This Is Horror

TIH 186: Orrin Grey on Never Bet The Devil, Classic Horror Monsters, and Finding Your Writing Voice

  • January 11, 2018

  • 4 mins to read

In this podcast Orrin Grey talks about Never Bet The Devil, classic horror monsters, finding your writing voice, and much more.

About Orrin Grey

Orrin Grey is a writer, editor, amateur film scholar, and monster expert who was born on the night before Halloween. His stories of monsters, ghosts, and sometimes the ghosts of monsters have appeared in dozens of anthologies, including Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year, and been gathered into two volumes, Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings and Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts. He also writes licensed fiction and other odds-and-ends for Privateer Press, and he likes to play Hordes whenever he gets the chance, where he is utterly devoted to his beloved Gatormen. His writing about film has appeared in places like Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld, and he writes a regular column on vintage horror cinema at Innsmouth Free Press. John Langan once referred to him as “the monster guy,” and he never lets anyone forget it.

Show notes

  • [04:00] Important life lessons growing up
  • [07:25] Being treated as an adult whilst a child—things learnt that shouldn’t have learnt and things should have learnt that didn’t learn as a kid
  • [11:50]  First experiences with story
  • [14:05] Introduction to classic horror monsters/finding your own voice as a writer
  • [24:20] Voice, first-person narration, character, and writing process
  • [28:45] Writing stories that pay homage whilst maintaining own voice
  • [32:00] Daily and weekly routine: structuring fiction and freelance work
  • [34:30] Beta readers
  • [39:00] The Mummy movie
  • [43:00] Resident Evil movies/Exorcist 3 transition
  • [51:50] Never Bet The Devil 

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