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 welcome Kathe Koja to the show to celebrate the release of her new collection Velocities and the upcoming re-release of The Cipher, both on Meerkat Press. This was a truly special conversation as Kathe’s work has had a huge impact on all three of us as Horror fans and she is truly a master of the genre. Her works have a legendary reputation among genre fans, and for good reason. Her prose has a darkly poetic quality and is infused with a raw, unfiltered energy that crackles on every page and consumes readers, keeping them immersed in the unique worlds and the lives of her characters until the very last page. This was an engaging conversation with one of our favorite authors and we’re excited to be able to share it with you. We had a great time and learned so much from Kathe, we look forward to having her on the show again in the future. If you have yet to read Kathe’s work, a good place to start would be Velocities. It ‘s a perfect showcase of the many different styles she writes in.

During the course of the episode, we discuss The Dark Factory, immersive narratives, collaborating with other artists, bringing your experiences to books as a reader, social isolation, how horror can tackle different emotions, the history of The Cipher at Dell Abyss, handling stories that get shelved, battling your craft, Velocities and the story selection process, working with Meerkat, discussing Dr. Seuss, a plan for a Velocities live event, options, humor in horror and so much more. 

Newest Episode:

All Episodes:

• Episode 3.30 – Around the Campfire with Neil McRobert
• Episode 3.29 – Beasts on the Moors with Lex H. Jones
• Episode 3.28 – Playing Phantom Pianos with Josh Malerman
• Episode 3.27 – The Third Wheel of the Trike
• Episode 3.26 – Back From the Dead…Again with Rich and Shane