Staring into the Abyss

No, I’m not feeling glum. Quite the contrary, as the writing has picked up and I can see my holiday just over the hill in front of me after a long year.

Staring into the Abyss because I was fortunate enough to be invited onto the podcast of the same name, by their team of Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg and Michael Patrick Hicks.

The format of the show, if you don’t already know it, is that the guest chooses a short horror story to discuss with the panel. I chose a phenomenal piece called ‘Live Through This’ by the ludicrously talented Nadia Bulkin.

You may not be familiar with this story, as it has only ever been published in an anthology from Dim Shores, called Looming Low, and as we thoroughly spoil the story, I’d really recommend you pick up the anthology first, here* then listen in and see if we made of it what you did.

The chat also features a round-up of what we were all reading at the time of recording, when I was wrestling with the darkness of Ross Jeffery’s Juniper and the Staring Into The Abyss team were all at various stages of progress with Stephen King’s novella quartet, If It Bleeds.

Have a listen and tell me what you think, either at the spotify link below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0k68WUd98EaXaaNa9tusnt?si=tnBT-VaCQliF7LSfrf_SlA

*You won’t be sorry if you do pick this up. There are other stories in there by Gemma Files, Brian Evenson, Michael Griffin, Betty Rocksteady, Damien Angelica Walters, Kristi DeMeester, Michael Cisco and I could go on. Seriously, it’s astounding. You can read my 2017 This is Horror review of the book, here.