In this episode of Talking Horror, Rachel Redd sits down with national bestselling author Christina Henry, writer of nearly 20 books spanning urban fantasy, dark fairy tale retellings, and modern horror, including Near the Bone, The House That Horror Built, and The Place Where They Buried Your Heart. Her upcoming novel Pinfeathers drops this November.
Grab your copy of The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: https://amzn.to/4vbTAQG
Christina opens up about writing her first novel longhand in a notebook at age 12, why she still writes every single book by hand, and the discovery-based process that lets her pants her way through nearly two decades of publishing without ever plotting. We dig into her Gen X horror origin story (Ouija boards, slumber party slashers, and a Freddy Krueger fear that genuinely haunted her) and what eventually shifted horror from scary to fascinating. Christina also gets into why she fought hard not to be typecast as "the retellings girl," how a Guillermo del Toro interview sparked The House That Horror Built, the single image of a house where three boys went in and two came out that became The Place Where They Buried Your Heart, and the tiny black needle appearing under a baby's arm that started Pinfeathers. Plus: the best piece of advice she ever got about bad reviews, what it was like to get a three-book deal while her toddler climbed a slide at Gymboree, and why she's patiently waiting for the right zombie novel idea to arrive.
Timestamps:
00:01 – Welcome to Talking Horror & Meeting Christina Henry
04:21 – Starting in Urban Fantasy: Black Wings
05:17 – A Gen X Girl's Horror Origin Story
11:59 – Writing Every Book by Hand: The Process Explained
14:45 – Pantsing 19 Novels: How Her Brain Works on Simmer
18:14 – The Road to Publication: Writing Black Wings During Nap Time
22:18 – Three Editors, Same Publisher: 16 Years with Ace/Berkley
25:32 – The Urban Fantasy Boom and Bust
26:24 – Writing Alice and Changing Her Own Career
27:23 – Jumping Genres and Writing for Herself
29:02 – Don't Do It If You Don't Love It
30:20 – Why Bad Reviews Aren't Really About Your Book
36:04 – From Retellings to Horror: Not Wanting to Be Typecast
42:23 – The Real Horror: Vulnerability and Poverty
44:15 – Building Dread Without Jump Scares
46:31 – When the House Is the Villain
47:25 – The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: Moving from Forest to Buildings
54:27 – Pinfeathers: Coming November
55:15 – A Baby, a Pin Feather, and Body Horror
58:47 – Juggling Multiple Books at Once
59:46 – What Comes After Pinfeathers: Dark Humor Returns
Grab your copy of The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: https://amzn.to/4vbTAQG
Connect with Christina Henry:
Website: https://www.christinahenry.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorchristinahenry/
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