2022 In Review

Marjorie Bowen's short story "The Crown Derby Plate" opens as "three elderly, cheerful women" sit around a fire for a cozy Christmas. They talk of a nearby estate that is rumored to be haunted when one of the women remembers that they had beautiful Crown Derby china that she wants for her antique shop. So, she makes the journey to the house, only to discover a little more than she bargained for.  Recommended in this episode: Eiren Caffall's All the Water in the World  Listen to Lisa on the Lost Ladies of Lit podcast, discussing the Valancourt re-release of Rosalind Ashe's Moths. NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: Melanie Tem's Prodigal Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In E. Nesbit's story "The Shadow," a vibrant Christmas party has gone late into the night, and everyone stays over at the manor house, given the late hour. Three women are sitting up around the fire with cocoa in hand, gossiping about boys and telling spooky stories. One woman, though, has an especially frightening tale to tell.  Read "The Shadow" here.    Recommended in this episode: Sally Thorne's Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match  NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: "The Crown Derby Plate" by Marjorie Bowen Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

SPOILERS ABOUND as we discuss Mariko Koike's The Graveyard Apartment. Be forewarned!  A young married couple has found the perfect apartment for their growing family. It's beautiful and spacious. It's close to shopping, the train, and their daughter's school. The only problem? It is surrounded by a cemetery. A bit weird, yes, but not a problem–until strange and troubling events begin forcing out the tenants one by one, leaving the Kano family to fight by themselves.    Recommended in this episode: Beard by Kelly Foster Lundquist and The Broken Girls by Simone St. James  ALSO: Charlotte Riddell is in the news!   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.   UP NEXT: "The Shadow" by E. Nesbit (Read online here)  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In Mary Wilkins Freeman's short story "Luella Miller," a tale is told about a woman named Luella, who is prone to hysterics and drains the energy from everyone around her. Is she just a woman in need of help? Or something much, much more sinister?   Read Freeman's story on the Library of America "Story of the Week" site or listen to it via the Podcastle podcast, here: ​​https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcastle-650-luella-miller/id276266378?i=1000496354075    Recommended in this episode: Rachel Harrison's Play Nice and Lora Senf's The Nighthouse Keeper   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Last episode, we welcomed author Jen Julian on podcast. And this episode, Mel and Lisa discuss her book Red Rabbit Ghost in more detail.  College Freshman Jesse Calloway returns to his hometown of Blacknot in North Carolina after receiving mysterious anonymous texts in a college social media app with clues about his mother's unresolved death. She died when he was an infant, so he doesn't remember much of her–and he will do anything to learn more. Unfortunately, layers of secrets cover this small town tragedy (and other aspects of its past as well), and it will be hard for Jesse to uncover the truth while simultaneously facing his unresolved loss.  Recommended in this episode: Clairviolence by Mo Moshaty NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.  UP NEXT: Mary Wilkins Freeman's "Luella Miller"  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

Today, we welcome writer Jen Julian to discuss her book Red Rabbit Ghost. Jen Julian is a writer from Eastern North Carolina. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an MFA in Fiction from UNC Greensboro.  Her short story collection, Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses, was the winner of the Press 53 Fiction Prize and was published in 2018, and her debut novel, Red Rabbit Ghost, is out now through Orbit/Redhook, 2025. Recent work has appeared in Gulf Coast Magazine, The Harvard Advocate, swamp pink, hex, Bourbon Penn, Third Coast Magazine, Wigleaf, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among other places. She has won numerous awards, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net, and had her work recognized as notable in The Best American Short Stories 2023. Recommended in this episode: Alisa Alering's Smothermoss and Rebecca Baum's forthcoming The Brood  NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: We discuss Red Rabbit Ghost in more detail.   Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.   

In Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill, Holly Sherwin is living every writer's dream. She has grant money to finish her new play, which she uses to rent a mansion in the woods so that she can work in peace. The only problem? The mansion is Hill House, a living, breathing bad place that promises to turn Holly's dream into a nightmare.   Recommended in this episode: Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: Interview with author Jen Julian  Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

"She looks through water, / She looks through air,  She leaps at the moon / And she looks in. Give her silver, Give her gold,  / And bind her eyes  With a brick and a pin." "Where All Things Perish" by Tanith Lee was first published in Weird Tales #325 (Fall 2001). It's available in full on Weird Fiction Review's website, which also links to an interview with Lee by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer.   Recommended in this episode: The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: The Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

We are on a summer hiatus, but we will be returning with brand-new episodes soon! Please enjoy this classic episode on "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson.   Shirley Jackson once again proves that she is the queen of creepy short stories, this time with her story "The Summer People." The story starts idyllic, like many of Jackson's stories. The Allisons are a wealthy older couple who summer in a cabin by a lake in rural New England. Their picturesque existence quickly turns nightmarish, however, when they decide to extend their trip and stay past Labor Day.

We are on summer hiatus! So please enjoy this MSW Classic episode on Tanarive Due's "Ghost Summer"  Tananarive Due's "Summer" (from her story collection Ghost Summer) is set in her fictional town of Gracetown, Florida, where the humid and murky swamps hide bodies and demon leeches. It's not a place to raise a baby–or maybe it is.