The Writers Chair

Kayleigh Dobbs turned up to her first horror convention too nervous to speak to anyone, accidentally called Ramsey Campbell "Mr. Ramsey," and somehow came away with a fire lit under her that she hasn't stopped feeding since. Four years later, she has a short story in a Bram Stoker Award nominated collection, heads on semi-regular cake-and-coffee trips with Tim Lebbon, and is a well-revered reviewer of indie horror.

Kayleigh is a writer, proofreader, and the founder of Happy Goat Horror — a review website and YouTube channel dedicated to horror fiction with a particular focus on indie publishing. In this conversation, she and Daniel dig into what horror actually is and why it matters, the community that makes the genre unlike any other, the complicated relationship between reviewing and writing, and why the most important thing any writer can do is write the book only they could write. Plus: an unexpected Britney Spears confession, a defence of the word "fuck," and a recommendation you almost certainly haven't heard of.

💀 What we get into:

• Kayleigh's origin story — from metal-loving teenager secretly bopping to Britney, to discovering indie horror fiction barely four years ago through Chillicon and Sinister Horror Company
• Why horror conventions feel nothing like fan conventions for film and TV
• The Tim Lebbon tangent: how a chance ask at a convention became a semi-regular cake-and-coffee friendship, and why Kayleigh thinks he deserves to be far more widely known
• Joe Hill's articulation of why horror makes sense of a senseless world
• Horror as the genre that does the most for empathy: representation of women, queer voices, Latinx horror, and why the stats on female directors in horror vs romance will surprise you
• The origin of Happy Goat Horror
• Indie vs traditional: what Kayleigh actually sees as a reviewer who reads across both
• Why authenticity on the page is something readers can feel
• AI, trends, and the only real defence a writer has: writing the most authentically human book they can
• Kayleigh's novel she's determined to finish, a nonfiction project she's keeping firmly under wraps, and learning to stop being horrible to herself about productivity

Links & Resources:

• HATCHING SEASON: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/submissions
• THE WRITERS ROOM: https://www.danielwillcocks.com/thewritersroom
• Happy Goat Horror: https://happygoathorror.com / https://www.youtube.com/@happygoathorror
• Tim Lebbon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99-ttJBeus&pp=0gcJCSgLAYcqIYzv
• Jonathan Janz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNzvZpwubQo&t=2908s
• Jamie Flanagan Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6e-Jgykckc
• Joe Hill Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU2iM1LIDw8&pp=0gcJCSgLAYcqIYzv
• Writer Resources: https://www.danielwillcocks.com/writers

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📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willcocksauthor 

🖥️ Find out more: https://danielwillcocks.com/thewriterschair

📚 About Kayleigh Dobbs

Kayleigh Dobbs is a writer and reviewer based in South Wales, with a focus on horror and comedy/horror. Her micro-collection The End, an apocalypse themed book of shorts from Black Shuck Shadows, was a 2024 Imadjinn Award Finalist for Best Collection. Her short story "TBR" is included in This Way Lies Madness, an anthology from Flame Tree that is currently a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and British Fantasy Award Finalist. She has a Masters Degree in Scriptwriting, though her focus shifted some years ago to more bookish formats, and she freelances as a proofreader and editor. 

Kayleigh runs Happy Goat Horror, a review website and YouTube channel for horror fiction, with a particular interest in indie horror fiction. On the YT channel, she posts reviews, themed lists, rankings, and creator interviews. Recent interviewees include screenwriter Jamie Flanagan and author Joe Hill.

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Dan Soule couldn't read properly until he was 11. He was profoundly dyslexic, functionally illiterate through most of his childhood. He went on to get a PhD in English and linguistics, spent seven years as a university academic, taught writing, quit — and then finally had enough free time to figure out how to write fiction. Horror wasn't the plan. It just kept buying his stories.

Dan Soule is a horror author based in Northern Ireland, born in England and raised in Byron's hometown of Southwell. His work spans literary fiction, science fiction, and horror, with short fiction appearing in Storgy, Shoreline of Infinity, Sanitarium Magazine, and Devolution Z, among others. His novels include Witch Hopper, a 150,000-word small-town folk horror rooted in Nottinghamshire mythology, and Jam, a tightly wound ensemble horror that asks what happens when a motorway traffic jam becomes something far worse.

This conversation covers the feedback loop that turned Dan into a horror writer, why he thinks of horror as the original master genre, the craft concept of "armature" and how it shapes every character in Jam, and why the indie/trad divide matters a lot less than whether the book is actually good.

💀 What we get into:

• From profound dyslexia to a PhD in English — and why writing never came easily even then
• How horror found Dan rather than the other way around: the magazines that kept buying his stories until he had to accept what he was writing
• Why Dan thinks horror is the master genre — older than any category we try to put it in, and leaking into everything
• Dean Koontz, Stephen Laws, M.R. Carey, Ronald Malfi, and Dan Simmons' The Terror — the authors who shaped Dan's taste for high-end pulp
• The three-category reality of modern publishing: indie, small press, and the big four — and why good and bad books exist in all three
• The "armature" concept: giving each character their own musical frequency, extended metaphor, and sentence cadence — and how Dan built this into Jam
• Where Jam came from: a tipsy thought on an empty Scottish motorway, liminal spaces, and a family lineage of serial killers
• Why ensemble horror — The Thing, The Mist — is the perfect structure for trapping a cast of strangers who'd never otherwise share a space
• Witch Hopper: Nottinghamshire's Green Man myth, vengeful grey ladies, and a father-son story built on local folklore
• Two book recommendations that aren't obvious: Scott Carson's The Chill and Easol Murphy's All of Me

Links & Resources:

• Dan Soule's website: dansoule.com
• Dan Soule on Instagram/Twitter: @writerdansoule
• Crystal Lake Publishing: crystallakepub.com
• Daniel Willcocks writer resources: danielwillcocks.com/writers
• Hatching Season charity anthology submissions: devilsrockbooks.com/submissions
• The Writer's Room (Tuesday writing sprints): danielwillcocks.com/the-writers-room
• Reedsy: reedsy.com

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📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks 🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468 💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About Dan Soule

Dan writes stories where ancient folklore crashes into the modern world—usually with devastating results. His work blends dark fantasy and horror, creating atmospheric tales that explore the messy intersection of myth and everyday life. Whether he's crafting vivid, unsettling worlds or diving into the complexity of human relationships, Dan's writing balances beautiful, lyrical prose with moments that will make you hold your breath. 

Growing up in Nottinghamshire, England, Dan fell in love with landscapes steeped in old stories and older mysteries—influences that run through much of his work. These days, he lives on the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland with his wife and two children, writing stories that continue to explore the dark corners where past and present meet.

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Jonathan Janz didn't read a single book until he was 14. He'd convinced himself he wasn't smart enough. Then he picked up a Stephen King novel — one King himself doesn't particularly like — and was completely transported. He's now written over a dozen horror novels, been championed by Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, and Joe Lansdale, and still pumps his fist alone in his office every time he writes something he's proud of. He encourages this in others.

Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels including The Siren and the Spectre, Children of the Dark, and Wolfland. His work has been championed by Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene, and recognised by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. He's also a full-time teacher — and that dual life shapes everything about how he reads, how he writes, and how he thinks about other people.

This is one of the most openly human conversations in the archive. Jonathan talks about self-doubt, mentorship, the mechanics of writing six hours a week during term time and going wild in the summer, and why the best advice he ever received was two words from a man who's no longer here to say them.

💀 What we get into:

* How a cold letter to Brian Keene in 2010 or 2011 became one of the most important relationships of Jonathan's writing life

* Jack Ketchum's two-word philosophy on fear — and why Jonathan returns to it every time he sits down to write

* Joe Lansdale's 90-minute phone call: the gut-punch of honest mentorship and why you need someone who tells you the truth in a Texas twang

* Why Jonathan still wakes up in the shower mentally cataloguing every mistake he's ever made — and what he does with that

* The Tommy Knockers, Robert McCammon, and how Jonathan learned that beautiful prose and immersive storytelling aren't mutually exclusive

* Writing six hours a week during the school year and still finishing a novel — the maths of constrained productivity

* Why first drafts are train wrecks and editing takes three times as long as writing

* Ryan Lewis, Josh Malerman, and the permission to celebrate the small wins without waiting for the big ones

* Reading diversely as a craft decision — and why Jonathan is honest about how narrow his reading used to be

* Using Marvel movies, Captain America, and Thor to have the conversations with his kids he doesn't know how to start otherwise

Links & Resources:

* Jonathan Janz's website: https://jonathanjanz.com

* Jonathan Janz on Instagram: @jonathan.janz

* Jonathan Janz on Twitter/X: @JonathanJanz

* Brian Keene: briankeene.com

* Joe R. Lansdale: https://joerlansdale.com

* Robert McCammon: https://robertmccammon.com

* Spin a Black Yarn (Malerman/Lewis): https://spinablackyarn.com

* Scares That Care Convention: https://scaresthatcare.org

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📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks 🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468 💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About Jonathan Janz

Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories. His work has been championed by authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene; he has also been lauded by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. His ghost story The Siren and the Specter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novel Children of the Dark was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year. Jonathan’s main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children. You can sign up for his newsletter, and you can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads.

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Julie Hiner emailed Daniel years ago to ask if she could read one of his short stories on YouTube — in full Gothic makeup, to her own audience, for free. That's how they met. Now they're co-writing a novel together. It's a pretty good case study in what happens when you just reach out to people you admire and lead with genuine enthusiasm rather than an ask.

Julie Hiner is an author, storyteller, and self-proclaimed horror movie expert based in Calgary, Canada. She writes a fusion of heavy metal and horror fiction that is entirely her own — serial killers, demons, extreme violence, and the particular emotional logic of Black Label Society — and has built a fiercely loyal readership doing live events with actual bands. Her novel Infested won a Benjamin Franklin Silver Award. Her new novella Stella's Scream, published by Crystal Lake's Torrid Waters imprint, is out now.

In this conversation, Dan and Julie cover the long arc of building an audience for aggressively niche work, what seven years of in-person events actually looks like logistically, why Julie thinks extreme horror is therapeutic (and what the science says), and how her writing has gotten progressively more unhinged — in the best possible way — as she's stopped being afraid of what's on the page.

💀 What we get into:

• How Julie's first novel came out looking like 80s metal music videos — and why she decided to lean in rather than tone it down
• The mechanics of running in-person author events that don't bleed money: venue partnerships, pre-sold packages, and bringing the world of the book alive
• Why a dedicated niche readership shows up repeatedly and works its way through your entire catalogue
• Stephen Graham Jones sat alone at a conference breakfast while Julie worked up the nerve to ask him about eyeballs
• How music drives Julie's entire creative process — characters, scenes, and vibes all emerge from specific albums before a word is written
• What splatterpunk actually means, why it's distinct from gore-for-gore's-sake, and the feminist argument running through Stella's Scream
• Christopher Triana, Brian Bauer, Poppy Z. Brite, and Bridget Nelson — the authors shaping Julie's extreme horror education
• The therapeutic science behind horror fiction and why writers of dark content are often the sunniest people in the room
• Dan and Julie's long-gestating co-written wilderness horror novel — and the cover that existed before the book did

Links & Resources:

• Julie Hiner website: https://killersanddemons.com
• Julie Hiner on the Great Writers Share podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7YeWlA0IT4
• Julie Hiner on the Activated Authors Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvEb_28aDY&t=825s
• Crystal Lake Publishing: crystallakepub.com
• Hatching Season charity anthology submissions: devilsrockbooks.com/submissions
• Daniel Willcocks author site: https://danielwillcocks.com

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If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow horror fan or writer.

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks 

🎧 Listen : https://pod.link/1829723468 

💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About Julie Hiner

Julie Hiner is an author, storyteller, and blogger. She loves classic horror movies, books, and live music. Her favorite album to this day is Appetite for Destruction. Her favorite movie is Jaws.

Julie writes a unique blend of heavy metal and horror, weaving both psychological suspense and many types of rock and metal into a tapestry of musically infused storytelling.

She has published an 80s/90s metal murder detective vs serial killer series, a 90s nostalgic serial killer novella, a death metal demon possession novella, and co-curated a horror anthology. Several of Julie's horror short stories have been published in anthologies. Julie also had a deep sea horror novella published by Torrid Waters, a pulp and extreme horror imprint of Crystal Lake Publishing.

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What if the most important thing you ever do as a writer is something nobody else ever sees? Josh Malerman has 33 rough drafts sitting in a crate behind his desk. Nine are out in the world. The rest — finished novels, written and set aside — are what he considers the real work. Not the Netflix deal. Not the New York Times list. The crate.

Josh Malerman is the author of Bird Box, Mallory, Goblin, Unburied Carol, and dozens more. His breakthrough novel was adapted into a Netflix feature starring Sandra Bullock, and he's racked up Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award nominations along the way. He's also one half of the songwriting duo behind Detroit rock band The High Strung, whose song The Luck You Got serves as the theme for Showtime's Shameless.

In this conversation — originally recorded for Dan's earlier show and still one of the most resonant interviews in his nine years of podcasting — Josh talks about what it actually means to be an artist, why finishing is everything, how he wrote Bird Box in 26 days and Unburied Carol in 15, and why your body of work represents you far better than any single book ever could.

💀 What we get into:

• Why an artist is simply someone who finishes — and what it took Josh a decade to understand that
• The two-novel trick that finally broke Josh's finishing problem and produced his first completed manuscript
• Writing 91,000 words by hand in 28 days, in an all-night coffee shop outside Detroit in December
• Why Bird Box felt like his "flattest" novel — and what that tells us about the relationship between breakthrough work and personality
• The case for 500 words a day — and the maths that makes it genuinely staggering over 10 months
• How Josh wrote his 1,100-page novel Ghoul in the Cape at 1,000 words a day and why slowing down was the only way through
• "No V's in art" — why Josh refuses to let external success validate his work, and what that looks like in practice
• Why he gave away 60 free hardcovers of Bird Box at StokerCon — and why he thinks that was one of the best decisions he ever made
• The canon over the single work — why your body of work represents you in ways no individual book can
• What it was like to meet Sandra Bullock on set, under the lights, in full costume

Links & Resources:

• Josh Malerman's website: joshmalerman.com
• Carpenter's Farm (free novel): joshmalerman.com
• Bird Box (novel): available wherever books are sold
• Mallory (sequel to Bird Box): available wherever books are sold
• Goblin: available wherever books are sold
• Unburied Carol: available wherever books are sold
• Black Mad Wheel: available wherever books are sold
• The High Strung (band): @thehighstrung
• The Luck You Got — theme from Showtime's Shameless
• This Is Horror Podcast (Bird Box/Mallory deep-dive with Michael David Wilson): thisishorror.co.uk
• The Creative Pen Podcast with Joanna Penn (Dan's guest appearance): thecreativepenn.com

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If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow horror fan or writer.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks 

🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468 

💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About Josh Malerman

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling horror author best known for Bird Box, which was adapted into a Netflix feature film starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich. He's written over 30 novels — nine of which are out in the world — spanning cosmic dread, psychological horror, and deeply strange fiction that resists easy genre classification. His work has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and James Herbert Awards. He's also a working musician: one half of the songwriting duo behind Detroit rock band The High Strung, whose music appears in Shameless. He writes prolifically, finishes everything, and keeps the rest in a crate.

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KEY LINKS:

Devil's Rock Books: https://devilsrockbooks.com

Daniel Willcocks: https://danielwillcocks.com

Twisted Tales Books: https://twistedtalesbooks.com

SHOWNOTES

In this episode, Daniel sits down with C.M. Forest — award-winning horror author, atmospheric storyteller, and creator of deeply unsettling, isolation-driven fiction.

Together, they explore Christian’s unconventional path into writing, from studying animation and chasing a dream of comic art to discovering that storytelling—not drawing—was the real obsession. What followed was a decade-long journey into horror, experimentation, and ultimately finding his voice through short fiction and novels.

They dig into the origins of his award-winning novel Infested, the unexpected impact of adopting a pen name, and how his short story collection The Roots Run Deep and Other Stories came together almost by accident—revealing recurring themes of loneliness, dread, and existential fear along the way.

The conversation also dives into horror craft, from building atmosphere and sustaining tension to why slow-burn horror hits harder than shock value. Plus, Christian shares insights on the evolving horror landscape, the rise of indie creators, and why there’s never been a better time to be a horror writer.

This is a grounded, honest conversation about finding your creative lane, embracing what scares you, and building a career in horror on your own terms.

💀 In this episode you’ll discover:

• How writing in Tim Hortons became Christian’s creative routine

• Why switching to a pen name changed everything for his publishing journey

• The surprising origin of his short story collection and how it came together organically

• Why isolation, loneliness, and existential dread keep appearing in his work

• The importance of atmosphere and slow-burn tension in effective horror

• How authors like Nick Cutter and Adam Nevill shaped his writing style

• Why indie horror is thriving across books, film, and games right now

• The challenge of structuring a short story collection for pacing and variety

• His love of classic slashers like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and what makes them work

• Why atmosphere matters more than gore when it comes to lasting horror impact

Links & Resources:

• Official Website: https://christianlaforet.com/

• Explore The Roots Run Deep and Other Stories

• Discover Infested

Recommended in this episode:

• The Troop by Nick Cutter

• The Ritual by Adam Nevill

• The Acolyte

• Last Days

• The Terror

Subscribe to The Writer’s Chair

If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow horror fan or writer.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks

🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468

💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About the Guest

C.M. Forest (Christian Laforet) is a horror author based in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award-winning novel Infested, the novella We All Fall Before the Harvest, and the short story collection The Roots Run Deep and Other Stories.

His fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies across multiple genres, often exploring themes of isolation, dread, and the human psyche. A lifelong horror fan, he draws inspiration from film, literature, and the growing indie horror scene. When he’s not writing, he lives with his family—and his blanket-obsessed basset hound, Sully.

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In this episode, Daniel sits down with Matt Serafini — screenwriter, author, and one of horror's most compelling new voices, hailed by grandmaster Brian Keene as one of the best in the genre. Matt's books include Rites of Extinction, Feral, Under the Blade, and his brand new social media horror novel, Feeders.

Together, they dig into the obsessive joy of tracking down obscure slasher films, the nostalgia of video store culture, and how the algorithm-driven doom loops of modern social media became the seed of Matt's most ambitious novel yet. They talk about growing up on King, F. Paul Wilson, and Bret Easton Ellis, writing a teenage protagonist you'd never expect, and why Matt refused to change the last hundred pages of Feeders — no matter who asked.

The conversation also hits the pressure young people face online, the cynicism baked into performative outrage, AI slop flooding our feeds, and why Matt believes the best thing any writer can do is tell a story only they could tell.

This is a sharp, funny, and genuinely insightful conversation about horror fiction, social media, storytelling, and what it means to write something that couldn't have come from anyone else.

💀 In this episode you'll discover:

• Why Ogroff the Mad Butcher might be the most gloriously unhinged slasher film you've never seen
• The joy and consequence of video store culture — and what streaming has quietly taken from us
• How King, F. Paul Wilson, Michael Slade, and Bret Easton Ellis shaped Matt's voice as a writer
• What it felt like to receive a blurb from Brian Keene — and why "validation" is a complicated word
• Why Matt built MonoLife (the fictional dark web app at the heart of Feeders) from real frustrations with social media
• How working with college-age interns gave Matt an authentic window into Kylie's world
• The agent who told him to scrap the last hundred pages — and why he walked away
• Why the climax of Feeders was the most fun Matt has ever had writing anything
• What Matt hopes readers take away from the book (without prescribing the answer)
• Why authenticity — not productivity — is the writer's best weapon against AI
• A sneak peek at Matt's next project, which his agent called "couldn't be any more you"

Links & Resources:

Matt Serafini on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattserafini

Feeders by Matt Serafini: https://www.amazon.com/Feeders-Novel-Matt-Serafini/dp/1668060973

Devil's Rock Community Discord: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Writer's Chair

If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow horror fan or writer.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks

🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468

💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About the Guest

Matt Serafini is a screenwriter and author of horror fiction based on the East Coast. His novels include Rites of Extinction, Feral, Under the Blade — called "one of the best slasher films you'll ever read" by Film Thrills — and Feeders, a dark social media horror novel published in 2024. He has been hailed as one of the best new voices in horror fiction by Brian Keene.

Matt's short fiction has appeared in multiple anthology collections. His non-fiction writing on film and literature has been published at Dread Central, Shock Till You Drop, Fangoria, and Horror Hound. He has a background in marketing and spent years managing social media for a university — an experience that fed directly into the obsessions at the heart of Feeders.

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In this episode, Daniel sits down with Jennifer Barnes — managing editor of Raw Dog Screaming Press, longtime champion of off-kilter horror, and a key force behind two decades of cross-genre, boundary-pushing publishing.

Together, they dig into what it really takes to keep a small press alive for twenty plus years, how Raw Dog Screaming Press grew out of the early online zine era, and why “gatekeeping” is a more complicated conversation than most people want it to be.

They talk sustainability over hype, why small presses collapse when they overextend, and how Jennifer protects quality (and her sanity) by scaling releases to reality. The conversation also hits horror poetry, novellas, writing craft, the rise of AI, and why community energy often comes more from writers than readers.

This is a grounded, honest look at the publishing side of horror — full of practical insight, hard-earned perspective, and the kind of transparency writers wish they heard more often.

💀 In this episode you’ll discover:

• How Raw Dog Screaming Press began from the Dream People zine era and a love of cross-genre work

• Where the name “Raw Dog Screaming Press” came from, and how language shifts over time

• Why the “gatekeepers” conversation is more nuanced than it used to be

• The biggest reason small presses burn out or implode, and how to avoid it

• Jennifer’s approach to sustainability, self-sufficiency, and not overcommitting

• Why horror poetry mattered to Raw Dog’s legacy, and how it helped shape the scene

• What Jennifer looks for in standout horror, voice, craft, and character

• The reality of novellas in the market, and why they’re gaining traction again

• Why AI is unpredictable, and why she’s sticking to the same quality-first plan

• What excites Jennifer most right now, including the upcoming Abandoned: Asylum anthology

Links & Resources:

Raw Dog Screaming Press: https://rawdogscreaming.com

Raw Dog Screaming Press on socials: @RDSPress

Horror Writers Association (mentioned): https://www.horror.org

Abandoned: Asylum (edited by James Chambers): https://rawdogscreaming.com/book-deal-abandoned-asylum-anthology/

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📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks

🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468

💬 Join the community: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/podcast

📚 About the Guest

Jennifer Barnes is the managing editor of Raw Dog Screaming Press, a small press publishing off-kilter, cross-genre books for more than two decades. She began her editing career in the early 2000s as an editor for Dream People Literary Magazine, and later helped build Raw Dog Screaming Press into a respected home for dark, distinctive fiction and award-nominated work.

She is also an accomplished graphic designer, a longtime advocate for horror poetry, and co-chair of the Maryland Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. Jennifer graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in English and a concentration in poetry, and she continues to work across editing, production, and publishing with a focus on craft, originality, and quality.

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In this episode, Daniel sits down with speculative fiction powerhouses Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan — writers, educators, and co-authors of the bestselling Spec Fic for Newbies series from Luna Press.

Together, they dive deep into the ever-expanding world of speculative fiction, exploring how genre works, why it matters, and how writers can better understand where their stories fit. With the release of Spec Fic for Newbies Vol. 3, this conversation blends craft, teaching, collaboration, and a whole lot of joyful nerdiness.

From academia to publishing, pandemic-era book deals to writing about pirates, space procedurals and dark academia, this is a lively, insightful look at what it means to write across genres — and why speculative fiction remains one of the most exciting playgrounds for storytellers today.  

💀 In this episode you’ll discover:

• How Spec Fic for Newbies began during the pandemic and grew into a three-book series

• Why understanding genre can transform your writing (and your confidence)

• The role academia and teaching played in shaping the books’ accessible approach

• How speculative fiction overlaps with crime, romance, fantasy, horror and beyond

• Why joy, curiosity and “nerdiness” are essential tools for writers

• The realities of writing collaborative non-fiction — and keeping it fun

• How the series helps writers who don’t have access to formal creative writing education

Links & Resources:

Tiffani Angus website: https://www.tiffani-angus.com

Val Nolan website: https://illusorypromise.wordpress.com/

Luna Press: https://www.lunapresspublishing.com

Spec Fic for Newbies series (Luna Press): https://www.lunapresspublishing.com

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📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devilsrockbooks

🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468

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📚 About the Guests

Tiffani Angus (PhD) is a multi BSFA- and BFS-award finalist for her debut novel Threading the Labyrinth and for non-fiction (with co-author Val Nolan) for Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Vol. 1 (2023) and Vol. 2 (2024), both of which also made the Locus Recommended Reading List. Volume 3 launches March 2026. She spent over a decade teaching creative writing at universities in the US and UK, most of that time as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Publishing at ARU in Cambridge (UK). She works as a freelance editor and proofreader, runs the typesetting/formatting business Book Polishers, leads various writing workshops in person and online, and is currently at work on novel, a novella, and a scandalous secret project.

Val Nolan is the author of Neil Jordan: Works for the Page (UCC Press, 2022) and co-author of the Spec Fic for Newbies trilogy (Luna Press Publishing, 2023, 2024, 2026). He has published academic articles in Science Fiction Studies, Foundation, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comic Books, Irish University Review, Irish Studies Review, symplokē, and Dictionary of Literary Biography. His fiction has appeared in Year’s Best Science Fiction, Best of British Science Fiction, Unidentified Funny Objects, the ‘Futures’ page of Nature, Andromeda Spaceways, ParSec, and Interzone (for which he also writes the ‘Folded Spaces’ column about the history of Science Fiction criticism). He has been shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Award (for his story ‘The Irish Astronaut’), twice been a finalist for the BSFA Awards, and twice shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards. He is currently a research fellow at Aberystwyth University in Wales where he was awarded Lecturer of the Year in 2022. His next project is Space Opera: The First Hundred Years, due from Luna Press Publishing in 2028.  

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In this episode, Daniel sits down with Tim Lebbon — award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty novels across horror, fantasy, thriller, and tie-in fiction, including The Secret Lives of the Dead, The Silence, and novels set in the Alien, Predator, Firefly, Conan, and Halo universes.

Tim returns to the chair for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about building a long-term writing career, finding community in horror, and staying creatively sane in an increasingly noisy, online world. They discuss book tours, conventions, imposter syndrome, drafting chaos, novellas versus novels, and why horror writers might just be the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

This episode is a grounded, generous look at the realities of writing over decades — the wins, the doubts, the friendships, and the work that keeps you going.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How The Secret Lives of the Dead evolved from a crime novel into folk-tinged horror

• Why horror conventions and community friendships can make or break a writing career

• How Tim navigates imposter syndrome — even after thirty years in publishing

• The difference between writing novels and novellas (and why novellas may be his best work)

• What drafting actually looks like for a “panster” — and why the first draft is really the plan

• The realities of writing tie-in fiction for Halo, Alien, and Conan

• Why social media is becoming less useful — and how to protect your creative focus

• Tim’s advice for new writers trying to find their place in the horror community

Links & Resources:

Tim Lebbon’s website: https://www.timlebbon.net

The Secret Lives of the Dead (Titan Books): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Lives-Dead-Tim-Lebbon/dp/1789099732

British Fantasy Convention: https://britishfantasysociety.org

StokerCon (Horror Writers Association): https://www.horror.org/stokercon

Frank Turner (mentioned): https://frank-turner.com

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📚 About the Guest

Tim Lebbon is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author with a career spanning over three decades. He has written more than fifty novels, dozens of novellas, and hundreds of short stories across horror, fantasy, and science fiction. His work includes original novels such as The Silence (adapted into a Netflix film) and The Secret Lives of the Dead, as well as tie-in fiction for Alien, Predator, Hellboy, Star Wars, Firefly, Conan, and Halo.

Tim lives in South Wales, writes daily, walks his dog every morning, and firmly believes horror is where we work our darkest thoughts out — so we can be kinder everywhere else.

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