Scott Nicolay

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Tag: Cameron Pierce

Rios de la Luz: Magical Surrealism, Martian Gemstones and Guardian Abuelas | The Outer Dark: Episode 27 — JANUARY 13, 2016

rios-pulseRios de la Luz explores the “inner workings that were happening in her brain” while writing her first collection The Pulse Between Dimensions and the Desert, and Scott’s suggestion that her stories resemble the Martian gemstones depicted within–each unique, energetic, fresh, multifaceted, and yet interconnected. Notions of magic realism, time travel, science fiction, Junot Diaz, Ray Bradbury, Lucius Shepard, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and her love of outer space and comic books, especially Los Bros Hernandez’s Love and Rockets, emerge, as well as working with her publisher Ladybox Books, a rising imprint of Broken River Books and being part of the dynamic small press community in Portland, Oregon. The discussion also explores diversity as a rising force in both authors and audience for spec-lit, including Rios’ identity as a “Latina-Chicana-Bruja” writer but “mostly just a strange brown girl,” as well as using Spanish to reset rhythm in her narratives, growing up in El Paso, discovering her favorite writer Sandra Cisneros and her passion for creating young characters like herself, including her excitement in seeing female, African and Guatemalan leads in Star Wars and a black Hispanic super-hero in Spider-Man Miles Morales. Another ever-present element in her writing is the guardian abuela, reflecting the importance of her grandmother and great grandmother to whom she says she “owes so much.” Also queer characters, the awkwardness of puberty (“Church Bush”), disappeared women, dead children (“La Reina”), her complicated feelings about borders and a short reading of her hauntingly beautiful story “Marigolds.Hey bros out there. For your own sake, don’t ever take two big Levitra Generic.” Finally, Rios talks about what’s next for her including flash fiction, zines, two horror stories, a bizarro tale and a novel, as well as recommending poet Yesika Salgado, aka Yesika Starr, fellow Ladybox Books author Meliza Bañales, aka Missy Fuego, and Vanessa Mártir.

10374457_627170827394930_3262260669077353846_nNews from the Weird: Ladybox Books Head Editor/Curator Constance Ann Fitzgerald joins Scott to talk more about this innovative women-run press/collective, how it got started, its exciting slate of “fiercely talented” authors, the rebirth of the zine and the current dynamic and label-defying small press scene.

 

Next week’s guest: Garrett Cook, author of You Might Just Make It Out of This Alive (Eraserhead Press)

11059843_737530326358979_7942642027074885308_nMore links:

Yesika’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/yesikastarr

https://www.autostraddle.com/hidden-gems-of-queer-lit-meliza-banales-life-is-wonderful-people-are-terrific-307618/

One of Meliza’s short stories: https://ladyboxbooks.com/2015/02/08/story-of-the-week-face-lift/#more-131

https://www.facebook.com/States-of-Terror-289014071299287/?fref=ts

News From the Weird:

https://ladyboxbooks.com/2014/09/27/ladybox-on-sale-october-15th/

The Punk Singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwrXC5OXqgc

https://pioneerspress.com/

Kate Jonez: Oh My God, I Forgot Jesus!| The Outer Dark: Episode 9 — AUGUST 28, 2015

fliesKate Jonez discusses the weird side of obscure California history and Tom Waits in her novel Ceremony of Flies, her own unique spin on Mesoamerican and Christian mythology and archetypal characters, methods of divination in fiction and her use of Tarot Cards in developing the women in Candy House, larger-than-life and grotesque characters, the theme of supernatural abilities vs. mental illness, “All the Day You’ll Have Good Luck” in Black Static magazine, a possible sequel to Ceremony of Flies. and her next novel which may be called Swamp Logic, film director Peter Greenaway and seeing the more beautiful aspects of life by contrasting with the ugly, exploring the worldview of schizophrenia, the supportive community of weird fiction now, her publishing house Omnium Gatherum and the thrill of discovery, the rise of eBooks and novellas from a publisher’s perspective, other small presses to watch, the impact of women publishers in horror fiction, and her recommendations of current authors including Daryl Gregory, Emily St. John Mandel, and Alison Littlewood.

This archival episode will be available again at This Is Horror soon. In the meantime, subscribe at iTunes  or Blubrry to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

NEXT WEEK:  “H.P. Lovecraft and Racism: Moving Past the Howies.” A Special Presentation of the Panel at NecronomiCon Providence, Sat. Aug. 22, 2015. Moderator: Niels Hobbs. Panelists: C. Morgan Grefe, Andrew Leman, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, David Nickle, Faye Ringel.

 

Nicole Cushing: Outdreaming the Nightmare | The Outer Dark: Episode 5 — JULY 21, 2015

MrSuicide_Cover_small-259x400Author Nicole Cushing visits The Outer Dark to talk about her brand new debut novel Mr. Suicide (Word Horde Press) and her immanent (sic) short story collection The Mirrors (Cycatrix Press). Along the way we touch on the cosmological implications of her rare early works, the struggle between sadism and nihilism, anti-natalist just-so stories, the inevitability of oblivion and its manifestation in the Great Dark Mouth, why we all love Ross Lockhart, doing right by mentally ill characters, why her writing has a richness to its foulness, how the battle of Weird Horror is being won on the playing fields of Bizarro, and why you should read Garrett Cook, Cameron Pierce, Brian Evenson, and Glen Hirshberg.

This archival episode will be available again at This Is Horror soon. In the meantime, subscribe at iTunes  or Blubrry to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

Additional Links:

Mr. Suicide

The Mirrors

NEXT WEEK’S GUEST:  Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Signal to Noise

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