This Is Horror

TIH 241: Grady Hendrix on Writing With Restrictions, Reading Six Books Daily, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism

  • November 12, 2018

  • 4 mins to read

In this podcast Grady Hendrix talks about writing with restrictions, reading six books daily, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and much more.

About Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix is a novelist and screenwriter based in New York City. His novels include Horrorstor, named one of the best books of 2014 by National Public Radio, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, for which The Wall Street Journal dubbed him ‘a national treasure.’ Paperbacks from Hell, his survey of outrageous horror novels of the 1970s and 80s, was called ‘pure, demented delight’ by the New York Times Review. He’s contributed to Playboy, The Village Voice, and Variety. His latest novel is We Sold Our Souls.

Show notes

  • [05:10] Early life lessons growing up /living in London/school library
  • [15:00] First story to scare Grady
  • [23:00] 600-word story about the New York subway system
  • [24:30] Writing under limits/restrictions
  • [25:30] The teacher who wound up dying in one of his classes
  • [26:40] Writing professionally
  • [31:30] Fake it till you make it
  • [32:50] Living in Hong Kong
  • [37:50] Reading up to six books per day
  • [43:50] Clive Barker
  • [50:00] Shirley Jackson / writing from a real lived authentic place
  • [56:20] Response to work that doesn’t work for you
  • [01:01:45] Reviews
  • [01:11:10] Why Grady writes
  • [01:13:00] My Best Friend’s Exorcism
  • [01:16:00] Crappy things we do
  • [01:20:40] Advice to eighteen-year-old self
  • [01:22:10] Connect with Grady

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