Before you listen to this episode, you should be warned: your to be read pile will become unmanageable. If you’re anything like us, you already have a huge to-read list, but we discuss so many epic horror short stories and novels that you won’t be able to help yourself. Don’t worry, I hear books can be used to build forts.

Megan and Charlotte speak to editor and author, Marie O’Regan, about all things horror in this episode. While it was our intention to focus purely on short stories – what makes a short story, how to world build within the confines of a short story word count, how to terrifying people in few words – we did get a little distracted at times. From ‘how does Stephen King manage to terrifying us all the way through his doorstop-length novels?’ to depictions of women across all horror formats, we get stuck into what makes the horror genre so horrifying and so addictive!

‘What’s in your mind is scarier than what’s on the page.’

Marie O’Regan

Authors and texts mentioned in this episode include:

  • Paul Tremblay
  • Stephen Gallagher
  • Joe Hill
  • John Connolly
  • The Stand by Stephen King
  • The End of the Whole
  • Mess by Stephen King
  • The Reach by Stephen King
  • The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
  • The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker
  • When We Fall, We Forget by Angela Slatter (short story in Phantoms)
  • The Shining by Stephen King
  • Pet Sematary by Stephen King
  • Needful Things by Stephen King
  • The Moving Finger by Stephen King
  • Silence of the Lambs
  • Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood
  • Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
  • A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
  • I Spit on Your Grave
  • Cabin in the Woods
  • An American Werewolf in London
  • Alien
  • Halloween
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Friday the 13th
  • Dead Snow
  • Scream
  • MR James
  • Mark Gatiss
  • Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones
  • Graham Joyce
  • Ramsey Campbell
  • Beachworld by Stephen King
  • Nyctophobia by Christopher Fowler
  • The Spirits of Christmas by Paul Kane
  • The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood
  • Cujo by Stephen King
  • Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
  • Thin Air by Michelle Paver
  • The Terror by Dan Simmons
  • The X-Files
  • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  • Supernatural
  • Black Mirror
  • Creep Show
  • The Twilight Zone
  • Masters of Horror
  • Outer Limits
  • Fear Itself
  • Hereditary

Marie O'Regan

Marie O’Regan is an award-nominated writer and editor of horror and dark fantasy fiction, and her short fiction has been published in such places as The Alsiso ProjectWhen Darkness ComesTerror Tales 2Terror Tales of London, Best British Horror 2014 and Great British Horror #2: Dark, Satanic Mills, among others. Her first collection, Mirror Mere, was published in 2006. She is also the co-editor of Hellbound Hearts (Pocket Books), The Mammoth Book of Body Horror and CarnivΓ le: Dark Tales From the Fairground (PS Publishing) and Exit Wounds along with her husband, Paul Kane, and the solo-edited anthologies The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women and Phantoms. Marie and Paul’s non-fiction interview book Voices in the Dark was published early in 2011. Marie’s collection, In Times of Want, was launched at FantasyCon 2016, and a novella, Bury Them Deep, was launched at FantasyCon 2017. Her latest collection, The Last Ghost and Other Stories, was launched at FantasyCon 2019. Excerpts of her fiction together with details of where it can be found are elsewhere on this site. Marie is also currently Co-Chair of the UK Chapter of the Horror Writers’ Association and StokerCon UK – bringing the HWA’s flagship convention to the UK for the first time in April 2020.

Follow Marie on twitter.

Wonderland is out now from Titan Books.