The Monster She Wrote Podcast

Please enjoy this re-run of a classic Monster, She Wrote episode.  Author of the novella Corporate Body and the Shirley Jackson Award-winning story "Not the Man I Married," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and finding weird things to write about.

Tracy Cross is a dealer in dark fiction, her gripping stories featured in a range of podcasts and anthologies. Her debut novel, the gripping "Rootwork" (Dark Hart Publishing, November 2022), explores the strong bonds of family and draws on her own heritage in hoodoo. This is followed by "A Gathering of Weapons" (October 2024), the second book of the Rootwork series. Tracy resides in Washington, DC, where she is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. When she's not busy writing scary stories, she's dancing to disco. Keep up with her news and musings at her blog: tracycwritesonline.com. You can also follow her on Instagram @tracycrosswrites, on Bluesky @tracycrosswriter.bksy.social, and on Threads: @tracycrosswrites.    Recommended in this episode: Rootwork and A Gathering of Weapons by Tracy Cross   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Banned Books Week (launched in 1982) is normally in September/October, but given the state of things, we thought it was a relevant topic. Buying physical copies of books, when you can, seems to be a smart thing to do.   PEN estimates that book bans have doubled in the past year; here's where to fight that by sending a letter to state lawmakers.    Some of our sources: Data from the ALA; Unite Against Book Bans; National Coalition Against Censorship; PEN America; Authors Against Book Bans    Recommended in this episode: B.R. Myers's The Third Wife of Faraday House and Clay McLeod Chapman's Wake Up and Open Your Eyes   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: Tracy Cross Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

We are rerunning the classic episode to celebrate the upcoming release of Moths through Valancourt Books as part of their Monster, She Wrote series. Preorders open now, shipping in July 2025! Rosalind Ashe's Moths was marketed as a book for fans of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. And there are some similarities: a beautiful old estate with a crumbling wing. A young wife who moves in determined to make it her own. And a dead woman haunting the home that was once hers. But what would happen if Rebecca had possessed the body of the new wife? That's what Ashe's book posits. So join us as we discuss Moths. UP NEXT: an episode on banned books and then an interview with horror author Tracy Cross  

In “The End of the Voyage,” a short story in Bora Chung's collection Your Utopia , a group escapes a pandemic here on Earth by jumping into a spaceship. As they search for a safe place to live, their trip takes a dark turn.    Recommended in this episode: Beach Read by Emily Henry   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: Banned Books   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, Sloane Parker HATES birthday celebrations, but her husband and best friend Naomi conspire to give Sloane a weekend away at a posh lakeside cottage. The girls' weekend away takes a dark and bloody turn, however, after a wild night out with some mysterious strangers.    Recommended in this episode: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas and A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: “The End of the Voyage” in Your Utopia by Bora Chung Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Linghun by Ai Jiang is set in the mysterious HOME, a suburb of Toronto, where the residents live among the ghosts. Winqi, a high school senior, must navigate her new town, where grief cuts everyone off from the rest of the world.  Recommended in this episode: “The Center for Immortality Research” in Your Utopia by Bora Chung) and Mike Chen's Here and Now and Then NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Last episode, we read the Gothic horror You'll Like My Mother by Naomi A. Hintze, which was recently re-released with Valancourt Books. In it, a pregnant widow named Francesca is trapped in her mother-in-law's home and must escape. This episode, we are discussing  The 1972 film adaptation of You'll Like My Mother, starring Patty Duke.  Recommended in this episode: Barstow by David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry, Forget This Ever Happened by Cassandra Rose Clarke, and The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: Linghun by Ai Jiang Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Pregnant Francesca finds herself a widow at a young age after her husband is sent to Vietnam. Without support from her family, she embarks on a cross-country journey to her late husband's family home in Ohio. While she's never met her mother-in-law, she hopes that she will be welcomed in. His childhood home, though, is nothing like she was told it was–and her new mother-in-law might be more dangerous than she anticipated.  Recommended in this episode: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: The 1972 film adaptation of You'll Like My Mother, starring Patty Duke  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble. 

Mel and Lisa are busy gearing up for a new season in this new year! In the meantime, enjoy this classic episode of the podcast, perfect for the Gothic feeling that is January.  UP NEXT: Season 6 kicks off with Naomi A. Hintze's You'll Like my Mother.     

Enjoy this classic podcast episode and have a happy and safe holiday season! NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: https://www.orillia.ca/en/visiting/exhibits.aspx?_mid_=28224 (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024.  We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode. Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble. 

Enjoy this classic podcast episode and have a happy and safe holiday season! NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: https://www.orillia.ca/en/visiting/exhibits.aspx?_mid_=28224 (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit) UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024.  We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode. Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In Jenny Kiefer's This Wretched Valley, there is a bad place just off a highway in a secluded forest in Kentucky. When a small group made up of geology grad students and rock climbers set up camp there to document a previously unknown rock wall, they find more than they bargained for. The place is old. And it isn't always what it seems.       Recommended in this episode: Grady Hendrix's Witchcraft for Wayward Girls NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: https://www.orillia.ca/en/visiting/exhibits.aspx?_mid_=28224 (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit)   UP NEXT: The holiday season is approaching, and we are going to take full advantage. So the podcast will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2024.  We will run a few of our favorite holiday episodes from years past. We will be back in 2025 with a brand new episode.   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Jenny Kiefer is a debut author, avid rock climber, and Kentucky resident. She also owns and manages Butcher Cabin Books, a horror bookstore in Louisville, KY, with her mother. Her background is in copywriting and journalism, and she is the recipient of the Miracle Monocle Editor's Award for Emerging Writers and four Society of Professional Journalism Awards. She was a 2021 Pitch Wars mentee and is a member of the Horror Writers Association.  NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: https://www.orillia.ca/en/visiting/exhibits.aspx?_mid_=28224 (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit)   UP NEXT: This Wretched Valley  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

For Toil and Trouble, our book, we did a deep dive into research of the witch. And since the witch is a mainstay of this time of year, we thought it would be fun to do a little bit of a different episode today. We watched the first two episodes of Disney Plus's Agatha All Along.  NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    More info about the Canadian museum exhibit here: https://www.orillia.ca/en/visiting/exhibits.aspx?_mid_=28224 (Opening October 5 until December 20, 2024 - Temporary Exhibit)   Recommended in this episode: We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (available for preorder)   UP NEXT: An interview with Jenny Keifer. Her new book This Wretched Valley is available on our Bookshop!   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In this episode, we are discussing Christa Carmen's meta Gothic novel The Daughters of Block Island with special guest Crystal O'Leary-Davidson. Crystal O'Leary-Davidson, writing as C. O. Davidson has published fiction in PseudoPod, Cemetery Gates, and in anthologies, most recently Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic. Her story, “The Mark,” in Vastarien, was recognized by editor Ellen Datlow in her anthology of The Best of Horror of the Year, Vol. 15 as one of the works of “notable dark fiction in 2022.” An English professor at Middle Georgia State University, she teaches classes in the Gothic, the Weird, and slasher horror films, and she co-edited a book of critical essays, Monsters of Film, Fiction, and Fable. Currently she is writing on the American mall in teen horror. Davidson serves on the board of Broadleaf Writers, and is one of the founding members of the Atlanta Chapter of the Horror Writers Association.She makes her home in Georgia amongst the pine trees with her husband, the novelist Andy Davidson, and their clowder of beloved cats.   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  Recommended in this episode: B.R. Myers's A Dreadful Splendor and I Saw the TV Glow  UP NEXT: a very special Halloween episode! Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.  

About The Unmothers: After the death of her husband, journalist Marshall is sent to the small town of Raeford to investigate a clearly ridiculous rumor—that a horse has given birth to a human baby. As she's pulled deeper into the town and its guarded people, she realizes Raeford may be harboring more dark secrets than she expected.   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    Recommended in this episode: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir   UP NEXT: The Daughters of Block Island with special guest Crystal O'Leary-Davidson Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Leslie J. Anderson has spent much of her life riding, training, and caring for horses. Her collection of poetry, An Inheritance of Stone, was nominated for an Elgin Award. She has a master's in creative writing from Ohio University and lives in Ohio with her family. The Unmothers is her debut novel. NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: The Unmothers   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Joyce Carol Oates's story “The Long-Legged Girl” (collected in Night-Gaunts) is part horror story, part cozy mystery…after all, the plot of the story revolves around a teapot. That tea contains poison, of course, but the sentiment is there nonetheless. Our story begins as a frustrated housewife hosts her professor-husband's young, gorgeous, and yes, long-legged student at their home.    NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    Recommended in this episode: I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones and Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson    Bonus Recs: Let Me Tell You and Come Along With Me   UP NEXT: Interview with Leslie J. Anderson (The Unmothers)   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Join Mel and Lisa as we discuss Tananarive Due's The Reformatory. When 12-year-old Robert Stephens is sent to Gracetown School For Boys, a reformatory, he finds himself in a nightmare. Like many children in Gracetown, Florida, he has a special ability to see ghosts, a “talent” which the warden exploits, charging Robbie with the task of getting rid of the “haints” of the boys who died because of the warden's cruel treatment.    NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    Recommended in this episode: Stephen Graham Jones's I Was a Teenage Slasher and Julia Alvarez's The Cemetery of Untold Stories   UP NEXT: “The Long Legged Girl” by Joyce Carol Oates (collected in Night-Gaunts) Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Join Lisa and Mel as they discuss Lora Senf's The Clackity. Young Evie lives with her aunt in Blight Harbor–a seemingly quiet small town where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other. There's just one small problem: it is the seventh most haunted town in America. Nearly everywhere you go, there are ghosts. Most are friendly. Still, there are some places everyone avoids. Like the abattoir. But now Evie must go there to save her aunt, who has gone missing.  NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    Recommended in this episode: Catriona Ward's Looking Glass Sound    UP NEXT:  The Reformatory by Tananarive Due   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

 We have a bookshop.org shop set up. Now you can shop for all of your favorite horror books by women. You'll find Lisa's books, Mel's books, and the books you hear about on this podcast. Plus, bookshop helps small bookstores. Find all of our favorite books at Bookshop.org shop now!   

Mothers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are good, caring, and loving. And some are a bit more complicated. Sometimes it feels like a mother can be out to absolutely destroy your world–the mother at the heart of Gwendolyn Kiste's story “Your Mother's Love is an Apocalypse” (from the Mother Knows Best anthology) is of the latter ilk. Kiste explores the difficult mother-daughter relationship and asks the question: when does the responsibility of the daughter to take care of the mother end?    NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    Recommended in this episode: Simone St. James's Murder Road and the anthology Mother Knows Best (which includes the story “Your Mother's Love is an Apocalypse”)    UP NEXT: Lora Senf's The Clackity    Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

SPOILERS ABOUND! This novel contains a TWIST you don't want to ruin, so listen at your own risk.  Vesper Wright left home at eighteen to escape her family, who has been entrenched in a religious cult community for decades, and she hasn't looked back. That is, until she gets a wedding invitation for her childhood best friend's marriage to her high school love. She doesn't know who sent the invitation or if she is even welcome back home, but she finds that curiosity is too overwhelming and decides she has to attend. Whoever said you can't go home again must not have had such a toxic upbringing… Recommended in this episode: T. Kingfisher's What Feasts at Night UP NEXT:  “Your Mother's Love is an Apocalypse” by Gwendolyn Kiste (the last story in the anthology MOTHER KNOWS BEST, which includes Lisa Kroger's own story “Almonds”) Buy the anthology at your favorite local bookstore or online here. Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Tananarive Due's “Summer” (from her story collection Ghost Summer) is set in her fictional town of Gracetown, Florida, where the humid and murky swamps hide bodies and demon leeches. It's not a place to raise a baby–or maybe it is.  Recommended in this episode: Shirley Jackson's Sundial and Netflix's Bridgerton UP NEXT: Rachel Harrison's Black Sheep Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a big house right on the Chicago river, where they are dealing with the grief following the aftermath of a family tragedy and the dead bodies that keep floating to the surface of the water. So join us as we discuss Cynthia Pelayo's Forgotten Sisters, a novel that is part ghost story, part fairy tale, and part real-life Chicago history.  Recommended in this episode: Abigail UP NEXT: Tananarive Due's “Summer”   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award® winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She is the author of Children of Chicago, The Shoemaker's Magician, Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night, all of which have been nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was also nominated for an Elgin Award. Her collection of poetry, Into the Forest and All the Way Through explores true crime, that of the epidemic of missing and murdered women in the United States. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, a Master of Science in Marketing, a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Business Psychology. Cynthia was raised in inner city Chicago, where she lives with her husband and children.  To learn more about her visit: www.cinapelayo.com and follow her on Instagram @cynthiapelayoauthor and TikTok @cynthiapelayoauthor   UP NEXT: We discuss Pelayo's novel Forgotten Sisters! Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

If you ever thought to yourself, “I wish Beauty and the Beast had aliens in it,” then today's story is for you. In her short story “Beauty,” Tanith Lee takes the classic fairy tale out of the castles and forests and into the stars. Recommended in this episode: Ann Patchett's Tom Lake UP NEXT: Interview with author Cythia Pelayo Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

The mysterious Velkwood Vicinity is an occult and paranormal marvel, occupying the interest of scientists and conspiracy theorists alike. But for three friends, Talitha, Brett, and Grace, the Velkwood Vicinity is their painful past. It's the neighborhood they grew up in, and where their families still live–as ghosts. But now, Talitha returns, hoping for answers and maybe closure. The past is never really dead, though, and it may be more than she bargained for. Recommended in this episode: The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo UP NEXT: Tanith Lee's short story “Beauty”  Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Join Lisa and Mel as we talk with author Gwendolyn Kiste about her newest novel, The Haunting of Velkwood. Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, Pretty Marys All in a Row, and The Haunting of Velkwood. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, CrimeReads, Tor Nightfire, The Lineup, and The Dark. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin, Ignotus, and Dragon Awards. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their excitable calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com Purchase The Haunting of Velkwood here.  Buy Toil and Trouble here!

This episode is a little different from our usual format, but we promise you'll love it. It's all about book recommendations and what Mel and Lisa are loving right now.  UP NEXT: An interview with author Gwendolyn Kiste! Buy Toil and Trouble here!

A rogue adventurer meets a woman with snakes for hair, and he falls under her seductive spell. Luckily, a friend gives our hero a heads up: don't look in her eyes for that leads only to certain doom. No, we aren't talking about the legend of Perseus and Medusa. This is a space adventure story set on Mars, and written by C L Moore. Recommended: Starling House and Never Whistle at Night UP NEXT: A recommendation episode! Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Kelly Link's “Stone Animals” begins with an unspoken question, immediately throwing readers into an ambiguous but nightmarish journey as a family moves into a new home, where nothing is as it should be. Rabbits are taking over the yard. The children are eating grass and complaining of haunted items. And the husband never wants to come home. But is it really a haunted home? Or has this family made it that way by moving their own baggage into this contested domestic space? Recommended in this ep: Carissa Orlando's The September House;  The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste UP NEXT: C.L. Moore's “Shambleau” Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

What Moves the Dead is T. Kingfisher's retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher.” More than that though, it's the tale of Alex Easton, a retired soldier, who visits their dying friend, Madeline, at her family manor. Something very sinister is going on, and it's up to Alex, along with their newfound friends, a mycologist and a doctor, to figure it out before it's too late.  Recommended in this episode: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia UP NEXT: Kelly Link's “Stone Animals” Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Louisa was raised in isolation in a cottage deep in the woods by a mysterious witch. It sounds like the start of a fairy tale, but this story takes twists and turns as Louisa leaves her home for the outside world. She's no princess…and this is no fairy tale. This is a Gothic tale with plenty of intrigue, led by a rather unusual heroine. Join us as we discuss Tanith Lee's “Louisa the Poisoner.” Recommended in this episode: Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series UP NEXT: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher Tanith Lee tribute anthology:  https://tanithleestoryteller.com/ Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

We made it to 100 episodes!   Join us as we look back at the writing of the book and as we look to the future of the podcast! UP NEXT: Tanith Lee's “Louisa the Poisoner” Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

We are on hiatus for the December holidays. Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives.  We will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode.  Have a happy holiday season, from Lisa and Mel. 

Please enjoy this classic episode from our archives.  Enjoy your holiday season, and we will be back in 2024 with a brand new season and a special celebration of our 100th episode.     

A young doctor is called into the home of a wealthy man, but rather than seeing the sick patient he is expecting, he is greeted with a seemingly healthy man, who offers him a thousand pounds to attend a death bed. The doctor, who isn't a rich man himself, reluctantly accepts the strange request. Of course, this is a ghost story, so the doctor doesn't know exactly what he is in for…Join us as we discuss Ada Buisson's “The Ghost's Summons.”   Story originally published in Belgravia (January 1868); Collected in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One (edited by Tara Moore, 2016)   Recommended in this episode: Candy Cain Kills by Brian McAuley and the holiday episodes of Doctor Who   UP NEXT:  Our next episode is our 100th episode. We want to celebrate this milestone, but since it is the holiday season, we will be taking a hiatus to be with family. We will rerun some of our favorite past holiday episodes, but we will be back in January, to kick off Season 5 and celebrate 100 episodes of Monster, She Wrote. We hope you will join us.   Have a happy holiday season, from Lisa and Mel!   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Exactly two years after she disappeared, Julie mysteriously comes back, with no memory of where she's been. To celebrate her return, Julie's friends get together for a girls' weekend away at a remote hotel. Things, however, are not all wonderful–Julie doesn't seem like herself at all. Something else, something more sinister and dangerous, is hiding beneath the surface, and it all comes out over the course of the trip. Recommended in this episode: Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill and Patrick Stewart's autobiography Making It So UP NEXT: Ada Buisson's "The Ghost's Summons" in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Sarah Clayborne is a widow, living alone in an old and stately manor house called Whitegates. One Halloween, Sarah takes a walk and slips on a frozen puddle, injuring her ankle. She takes to bed in her old and lonely home. Her painful broken foot is the least of her troubles, however, as she finds herself in the center of a good old fashioned ghost story.  Recommended in this episode: Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher UP NEXT: Rachel Harrison's The Return  We will be back in two weeks when we discuss Rachel Harrison's The Return. Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Happy Halloween from the Monster, She Wrote podcast! UP NEXT: "All Souls" by Edith Wharton Buy Toil and Trouble here!

Ramon left his home in Mexico a long time ago, settling first in California and then in Vancouver. But now, he worries that his past may have followed him, in the form of a homeless woman, a woman he is convinced is a La Llorona. Read the story here.  Recommended in this episode: CJ Leede's Maeve Fly  UP NEXT: A Halloween special episode  Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Today, we are doing things a little differently. Since this is our first episode in October–the best month of the year if you ask us–we thought we'd do an extended recommendations episode, all with the intent of getting you ready for spooky season. UP NEXT: “Lacrimosa” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  Read it here at Nightmare Magazine   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

When Dr. Beverly Crusher's grandmother passes away, she visits her home planet, a place made to look like old world Scotland on Earth, in order to pay her respects. As it turns out, she gets much more than a sad goodbye. Her grandmother had a secret life, complete with a young lover named Ronin, a man who takes an interest in Dr. Crusher. Ronin, however, is much more than he seems, and Dr. Crusher finds herself in the middle of a ghost romance. Or is it more like ghost possession?  Recommended in this episode: Lisa Tuttle's Riding the Nightmare and Kate Mulgrew's memoir Born with Teeth UP NEXT: Reading Recommendations for Spooky Season  Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Rosalind Ashe's Moths (1976) was marketed as a book for fans of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. And there are some similarities: a beautiful old estate with a crumbling wing. A young wife who moves in determined to make it her own. And a dead woman haunting the home that was once hers. But what would happen if Rebecca had possessed the body of the new wife? That's what Ashe's book posits. So join us as we discuss Moths. Recommended in this episode: Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy UP NEXT: Star Trek's “Sub Rosa”   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Last week, we discussed Daphne Du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel. Today, we thought it would be fun to look at the 2017 film adaptation, starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin.    Recommended in this episode: Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird   UP NEXT: Rosalind Ashe's Moths    Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Phillip has lived with his guardian Ambrose Ashley on Ambrose's manor in the English countryside since Philip was a child and his parents' death left him orphaned. Philip's idyllic life is upturned, however, when Ambrose leaves for Italy, where he meets a mysterious woman named Rachel and swiftly marries her. Things take a dark turn when Ambrose dies suddenly–leaving letters behind that suggest perhaps Rachel was to blame. Following the tragedy, Rachel travels to the manor house, where she further turns Philip's life upside down. But the question remains: is Rachel a scheming villain or an innocent widow? In this episode, we're discussing Daphne Du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel (1951).   Recommended in this episode: The Righteous Gemstones   UP NEXT: My Cousin Rachel (the 2017 film adaptation)   Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

In Margaret St. Clair's “Flowering Evil," Amy Dinsmore is quite the gardener. She loves tending to her collection of Martian and Venusian plants, flowers, and succulents. But one plant, in particular, is a little bit more than she bargained for. Originally published in Planet Stories vol 4 num 7, Summer 1950, this story can be found in audio format  in Pseudopod (825, August 2022) and in text via an archive.   Recommended in this episode: Cherie Dimaline's VenCo UP NEXT: Daphne DuMaurier's My Cousin Rachel  Buy Toil and Trouble here!  

Sadie Hartmann aka Mother Horror is the co-owner of the horror fiction subscription company, Night Worms and the Bram Stoker Awards® nominated editor of her own horror fiction imprint, Dark Hart. Her non-fiction book about horror books titled, 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered for Page Street Books is coming, August 2023. She lives in the PNW with her husband of 20+ years where they stare at Mt Rainier, eat street tacos, and hang out with their 3 kids. They have a Frenchie named Owen.   Preorder Sadie's book here.    UP NEXT:  “Flowering Evil” by Margaret St. Clair  Buy Toil and Trouble here!

In Nadia Bulkin's story “Wish You Were Here,” Dimas is escorting American tourists on a city tour in Bali. He's only trying to do his job, but the tourists become much more than a simple annoyance when they begin to ask about Jelankung, an Indonesian way of contacting the spirits of the dead.     Read the story here and the interview with Nadia Bulkin here.   Recommended in this episode: Anne Serling's As I Knew Him: My Father, Rod Serling   UP NEXT: An interview with Sadie Hartmann    Buy Toil and Trouble here!