The ARC Party

Joshua Millican was first introduced to me through his novella TELEPORTASM, part of Shortwave Publishing’s great series Killer VHS.

What became immediately clear about Josh from reading TELEPORTASM is that he is talented. He knows writing, he’s skilled at storytelling, and he can take something as absurd as euphoric teleportation and take it to hilarious, compelling, emotional, or existentially terrifying places. His talent shines through.

This is the case for DOPEFOOT, a story about a college dropout who goes to work on a Northern California weed farm that might be a cult, in a region where there may be killer clowns, cryptids, and militant Lithuanians.

DOPEFOOT is a serious, funny, frightening look at an untamed and perhaps untame-able region of the United States. It’s a romp, it’s a ride, and you won’t see the end coming.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and please be sure to preorder DOPEFOOT today!

For the folks who prefer the YouTube experience:

Introducing Virtual StokerCon 2026

Greg Greene joined me to talk briefly about the virtual programming for StokerCon 2026! We spend a little time explaining what the virtual con is, tease some of the content, and tell you what it costs and how to get it.

What you get

* Access to all 23 virtual panels for 2026

* Access to all 45 live streaming panels from StokerCon 2026

* Access to previous year’s recorded panels and live streams (all panels totaling around 200 panels!)

* Access to view the Final Frame Film Competition

You’ll have access all weekend 6/4 at 2pm Eastern to 6/7 at 2pm Eastern, AND an encore weekend of access from 6/11 to 6/14

How to buy

Virtual StokerCon access will cost you about $80 (with souvenir anthology is $106 domestically)

Adding virtual to your In-Person access costs about $44

A plug for Greg’s Threads of Dread

Make sure to head over to Greg’s Threads of Dread to get some of the best horror books themed shirts and merch that is out there. Greg partners with awesome authors to celebrate his favorite books.

Here’s the latest, for Paul Tremblay’s upcoming book DEAD BUT DREAMING OF ELECTRIC SHEEP

For the YouTube lovers:

Introducing: Horror TBR episodes!

This episode begins a new series of episodes on the podcast, where every month I will have someone on to talk about the books we’re excited for each month!

I have enjoyed doing my Horror Preview episodes with Becky Spratford and Emily Hughes - and those will continue! But I feel like there’s an opportunity to do more, and I’m taking that opportunity.

The format

Me and my guest will prepare a small list of books that we’re looking forward to releasing that month, and we’ll take turns sharing. It’s the same format as my Horror Preview episodes, but since it’s just a month, there’s more room to chat in between titles.

Preorder/buy/ask your library

I know everyone says that preordering is important, and we all kinda get that, but I don’t know if anyone knows what will or will not happen if preorder sales aren’t robust enough.

I don’t either, and I’ve been considering having an episode just on that topic. But until then, I will say that what I do know is that preorder strength can determine if Barnes & Noble chooses to stock a title in their stores for launch day. It’s a driving factor on stores in general doing pre-release bulk orders. If demand looks weak, they can always order it in. So. yeah, preordering can make or break a title.

June Releases!

Here are the books we talked about in this inaugural Horror TBR episode (in the order they were mentioned)

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay

Marion by Leah Rowan

The Instruction Manual to Being A Vampire by Craig Wallwork

Headlights by CJ Leede

Dopefoot by Joshua Millican

The Other by Annie Neugebauer

Marla by Jonathan Janz

Red X by David Demchuk

It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo

with honorable mentions to books Clay has blurbed:

Back Stabbers by Eliza Jabore

The Siren of Groves Peak by Glenn Rolfe

Going to the Six by AC Hessenauer

For the folks who prefer the YouTube experience:

I first met Josh Malerman in 2014, not long after the release of BIRD BOX. A friend, Nikki Guerlain, said “you gotta read this book, you’re going to love it.” Nikki was never wrong, so BIRD BOX got put on the roster for a review on my podcast, and through Nikki’s extensive connections, Josh agreed to join the podcast for an interview. I remember it was his Wife Allison’s birthday when the clock struck midnight and we were still on our call.

Twelve years, and more than a dozen books, multiple movies, albums, comic books, and who knows what else later and I still feel that same energy talking to Josh that was in the room, on the call, that first night.

It’s the same energy that is radiating off of his debut nonfiction book, Watching Evil Dead: Unearthing the Radiant Artist Within. It’s a reverence for creating, a joy of inspiration, a sense of accomplishment when your art is made. But fear not, much like the book, this conversation isn’t just a pile of toxic positivity. We talk about how hard making art can be. How challenging it is to find success. How doubt, fear, anxiety, hopelessness all haunt anyone who endeavors to tap ingenuity and result something new.

We keyed into an idea that I think is cool, worth thinking about. The feeling of being pulled forward by something. Almost as if we all hold in us some preternatural drive for craft.

I left this conversation feeling inspired. But more so than that, I left feeling proud of my accomplishments, and ready to tackle new things.

If you think you’re in the market for some of this feeling, I suggest you pick up your copy of Watching Evil Dead as quickly as possible. And if you’re into Audiobooks, Josh narrates this one.

For those of you who prefer YouTube:

David James Keaton has been a friend and a peer since the waning days of 2011. Back then, I was starting a podcast and didn’t really know what I was doing. He was promoting a book about zombies at a bed and breakfast and podcast were kinda brand new.

Since then I’ve read a ton of his books, he’s been on a ton of my podcasts, and we’ve even gone to a baseball game. But this is a first! Finally, the tables have turned and David has had me as a guest host on his podcast - Almost Good.

Almost Good is a podcast where David and a revolving door of guests talk about mostly recent movies - specifically movies that are “Almost good”. But maybe it’s just a way to give Dave license to be overly critical? Nah.

There’s a lot of wit and insight in his episodes, and it’s obvious that before he was a respected professor, or an established author, Dave spent a lot of time in video stores (as a customer and an employee) and had built not only a huge body of experience with movies, but also fine tuned his thoughts on what works and what doesn’t.

Usually I disagree with him (lay person that I am), but on this occasion, when Guillermo del Toro drops a Frankenstein, we managed to feel pretty similar about it. While I did have my gripes with the film, the conversation was great, and he even tricked me into talking about like 30 other movies he recently watched.

I hope you enjoy this conversation, and that you’re inspired to check out more of David’s podcast.

For the folks who prefer YouTube:

Rapture Party again?

Honestly, I really just wanted to have a chance to talk to Mitch and Chris again, so when Rapture announced a hefty double release for December, that was all I needed.

For those who are not aware, Rapture Publishing has created (and therefore dominated) the market for premium chapbooks, and for the last year has put out some great books. They’re beautiful, they’re rare, and the stories are great.

December Double Feature

Mitch wanted to do something special for the end of the year, and so he tapped his first two authors to do a big crossover deal. Philip Fracassi provided SERVITOR, and Tyler Jones a story called AXUM. To make this pairing even more special, Mitch had them write intros for each other’s books and they each wrote a tie-in piece for the other, which appear at the end of the books. These stories are also special because unlike the average Rapture story - which clocks in at an average of 5,000 words, both of these books broke 10,000 - which is tiptoeing toward novella length!

Check out the link above to read about the stories and get your order in. They’re limited to 260 copies, so waiting around isn’t recommended.

Daytide Daytide Daytide

I know we already talked about this in the previous Rapture episode, but this time we talked about the totally deranged decision by Mitch to create a second ARC of the book, which he limited to like 38 copies and made available only to his subscribers. This ARC has the full finished layout, and a bananas cover that incorporates Chris’ notes from when he was writing the book. It’s gorgeous, it’s rare, and it immediately punted me like 50 pages forward in my reading due to the additional illustrations, etc.

As a reminder, Daytide is a limited release, and does not come in a turpentine can. Hit my preorder button above to order it while you can. See what I did there?

Goodbye, 2025

That is going to wrap up 2025 for me. It feels like a hectic, bananas kind of year. Some firsts for me, such as talking to publishers as guests. The Alan Lastufka episode ended up being wildly popular, so if there are other publishers that you’d like to hear from feel free to let me know and I’ll see what can be done.

2026 seems like a year that will be populated less by the big go-to names in horror. This I’m excited for. What new exciting names will emerge? With less noise to overcome, who will shine? You can always go back one episode to see what my esteemed friends Becky Spratford and Emily Hughes are looking forward to. While you’re at it, be sure to watch Becky’s video about how readers and writers can get their favorite books on library shelves.

Thanks for your support this year. Here’s to making 2026 bigger, better, and happier.

For those of you who prefer watching the YouTubes:

2026 is around the corner, and if you’re worried you’ll have no idea what to read in the coming year, you can breathe easy. I’ve assembled a team of the most informed and well read folks to ease your book-finding burden.

Every six months, Emily Hughes, Becky Spratford, and myself congregate to share what we think some of the best upcoming books are going to be. We do every six months for two reasons: to keep the episodes short(ish), and because some of the books publishing in the later part of the year aren’t even announced yet. So we’re giving your ears a break and giving the less prompt of publishing announcements to get a fair shot of being discussed.

In this episode, we bring you 36 books to look forward to between January and June.

What can you do next? Preorder at the link above! Mark the books as to-read on Goodreads. Have your library order the books! Below, I’m sharing a video of Becky telling you as readers (or authors!) how to get your library to stock books you're excited for:

So please go preorder these books, have your library get them on their shelves, and engage with authors on social media! See if an author is coming to your area for a reading or event!

For the folks that prefer a YouTube link:

Recently, Sean O’Connor of Macabre Daily’s series Paper Cuts asked me to do an interview, and that’s what you get to hear/see today! Sean has been highlighting some of the folks in the horror community who do the work of promoting authors and publishers. So if you’re looking for other folks like me, if you want to expand your horizons of book-loving podcasters and influencers, I’d suggest checking out what Sean has going on over at Macabre Daily.

Also, check out the article that Sean wrote to go with this interview:

I am presenting here the same interview, for folks who may not have known about it. In it, Sean asks me about my origins, my methods, some of my favorite moments, and more. It was fun, and I hope a little peek at the life if the podcaster is interesting for you! I know it was a unique experience - to not be the one asking the questions.

For folks who prefer the YouTube:

Mitch Hull is a brewer and reader who loves books and reading, and is meticulous when he creates a thing. Chris Panatier has a unique and eye-catching artistic style that compliments the stories that Mitch finds.

Mitch is also kind of insane, and will get a wild hair to do something nobody’s ever done before… like using hand-marbled paper as dust jackets on his high quality chapbooks. Or hand-sewing the spines of his lettered editions using thread he painstakingly chose.

Or making book slipcases out of turpentine cans

To clarify - this is just the presentation for the Advanced Reader Copies - this isn’t what the final product will look like. I’ve seen the final cover and it’s DIVINE.

Rapture has a sort of IYKYK reputation - those of us in the know are raving. And they’re only getting started! While Mitch did say that he’s already lined up about ten authors for 2026, DAYTIDE is an ambitious move into high-quality collectible novel publication. I’m excited to see what the future holds from this ambitious duo.

I hope you enjoy this conversation, and that you go to Rapture’s website to get your copy of some of these awesome limited editions. And pre-order DAYTIDE while you can!

For the folks who prefer YouTube:

Waaaaaay back in early 2023, Adam Godfrey’s novella NARCISSUS landed on my radar. I don’t know how or why, but it caught my attention and I was hooked by that evocative cover image. Then by then hook of the story. So I read it and I loved it! Then I had to have Adam on and he talked about how great his experience was working with Shortwave Publishing.

So when Chloe Spencer’s novella MEWING caught my attention, I was ready to give it a chance on the strength of my previous experience with Adam’s book. Then I loved it and had her on! So when the next caught my attention… you can see where this is going.

So for a couple years I have had a very happy relationship with Shortwave. I’m on their reviewer list, I bought their subscription for 2025, and I’ve talked to like eight of their authors.

What made me finally break and ask Alan Lastufka to join me for a conversation was the very exciting news that Shortwave has signed a distribution deal with Simon & Schuster, which will be a game changer for them. Think of it - the Killer VHS series is gonna be on shelves at Barnes & Noble!

What’s great for listeners is that Alan shared a whole mess of details about his plans for what his existing titles will do in the future. He shared the fate of the chapbook series. He talked about specific revisions/reissues that are so exciting!

It’s a great story of how he got where he is today, and it’s packed with details about goodies coming in the future. What more could you ask for? Well, whatever it is, I’m sure Alan is working on it and it’s gonna be cooler than you would expect.

For the folks who prefer to watch on YouTube: