Kemi Ashing-Giwa and CJ Leede on Scaring and Being Scared

Tor Books, in partnership with Literary Hub, presents Voyage Into Genre! Every other Wednesday, join host Drew Broussard for conversations with Tor authors discussing their new books, the future, and the future of genre. Oh, and maybe there’ll be some surprises along the way…

It’s nearly the end of October. The days are growing shorter. The nights growing colder, the leaves growing bolder: it is spooky season, baby, and we have saved the spookiest episode of the season for last: a Tor Nightfire double-header this week, with Kemi Ashing-Giwa and CJ Leede.

One of the things that I love in talking to horror writers is finding out what horror does for them, why horror is the genre that they find so compelling to work in, to read or to encounter out there in the world. That’s where the conversation kicks off, as we dive into the very different but both very scary reads from Kemi (This World is Not Yours) and CJ (American Rapture).

This also wraps up our season! What a blast it has been! We did a live ep (that I hope you’ll get to hear someday) at New York Comic-Con, the live tour this past spring—and then all of the listeners reaching out and talking about the ways that they are taking this model of putting genre authors together and doing events of their own! What a pleasure it is to get to read and talk about these books with you.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts!

Read the full episode transcript here.

FROM THE EPISODE:

Kemi Ashing-Giwa: I do love being scared. I love a good horror movie. I love a good thriller. I think what draws me to horror the most is the breakdown of morals and ethics that I think are not necessarily demanded by other genres, but that are more present. I feel a lot of pressure with other genres to make my characters likable or funny or sweet, but with horror, they’re just trying to survive.

So I often find that readers are more sympathetic. these characters can be chewier, they can be more complicated. They can do genuinely terrible things, but you as the reader are more likely to empathize with them and place yourself in their shoes because they’re simply just trying to deal with whatever massive threat is coming at them.

CJ Leede: Yeah, that’s super interesting. Makes a lot of sense. I think, like for me, I am afraid of everything and I don’t even know if I like being afraid, but I just like am inherently so, Horror provides a space as a writer to just write down the shit that scares me. and then as you know, a reader or a consumer to find that commiseration and catharsis and honestly just kind of like face the thing, you know, and, and say, this is really a big part of life. We are afraid of many things. There’s a lot to be afraid of, and I think there’s something beautiful about taking the time to look at it and kind of like throw it around a little bit, you know?

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Tor Presents: Voyage into Genre is a co-production with Lit Hub Radio. Hosted by Drew Broussard. Studio engineering + production by Stardust House Creative. Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn.