Nick Roberts on Addiction, Demons & Why Fans Ask "Is He Okay?"

Nick Roberts is the award winning, indie horror author behind the bestselling Exorcist's House trilogy, Mean Spirited, and his debut novel Anathema, and he's one of the most reliably terrifying voices working in horror today.

He talks about being a hybrid author, splitting his work between Crystal Lake, Wicked House, his own imprint Spooky WV, and now Zando's new horror line Evil Twin. Nick breaks down structuring The Exorcist's House: Genesis like The Godfather Part II, and building suspense the way Stephen King does in 1408. He opens up about writing addiction and recovery into Anathema and Mean Spirited, and the dog named Conehead who ended up hijacking the latter. Plus, a first look at his possession anthology Haunted Minds with a foreword by Stephen Graham Jones, his next novel Can You Help Me With an Exorcism?, and his story in the Shining anthology Views from the Overlook.

Timestamps:

00:48 – Welcome to Talking Horror & Meeting Nick Roberts

02:33 – The "Is Nick Roberts Okay?" Reaction Readers Have to His Books

04:26 – Falling in Love with Horror Through Library Book Covers and Goosebumps

07:01 – Did Horror Ever Scare Him? Renting Pulp Fiction and Discovering the Craft

09:26 – The Writer-Director Dream That Fell Apart Before Film School

11:00 – Teaching English While Sneaking In Horror Film Electives

16:36 – Why Every Nick Roberts Book Starts as a Movie in His Head

17:37 – Being a Hybrid Author: Balancing Crystal Lake, Wicked House, and Self-Publishing

23:18 – From Anathema's COVID Release to Quitting Teaching for Full-Time Writing

30:44 – Why He Pantses Instead of Plots (and the Stephen Graham Jones Line That Inspired Him)

32:10 – The Stephen Graham Jones Outline He Wrote Just to Throw in the Trash

34:16 – Winning the Horror Authors Guild Debut Novel Award for Anathema

37:16 – Writing Recovery and Addiction Into Anathema and Mean Spirited

43:34 – Building Scares Like Stephen King's 1408

48:45 – Structuring The Exorcist's House: Genesis Like The Godfather Part II

54:01 – Falling In Love With a Character Before Something Horrible Happens

56:16 – Writing From the Killer's POV in My Corpse Has a Heartbeat

59:34 – First Look at the Haunted Minds Possession Anthology With Stephen Graham Jones

1:05:15 – A Tease of His Work in Progress, Appalachian Chainsaw

Grab your copy of The Exorcist's House: https://amzn.to/4zoEcmB

Connect with Nick Roberts:

Website: https://www.nickrobertsauthor.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spookywv/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@spookywv

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