CONTENT WARNING: This episode covers some sensitive topics such as Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence.
Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Violence, Guillotine, Bloom, and the new sapphic botanical horror novella Monstera.
Delilah opens up about using horror to process domestic violence, sexual trauma, and being roofied on a date night, and how that shaped The Violence and It Will Only Hurt for a Moment. She breaks down how writing comics differs from writing novels, and what it takes to write franchise tie-ins for Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons Ravenloft, Minecraft, and Disney. We dig into eat-the-rich rage in Guillotine, Bloom as a female Hannibal in cottagecore, and why horror novellas hit like a stab. Plus, how Olympic weightlifting, a Savannah Victorian, and COVID houseplants grew into Monstera.
Timestamps:
00:01 – Cold Open: Why Horror Felt Safe When Home Didn't
00:38 – Welcome to Talking Horror & Meeting Delilah S. Dawson
03:25 – Growing Up With Domestic Violence and Finding Comfort in Horror
04:53 – Blockbuster Box Art and Basement Sleepover Scares
06:14 – Writing Her Own Trauma Into The Violence
10:09 – Sleepless New Mom Hallucinations and "Just Write a Book"
14:49 – A Zeus Ferry Romance Written Out of Spite (and 57 Rejections)
16:03 – Book Four Sells at Auction: Wicked as They Come
23:29 – Readers Who Found Healing in The Violence
25:57 – Novels vs. IP Books vs. Comics: How the Planning Changes
26:53 – ADHD, a Chapter a Day and Seven Comic Pages
30:09 – How Comic Scripts and Artists Actually Work Together
37:20 – Seventeen People in the Phasma Comments
37:51 – Keeping D&D Spells Legal on the Page
44:09 – Bloom's Cover Started as Delilah's Own Artwork
45:21 – Bloom: What If Hannibal Were a Cottagecore Woman
48:17 – Why Horror Novellas Hit Like a Stab
53:32 – Going Undercover at a Wellness Retreat for It Will Only Hurt for a Moment
1:01:28 – Olympic Weightlifting, Savannah and COVID Plants
1:04:17 – From People Pleaser to Unhinged Heroines
1:08:45 – What's Next: Shannara, a Slasher Novella and It's Only Forever
1:09:44 – A Bram Stoker Win for Ride or Die
Grab your copy of Monstera: https://bookshop.org/p/books/monstera/ea30b8a7de5d1aff
Connect with Delilah S. Dawson:
Website: https://www.delilahsdawson.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delilahsdawson/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/delilahsdawson.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@delilahsdawson
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