Welcome to the Ink Heist podcast, which is devoted to dark genre fiction, featuring hosts Rich Duncan, Shane Douglas Keene, 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 V. Castro back to the show to celebrate the release of her latest novella, Goddess of Filth, which is out now through Creature Publishing and her upcoming novel, The Queen of the Cicadas, which hits shelves June 22nd through Flame Tree Publishing! V. is such a positive person and it was great to be able to hang out with her and talk about her work and a variety of other topics. We were lucky enough to read both Goddess of Filth and The Queen of the Cicadas a little bit early and let us tell you, you absolutely need both of these on your shelves! V. Castro is a top-notch storyteller and both of these books are incredibly powerful with some of the most terrifying and original scenes of the year. Goddess of Filth puts a fresh spin on the possession genre as friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance and quickly make contact with a powerful, ancient entity that kicks off a chain of explosive events that will keep you guessing. We loved the portrayal of the girls’ friendship and that first chapter? It goes from zero to 100 in the best possible way. The Queen of the Cicadas is a novel that spans decades and weaves together the story of Belinda and Hector as they investigate the legend of La Reina de Las Chicharras and Milagros, a 1950s South Texas farm worker. It’s an emotional story that sticks with you long after you read the final page and is easily one of the best books of the year.  V. is also one of the co-founders of Fright Girl Summer, which is a website dedicated to women in horror and features truly stunning fiction that you can read for free. If you haven’t checked out the site yet, it’s a must for any horror fan!

Throughout the course of the episode, we talked about Goddess of Filth, The Queen of the Cicadas, urban legends from Texas, Latinx Screams, upcoming projects and so much more. We had a great time recording this episode and hanging out with V. We hope you guys enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

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