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Dark forest, old books, candles, ravens 🌒🖤

The mood for Chapter 5 of The Mirror’s Curse. #GothicFiction #DarkFantasy

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If you’re into all things gothic, eerie, and beautifully unsettling—this one’s for you. Begotten: A Gothic Novel by Burials and Beyond with Kate Cherrell is available for pre-order now and it’s already turning heads.

I haven’t read it myself yet (hurry up postie!), but from the buzz, it’s set to be a superbly gothic debut—dark, a little twisted, with that perfect hint of dry humour. Think classic ghost story vibes with a modern edge. Highly recommended.

Pre-order your copy here or on Amazon:
https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/roundfire-books/our-books/begotten-gothic-novel

#gothic #paranormal #ghoststory #indiebooks #begottennovel #katecherrell #gothicfiction

Author Jamison Shea on Monsters, Monster Lovers, and Monstrous Media

Jamison Shea (they/them) is a dark fantasy and horror author, flautist, and linguist hailing from Buffalo, NY and now dwelling in the dark forests of Finland. When they’re not writing, they’re drinking milk tea or searching for eldritch horrors in uncanny places. I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me is their debut novel.

Jamison is represented by Jennifer March Soloway at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Author Links:

Website: jamisonshea.com

X/Twitter: @wickedjamison
Instagram: @wickedjamison
Threads: @wickedjamison
Bluesky: @wickedjamison.bsky.social
Tumblr: wickedjamison.tumblr.com

Introduction

CMR: Hello, and welcome back to Eldritch Girl. And we’ve got Jamison Shea with us today, which is super exciting. Would you like to introduce yourself for us, Jamison?

JS: Yeah, will do. So I’m Jamison Shea. I am a currently YA dark fantasy and horror author, but I am soon going to be expanding into adult. I am in Finland, but I’m originally from the United States, Buffalo, New York, to be specific.

CMR: Oh, it’s lovely to have you. And it’s really nice to see you again because we did a charity game together before, which was really cool. I can’t remember who that was with.

Together: Sword and–

JS: Key. Sword and Key. And it was the Call of Cthulhu thing. Yes.

It was Novel Adventures Presents Pulp Cthulhu, GM’d by Anniek, with players CM Rosens, Jamison Shea, and Derek, featuring Morgan Dante.
This game originally aired on twitch.tv/sword_and_key [Sword and Key’s Twitch Channel] on October 28, 2023, and raised money for Project Hope.

Part 1: youtube.com/watch?v=4i6J6–_UJI
Part 2: youtube.com/watch?v=y-w31qGYpLk&t=7s

CMR: Yes. So check out Sword and Key because they do some charity games and they do some RPGs and they’re just like a really cool bunch. So, yes. Jamison, you’ve just got your duology complete. I absolutely loved I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me. And I’ve just got my copy of I Am the Dark that Answers When you Call. And I’m really excited to get into that. So would
you like to introduce us to your latest novel?

JS: Um yeah, so, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me has a sequel that I tried to match [with] an equally long title, so this one is I Am the Dark that Answers When you Call. And then I suppose I can read the blurb for the first one? Yeah, I’ll read the blurb for the first one, so that it doesn’t spoil the second one, since there’s spoilers in the blurb.

I Feed Her To The Beast & The Beast Is Me, by Jamison Shea

Soon I’d be a name no one would forget, a raging fire they couldn’t escape.

In the cutthroat world of ballet, Laure will always be an outsider, no matter how brilliant she is. Tired of being overlooked, she ventures deep into the catacombs of Paris, where she finds a pulsing river of blood that offers to change her fortunes forever.

But once she enters into the deadly pact, how can she distinguish her desire from the primordial presence running through her veins? Soon Laure is faced with the ultimate choice: break herself for a world that will never love her back, or succumb to the darkness that wants her as she is, monstrous heart and all.

There will be blood.

Interview

CMR: I love it I really enjoyed that one I’m so excited there’s a sequel, because you advertise this as a villain origin story, so if that doesn’t sell it to–

JS: Yes!

CMR:–I don’t know what will.

JS: Yes. For the sequel, I’ve also been pitching it as like. Black Swan meets Venom. So if anyone’s a fan of the Marvel, like the Venom movies, it does have a little bit of that comedy, a little bit where, you know, there’s a creature just sharing your body. And sometimes you argue about what you want because the creature possessing you doesn’t necessarily want what you want. They don’t have the same opinions, but you are trapped in the same meat suit. So, yes.

CMR: Amazing. And I really want to talk about monsters, particularly.

JS: My favorite topic.

CMR: I know! What is the appeal for you in monsters and writing and exploring “monstrous”, (in inverted commas), characters?

JS: That’s a good point. I think. Well, monsters have historically always been outsiders. Like in a lot of fiction, for as long as fiction has existed, monsters have always been outcasts. They have been the Other. And because they are the Other, there is, I think, there’s a lot of freedom in exploring the different parts of humanity and what it means to be human without a lot of expectations.

And so when you have a hero who is, I don’t know, a middle class white cis man, who… with blonde hair, blue eyes — there are expectations about how he
should behave what he can do what he can’t do, etc., whereas if you have an eldritch monster, like, that’s fair game. They can do whatever you want, and so you have a lot more leeway to explore, especially when it comes to questionable moral and ethical decisions, and even like some of the more perverse darker aspects of human behavior simply because it’s “not like us” (in quotes) and so yeah, you have more freedom and less judgment, I guess is another way to say it, yeah.

CMR: So what does “monster” mean to you as a concept, and how do you use that concept in your writing?

JS: I don’t know I don’t know because like when I think about my favorite monsters they are not human, so for example I think about Hellboy, or … I do not remember his name, but the fish guy from The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro… or like um…

CMR: Yeah he’s credited as “Amphibian Man”.

JS: Amphibian Man, there we go that’s why I can’t remember the name!

CMR: Ah yes of course…

JS: But yes, when I think about my favorite monsters, they aren’t human, or they are … they have human aspects that we can empathize with and like see ourselves in, but they are also different enough that we can have a little bit of freedom. So yes, Hellboy, Amphibian Man, Lestat de Lioncourt from An Interview with a Vampire, yeah, those I think are really like peak monster to me.

CMR: I think that’s what I really like about I Feed Her to the Beast, because Laure is a human person starting off.

JS: Yes.

CMR: But you’ve got all of this really cool layered darkness to her and the ambition that she has, and how that can drive you to do some slightly
questionable things.

JS: Slightly.

CMR: Slightly. And also, I love that you have the monster boy kissing.

JS: Yes. A requirement. Yes.

CMR: Yes. With Poison Monster Boy.

JS: Andor!

CMR: And I really love that about him. But also you’ve got this sentient blood river that is a prominent character and doesn’t have any kind of, you know, it’s so it’s almost like a very abstract thing. And I love that concept. How did you develop that concept or come up with that concept?

JS: I wanted it to be kind of a shapeless god that is unknowable. You can’t really, you can guess at its motivations, why it does things, why it wants what it wants, but it isn’t. It’s completely different. It’s completely Other. And so, yeah, I wanted it to be kind of a wildcard to throw in Laure’s path. Because she is very clear about what she wants and how she wants to get it. And so having the embodiment of chaos riding around in her skin suit, I thought added an element of not control that a ballerina would not cope well with.

Because she is very… neurotic, and she’s very, ‘everything has to be perfect’ like, not a hair out of place, I tie my ribbons the same way every single time, she’s very regimented. And so I really wanted like absolute chaos to be the thing that drives her into another path.

CMR: Yeah, and it’s got a lot of, I think, the first one definitely has a lot of overtones of Suspiria as well in it for me. I was like… I spotted those, I was like oh!

JS: Yes, I am definitely a fan of Suspiria.

CMR: That’s such a good film. Yeah, and I thought that was, yes, like Black Swan, Suspiria, and then you’ve got the added Venom chaos going on in the second one, which — I absolutely love Venom, he is my favourite alien creature thing.

JS: Yeah, I just had so much fun. I didn’t know about it before I started writing I Am the Dark so I wrote the draft of I Am the Dark and my editor, I think she had just watched Venom and so as she was reading through my manuscript, she kept leaving jokes about Venom in there, and I didn’t understand, and so I had to go watch it to understand some of her comments.

CMR: So good right?

JS: Oh yeah, I get it, I get it. I see why.

CMR: And so, yeah, how do you develop your concepts and your characters? What’s your process for that?

JS: I don’t know. I think mostly I have a character or like I think of an emotion. I think there’s like an emotional undercurrent that is like the basis. Someone trying to do something from an emotional aspect. And so for I Feed Her to the Beast, it was I wanted someone who tries to be loved and goes through the most unhinged lengths to get love and they don’t understand what love is.

And then with I Am The Dark, it was very, that was burnout. So how do you recover from burnout was the question. And then the book was the answer. And I think from there, I really just tried to have as much of it be realistic as possible so that the fantastical horror elements can really shine, and so most of it is based in reality.

Laure at the ballet trying to do ballet and a lot of the conversations that she has the experiences that she has the feelings that she has are all very normal so that the eldritch parts feel extra intense.

And then from there, I just kind of brainstorm what would be cool, and how can I fit that into the narrative? Yes.

CMR: So very character -driven process then?

JS: Yes.

CMR: So do you do characters first, and then you build the world around them?

JS: Yes, um, characters first, and then I start building the world and then I often change the world details until it can really fit the character’s journey, what they need from start to end, yeah.

CMR: Oh cool yeah.

JS: And I suppose, because in the duology obviously it’s very much kind of the real world I suppose, like an alternative world in which eldritch gods exist under Paris, but like but for sure it’s very much rooted in actual places, so for example with I Feed Her to the Beast, originally I had a fantasy city, just like a made-up city where this was taking place, and that didn’t feel real enough, and so then I set it in San Francisco.

But I didn’t really like it in San Francisco. It wasn’t, it didn’t fit completely, especially because everything is so old. And like, I wanted things to be old. And San Francisco is not a very old city. And so when I was thinking about other locations, I had been to Paris a lot, and there’s the catacombs, which naturally just like, that is a perfect setting. The catacombs are old. Who knows what’s all down there? It could be totally plausible that there’s an Eldritch God. The ballet is very old and it has a different reputation in Paris than it does in San Francisco.

And so Laure would have a bigger meltdown in Paris than she would in San Francisco. And so, yeah.

CMR: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think you do maybe have issues in America of going like, ancient American history has got a very different connotation. It’s got a very different cultural background to Europe, which is maybe much easier to kind of, you know, get a handle on.

JS: Yeah,

CMR: …to use in that way. Yeah, 100%. And the Paris catacombs are just magical, but also. bonkers.

JS: Absolutely bonkers! There was a news article within the past like three months I think, where um a wall had collapsed a little bit, which exposed more bones and like more unexplored areas, and so now they have to bring in a bunch of like archaeologists and forensic people to explore this new corridor of the catacombs with literally like three months ago.

CMR: I love how bananas it is down there it’s just like what is happening it’s like a whole city underneath the city yeah I think that’s, yeah, it’s really cool, and obviously you’ve then got direct links to Suspiria as well because that is not in Paris though I can’t she’s in Germany I don’t remember, was it Berlin?

JS: I think it was Berlin. Yes, it’s Berlin.

CMR: And I think like, so you’ve got those links to Suspiria in that it’s an American in Europe, but also it’s not quite, you know, you can draw those parallels, but it’s not quite the same. And you’ve got like…

JS: Yes, yeah.

CMR: And you can do it without the politics of East/West Berlin. Yeah, I really like the world that you’ve created. I was wondering when you were saying that you were tweaking the world to make sure that everything kind of fitted the way that you wanted it to fit, how did– like, was that as you were learning more about the characters and decided … Did you decide on the themes or did the themes just kind of come to you, and then you were like okay if I’m going to do this then I have to change this? Like what was…?

JS: Yeah, it was. I had character and themes and then as I was writing I had to make adjustments along the way. And so, for example, the River of Blood came later. So I decided on Paris because there’s catacombs. And I’m like, oh, you can find something eldritch in the catacombs, of course. And then, I was thinking about how there is Paris up top. And then there’s, as you said, like another city, another world down below. And I was thinking, well, in Paris, there’s the Seine that moves through it. And so wouldn’t it be great to have a mirror river in the catacombs?

And so that is how Acheron became a river and not just like, floating mist, or I don’t remember what the original idea was. So Acheron became a river because it was set in Paris, and I wanted a mirrored river.

And then I also liked, as I was describing the setting, Laure going from home to the ballet or from the ballet to dinner with her friend’s parents or whatever, she kind of has these interjections about the history of Paris and events that happened in Paris. And so, for example, there is a square where they set up the guillotine, where Marie Antoinette, for example, was beheaded, and Laure looks for blood in the pavement because it’s just a blank square now. And so I was thinking like, oh it would be great if like, there’s…. she can’t really find traces of blood up top, but you can find it below? And so then: river of blood!

CMR: Yes I really like that that kind of mirror to the city’s history as well as being something really otherworldly, and I really liked — I don’t think it’s a spoiler, but there’s a parallel river, which is the White River, which also requires its own sacrifices. We’ll leave that there for a minute. But how did you come up with the red and the white? How did you come up with that contrasting?

JS: So part of the story and the theme, I guess, is I wanted to invert light and dark.

And so, for example, a lot of the horror elements take place in the ballet itself. And if you have ever been to Opera Garnier, it’s very bright. There’s a lot of light coming from every direction. There’s chandeliers everywhere. It’s very light.

And so I wanted to have this kind of villainy, antagonistic force, that is pure light, and see what that would be like. So it was just an exploration at first. And then I decided I really liked it. I kept it that way.

CMR: I think it works really well. I really like that part. And there’s just so much you can do with that. And yeah, I’m really excited for the second book.

JS: It becomes more prominent in book two.

CMR: So what about The Monster Boy? I feel like he gets overshadowed by the River of Blood and all the cool stuff. And I really loved that he’s part of Laure’s arc and giving her something to hang her humanity on, almost, and give her that reason to live beyond the ballet and beyond her ambition. So was he always part of that arc, or was he a character that you introduced later?

JS: No, he was always a part of it. And so I don’t know. I wanted, so obviously she needed a voice of reason. There had to be some voice of reason in this book because she’s going unhinged. I knew she was going to go off the rails. And so we needed some voice, some piece of humanity that would just be like, you don’t have to do this.

And I thought it would be, um, interesting to have the most monstrous looking person, or the most monstrous looking character in the book be the most human and the most gentle, um the biggest outcast, that if Andor were to walk in the streets in his monster form, people would lose their minds, but he is the gentlest and the kindest and the most accepting and the most human of the bunch.

I thought it would be a good contrast especially because Laure is such a perfect little ballerina, she’s always wearing her bun, and she always likes to wear pink for example, and she’s vicious. So the contrast between of this vicious girl in pink and then like, a calm monster…. Yeah I liked the imagery of it.

CMR: I loved it I really like their little relationship yeah and I really like the idea of him being poisonous. And having the idea that he’s sacrificed to the river multiple times to get where he is. And every time you give something to the river, obviously something happens to you as well. And he’s just done it over and over and over. Kind of like, it was almost like an addiction, kind of. And like, I was like, oh God, poor lad.

JS: The river will fulfill your needs, whatever they are, at a cost.

CMR: That was a nice bit of foreshadowing, I guess, for Laure’s arc, and like you he was also very much a warning of like if you do this over and over this is what happens to you, but something – something relevant to you will happen to you, not exactly like what’s happened to me, yeah, but this is what could happen to you.

JS: And she just looks at that and goes well firstly that sounds great, also I want to kiss you, so that’s not a good warning.

CMR: Yeah, yeah this sounds … this sounds fine. What gave you the idea for his monstrosity, like um, the way that that manifested, and the garden?

JS: Just vibes. I don’t know. I was really interested in poisonous plants, but specifically pretty flowers that are toxic. And so I don’t remember why. I just started reading about poisonous flowers. And so I was like, oh, it’ll be really, really cool if I have a character who can grow stuff, but it’s all just like toxic.

And then I also thought it would be for Andor’s personality to have a hobby that’s like also kind of suited to his personality. So if he’s very gentle and calm and like, oh, of course, he’s going to be like a gardener or something. Like, plant guy. And so having that dark little twist of just poisonous flowers everywhere.

And if he is also pretty, what if he’s also poisonous?

That was it.

CMR: I loved it I was thinking about a lot of the Gothic stories um where you have plant daughters and like yeah, like weird botany, and all that it was just giving me all of that, yes, so I was just wondering if you’d read those stories or if it came out of that?

JS: Yeah, I don’t know, like, I know what you’re talking about, and off the top of my head I can’t recall anything, but I’m pretty sure that it was floating in the back of my head as I’m thinking… as I’m reading about larkspur and um other kinds of poisonous flowers, that probably just kind of all synthesized together, yeah, yeah.

CMR: Yeah, I think A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock that came out last year that was um If you haven’t read that, that’s…

JS: I’m looking it up right now.

CMR: Oh, I would. It’s basically two gay Victorian men create a plant daughter and the maid falls in love with her. And they make her out of the substrate is a dead girl that they uncover.

JS: I’m ready.

CMR: Yeah, I think you’d really enjoy it.

JS: That’s a rec. Ticks all the boxes. I’m ready.

CMR: Sorry. Back. back to the books. So you talked about how the second book the question that you started with was how do you recover from burnout.

JS: Yes.

CMR: So how did the the plotting and the drafting process go for you when you were like, that’s your essential question, and then you were like okay how am I going to create this into an actual sequel?

JS: Yeah, so originally I Feed Her to the Beast was supposed to be a standalone. It was going to end where it ends. And then I was not going to write anymore. Like I was gonna, sorry, bye.

But I realized at the end that there was an open question of what happens next, because of the ending and spoiler for anyone who doesn’t want to know. Um, so Laure leaves ballet is how it ends. She quits. Sometimes quitting is good, but then what do you do afterwards?

And so that question really, it felt like it needed its own space to explore. And so I wanted to have Laure, as she’s trying to figure out how to recover from burnout and she’s not who she used to be.

And so there’s like, I think, for a lot of people when they’re burning out, they have this identity crisis of like, I don’t struggle with this task. I am perfect. And now you are struggling. So what now? And so I wanted to have her play with that identity and trying to build a new identity and see who she is outside of the ballet. But she is a dancer and dancing is such an important part of who she is. And also she’s possessed. And so how much of her is really left when she’s possessed?

So, yeah, I had a lot of hijinks that I could just kind of craft together and really see what happens when you have this Eldritch entity that is possessing you and you’re having an identity crisis at the same time. What will it do? What choices will the Eldritch entity make when its vessel is having an identity crisis?

CMR: Yeah. And did you have the arcs for the side characters planned out as well during this? Or were they just very reactive around the central… premise as you were drafting?

JS: I had to, I did put in some effort to build out their arcs. The main question was definitely about Laure, identity, burnout. But then when I was like, this is going to be a sequel, I had to take a little bit of a break to see what would happen next.

So for example, for Andor, he is dealing with grief because of events in the book. And Keturah, who is also one of the most sane people in book one, seen the madness that unfolded and like any sane person she wants out having seen what happens to people she cares for she wants no more to do with the eldritch god and so from there I had to see like where would their arcs go and how would this intersect with again Laure’s identity crisis?

Would she loop them into her shenanigans again, or would they manage to escape unscathed but of course as relationships deepen among them no they do not get out unscathed.

CMR: I think that’s really interesting as well from the perspective of proximity to monstrosity and the questions around that and like what happens when people can’t maybe cope with the implications,

JS: Yeah.

CMR: –of the different, or the Other, or something that is different in a way that is not compatible with them, yeah, but also that kind of the way that that can be almost attractive or compelling or you can’t quite extricate yourself from it, because that’s also what the monstrous kind of is; a monster is a warning to a society or to an individual, or to it’s that that thing on its own that stands alone, and you can put so much into it but also anything that gets drawn to it and gets into the orbit of that monster there are consequences and you can read those consequences in different ways.

JS: Yeah. And also I have a little bit of what does it mean to love a monster and be in solidarity with a monster when the monster may have to do monstrous things, I don’t know. Yeah. How does that work.

CMR: And I think it’s a very safe space in fiction to explore that because if you were writing any other kind of genre or realist fiction where the monster was a human monster, suddenly that becomes a very different moral question almost.

JS: But like Laure was just a regular ballerina serial killer, if she was just going around maiming everyone, I mean that’s halfway to actual black swan but it would be very different how we talk about her, how society treats her, the friends that she would make. Does she just befriend other serial killers at that point, like what and then what happens when you try to defend her or you yeah you try to protect the serial killer? It’s a different story.

CMR: Yeah it’s very different. It’s not a great film but I was thinking about um, Poor Agnes which is a Canadian film. It’s from the point of view of a serial killer who is called Agnes and she does some horrendous things and justifies them all. And she keeps a guy in her basement. Yeah. It’s, yeah, it’s fairly, it’s fairly brutal. That’s not a rec, but it’s like a, yeah, that’s, that’s kind of what it would be like.

JS: Or for example, even like Hannibal, which is one of my favorite media of all time. And like, there’s so much time invested in trying to capture him, and like you know he’s a bad guy, but he’s kind of funny, and so you you let it slide, um, you know, he’s a good cook, and so you also let it slide… um but at the same time you are like you can’t help but be a little disgusted, um and so yeah.

CMR: Oh god that spawned so many TikToks didn’t it?

JS: I have some saved. I have some bookmarked.

CMR: I bet. I can’t help … I read Hannibal the book when I was about 14, 15, um which was maybe maybe too young but who can say who could tell. And that made a massive impression on me because of the ending of the book, which is completely different to the ending of the film, where the film gave it a very kind of moral ending where Clarice does not succumb to Hannibal and tries to arrest him like a good little FBI agent. And I definitely remember being like, why?

JS: Yes.

CMR: Yes. What are you thinking? What is happening here? Because like, obviously in the book, that 100% doesn’t happen. And there’s like this whole erotic dinner bit. And I don’t think it’s a spoiler because Hannibal fans would. Yeah. But like, yeah. If you [any of our listeners/readers!] haven’t read the book, please read the book. It’s much better than the film.

JS: It’s been a while. Um it’s been a while and I’ve been meaning to go back and reread um all of it um but yeah like, I just… I didn’t understand, um, and I think when I was writing this duology part of it was all of the questions of movies and then series that I start to like and then hate the ending, and like, you know, the character…. like there’s always a character who chooses to be good at the end and like that’s…. why, why?

And so, yes, part of the inception of this is like a character who chooses the bad option. Yes.

CMR: Yeah, yeah. And it’s either that or I find you’ve got this really compelling villainous character that could go stick the distance through the whole series. Or they’ve got like really good dynamics going on with another villainous character. And you’re like, oh, chemistry, what’s happening here? And they kill them off mid -season, inexplicably. And you think, what? Yeah. I don’t understand. Why did you choose to do this? And I just, yeah.

JS: Yeah. I also, I like when there’s a character who is evil or they were good and then they turn evil and then they decide to be good again. And I’m like, why? You could have just stayed evil. You were more interesting when you were evil.

CMR: Yeah, the flip side of that is if you do have a redemption arc that you want to have in that’s supposed to be a redemption arc, but the character is not allowed to have it. So like the character starts to redeem themselves through the season or whatever it is and then the writers decide oh it was more fun when they were evil and so for no reason at all they go back to being evil without any kind of logical proper follow-through.

JS: Yeah.

CMR: And all of a sudden it’s the very next episode and like oh we’re back to like, I don’t know, killing random women, or eating a baby, I don’t know, like whatever it is and you’re just like, why though? Because why did we just do a U-turn here when we were we were building on something and then there’s no reason for that to have happened. yeah like there’s there’s ways of writing monsters right ways of doing it properly, yeah, you’ve got to let them have … And that’s the thing, like monsters aren’t just archetypes. If you’re writing them into stories and you want to use like a monstrous figure, you also have to give them layers and you also have to give them an arc. And like, if they’re a character, right? Like it’s a bit different. You have to treat them like a character and not just a plot device.

JS: Yes, yes, for sure. Yeah. But like, oh God. So many, I have so many gripes about that. Yes, it is. Yeah, I think that is one of the reasons I was so happy with the adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, like the show, because it adds a lot more complexity to the characters.

And like, I think Lestat and this version compared to like the movie or even the book is just, it’s more colorful. He’s more colorful. Because I feel like Tom Cruise’s Lestat was just evil for evil’s sake, for plot reasons, so that Louis could brood and have something to brood over.

The show, at least the TV series, has more… We see more insight into why Lestat does the evil things that he does, and he’s still evil, but now, like, okay, that made sense. I would have done the same thing if I was Lestat, you know? He’s more of a character. He’s more well-rounded compared to, for example, the movie. And of course, in the book, Louis is not concerned with painting Lestat like a person or a character anyway.

So I definitely prefer the show for that roundness.

CMR: I need to watch it. I’m behind. I know.

JS: The hype is deserved.

CMR: Okay. I get scared with hype, but.

JS: Yeah this did not… I was, I was afraid of the hype as well and it definitely delivers so.

CMR: Cool. let’s get back to you okay? Back to you.

JS: Right, right.

CMR: Great. What does the future look like for your work?

JS: So my duology is now done, and in August I have another book coming out! This will be a standalone, completely different world building, mythology, everything.

It’s called Roar of the Lambs, it is a YA Gothic Romance.

There are horror elements, there are Gothic Horror elements, but I would say that the horror elements are not as strong in Roar of the Lambs compared to I Feed Her to the Beast duology. And it is, I would say, my most personal work yet. It is set in my hometown, Buffalo, New York.

And it is about a psychic, a teenage psychic, who lies all the time, which I thought was a funny dynamic. So she never tells the truth. And one day she discovers a strange heirloom that predicts her death. And so now she actually has to start speaking up and telling the truth.

And the only person who believes her is a non-binary juvenile delinquent that nobody’s going to listen to anyway. So the two of them team up to stop her from dying and it leads into an apocalyptic adventure across multiple familial generations. Oh, wow. I can’t wait for that. So that is Roar of the Lambs.

CMR: Did you say when is that? Do we have a date for that?

JS: I believe August 26th is the published date, and that is for the US. I don’t think there is a UK release date yet.

CMR: Okay. I’ll do the American pre-order and wait for it to get here again.

JS: There might be. It’s in progress, but there is no release date yet for the UK.

CMR: Just doing grabby hands at the screen.

JS: I definitely had more fun with this um the lead characters are they have a little bit more levity than compared to Laure who’s very like strict by the book no fun ever, um so yeah this is very fun to me, I had fun writing it.

I was told that the gore was intense, but I had fun. That’s fine. You can have gore in YA. There’s room for everything. It’s what people expect of me at this point. And it’s what people expect, I think, from Gothic horror. Yeah. And like, yeah. So that’s a bit more.

CMR: Would you say it’s like American Gothic or are you drawing on a lot of other Gothic traditions for that one?

JS: Yeah, it’s American Gothic. It is very rooted in local history. and yeah it’s rooted in local American history and kind of the gothic parts of American history, I would say in terms of like, tone, it is very similar to Crimson Peak the movie.

CMR: Yes okay.

JS: That.

CMR: I’m sold already, that’s on my list, yes.

JS: I’m very excited for — again to be able to promote it and talk about it and all of the things but all of the research that I had to do for it and yeah.

CMR: So um I think that’s about all we have time for thank you so much before you go

JS: Oh it’s been a pleasure.

CMR: Before you go, would you like to just let us know where we can find you, social media, website, newsletter, things we can sign up for to keep in touch?

JS: Yeah, so I am on all social media sites, @WickedJamison, and Jamison is spelled with an I, not an E. So @WickedJamison, or if you search Jamison Shea, you will be able to find links for everything.

I mostly use Instagram, but I do post updates to Twitter, Blue Sky, TikTok, all the others.

CMR: I will post all of your links as well in the transcript so people can listen to this. And f you’re listening, you can go to the transcript on cmrosens .com. Just search for Jamison Shea on my blog and you’ll be able to find the transcript with the full links and buy links and everything else. So thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s been great.

JS: Thank you. Thanks for having me. This was fun.

CMR: It was fun for me too. Thank you, Jamison, so much. And we have a couple more bonus episodes coming up for you. But in the meantime, enjoy the rest of Yelen and Yelena. See you soon for more Eldritch Girl. Bye now.

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#BlackAuthor #BlackBooks #GothicFiction #JamisonShea #YAHorror #YAHorrormance

✨ Seen Through the Phantom’s Eyes ✨
Step behind the mask…

This award-winning series reimagines Gaston Leroux’s haunting tale with a blend of historical fiction, romance, and gothic mystery. Journey with Erik—the masked genius—and the few who see the man beneath the disfigurement.

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Every Friday, I meet a member of the BFS & peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). This week it's the BFS's London events coordinator, Alexandra Beaumont, who also happens to create some truly haunting folkloric fantasy tales.

https://britishfantasysociety.org/meet-alexandra-beaumont/

#writersofmastodon #writerprofile #meetthewriter #fantasy #fantasyfolklore #folklore #gothicfiction

Have you grabbed your ticket to the world of writing the uncanny yet? Get in quick - price rising soon ahead of the countdown to the big event on Saturday 18 January 2025. See you there, dear reader?

🔎 Details: http://writingtheoccult.carrd.co
🎫 Tix: https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-the-occult-the-uncanny-tickets-1119630497959

#writersofmastodon #academicsofmastodon #academic #gothic #uncanny #uncannyfiction #gothicfiction #writingcommunity #writingevents #doppelganger #uncannyvalley #creepydolls

We're blessed to have talented folks joining us for Writing the Occult: The Uncanny - people like E. Saxey and their incredible weird gothic leanings. They'll lead us in a workshop about doppelgängers, no less!

🔎 Details: writingtheoccult.carrd.co
🎫Tix: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-the-occult-the-uncanny-tickets-1119630497959

#writersofmastodon #writingcommunity #uncanny #uncannyvalley #gothic #gothicfiction #doppelganger #workshop

Developing a more long term palette that's versatile for #steampunk, #cyberpunk, and #gothicfiction contexts.

It's designed around combining techwear and cottagecore.