Episode 321 "All That Smolders" with James Sulzer

This latest Necronomicast episode features a wide ranging discussion with one of the rising stars in contempory fiction today, Christine Carbo!  Christine's newest book "The Confession Artist" was released this week to great acclaim! A killer dubbed the Confession Artist is posting sketches of potential victims on social media. And paranoia spreads as strangers across the nation admit to their sins―fearing the consequences: You have six days to confess or die. Then former cop and first-year PI Crosbie Mitchell sees a sketch that bears a striking resemblance to her. How can that be? She's a nobody from Flathead Valley, Montana. Crosbie dismisses it as an unnerving coincidence. If not for one unmistakable detail that makes the threat hard to ignore. When the FBI is contacted, they are convinced that Crosbie is the next target. So is she. Crosbie has six days left to fess up online to something plaguing her conscience. But even if she wanted to play the killer's game, she has more than one secret. And if she ever dares to expose them for the world to see, the truth will destroy her. That's exactly what the Confession Artist wants.  Christine is also the author of an ensemble series called the Glacier Mystery Series, and a psychological suspense stand-alone. Her books include The Wild Inside, Mortal Fall, The Weight of Night, A Sharp Solitude, and The Confession Artist. She is a recipient of the Women's National Book Association Pinckley Prize, the Silver Falchion Award, the High Plains Book Award, and has been a finalist for the Barry Award. She has an MA in English/Linguistics and taught college-level courses for over a decade. She still teaches, in a vastly different realm, as a Pilates instructor. She lives in Montana where she finds inspiration from the wild beauty surrounding her. Murder and intrigue abound in the seductive beauty of the wilderness of Montana! Christine Carbo's official website. "The Confession Artist" at Amazon Support the efforts of Necronomicast in featuring the creatives of our day at "Buy Me A Coffee"  

My next guest on Necronomicast is one of my new favorite authors James Sulzer.  James Sulzer lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale University, where he was a Yale National Scholar, he is the author of six novels.  Tonight we chat about his career and his newest book.  James Sulzer's All That Smolders is a perfect mystery. The classic themes of love and money, and who will do just how much to get it, had me turning pages—and being surprised by … well, see for yourself! James Sulzer's official website. "All That Smolders" available everywhere including at Amazon.  Support the Necronomicast and support the mission of lifting up the creative community....Buy Me A Coffee!  

It is my great pleasure to welcome to the show a globally recognized figure in the world of paranormal, Bigfoot and UFOs… Ronny LeBlanc!  Ronny starred in TRAVEL CHANNEL'S Hit Series EXPEDITION BIGFOOT (Seasons 1-4). He also stars in PARANORMAL CAUGHT ON CAMERA.   Ronny is an independent researcher, screenwriter and author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling book Monsterland: Encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot and Orange Orbs, which details the history and connection between the various phenomena, highlighting his experience and a research area called Monsterland in central Massachusetts.  Ronny is a storyteller at the intersection of the unexplained and the deeply human. Known for his television work and decades of personal investigation, he approaches UFOs, UAPs, cryptids, folklore, and synchronicity not as isolated mysteries, but as signals pointing toward a broader intelligence at work. His writing and speaking focus on patterns, consciousness, and lived experience. He invites audiences to question how the unknown shapes culture, memory, and our relationship with the natural world.   Ronny LeBlanc's official website.   "Interdimensional" available at Amazon.   Support Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee".  Thank you!   Tickets to the "May Day Manifestation" at Malvern Manor!

My guest for this episode of Necronomicast is best selling author/journalist Bob Reiss!  His work has always been inspired by the border between order and anarchy, the moment when peace becomes chaos, order becomes danger and events once considered impossible suddenly turn real. His journalism has brought him to research and military bases in the Arctic and Antarctica, where he's covered climate change and potential conflict in polar regions, to Sudan, Somalia and South Africa, where he wrote about drought, rebellion and civil unrest, and to the Amazon rainforest where his dispatches about murder and environmental destruction made him a national magazine award finalist. Bob has advised European politicians on US Arctic policy. He's moderated National Academy of Sciences meetings on disease outbreaks in polar regions. He's accompanied Coast Guard missions on a polar icebreaker and against drug runners off Central America.   Bob's fiction has been called "sparkling and fast paced." (Washington Post) "Dead On!" (People Magazine) "First Rate!" (Rocky Mountain News) "Gripping...Riveting" (Publishers Weekly. "Splendid. Great writing. Great suspense. Great action." (Los Angeles Times). He's appeared on TV shows including Morning Joe, Nightwatch, Nightline, CNN, Dan Rather Reports, Charlie Rose, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera, discussing his work. Bob's 18 novels reflect the same fascination with order versus anarchy and he is an incredible addition to the growing list of fascinating guests on NECRONOMICAST! Official Website of Bob Reiss "The Impossible Detective" on Amazon Support Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee"! - Thank you!

Road Trip time!   I packed up the vehicle and made my way to Malvern, Iowa, home of one of the most haunted locations in the United States, MALVERN MANOR.   I had a great sit down conversation inside the Manor with the owner of the propertry, Josh Heard.   Together, we have a wonderful wide ranging discussion on all things paranormal! Josh Heard's official YouTube Channel Josh Heard's official website Malvern Manor official website TICKETS to "May Day Manifestation at Malvern Manor" Live Event!

Hold on to your hats!   My featured guest for this episode of Necronomicast is Dr. Rizwan Virk! A graduate of MIT and Stanford, Rizwan Virk is a successful entrepreneur, video game pioneer, film producer, venture capitalist, computer scientist and bestselling author. Virk recently finished his doctoral research at the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) and teaching classes on the Metaverse, Innovation and Simulation Theory at the College of Global Futures and the Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. His books include The Simulation Hypothesis, Startup Myths & Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School, Wisdom of a Yogi, The Simulated Multiverse, Treasure Hunt and Zen Entrepreneurship.   Virk founded Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator, and invested in many successful startups including Discord, Theta Labs, Upland and Tapjoy.  His startups created video games played by millions, including Tap Fish and games based on Game of Thrones, Star Trek, The Walking Dead, Grimm and Penny Dreadful. Virk and his books have been featured on The Joe Rogan Podcast, in Forbes, The Telegraph, NBC News, vox.com, Techcrunch, Inc., VentureBeat, Digital Trends, BBC Science Focus, and Scientific American, CBS, the CBC, Coast to Coast AM and The History Channel.  He has been a speaker and mentor ranging from MIT's $100k Business Plan Competition and Delta V accelerator to 500 Startups, Talks @ Google and GamesBeat in Silicon Valley. Follow him @rizcambridge, and at zenentrepreneur.com. "The Simulation Hypothesis" at Amazon. Support the Necronomicast and "Buy Me A Coffee"!

For this episode of Necronomicast, it is my pleasure to welcome to the program Sterling Moon! Sterling is a fulltime, heels-on-the-ground, tarot reader, psychic medium, folk magician, animal communicator, published author, podcaster, and an educator on the mystical and strange. She has been working with clients, and teaching professionally since 2013.  She is the author of Talking to Spirits: A Modern Medium's Practical Advice for Spirit Communication 2023) and Llewellyn's Little Book of Spirit Communication (2025), both published by Llewellyn Books. Sterling also spent almost 20 years as a professional advocate for victims and survivors of crime in Wyoming, Minnesota, and Colorado, which will forever remind her of the importance of serving her communities.  Sterling Moon Official Website. Sterling Moon at Llewellyn Books. Support the Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee"!  Thank you!  

It is my pleasure to welcome to Necronomicast, Rachel McCarthy James!  A native of Kansas, she is the daughter of baseball's Bill James and artist Susan McCarthy. At Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, she studied political science and creative writing. Her first book, The Man from the Train (coauthored with her father) chronicled the serial killer behind the Villisca axe murders. Published in 2017, The Man from the Train was nominated for an Edgar award for best fact crime, and won the Kansas Notable Book award. Her newest book, Whack Job, is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Job sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present.  Official Website of Rachel McCarthy James "Whack Job" available at Amazon Support Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee".  Thank you!

Joining me for this special episode is Benedict Sanderson (director) and Claire Goodlass (producer) to chat about their powerful new documentary "Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart".   This documentary revisits the harrowing abduction of Elizabeth Smart, exploring the investigation, the media frenzy, and the failures that allowed the case to unfold the way it did, while centering Elizabeth's own voice and survival in one of the most haunting true crime stories of our time.   Find out the inside story on why this is one of the most talked about shows in the world directly from two of the most talented storytellers working today.   "Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart" is available on Netflix (Official Website)   Benedict Sanderson Official Website   Claire Goodlass Official Website   Support Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee".  Thank you!        

On this incredible episode of Necronomicast, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Texas Ranger James B. Holland, who has built a reputation as one of the most remarkable investigators in modern law enforcement. With more than 26 years with the Texas State Police, Holland has cracked hundreds of cases, including some of the country's most haunting unsolved crimes.  But his rare gift lies in drawing confessions from the unthinkable: serial killers.  This gripping new series pulls back the curtain on Holland's most complex and chilling cases when KILLER CONFESSIONS: CASE FILES OF A TEXAS RANGER premieres on Tuesday, January 13 at 10/9c on ID. Episodes will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max.     Through Holland's masterful psychological approach, viewers are immersed in the tension of real-time confessions and given a front-row seat to retired Texas Ranger, James Holland, as he reveals his tactics in cases once considered unsolvable. Through interrogation footage, case files, and with the personal reflections of Holland himself, each episode of KILLER CONFESSIONS traces the path from the crime scene to the confession chair and offers unprecedented access into the minds of killers through one of law enforcement's most enigmatic, and successful, figures.    Killer Confessions official website.   Support the Necronomicast at "Buy Me A Coffee"!