AudioTim 31: K. Allen Wood and Mercedes Yardley of Shock Totem Magazine

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I have one packed episode today. K. Allen Wood hi-jacked Mercedes’ interview and now we’ve got almost an hour and a half of audio for you. Ken and I start the show off by talking about his Magazine (with a capital M for magnificence), Shock Totem. We talk about his reading influences, up and coming authors, and future releases from Shock Totem: The Wicked by James Newman as a paperback in early May, Shock Totem Issue 5, and Beautiful Sorrows, a limited edition hardback collection of Mercedes Yardley’s stories, to be released in September. Then Mercedes talks about some of her stories, her views on how to make great Horror, and why it’s important to make an emotional connection with the reader. Mercedes has great advice, and made me laugh a number of times. Ken… I think was on his best behavior because I was recording. If he ever gets out of line elsewhere, I have a lovely soundbite I can play for him that will whip him back into shape At the end I have some behind the scenes of Ken and I chatting about our time in Korea and aspirations of being musicians put aside for our writing careers. Enjoy!

A little context from the interview: Mercedes wrote a story about a woman bashing a boy over the head with a shovel, and it became an inside joke between her and Ken because that was the story that got her started in Shock Totem. She wrote a blog post about it: http://abrokenlaptop.com/2008/10/24/rock-on-i-say/

In this corner, wielding a pick axe, K. Allen Wood

Vs.

Mercedes Yardley and her bloody shovel

Links
From Ken’s Conversation:
Kevin J. Anderson’s website
The Zombie Feed Vol. 1
The Wicked – James Newman’s website
Ken’s first Horror read – Dean Koontz’s Lightning
Ken’s recommendation for “new” Horror authors to check out:
Ronald Malfi: Skullbelly
Lee Thompson – Division Mythos ; Shock Totem Issue 4 (print and digital)
The Bram Stoker Award nominated anthology, Epitaphs, that Ken has a story in.

From Mercedes’ Conversation:
Dark Things in Love was original title of Beautiful Sorrows, which is to be released in September, no links yet, but you can find out about it at Mercedes’ website www.abrokenlaptop.com
The Stoker Award winning anthology Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed
The Gate 2
Her agent, Jason Yarn at Paradigm

#quotingmercedes
31:30-50 I like that story. I thought it was sweet. I thought it was amazingly sweet. And kind of sick…a little bit twisted

32:30 Horror has to do with dread and emotion, and making someone feel something

45:15 On why she rolls her eyes at zombie stories “Guy shambles in. There’s biting. Guy shambles away, and there’s no connection to the characters.”

48:00-30 “Horror is more than feeling disgust… about feeling depths of emotion”

49:00-20 On the cheap trick of stories involving rape: “I just read twenty other stories like that. Wow, none of them moved me, except that I never want to go outside again.”

65:20 I don’t want people to read my work then go walk away and be like I’m just going to go jump off something

66′ has a great quote on finding strength in suffering as a reason why horror shouldn’t just harp on the suffering.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, but the complete list of back episodes is on my Podcast Page. I have a nice audio clip from this interview here, soon to be made into a promo for the podcast. My soundbite from Ken… that one stays with me, until he misbehaves, mwahahahaha

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