This is not your average horror podcast interview.

In this raw, unfiltered conversation, Corey and Kendall sit down with author and illustrator Drew Huff, whose work isn’t just inspired by trauma, it is shaped by it. Drew speaks openly about the lasting effects of growing up with an alcoholic father, and the surreal, devastating responsibility of handling his estate after his sudden overdose. At 22, she was the next of kin, and the only one left to clean up the mess.

We trace the emotional terrain between that loss and her debut horror novel Free Burn, a splatterpunk epic soaked in unresolved rage, haunted inheritance, and the desire to break generational cycles. We also dive into the dark underbelly of creative industries, as Drew recounts her experience being emotionally manipulated and professionally exploited by a predatory freelance editor.

We talk about how The Shining saved her. How Doctor Sleep helped her forgive. And how Pet Sematary revealed the quiet truth of grief: that we sometimes choose destruction over despair, because destruction hurts less.

This is a conversation about being queer in a community that doesn’t always feel like yours. About leaving behind the security of a paycheck for the hope of a future. About the monstrous parts of ourselves we write not to hide, but to understand.

The Weight of the Ghosts We Inherit

🖊️ About Drew Huff

Drew Huff (she/her) is a queer horror and speculative fiction author and illustrator based in Washington State. Her debut novel, Free Burn, was released by Dark Matter INK in 2024, and her next cosmic horror release, The Divine Flesh, arrived March 2025. Her work explores themes of grief, addiction, emotional inheritance, and queer rage—with stories that don’t flinch from life’s ugliest truths.

She is currently preparing to relocate from a conservative hometown to Seattle in pursuit of creative community and healing. Drew is living proof that horror can be both a weapon and a mirror—and that survival doesn’t have to be silent.

📖 Books Mentioned:

• Free Burn (2024) – Rage-fueled, grief-scarred splatterpunk debut
• Landlocked in Foreign Skin (2025) – Queer sci-fi novella about isolation, identity, and transformation
• The Divine Flesh – Cosmic horror meets spiritual collapse
• Sweetthing (WIP) – Sapphic vampire tale and religious satire
• Exodus (2026) – Halloween-themed horror with a monster family at its core
• Run to Beat the Devil (WIP) – A character’s slow realization she’s become the very monster she feared

🧠 Topics Covered:

• The emotional violence of losing an abusive parent without resolution
• The actual cost of grief (financial, psychological, existential)
• Processing trauma through horror—why King gets it
• Mental health hierarchies: why people shut down at “the hard stuff”
• Writing characters who are harder to love than the monsters
• Queer loneliness in rural America—and finding strength outside the mainstream
• Rebuilding your life from scratch at 26—when it feels like the world has already swallowed you

🔗 Where to Follow Drew:

• Website: drewehuff.com
• Instagram: @druhuf
• X/Twitter: @dreadnought_dru