Jake and Ron are honored and thrilled to have author Catriona Ward on the podcast!
Her latest novel is Looking Glass Sound published by Tor Nightfire.

https://tornightfire.com/catalog/looking-glass-sound-catriona-ward/
https://us.macmillan.com/author/catrionaward

I recently caught Catriona Ward at the Brookline Booksmith in Massachusetts, where she sat on a panel with former Wrath of the iOtians guest Christopher Golden and the inimitable Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt. And it's obvious that Catriona's fan base is large and adoring, and rightly so. She has a generosity of spirit that's immediately palpable.

Look no further than her willingness to talk with us in the midst of an exhausting cross country book tour. Catriona's work is influenced by her globetrotting youth. She was born in Washington, D. C., but grew up, well, all over, with stops in Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, England, and Morocco. Catriona earned her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Oxford, and a Master's in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

In 2015, she brought her experience, education, and energy to bear on Rawblood. Published as The Girl from Rawblood in the U. S. in 2016, the book signaled the arrival of a major new talent in horror fiction and won an August Derleth Award at the British Fantasy Awards to boot. Catriona followed up in 2019 with Little Eve, which also won a Derleth and a Shirley Jackson Award.

In 2022, Catriona blew readers, critics, and no less an authority than Stephen King himself away with The Last House on Needless Street, a mind bender of a novel that I hope every iOtian listener has already enjoyed. The book won an amazing third Derleth Award for Catriona. And was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, the British Book Award, and a Red Tentacle Kitschie, which, for those not in the know, is a juried prize awarded for elevating the tone of genre literature.

2023 brought us Sundial, which was nominated for the Bram Stoker and Locus Awards. Of its author, Danielle Trussoni of the New York Times remarked, “Ward is willing to go places so dark, so dismal, that it borders on sadism.” In our line of work, that's high praise. Elevated horror indeed.

Catriona combines elements of the psychological thriller, the gothic, and a hallucinatory high strangeness to create a voice that is uniquely hers. No one else could have written Looking Glass Sound, her other 2023 release with Tor Nightfire. Which I might add continues to publish the best of the best of contemporary horror.

Catriona spoke with us about this book from a hotel room in the Twilight Zone, en route to her next speaking gig. We were thrilled!

The Wrath of the iOtians

Email: thewrathoftheiotians@gmail.com
Instagram: thewrathoftheiotians
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/wrathoftheiotianspodcast
Website: https://thewrathoftheiotians.buzzsprout.com/

Music

Land Of The Me-me by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic (TONO)
Licensed under the NEO Sounds Music License Agreement

We are so happy to have author C.S Humble kick off Season 4!

C. S. Humble is on a mission. He wants to help us be better people. The author of the now completed The Light Sublime Trilogy, two of a projected five books in the Blackwell series, and Minotaur, a collection of short stories, this award winning horror writer has a flair for placing morally complex characters in harrowing situations to demonstrate the best and worst people can be.

He claims he's long winded, but we found he just had a lot to say about the human condition, the pleasures and perils of book publishing, and his beloved Texas. He spoke with us from a plushly appointed study in his home outside Houston about the newly published third book in the weird western The Light Sublime series, The Light of a Black Star, which follows the Massacre at Yellow Hill and A Red Winter in the West.

C.S. Humble

https://cshumble.wordpress.com/
X/Twitter: @cshumble
Instagram: cshumble
Substack: https://cshumble.substack.com/

The Wrath of the iOtians

Email: thewrathoftheiotians@gmail.com
Instagram: thewrathoftheiotians
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/wrathoftheiotianspodcast
Website: https://thewrathoftheiotians.buzzsprout.com/

Music

Land Of The Me-me by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic (TONO)
Licensed under the NEO Sounds Music License Agreement

Happy holidays everyone! Or should we say Happy Life Day! :) For Generation X the 1978 Star Wars Holiday special is remembered as something that "just wasn't Star Wars". Delving into the creation of this unique event is the new documentary, A Disturbance in the Force. Directed by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak the documentary offers fresh insights. Your perspective might shift after immersing yourself in its narrative.

During SIFF 2023 we had the pleasure of chatting with Scott Kirkwood, the Co-Producer of A Disturbance in the Force. Beyond his role in the film, he serves as the Site Curator for https://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/news/ and has been a featured speaker at numerous Star Wars panels, including Lucasfilm's Star Wars Celebration.

A Disturbance in the Force is now available on digital download, DVD and Blu-ray and available on Amazon. You can also download it on AppleTV.

Additionally, the book A Disturbance in the Force: How and Why The Star Wars Special Happened by Director Steven Kozak is now available.

Check out the A Disturbance in the Force web site for more info: https://geni.us/adisturbanceintheforce

A Disturbance in the Force (2023) directed by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13021790/

The Wrath of the iOtians

Email: thewrathoftheiotians@gmail.com
Instagram: thewrathoftheiotians
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/wrathoftheiotianspodcast
Website: https://thewrathoftheiotians.buzzsprout.com/