Buy Sam’s Books and preorder GALLOWAY’S GOSPEL

Something’s Wrong in the Hudson Valley

Guys, if there’s one thing I’ve been consistent on when it comes to author Sam Rebelein, it’s dragging my ass — to my own detriment. Back when his debut novel EDENVILLE released last about a year ago, I heard great things about it, listened to Sam talk about it on podcasts, and failed to actually read the thing.

So when I heard THE POORLY MADE AND OTHER THINGS was imminent and ostensibly a prequel, I knew this time around, I wasn’t going to miss my chance to get Sam on to talk. And hell, I can see why Becky Spratford raved about this collection on my 2025 Horror Preview episode!

This book is a collection of short stories centralized in Renfield County in upstate New York, where things, at some point, went sour. There are legends of a brutal killing that may have cursed the land. Or at least things aren’t always what they seem in the area. Whether you believe the rumors or not, just be sure to avoid the old fella who sits in the bathtub on the roadside.

In this episode as we talk about the book, we explore the idea of spoiled earth narratives and the concept of spoiled land — be it hungry or angry. We talk about author shared universes and how Sam wrote his books to all work together in the same geographical locus.

And of course, we talked about punching nazis a bit. How’s that saying go? If you see one, punch one. I think that’s right.

Ah! But back to the original point. Dragging my ass. This conversation was recorded in the beginning of March (a month marked by intense podcast recording activity, which pushed the inevitable release of this great conversation out by weeks and weeks. Apologies everyone for keeping this gem from you. It’s a doozy.)

But it all works out! Because even though this is a discussion about THE POORLY MADE, really it’s also promotion for GALLOWAY’S GOSPEL which drops this September.

So it all shakes out, see? And with that, I hope you enjoy this episode.

Here you go, YouTube snobs:

Preorder signed copies here!

Hey, neighbor!

When I heard Todd Keisling — an author I knew as a writer of Appalachian horror/cosmic horror — was writing a book about a widower moving to a retirement home… I couldn’t resist. There was no way this was going to be anything but awesome. And I was right, but Todd also plunged his hand into my chest and ripped my still-beating heart out. Which is to say that even though I knew what I was in for, I didn’t know what was coming.

I know I tend to dwell on the more emotionally significant aspects of stories, and man, this was a Venus fly trap for my sentimental mind. Grief, control, dignity, all explored in this talk of an old man who just wants to be left alone to die. From the first few pages, Todd had me feeling the grief of a man who lived a full life with his love, and lost her. A grief I didn’t earn, but I felt anyway.

But it’s not all doldrums. In this interview, we talked about bunch about the classic film The ‘Burbs, and how it was an inspiration for the “something’s not quite right” vibe in this sleepy retirement community… with a meteorite smack-dab in the middle of it. Todd describes it as a pulpy story, and I gotta agree.

All in all, Todd balances the pulp, the feels, and the cosmic madness perfectly, leaving you at once very emotional, a little off, and just fully satisfied from such a great reading experience.

Be sure to follow the preorder link above to get yourself a copy of this amazing book. You’ll be supporting a small publisher, and you’ll get some extra goodies too, I believe.

For the YouTube folks:

Preorder directly from This Is Horror

I was on ‘Naked Attraction’

Michael David Wilson has established himself as a horror institution over the last decade and a half, and so naturally when there’s a new novel out with his name on it, it’s gonna be horror right? Nah. But don’t let that deter you, horror heads, because this is a dame fine read even if it’s lacking in vampires or werewolves.

DADDY’S BOY opens with a down on his luck thirty year old on line at the bank to get a loan to pay his landlord, as well as for his legal expenses for his recently lost custody battle over his cat. Things couldn’t get much worse for Wentworth. Until Norman comes into his life with promises of a windfall that nobody could refuse.

Only, it’s not that kind of story, and Norman isn’t much good at much. Especially cooking sausages.

Michael David Wilson weaves a story of clumsy heists, dangerous neighbors, poorly cooked food, and the worst of family ties. Does anybody come out of it better? You’ll have to read it to know. What I can tell you is that it’s a cheeky, fun read and you’ll have a good time with it even if you don’t know why Jeremy Corbyn is.

If you’re looking for a dark wit, absurd humor, and poignant thoughts about what life is all about, and what it means to be a father, this is your book.

For the YouTube folks:

Buy this book and support the podcast!

This guy walks into a bar…

Nick Kolakowski has been in the writing business for a long time, and his come up has been sort of split between horror and crime. He’s got impressive credentials in horror and crime anthologies and magazines, as well as his own published works.

The book of the hour, however, is solidly, fantastically a crime book. Detective, to be more specific. So I got to chat with Nick about the scene, working with Datura as a publisher, and of course, a former Hollywood fixer turned failed comedian, who decides to find redemption as a private dick. To mixed results.

Nick’s life experience as a Hollywood reporter adds delightful cynicism and a layer of grime to the depiction of celebrities in the book, and a plucked from the headlines plot line about remains found in barrels in drying up lakes pushes us north into California wine country where things get hot (because of wild fires) and heavy (because of murders.)

I thought this book was great, and I’m obsessed with the concept for another book in this little universe, so you all know what to do. Go buy a billion copies, leave reviews, and make this book a success so we get more in the future!

For those who like YouTube-ing:

Buy Jon’s Books!

Reunited after all these years

The last time I interviewed Jon Bassoff about a book, Barack Obama was president. Yeah.

Jon has had a rewarding career of great book releases since then, and when I saw the synopsis for THE MEMORY WARD, I knew I had to read it and get him back on a call to catch up.

This book is going to invite comps like crazy, to stuff like Stepford Wives, Truman Show, and other classic stories about manipulation, control, and the fallibility of our own memories. I even added Memento and The Number 23 to the list in this conversation. So naturally if those things interest you, you should immediately buy this book and tear through it.

But know that it’s a story that is its own beast, and doesn’t ape other stories or sit in a trope. It’s a deftly crafted timeline of suspicion, paranoia, deception, and the need to feel in control of our own lives. The setting feels very 1950s, but it’s also modern, giving it an eerily manufactured setting which starts you and keeps you on edge.

I thought it was delightful, and Jon didn’t just hand us a story, he gave us a puzzle to try to figure out, all the way to the last sentence. Just great stuff.

Coming up on the podcast

I have a lot of irons in fires and so here are some of the names you can look forward to seeing/hearing soon: Nick Kolakowski, Sam Rebelein, Michael David Wilson, Drew Huff, Tim Waggonner, and a lot more!

For those who prefer YouTube:

Get your copy of Death on the Swayback (hopefully)

Shop for Chris’ other books on my Bookshop page

Love At First Day of the Convention

I want to tell you a story about a boy and a boy. It all started one afternoon in the most romantic of locations, the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel. I was attending Authorcon 4, my first Authorcon. And there, across the sea of tables filled with horror books, was a dreamy man in a plaid shirt looking a little too much like Chuck Palahniuk or a “cool” teacher… Chris Panatier.

Anyway I had heard him on podcasts talking about his novel THE REDEMPTION OF MORGAN BRIGHT, and not only did the book sound awesome, he just sounded like a good dude. And I’m here to tell you he is. And if this little chapbook that we eventually got around to talking about after an hour or so of banter is any indicator, dude is a hell of a good writer too.

So I left St Louis with lots of feelings. Feeling sleepy, much poorer, and like there were some podcasts that needed to happen. Clay McLeod Chapman was on the list, Jonathan Janz was (and is) on the list, and Chris Panatier was most fucking certainly on the list.

But I have gone on long enough without acknowledging a few things about this episode that you absolutely must take into consideration.

* Dude watches birds like it’s his job.

* His job is actually practicing law.

* We have a mutual and significant hatred for nazis/fascists/these bully bitches in office, and we didn’t hesitate to talk about it FOR. A. WHILE.

Bob Pastorella once crowned me the King of Conversational Podcasting, and this is the most obvious of attempts to retain jealously grip that crown against my head (over the hat, natch).

I hope you enjoy this conversation, and when the situation presents itself, that you fill your fist with love - and let those Nazis have it.

For those of you who prefer watching the YouTubes (the Ted Stevenses of the world if you will):

Preorder Special Backstage Package from Truborn

Preorder the regular edition from Truborn

Punk is horror. Horror is punk.

Though there seems to be a particular empathy between punk music and horror, the concern could be, if you were to collect a bunch of horror stories themed to punk rock songs, wouldn’t they all just be the same thing - more or less?

Not when William Sterling and his band of scribes get together, because one of my favorite things about this anthology is how unique of an approach each author took to the assignment.

A particular standout is Liz Kerin’s story Down By the Water (inspired by the PJ Harvey song?) In which a girl rebels against her controlling parent - which seems pretty foundational punk - only the whole story seems set on some fairy tale seaside community with witches and sea monsters (maybe). Such a creative approach to the theme of the book!

There are fourteen more songs beside, and I’ll let you discover them on your own. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed the book, and loved to have William Sterling and Brian McAuley on to give some insight into the book’s inception through it’s upcoming release.

I’ll plug once more ordering from one of the above links directly from Truborn. In times like these, creative folk need all the direct support they can get. If you order the Backstage Package, I think you even get a backstage pass!

For the YouTuberly folks:

Preorder THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS

Five friends go into the woods, four come out.

I’ve been reading Chuck Wendig books since the early 2010s, when he had back to back releases of BLACKBIRDS and MOCKINGBIRD, the first two books in the Miriam Black series of (six) books. Since then, I’ve read piles of his stories adding up to thousands of pages. Psychics, AI, Jedis, Pandemics, Serial Killers… he’s covered a lot of ground. But there’s something about this story. Something more than it appears. Something beneath the surface.

This is a story that is best read unspoiled, so our main conversation avoids anything that would taint the read. Even so, we talk about friendship, parenting, trauma, and of all things Homestar Runner. It is a captivating talk! But that’s not all!

Let’s Get Spoiled

It’s not even hard for me to say that this is my favorite book of Chuck’s. THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS is an impressive achievement. So much so that I felt compelled to get Chuck to do an episode of The After Party, the spoiler-rich series that is available exclusively on this site. So once you’ve read the book, be sure to check out the Chuck Wendig episode of The After Party!

Buy lots of Chuck Wendig books

For the YouTube folks out there:

Introducing: Three Chapters a Day with Ryan McRae

My good friend Ryan McRae is an avid reader like myself, but he goes in for a different type of story. While I’m mucking around in horror and crime, Ryan is traveling to other worlds and universes and realities in the pages of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.

Recently, Ryan had an opportunity to get an early look at the new book by TJ Klune, called THE BONES BENEATH MY SKIN and chat with Mr Klune about it. It was Ryan’s first time conducting an author interview, and if you ask me he killed it.

The Bones Beneath my skin is available today! Buy it HERE

Support Ryan!

If you’re into conversation with great sci-fi and fantasy authors (more to come soon!), advice on reading and writing, and more, you should support what Ryan is doing, and here are a few ways you can do that:

Subscribe to his Substack: https://substack.com/@ryanmcrae

Subscribe to his YouTube: Three Chapters a Day

For the folks who prefer YouTube:

Streamin and Dreamin

In the looming orange-tinged shadows of the current political situation, six lovers-of-story got together to have a chat about books.

Why? Because first of all: they love books.

Second of all: Because books shine light on darkness, give voices to those silenced, record history for those erased, recognize those unseen, and punch fucking nazis.

So, six people, ten books each, two hours and fifteen minutes. Strap in folks, because it’s a massive download of information in a relatively short amount of time, and you’re going to want to pay attention, because you’re getting recommendations from some of the most refined palates in the world of book tastemaking that are making taste these days:

* Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror)

* Haley “Spoonie Reads”

* Peg/Marguerite Turley

* Tiffany “Conlibros” Gonzalez

* Greg Greene (igreggreene)

* and… myself. Robb Olson

All The Books Mentioned

Order all these books!

* VICTORIAN PSYCHO by Virgina Fieto

* THE LAMB by Lucy Rose

* THE CONTORTIONIST’S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger

* ROSE OF JERICHO by Alex Grecian

* BETA VULGARIS by Margie Sarsfield

* THE LEAST OF MY SCARS by Stephen Graham Jones

* THE CRIMSON ROAD by A. G. Slatter

* WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME by Nat Cassidy

* THE POORLY MADE AND OTHER THINGS by Sam Rebelein

* THE THIRD RULE OF TIME TRAVEL by Philip Fracassi

* THE COVEN TENDENCY by Zoe Hana Mikuta

* THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY by Stephen Graham Jones

* THE LIBRARY AT HELLEBORE by Cassandra Khaw

* THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 by Erika T. Wurth

* THE LEAST OF MY SCARS by Stephen Graham Jones

* BREATHE IN, BLEED OUT by Brian McAuley

* FREAKSLAW by Jane Flett

* THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones

* BLOOD ON HER TONGUE by Johanna Van VeenEat

* THE ONES YOU LOVE by Sarah Maria Griffin

* NIGHT OF THE WITCH HUNTER by Patrick Barb

* ANGEL DOWN by Daniel Kraus

* THEIR MONSTROUS HEARTS by Yigit Turhan

* MAPPING THE INTERIOR by Stephen Graham Jones

* THE POSSESSION OF ALBA DÍAZ by Isabel Cañas

* POLYBIUS by Colin Armstrong

* THE SUNDOWNER’S DANCE by Todd Keisling

* VANISHING DAUGHTERS by Cynthia Pelayo

* BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG by Kylie Lee Baker

* KILLER ON THE ROAD/THE BABYSITTER LIVES by Stephen Graham Jones

* THE LAMB by Lucy Rose

* FEEDERS by Matthew Serafini

* THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS by Chuck Wendig

* ANOTHER FINE MESS by Lindy Ryan

* BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL by VE Schwab

* LOST IN THE DARK AND OTHER EXCURSIONS by John Langan

* THE BEWITCHING by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

* THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER by David Demchuk

* EL DORADO DRIVE by Megan Abbott

* ARTIST OF BLACKBERRY GRANGE by Paulette Kennedy

* THE FACELESS THINGS WE ADORE by Hester Steel

* CATHEDRAL OF THE DROWNED by Nathan Ballingrud

* THE UNSEEN by Ania Ahlborn

* PLAY NICE by Rachel Harrison

* FIEND by Alma Katsu

* FERAL & HYSTERICAL: MOTHER HORROR’S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO DARK AND DISTURBING FICTION BY WOMEN by Sadie Hartmann

* MOONFLOW by Bitter Karella

* LITTLE HORN: STORIES by Gemma Files

* THE GHOST WOODS by C. J. Cooke

* THE UNWORTHY by Augustina Bazterrica

* THE NIGHT THAT FINDS US ALL by John Hornor Jacobs

* NIGHT BIRDS by Christopher golden

* THE MEAN ONES by Tatiana Sclote-Bonne

* FIEND by Alma Katsu

* JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang

* MAYRA by Nicky Gonzalez

* CATHEDRAL OF THE DROWNED by Nathan Ballingrud

* THE LONG LOW WHISTLE by Laurel Hightower

* CRAFTING FOR SINNERS by Jenny Kiefer

* THE AUTUMN SPRINGS RETIREMENT HOME MASSACRE by Philip Fracassi

Order all these books!

For those of you who prefer YouTube: