Chris Krawczyk founded Little Ghosts Books (Canada's first horror bookstore) and grew it into a press, a festival, and a travelling book fair. On MAKE // BREAK, Lance Marwood asks how a COVID-era reading catalogue became a Dundas West shop, why Little Ghosts reads every single submission (including 600-plus stories for a monster erotica anthology), and what it took to publish for three years with no arts funding. It's a conversation about burnout, reading slumps, paying artists, and why the horror community turned out warmer than comics ever was. Plus three graphic novels that will convert any horror reader.

In this episode:

• From COVID comic-shop catalogue to Canada's first horror bookstore
• Burnout, reading slumps and why paying artists breaks both
• Reading every submission — including 600-plus for a monster erotica anthology
• Three years of self-funded publishing to reach arts-funding eligibility
• Graphic novel recommendations and the warmth of the horror community

Guest links:

→ https://www.littleghostsbooks.com

→ https://www.instagram.com/littleghostsbooks

—

→ Listen on all platforms: https://pod.link/1831627966

→ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBRjKMVTI9g9dYHn-G1Eib-LfKLZso6_

→ Follow: https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

→ V13 Media: https://v13.net

→ V13 Store: https://v13.store

→ The Cherale (horror novella): https://a.co/d/1SZhhwS

→ V13 newsletters: https://v13.net/newsletter/

Subscribe, and then go spend something at a local indie bookstore; Chris would tell you that's where the whole ecosystem starts.

Greg Amici is a singer-songwriter with one of music's stranger comeback arcs — fronting NYC's Big Honey until a vocal polyp ended it, then sixteen years of screenwriting and acting before his debut solo album Tragicomic arrived on Magic Door in 2025. He joins Lance Marwood on MAKE // BREAK to talk about the 1983 rejection letter that told him he'd make it, the surgery that turned out to be nothing after months of silence, why he hires people for what he can't do, and the freedom of making music with no expectations left. Dare to fail, control what you can, and if you can't not do it — keep going.

In this episode:

• The 1983 rejection letter and the label-deal era
• The CMJ vocal polyp that ended Big Honey
• Sixteen years of screenwriting, acting and bouncing in LA
• Coming back with Tragicomic and no expectations
• Independence, control and daring to fail

Guest links:

→ https://www.gregamici.com

→ https://www.instagram.com/gregamicimusic

—

→ Listen on all platforms: https://pod.link/1831627966

→ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBRjKMVTI9g9dYHn-G1Eib-LfKLZso6_

→ Follow: https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

→ V13 Media: https://v13.net

→ V13 Store: https://v13.store

→ The Cherale (horror novella): https://a.co/d/1SZhhwS

→ V13 newsletters: https://v13.net/newsletter/

Subscribe, and if you like this one, pass it to the artist in your life who's been sitting on finished work. Greg would tell them to put it out.

Chip McCabe is back on MAKE // BREAK — the horror author behind Kindred (as Creed Woodhouse), founder of The Metal Dad, and host of The Fiendish Five podcast. Part 2 with Lance Marwood picks up where Part 1's hard stop cut things off: whether Kindred is really extreme horror, the books and films that actually stick, writing novels while raising four kids, and pitching fiction in an era of AI-generated books and paid review offers. From Pet Sematary to Longlegs to the collapse of the review economy, it's a conversation about protecting the craft when the industry stops rewarding it.

In this episode:

• Extreme horror vs occult folk horror — where Kindred really sits
• Writing novels while raising four kids, and getting time back
• AI-generated books, duped publishers and paid review offers
• Review ethics and the post-COVID review drought
• Pet Sematary, Longlegs and the horror that actually sticks

Guest links:

→ https://themetaldad.com

→ https://www.instagram.com/creedwoodhouse

—

→ Listen on all platforms: https://pod.link/1831627966

→ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBRjKMVTI9g9dYHn-G1Eib-LfKLZso6_

→ Follow: https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

→ V13 Media: https://v13.net

→ V13 Store: https://v13.store

→ The Cherale (horror novella): https://a.co/d/1SZhhwS

→ V13 newsletters: https://v13.net/newsletter/

Subscribe, and if this episode earned it, leave an honest review — Chip and Lance would both tell you that's the only kind worth having.

John W. Sharpe is the co-author of BASSically Speaking, the forthcoming memoir of Nashville bassist Dave Fowler, coming from V13 Press. A retired magazine publisher with a self-described helter-skelter résumé — water purification patents, early-internet SEO, a Tennessee neighbourhood magazine — Sharpe met Fowler on the Rock Legends Cruise in 2018, wrote a half-page article about him, and the conversation never stopped. He talks with Lance Marwood on MAKE // BREAK about six years chronicling a forty-year career, negotiating what stays out of the story, and telling Dave three times to find another writer — and why Dave refused.

In this episode:

• The chronology problem — writing a forty-year career the musician half-remembers
• Creative flow, resistance, and the five minutes that become two hours
• Negotiating what stays out of the book — when to push and when to back off
• Trying to quit three times, and the answer that kept the book alive

Guest links:

→ https://press.v13.net/releases/bassically-speaking-by-dave-fowler/

→ https://press.v13.net/newsroom/from-small-town-roots-to-global-stages-dave-fowler-teams-with-v13-press-for-memoir-bassically-speaking/

—

→ Listen on all platforms: https://pod.link/1831627966

→ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUBRjKMVTI9g9dYHn-G1Eib-LfKLZso6_

→ Follow: https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

→ V13 Media: https://v13.net

→ V13 Store: https://v13.store

→ The Cherale (horror novella): https://a.co/d/1SZhhwS

→ Newsletters: https://v13.net/newsletter/

Subscribe and leave a review — and if you're deep in a long project of your own, The Green Room is free artist development from V13, and it's where these conversations continue: https://www.skool.com/v13-7161

Episode 021 – Chip McCabe | MAKE // BREAK

Chip McCabe (aka Creed Woodhouse, his fiction pen name) has spent decades covering extreme music and horror for outlets like Metal Insider and the Chicago Tribune, while running The Metal Dad and hosting The Fiendish Five podcast. After the gloriously unhinged 666 Days of Metal, he's just released his debut horror novel, Kindred. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK with host Lance Marwood, Chip opens up about the gatekeeping of traditional publishing, why he quietly self-released under a pen name to chase honest feedback, and the disciplined five-week writing regimen that finally beat his self-doubt and got the book done. It's a candid, funny conversation about the loneliness of the craft, discovery writing, and refusing to run real art through an AI machine.

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you'll hear

Why traditional publishing is gatekept to the core, and what that means for a first-time novelist trying to break in

How a five-week nightly writing regimen turned a decade of false starts into a finished 98,000-word novel

The case for a pen name, and using it to chase genuinely honest feedback from people who already know you

Why discovery writing beats over-outlining, and how the best plot turns surprise even the writer who made them

A candid take on refusing generative AI in creative work, and how both hosts can spot it a mile away

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Meet Chip McCabe aka Creed Woodhouse

01:43 Writing Kindred during the pandemic and cold feet

05:16 Self-publishing versus indie and major publishers

10:50 The lonely road and creative self-doubt

13:50 Using a pen name for honest feedback

16:02 Being your own worst critic

21:50 The five-week writing regimen

26:49 Outliner versus discovery writing

30:04 Writing by hand in the age of AI

31:42 The ChatGPT cover letter and refusing AI in fiction

🔗 Guest Links

https://themetaldad.com/

https://www.instagram.com/creedwoodhouse/

https://www.facebook.com/creedwoodhouse/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/57677927.Creed_Woodhouse

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

[Note: contains explicit language]

#MakeBreak #ChipMcCabe #HorrorWriting

Episode 020 – Sean Martin | MAKE // BREAK

Sean Martin is the vocalist, guitarist, and executive producer behind The Quarantined, a grunge/punk/metal project rooted in socially critical songwriting and real lived experience. A U.S. Army Airborne Infantry veteran who deployed to Iraq with the 3/509th, Sean channeled his post-service recovery into music, graduating from Musicians Institute in Hollywood and building The Quarantined from the ground up across LA, Florida, Boston, and Nashville. The band's latest album, Aversion to Normalcy, was recorded at Blackbird Studios with producer Nathan Yarborough (Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Evanescence) and has surpassed 900,000 Spotify streams and 40 million TikTok views.

In this episode, Sean gets into what it really takes to make uncompromising art as an independent artist — from surviving the DIY grind to turning trauma into something that resonates worldwide.

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you'll hear

• Hear how Sean turned an Iraq deployment and a Musicians Institute degree into a fully independent grunge project
• Unpack how Aversion to Normalcy got cut at Blackbird Studios with producer Nathan Yarborough on a DIY budget
• Break down the TikTok and Spotify run that pushed The Quarantined past 40M views and 900K streams
• Trace the move across LA, Florida, Boston, and Nashville and what that grind actually costs an artist
• Talk veteran mental health, PTSD, and writing songs that double as survival tools instead of branding
• Get tactical on what professionalism, content discipline, and audience-building look like with no label in the room

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Cold open and intro

01:30 Iraq deployment to Musicians Institute

06:45 Starting The Quarantined in LA

13:10 Moving the project to Nashville

19:20 Tracking Aversion to Normalcy at Blackbird Studios

25:40 Working with producer Nathan Yarborough

32:15 The 40 million TikTok view run

38:50 Hitting 900K Spotify streams independently

45:30 Veteran mental health and PTSD songwriting

52:00 DIY systems for music business survival

58:25 What it costs to keep going

01:04:10 Recalibration and what's next

🔗 Guest Links

https://www.thequarantined.com

https://www.instagram.com/thequarantined

https://www.tiktok.com/@thequarantined

https://www.youtube.com/@thequarantined

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

[Contains explicit language and discussion of combat experience and mental health.]

#MakeBreak #SeanMartin #TheQuarantined

Episode 019 – Mark Winters | MAKE // BREAK

Mark Winters is a Texas-based singer-songwriter, poet, and former aerospace engineer who traded rocket science for rock with a positive vibe. Since his 2019 debut Slipstream, he's released four albums, built a loyal fanbase of over 36K monthly Spotify listeners, and launched his own label, Bernoulli Records. Now midway through a 107-date Good Vibes Highway Tour across the US and Canada, Mark is doing it all independently: writing, booking, touring, and looking forward to sharing some extra protons while out on the road.

In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, he unpacks what it means to start a music career later in life, the unglamorous systems behind sustainable DIY touring, and why positivity is a strategy, not a cliché.

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you'll hear

• Hear how Mark Winters left aerospace engineering to chase the music business and build Bernoulli Records from scratch
• Learn the Instagram discipline host Lance Marwood and Mark dissect for organic growth without follow-for-follow gimmicks
• Unpack the booking timeline, venue myths, and community-first systems behind a 107-date Good Vibes Highway run
• Steal the two-week sprint method Mark uses to A/B test reels and find his highest converting content
• Wrestle with AI, AGI, and what it means to be human alongside a former rocket scientist turned songwriter
• Decide when ambition becomes hobby and how to know whether to push, pivot, or step away

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Meet Mark Winters and Bernoulli Records

01:24 Booking a 107-date DIY tour

02:42 Industry illusions vs the reality of artist development

06:43 Why venues don't deliver community

08:13 Email capture and converting cover gigs to fans

10:24 Picking Instagram as the home base

14:45 The brutal discipline of judging your own content

16:15 Two-week sprint method for testing reels

25:39 The physics of positivity

30:00 AI, AGI, and what it means to be human

39:23 When to push, pivot, or quit

49:05 Good Vibes Highway Tour close

🔗 Guest Links

https://markwintersmusic.com

https://www.instagram.com/markwintersmusic/

https://www.tiktok.com/@markwintersmusic

https://www.youtube.com/c/markwintersmusic

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

Subscribe for new MAKE // BREAK episodes and drop a comment about your own home-base platform versus your discovery channels.

#MakeBreak #MarkWinters #DIYTouring

Episode 018 – Samantha Willman | MAKE // BREAK

Samantha Willman is a Canadian writer, designer, and editor based in Montréal. She co-founded and co-edits Romanticon, a Substack literary magazine dedicated to neo-romanticism and new sincerity, alongside Anthony Galluzzo, Paul Franz, and Matthew Gasda. She also publishes Marbl, a personal newsletter exploring intimacy, symbolism, and the interior life. Her 2016 book Behind The First One was published through the Canadian Academy in Rome. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, Samantha unpacks why irony culture has hollowed out creative life, how she built a thriving 60-person poetry reading series from nothing, and why approaching truth with love (not optimization) is the real survival strategy for artists.

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you'll hear

• Why writing poetry in Rome unlocked a felt sense of truth she couldn't access through logic alone
• How the new sincerity movement pushes back against layers of ironic artifice in online culture
• Building a 60-person poetry reading community from scratch with zero formal plan
• The case for keeping a day job so you can approach your art from love instead of desperation
• How Rilke wrote two masterworks in weeks and what that says about creative production vs. productivity
• Why philosophia means love of truth — and why that changes everything about how artists create

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction and how Lance discovered Samantha

03:00 Why poetry is hard to recommend and harder to consume

05:16 Writing poetry in Rome and the birth of creative instinct

08:59 Charles Taylor, intrinsic rightness, and felt truth

10:33 Favourite poets: Plath, Octavio Paz, Wallace Stevens

14:17 Neo-romanticism and new sincerity explained

19:17 Irony culture, meme politics, and the Vice magazine pipeline

22:41 Argumentation vs. dialogue — methods of thinking

30:00 Building Romanticon's live reading community

37:34 Why the Enlightenment was top-down and Romanticism is not

42:22 The starving artist myth and creating from a place of health

45:16 Rilke, the Sonnets to Orpheus, and creative production in bursts

🔗 Guest Links

https://romanticon.substack.com

https://marbl.substack.com

https://instagram.com/sam.willman

https://x.com/samanthawillman

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

Subscribe and tell us in the comments: do you think sincerity is the real counterculture right now?

[Contains occasional explicit language.]

#MakeBreak #SamanthaWillman #NewSincerity

Episode 017 – Peter Mahoney | MAKE // BREAK

Peter Mahoney is a Toronto-based guitarist, recording engineer, and DJ rooted in the city's punk and hardcore underground. As guitarist for Workers Comp (who deliberately pulled their music from streaming in favour of Bandcamp) and a collaborator in UNWELL alongside Cursed/Burning Love/SECT vocalist Chris Colohan, Peter has spent two decades navigating pay-to-play scams, revolving lineups, and the real cost of making loud, fast music on your own terms. He also runs House of Trash, offering affordable recording and mixing to DIY bands. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, Peter opens up about losing bassist Nick, rebuilding through grief, rejecting social media pressure, and why community built on genuine friendship outlasts every trend.

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you'll hear

• Discover how Peter identified pay-to-play scams and industry gatekeepers as a teenager in Toronto
• Learn why Workers Comp pulled their music from streaming and what they use instead
• Hear the gut-wrenching story of losing bassist Nick and deciding to keep the band alive
• Explore what community really looks like when you strip away the buzzwords and trend-chasers
• Find out why Peter built House of Trash to record bands affordably on his own terms
• Understand the internal resistance artists face when social media becomes a second unpaid job

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Cold open: the real cost of playing music

00:51 Single Release Playbook promo

01:15 Meet Peter Mahoney — guitarist, engineer, cat dad

05:31 Early illusions about the music industry

09:42 Pay-to-play shows and industry scams in Toronto

13:21 Joining the wrong bands and learning to say no

19:28 Building community and finding the right people

25:27 Defining success on your own terms

33:34 The shit sandwich: social media and self-promotion

43:37 Leaving Spotify and the case for Bandcamp

51:53 Recording at House of Trash and learning to engineer

58:04 Losing Nick and pivoting through grief

1:06:15 Shameless plugs, upcoming shows, and final wisdom

🔗 Guest Links

https://youreentitledtoworkerscomp.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/workerscompband/

https://unvvell.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/house.of_trash/

https://www.instagram.com/vernaltrash/

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

Subscribe and drop a comment: when have you had to pivot instead of quit in your own creative life?

[Explicit language throughout.]

#MakeBreak #Mahoney #DIYPunk

Episode 016 – Paul Thomas Van Valkenburgh | MAKE // BREAK

Paul Van Valkenburgh is the vocalist and frontman of hard rock and groove-metal outfit TubeFreeks. On MAKE // BREAK with host Lance Marwood, he breaks down the music business realities of keeping a long-running band alive: the early “make” spark, the “break” moments of lineup shifts and stalled momentum, and the habits that rebuild trust. Paul shares how writing during recovery from major surgery reshaped his confidence, why vocal coaching levelled up his delivery, and how delegation protects both the work and the people. He also previews the next chapter, including the upcoming single “Flower” and the album Canvas, co-written with Clint Lowery (Sevendust).

🎯 ONE MORE THING // free, weekly, zero fillerV13 runs three newsletters: one for artists building a career on their own terms (Industry Insider), one for writers who refuse to be ignored (Verse & Vision), and one weekly roundup of music, entertainment, culture & literature (V1LLAG3 Voice). Pick your lane, or take all three.→ https://v13.net/newsletter

👀 What you’ll hear

• Trace the moment TubeFreeks stopped being a project and became a real band
• Break down how a lineup collapse killed momentum, and what rebuilt it
• Learn why coaches and co-writers raised standards without flattening Paul’s voice completely
• Hear an in-house vocal recording process that avoids clock pressure and fixes phrasing fast
• Steal the anti-Franken-song veto rule that keeps great ideas from getting overworked
• Get the scoop on Flower and Canvas, and what a big 2026 slot means

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 TubeFreeks origin and the MAKE // BREAK frame

00:33 Make moment and the first riffs that made it feel real

05:19 Switching from drums to frontman mindset

08:06 Band chemistry, no-drama lineups, and why personnel is everything

15:32 Momentum collapse, touring stops, and rebuilding after a lineup split

24:34 Health crisis, recovery writing, and confidence after The Dry Tide

31:38 Delegation, coaches, and co-writing with Clint Lowery

39:15 In-house studio workflow and vocal takes without clock pressure

43:50 Vocal writing: cadence, phonics, and chasing cool

51:37 Lyric risk, emotion, and the God hear me out chorus decision

56:01 Franken-effing a song and the veto rule that protects great ideas

1:03:16 New single Flower, album Canvas, and opening for Black Stone Cherry

🔗 Guest Links

https://tubefreeks.com/

https://www.instagram.com/tubefreeksrocks/

https://www.youtube.com/user/Tubefreeks

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gCE3tYHEDORDZLDQdimlp

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

Subscribe, and comment: would you use the band-veto rule, or does it kill songs?

[Mild profanity]

#MakeBreak #TubeFreeks #MusicBusiness