Taming Monsters with Dirty Rotten Bill

• Whispers in the Dark With Steve Capone, Jr.

  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.”

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• Breaking Bread (and Bones) With Richard Shifman

  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.

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• Lisa Hodorovych Lives the Dream of a Writer’s Life

  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.

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• Gary Frank: Storyteller, Dungeon Master, Monster Maker

  Take a seat with Gary Frank, whose published works include the novels Institutional Memory, The Thing in the Woods, and Forever You Will Suffer. In this episode he talks about Godzilla, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and some of the other things that have ignited his imagination as a storyteller. Other points discussed in our hour-long discussion: his love of Dungeons & Dragons, how he copes when the world around him gets too heavy, and the inspiration he gets from being part of a community of writers at industry conventions.

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• The Order of Ef Deal

  Ef Deal’s fantastic Twins of Bellesfées series—Esprit de Corpse, Aeros & Heroes, and The Order of Duval—reimagines the landscape of 19th century France with shapeshifters, vampires, and all manner of retrofuturistic technology. She talks about why she chose that time and place to give life to her brand of horror-infused steampunk, what it was like to grow up in a haunted house, and the “wonderful letter” that made her think she would never be a published novelist; lucky for us, she kept going anyway.

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