Adam Cesare joins Talking Horror to talk Lights, Camera, Frendo, the fourth book in his Clown in a Cornfield series, and how fifteen years of self-publishing, folded presses, and selling books out of the trunk of his car built the readership that eventually made him a Bram Stoker Award winner. Rachel Redd sits down with the USA Today bestselling author of Video Night, Mercy House, and Influencer for a conversation about franchise iconography, vampire obsession, and why he loves his sequels more than his original books.
Adam opens up about the small video rental section that scared him as a kid, and how a legendary horror editor's small press, his own self-publishing hustle, and a Big Five pickup fifteen years later all led to Mercy House getting "orphaned" pre-launch and later rewritten from scratch. He also confesses he genuinely likes the Clown in a Cornfield sequels better than the original, Bram Stoker win included. Plus his near-academic obsession with Frendo's mask and a first look at Bloodsick, his 14 POV vampire epic coming in January.
00:01 Welcome to Talking Horror & Meeting Adam Cesare
03:41 The Origin Story: A Supermarket Video Rental Aisle on Long Island
05:55 Running Out of Two Different Wes Craven Movies as a Kid
07:56 Stephen King on Cassette Tape and an Early Obsession With Spawn
13:53 Writing Video Night in College Before He Could Legally Drink
17:05 Chasing Down an Editor and Landing at a Small Horror Press
19:58 From Self-Published Oddity to a Big Five Book
22:56 The Used Car Salesman Theory of Surviving Publishing
28:37 If You Can't Love It, Quit: His Advice for Writers
34:15 Video Night: A Melancholic Alien Invasion Love Letter
40:22 Mercy House and Getting Orphaned by Random House Hydra
44:06 Rewriting Mercy House From Scratch Eleven Years Later
51:08 Confessing He Loves the Sequels More Than the Original
54:43 Lights, Camera, Frendo: Book Four Is Finally Out
59:04 The Auteurist Theory Behind a Long-Running Slasher Franchise
1:03:01 Why He Obsesses Over Every Detail of Frendo's Mask
1:08:37 A First Look at Bloodsick, His 14 POV Vampire Epic
1:15:45 Why Horror Is Living Through a Genuine Golden Era
Grab your copy of Lights, Camera, Frendo: https://amzn.to/4wKDUUW
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamcesare/?hl=en
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