March 14, 2025 • 38 mins
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What drives seemingly normal people to create stories filled with blood, terror, and revenge? Shannon Bradner, a factory worker by night and horror writer by whenever-she-can, pulls back the curtain on her creative process and reveals the often mundane seeds that grow into horrifying tales.
Working twelve-hour night shifts for twenty years has given Shannon plenty of time for her mind to wander into darker territories. She shares a chilling real-life experience of discovering a dead body in a compactor at her workplace—the kind of disturbing incident that can't help but influence one's perspective. The isolation and altered reality of working through the night creates the perfect environment for horror creativity, as both Shannon and host JP Willie discuss from their night shift experiences.
Shannon's horror isn't just about shock value. "I play on the more emotional side of things that happen to people that make them do the things they do," she explains, revealing how her revenge-focused stories explore psychological catalysts behind horrific actions. Her inspiration comes from unexpected places—washing dishes while listening to Eddie Rabbit sparked "Truck Stop Diner," while a casual conversation about a local dive bar became "One Night at Clyde's."
When discussing our collective fascination with horror, Shannon offers a refreshing perspective: "Everybody has a dark side. Some have a darker side than others. I think sometimes that's how you get it out—you watch these things, they're not real, you're enjoying it." This therapeutic aspect allows us to indulge our darker inclinations in a safe, controlled environment.
For aspiring horror writers, Shannon's journey offers encouragement. As someone relatively new to publishing, she's focusing on short story anthologies while developing her first novella, proving that you don't need decades of publishing experience to create compelling horror. Find her work on Godless.com and follow her journey into the darkest corners of human experience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Nightmare Engine
podcast.
It is Friday, march 7th, and Ihave no idea what episode this
is this season.
We're following that trainright now and it seems to be
okay.
It's probably episode 8 orsomething, but I'm sure you guys
have clicked through on thetitles and figured out which we
want to listen to.
Yeah, so just real quickupdates on things that have been
(00:21):
going on.
Last week we had last time lastshow we had JD Barker on and
that was all a pleasure.
Jd's huge in the thriller andhorror field and he got to write
.
He writes alongside JamesPatterson on occasion and has
his own line of thrillery,horrory books, including a new
release.
So that one's coming out in Mayand it's based on a real story.
(00:44):
So it's a little island that hecan see off his back patio.
I thought that was reallyinteresting chatting with him
about that.
He also talked about writing alittle bit in the Dracula sphere
.
I guess he was contacted bysome family members of Bram
Stoker and got to participate increation of new content for
(01:07):
that, and I think that happenedsome time ago.
So it's not a recent thing, um,but yeah, so besides that, I am
fresh off another call.
I was just um, uh on live onFacebook, which I don't do, um,
but I did this time and, um, Iwent live and did a pre-launch
party for Scare Mill 2, theDrift, including a live reading
(01:29):
by yours truly.
So if you want to hear my radiovoice badly narrating the
characters, it's available, it'sover in the Facebook group.
So please, if you haven'tjoined the Facebook community,
jump in.
We did some giveaways and somesneak peeks on Scare Millail too
, so that's my big focus rightnow.
I've got two, two horror booksplanned for this year um, to
(01:52):
include Roanoke.
I'm not going to release toomuch information about that one
other than um, Roanoke, whichshould say plenty, um, and then,
uh, another one that's going tobe seeing a revisal and I uh,
uh arrival and I haven't reallyspoken much about it, but it's
um big fucking spider.
So, um, my, I know everybodywas looking forward to that for
(02:12):
some time and then we killed theproject and now it's coming
back.
So big fucking spider, I wonderwhat it's about.
Um, anyways, that's enoughrambling.
That's the updates.
Um, I'm just chugging along.
I'm having a blast meetingpeople all over, the people from
all over contacting me sayingthey they've got my books and my
letters and, yeah, it's reallyinteresting to see now the type
(02:37):
of people, the amount of people,I can expect in London.
I'll be in London in Junespeaking there, and I'll have a
special live launch party forScare Mill 2 that I encourage
anybody in my European friendsto come join me over there and
come meet me and I'll get moredetails out.
But yeah, last week in Junelaunch party, let's do it All
right, that is it for theupdates this time and my lovely
(03:01):
guest here has been so kindlistening to me ramble, but I'm
really happy to bring her on.
Shannon, welcome to theNightmare Ninja podcast.
I want you to introduceyourself and tell us about what
you write and the things thatyou find interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Okay, Thank you for having me on first of all, but
I'm Shannon Bradner.
Mostly what I write is shortstories, a little more on the
extreme horror side.
Mostly they end up beingrevenge stories a lot of the
time.
I'm really into those and Ienjoy writing those a lot.
(03:38):
I'm very new to publishing andso I'm hoping to get a novella
or a short story collection outwithin the next year or so.
But I'm still learning theprocess of all this stuff, so
hopefully I can get there.
But yeah, it's mostly extremerevenge kind of things like that
(04:03):
.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, when are you calling in from?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
East coast.
Okay, very cool.
Yeah, you plan to go to scaresthat care this year.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh, every year I would I say I'm going and then
something happens where I nevermake it.
So hopefully I can make it thisyear.
That's the plan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So yeah, it's a great event.
Great event Lots of people showup with wagons to buy books, so
it's really amazing.
It's funny to find 250 horrorwriters out in the wild at once.
Normally we're just a dime, adozen or just a few in between.
So, shannon, what do you do foryour day job?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I actually work in a window factory, night shift 12
hours.
Yeah, yeah.
So you know how that can be.
But you feel like you're not aperson half the time.
You just kind of drift along.
So it's hard to focus sometimes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So I can imagine that it's not a window factory.
I don't really know what thatlooks like.
Is it the glass portion of it,or is it the wood, the whole
thing?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, all of it, yeah , Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So is it like an assembly line or is it a scenery
?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It is.
You have different, differentdepartments.
Um, they kind of do uh, likeyou work where I work now.
I've been there 20 years, soI've been everywhere but um,
where I work now is where weactually produce the glass for
the windows and they ship to, orthey get shipped to, the other
departments and they put thedifferent types of windows
together, some with machinery,some by hand, it just depends on
(05:45):
what type of window it is.
It's very hot, very hardphysical labor.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So, yeah, Well, very cool.
So night shift, night shift.
So I was a night shift cop forabout 10, 10 years and I can
tell you night shift is adifferent beast as far as when
the mind starts to wander.
So I think it's just beingawake during the non-waking
hours is what makes our mindskind of go run amok a little bit
(06:11):
.
So anything creepy happen toyou, anything weird since you've
been on night shift, I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yes, actually.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, do tell Terrible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Oh, my gosh, it's terrible, but it actually
happened last week.
My gosh, it's it's terrible,but it actually happened last
week.
Um, I came into work and therewere uh, where I go in, there
were yellow.
There was yellow tape aroundthese like dumpsters and
compactors, and it was policeout there everywhere and a bunch
of supervisors safety.
People didn't know what wasgoing on.
(06:40):
Try to go in the door open,open it.
It's yellow tape all over theretoo.
Go in another door and talk tosomebody.
They found a dead body in oneof the compactors last week.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Okay, it's not supposed to be there.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, not at all, not at all.
Apparently, the gentleman gotinto an empty compactor that was
never used and we're not reallysure why, climbed in there to
take a break, for whateverreason, I'm not sure, but he
passed away, had a heart attackor something.
Yeah, it was really sad, butthat's probably the weirdest
(07:18):
thing obviously that's everhappened since.
I've been there.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
What about outside of work?
Just you, you got some creepystories, cause I like I like
hearing about this stuff.
I like I want to know whatpeople have been through and,
like you know the stuff thatinspires them, of course too,
and in the writing.
But you know, but let's sayit's just, you know we find
interest in the macabre.
So I, I would really like to,you know, I like to know from
(07:45):
folks like I talk about stuffwith trains.
I don't like trains, I don'tlike black holes.
Right, I've got some veryspecific phobias and stuff like
that.
But what about you?
So anything that's just out ofthe ordinary creepy jumping out
at you?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Nothing quite that extreme.
But yeah, you know, I've hadsome weird encounters in my home
, my husband and I.
He felt like somethingphysically pushed him into a
wall, so we kind of think wemight have a little something
(08:21):
going on in here sometimes.
Little something going on inhere sometimes, but um, and I've
definitely encountered some,some people in my life that made
me feel a little uneasy, but,um, nothing, nothing quite that
extreme in real life, thankgoodness.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So, oh, I guess you're lucky yeah, yeah, so far
well so, and I'll tell you thisso there's always um, there's
always that time where I'm likeuh, do I see something or not?
You know yeah, yeah you know,you have like a miniature
existential crisis where you'relike I may have to rethink
everything that I know um yeahthere I was out.
(08:57):
Uh, I was on a patrol and itwas probably, I don't know, two
or three o'clock in the morningand I the spot.
I like to sit at the top of thismassive hill so I can see any
cars coming um right, and Iremember this story vividly
because, um it, because soundsand smells like really really
intense for me.
Um, not so much sight I couldsee a lot of stuff and I really
care too much but it's sound andsight, um sound and smell, and
(09:19):
so the smell that I could likesmell is just coming in from the
from in, from the outside airinto my patrol car and it just
smelled rotten, just old andfestering and rotten.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You knew it was kind of sick.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That was the first thing.
And then the sound, and I heardthis awful moaning scream thing
and it was probably two orthree seconds long and it echoed
and I put the car in drive andI took off and I left.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And as I'm getting closer to town, there's a bridge
and bridges by themselves arenot creepy Bridges, after all of
that is absolutely terrifying,and so I stopped before the
bridge and my headlights areshining on the bridge and I see
what I think is a deer, but it'smissing half of its body and
(10:09):
it's up on two legs and it'scrawling on two legs, but here's
the thing there's no other carsnearby.
There was nobody who would youknow you need a vehicle to do
that kind of damage to somebody,or something else took you know
, took it on.
This is a full-size doe.
This was not like a little,like a, like a fawn or anything,
it was a.
It was a full size dough, soseveral hundred pounds, and I
(10:32):
remember it.
It crawled on its hooves on thefront and then fell off the
side of the bridge.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh no.
Yeah, and so like crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
So, throwing all this togetherand I'm like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what I saw, but, likeyou know, um, it was absolutely
terrifying at the moment.
Um, and then, like afterwardshindsight, you're like, ah, that
was actually kind of cool, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Right, um, no, actually I think we uh, where we
travel, it's very uh, it's very.
The country is nothing buttrees, few houses, a lot of deer
.
But we did, we, we did kind ofsee somebody that was just kind
of sitting on the side of theroad just for no reason, just
sitting there, and we were likelike they were fine, they seem
(11:20):
to be fine.
Anyway, they weren't like justlaying there, they were moving,
but we were like nope, we're not, we're not getting in all that.
We called somebody and I guessthey you know the police went
back but um, like I'm notstopping for that I've seen too
many movies.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, you're like I know what the next step is
exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Somebody else can handle that.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So what's?
Um?
So where's inspiration comefrom for you?
I mean, it takes someonespecial to write horror, takes
someone special to writeanything leaning towards extreme
, so what?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
right.
Where's it come from?
For you it's so weird becausejust different, um, different
places.
I remember washing dishes andlistening to, uh, an old country
song and got an idea about atruck.
For this is my story, truckStop Diner, which is basically
(12:13):
about somebody who theirsituation seems to be one way,
but it's not.
They're not the person youthink they are.
But it's a very short story.
The song was Driving my LifeAway by Eddie Rabbit, which is
about a truck driver and forsome reason that story just
popped in my head like what ifthis happened at this truck stop
(12:35):
diner?
But just sometimes things justpop in my head.
Sometimes I'll be having aconversation with somebody.
I have a story called One Nightat Clyde's and I was just kind
of having a conversation withsomebody.
I have a story called One Nightat Clyde's and I was just kind
of having a conversation aboutthis dive bar we have in our
town.
It's not here anymore but youknow it was kind of like the
(12:55):
place everybody went.
It was just very much a divebar and I don't want to give
away the ending to it and I willif I say too much.
But I remember saying what ifthe owner's name.
What if he was this, what ifthis happened?
And then I was like I'm writingthat that's just too good, it's
just too funny, and you knowit's pretty fun to write.
(13:16):
So it just kind of comes fromanywhere, it just pops in my
head.
Nothing too much as far as reallife experience, just kind of.
You know, just ideas pop in myhead, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
And so what are your, uh, what does your husband and
family think about your writing,or are they in the dark about
it?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Um, my husband, he's, um, he's very supportive, he
reads my stuff and he, you know,he's really into the same
things that I'm into as far asreading and um, books and movies
and things like that, my, myother family, they, um, they're,
they weren't ready.
I let somebody read uh songs,uh sausages never you buy and
(14:01):
they're just kind of like ohokay all very good, so they
weren't really ready for thatone as much.
But mostly they don't read mystuff, just my husband does.
Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
And so let's segue a little bit here.
Let's talk a little bit aboutspooky movies.
Is there a particular brand ofspooky movies?
Because there are brands atthis point, like it's insidious
or paramotivity, you knowthey're all brands.
At this point you got ninemovies.
(14:35):
You know when you're, whenyou're competing with Sharknado,
for how many differentdifferent sequels you have.
I think you're a brand.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
So any, any particular brands of of series
that you're really into, I thinkyou're a brand, so any
particular brands of series thatyou're really into.
Gone to my head.
I guess I'd have to say myfavorite would be Slasher, the
old Slashers especially, but Ilove them all.
I'm really into kind ofre-watching the Friday the 13th
movies and my favorites mytrifecta is 4, 5, and 6.
(15:05):
I love those.
Those are my favorite ones.
But yeah, mostly I would saythe slasher genre is my favorite
, but I love them all.
So found footage they're so fun.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, as long as it's like with slashers.
If you take it too seriously,then I really don't like it.
But if it's meant to beridiculous, you know kind of
that evil dead feel when it'sover the top and just like
you're going for shock, valueright, but not shock and disgust
, mainly just kind of shock.
And that's what I noticed aboutevil dead and about you, and
(15:43):
even start with Jason, and it'sjust, it's all ridiculous.
Send Terrifier.
Terrifier is a perfect example,more modern example.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I love it for its own craziness.
Yes, that's the other thing.
What do you think?
Why do you think people likehorror stuff?
What's your opinion on that?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's hard to say.
I think, um, I don't want togive the whole like, oh, it's an
escape, you know, but it's.
I think people, everybody has adark side.
Um, and some have a, you know,darker side than others and I
think sometimes that's how youget it out.
Is you watch these things?
They're not real, you'reenjoying it.
I mean, sometimes that's howyou get it out.
Is you watch these things?
(16:25):
They're not real, you'reenjoying it.
I mean, sometimes it's reallymessed up, like like the
Terrifier movies, and they'rejust messed up and crazy and
you're laughing like a kid.
You know, you're just enjoyingit.
And people might think, oh,that's kind of weird, but that's
part of how you get thatdarkness out of you.
You know how you, how youindulge that.
That that's just for me.
(16:46):
I can speak for myself, butthat's kind of my opinion on it.
Everybody has that need forthat darkness to come out.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I mean I like that.
It's kind of a neutral approachto it.
I talked to Tim Wagner early onin the seasons.
I don't know if it was thisseason or last season.
I talked to Tim Wagner early onin the seasons.
I don't know if it was thisseason or last season I talked
to Tim Wagner and his answer andI ask this of pretty much every
author that comes on.
I said what do you think abouthorror?
And he's like it's fun.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, that's it.
I was like do you think it hasa healing effect, teaching
people to be strong?
He's like, no, he's like but,and that's okay, it can just be
fun.
You know, um, you know peoplelike to experience, uh, thrills
and and and chills and stuff,but they don't like it in real
(17:38):
life.
You know they like the safeenvironment.
You know books do that for us.
It's a very safe environment.
Yeah, there's the mental aspectof it, but when you're reading
a story, I mean it's, it's onlyas real as you want to make it
know yeah yeah, so and and thatwas that always presents a
challenge, right, and we'reespecially in horror, is we're
not?
(17:59):
we can only explain away so muchbefore we start to lose
interest.
I think if it's too overly done, you know, overly explained,
right, then it loses the mystery.
And then you're just like, ah,there's the scary thing, and now
you it's, it's no longer ahorror story, it's more story,
it's more like a survival story,right, because you see the
(18:20):
scary thing, you know yeah, Idon't need to know why michael
myers is killing people, I justneed to see him do it I don't
need to know any of that, soyeah yeah, have you seen that?
um, have you seen that there's ait's?
It's going around, but it's ajar and inside the jar is Mike
Myers floating.
He's chained down to the bottom.
(18:41):
Have you seen that?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's really cool.
I think people are like they'reDIYers and it basically looks
it's a stand, it's in a glassjar and it's got him at the
bottom in the lake and he'sholding his knife.
And he's got his mask on andhe's just chained by the neck to
the bottom Because he can't die.
So I just yeah.
And it's a light too, so itlights up and I was like, oh,
(19:05):
that's so cool.
Yeah, that's neat sorry, excuseme, I was having some technical
malfunctions there um no problem, everything just went muted for
(19:27):
a second.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Luckily I didn't say anything um, but but yeah anyway
.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So yeah, I that was a little sidebar aside, like I'm
like I like really cool horrordecorations.
You know, I'm like, you know,and I dig into my past a little
bit and to my, to my family andmy roots, so I know I totally
look like it, but I am actuallya significant portion of
Hawaiian and so that comes frommy mom's side of things.
(19:52):
So, um, so she's a FilipinoHawaiian and my dad is a
Wisconsin cheese head.
So apologies to my Wisconsinfriends that, uh, that I call
cheese heads, um and uh, youknow, and, and you know, because
of the heritage, I've got likea real attachment to the ocean,
um and a real attachment andrespect for it and the and the
(20:13):
creatures there and likeoctopuses for me are like.
That's my favorite animal.
That is by far okay.
I've got a massive octopustattoo from my chest all the way
across my back and shoulder umso I adore adore octopus, um,
octopuses and um, but but alsoat the same time it's like I've
(20:33):
got this irrational fear of theocean I don't say irrational, I
think it's very reasonable to beafraid of the ocean, but I
think it's like a respect,borderline terror about it,
knowing that we are just playinghere.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
You know yes, yes, I love the same.
I love the ocean, I love it'sbeautiful.
But then you really think toomuch about how big it is, what's
in there, what we don't know isin there.
It can be really overwhelminglyterrifying when you really
think about it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
So, yeah, it's kind of got that feeling like like
there's an attic right andyou're climbing up the top.
You can't see inside.
But you gotta you know yougotta poke your head up like
it's kind of like that you, youpoke your head into the ocean.
You may not like what you seewhen you poke your head down
there and you wouldn't haveknown it was there unless you
you know but but you decided topoke around in it and I think
that's kind of what happens inhorror stories anyways, isn't it
(21:28):
like people go poke in theirnose and this stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
they shouldn't exactly you're like.
I would never do that, but youknow you probably you might yeah
yeah yeah, so speaking ofmotion stuff, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I'm sorry, go ahead oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I was just gonna say you brought up um evil dead and
I was gonna ask you what youthought of the uh, the 2013 evil
dead.
I don't know if it was remake,continuation, whatever you want
to call it, but what did youthink of that?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I love it, I mean I loved it because it was, it was
silly, it was exactly.
It made no promises.
It said we are evil, dead andyou're gonna get the exact same
thing as the first one.
I think that's what needs to bedone with when you're gonna use
like ip, like that, that it'sjust so rooted in culture, like
when people think horror, thenecronomicon is right there.
(22:16):
You know, like yeah, it's not,you don't have to, you don't
have to to dig to find that inthe history books of horror, so
like the necronomicon, like so,when you've got beautiful ip
like that, when you've got stufflike that, like the best thing
to do is just give more of thesame rather than try and
innovate and create new.
You know, I think you know,alien Romulus did this.
(22:37):
Yeah, so minus a few parts,like alien, romulus used
costumes and costume designversus CGI, and that was what
made it so terrifying in thefirst, the first movies and the
first of the alien franchise.
So like watching that again,seeing that they're going back
(22:59):
to people in suits acting as themonster instead of CGI, it just
made all the difference.
And so that's what you'resupposed to do.
You're supposed to take thatthing that people love and make
more of it.
You know, sometimes innovationis not not the answer.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Exactly Agreed is not the answer.
Exactly Agreed, Absolutely yeah.
I actually went to see it likefive times Evil Dead.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Oh, the 2013 version.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, because everybody kept wanting to go, so
we were just like we'll go withyou.
And it was fun.
We had a blast.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Did you see the second one they made?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
the uh evil dead rise I think that's what.
Yeah, I cannot yeah, yeah, yeah, I did see that.
I actually enjoyed that too.
It wasn't not as much as theother one, but it was fun.
It was fun too very cool.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So what's on?
Uh, what's on the choppingblock?
What do you got planned?
What's coming up?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I've got two stories that I'm actually working on for
anthology invites and they'llbe hoping to finish them up here
the next couple weeks and havethem in.
They should be.
I'm not sure when they'll bereleased, when the anthologies
will be released, but I thinkit'll probably be sometime
summer maybe.
So that's fun.
And then in between I'm stillworking on a novella and short
(24:25):
story collection too.
I'm so much better at shortstories, but I'm more
comfortable with them, morecomfortable writing them.
I've tried my hand at novellasbefore and I just end up kind of
chopping it down to a lotshorter.
But I'm hoping to get there.
Very cool, I know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So what do you think makes your horror flavor unique?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
What makes it turn um for me it's I play on the more
emotional side of things thathappen to people that make them
do the things they do, asopposed to just, hey, we're just
, you know, we're just blood,guts and gore.
There's a reason behind it, anda lot of times I have to tap
into a lot of things insidemyself to get there.
(25:19):
The idea kind of comes fromwherever it comes from, but as
I'm writing it, sometimes I haveto tap into things you know
inside myself to make it realfor me why this person would do
what they do.
You know real for me why thisperson would do what they do,
you know, and I think that'skind of what makes what I'm
writing a little more unique.
It's just more it comes frommore of an emotional place than
(25:42):
just, uh, just people doinghorrible things for no reason
yeah, well, I mean, but isn'tthat, isn't that kind of the
core of horror?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
anyways, at some point, it's just being like
people are going to be awful andsometimes they just do it for
for being, for for reasons to beawful.
Like it doesn't there?
There is no, there's no logicbehind it, because logic, you
know, says, you know, theaverage person is a is a
functional, logical human being,the average person.
And so like we always writeabout the people who are not you
(26:19):
know, and sometimes we see whatthey do in the pursuit of
science or the pursuit ofknowledge or the pursuit of
wealth, like the horrible thingswe do to each other.
Um, you know, and horror tapsinto that.
You, that's.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
That's something that's unique well, more or less
, for me it's uh, the thing thatit's the catalyst is for really
no reason whatever.
Somebody did something tosomebody or something happened
to somebody, and that's why theydo what they do and they might,
(26:54):
they may take it, you know,further than they should have
taken it, obviously, but, um,that's just, that's just kind of
how I, how I write, I guessjust more from an emotional
place, but, um, you know, it'snot really I, I guess a new, new
, uh, unique perspective, butit's just kind of where where I
(27:14):
draw everything from.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So, yeah, do you think, um, do you think there's
gotta be like a lot of good in ahorror story for there to be a
lot of bad?
Like we're watching these stuff, like I I think there's cause,
there can't be one without theother, right, and I mean so
whenever I'm watching like ahorror movie, it's always at the
(27:37):
beginning, or when you'rereading a horror book, where
it's where, it's always at thebeginning.
Here's the picturesque liferight or as close to picturesque
, as can be for the charactersand then, you know, then comes
the big bad, then comes thescary.
That really upends all of thatyou know and just kind of turns
everything on its head.
Yes, I think one really goodall of that you know, and just
kind of turns everything on itshead.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yes, I think one really good example of that as
far as the book and the movie,but it's Pet Cemetery, because
when you see the movie, thisfamily they pull up, it's this
gorgeous home and it's, you know, everything's sunshine.
But obviously we know wherethat goes, so it doesn't end
well for anyone.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, but the lesson there in Pet Sematary is awesome
, right?
I mean, it's a few lessons inthere and one of them, you know,
is be careful what you wish for, right.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, it's kind of like that.
It's always like that.
I don't know if it's a meme orpop culture or whatever, but
whenever people get a genie andthey ask for something and they
give them that literal thinginstead of what they thought
they wanted.
You know?
and you know kind of thattrickery involved there.
That's what it.
Yeah, I mean that's.
I think there's gotta be good.
(28:47):
There has to be.
There has to be some sort ofgood that we can all reflect on
and be like, yeah, that's howthings should be for the
character.
Let's see how things gosideways.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely yeah.
Did you see the sequel, the PetSematary sequel, not the remake
but the I watched.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So of the remake, the part two of the remake part two
, no, just part two.
Yeah, the from from way backnight edward, no, no, no, I
didn't oh so well, tell me aboutit okay, so when that at the
time when that movie came out.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Pen cemetery was my absolute favorite stephen king,
you know, book, movie, whateverand I was so excited when it was
getting a sequel.
Edward Furlong's in it.
Who else is in it?
Clancy Brown is in it justbeing Clancy Brown's best, and I
can't remember.
It's a few other people thatare in it that have been in
(29:55):
other things, but it'sridiculous.
It's very mean-spirited.
It makes no sense.
They don't really follow any ofthe actual rules from the
original story.
It's kind of like yes, we'rejust going to bury people and
bring them back and see whatgoes.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
So I always judge King's stuff based on um
different levels of cocainebinge where he's at Um, and so I
think um, I think for PetSematary he had to be like right
before you know where.
Things are still kind of lividfor him, you know, still kind of
vivid for him, so he's but umpet cemetery.
(30:41):
What I thought was interestingabout is that it will also wove
in the lore of the wendigo yeahand that's a huge um, a huge
cryptid monster, whatever fromfrom history, um, and and
honestly it's the inspirationbehind my logo is the Wendigo,
and I love anything to do withit, and so I thought, when I
(31:04):
first read it and I watched themovie, I thought there would be
even more of an emphasis on theWendigo being there, being
present and the things itrepresented, and it just seemed
like just a footnote kind oflike when Stephen King wrote
about it and he's like when youwrote it and the universe is
some on the back of some giantturtle and it's taking a shit
(31:28):
and that's how it created theearth.
It's just kind of wild.
If you get an opportunity I'mbutchering it, but it's out
there.
I mean as far as.
So that's like peak cocainebinge when he's talking about
the giant floating turtle andthat's how the universe is where
the deadlights and all that.
But yeah, it's gosh the lore,so lore.
(31:52):
We're talking about.
Lore, talking about things thatare you know just stuff in life,
that's, you know, stuff that wewrite about.
It's got to be rooted somewhere, right?
Either we create it or it'srooted on a belief or an idea,
like if you, you know, becareful what you wish for, or
you know how, about you don'teat your friends, you know, like
(32:12):
that sort of thing, right, Imean, how far were you willing
to go so like, is there anythingin particular that you're like?
Man, this thing needs a horrorstory.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It just hasn't been written yet oh wow, I can't
think of anything.
I feel like if I dug deep,maybe I feel like people have
touched on almost everythingthat I can think of.
I don't know.
Maybe people have touched onalmost everything to that I can
think of, um, I don't know,maybe, uh, mothman has been done
(32:42):
, but I think more Mothman wouldbe be fun.
More.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Mothman More creatures.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But he's kind of like comical right, like kind of
like yeah just kind of yeah,which to me you can really do it
very tongue-in-cheek, very kindof.
You know it is kind of comical,but you can kind of I don't
know go another way with it.
Maybe.
I don't know.
That's kind of a hard onebecause I can't think of
anything much that hasn't beenfor me, that I know of, that
(33:13):
hasn't been touched on.
As far as lore, and a lot ofit's been done well.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Every story's already been told right.
And that's the thing we've gotto remember too is that every
story's already been told it's.
How many different ways can wetell it and can we still be
respectful to it but at the sametime, maybe give it our own
flair, give it our own twist,and that sort of thing?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, so very cool.
So, shannon, just do me a favor.
You know this is.
This is the time, the shamelessplug time.
Let's tell, tell everybodywhere they can find you and
where you want them to go to getan introduction to you and your
writing and, if they like, whoyou are, and let them know where
they can go to find more ofyour stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Okay, Just everything I have.
Everything I've written is onGodless Godlesscom.
Under my name, Shannon Bradner,I have a short story in the
Scorned Anthology.
You can find it on Amazon underBainham Books Press.
And as far as my socials go, amanic pixie bookworm on
(34:20):
instagram and just shannonbradner on facebook.
That's all the socials that Ihave.
So perfect.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, well, I'll make sure I get all those links in
the description.
Um, I appreciate you coming on,shannon, and sharing a little
bit about yourself and and whatyou're up to and the things that
you find interesting.
You seem pretty level-headed,considering you're a horror
writer, so that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's always fun to notice is that we are the most
average people, I believe yes,uh, it was so funny because a
lot of people that, uh, that Iwork with some know, I write,
you know, do you think do thatand some don't.
But um, when it comes out, youknow, they first thing they ask
what kind of stuff do you writeand that?
And some don't.
But um, when it comes out, youknow, they first thing they ask
what kind of stuff do you write?
And you're like, of course,horror stuff and you're like
(35:03):
yeah, exactly.
And this guy looked at me.
He says oh, your mind workslike that.
And yeah, you know, yes, itdoes.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Sorry, yes, it does no apologies needed yeah, cool.
Well, Shannon, thank you forjoining me tonight.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, and it was a pleasure to get to know you and
I hope to see you continually inthe space.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Absolutely for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Wait, can't wait to see what you come up with.
All right, y'all.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
This has been the NightmareEngine podcast episode,
something on Friday, march 7th,with Miss Shadden Bradner, so
thank you so much to her forjumping on and checking in from
Virginia and sharing a littlebit about her life and what
she's done and her writing andher joys for us.
(35:50):
So, ladies and gentlemen, thankyou for joining me again for
another week and I look forwardto speaking with you once more.
That's it, goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Nightmare Engine
podcast.
It is Friday, march 7th, and Ihave no idea what episode this
is this season.
We're following that trainright now and it seems to be
okay.
It's probably episode 8 orsomething, but I'm sure you guys
have clicked through on thetitles and figured out which we
want to listen to.
Yeah, so just real quickupdates on things that have been
(00:21):
going on.
Last week we had last time lastshow we had JD Barker on and
that was all a pleasure.
Jd's huge in the thriller andhorror field and he got to write
.
He writes alongside JamesPatterson on occasion and has
his own line of thrillery,horrory books, including a new
release.
So that one's coming out in Mayand it's based on a real story.
(00:44):
So it's a little island that hecan see off his back patio.
I thought that was reallyinteresting chatting with him
about that.
He also talked about writing alittle bit in the Dracula sphere
.
I guess he was contacted bysome family members of Bram
Stoker and got to participate increation of new content for
(01:07):
that, and I think that happenedsome time ago.
So it's not a recent thing, um,but yeah, so besides that, I am
fresh off another call.
I was just um, uh on live onFacebook, which I don't do, um,
but I did this time and, um, Iwent live and did a pre-launch
party for Scare Mill 2, theDrift, including a live reading
(01:29):
by yours truly.
So if you want to hear my radiovoice badly narrating the
characters, it's available, it'sover in the Facebook group.
So please, if you haven'tjoined the Facebook community,
jump in.
We did some giveaways and somesneak peeks on Scare Millail too
, so that's my big focus rightnow.
I've got two, two horror booksplanned for this year um, to
(01:52):
include Roanoke.
I'm not going to release toomuch information about that one
other than um, Roanoke, whichshould say plenty, um, and then,
uh, another one that's going tobe seeing a revisal and I uh,
uh arrival and I haven't reallyspoken much about it, but it's
um big fucking spider.
So, um, my, I know everybodywas looking forward to that for
(02:12):
some time and then we killed theproject and now it's coming
back.
So big fucking spider, I wonderwhat it's about.
Um, anyways, that's enoughrambling.
That's the updates.
Um, I'm just chugging along.
I'm having a blast meetingpeople all over, the people from
all over contacting me sayingthey they've got my books and my
letters and, yeah, it's reallyinteresting to see now the type
(02:37):
of people, the amount of people,I can expect in London.
I'll be in London in Junespeaking there, and I'll have a
special live launch party forScare Mill 2 that I encourage
anybody in my European friendsto come join me over there and
come meet me and I'll get moredetails out.
But yeah, last week in Junelaunch party, let's do it All
right, that is it for theupdates this time and my lovely
(03:01):
guest here has been so kindlistening to me ramble, but I'm
really happy to bring her on.
Shannon, welcome to theNightmare Ninja podcast.
I want you to introduceyourself and tell us about what
you write and the things thatyou find interesting.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Okay, Thank you for having me on first of all, but
I'm Shannon Bradner.
Mostly what I write is shortstories, a little more on the
extreme horror side.
Mostly they end up beingrevenge stories a lot of the
time.
I'm really into those and Ienjoy writing those a lot.
(03:38):
I'm very new to publishing andso I'm hoping to get a novella
or a short story collection outwithin the next year or so.
But I'm still learning theprocess of all this stuff, so
hopefully I can get there.
But yeah, it's mostly extremerevenge kind of things like that
(04:03):
.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, when are you calling in from?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Virginia.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
East coast.
Okay, very cool.
Yeah, you plan to go to scaresthat care this year.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh, every year I would I say I'm going and then
something happens where I nevermake it.
So hopefully I can make it thisyear.
That's the plan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So yeah, it's a great event.
Great event Lots of people showup with wagons to buy books, so
it's really amazing.
It's funny to find 250 horrorwriters out in the wild at once.
Normally we're just a dime, adozen or just a few in between.
So, shannon, what do you do foryour day job?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I actually work in a window factory, night shift 12
hours.
Yeah, yeah.
So you know how that can be.
But you feel like you're not aperson half the time.
You just kind of drift along.
So it's hard to focus sometimes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
So I can imagine that it's not a window factory.
I don't really know what thatlooks like.
Is it the glass portion of it,or is it the wood, the whole
thing?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, all of it, yeah , Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So is it like an assembly line or is it a scenery
?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It is.
You have different, differentdepartments.
Um, they kind of do uh, likeyou work where I work now.
I've been there 20 years, soI've been everywhere but um,
where I work now is where weactually produce the glass for
the windows and they ship to, orthey get shipped to, the other
departments and they put thedifferent types of windows
together, some with machinery,some by hand, it just depends on
(05:45):
what type of window it is.
It's very hot, very hardphysical labor.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So, yeah, Well, very cool.
So night shift, night shift.
So I was a night shift cop forabout 10, 10 years and I can
tell you night shift is adifferent beast as far as when
the mind starts to wander.
So I think it's just beingawake during the non-waking
hours is what makes our mindskind of go run amok a little bit
(06:11):
.
So anything creepy happen toyou, anything weird since you've
been on night shift, I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yes, actually.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, do tell Terrible.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Oh, my gosh, it's terrible, but it actually
happened last week.
My gosh, it's it's terrible,but it actually happened last
week.
Um, I came into work and therewere uh, where I go in, there
were yellow.
There was yellow tape aroundthese like dumpsters and
compactors, and it was policeout there everywhere and a bunch
of supervisors safety.
People didn't know what wasgoing on.
(06:40):
Try to go in the door open,open it.
It's yellow tape all over theretoo.
Go in another door and talk tosomebody.
They found a dead body in oneof the compactors last week.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Okay, it's not supposed to be there.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, not at all, not at all.
Apparently, the gentleman gotinto an empty compactor that was
never used and we're not reallysure why, climbed in there to
take a break, for whateverreason, I'm not sure, but he
passed away, had a heart attackor something.
Yeah, it was really sad, butthat's probably the weirdest
(07:18):
thing obviously that's everhappened since.
I've been there.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
What about outside of work?
Just you, you got some creepystories, cause I like I like
hearing about this stuff.
I like I want to know whatpeople have been through and,
like you know the stuff thatinspires them, of course too,
and in the writing.
But you know, but let's sayit's just, you know we find
interest in the macabre.
So I, I would really like to,you know, I like to know from
(07:45):
folks like I talk about stuffwith trains.
I don't like trains, I don'tlike black holes.
Right, I've got some veryspecific phobias and stuff like
that.
But what about you?
So anything that's just out ofthe ordinary creepy jumping out
at you?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Nothing quite that extreme.
But yeah, you know, I've hadsome weird encounters in my home
, my husband and I.
He felt like somethingphysically pushed him into a
wall, so we kind of think wemight have a little something
(08:21):
going on in here sometimes.
Little something going on inhere sometimes, but um, and I've
definitely encountered some,some people in my life that made
me feel a little uneasy, but,um, nothing, nothing quite that
extreme in real life, thankgoodness.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So, oh, I guess you're lucky yeah, yeah, so far
well so, and I'll tell you thisso there's always um, there's
always that time where I'm likeuh, do I see something or not?
You know yeah, yeah you know,you have like a miniature
existential crisis where you'relike I may have to rethink
everything that I know um yeahthere I was out.
(08:57):
Uh, I was on a patrol and itwas probably, I don't know, two
or three o'clock in the morningand I the spot.
I like to sit at the top of thismassive hill so I can see any
cars coming um right, and Iremember this story vividly
because, um it, because soundsand smells like really really
intense for me.
Um, not so much sight I couldsee a lot of stuff and I really
care too much but it's sound andsight, um sound and smell, and
(09:19):
so the smell that I could likesmell is just coming in from the
from in, from the outside airinto my patrol car and it just
smelled rotten, just old andfestering and rotten.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You knew it was kind of sick.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That was the first thing.
And then the sound, and I heardthis awful moaning scream thing
and it was probably two orthree seconds long and it echoed
and I put the car in drive andI took off and I left.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And as I'm getting closer to town, there's a bridge
and bridges by themselves arenot creepy Bridges, after all of
that is absolutely terrifying,and so I stopped before the
bridge and my headlights areshining on the bridge and I see
what I think is a deer, but it'smissing half of its body and
(10:09):
it's up on two legs and it'scrawling on two legs, but here's
the thing there's no other carsnearby.
There was nobody who would youknow you need a vehicle to do
that kind of damage to somebody,or something else took you know
, took it on.
This is a full-size doe.
This was not like a little,like a, like a fawn or anything,
it was a.
It was a full size dough, soseveral hundred pounds, and I
(10:32):
remember it.
It crawled on its hooves on thefront and then fell off the
side of the bridge.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Oh no.
Yeah, and so like crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
So, throwing all this togetherand I'm like, oh my gosh, I
don't know what I saw, but, likeyou know, um, it was absolutely
terrifying at the moment.
Um, and then, like afterwardshindsight, you're like, ah, that
was actually kind of cool, yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Right, um, no, actually I think we uh, where we
travel, it's very uh, it's very.
The country is nothing buttrees, few houses, a lot of deer
.
But we did, we, we did kind ofsee somebody that was just kind
of sitting on the side of theroad just for no reason, just
sitting there, and we were likelike they were fine, they seem
(11:20):
to be fine.
Anyway, they weren't like justlaying there, they were moving,
but we were like nope, we're not, we're not getting in all that.
We called somebody and I guessthey you know the police went
back but um, like I'm notstopping for that I've seen too
many movies.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, you're like I know what the next step is
exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Somebody else can handle that.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So what's?
Um?
So where's inspiration comefrom for you?
I mean, it takes someonespecial to write horror, takes
someone special to writeanything leaning towards extreme
, so what?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
right.
Where's it come from?
For you it's so weird becausejust different, um, different
places.
I remember washing dishes andlistening to, uh, an old country
song and got an idea about atruck.
For this is my story, truckStop Diner, which is basically
(12:13):
about somebody who theirsituation seems to be one way,
but it's not.
They're not the person youthink they are.
But it's a very short story.
The song was Driving my LifeAway by Eddie Rabbit, which is
about a truck driver and forsome reason that story just
popped in my head like what ifthis happened at this truck stop
(12:35):
diner?
But just sometimes things justpop in my head.
Sometimes I'll be having aconversation with somebody.
I have a story called One Nightat Clyde's and I was just kind
of having a conversation withsomebody.
I have a story called One Nightat Clyde's and I was just kind
of having a conversation aboutthis dive bar we have in our
town.
It's not here anymore but youknow it was kind of like the
(12:55):
place everybody went.
It was just very much a divebar and I don't want to give
away the ending to it and I willif I say too much.
But I remember saying what ifthe owner's name.
What if he was this, what ifthis happened?
And then I was like I'm writingthat that's just too good, it's
just too funny, and you knowit's pretty fun to write.
(13:16):
So it just kind of comes fromanywhere, it just pops in my
head.
Nothing too much as far as reallife experience, just kind of.
You know, just ideas pop in myhead, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
And so what are your, uh, what does your husband and
family think about your writing,or are they in the dark about
it?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Um, my husband, he's, um, he's very supportive, he
reads my stuff and he, you know,he's really into the same
things that I'm into as far asreading and um, books and movies
and things like that, my, myother family, they, um, they're,
they weren't ready.
I let somebody read uh songs,uh sausages never you buy and
(14:01):
they're just kind of like ohokay all very good, so they
weren't really ready for thatone as much.
But mostly they don't read mystuff, just my husband does.
Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
And so let's segue a little bit here.
Let's talk a little bit aboutspooky movies.
Is there a particular brand ofspooky movies?
Because there are brands atthis point, like it's insidious
or paramotivity, you knowthey're all brands.
At this point you got ninemovies.
(14:35):
You know when you're, whenyou're competing with Sharknado,
for how many differentdifferent sequels you have.
I think you're a brand.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
So any, any particular brands of of series
that you're really into, I thinkyou're a brand, so any
particular brands of series thatyou're really into.
Gone to my head.
I guess I'd have to say myfavorite would be Slasher, the
old Slashers especially, but Ilove them all.
I'm really into kind ofre-watching the Friday the 13th
movies and my favorites mytrifecta is 4, 5, and 6.
(15:05):
I love those.
Those are my favorite ones.
But yeah, mostly I would saythe slasher genre is my favorite
, but I love them all.
So found footage they're so fun.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, as long as it's like with slashers.
If you take it too seriously,then I really don't like it.
But if it's meant to beridiculous, you know kind of
that evil dead feel when it'sover the top and just like
you're going for shock, valueright, but not shock and disgust
, mainly just kind of shock.
And that's what I noticed aboutevil dead and about you, and
(15:43):
even start with Jason, and it'sjust, it's all ridiculous.
Send Terrifier.
Terrifier is a perfect example,more modern example.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I love it for its own craziness.
Yes, that's the other thing.
What do you think?
Why do you think people likehorror stuff?
What's your opinion on that?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's hard to say.
I think, um, I don't want togive the whole like, oh, it's an
escape, you know, but it's.
I think people, everybody has adark side.
Um, and some have a, you know,darker side than others and I
think sometimes that's how youget it out.
Is you watch these things?
They're not real, you'reenjoying it.
I mean, sometimes that's howyou get it out.
Is you watch these things?
(16:25):
They're not real, you'reenjoying it.
I mean, sometimes it's reallymessed up, like like the
Terrifier movies, and they'rejust messed up and crazy and
you're laughing like a kid.
You know, you're just enjoyingit.
And people might think, oh,that's kind of weird, but that's
part of how you get thatdarkness out of you.
You know how you, how youindulge that.
That that's just for me.
(16:46):
I can speak for myself, butthat's kind of my opinion on it.
Everybody has that need forthat darkness to come out.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I mean I like that.
It's kind of a neutral approachto it.
I talked to Tim Wagner early onin the seasons.
I don't know if it was thisseason or last season.
I talked to Tim Wagner early onin the seasons.
I don't know if it was thisseason or last season I talked
to Tim Wagner and his answer andI ask this of pretty much every
author that comes on.
I said what do you think abouthorror?
And he's like it's fun.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, that's it.
I was like do you think it hasa healing effect, teaching
people to be strong?
He's like, no, he's like but,and that's okay, it can just be
fun.
You know, um, you know peoplelike to experience, uh, thrills
and and and chills and stuff,but they don't like it in real
(17:38):
life.
You know they like the safeenvironment.
You know books do that for us.
It's a very safe environment.
Yeah, there's the mental aspectof it, but when you're reading
a story, I mean it's, it's onlyas real as you want to make it
know yeah yeah, so and and thatwas that always presents a
challenge, right, and we'reespecially in horror, is we're
not?
(17:59):
we can only explain away so muchbefore we start to lose
interest.
I think if it's too overly done, you know, overly explained,
right, then it loses the mystery.
And then you're just like, ah,there's the scary thing, and now
you it's, it's no longer ahorror story, it's more story,
it's more like a survival story,right, because you see the
(18:20):
scary thing, you know yeah, Idon't need to know why michael
myers is killing people, I justneed to see him do it I don't
need to know any of that, soyeah yeah, have you seen that?
um, have you seen that there's ait's?
It's going around, but it's ajar and inside the jar is Mike
Myers floating.
He's chained down to the bottom.
(18:41):
Have you seen that?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's really cool.
I think people are like they'reDIYers and it basically looks
it's a stand, it's in a glassjar and it's got him at the
bottom in the lake and he'sholding his knife.
And he's got his mask on andhe's just chained by the neck to
the bottom Because he can't die.
So I just yeah.
And it's a light too, so itlights up and I was like, oh,
(19:05):
that's so cool.
Yeah, that's neat sorry, excuseme, I was having some technical
malfunctions there um no problem, everything just went muted for
(19:27):
a second.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Luckily I didn't say anything um, but but yeah anyway
.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So yeah, I that was a little sidebar aside, like I'm
like I like really cool horrordecorations.
You know, I'm like, you know,and I dig into my past a little
bit and to my, to my family andmy roots, so I know I totally
look like it, but I am actuallya significant portion of
Hawaiian and so that comes frommy mom's side of things.
(19:52):
So, um, so she's a FilipinoHawaiian and my dad is a
Wisconsin cheese head.
So apologies to my Wisconsinfriends that, uh, that I call
cheese heads, um and uh, youknow, and, and you know, because
of the heritage, I've got likea real attachment to the ocean,
um and a real attachment andrespect for it and the and the
(20:13):
creatures there and likeoctopuses for me are like.
That's my favorite animal.
That is by far okay.
I've got a massive octopustattoo from my chest all the way
across my back and shoulder umso I adore adore octopus, um,
octopuses and um, but but alsoat the same time it's like I've
(20:33):
got this irrational fear of theocean I don't say irrational, I
think it's very reasonable to beafraid of the ocean, but I
think it's like a respect,borderline terror about it,
knowing that we are just playinghere.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
You know yes, yes, I love the same.
I love the ocean, I love it'sbeautiful.
But then you really think toomuch about how big it is, what's
in there, what we don't know isin there.
It can be really overwhelminglyterrifying when you really
think about it.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
So, yeah, it's kind of got that feeling like like
there's an attic right andyou're climbing up the top.
You can't see inside.
But you gotta you know yougotta poke your head up like
it's kind of like that you, youpoke your head into the ocean.
You may not like what you seewhen you poke your head down
there and you wouldn't haveknown it was there unless you
you know but but you decided topoke around in it and I think
that's kind of what happens inhorror stories anyways, isn't it
(21:28):
like people go poke in theirnose and this stuff?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
they shouldn't exactly you're like.
I would never do that, but youknow you probably you might yeah
yeah yeah, so speaking ofmotion stuff, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I'm sorry, go ahead oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I was just gonna say you brought up um evil dead and
I was gonna ask you what youthought of the uh, the 2013 evil
dead.
I don't know if it was remake,continuation, whatever you want
to call it, but what did youthink of that?
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I love it, I mean I loved it because it was, it was
silly, it was exactly.
It made no promises.
It said we are evil, dead andyou're gonna get the exact same
thing as the first one.
I think that's what needs to bedone with when you're gonna use
like ip, like that, that it'sjust so rooted in culture, like
when people think horror, thenecronomicon is right there.
(22:16):
You know, like yeah, it's not,you don't have to, you don't
have to to dig to find that inthe history books of horror, so
like the necronomicon, like so,when you've got beautiful ip
like that, when you've got stufflike that, like the best thing
to do is just give more of thesame rather than try and
innovate and create new.
You know, I think you know,alien Romulus did this.
(22:37):
Yeah, so minus a few parts,like alien, romulus used
costumes and costume designversus CGI, and that was what
made it so terrifying in thefirst, the first movies and the
first of the alien franchise.
So like watching that again,seeing that they're going back
(22:59):
to people in suits acting as themonster instead of CGI, it just
made all the difference.
And so that's what you'resupposed to do.
You're supposed to take thatthing that people love and make
more of it.
You know, sometimes innovationis not not the answer.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Exactly Agreed is not the answer.
Exactly Agreed, Absolutely yeah.
I actually went to see it likefive times Evil Dead.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Oh, the 2013 version.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, because everybody kept wanting to go, so
we were just like we'll go withyou.
And it was fun.
We had a blast.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Did you see the second one they made?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
the uh evil dead rise I think that's what.
Yeah, I cannot yeah, yeah, yeah, I did see that.
I actually enjoyed that too.
It wasn't not as much as theother one, but it was fun.
It was fun too very cool.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So what's on?
Uh, what's on the choppingblock?
What do you got planned?
What's coming up?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I've got two stories that I'm actually working on for
anthology invites and they'llbe hoping to finish them up here
the next couple weeks and havethem in.
They should be.
I'm not sure when they'll bereleased, when the anthologies
will be released, but I thinkit'll probably be sometime
summer maybe.
So that's fun.
And then in between I'm stillworking on a novella and short
(24:25):
story collection too.
I'm so much better at shortstories, but I'm more
comfortable with them, morecomfortable writing them.
I've tried my hand at novellasbefore and I just end up kind of
chopping it down to a lotshorter.
But I'm hoping to get there.
Very cool, I know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So what do you think makes your horror flavor unique?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
What makes it turn um for me it's I play on the more
emotional side of things thathappen to people that make them
do the things they do, asopposed to just, hey, we're just
, you know, we're just blood,guts and gore.
There's a reason behind it, anda lot of times I have to tap
into a lot of things insidemyself to get there.
(25:19):
The idea kind of comes fromwherever it comes from, but as
I'm writing it, sometimes I haveto tap into things you know
inside myself to make it realfor me why this person would do
what they do.
You know real for me why thisperson would do what they do,
you know, and I think that'skind of what makes what I'm
writing a little more unique.
It's just more it comes frommore of an emotional place than
(25:42):
just, uh, just people doinghorrible things for no reason
yeah, well, I mean, but isn'tthat, isn't that kind of the
core of horror?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
anyways, at some point, it's just being like
people are going to be awful andsometimes they just do it for
for being, for for reasons to beawful.
Like it doesn't there?
There is no, there's no logicbehind it, because logic, you
know, says, you know, theaverage person is a is a
functional, logical human being,the average person.
And so like we always writeabout the people who are not you
(26:19):
know, and sometimes we see whatthey do in the pursuit of
science or the pursuit ofknowledge or the pursuit of
wealth, like the horrible thingswe do to each other.
Um, you know, and horror tapsinto that.
You, that's.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
That's something that's unique well, more or less
, for me it's uh, the thing thatit's the catalyst is for really
no reason whatever.
Somebody did something tosomebody or something happened
to somebody, and that's why theydo what they do and they might,
(26:54):
they may take it, you know,further than they should have
taken it, obviously, but, um,that's just, that's just kind of
how I, how I write, I guessjust more from an emotional
place, but, um, you know, it'snot really I, I guess a new, new
, uh, unique perspective, butit's just kind of where where I
(27:14):
draw everything from.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
So, yeah, do you think, um, do you think there's
gotta be like a lot of good in ahorror story for there to be a
lot of bad?
Like we're watching these stuff, like I I think there's cause,
there can't be one without theother, right, and I mean so
whenever I'm watching like ahorror movie, it's always at the
(27:37):
beginning, or when you'rereading a horror book, where
it's where, it's always at thebeginning.
Here's the picturesque liferight or as close to picturesque
, as can be for the charactersand then, you know, then comes
the big bad, then comes thescary.
That really upends all of thatyou know and just kind of turns
everything on its head.
Yes, I think one really goodall of that you know, and just
kind of turns everything on itshead.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yes, I think one really good example of that as
far as the book and the movie,but it's Pet Cemetery, because
when you see the movie, thisfamily they pull up, it's this
gorgeous home and it's, you know, everything's sunshine.
But obviously we know wherethat goes, so it doesn't end
well for anyone.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, but the lesson there in Pet Sematary is awesome
, right?
I mean, it's a few lessons inthere and one of them, you know,
is be careful what you wish for, right.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, it's kind of like that.
It's always like that.
I don't know if it's a meme orpop culture or whatever, but
whenever people get a genie andthey ask for something and they
give them that literal thinginstead of what they thought
they wanted.
You know?
and you know kind of thattrickery involved there.
That's what it.
Yeah, I mean that's.
I think there's gotta be good.
(28:47):
There has to be.
There has to be some sort ofgood that we can all reflect on
and be like, yeah, that's howthings should be for the
character.
Let's see how things gosideways.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely yeah.
Did you see the sequel, the PetSematary sequel, not the remake
but the I watched.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So of the remake, the part two of the remake part two
, no, just part two.
Yeah, the from from way backnight edward, no, no, no, I
didn't oh so well, tell me aboutit okay, so when that at the
time when that movie came out.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Pen cemetery was my absolute favorite stephen king,
you know, book, movie, whateverand I was so excited when it was
getting a sequel.
Edward Furlong's in it.
Who else is in it?
Clancy Brown is in it justbeing Clancy Brown's best, and I
can't remember.
It's a few other people thatare in it that have been in
(29:55):
other things, but it'sridiculous.
It's very mean-spirited.
It makes no sense.
They don't really follow any ofthe actual rules from the
original story.
It's kind of like yes, we'rejust going to bury people and
bring them back and see whatgoes.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
So I always judge King's stuff based on um
different levels of cocainebinge where he's at Um, and so I
think um, I think for PetSematary he had to be like right
before you know where.
Things are still kind of lividfor him, you know, still kind of
vivid for him, so he's but umpet cemetery.
(30:41):
What I thought was interestingabout is that it will also wove
in the lore of the wendigo yeahand that's a huge um, a huge
cryptid monster, whatever fromfrom history, um, and and
honestly it's the inspirationbehind my logo is the Wendigo,
and I love anything to do withit, and so I thought, when I
(31:04):
first read it and I watched themovie, I thought there would be
even more of an emphasis on theWendigo being there, being
present and the things itrepresented, and it just seemed
like just a footnote kind oflike when Stephen King wrote
about it and he's like when youwrote it and the universe is
some on the back of some giantturtle and it's taking a shit
(31:28):
and that's how it created theearth.
It's just kind of wild.
If you get an opportunity I'mbutchering it, but it's out
there.
I mean as far as.
So that's like peak cocainebinge when he's talking about
the giant floating turtle andthat's how the universe is where
the deadlights and all that.
But yeah, it's gosh the lore,so lore.
(31:52):
We're talking about.
Lore, talking about things thatare you know just stuff in life,
that's, you know, stuff that wewrite about.
It's got to be rooted somewhere, right?
Either we create it or it'srooted on a belief or an idea,
like if you, you know, becareful what you wish for, or
you know how, about you don'teat your friends, you know, like
(32:12):
that sort of thing, right, Imean, how far were you willing
to go so like, is there anythingin particular that you're like?
Man, this thing needs a horrorstory.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It just hasn't been written yet oh wow, I can't
think of anything.
I feel like if I dug deep,maybe I feel like people have
touched on almost everythingthat I can think of.
I don't know.
Maybe people have touched onalmost everything to that I can
think of, um, I don't know,maybe, uh, mothman has been done
(32:42):
, but I think more Mothman wouldbe be fun.
More.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Mothman More creatures.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But he's kind of like comical right, like kind of
like yeah just kind of yeah,which to me you can really do it
very tongue-in-cheek, very kindof.
You know it is kind of comical,but you can kind of I don't
know go another way with it.
Maybe.
I don't know.
That's kind of a hard onebecause I can't think of
anything much that hasn't beenfor me, that I know of, that
(33:13):
hasn't been touched on.
As far as lore, and a lot ofit's been done well.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Every story's already been told right.
And that's the thing we've gotto remember too is that every
story's already been told it's.
How many different ways can wetell it and can we still be
respectful to it but at the sametime, maybe give it our own
flair, give it our own twist,and that sort of thing?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, so very cool.
So, shannon, just do me a favor.
You know this is.
This is the time, the shamelessplug time.
Let's tell, tell everybodywhere they can find you and
where you want them to go to getan introduction to you and your
writing and, if they like, whoyou are, and let them know where
they can go to find more ofyour stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Okay, Just everything I have.
Everything I've written is onGodless Godlesscom.
Under my name, Shannon Bradner,I have a short story in the
Scorned Anthology.
You can find it on Amazon underBainham Books Press.
And as far as my socials go, amanic pixie bookworm on
(34:20):
instagram and just shannonbradner on facebook.
That's all the socials that Ihave.
So perfect.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, well, I'll make sure I get all those links in
the description.
Um, I appreciate you coming on,shannon, and sharing a little
bit about yourself and and whatyou're up to and the things that
you find interesting.
You seem pretty level-headed,considering you're a horror
writer, so that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
That's always fun to notice is that we are the most
average people, I believe yes,uh, it was so funny because a
lot of people that, uh, that Iwork with some know, I write,
you know, do you think do thatand some don't.
But um, when it comes out, youknow, they first thing they ask
what kind of stuff do you writeand that?
And some don't.
But um, when it comes out, youknow, they first thing they ask
what kind of stuff do you write?
And you're like, of course,horror stuff and you're like
(35:03):
yeah, exactly.
And this guy looked at me.
He says oh, your mind workslike that.
And yeah, you know, yes, itdoes.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Sorry, yes, it does no apologies needed yeah, cool.
Well, Shannon, thank you forjoining me tonight.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, and it was a pleasure to get to know you and
I hope to see you continually inthe space.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Absolutely for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Wait, can't wait to see what you come up with.
All right, y'all.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
This has been the NightmareEngine podcast episode,
something on Friday, march 7th,with Miss Shadden Bradner, so
thank you so much to her forjumping on and checking in from
Virginia and sharing a littlebit about her life and what
she's done and her writing andher joys for us.
(35:50):
So, ladies and gentlemen, thankyou for joining me again for
another week and I look forwardto speaking with you once more.
That's it, goodbye.
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