TOD 029 Daniel Braum: How to Write Weird Without Turning to Stone

In this podcast Scott Nicolay interviews Daniel Braum, author of The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales and The Wish Mechanics. Plus Anya Martin provides an update on The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2018.

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is a unique immersive one-day event featuring approximately 12 hours of panels, readings, signings and social activities centered around contemporary Weird and speculative fiction. The second annual event will be held Sat. March 24, 2018 at the Winchester Mystery House. one of the Weirdest Places in the U.S. Limited to 75 attendees. Buy your memberships here.

Show Notes

Daniel Braum, author of The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales and The Wish Mechanics, joins Scott to talk about his work including the gender-flipping connection between the two collections, working with editor/author Norman Prentiss, his personal journey into The Weird, defying genre categories, why Kelly Link is a ‘fascinating’ writer, the ‘importance’ of Lucius Shepard, the subverting ‘brilliance’ of James Tiptree Jr., his story ‘The Music of the Spheres’ which riffs on Sun Ra and Marshall Allen, his early life in zines, the ‘core Weirdness’ of Daniel Braum, and open endings. (00:42:50) Daniel reads from ‘How to Make Love and Not Turn to Stone’ (The Wish Mechanics) and (00:50:00) discusses the monstrous metaphor from real life behind that story, J.G. Ballard, surrealism, his un-collected stories, his sold-out Dim Shores chapbook Yeti. Tiger. Dragon. (to be re-released with new material by Crossroads Press soon), his next collection and next stories, and his Night Time Logic reading series at Lovecraft Bar in New York (Gwendolyn Kiste and Farah Rose Smith, April 24, 2018).

The Outer Dark Symposium 2018 Update

(01:09:45) Anya Martin joins Daniel and Scott to update listeners on the latest news about The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2018 including the Weirdness of this year’s location at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA, newly added guests, the limited edition program chapbook, supporting memberships, the soon-to-be-launched Indiegogo campaign, the Friday night readings kick-off event March 23 at event partner hotel The Plaza Suites Santa Clara, and everything you need to know about why it’s not just another con! The episode closes with more of Daniel’s recommended writers including Tanith Lee, John C. Foster, and Nicholas Kaufmann.