TOD 076 Scarlett R. Algee: Flashes of Blood and Brutality

July 16, 2020
7 mins to read

Show Notes

In this podcast Anya Martin interviews Scarlett R. Algee about her debut collection Bleedthrough and Other Small Horrors (Cold War Radio Press) and editing Trepidatio Publishing, Journalstone’s Weird fiction imprint which seeks “diverse stories from diverse authors.” The conversation begins with her lockdown experience and shifts quickly into her fiction including her joy in the art of writing brutal flash horror and Weird fiction, her entry to horror via Poe and Lovecraft, recurring themes including mental illness and Halloween, death as inspiration, mechanical and real spiders, the smell of old zoo reptile houses, how a brief obsession with Jack the Ripper led to the collection’s title story, female fascination with serial killers, and her recurring character Delphine the ghoul. Scarlett reads her story ‘And Drown Melancholy’ (0:31:00), and then the discussion continues with body horror as her “jam” and more about her fiction. The last third of the interview shifts to her experience as editor at Trepidatio (0:53:00) including following in the footsteps of the talented Jess Landry, recent and upcoming books from Gordon B. White, Scott R Jones, S.P. Miskowski, Patricia Lillie, Emma J. Gibbon, Max D. Stanton, David Peak, John Horner-Jacobs, and Jeffrey Thomas, plus her thoughts on the future of Weird fiction in a Weird reality and this summer’s open submission window for novels, novellas, and collections. The interview concludes with her reading recommendations including Sam L. Edwards, John Linwood Grant, and some great medical nonfiction.

The Outer Dark Virtual Symposium on the Greater Weird is the only annual conference centered around contemporary Weird fiction. The fourth annual symposium will be held August 14-15, 2020 on Zoom. Find out more and purchase tickets at TheOuterDark.org