The Dark Word

Josh Ruben is an award-winning actor, writer, and director whose feature film SCARE ME—which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Aya Cash and Chris Redd—debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. For television, Josh directed sketches for "The Late Late Show" with James Corden and episodes of TruTV's "Adam Ruins Everything." As one of the founding members of CollegeHumor's "Originals" department, Ruben has directed and/or starred in thousands of comedic shorts, amassing views well into the billions.He directed and cameos in all 10 episodes of Funny or Die & Spotify's narrative podcast, THE LAST DEGREE OF KEVIN BACON opposite Rob Reiner, Lamorne Morris, Kyra Sedgwick, and Bacon himself. His second feature, WEREWOLVES WITHIN, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by IFC Films and won a Hollywood Critics Association Midseason award for "Best Indie." Ruben recently produced BLOOD RELATIVES, a genre road trip dramedy, and currently stars in Travis Stevens' feature film A WOUNDED FAWN, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Both films are streaming exclusively on Shudder.We've interviewed him before and this lively conversation goes into even greater depth about his career in comedy and horror.

What's changed? Everything. Brian Keene says the thing that’s changed the most in the years since he sold his first story in 1997 is the rise of the indie press. “The Big Five weren’t publishing horror novels in the mid 90s so you saw the indie press grow and blossom.”And now, maintains the wildly successful author of over fifty books, the gap between the Big Five and indie presses hasn't just narrowed, it's disappeared.Keene writes novels, comic books, short stories, and nonfiction, mostly in the horror, crime, and fantasy genres. They have been translated into over a dozen different languages and have won numerous awards. He's mentor to four promising young authors, including Stephen Kozeniewski, the author of the excellent and terrifying Skinwrapper.He has also written for such media properties as Doctor Who, Thor, Aliens, Harley Quinn, The X-Files, Doom Patrol, Justice League, Hellboy, Superman, and Masters of the Universe.From 2015 to 2020, he hosted the immensely popular The Horror Show with Brian Keene podcast. He also hosted (along with Christopher Golden) the long-running Defenders Dialogue podcast.Several of Keene’s novels and stories have been adapted for film, including Ghoul, The Naughty List, The Ties That Bind, and Fast Zombies Suck. Several more are in-development. Keene also served as Executive Producer for the feature length film I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday.Keene’s work has been praised by The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN, The Huffington Post, Bleeding Cool, Publisher’s Weekly, Fangoria, Bloody Disgusting, and Rue Morgue.Keene also serves on the Board of Directors for the Scares That Care 501c charity organization.He's starting his own IP studio. And if you're looking for one of the greatest Jack Ketchum stories you'll ever hear, it's at about the :31 min mark.

As the operator of her own small press, Dark Hart Books, Sadie Hartmann has developed deep expertise in the marketing of this genre. Here she chats with Philip Fracassi about building a "bookstagram" presence (her Mother Horror persona boasts over 21,000 followers), where Stephen King is an active follower, and also talks our agorophobic host through the phenomenon of BookTok.Hartmann also operates the Nightworms book club, which curates packages of horror related books and merch. She reviews horror for SCREAM magazine and Cemetery Dance Online and is a voting member of the Horror Writers Association. And yeah ... "whatever happened to old-school professionalism?" An insightful, practical guide to earning attention for your craft.

In the grandest tradition of "very special episodes," this week's edition of The Dark Word features an in-person interview before a live audience at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles. Philip Fracassi speaks to Dutch phenom Thomas Olde Heuvelt, an international bestselling author who broke through with the novel HEX. Since then, Heuvelt's work has been sold in more than 25 countries. The critically acclaimed Echo was recently published in the US and rights for Orakel have also been sold worldwide. In 2015, he was the first Dutch author to win a Hugo Award.And not for nothing ... Philip Fracassi's new novel A CHILD ALONE WITH STRANGERS drops today, Oct. 25, 2022. Buy it here, or learn more about this book and all of Philip's books at his website.

Rachel Harrison is the author of SUCH SHARP TEETH, described as a “darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability,” CACKLE and THE RETURN, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS. She lives in Western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer-songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of a Lake, and Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box.Malerman’s new book, Daphne, comes out today, Sept. 20, 2022, and you can buy that book (and all books!) at the Book House, which is Book and Film Globe’s bookstore. Shop online or confound the authorities by actually visiting our actual physical store in Millburn, NJ, where you can buy books from all authors featured on The Dark Word and the Book and Film Globe podcasts.Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist-musician Allison Laakko. We’ve covered him before so check out this interview and more. And don’t miss an episode of The Dark Word, the world’s premiere podcast about horror writing and the creative forces behind them.Josh also gives a plug to a romance podcast on which he recently appears and reveals a genre convention invisible to others — the number of flames depicted on the cover signals the precise level of raunchiness. Who knew!

Legendary writer and winner of ten Bram Stoker Awards discusses his 50-year career.The legendary Joe R. Lansdale joined THE DARK WORD to talk about his 50-year career as a writer, sharing advice on writing, including working with the time you have, his editing process, and how he’s had success writing for himself.Joe has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as “Batman: The Animated Series.” As of 2020, he has written 50 novels and published more than 30 short-story collections. His stories have won ten Bram Stoker Awards. a British Fantasy Award, an Edgar Award, a World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, a Sugarprize, a Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, a Spur Award, and a Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and several of his novels have been adapted to film.

Author of nearly 30 novels stops by to talk writing with Philip FracassiThis week, we were delighted to have bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones visit The Dark Word to discuss his early publishing career, the importance of reading, his unique approach to writing fiction, and some real-world advice on writing mechanics.Stephen is the New York Times bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections, and there’s some novellas and comic books in there as well. Most recent are The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw. Up next is Don’t Fear the Reaper. Stephen lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.Read Book and Film Globe’s earlier interview with Stephen Graham Jones. And Dark Word host Philip Fracassi appeared on the Book and Film Globe podcast last week with Neal Pollack. It’s very much worth a listen.

Legendary editor hits Philip Fracassi with tips for aspiring horror writersWe had a great conversation with legendary editor Ellen Datlow in which we discuss anthologies, tips for new writers when submitting a story, the nuts and bolts of creating a killer table of contents, and much more.Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over thirty-five years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short fiction for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited more than a hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year.She’s won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and was the recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre.” She was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, as well as the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.Datlow lives in New York and co-hosts the monthly Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at KGB Bar. More information can be found at www.datlow.com.

Head Full of Ghosts author raps with Philip Fracassi about his writing career.It was great to speak with Paul Tremblay about his early writing career, early publishing disappointments, and his experiences working with big 5 publishers.Paul has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of Survivor Song, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, and the short story collection, Growing Things and Other Stories.His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family.

For Halloween Half-life, Host Philip Fracassi dishes with Award-Winning Author.Ready for your third session of chills? In episode 3, Lisa Morton joins The Dark Word to discuss non-fiction writing, screenwriting, editing for anthologies and much more.Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and a fiction writer. She is a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, the author of four novels and over 150 short stories, and a world-class expert on Halloween and the paranormal.Her recent releases include Night Terrors & Other Tales, Weird Women 2, and Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances; her latest short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts, and In League with Sherlock Holmes.Morton’s weekly original fiction podcast Spine Tinglers is now live at My Paranormal Network. Find out more at www.lisamorton.com.

Hello and welcome to the Dark Word. This is Season 1, Episode 1 and I’m your host Philip Fracassi.The Dark Word is a podcast about writing, writers, and those who read those writers. The goal of this podcast is to focus on the profession of writing—the creative process, the business side of things, or simply offering advice on how to be a professional writer. We’ll be hearing from some of the best in the business.This week features my interview with Laird Barron. True to our name, the Dark Word focuses on writers who tend to hang out in the shadowy side of the room. These are the names you think of when you hear horror, suspense, noir —the names who’ve chilled you and thrilled you.So follow me down this dark hallway, because there’s someone I’m dying for you to meet.Today’s guest is Laird Barron, an expat Alaskan, is the author of several books, including The Imago Sequence and Other Stories; Swift to Chase; and the Isaiah Coleridge trilogy: Blood Standard, Black Mountain, and Worse Angels. For more on Laird Barron, visit Book and Film Globe to read his BFG interview. Barron lives in the Rondout Valley of New York State, where he’s hard at work crafting stories of evil and woe.