The Monster She Wrote Podcast Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson

Tananarive Due’s “Summer” (from her story collection Ghost Summer) is set in her fictional town of Gracetown, Florida, where the humid and murky swamps hide bodies and demon leeches. It’s not a place to raise a baby–or maybe it is. 
Recommended in this episode: Shirley Jackson’s Sundial and Netflix’s Bridgerton
UP NEXT: Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep
Buy Toil and Trouble here!
 

Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a big house right on the Chicago river, where they are dealing with the grief following the aftermath of a family tragedy and the dead bodies that keep floating to the surface of the water. So join us as we discuss Cynthia Pelayo’s Forgotten Sisters, a novel that is part ghost story, part fairy tale, and part real-life Chicago history. 
Recommended in this episode: Abigail
UP NEXT: Tananarive Due’s “Summer”
 
Buy Toil and Trouble here!
 

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award® winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She is the author of Children of Chicago, The Shoemaker’s Magician, Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night, all of which have been nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was also nominated for an Elgin Award. Her collection of poetry, Into the Forest and All the Way Through explores true crime, that of the epidemic of missing and murdered women in the United States. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, a Master of Science in Marketing, a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Business Psychology. Cynthia was raised in inner city Chicago, where she lives with her husband and children. 
To learn more about her visit: www.cinapelayo.com and follow her on Instagram @cynthiapelayoauthor and TikTok @cynthiapelayoauthor
 
UP NEXT: We discuss Pelayo’s novel Forgotten Sisters!
Buy Toil and Trouble here!
 

If you ever thought to yourself, “I wish Beauty and the Beast had aliens in it,” then today’s story is for you. In her short story “Beauty,” Tanith Lee takes the classic fairy tale out of the castles and forests and into the stars.
Recommended in this episode: Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake
UP NEXT: Interview with author Cythia Pelayo
Buy Toil and Trouble here!
 

The mysterious Velkwood Vicinity is an occult and paranormal marvel, occupying the interest of scientists and conspiracy theorists alike. But for three friends, Talitha, Brett, and Grace, the Velkwood Vicinity is their painful past. It’s the neighborhood they grew up in, and where their families still live–as ghosts. But now, Talitha returns, hoping for answers and maybe closure. The past is never really dead, though, and it may be more than she bargained for.
Recommended in this episode: The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
UP NEXT: Tanith Lee’s short story “Beauty” 
Buy Toil and Trouble here!
 

Join Lisa and Mel as we talk with author Gwendolyn Kiste about her newest novel, The Haunting of Velkwood.
Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, Pretty Marys All in a Row, and The Haunting of Velkwood. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, CrimeReads, Tor Nightfire, The Lineup, and The Dark. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin, Ignotus, and Dragon Awards. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their excitable calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com
Purchase The Haunting of Velkwood here. 
Buy Toil and Trouble here!