Mike Thorn interviewed for pulp MAG
Mike Thorn reviews Chime (In Review Online: Best Films of 2024)
“Chime traffics in the ‘eerie’ titular concept of Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie: a kind of placid, almost subliminal detachment that Fisher argues ‘can give us access to the forces which govern reality but which are ordinarily obscured, just as it can give us access to spaces beyond mundane reality altogether.’ The chime, then, is an auditory metonym for the eerie, an experience that exceeds the visceral shock of horror to inhabit the more transcendent power of terror — 18th-century gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe defines these terms as two distinct phenomena: ‘Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them.’ In Chime, the high degree of life is the very thing that contracts, freezes, and annihilates.”
Craftwork S1E13: Ecstasy, Ruin, & the Talent of the Room w/ Kathe Koja
Listen to Craftwork S1E13: Ecstasy, Ruin, & the Talent of the Room w/ Kathe Koja.
In this interview, we chat with Kathe Koja about balancing simultaneous projects, resisting online distractions, raising the literary dead, and so much more.
Kathe Koja writes novels and short fiction, and creates and produces live and virtual events. Her award-winning books include The Cipher, Skin, Buddha Boy, Under The Poppy and Velocities, and she is currently at work on the Dark Factory immersive fiction project including Dark Factory, Dark Park and Dark Matter. Catherine the Ghost is her newest novel.
You can find her at kathekoja.com and on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
- Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- The Mouse and His Child; Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
- The Default World – Naomi Kanakia
- Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett – James Knowlson
- A Place of Greater Safety; Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
- Rimbaud: A Biography – Graham Robb
- Frankenstein; The Last Man – Mary Shelley
- Lost Boy Lost Girl – Peter Straub
- The Secret Power of Music: The Transformation of Self and Society through Musical Energy – David Tame
CFP for Monstrum 8.2: Vegan and Animal Liberation Horror (Guest Editor: Mike Thorn)
Submissions are now open for Monstrum 8.2, a special issue devoted to horror and ecohorror’s engagements with veganism and animal liberation. We seek proposals for essays (5,000-7,000 words) devoted to horror texts, modalities, and philosophies with a focus on veganism or animal rights.
Mike Thorn reviews Twixt (In Review Online)
“The film’s lush, otherworldly dreamscapes foreground the theme of time by contrasting contemporary film technology against the aesthetics of Gothic pasts. Coppola fills Baltimore’s nocturnal visions with Expressionist gestures: tilted crosses and jagged shadows summon the ghosts of Murnau, Wiene, and Lang.”
Booklisti: “Weirding the Gothic: Literary Horror Collisions”
Booklisti invited Mike Thorn to create a list. See his choices for Weirding the Gothic: Literary Horror Collisions.
100 Favorite Horror Books: October 2024 Edition
I am continuing a new annual tradition. I’ve organized my choices chronologically, with externally and/or posthumously edited collections/anthologies at the end.
Vathek, an Arabian Tale; or, the History of the Caliph Vatek, by William Beckford (1786)
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe (1794)
The Monk: A Romance, by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)
Wieland; or, The Transformation: An American Tale, by Charles Brockden Brown (1798)
Zofloya; or, the Moor, by Charlotte Dacre (1806)
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley (1818)
Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Robert Maturin (1820)
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg (1824)
Twice-Told Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1837)
The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (1890)
The Damned, by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1891)
The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
The Beetle, by Richard Marsh (1897)
Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897)
The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells (1897)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M. R. James (1904)
The Listener and Other Stories, by Algernon Blackwood (1907)
The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson (1908)
Pan’s Garden: A Volume of Nature Stories, by Algernon Blackwood (1912)
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (1915)
Ghosts, by Edith Wharton (1937)
The Subjugated Beast, by R. R. Ryan (1938)
Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber (1943)
The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long (1946)
This Mortal Coil, by Cynthia Asquith (1947)
The Scarf, by Robert Bloch (1947 / 1966)
Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson (1951)
The Bird’s Nest, by Shirley Jackson (1954)
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (1954)
The Sundial, by Shirley Jackson (1958)
The Breaking Point, by Daphne Du Maurier (1959)
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Shock!, by Richard Matheson (1961)
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury (1962)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson (1962)
The Collector, by John Fowles (1963)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima (1963)
Dark Entries, by Robert Aickman (1964)
New Stories from the Twilight Zone, by Rod Serling (1965)
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison (1967)
Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967)
Last Summer, by Evan Hunter (1968)
The Obscene Bird of Night, by José Donoso (1970)
The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty (1971)
The Room, by Hubert Selby Jr. (1971)
The Other, by Thomas Tryon (1971)
Burnt Offerings, by Robert Marasco (1973)
Child of God, by Cormac McCarthy (1973)
Carrie, by Stephen King (1974)
‘Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King (1975)
Julia, by Peter Straub (1975)
The Demon, by Hubert Selby Jr. (1976)
Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (1976)
Long After Midnight, by Ray Bradbury (1976)
The Shining, by Stephen King (1977)
The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons (1978)
Blood Secrets, by Craig Jones (1978)
Strange Seed, by T. M. Wright (1978)
Ghost Story, by Peter Straub (1979)
Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1981)
The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill (1983)
Books of Blood: Volume One, by Clive Barker (1984)
The Ceremonies, by T. E. D. Klein (1984)
Hawksmoor, by Peter Ackroyd (1985)
The Damnation Game, by Clive Barker (1985)
The Juniper Tree, by Barbara Comyns (1985)
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, by Thomas Ligotti (1985)
Toplin, by Michael McDowell, (1985)
The Hungry Moon, by Ramsey Campbell (1986)
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (1987)
Why Not You and I?, by Karl Edward Wagner (1987)
The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing (1988)
The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum (1989)
The Pines, by Robert Dunbar (1989)
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
The Cipher, by Kathe Koja (1991)
Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, by Thomas Ligotti (1991)
Something Stirs, by Charles L. Grant (1991)
Bad Brains, by Kathe Koja (1992)
Skin, by Kathe Koja (1993)
The Between, by Tananarive Due (1995)
Zombie, by Joyce Carol Oates (1995)
Traplines, by Eden Robinson (1996)
Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis (2005)
The Red Tree, by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2009)
Jack of Spades, by Joyce Carol Oates (2015)
Heartbreaker, by Maryse Meijer (2016)
Tender is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica (2017)
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, by Gwendolyn Kiste (2017)
Strange is the Night, by S. P. Miskowski (2017)
The Seventh Mansion, by Maryse Meijer (2020)
We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, by Paula D. Ashe (2022)
Supplication, by Nour Abi-Nakhoul (2024)
Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe (1956) [edited by Edward H. Davidson]
Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, by H. P. Lovecraft (2007) [edited by Joyce Carol Oates]
Ghost Stories of Henry James, by Henry James (2008) [edited by Martin Schofield]
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies, by Clark Ashton Smith (2014) [edited by S. T. Joshi]
Craftwork S1E4: Scaffolding, Dionysus, & Mental Bonfires w/ Lindsay Lerman
Listen to Craftwork Episode 4: Scaffolding, Dionysus, & Mental Bonfires w/ Lindsay Lerman.
In this interview, Lindsay Lerman talks about philosophy, procedural knowledge, writing dialogue, and so much more.
Lindsay Lerman is a writer and translator. Her first book, I’m From Nowhere, was published in 2019. Her second book, What Are You, was published in 2022. Her first translation was published in 2023. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She is working on a novel, a philosophy manuscript, and here and there, some screenplays. She lives in Berlin.
Books mentioned in this episode:
- Gothic Metaphysics: From Alchemy to the Anthropocene – Jodey Castricano
- James and the Giant Peach; The BFG; Matilda – Roald Dahl
- Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections – C. G. Jung
- The Cipher – Kathe Koja
- The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Seventh Mansion – Maryse Meijer
Prairie Gothic Kickstarter
Prairie Gothic is the passion project of literary agent Stacey Kondla, with help from Jim Jackson of Prairie Soul Press. They gathered up-and-coming talents from the prairies to write thrillers/psychological horror stories set in these vast open spaces. Then the pandemic hit, and their finances weren’t doing as well as they’d hoped. But they truly want to bring this collection to the public, so they’re looking to make up half the cost of paying their talented authors and editors, printing books and shipping. And they’re looking to make it well worth your while. By contributing, you can unlock special swag – books, music – exclusive contributor-only events, get a professional consultation on your writing and even have a song written about you!
Are you up for seeing what’s waiting for you in the wide open spaces? Featuring the talents of: P.J. Vernon, Chris Carolan, Chris Marrs, Calvin Jim, Taijia Morgan, Konn Lavery, Stacey Kondla, Rhonda Parrish, Sarah L. Johnson, Rob Bose, Mike Thorn, Marty Chan, Liz Grotowski, Jim Jackson
Risks and challenges
They want to bring this collection to a wide audience. If they don’t meet their goal, they can’t do that, and it may prevent Prairie Soul Press from publishing future anthologies from seldom-heard voices.
Mike Thorn 