Jeremy Dauber, author of the newly released book "American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond” and professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University.

As “J.A. Dauber,” he is also the author of the YA novel "Mayhem and Madness: Chronicles of a Teenaged Supervillain," and his new middle grade novel, currently titled "Press 1 For 1nvasion," will be published next year.

We covered:

- The childhood obsession with aliens and ghost stories that never went away

- The key career advice he got from the former head of DC Comics

- Approaching your career as if you were cross-training at the gym

- How teaching helps him as a writer

- Why he loves writing YA more than contemporary adult fiction

- How he’s come to embrace the revision process

- Reframing failure as a lack of success

- Why he’s in the “write every day” camp

- The nicest compliment he got from an editor

- Why he tries to stop writing for the day in the middle of a scene or a thought, and not at the end

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thank you for listening!

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