check it out at the link below or through your favorite podcast service. The Fearing is proving to be the reading event of the year and we hope you will continue to join us as we sit down with Taff soon to talk about the culmination of The Fearing with Earth and Amber, which releases this Tuesday.

This week, we had a great time talking with Max Booth III, who has written Carnivorous Lunar Activities, The Nightly Disease, How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers to just name some of his books. In addition to writing, Max also runs Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and Dark Moon Digest with his partner Lori Michelle and hosts two podcasts, Castle Rock Radio and Ghoulish. Our conversation with Max was full of laughs and occasionally took a turn for the surreal. We talked to Max about his writing inspirations, how he teamed up with Fangoria for Carnivorous Lunar Activities, the origin story of PMMP,  his upcoming Cemetery Dance novel Touch The Night, and a host of other topics. And yes, skunks AND Dick Spiders both make an appearance.  This was an amazing conversation and one of the most fun episodes we've recorded. This is one episode you don't want to miss, trust me. Check out our conversation with Max now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service. Support Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing on Patreon!

In this episode, Shane and I fly solo once again and make fools of ourselves on air for your listening enjoyment. We want to make these solo episodes a regular part of the podcast and we decide to open ourselves up to reader questions to help drive each episode. In this one, we talk about how we handle horror with kids, talking about the technical aspects of writing vs. storytelling, Stephen King, our favorite local indie stores, and what it would take to get Shane to sing on air. Also, if you're looking for a good laugh, I do an impression of a witch AND Steven Seagal. This was an amazing conversation and one that you won't want to miss, trust me. Check out our conversation with now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service. You may note a reference toward the end of the cast where will mention Shaun Hamill. That episode aired Tuesday before last but this one was not ready for prime time yet.

This week, Shane had a great time talking with Nicholas Day, who has written Nobody Gets Hurt and Other Lies, At the End of the Day I Burst Into Flames and most recently Grind Your Bones to Dust. Shane's conversation with Nick was a lot of fun to listen to and covered a wide variety of topics. Shane talked to him about his writing style, marketing your work as an indie author, the impact of his debut Necrosaurus Rex, and the real life inspirations behind Grind Your Bones to Dust. This was an amazing conversation and one that you won't want to miss, trust me. Check out our conversation with Nicholas now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

This week, we had a great time talking with Angel Luis Colón, who is an incredible crime author who has written The Blacky Jaguar novella series, The Fantine Park novella series, and Hell Chose Me. Our conversation with Angel was engaging and covered a wide variety of topics. We talk to him about his writing style, the new benefit anthology for Puerto Rico ¡PA'QUE TU LO SEPAS!, representation for the Latinx community, his own podcast The Bastard Title and take a deep dive into Hell Chose Me. We had a great time recording with Angel who is incredibly easy to talk to and has a great sense of humor! We easily could have talked to him for a few more hours and would love to have on the show again soon. This was an amazing conversation and one that you won't want to miss, trust me. Check out our conversation with Angel now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

As always, podcast intro and outro music are courtesy the band Secret Smoker.

This week, we had a busy weekend recording new episodes for you guys. We have two new episodes for you this week, featuring great conversations with debut novelist Shaun Hamill and crime author Angel Luis Colón . We had a great time talking with Shaun about A Cosmology of Monsters, which is a remarkable debut that follows the Turner family over the period of many decades as they are hunted by forces outside of their comprehension. Shane and I both fell in love with this book from the opening line and it truly is a magical reading experience and one of the year's best novels. In our conversation, we talk to Shaun about his writing background, the power of a great first line, symbolism in A Cosmology of Monsters, and what he's working on next. We had a great time recording with Shaun, who's an incredibly talented writer that we're sure you will be hearing about A LOT in the years to come. Check out our conversation with Daniel now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.