Elizabeth Hand's A Haunting on the Hill

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.

Author of WORDS MADE OF FLESH, the eco-horror YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, and the Stoker-nominated story "Ten Thousand Crawling Children," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and thinking about weird things to write about.    Recommended in this episode: "Ten Thousand Crawling Children" and WORDS MADE OF FLESH by R. A. Busby   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: Summer HIATUS! Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Every year, two children from one of twelve districts in Panem are chosen to participate in the Hunger Games, where they will fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the Capitol–and the chance to bring undreamt of wealth back to their poor families. When young Primrose is chosen as one of the tributes, her older sister Katniss sacrifices herself to go in her place. But now, 16-year-old Katniss must learn how to survive–and how to kill.  Recommended in this episode: Julia Bartz's The Writing Retreat and Paulette Kennedy's The Devil and Mrs. Davenport    Thanks to Fox and Wit for sending us their Nightshade Fox and Wit book box.   NEWS: We have a Bookshop.org shop now! Find all of our favorite books at our shop–and help out small businesses.    UP NEXT: Summer HIATUS! We will be back with new episodes soon! Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.

Please enjoy this re-run of a classic Monster, She Wrote episode.  Author of the novella Corporate Body and the Shirley Jackson Award-winning story "Not the Man I Married," R.A. Busby spends her spare time running in the desert with her dog and finding weird things to write about.

Tracy Cross is a dealer in dark fiction, her gripping stories featured in a range of podcasts and anthologies. Her debut novel, the gripping "Rootwork" (Dark Hart Publishing, November 2022), explores the strong bonds of family and draws on her own heritage in hoodoo. This is followed by "A Gathering of Weapons" (October 2024), the second book of the Rootwork series. Tracy resides in Washington, DC, where she is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. When she's not busy writing scary stories, she's dancing to disco. Keep up with her news and musings at her blog: tracycwritesonline.com. You can also follow her on Instagram @tracycrosswrites, on Bluesky @tracycrosswriter.bksy.social, and on Threads: @tracycrosswrites.    Recommended in this episode: Rootwork and A Gathering of Weapons by Tracy Cross   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 Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Buy our books here, including our newest Toil and Trouble.