Mike Thorn's Blog, page 4
October 1, 2024
100 Favorite Horror Books & Films, 2024 Edition
Continuing a new annual tradition, here are my 2024 choices for the top 100 horror books and films.
100 Favorite Horror Books
100 Favorite Horror Films
100 Favorite Horror Books
100 Favorite Horror Films
September 8, 2024
Craftwork S1E12: Cruel Elegance, Cosmic Pessimism, & Rust Belt Vibes w/ Paula D. Ashe
Listen to Craftwork S1E12: Cruel Elegance, Cosmic Pessimism, & Rust Belt Vibes w/ Paula D. Ashe.
In this interview, we chat with Paula D. Ashe about writer’s block, narrative movement, urban legends, and so much more.
Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (Nictitating Books) was a Shirley Jackson Award winner for Single Author Collection and a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. Recently, she received the Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Weird Fiction Award at NecronomiCon Providence. Paula was also an associate editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives in the Midwest with her family.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
Supplication – Nour Abi-Nakhoul
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Books of Blood; The Damnation Game; The Hellbound Heart – Clive Barker
Midnight Rooms – Donyae Coles
Blood from the Air – Gemma Files
“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” – Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke – Eric LaRocca
“Abed” – Elizabeth Massie
The Scar – China Miéville
Beloved; The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Song of the Tyrant Worm – Hailey Piper
Flowers for the Sea – Zin E. Rocklyn
Cows – Matthew Stokoe
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Where I End – Sophie White
In this interview, we chat with Paula D. Ashe about writer’s block, narrative movement, urban legends, and so much more.
Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (Nictitating Books) was a Shirley Jackson Award winner for Single Author Collection and a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. Recently, she received the Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Weird Fiction Award at NecronomiCon Providence. Paula was also an associate editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives in the Midwest with her family.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
Supplication – Nour Abi-Nakhoul
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Books of Blood; The Damnation Game; The Hellbound Heart – Clive Barker
Midnight Rooms – Donyae Coles
Blood from the Air – Gemma Files
“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” – Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke – Eric LaRocca
“Abed” – Elizabeth Massie
The Scar – China Miéville
Beloved; The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Song of the Tyrant Worm – Hailey Piper
Flowers for the Sea – Zin E. Rocklyn
Cows – Matthew Stokoe
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Where I End – Sophie White
September 1, 2024
Craftwork S1E11: Collaboration, Closet Dramas, & Writing for Audio w/ McKenna James Boeckner & Carlee Calver
Listen to Craftwork S1E11: Collaboration, Closet Dramas, & Writing for Audio w/ McKenna James Boeckner & Carlee Calver.
In this interview, we chat with McKenna James Boeckner and Carlee Calver about nature writing, epistolary possibilities, elusive chicken detectives, and so much more.
McKenna James Boeckner is a Ph.D. candidate and contract lecturer at the University of New Brunswick (territory of the Wolastoqiyik people), with a specialization in long eighteenth-century British literature. As a creative writer, they slay with playwriting and have a penchant for fractured states of reality. Their most recent project is an eco-horror audio drama co-created with Carlee Calver, titled Us Soliscent Seeds. Find more of their work at memoirsofasodomite.com
Carlee Calver is a writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Bathurst, New Brunswick. She currently lives and works in Fredericton NB, where she received her M.A. in creative writing (screenwriting) from the University of New Brunswick. Her plays have been produced by Notable Acts Theatre Festival (2019) and Herbert the Cow productions (2022). She directed a FibeTV1 series called Skin and Bone (2023) that is now available online. Recently, Carlee was co-creator and producer of Us Soliscent Seeds (2023), a 4-part eco-horror audio drama set in Northern New Brunswick. All episodes are now available for streaming online.
Books mentioned in this episode:
We Are Here to Hurt Each Other – Paula D. Ashe
Carrie – Stephen King
Blue Ruin; Red Pill – Hari Kunzru
Melmoth the Wanderer – Charles Maturin
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Divergent series – Veronica Roth
The Two Gentlemen of Verona – William Shakespeare
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dracula – Bram Stoker
In this interview, we chat with McKenna James Boeckner and Carlee Calver about nature writing, epistolary possibilities, elusive chicken detectives, and so much more.
McKenna James Boeckner is a Ph.D. candidate and contract lecturer at the University of New Brunswick (territory of the Wolastoqiyik people), with a specialization in long eighteenth-century British literature. As a creative writer, they slay with playwriting and have a penchant for fractured states of reality. Their most recent project is an eco-horror audio drama co-created with Carlee Calver, titled Us Soliscent Seeds. Find more of their work at memoirsofasodomite.com
Carlee Calver is a writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Bathurst, New Brunswick. She currently lives and works in Fredericton NB, where she received her M.A. in creative writing (screenwriting) from the University of New Brunswick. Her plays have been produced by Notable Acts Theatre Festival (2019) and Herbert the Cow productions (2022). She directed a FibeTV1 series called Skin and Bone (2023) that is now available online. Recently, Carlee was co-creator and producer of Us Soliscent Seeds (2023), a 4-part eco-horror audio drama set in Northern New Brunswick. All episodes are now available for streaming online.
Books mentioned in this episode:
We Are Here to Hurt Each Other – Paula D. Ashe
Carrie – Stephen King
Blue Ruin; Red Pill – Hari Kunzru
Melmoth the Wanderer – Charles Maturin
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Divergent series – Veronica Roth
The Two Gentlemen of Verona – William Shakespeare
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Dracula – Bram Stoker
August 27, 2024
Mike Thorn discusses Shelter for the Damned on The Dark Mind podcast
Mike Thorn joins Vince Midgard on The Dark Mind Podcast to discuss his recent novel
Shelter for the Damned.
They discuss the themes and inspirations behind the book, including the exploration of the Jungian shadow and the ambiguity of supernatural versus psychological elements. They also touch on Thorn’s previous work, Darkest Hours , his podcast Craftwork, and his experiences as a writer. The conversation concludes with Thorn sharing his love for reading, the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and his upcoming projects.
Listen here.
They discuss the themes and inspirations behind the book, including the exploration of the Jungian shadow and the ambiguity of supernatural versus psychological elements. They also touch on Thorn’s previous work, Darkest Hours , his podcast Craftwork, and his experiences as a writer. The conversation concludes with Thorn sharing his love for reading, the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and his upcoming projects.
Listen here.
August 23, 2024
Craftwork S1E10: Weird Tales, Uncanny Dolls, & Creative Breakthroughs w/ Lisa Tuttle
Listen to Craftwork S1E10: Weird Tales, Uncanny Dolls, & Creative Breakthroughs w/ Lisa Tuttle.
In this interview, we chat with Lisa Tuttle about genre history, the ideal protagonist, Harlan Ellison’s writing advice, and so much more.
Lisa Tuttle was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and moved to Britain in the 1980s. Her first novel, Windhaven, co-written with George R.R. Martin, was followed by over a dozen fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels, including three recent books set in the 1890s combining crime and supernatural fiction, featuring the detective duo Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane; the third volume, The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies, was published last year. She has also written hundreds of award-winning short stories collected in several volumes, including A Nest of Nightmares, The Dead Hours of the Night, and most recently, Riding the Nightmare. She is the author of The Encyclopedia of Feminism (1986) and currently writes a monthly science fiction review column for The Guardian. She lives with her husband and their daughter in Scotland.
Book and stories mentioned in this episode:
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
Hangsaman; The Haunting of Hill House; “The Lottery” – Shirley Jackson
The MANIAC; When We Cease to Understand the World – Benjamín Labatut
Biography of X – Catherine Lacey
The Seventh Mansion – Maryse Meijer
Babysitter; By the North Gate; They; The Wheel of Love – Joyce Carol Oates
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Lake of Darkness – Adam Roberts
Cryptonomicon; Polostan – Neal Stephenson
In this interview, we chat with Lisa Tuttle about genre history, the ideal protagonist, Harlan Ellison’s writing advice, and so much more.
Lisa Tuttle was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and moved to Britain in the 1980s. Her first novel, Windhaven, co-written with George R.R. Martin, was followed by over a dozen fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels, including three recent books set in the 1890s combining crime and supernatural fiction, featuring the detective duo Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane; the third volume, The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies, was published last year. She has also written hundreds of award-winning short stories collected in several volumes, including A Nest of Nightmares, The Dead Hours of the Night, and most recently, Riding the Nightmare. She is the author of The Encyclopedia of Feminism (1986) and currently writes a monthly science fiction review column for The Guardian. She lives with her husband and their daughter in Scotland.
Book and stories mentioned in this episode:
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
Hangsaman; The Haunting of Hill House; “The Lottery” – Shirley Jackson
The MANIAC; When We Cease to Understand the World – Benjamín Labatut
Biography of X – Catherine Lacey
The Seventh Mansion – Maryse Meijer
Babysitter; By the North Gate; They; The Wheel of Love – Joyce Carol Oates
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Lake of Darkness – Adam Roberts
Cryptonomicon; Polostan – Neal Stephenson
August 9, 2024
Listen to Craftwork S1E9: Eavesdropping, Travel Writing, & Glasgow Kisses w/ Mark Anthony Jarman
Listen to Craftwork S1E9: Eavesdropping, Travel Writing, & Glasgow Kisses w/ Mark Anthony Jarman.
In this interview, we chat with Mark Anthony Jarman about hockey fiction, deadwood words, finding stories in newspaper clippings, and so much more.
Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Touch Anywhere to Begin, Czech Techno, Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, My White Planet, 19 Knives, New Orleans Is Sinking, Dancing Nightly in the Tavern, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. Burn Man, published in 2023 by Biblioasis, was an Editors Choice with the New York Times. He was an acquisitions editor for Oberon Press, and introduced many new writers through the Coming Attractions series. He is also the editor of Best Canadian Stories 2023. His novel Salvage King Ya! is on Amazon.ca’s list of 50 Essential Canadian Books and is the number one book on Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction. Widely published in Canada, the US, Europe, and Asia, Jarman is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Yaddo fellow, has taught at the University of Victoria, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the University of New Brunswick. He is also co-editor of the literary journal CAMEL.
Book and poems mentioned in this episode:
Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire
Study for Obedience – Sarah Bernstein
Cathedral – Raymond Carver
The Stories of John Cheever – John Cheever
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The U.S.A. Trilogy – Jon Dos Passos
Literary Theory: An Introduction – Terry Eagleton
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – T. S. Eliot
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Attack of the Copula Spiders: Essays on Writing – Douglas Glover
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Dubliners; Ulysses – James Joyce
The Incognito Lounge and Other Poems; Jesus’ Son; Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond – Denis Johnson
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Panama – Thomas McGuane
Dance of the Happy Shades – Alice Munro
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle; Lolita; Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
The Cariboo Horses – Al Purdy
In this interview, we chat with Mark Anthony Jarman about hockey fiction, deadwood words, finding stories in newspaper clippings, and so much more.
Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Touch Anywhere to Begin, Czech Techno, Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, My White Planet, 19 Knives, New Orleans Is Sinking, Dancing Nightly in the Tavern, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. Burn Man, published in 2023 by Biblioasis, was an Editors Choice with the New York Times. He was an acquisitions editor for Oberon Press, and introduced many new writers through the Coming Attractions series. He is also the editor of Best Canadian Stories 2023. His novel Salvage King Ya! is on Amazon.ca’s list of 50 Essential Canadian Books and is the number one book on Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction. Widely published in Canada, the US, Europe, and Asia, Jarman is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Yaddo fellow, has taught at the University of Victoria, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the University of New Brunswick. He is also co-editor of the literary journal CAMEL.
Book and poems mentioned in this episode:
Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire
Study for Obedience – Sarah Bernstein
Cathedral – Raymond Carver
The Stories of John Cheever – John Cheever
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The U.S.A. Trilogy – Jon Dos Passos
Literary Theory: An Introduction – Terry Eagleton
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – T. S. Eliot
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Attack of the Copula Spiders: Essays on Writing – Douglas Glover
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Dubliners; Ulysses – James Joyce
The Incognito Lounge and Other Poems; Jesus’ Son; Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond – Denis Johnson
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Panama – Thomas McGuane
Dance of the Happy Shades – Alice Munro
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle; Lolita; Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
The Cariboo Horses – Al Purdy
July 31, 2024
Mike Thorn reviews The Soul Eater (In Review Online)
“Bustillo and Maury have demonstrated once again that horror contains multitudes, and it doesn’t need to play arthouse dress-up to indicate as much. Horror’s philosophical and aesthetic merits have always already been there: all one needs to do is look.”
Read the full review.
Read the full review.
July 27, 2024
Mike Thorn reviews House of Sayuri (In Review Online)
"Sayuri makes overtures to the cultural anxieties underlying many haunted house narratives, with several lines pointedly alluding to what constitutes a 'happy life.' An early scene depicts a teacher asking her disinterested class to analyze a poem by posing questions such as 'Where do we find happiness?' and 'What exactly is happiness?' The film ultimately disavows the notion that domestic ownership equals anything like existential fulfillment or familial harmony. It locates horror in the conformist embrace of cultural repetitions, depicting its haunting as something like a tape stuck in a loop: the same ghostly giggle echoes through the house again and again, haunted TVs replay snippets of glitchy footage, and one character repeatedly watches the simulated reenactment of her beloved’s grisly death."
Read my full review at In Review Online.
Read my full review at In Review Online.
July 25, 2024
Craftwork S1E8: Obsession, Transgression, & the Library of Gestures w/ Maryse Meijer
Listen to Craftwork S1E8: Obsession, Transgression, & the Library of Gestures w/ Maryse Meijer.
In this interview, we chat with Maryse Meijer about metaphor, quotation marks, the dubious necessity of author photos, and so much more.
Maryse Meijer is the author of Heartbreaker, Rag, Northwood, and The Seventh Mansion. She lives in Chicago.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
Samuel Beckett: A Biography – Deirdre Bair
Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett
About Schmidt – Louis Begley
Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
New Grub Street – George Gissing
The Children of the Dead; Greed; The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
Pet Sematary – Stephen King
Bad Brains; The Cipher; Kink; Skin; Strange Angels – Kathe Koja
The Communicating Vessels – Friederike Mayröcker
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
Hurricane Season; Paradais – Fernanda Melchor
The Defense; Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Black Water; Blonde; Heat; My Sister, My Love; “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; Zombie – Joyce Carol Oates
With the Animals – Noëlle Revaz
Snake Eyes – Rosamond Smith
The Custom of the Country – Edith Wharton
Author Photo Credit: Lewis McVey
In this interview, we chat with Maryse Meijer about metaphor, quotation marks, the dubious necessity of author photos, and so much more.
Maryse Meijer is the author of Heartbreaker, Rag, Northwood, and The Seventh Mansion. She lives in Chicago.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
Samuel Beckett: A Biography – Deirdre Bair
Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett
About Schmidt – Louis Begley
Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
New Grub Street – George Gissing
The Children of the Dead; Greed; The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
Pet Sematary – Stephen King
Bad Brains; The Cipher; Kink; Skin; Strange Angels – Kathe Koja
The Communicating Vessels – Friederike Mayröcker
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
Hurricane Season; Paradais – Fernanda Melchor
The Defense; Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Black Water; Blonde; Heat; My Sister, My Love; “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; Zombie – Joyce Carol Oates
With the Animals – Noëlle Revaz
Snake Eyes – Rosamond Smith
The Custom of the Country – Edith Wharton
Author Photo Credit: Lewis McVey
July 17, 2024
Craftwork S1E7: Weird Angels, Maximalism, & the Taste of Prose w/ Craig Laurance Gidney
Listen to Craftwork Episode 7: Weird Angels, Maximalism, & the Taste of Prose w/ Craig Laurance Gidney.
In this interview, Craig Laurance Gidney talks about genre mashups, writing workshops, telling Mom which of your stories to avoid, and so much more.
Craig Laurance Gidney (he/him/his) is the author of Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories; Skin Deep Magic: Stories; Bereft (a YA novella); and A Spectral Hue (a novel). He has been a Lambda Literary Finalist three times, was a Carl Brandon Parallax Award Finalist, and won the inaugural Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Award for Weird Fiction. The Nectar of Nightmares is his most recent collection. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Giovanni’s Room; Go Tell It on the Mountain; If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
The Uncanny – Sigmund Freud
A Ring of Endless Light; A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Black Light – Elizabeth Hand
The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus – Joel Chandler Harris
“The Golden Pot”; “The Sandman” – E. T. A. Hoffmann
Finnegan’s Wake – James Joyce
“Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk” – Franz Kafka
Delirium’s Mistress – Tanith Lee
“The Outsider”; “The Rats in the Walls” – H.P. Lovecraft
The Winds of Winter – George R. R. Martin
The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern
Tar Baby – Toni Morrison
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” – Flannery O’Connor
Corpsepaint – David Peak
Queen of Teeth – Hailey Piper
In this interview, Craig Laurance Gidney talks about genre mashups, writing workshops, telling Mom which of your stories to avoid, and so much more.
Craig Laurance Gidney (he/him/his) is the author of Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories; Skin Deep Magic: Stories; Bereft (a YA novella); and A Spectral Hue (a novel). He has been a Lambda Literary Finalist three times, was a Carl Brandon Parallax Award Finalist, and won the inaugural Joseph S. Pulver Sr. Award for Weird Fiction. The Nectar of Nightmares is his most recent collection. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Books and stories mentioned in this episode:
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Giovanni’s Room; Go Tell It on the Mountain; If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
The Uncanny – Sigmund Freud
A Ring of Endless Light; A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Black Light – Elizabeth Hand
The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus – Joel Chandler Harris
“The Golden Pot”; “The Sandman” – E. T. A. Hoffmann
Finnegan’s Wake – James Joyce
“Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk” – Franz Kafka
Delirium’s Mistress – Tanith Lee
“The Outsider”; “The Rats in the Walls” – H.P. Lovecraft
The Winds of Winter – George R. R. Martin
The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern
Tar Baby – Toni Morrison
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” – Flannery O’Connor
Corpsepaint – David Peak
Queen of Teeth – Hailey Piper
