Taming Monsters with Dirty Rotten Bill

“If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” The saying certainly applies to Candace Nola, an award-winning horror writer, editor, and publisher, among other designations. She’s also exceptionally goodhearted, as proven by the time and energy she devotes to building community and otherwise helping her writerly peers through her platform, Uncomfortably Dark Horror. She leaves few stones unturned in this wide-ranging conversation, including the thread that connects all her stories, the pain and power of grief, and how she finds balance amid the chaos of daily life.

Horror author, publisher, musician, influencer, someone who eagerly shares his personal story about his years-long saga of addiction, recovery, and reinvention—the man known as Daemon Manx wears a lot of hats. In this episode, Manx discusses the incident that upended his life—saved his life, he would say—and put him not only on the path to recovery but also toward becoming one of the most prominent voices in indie horror. He also talks about his work, including The Ojanox series and the recently released Abigail: The Terrible Twos, a sequel to his 2021 novel, and why his platform of positivity has resonated with so many people.

As far as writers go, Steve Capone, Jr. defies easy description. His 2024 novel Max in the Capital of Spies is a YA Cold War thriller, with a side of time travel, though he’s perhaps best known for his work in horror. As the founder of Whisper House Press, he has published anthologies such as Dread Mondays and Costs of Living. In this episode, he details the lessons he learned by running his own press, the benefits of writing across genre lines, and why he doesn’t like to be scared. He also opens up about the perils of being a teacher in 2025, and the importance of doing his part to “repair the world.”

Bucks County, Pennsylvania-based writer Richard Shifman made quite an impression with his story “Mayo Monday,” an insanely compelling piece of weird fiction published by Cosmic Horror Monthly in 2023. He added to his wide-ranging body of work earlier this year with Paper Airplane, Broken Bones, a coming-of-age novel published under the name R.B. Shifman. In this episode, Shifman talks about the early experiences that shaped his life and influenced his work, why corporate environments and horror go hand in hand, and quite a bit more.

Lisa Hodorovych is living her dream as a writer of horror and horror romance. She opens up about the things that scare her, the publishing empire she’s building to help others breathe life into their writing, and the details of her own work—namely, the novels The Disappearance, He’s Here, and Vampire From Hell, Vol. 1. Other points addressed in our discussion: facing and overcoming rejection, lingering scars from the movies of her childhood, the never-ending joys of kaiju, and much more.