This week I am going to utterly ruin your festive mood!
My guest is Ross Jeffery – author of Juniper, Tome (for which he was Bram Stoker nominated) and numerous short stories. His work is grim, gritty, gory and other words beginning with G - but they are nothing compared to the sheer horror of his latest work, Only the Stains Remain.
Yeah, this is one of those special episodes in which I feel duty-bound to roll out the trigger warnings. Only the Stains Remain is about child abuse, and it pulls no punches. Feeling festive yet, Ho Ho Ho, etc. The novella is a savage revenge-trip of blood and guts in which awful things happen – but thankfully – often to awful people.
So, you’ve been warned.
But also be reassured. Neither the conversation, nor Ross’s book goes into exploitative details – and we manage to talk about a surprising number of very jolly things - from why Ross is drawn to such extreme projects, why writing for shock alone never really works, what it was like to be Bram Stoker-ed out of the blue, and what the members of Ross’ church make of his writing.
It’s a mix of the horrific and the wholesome this week. Which could describe most of my Christmases.
Enjoy
Books discussed in this episode include:
Support Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod
Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok
Or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.