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MAD AXE SPECIAL w JOEY POWELL, CHLOE SPENCER, and WENDY DALRYMPLE
54 Plays5 months ago
The head of Mad Axe Media joins the show to talk about some of Mad Axe's upcoming projects, including Readings From Cursed Room 301 and the Totally Freaked novella series, along with included authors Chloe Spencer and Wendy Dalrymple, with their featured stories
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guests
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey listeners, this is William Sterling and you're listening to the Killer Mediums podcast where we talk about all your favorite horror tropes and how they manifest across all your favorite mediums of entertainment. Today's topic is going to be a bit of a journey as we deep dive into Mad Axe Media. Accordingly, we are joined by guests Joey Powell, Chloe Spencer, and Wendy Dalrymple. We'll start with a broad discussion about Mad-Acts Media and what it's like starting a new publishing house in today's bookish world, and then we'll dive into a couple of Mad-Acts' upcoming projects, including the anthology Readings from Cursed Room 301, which features a story from Chloe, and the totally-freaked novella series, which includes Wendy's novella Birthday Party Demon.
00:00:43
Speaker
We won't get into too many spoilers today, so this should be a safe enough episode for everybody to listen to. But enough prefacing, let's get into it. Time to get spooky.
Guests' Backgrounds and Specialties
00:01:02
Speaker
tied bells to everybody in the war so if they heard a ting they knew somebody down there wasn't quite ready to go
00:01:24
Speaker
Everybody, how are we doing today? Hello. Awesome. By the way, I'm i'm very impressed that you that you do that actually in the episode because I would have to record that all completely by itself for my podcast. So I mean, hey, you you barely missed a step there. I was very impressed. Hey, thank you. Thank you. ah we're We pretend to be a professional here. ah so and I have flubbed those intros so many times though. um I think Clay, when I had Clay McLeod Chapman on the episode, I had to do his intro like three different times. i get I'd be nervous if I had him on my podcast, so I totally get that.
00:02:03
Speaker
But let's focus on everybody in the room today. So I mentioned everybody's names in the intro, but just to kind of introduce yourself to listeners that may or may not be familiar with you, can we kind of go around the room real quick and just ah say who we are, what we do in the horror community, and just a little bit about yourselves? Maybe, can we start with Wendy? Yeah, sure. um Hi, my name is Wendy Dalrymple. I'm an indie and self-pub author of horror, gothic fiction, and romance. I've published over 50 titles across a variety of genres and also work in Kid Lit as a ghostwriter, though my main focus these days is in horror and dark fiction spaces. Very nice. And moving to Chloe.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, I am Chloe Spencer. I am the author of multiple sapphic horror novellas. I often do things that are a blend of horror and romance. um And I like to do things that are very gory and body horror focused. ah And when I'm not working on writing, I am at least trying to work as a filmmaker and a game developer. Awesome. I love the the gory body horror and romance wombo combo. Like it feels like those three just go so well together. They really do. like It's surprising how well that those those kinds of things blend ah blend together. Yeah. Yeah. William, if you haven't read Mewing, you should totally read Mewing. Yes. i know i've I've got it on the... ah My problem is Shortwave puts out so many books and I cannot keep up. I don't know how Alan does it, no but i've i've got ah I've got to get in there. My back catalog is just going to kill me.
00:03:43
Speaker
Joey, though, let's end with you. Oh, right. Yes, of course. yeah um So I'm Joey Powell. I'm the owner of Maddox Media. I also host Creatives Getting Coffee, a podcast which primarily hosts um ah authors of genre fiction. um I write not nearly as much as everybody else on this podcast, but specialize in young adult horror and cosmic horror. And I do some acting. um And, you know, I'm basically just a suburban dad that works at a tech company. But that's that that's the boring side of my life. That's not what we're here to talk about today.
00:04:24
Speaker
I feel seen. ah right It feels like you're moonlighting sometimes, right?
Mad Axe Media's Vision and Projects
00:04:30
Speaker
Right? this is This is the Batman persona we're wearing. Exactly. All right. So the big thing bringing us together today, ah Joey, is your publishing company, Mad Axe Media. so Can you tell us a little bit about Mad Axe? How long have y'all been around? What sort of a niche are you trying to carve out for yourselves in the horror community? what what What's the selling point here? ah Yeah, how long have we been around? I'll i'll start i'll start there.
00:05:01
Speaker
um So I officially registered the company in October, 2023. So the company hasn't even been around for a year yet, which is really wild to think about because it's picked up steam, at least in terms of, you know, like audience um over the past year. six to eight months or so. um And so far, so when I started, I only had ah my book as the first publication um because I wanted to basically do all of the wrong things first with my own title before I actually published other people's. It was always my intention to have a publishing company for um to to spotlight other authors, right? and
00:05:43
Speaker
um I got Stephanie Rose onboard as an author. She's the ah owner of Death by TBR Books, which is this like massively popular horror-based ah independent online bookstore. And things just sort of started snowballing from there. I'd say the way um I'd like to think that we um keep ourselves different from others is it's kind of like a holistic approach to publishing where um I as a publisher, I'm not really sending the manuscript or outsourcing a lot of the stuff to a lot of different people. I actually like to be a collaborator on every phase. So interior formatting and cover design and marketing and I really want the authors to know what's going on every step of the way because
00:06:32
Speaker
Keeping it in-house means that we can basically do as many revisions as we want and not have to worry about someone else doing it. I actually had an author comment like, this is this is this is going too fast. like this isn't This really isn't what I'm used to. I'm like, well, I feel like this should be the norm. you know um And a lot of that stuff, it's it's just really fun. So um I'm having a really good time with it. And somehow I've been fortunate enough to work with some really, really cool authors, people that I admire, including people on this call right now. So it's been a really awesome time.
00:07:07
Speaker
Very cool. Follow-ups for Chloe and Wendy. um So you both jumped into some things pretty early with Madax Media. um So from you as an author looking around, and there are so many publishing houses out right now, right? um What made Madax stand out to you as an author so much that you you wanted to jump on board? You wanted to reach out to Joey, try to get in here? That's a really good question. um I think that what made Mad X media stand out to me is that they are taking on some really kind of exciting and interesting projects that we don't often see. I think that we see a lot of anthologies in the horror market, but it's interesting to see an anthology that is all about subverting tropes. I feel like we don't have um a lot of those. I think that there are a lot of anthologies out there that tackle specific themes.
00:07:58
Speaker
But something that I think challenges an existing trope and tries to find a way to explore um like new ideas with it, I think that that's so that's a really unique concept that's really fun. um And then also just I knew a little early on about the Totally Freaked ah the totally freaked series. um And I thought that that was a really cool concept to kind of ah do something that is very 90s inspired. I love 90s theme things. i've made I've written like a lot of things that are based in the 90s. And I also think it's kind of cool to have something that um the Totally Freak series, I think like a lot of those titles kind of are geared towards younger readers. Not all, I don't believe not all, but I think that that was,
00:08:44
Speaker
also really interesting because there are a lot of young readers who want to read like short fiction, shorter stories. They don't want these long like dense tombs of books. And I was kind of like, oh, this is very smart. Like it's not only creative, but I think it's actually very smart because you're kind of each in a market ah that um that kids want younger kids want ah shorter stories that they're able to read quickly. ah There's not like a lot of goosebumps esque related series, I think around nowadays in kid lit. Yeah, Wendy. Yeah, um same for me. So the the Totally Freaked series caught my eye and I knew immediately that I i had to I had to apply for it. and um And I had an idea that had been, you know, bouncing around my head for 30 years now. um i I grew up
00:09:35
Speaker
basically reading Arlstein, Fear Street, Christopher Pike. and i And from a young age, I knew I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to write stories like this. And then to see this opportunity come up, it was I couldn't pass it up. and um And I'm glad I didn't. And immediately, Joey's energy for my story and his understanding of of what I was trying to do, it came through in our communications. and then and looking into Maddox and some of the other authors that he was already working with for a lot of authors who I admired and I liked their work and I just felt like it was going to be a really good fit and I was right and Joey's great to work with and I'm so excited about everything that's coming out.
Nostalgia and Influence of 90s Horror
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, you're so lovely. Thank you so much. I just, i I have to say, Wendy was the first submission. So like the submission window opened and I was like, I read the submission. I was like, ah like, this can't be the one already, right? Because it just, it nailed the prompt so well, you know? And originally when I put out the call, I was planning on just doing one. Like I thought we were going to do just one book. Maybe I would like save some for another year. I didn't really know how much I was going to how many titles I was going to publish. But there was such this incredible enthusiasm for a bunch of people. I mean, people wrote um submission pitches that were actually quite poignant and they were just full of all this love for nostalgia and
00:11:06
Speaker
Well, one, the worst part about it was like, oh, i'm I'm actually going to break some hearts here. So like I may never open up submissions ever again because that's like devastating. Right. But to. there there was obviously a lot of passion for this idea, which the reason I decided to put out the open call for it was first, at first I was doing like, it was like a dark fiction kind of press where I was reading a bunch of manuscripts that were wonderful. And a lot of the things we have, you know, Son of a Serial Killer by Andrew Adams, J.K. Lowell by Patrick Barb, who's a brilliant writer. These are great writers, you know, which like is kind of insane that they want to work with me.
00:11:45
Speaker
um and JV Gax with Unholy, these manuscripts were awesome but they were also very dark so I was like I want to lighten this up a little bit and I wanted to do some YA stuff and I love this trend on social media where people post their sort of like vintage YA paperbacks from the 90s and I'm like Well, you know, shortwave is doing like a killer VHS series, but that's that's goosebumps for adults. What if we were to do a series that was it was YA, but it was something that, you know, Gen Z or Gen X could actually like buddy read with their kids. You know, that was the idea for it. And ah yeah, a lot of people submitted. And I'm really, really lucky to have a bunch of writers um lined up for it. It's it's pretty incredible. Yeah.
00:12:31
Speaker
I feel like a lot of us ah horror authors got our start at the Scholastic Book Fair just shoveling goosebumps into the bag. yeah um So seeing seeing that concept coming back up is, you know, soulwarming for me. Okay, so then ah we've kind of gotten into my next question was going to be about just like the vision for the press and where where you're trying to push the press moving forward. But I think we touched on that a little bit. So I think next, can I ask, um maybe going behind the curtain a little bit, but
00:13:05
Speaker
Can I ask how things are going so far? I don't know. What does the future kind of look like for a Mad Axe? From a vision perspective, like what you're trying to put out, but also like how big are we trying to grow here? Like what's what's the what's the one year, five year, ten year plan? How do we take over the world? it's It's a really good question because when I started the press, well, first off, I wouldn't have started it if I wasn't in a financially fit position to do so. And that's probably probably the best advice I have for people is that in your your first year should be all about discovering what mistakes not to make. And sometimes those can be expensive mistakes. So as a public, which I haven't made any like egregious, expensive mistakes.
00:13:48
Speaker
Um, but there are a lot of costs that you don't, uh, immediately think about things like liability insurance, which in America, anyone can sue anyone for anything, you know, even if a case is unfounded. So you need to protect yourself, but that also basically puts you in the red immediately. So every year it's kind of like this, it's, it's this constant feedback loop of, okay, like how do I not just make money? How do I just make that money back? So the first year, it's all about making mistakes, learning how to budget. And then the next year, and the reason I didn't load up titles this year was because of that next year is all about how can we make this money back? And then the following year, how do we actually make money with this? So I can actually get like more of a staff, maybe like a higher.
00:14:35
Speaker
um an editor to work with. Maybe I hire like an in-house artist. Like, I don't know. But the reason I wanted to call it Maddox Media, not Maddox Publishing, is because i'm I'm a film studies kid. my My first love is filmmaking. I also love ah comic books and graphic novels. So, I mean, if we're talking like really ambitiously what I'd love for it to be, it's to dive into all those other mediums. So, Hence, Madax Media. But for now, I'm having a really good time putting out really cool stories. Nice. Love to hear it.
Exploring Chloe's Creative Works
00:15:11
Speaker
And now we know like you and Chloe have the film side of things in college. Chloe is a brilliant filmmaker. OK, I have seen her short film. She undersold it and it's very good. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Can we go on a tangent here for a second? What is your short film?
00:15:29
Speaker
My short film is, um it's called Serotonin and it was my thesis film for my MFA program at SCAD. So it is a body horror film about a girl who kind of, um she sees this influencer that she loves and she tries to change her body and she tries to change her life to kind of mimic that of her favorite influencer. um So ah a lot of that film was actually kind of the basis and the foundation for mewing with my novella that released with shortwave books. um it serotonin did it it did it did like modestly okay for like a thesis film it did actually screen at the Atlanta horror film festival so that is it's definitely like nice that it was able to screen at that festival um yeah and i think that it was just kind of the foundation for what i wanted to do for mewing the thing with um working on that film is that a lot of it was also still controlled by like professors and like
00:16:22
Speaker
the university and there's things that I wanted to do with that story that I could not do um simply because I had to get it passed a committee. um Yeah, yeah, I really, um it has like a very ah cool scene where someone tears open ah their thigh to like create try to create a thigh gap. Makeup artists did a very good job on so. Where does that exist now? Where can we go watch it? It exists on Vimeo and I have not ah publicly posted it as of yet. I just haven't gotten around to it because this past year has been so busy, but eventually I do plan to release it publicly.
00:17:03
Speaker
Okay. All right. We are all anxiously watching that. If we mess nicely, maybe he can see a private link. Yes, actually. Yes. I can definitely send you a private link for it. Private screening on the side. Perfect. yeah Well, that's so fun. Um, getting back to Maddox media, let's dive into the anthology a little bit. So, um, the next book, I think is correct to say coming out in July though. um is readings from Cursed Room 301. I guess, Joey, would you like to tell us a little bit about what this anthology is? And then we'll talk to Chloe more specifically about her story after that.
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah, so my my quick pitch for it is that I like to tell people it's a horror anthology for people who don't like reading horror anthologies. So the reason I put it together is I actually had some one of my writing buddies ask me when I started the press, like, are you going to do an anthology? And I was like, no hard no like I'm not I'm not going to do an anthology absolutely not I didn't know if there was anything I could actually bring to the whole anthology game that could be unique enough um to really stand out but then I had this idea of like the stodgy professor who is kind of a snob when it comes to horror fiction and he's called in to teach a horror writing class and
00:18:25
Speaker
So he reads the stories aloud and he starts to go insane from the crazy stuff within the stories and the prompt for all the stories that the students submit, which the students are the writers in this case, which is really fun. He's kind of like speaking directly to, you know, Patrick Barb and Chloe Spencer and Steph Nelson as if they're students. um It's horror genre tropes. So doing some kind of subversion on that. And um I've heard a lot of people say it reads more like a novel instead of an anthology because of this wraparound segment where you come out of the story, he gives like a really pompous critique on it. It's all in good fun. I mean we're basically um highlighting how silly it is that a lot of
00:19:10
Speaker
Um, a lot of professor types kind of stick their nose up at, at horror, right? As if it's not real literature. Um, but then all the while there's sort of like this cosmic horror thing going on in the background where this room is actually cursed and the students actually do have these cursed stories that he's reading. Um, so yeah, that's, that's my pitch for it. Awesome. And then Chloe, so you wrote one of these stories. Um, you wrote white out, correct? Yes, correct. Yes.
Wendy's Storytelling Inspirations
00:19:40
Speaker
okay yeah This is always so hard to ask with short stories, but what is the what is the premise for this short story without giving away the ending?
00:19:51
Speaker
and of a yeah there's There's a certain twist in Whiteout. um So when I ah learned about the anthology, I was like, man, like there are so many like good tropes that you can pick to subvert. But every single one that I just kept thinking of, I was like, I don't think I could come up with the story that like it's a story that fits within that word count. I don't think I can really come up with something that's like unique, that's that's fun. I wanted something that was that was fun and interesting. um And so I was thinking about, wait, how many so horror stories start with like some kind of ah the trope that I decided to tackle was inclement weather, because how many so horror stories ah kind of open up with something like, oh, there was this torrential downpour. There was this thunderstorm and people couldn't leave this castle or something like that.
00:20:39
Speaker
um But I wanted to avoid rain because I felt like rain was overplayed and I instead decided to focus on snow. So this is, and also because I'm a Minnesotan, snow. Snow is on my mind, even when it's the summer season. And so I kind of thought it would be interesting to do a story about ah these friends who basically they decide to go to this cabin. They rent a cabin to have like this fun winter trip. And some weird stuff starts to happen um in this snowstorm that they're stuck in. um And they're trying to ah navigate surviving the night as well as kind of kind of coming to terms with the fact that they've outgrown their friendship and they've outgrown each other. Awesome. So we got we get some human interpersonal conflict as well as like
00:21:32
Speaker
temperature conflict, that's not a thing. And it's it's really interesting to see how how the snow plays into the story without giving anything away. This ah this is what I really love about the the submissions is that, I mean, so so my brother, he's in the anthology. It's the first thing he's written in a while. I was like, hey, Nepo baby, you're not an automatic pass, okay? But he actually wrote a really good story. I mean, we we also we shared a womb. So we kind of have like that cosmic connection. He knows exactly what I want. Right. Yeah. um But he wrote a story about a car. So his whole thing is like that thing in horror movies where like you really need the car to start because something's chasing you. But the car won't start. And so the story is called The Car Wouldn't Start. And it's about a sentient car. And
00:22:20
Speaker
where where that goes is very interesting. And that's what I love about all the stories because you have in terror, um you have cursed objects there. There's a lot of really fun stuff. So um I had a good time editing it. And then kind of taking these two story premises and helping the listeners kind of connect ah the big the big theme of the anthology into this a little bit. Is there anything you can talk about from those two stories that you're like, and here's how it manifests in the room? I will say that there that when people read the wraparound story, what starts to happen is that actual things do start manifesting in the room. So the stories do start seeping into the reality of this professor. So that's what I'll say. And eventually he realizes he he belongs to the room now.
00:23:13
Speaker
Y'all are very good about answering my questions without like going off the deep end and spoiling everything. like you are but You are all walking this line so exquisitely. like Thank you. Well done. Well, I can't wait to to see what Wendy says about birthday party demon. Yes, and I have been but we have been neglecting Wendy this entire time. So let's do that. um So outside of the short story anthology that's been put together, we've got totally freaked, which we've mentioned a couple times at this point. I think listeners, you've kind of got the premise now.
00:23:46
Speaker
But one of the stories in Totally Freaked is Wendy's story, Birthday Party Demon. So Wendy, can you talk to us a little bit about just when you saw the Totally Freaked call, you mentioned that you've had this story kind of in your mind for a long time. What's what's the enthusiasm here? What's the quick sales pitch? What is the Birthday Party Demon? Absolutely, so um um I was a 90s teen um and I really wanted to lean into, ah so i wanted I wanted to like embody Wendy in the 90s. The things that I liked that were genuine, that were real, the things that I did with my friends, um I wanted to incorporate those things into the story and I wanted to also incorporate the things that I feared um and the things that I enjoyed that were horror adjacent.
00:24:38
Speaker
um So I pitched this to Joey. The original title was light as a feather, which was taken. um So we we've settled on birthday parties even which is just as fun. um But I pitched it as the craft meets my best friend's exorcism with a splash of Jennifer's body campiness. And so i i wanted to I wanted to incorporate things that I did in sleepovers with my friends, that's because that's a lot of what we did. you know We obviously didn't have the the internet back then. And so we relied on summoning demons at sleepovers. We did the craziest things we could do because we were bored out of our mind and we had our imaginations. And um we, in um magazines,
00:25:24
Speaker
are something that I feel like were lost to the last 20 years. And they were such a big part of my teen hood and finding out who I was as a person and my interests and style. And so I really wanted the magazines to play a big part in this story and they do. and um And so it's just, it's super duper nostalgic. I wanted to make a story, like um my my niece just graduated from fifth grade and she's reading this story right now. And I wanted something that people my age could also share with their age-appropriate kids in their life and enjoy equally. And I hope that I've accomplished that with this story.
00:26:09
Speaker
So I read an advanced copy of this and I can say like without hesitation, yes, you accomplished it. It is so good. It's brilliant. and It's fun. It's really good. yeah Whenever anyone says that my work is fun, then I know that I've met my goal because that's really what I i want with with, you know, not with all of my stories. Some of my stories are dark, but particularly with the story. Like I wanted it to be fun because I think horror is fun and it's core. Well, and it it writes this amazing line, right? Where it's like, it's, it's spooky, but it's not like full on, like scare you out of your mind horror where younger, younger kids can read this and come away from it, having a good time. It's it's just like the right level of scares, right?
00:26:53
Speaker
And it's also the, just the right level of absurdity where it's, it's, you know, at a certain point it reaches an absurd level and it gets, it gets really fun. You know, there's a lot of creativity and imagination going on with it. And I think it's so cool as I, I i think I told you, Wendy, this is, this is like the Iron Man to what will be the Avengers that is the series, you know, like you're, you're basically setting the template for other totally freak stories to come Oh, no pressure. No pressure. I know. I know. But it's it's like the perfect introduction because I mean, me reading it and you know, William, you you know, this um the way the pitch process works is that i i I didn't want people to write full manuscripts and send them in. Just, you know, do do outlines and then we can work together if we need to, like crafting the story and whatnot.
00:27:45
Speaker
um But what's awesome about it is that the word length was short enough where people could write it fairly quickly. And when I read ah Wendy's manuscript, I was like this, I mean, this is like, this is taking me back to like Goosebumps and Fear Street. You got all the comfort of you know, going into a video rental store and looking at VHS boxes and whatnot. um it's It's just so much fun, like hanging out with your friends at a birthday party, like eating chips and watching VHS tapes and whatnot. So, yeah, it's a great time. i I love the comps that you gave at the beginning, especially like Grady Hendricks is my best friend's exorcism, because that's kind of in the back of my mind, that's what I was comparing it to the whole time.
00:28:32
Speaker
And two of the big things for me while I was reading birthday team and what birthday party demon was one that it was just more fun than my best friend's exorcism was. Cause that one got very like. uh like interpersonal conflict at the forefront of so many things and it it just stopped being fun and like these long stretches whereas birthday party demon is just like no we're we're here for a good time it's ultimately about friendship that's i mean that's the the running theme through the whole thing there's of course there's like there's romantic there's a romantic relationship but there's also a platonic friendship that carries through the entire thing and i think it's really lovely where everybody ends up i mean not everybody but and see
00:29:19
Speaker
No, I loved, um I loved Grady's book and and his took place in the 80s and it was based on his experiences as a teenager. But um I don't know how much of it he could have truly gleaned if he was writing. This is where it gets tricky for me. Like I i don't want to say like, for me, I'm writing from I was writing for my own team girl experience. So perhaps it had a little bit more authenticity, because that also it was a novella length, and my best friend's exorcism was full length. And so mine was like, full speed ahead. And you know, there was no no time for any, any slow sense or murky middle, as they say. So, you know, ah but I that was,
00:30:02
Speaker
Grady's book was fun too, but ah I just, i I truly like, you know, you're not supposed to self insert, but this, there was a lot of me that I self inserted and a lot of the things that I genuinely experienced as a teenager. And I and I hope that that added a level of authenticity to it. Yeah. And now that was going to be my second point too was like finishing my best friend's exorcism and reading a lot of the like reviews of it after the fact. Like that seemed to be one of the main criticisms of it was like,
00:30:34
Speaker
it It didn't feel genuine from a teenage girl's perspective. And i I want to go on record as saying, if that was your takeaway from Best Friends Exorcism, read Birthday Party Demon, because this is the book you were looking for. Like it it reads so gently. That's the blur, William.
00:30:52
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm trying to like guide this conversation without taking off into like we keep saying it's so fun. It's so fun. And if we could just like spoil the whole book, we could tell you why it's so fun. But I'm trying to get here without ruining that you win. I think another comp I would throw in was like, you kind of went army of darkness, uh, in some places. I can see that a little bit. I think i think someone else said like drag me to hell too. Yes. Yes. Um, like very, like, very, like the Sam Raimi reference is amazing. Like it's very much on that level of just like absurdity.
00:31:28
Speaker
So, okay, here's my next question for you then. How do you reach for that level of absurdity while still keeping it YA?
Balancing Scare Levels in YA Horror
00:31:37
Speaker
So, I think this is ah kind of a big conversation for Totally Freaked. And Chloe, we'll come back to you in a second because you've got a Totally Freaked story too. um But when you're trying to go for the scares and when you're trying to go for things that kind of shock people a little bit, Um, cause it is horror. it It wants to be shocking. Um, where was that line for you of like, aha, I should not do this with the demon because that would be appropriate. Okay. No. Sure. So we all know like the original evil dead, the, the.
00:32:10
Speaker
you know uh the tree scene right the tree and the forest scene so like but staying away from from any kind of sexual assault i think is definitely important um and then like the kids in my books swear uh and and i think that that's genuine of teenagers but it's not like like i also for my own personal tastes keep slurs of any kind out of out of books um i any kind of uh and And I think with your kills, like just keeping, keeping like don't don't dial it up to 11 on the graphic part of that um for my, you know for again, for my own personal taste for YA. But um just, you know like it's not necessarily that it it's, some it rides the line between PG-13 and rated R, if you will, as the best way that I can i can do it for for myself. I don't know if there's, if if I could give you true parameters, but that would be the best way I would describe it.
00:33:10
Speaker
Okay. And it's interesting too, because like YA is in this play. Actually, I mean, I've gone back and read some it's some ah Christopher Pike YA books. And I mean, there're so the so his book, Monster, that's YA. And it starts with ah a girl walking into a party with a shotgun and just blowing a bunch of people away. like And it it describes the gore in vivid detail. And I'm like, this is, this is our rated, but this was aimed at like 15 year olds, you know? So YA has for decades now, it's had a lot of edge to it. And yeah, yeah. But I mean, for, for these books, we are looking for a sense of fun without like, without the moms and the dads being too pro clutch, you know? Fair. Anything, Chloe, anything to add here?
00:34:01
Speaker
ah Gosh, yeah, I think that YA is really interesting in that there's there's definitely a lot of directions that you can take with it. I i think that YA trends a lot darker nowadays, actually, especially after the advent of like drew Andrew Joseph White's books. like We've got Hell Followed with us, which is very gory, very graphic. like very There's so many nasty things that happened in that book. um i I wrote also a YA book ah before Monster Sona, which is sci-fi horror. Um, and that one is also kind of gritty and graphic and, uh, gross at times. It definitely has like those body horror elements as well as like the monster horror elements. Um, so I think that the thing that I really like about, uh, code school, this upcoming project and the totally freak series is that it's going to be, it's not going to be as intense as that. And I'm, I'm, I think I'm going to be focused more on making it, uh, making it fun kind of in the vein that Wendy's talking. Nice.
00:35:00
Speaker
ah so Let's talk a little bit about code skull then since we've brought it up. ah What is the quick pitch for code skull? Yeah, so Code Skull is about a arcade gamer who um ah unknowingly it unleashes this techno terrifying technological tear upon her town when she decides to play this RPG game on her friend's computer. ah So then she has to come up with her friends in order to stop this monster from taking over her town.
00:35:32
Speaker
Nice. um Joey, when you got this pitch, ah what made Codeskull kind of stand out to you? ah So i saw I saw the name at the top of the email, and I was like, oh, Chloe Spencer wants to work with me. So I got i got Wendy Dalrymple and Chloe Spencer. They both want to do books here. um I'm obviously not just going to do one. This is this is when it sort of became like, instead of one book in 2025, it's going to be four books in 2025 because there were just too many good projects to pass up on. But code school, I mean, that was a really cool pitch because no one else had really done anything in sort of like the
00:36:18
Speaker
a digital sort of video game realm. And I remember back when I was a kid in the 90s, a lot of books I saw like at the public library that were aimed at young adults, they did have to do with like killer video games and whatnot. So I thought it was just like this incredible piece of nostalgia fiction. And that's what we're going for here. It's nostalgia horror, I like to call it, where ah we really didn't have like a firm grasp on what technology would be. so it seems a little archaic and again there's just there's something a little comforting about being back in that time period when there was a lot of development it was still kind of like kind of analog and kind of dull and we didn't have like the insane technology that we have now but there's also not like cell phones and whatnot so
00:37:07
Speaker
um it just it just seemed really really fun and i know chloe being just a fan of her work in general i know she is really great with character work and especially like interpersonal relationships she can write a story so i was like that this is kind of a no-brainer i'm I'm giving the game away a little bit, but um yeah, I'm part of part of doing this is that like i I feel very lucky and there's a lot of responsibility in being able to work with really talented individuals, you know, so when people like, you know, people I've already mentioned like these two and like Patrick Barb and JV Gax when they ah they, you know, they sign stories with me. I'm like, OK, this is like a real press now. I actually have to take it seriously. oh
00:37:53
Speaker
So let's go. Pressure's on, let's do this. Yeah. um So Wendy and Chloe, now that we've got kind of the pitches for your two books out here, um is there anything y'all want to like talk to each other about with the Totally Freaked stuff or questions that you would have for each other, writing kind of towards this same prompt, coming up with wildly different stories for it? I love this. I think I do have a question for Wendy. So I think Wendy mentioned kind of navigating that that line that line between PG-13 and um R and talked a little bit about that. But can you kind of talk about ah like your process of of drafting the story from from beginning to end um and and keeping keeping those things in mind? Oh, definitely. um
00:38:44
Speaker
So my my process with all my stories, it's very much, I'm i'm a planner. like i' i don't I'm not a pantser. like i have to I do chapter by chapter. But also, when i when I do come up with my stories, it's very cinematic. I i see it all in my mind. and um And I think when ah when I'm writing the the for the gore aspect anyway of of why I think more like Nickelodeon type gore, like lots of green barf and like ah just like glowing eyes and just like like more like, are you afraid of the dark level? Like you're just unsettling feelings are more important and and tapping into what kids are afraid of is more important than just the outward graphicness of things. Because I think the kids in general, like are they do a good enough job of scaring themselves and the gore is not, it's it's fine if it's there and and and it and and its works in certain stories, but for mine it doesn't.
00:39:49
Speaker
Can I swing that same question back at you, Chloe? Oh, gosh. Yeah. i You asked it. Can you take it? That's going to be, that's that that's hard because a lot of the YA that I write is kind of gory. um I guess that ah this last YA book that I wrote, other than Aside from Code Skull, which is Haunting Melody, it's it's coming out October 1st. That one is not horror. So I had to pull that back. back my My editor would kind of just step in and be like, please, please stop with the blood. Like yeah this isn't horror. You can't. So yeah, I think that when Wendy mentioned like using like but green barf and things like that, I think that that is actually a really great way to kind of keep it intense, but maybe also keep it like reeled in a little bit.
00:40:37
Speaker
um Yeah, that's that that's that's definitely really interesting. I think that also kind of um maybe no limbs, no mutilation. there There is a very intense death in the opening of Code Skull per at the beach that I have ah been working on. um But so it's going to be challenging to try to figure out a way to write that and kind of make it clear like the sort of um horrible things that happen um to that particular character. without um making it so gruesome and gory that it's going to be upsetting for parents. Yeah, that'll be that'll be an interesting that'll be an interesting challenge for me to work on. But I'm i'm kind of excited for that at the same time. Nice.
00:41:23
Speaker
And, you know, i I have to say something about these two because I just I just read an arc of Wendy's new book. It's called Kadabra Bone. It's fantastic. And I think it's coming out in in August. Is that right, Wendy? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's awesome. I really, really loved it. But what these two both of them do so well is that they're able to switch back and forth between sort of like a Pros geared toward a younger audience and pros geared toward an older audience really seamlessly like it's it's it's a really fantastic thing but I mean the the edge is still there but especially with Wendy's story ah birthday party demon there's there's a lot of like fun and wonder and like teen angst and when you go over to cadaver bone a lot of that is just dropped in favor of you know adult angst and
00:42:14
Speaker
very serious subject matter. And ah the way they can transition like that seamlessly is ah I actually admire it as as a writer myself. Thanks, Joey. I i think i i I just love telling stories. And so i it's it's, you know, I guess ah and it's privileged to be able to do it. it And then Wendy, any questions that you wanted to ask to Chloe and Joey, I left you out of the initial pitch. and Do you have questions you would like to ask for to the group? Oh, to the group. Oh gosh. I don't
Strategic Book Promotion
00:42:47
Speaker
know. Well, um, well, William, if you were to pitch a Totally Freaks book, what would it be about? Uh, it would be about demonic Beanie babies and my godsh order are parents neglecting their children in favor of the Beanie babies and getting what came to them.
00:43:02
Speaker
just totally off the top of my head with absolutely nothing. We should talk after this. We should we should definitely talk after this. Yeah, yeah, we should talk. um so Yeah, I've actually I mean, i you know, I've been it's been really awesome working with Wendy all I mean, it's been it's been so fast. Like it's crazy to think about the book still being I think something like eight months out from the actual release, which you know, maybe, hey, maybe we did work a little too fast, but I'm of the mindset where you can't, you can't ever start promoting too soon. It just has to be sort of like a gradual thing, right? So, um, we had a, just like, just two very quick arcs that went out recently and, you know, people posted about it and I received a ton of feedback from that where people have reached out to me asking for arcs, like, you know, big Instagram accounts. And I'm like, well,
00:43:58
Speaker
Yes, eventually, but I need to be smart about this because you don't want a title to flame out in terms of you know um audience attention and popularity leading up to the release. So since there is still a big runway um now, since people are really excited about it, it's um what we're going to focus on is being very attentive to how we're rolling out that ah that whole pre-release process. until it's actually released and, you know, we both become extremely popular and wealthy off of that.
00:44:33
Speaker
All right. um And then, Wendy, I want to come back to you one more time because this is the first time I've had you on the podcast and this is a little off topic from the Mad-Act stuff, but I wanted to talk to you about you are infamous for your support and promotion of pink horror.
Promoting Inclusivity in Horror
00:44:52
Speaker
Can I give you the stage for a little bit to just talk about what is pink horror? I'm always happy to talk about pink horror. Actually, I have a profile of Chloe coming out soon, so it's relevant totally to this conversation. um but ah so For me, pink horror is kind of like an idea, right but it's not my original idea, but it's one that resonates with me. um I believe I saw
00:45:18
Speaker
um Sadie Hartman talking about it first and and respect to pink covers and um what I noticed with that trend and what she had been talking about as well. um A lot of these pink covers on these horror novels that were written by women also happened to have themes that were based in anti-misogyny messages, feminist messages that were reflective on the horrors that femme and or queer persons experience in real life.
00:45:49
Speaker
and they're told from a femme perspective. So um they for me, pink horror wholeheartedly embraces femininity and horror. um And I think like ah Rachel Harrison is a great example of pink horror. ah for me. um I think um like the recent online discourse of like the man versus the bear comes to mind, right? So um I like to use Jennifer's body and promising young woman is good examples of movies that really fit this pink horror genre. um it' It doesn't necessarily have to be revenge arc.
00:46:27
Speaker
um but they're anti-misogynist and they're usually the horrors in the story are reflective of of things. So like the monster is is like just is reflective of of things that happen you know in the in the world to and or around women. The thing with it is it's anti-misogyny, but it's also inclusive. like i i don't want to i I don't want to edge anyone out with this idea. But the the point of it is that it's supposed to be uplifting femme and queer voices in horror. And it's a space that historically that has always had a foundation by women and and and queer people. um But in the last few decades, femme voices have seemed to be muted or edged out. And um you still see it. You still see it in anthologies that are predominantly featured, people that don't look like me and that, um ah so you know, they're just,
00:47:26
Speaker
not very inclusive um and you see it in awards and you see it in all sorts of different opportunities. And so there's a reason why there was women in four a month because it's just it continues to be the that that you'll see on boards on you know ah widely popular Facebook horror groups that people will be like, I don't know any women who are writers, or I don't know any. And it's like, all you have to do is is is look, they're in droves. and um and so
00:47:58
Speaker
ah it ah But for me, it's it's the the the reason I like to talk about it is I want to i want to bring focus on on stories that ah horror stories about women that are told by women. And um and that's, you know, that's where it's coming from. yeah ah I know there was a Reddit post like three or four days ago and it was this guy, and I'm assuming a guy, lamenting that like all of the horror horror books he'd read recently were duds and they all kind of like seemed like they were talking about the same thing and it was just the same book over and over and he listed out the books that he was reading and it it was all straight white guys and it was like
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, my dude. I see your problem. Well, it's every every time I i log on to social media, I see something about that recently. Somebody was whining about all the alien books recently being written by women. yeah You know, Mary Mary San Giovanni and Castro and I'm I guess other name, are up but ah like. But would so it's just it's still there. It's still very much there. There's also a lot of just just the misogyny that's been that's just been in the horror community and not and and people have been brushing it under the rug and and it's like we're not alone anymore. We're talking about it. We're calling people out. We're we're saying this is not okay and want everybody to feel safe and inclusive.
00:49:34
Speaker
in in horror spaces online at and in conventions ah you know and and book signings. And so um that's kind of where the heart of pink horror is, I suppose. I love that answer. Yeah. um so but Thank you for everything you do to boost voices and be an advocate in the community. Yeah, I would say wendy Wendy is very outspoken, which by the way, Wendy, as a publisher, I got to mind my P's and Q's because I know if I make one false move, with Wendy Dalrymple is coming for me.
00:50:12
Speaker
It's accountability and it's a good thing. No, it is a good thing. It is. I actually make a conscious effort to not be super outspoken. I like the the work to sort of speak for itself in terms of the values of the press. So if you if you look at the titles and the kind of stuff that that is going to be coming out, especially in twenty twenty five, you're like, ah like, oh OK, like these are obviously what the values are. This is a very progressive press that cares about X, Y, Z. So, yeah. Yeah, I don't think that that any any press that has good business values and that has their heart in the right place has anything to worry about. But I think that it is important for authors and and readers. to to yeah I want to make sure that people are putting their money where it counts and where it belongs.
00:51:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, ah accountability is a really good thing. I think I think social media, I mean, there' there's good and bad with it. But I think the fact that people can speak up and and talk about these issues. And I mean, maybe you get backlash from the wrong people. But but I think the whole industry is stronger for it, as long as everybody knows that that this is an inclusive place for, you know, for readers, for writers and for just, you know, generally creatives. And I want to see more diverse stories personally.
00:51:34
Speaker
And one step towards finding those more diverse voices is following Wendy on social media and seeing her Pink Wednesday's ah posts, which leads me to kind of the close outs.
Closing and Social Media Connections
00:51:47
Speaker
Everybody, this has been great. Thank you so much for coming on here and talking to me about Mad Axe and Totally Freaked and readings from Cursed Room. For our listeners at home, in case they are not already following you and aware, ah can we give them one quick refresher about who we are, where they can find us on social media, and especially what books we have coming out, starting with Wendy.
00:52:12
Speaker
Oh, most definitely. So I'm Wendy and you can find me on Instagram and TikTok and um Twitter slash X, I guess is what we're supposed to call it these days. That's where I'm most active. Um, usually Wendy Dalrymple writes, um, is where you can find me. Um, I have, I think five titles coming out in the next year with dark lip press, Hayden, a, um, I'm at X media and cool and Crow. um And so I've got lots and lots of fun stuff coming up and ah I'm always talking about other people's books. So come and find me.
00:52:46
Speaker
Cheers, Chloe. Yeah, you can find me on my website, which is Chloe Spencer online dot com. um I'm I technically am on Twitter or X, ah but I'm most active nowadays on Instagram and TikTok at Hey, it's Chloe Spencer. We're all mostly be sharing photos of my cats and my books. And in the next a year, I think I've got ah four projects coming out um ah along with some anthologies. My first major release coming out is Haunting Melody, ah with ah which is October 1st with Tiny Ghost Press. It's a paranormal mystery romanticy. And then I've got Code Skull coming out next year along with a couple of other novellas. So the best way to kind of keep up with me is to follow me. There's a lot. Very nice. Yeah, no, a lot is good. A lot is good in this industry.
00:53:42
Speaker
Uh, and Joey, um last but not we can hear with these, these extremely prolific writers, you know, it's like, uh, how, how can I possibly follow up to, I have to start making stuff up, so but no, I'm a, so I have a short story in an anthology coming out called curbside curses, the yard sale anthology. It's about a fanny pack that eats people. It's very fun. um And that's coming out this month. And then readings from Curse Room 301 is coming out next month from Maddox Media. um We got some titles coming out. Let's see. ah Stephanie Rose's Hiding Lives. That's going to be in October, JKLOL by Patrick Barr. That's January. And then, of course, Wendy's title. And I could go through the whole lineup. But hey, we have a website, MaddoxMedia.com.
00:54:26
Speaker
Um, and other than that, uh, around July, 2025, uh, I'm going to be having a novella, a cosmic core novella called squirming all the way up coming from madness, heart press. So, um, yeah, lots of fun stuff. Um, I'm on social media at wild cool. Joey writes at Maddox media at creatives getting coffee. That's where I post my podcast content, which William is going to be on eventually. Chloe has been on Wendy. You're invited. Thank you. Cheers. Well, good conclusion. um Listeners, thank you so much for joining us. Before you go, please don't forget to like, subscribe, or invite your demon of choice to a birthday party on your streaming service of choice. And we will see you next time. Thanks for listening.
00:55:22
Speaker
Burners tied bells to everybody in the morgue. So if they had a ting then you somebody down there wasn't quite ready to go