Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger interview about Horror and Speculative Fiction – “Monster She Wrote” (Quirk Books, 2019)

Melanie Anderson and Lisa Kroger discuss horror and speculative fiction
Melanie Anderson / Lisa Kroger horror and speculative fiction

Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger discuss Horror and Speculative Fiction

 

Interview Summary

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger have both extensively studied speculative and horror fiction. They’ve written a few books together on the subject and they recently won the 2020 Locus Award for non-fiction for Monster She Wrote which explores female authors of horror and speculative fiction.  They also won a Bram Stoker award for the book. We spoke about the subject and the book writing process.

0:41 – Lisa talks about how she and Melanie wrote a book on female horror writers.

2:02 – Melanie talks about previous projects they did together on ghosts and spectrality.

3:48 – Melanie talks about they structured the book.

6:36 – Lisa talks about their struggle to cover a broad scope of literary history.

8:48 – Melanie talks about female use of pseudonyms in horror fiction.

11:48 – Lisa talks about women not having to hide their identities.

14:51 – Lisa and Melanie talk about the nationalities of the women they included in the book.

16: 45 – Lisa talks about 19th century female horror literature.

19:11 – Melanie talks about 19th century ghost stories and why so many female writers wrote horror.

24:00 – Lisa talks about female writers mixing violence, gore, and sex

27:45 – Melanie talks about gore in horror.

32:47 – Lisa talks about a scandalous Margaret Cavendish story she really likes.

35:30 – Melanie talks about author Dion Fortune.

37:28 – Melanie talks about how religion affected the writing these women did. Lisa talks more about Manfrone.

41:39 – Melanie talks about she did the research for the work.

44:55 – Lisa talks about how she added to her horror reading list and how some writers seem to have disappeared completely.

48:28 – Lisa talks about horror comic books.

49:47 – Melanie talks about the joy these authors took in their work.

53:36 – Lisa talks about the writers who she felt touched by.

56:26 – Melanie talks about Gertrude Barrows Bennett and Jewelle Gomez.

58:59 – Lisa talks about the Gilda stories.

1:01:20 – Lisa and Melanie talk about writing the book and getting it published.

1:07:48 – Lisa is at lisakroger.com and on twitter @lbkroger and on instagram @lisa_kroger. Their podcast is knowfearcast and monster she wrote podcast and @monsterwrote on social media.

1:09:25 – Melnaie is at melanieranderson.com and on instagram @melanieranderson7.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

https://www.quirkbooks.com/book/monster-she-wrote

http://www.lisakroger.com/

https://melanieranderson.com/

http://www.knowfearcast.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-monster-she-wrote-podcast/id1498646080

Contact Information

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast

Guests: Melanie R. Anderson and Lisa Kroger

Host: Cris Alvarez

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/31nsZDK

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Full Contact Nerd and Cris Alvarez

Post-apocalypse novel – “The Book of Koli” (Orbit/Little, Brown Books, 2020) – M.R. Carey interview

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2XfgNnG

M.R. Carey has been writing comics and novels for over two decades. He’s written for DC Comics and has written nearly a dozen novels. His most well-known novel is “The Girl With All The Gifts.” He recent;y released a new post-apocalyptic book titled “The Book of Koli.” We spoke about this new book, some of his comic book writing history, and the process of writing in general.

0:35 – Mike talks about why he wrote the Book of Koli.

1:35 – Mike talks about his approach to short story writing.

2:30 – Mike goes into the details of the book.

4:26 – Mike talks about the technological level of the world in the book.

5:39 – Mike talks about the use of technology in the book and on social issues.

8:36 – Mike talks about some research he did for the book.

11:20 – Mike talks about other works he’s done that touch on post-apocalyptic issues.

12:59 – Mike talks about the works that inspire him.

15:01 – Mike compares writing prose and writing for comic books.

18:13 – Mike talks about how he went from being an unstructured to a structured writer.

20:28 – Mike talks about the aesthetic and “soundtrack” to the book.

21:54 – Mike talks about whether he is an architect or a gardener when he writes.

24:10 – Mike talks about how his writing voice has changed over time especially when co-writing with his wife and daughter.

26:27 – Mike talks about having been a teacher for 15 years.

29:19 – Mike talks about being part of an institution like a school.

32:06 – Mike talks about power structures within school.

33:00 – Mike talks about the editing process for his book and beta readers.

34:46 – Mike talks about being a big fan of the wishing tree and the faraway tree.

36:07 – Mike talks about the success of Girl With All The Gifts and how that turned him

into a brand.

39:12 – MR Carey discusses some future writing projects.

40:19 – Mike talks about social media. He enjoys boardgamearena.com and itsyourturn.com

44:19 – Mike can be found on twitter and skype @michaelcarey191 and on goodreads.

45:35 – Mike talks about the comic “The Doll House Family” being released in September by DC Comics.

 

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2XfgNnG

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/m-r-carey/the-book-of-koli/9780316477475/

https://twitter.com/michaelcarey191

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast

Guests: M.R. Carey

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: writer, novel, novelist, fiction, Girl with all the Gifts, voice, post-apocalyptic, zombie, speculative fiction, dark fantasy, Enid Blyton, Hilary Mantel, Moorcock, le Guin, comic books, Alyssa Quitney, Shelly Roberg, DC comics, Lucifer, hellblazer, heavy metal, Talking Heads, teaching, wishing tree, transportation, green latern, Earthsea, seven wonders, GenCon, D&D, Dragoncon

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2XfgNnG

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.