Alma Katsu

First off, so we did this topic as a live episode four years ago at StoryFest in Connecticut with a great panel.

We had a bunch of, we had Stephen Graham Jones, we had Clay McLeod Chapman, we had Alma Katsu, we had Paul Trumbull, we had a, it was an amazing event.

Yeah.

But I realized that episode wasn't on the main feed.

So they're contemporary horror stories.

and welcome back to the writer files i am still your humble host kelton reader should keep pages patience and perseverance and joined as always by my intrepid co-host melina gonzalez and this week new york times best-selling author alma katsu spoke with us about her 30-plus year career in intelligence her deep expertise in ai and social media disinformation and her new techno horror novel incarnate Alma's books have won and been nominated for multiple prestigious awards, including the Stoker, Goodreads Reader's Choice, and International Thriller Writers, among others, and have appeared on numerous best books lists, including NPR, The Observer, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Prior to becoming a full-time novelist, she spent 35 years working as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA.

Our latest novel is Incarnate, described as a terrifying reimagining of the picture of Dorian Gray for the internet age.

We are back on The Writer Files.

I'm very honored today to be joined by another esteemed guest.

We're hanging out with the New York Times bestselling author and so much more, Alma Katsu is hanging out with us.

And where are you beaming in from today?

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is set at an asylum on a remote island.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu revolves around the Donner Party.

All of her books are terrifying.

Highly recommend her.

So that'll be fun.

Well, I just, I, um, I am reading a book called "Incarnate" by Alma Katsu, who I had her on last year for her book, "Fiend," which is described like if "Succession" was horror, and I agree.

Yeah.

That was very much what it was.

Uh, Heather has given us our spooky book recommendation.

It is The Hunger by Alma Katsu.

Let's see.

Uh, combines the historical Donner Party with Wendigo for- folklore.

So when I read This House Will Feed, it reminded me of Silvia Marina Garcia's Mexican Gothic because of the creepy old house.

But it also reminded me of Alma Katsu's The Hunger, which is a supernatural reimagining of the Donner Party's ill-fated expedition, which took place 1846 to 1847, which overlaps with the famine in your time story.

And so did you have any specific inspirations or comp titles in mind when you were writing?

I didn't really.

I don't know if I'm saying her name right or not.

But she has a kind of what Alma Katsu has referred to as an ambiguously ethnic face, and I wonder if that's on purpose, as if they're pulling at this string of mysteriousness of what's on the surface and what's below, and it felt a little bit icky to me.

And that's not to say that I don't like Dichen Lachman.

In fact, I do.

I know.

You know, it's funny because I was talking with Alma Katsu and, and we just wrapped our fourth time on the show together, and, um, I- like she mentioned, I'm gonna have to start getting like, like some kind of merch to give to y'all that keep showing up on the show [laughs] because it's, uh, uh, it's weird to think that I've been doing this for so long, and then also to think that, you know, I ha- I, like, I'm blessed to have repeat guests like yourself come on, and, like, you keep writing books and we keep talking about them together.

I just...

Wha- what a, what a party.