TIH 234: Simon Strantzas on Nothing is Everything, Short Story Collections, and Abhorrent Artists

In this podcast Simon Strantzas talks about Nothing is Everything, short story collections, abhorrent artists, and much more.

About Simon Strantzas

Simon Strantzas is the author of Nothing is Everything (Undertow Publications, 2018), Burnt Black Suns (Hippocampus Press, 2014), Nightingale Songs (Dark Regions Press, 2011), Cold to the Touch (Tartarus Press, 2009), and Beneath the Surface(Humdrumming, 2008), as well as the editor of Aickman’s Heirs (Undertow Publications, 2015), a finalist for both the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards, and winner of the Shirley Jackson Award. He also edited Shadows Edge (Gray Friar Press, 2013), and was the guest editor of The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 3 (Undertow Publications, 2016). His writing has been reprinted in Best New Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Weird Fiction and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, and published in Nightmare, Cemetery Dance, Postscripts, and elsewhere. His short story, “Pinholes in Black Muslin”, was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award, and his collection, Burnt Black Suns, a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. He lives with his wife in Toronto, Canada.

Show notes

• [04:10] Conversation start/biggest changes personally and as a writer
• [06:55] Nothing is Everything
• [07:40] The nothing is everything meaning
• [12:10] Personal philosophies
• [14:00] Ambiguity: who’s searching for the answers, the characters or Simon?
• [16:05] Intuitively understanding things
• [19:00] Lessons learnt from previously putting together collections and anthologies
• [22:30] Ross Byers, via Patreon, asks if a particular story or author catalysed Simon’s desire to write
• [30:20] Revisionist history and abhorrent artists

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Resources

• Simon Strantzas fiction

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