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This week, I chat with Mathilda Zeller about her new horror It Looks Like You in the Dark.  Listen to hear all about: How Inupiat folklore, family history, and a troubling account of cultural appropriation inspired this chilling Arctic horror novel.The intersection of supernatural horror, colonialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction—and how the real monsters aren't always supernatural.The complicated relationships between mothers, daughters, and sisters, and the ways generational trauma shapes our identities.The tension between honoring Indigenous traditions, protecting ancestral land, and finding your own path forward.How Zeller's remarkable family history influenced her writing, her pen name, and her approach to storytelling. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

In this episode, I chat with Sara Fashandi about her book From Tehran to Tomorrow, which chronicles her brother Mohsen's story as the first in their family to immigrate to America. Listen to hear all about: How a family storytelling contest inspired Sara Fashandi to become an author and preserve her older brother's extraordinary life experiences.The hidden hardships of immigrating to America in the 1970s, from language barriers and homesickness to financial struggles and homelessness.How Sara's brother Mohsen helped bring all five of his siblings to the United States, transforming his own difficult journey into opportunities for his family.The role of education, cultural exchange, friendship, and family in building a new life—and how the Iranian Revolution changed the family's plans to return home.Why preserving family histories matters, especially the sacrifices, resilience, and untold stories that can disappear between generations. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

In this episode, Gare and I chat with Tessa Wegert about her new thrill The River Runs Black! Listen to hear about: How the Thousand Islands and North Country become characters themselves, creating the perfect mix of cozy fall atmosphere, isolation, and underlying dread.Why Tessa set The River Runs Black around Halloween and how trick-or-treating, pumpkin festivals, orchards, and other seasonal details actually play into the mystery.How she uses multiple POVs, secrets, cliffhangers, and carefully timed reveals to keep readers guessing—and why she changed one major character’s perspective while writing.The real-life inspiration behind the novel’s drug trafficking storyline, including a late-night police encounter on the St. Lawrence River and the uniquely porous U.S.–Canada border.How the novel explores the impact of drugs, boredom, isolation, and vulnerability among teenagers in a small community, plus what’s next for Tessa’s North Country series and her hopes to eventually publish a standalone thriller.  All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, I talk with Sarah Langan about her novella Bloody 13 and her horror novel Trad Wife! Listen to hear about: The inspiration behind Bloody 13, and the conflicting reactions to it when she initially published it.How Sarah Langan turned the trad wife movement into horror, using the seemingly idyllic online lifestyle to explore control, gender roles, motherhood, and the systems operating beneath the aesthetic. Why accusations of “selfishness” can be so powerful against women, and how Trad Wife examines the difference between selfishness, agency, and basic survival. How neglect, isolation, and high-control environments affect mothers and children, and why Langan uses supernatural horror as a way to make those less-visible forms of harm tangible. Why Langan loves ambiguity in horror, how The Yellow Wallpaper and other classic horror influenced Trad Wife, and why she’d rather leave readers thinking than explain every mystery. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

In this episode, I chat with Chital Mehta about her literary mystery Have You Seen Romit? Listen to hear all about: How motherhood, an MFA, and a lifelong love of reading led Chital to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist.The real-life missing-person article that inspired Have You Seen Romit? and why shifting the story's focus from a father to a mother changed everything.How adoption, sibling resentment, and parental expectations, create the complicated challenge of loving your children equally.How Usha's search for her missing son becomes a journey of self-discovery, challenging patriarchal traditions and finding agency later in life.The extensive research, discarded drafts, alternate endings, and character development that helped Chital turn a missing-person mystery into a deeply human family drama. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

In this episode, I chat with Marcia Chatelain about her new non-fiction book How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington. Listen to hear about: How Marcia Chatelain’s love of storytelling, journalism, and deep historical research shaped her path to becoming a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and narrative nonfiction writer. Why How Bright the Path Grows reframes the civil rights movement by centering the Black women whose organizing, artistry, advocacy, and sacrifices are often overshadowed by figures like Martin Luther King Jr. The complicated, deeply human lives behind historical icons like Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker, Marian Anderson, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman—and why understanding their struggles and contradictions matters.How misinformation about women at the March on Washington inspired Marcia to investigate who was actually there, who was recognized, and whose contributions have been left out of our collective memory. What researching these women revealed about sexism, class, celebrity, competing strategies within the movement, and the many different ways ordinary people can contribute to social change. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, Cassie Goodwin and I chat with Deesha Philyaw about her fiction debut The True Confessions of Lady Freeman! Listen to hear about: How The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman evolved over nearly 20 years, and why Deesha had to become a different, more experienced writer before she could finally tell Sharice’s story. Why Deesha transformed Sharice from a character modeled on herself into a woman who genuinely loves being a First Lady—and therefore has something meaningful to lose. How embracing satire, humor, and an actual First Lady beauty pageant unlocked the novel and allowed Deesha to interrogate church culture without making the story overly earnest. A nuanced conversation about Black church culture, respectability politics, patriarchy, white supremacy, and the tension between what people profess to believe and how they actually behave. Why Deesha wanted her characters to be contradictory rather than simply good or bad, and how she explores shame, desire, marriage, family, faith, power, and the complicated reasons people stay connected to institutions that may also harm them. Books Deesha Recommends: Good, God by Kiese Laymon Friends and Family by Natalie Baszile These Girls Out Here by Dawnie Walton When It Gets Cold in the South by Exodus Oktavia Brownlow Desperate Bodies by Lydia Mathis    All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, I talk with Deena Helm about her debut literary horror novel Our Cut of Salt! Listen to hear about: How Deena Helm turned a haunted house into a living embodiment of history, memory, and inherited trauma.Why Our Cut of Salt follows three generations of Palestinian women, and how trauma changes the relationships between mothers and daughters across decades. The tension between preserving family history and being consumed by it—and what happens when younger generations want answers their elders may not be ready to give. Why Deena chose horror to explore real historical violence, and how genre fiction can make readers connect emotionally with experiences far outside their own. How Deena approached the novel’s most painful scenes, balancing the need to show the reality of violence without sanitizing it or turning suffering into spectacle.   All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, Gare, Steph and I share books we wish we could wipe from our brains and reread! Kate’s Books Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian The Ursulina by Brian Freeman But Won’t I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao  Gare’s Books Fruit Fly by Josh Silver The Last Winter of Dani Lansing by P.D. Viner A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice   Steph’s Books The Push by Ashley Audrain Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Allison Espach   All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, I talk with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her new book Live, Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Womenand the World They Made.  Listen to hear all about: How Live Laugh Love grew out of Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne, shifting the focus from evangelical masculinity to the history and culture surrounding white Christian women. The surprising roots of “biblical womanhood” and hyper-femininity—and how ideas presented as timeless Christian gender roles have actually changed dramatically over time. How Christian romance novels, music, bookstores, mommy blogs, influencers, Hallmark movies, and other seemingly harmless pop culture helped create an entire ecosystem of Christian values and messaging. The fascinating overlap between evangelicalism, MLMs, capitalism, and positive-thinking culture—including why Kristin sees striking similarities between MLM structures and high-control religious systems. Why “I’m not political” can itself mask deeply political beliefs—and how ideas about faith and family quietly shape views on everything from education and immigration to welfare and economic policy.     All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, Kayla Hardy - screenwriter, reader, and author of The Quarter Queen - and I talk about horror books we are excited to read this year! Kate’s Upcoming Reads The Unhaunting — Micaiah Johnson Nightjars — Michael Wehunt Incarnate — Alma Katsu  Kayla’s Upcoming Reads Runner — Ashton Lattimore Horror Movie — Paul Tremblay The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — Stephen Graham Jones   Other Books We Discussed The Quarter Queen — Kayla Hardy The Night and the Moth — Rachel Gillig Between Two Fires — Christopher Buehlman Blood Slaves — Markus Redmond Blood Rising — Markus Redmond Ring Shout — P. Djèlí Clark Black Leopard, Red Wolf — Marlon James The Reformatory — Tananarive Due Fiend — Alma Katsu Perfect Victims — Mohammed El-Kurd Our Cut of Salt — Dana Helm The Disappearers — Marlon James The Hunter’s Daughter — Nicola Solvinic The Sleeping Sisters — Jennifer Givhan Salt Bones — Jennifer Givhan Blood Sisters — Vanessa Lillie Truth to Power — S.A. Cosby   All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, Gare and I talk with Amy Chozick about her suspenseful literary debut With Friends Like You! Short Synopsis Emily, an exhausted new mother in Manhattan, becomes obsessed with finding her long-lost college roommate Daisy, whose mysterious disappearance has haunted her for years. When Daisy suddenly reappears and pulls Emily into a seductive new world of friendship and community, their reunion begins to crack, forcing Emily to question whether Daisy is saving her—or unraveling her life. Listen to hear about: The real-life experiences that inspired With Friends Like You — including Amy Chozick’s journalism career, new motherhood, and the college roommate who helped inspire Daisy’s story. Why female friendship is really the heart of the novel, from intense, almost romantic bonds to codependency, friendship breakups, and those friends you never completely stop thinking about. Motherhood, identity, and the pressure to rediscover yourself during the major transitions that can make you wonder who you are now. The book’s sharp critique of capitalism and the motherhood industry, including why all those over-the-top baby product names were a deliberate commentary on consumerism and the loss of community. How Amy crafted the book’s voice, twists, and upcoming screen adaptation — including her “if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it” philosophy and how adapting the novel actually influenced the finished book. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, I talk with Andre Hardy about his fresh take on noir in his debut novel Tear the City Down! Listen to hear about: How Andre Hardy’s debut novel, Tear the City Down, grew from his lifelong love of noir—particularly Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, which showed him a fully realized Black protagonist in a genre he already loved.  The ways Hardy uses San Diego’s stark dualities—tourist paradise versus underserved neighborhoods, enormous wealth versus systemic oppression—as the foundation for Coltrane's story and the novel’s larger questions about social mobility, morality, and what happens when you actually reach the top.  Why Hardy shied away from a traditional stoic noir hero, and created Coltrane to be masculine, dangerous, and deeply vulnerable.  How the mystery expands from one missing girl into something far larger, illustrating Hardy’s belief that seemingly isolated injustices often lead back to systems of power and exploitation.  How Hardy drew on his own NFL experience, love of jazz, reading, and upbringing in San Diego to give the novel its texture. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, I talk with Keith Giles, David Agranoff, Brian Evenson, Gordon Bonnet, and Andrew Turck about Pink Beam Press, a new speculative-fiction imprint inspired by Philip K. Dick and the strange, reality-bending possibilities of science fiction. Listen to hear about: The origins of Pink Beam Press and how Philip K. Dick’s legendary “pink beam” experience helped inspire its identity and mission. Why speculative fiction is such a powerful way to explore reality, consciousness, identity, technology, privacy, and other big philosophical questions. How the authors behind Pink Beam’s novellas transform wildly different concepts—from digital replicas and mind reading to cyberpunk technology and artificial realities—into deeply human stories.  Why writing shorter doesn’t necessarily mean easier, and how the novella forces writers to crystallize their ideas while still leaving room for complex characters and themes. How research, personal experiences, literary influences, and unexpected discoveries during the writing process shape stories—and why sometimes the best fiction teaches the writer something, too. All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

This week, Gare and I share fall book releases we are excited about! Kate’s Books The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson  Have You Seen Romit? By Chital Mehta It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller The Turning of Sally Mae by Nuzo Onoh Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe Gare’s Books The Little Red House Liv Andersson Killing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar The Witch by Freida McFadden This B Just Won’t Die by Tanya Pell All the Little Secrets by May Cobb All the Bookwild Links: Check Out the Bookwild Substack Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube Get Bookwild Merch Follow @imbookwild on Instagram Check Out Author Social Media Packages Follow Co-hosts On Instagram: Gare Billings @gareindeedreads Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland Halley Sutton @halleysutton25 Brian Watson @readingwithbrian MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba Erin Ashley @bellametaphor