In this episode, Steve and Tananarive talk to Wicked City television series creator Kristin Iris Johnson about her journey to Hollywood as a queer Black woman with disabilities -- and how she claimed her personal power to thrive as a writer and producer in such a competitive industry. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wow - just WOW. Tananarive talks about mounting Scare Up the Vote, the horror community's campaign event to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. On this episode, excerpts from amazing talks about horror and why voting matters by your horror faves: Stephen Graham Jones, Gabino Iglesias, Stephen King in conversation with Joe Hill, Erin E. Adams, Mike Flanagan in conversation with Kate Siegel, Bryan Fuller, Akela Cooper and Rachel Harrison.

And that's just a tiny slice of the full broadcast with a slew of other great horror creators, which you can watch at scareupthevote.com

The event raised more than $21,000, but you can still show your horror head love for the Kamala Harris campaign by contributing at https://secure.kamalaharris.com/a/scare-up-the-vote?attr=116075965 - every contribution here will be credited to Scare Up the Vote! 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's right, royalty is in the house - Nuzo Onoh has been hailed as "The Queen of African Horror." This Nigerian-British writer is a pioneer of the African horror genre, and she talks about how tropes like vengeful ghosts have shaped her writing. Her books include Dance for the Dead and the upcoming Where the Dead Brides Gather. 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tananarive talks to author, playwright, actor and screenwriter Nat Cassidy about how his different artistic endeavors have fed into a single creative drive. On fluidity in creativity and the persistence to follow your dream -- and then the NEXT dream. 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Steve and Tananarive talk to comics creator and screenwriter Pornsak Pichetshote. On how his feeling of displacement after moving from the U.S. to Thailand as a child helped him become a storyteller, mastering comics and TV writing - and The Horizon Experiment (The Manchurian), his new community-building comics project to showcase creators on the margins. (Including Tananarive, whose comic is Moon Dogs.) 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tananarive talks to debut novelist Michelle McGill-Vargas about how she nurtured her writing practice while teaching full-time and how she found her voice to write her debut vampire novel, AMERICAN GHOUL. On the persistence and confidence writers need to win! 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Steve and Tananarive talk to New York Times bestseller S.A. Cosby, author of the bestselling novels ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, RAZORBLADE TEARS (praised by Barack Obama!) and BLACKTOP WASTELAND. They talk about how he almost gave up writing, blending crime fiction and horror, and what inspires him to write. 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, pioneering science fiction author Steven Barnes and Bram Stoker Award / Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Tananarive Due (your hosts!) break down the secrets to writing great horror: bringing the scares and why strong characters matter so much in horror. 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Steve and Tananarive talk to author Justin C. Key, who just published his debut sci fi/horror short story collection, The World Wasn't Ready For You. He's also a contributor to Jordan Peele's Out There Screaming horror anthology. They talk about the social impact he wants to make with his work and his journey to portraying his own identity in his writing. Also how his job as a full-time psychiatrist has an impact on his work.

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve and Tananarive talk to NY Times bestselling author Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation (YA horror) and one of the story architects of Star Wars: The High Republic. She talks about taking up writing later in life, YA horror, writing for established IP, working in her first television writers' room for the Netflix series House of Usher under Mike Flanagan, and how race has had an impact on her writing. 

LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL at https://www.speakpipe.com/LifewritingPodcast (We might play your message!)

Join Tananarive's mailing list at https://tananarivelist.com

Join Steve's mailing list at https://stevenbarneslist.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices