Welcome to the Ink Heist podcast, which is devoted to dark genre fiction, featuring hosts Rich Duncan, Shane Douglas Keene, Laurel Hightower and a whole bevy of authors and other interesting guests for your listening and enlightening pleasure. We are a very irreverent, often linguistically explicit broadcast so we highly recommend you use discretion when listening around easily influenced young ones or anyone who is easily offended. We would like to thank the band Secret Smoker for allowing us to use their song “Crushed by Air” to kick-off and finish the podcast.

This week, we’re excited to have the opportunity to chat with author Caitlin Starling, who wrote the thrilling genre hybrid The Luminous Dead. The Luminous Dead is a stunning debut novel that all of us at Ink Heist fell in love with when we first read it and it holds a very special place on our “All-time Favorites” shelf. Caitlin creates memorable characters and creates a tense, creepy atmosphere by using the isolation of the caves to drive the plot and create scenes of psychological and physical horrors that will have you on the edge of your seat. We had a lot of fun talking to Caitlin and as always, we take away some very valuable writing advice. During this episode, we talked about interactive elements in storytelling, the blending of sci-fi and horror, how she creates characters, fan fiction, different versions of The Luminous Dead, and writing communities. We also take a deep dive into Portland culture with Shane and Caitlin as our guides and learn about The Goat Blocks and electric lettuce. Check out our conversation with Caitlin now right here on Ink Heist or on your favorite streaming service.

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