Our First Fears

Episode 19 – Author Eliot Schrefer joins us to talk about James Cameron’s 1986 action/ horror classic, Aliens, which is the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien from 1979. We get into themes of motherhood, survival, isolation, and kick-ass female action heroes, as well as how, as kids, we reacted to the grotesque images of body horror on screen, and then, how we asked questions about what, and who, is a monster. Eliot is a two time finalist for the National Book Award for his great ape quartet, as well as an ALA Printz honor recipient for Queer Ducks (And Other Animals). His recent novels, The Darkness Outside Us and The Brightness Between Us, are available now. Find his many, many books now at your favorite local bookshop. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials - @danpoblox on Instagram and @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. https://www.danpoblocki.com/

On episode 18 of Our First Fears, NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, Daniel Kraus joins me in a conversation about Fangoria Magazine – the tentpole horror movie publication that debuted in the late 1970s and quickly became a shocking staple on magazine stands and in bookshops due to the gory horror makeup effects and grody titles displayed on its covers. Daniel Kraus is the co-creator of The Shape of Water with Guillermo Del Toro, the co-author of The Living Dead with George A. Romero, and the author of the Bram Stoker Award winner They Stole Our Hearts, part two of his eery middle-grade Teddies Saga trilogy. Daniel’s recent book, Whalefall, has been making big waves. Thrilling, grotesque, and heart-punching, it’s a science-based story about a young scuba diver who is swallowed by a whale, and what he must do if he hopes to escape. You’re gonna wanna read this one. Trust me. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: language, talk about gory magazine covers, and intense make-up effect images)

On episode 17, WE ARE BACK . . . this time, chatting with writer and horror podcast-rock-star, Neil McRobert about a movie that made him cry when he was just a wee lad - James Cameron’s 1984 science-fiction classic, The Terminator. Our conversation runs from ideas of cyborg body horror, to the trope of the unkillable thing that chases you, relentlessly. We poke around in notions of how time-travel stories work (or don't), fiction writers as prophets, and the existential terror I feel when I think too hard about the philosophy behind simulation theory. But we have fun too! I promise! You can listen to Neil as he interviews horror-lit luminaries every week on his podcast, “Talking Scared,” where he’s spoken to everyone from Tananarive Due and Margaret Atwood, to Stephen King and Stephen Graham Jones. His writings about horror can also be found in Esquire, The Guardian, Elle, and Slate. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: body horror, existential dread, the end of the world, war, adult language)

On episode 16 of Our First Fears, NY Times bestseller, Tracey Baptiste reveals the map of her childhood village where her friends and family banded together to protect themselves from jumbies, the creepy creatures that haunt the Caribbean nation, Trinidad and Tobago, in the dark of night. We discuss the secret things that hide inside the stories we write, how tales of monsters help keep people in line and also reveal our biases, and how we writers’ trickster-like powers allow us to dare audiences to fill-in blanks and answer their own questions. Tracey’s work encompasses many novels and non-fiction books for both young and adult readers. Her titles include The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God’s Revenge, as well as the NY Times Bestseller, Minecraft: The Crash. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: I literally have nothing to warn you about this time around. Enjoy!)

On today’s episode, author Sara Farizan chats with me about the 1982 cult film Halloween III: Season of the Witch. We also tie the film’s themes pretty tightly to her recent YA horror novel, Dead Flip, which is set in the late 80s and early 90s and revolves around a possibly haunted pinball machine. We get into the pop-culture of cursed objects and cursed capitalism, how nostalgia can be used for both good and evil, why certain story-tellers of the past might have gotten burned out, and finally, how we, as working writers, try to stop that from happening with our own creative practices. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: haunted masks, fear of snakes and insects, fantasy violence, and harm to children.)

On episode 14 of Our First Fears, author and illustrator, Derrick Chow joins me in appreciation of the genius and creativity of beloved actress Shelley Duvall’s possibly-accidentally-terrifying television show from the 1980s, Faerie Tale Theatre. Together, we explore the connection between slasher-film final girls and faerie tale heroines, what makes a great faerie tale villain, and whether or not these old stories might have been a prototype for modern psychological analysis and therapy. Derrick’s debut middle-grade novel, Ravenous Things, is a twisted modern retelling of the Pied Piper legend and poem, set in the underground of Toronto, Canada, and it is available now at your local bookshops and libraries. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: grief, loss of parents, and faerie tale adults behaving immaturely)

We’ve reached lucky episode 13 of Our First Fears, and today, I get to talk with author Russell Ginns, or R. U. Ginns, about the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Together, we dig into how artists use elements of unease to create a sense of paranoia for their audiences. We talk zombies versus pod-people, cults of the 1970s, how much we love actress Veronica Cartwright, and finally, we discuss what many consider to be one of the most chilling endings of any horror film EVER and how it earns that distinction. R. U. Ginns’s latest collection of scary and funny tales is called 1-2-3 Scream!, and it is available now at your local bookshops and libraries. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: mention of suicide, cults, violence, and a little chatting about the film's brief nudity)

Episode 12 of Our First Fears is a conversation with Bram Stoker Award finalist Ally Malinenko about Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and several other classic terrors. We talk about unreliable narrators, teaching horror to kids in classrooms, childhood perception of time, and what truly lies behind Poe’s “pale blue eye,” as well as his Raven’s refrain of “nevermore.” We get personal here with our own experiences of writing through stress, anxiety, and physical illness, and how scary story-telling can be a kind of balm, not only for us, but also for our audiences. Ally Malinenko is the author of the middle grade novels, Ghost Girl and This Appearing House. Both are available now at your favorite local bookshops and libraries. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: murder, mental illness, anxiety, depression, cancer, and questions of mortality)

On episode 11 of Our First Fears, Pushcart Award nominee, Joe Vallese shows me the path beyond Stephen King's Pet Sematary and up into the haunted hills where the buried-dead have a tendency to rise and wreak havoc on the living. Together, we explore how certain aspects of stories that frightened our childhood-selves can end up being quite different from what gets to us as grown-ups. We talk unreliable narrators and characters, whether or not too much research might be a bad thing for writers, and how, and at what age, we humans begin to process our own mortality. Joe’s anthology, It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, is chock-full of interesting ideas about scary movies and queer themes, and it is available now at your local bookshops and libraries. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content warning: death, mortality, illness, violence, harm to animals and children)

On episode 10 of Our First Fears, debut novelist and creator of monsters, Trevor Henderson and I head to the rear section of the video rental stores of our youths to paw through some of our favorite, and freakiest, VHS horror movie cover art. Specifically, Street Trash, Zombie, The Stuff, The Gate, Suspiria, Alligator, and Fright Night. We talk about what these poster images have in common, about the artists who made them, and what about them scared us so badly. We get into the “melt-movie” subgenre, how modern fears spread in a post video-store world, and how fun it was to discover gateway horror titles at our school book fairs. Trevor’s first novel, Scarewaves, is filled with his trademark, nightmare-inducing monsters. It’s being published by Scholastic. Arriving on shelves, October 3rd, 2023. Ask your favorite bookshop to reserve you a copy! Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content Warnings: We talk about some R-rated exploitation & B-grade horror films from the 70s and 80s. There’s mention of violence, harm to kids, melting bodies, death and other totally grody stuff. Use discretion.)

On episode 9 of Our First Fears, Bram Stoker Award Finalist, Lora Senf and I explore childhood memories of our early love for John Bellairs’s classic novel, The House With a Clock in its Walls, how this book inspired us to tell our own kinds of stories, why Bellairs’s work has sparked a modern cult following, and how writing horror - for kids in particular - is a powerful kind of magic. Lora’s first book, The Clackity, is a must for kids and adults, both, who like their scares with heaps of heart and hope. That first one is available now in paperback, and its sequel, The Nighthouse Keeper, comes out on October 17th, 2023. You won't want to miss it! I promise. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X.

Today, rockstar author Lamar Giles joins me to explore one of the most notorious neighborhoods in all of horror cinema. Elm Street! With this episode, we've begun Our First Fears's first discussion of Wes Craven's classic film series, but with the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Wait . . . What? We talk about how we both came to discover the lore of Freddy Krueger long after the first film came out, about the horrors of working in video rental shops, and about what it means to have a supportive crew while navigating difficult aspects of adolescence. Lamar’s expertise about these films makes this chat an absolute necessary listen for any true fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Seriously. The man knows his finger-blades. Lamar Giles’s highly acclaimed work includes the novels The Getaway, Not So Pure and Simple, Spin, Overturned, Endangered, Fake ID, the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County series, as well as Epic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp (NOT Cosmic Camp, as I incorrectly call it in the intro) and finally, the upcoming graphic novel Static: Up All Night from DC Comics, with art by Paris Alleyne. Go buy all of his books at your favorite local bookshop, like, right now! Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials: @danpoblox on Instagram @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. (Content Warning: This episode mentions self-harm and suicide.)

Have you heard of Ophidiophobia? The fear of snakes? Tough-guy action hero, Indiana Jones had it, and so does my wonderfully funny friend, author Elizabeth Eulberg, who is more scared of snakes than anyone I’ve ever met. Throughout her life, she’s somehow managed to continuously encounter dangerous snakes in places where they’re not supposed to be. And yet, she survives still! Thankfully. In Episode 7 of Our First Fears, Elizabeth and I discuss the shocking horrors of the first two Indiana Jones films (but especially Temple Of Doom) before touching on the poems of Shel Silverstein, city tourist photo ops with giant pet pythons, Hollywood’s implementation of the first PG-13 rating, Steven Spielberg’s talent for using children to tell frightening tales, how writing might manifest our fears into reality, and the power of ANTI-SSSSS-IPATION. Elizabeth Eulberg’s most recent book series is called Scared Silly. The first, Curses Are the Worst, is available now, with Zombie Wedding Crashers coming in mid-September 2023. Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials - @danpoblox on Instagram and @danpoblocki on Twitter/X.

In Episode 6 of Our First Fears, novelist and illustrator Ethan M. Aldridge shares their own personal tales of growing up in a supposedly haunted house in Utah. And I chime in with some stories about my own experiences as a haunted pre-teen in north-central New Jersey. We talk about ghosts as metaphor, visit some familiar haunted tropes from favorite fantastical fiction and film, as well as how and why we both ended up connecting so deeply to the horror genre, and hauntings in particular. This one gets kinda personal, and Ethan was generous enough to go there with me. Ethan M. Alrdridge’s best-selling work includes the graphic novels Estranged, Estranged 2: The Changeling King, The Legend of Bright Blade, and most recently, the illustrated gothic novel, Deephaven, about a teen who comes to a mysterious boarding school only to learn that the place is chock-full of the darkest hallways, and secrets, imaginable. Find all their books now at your favorite local bookshop! Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials - @danpoblox on Instagram and @danpoblocki on Twitter/X. Thanks!

In Episode 5 of Our First Fears, designer and bestselling author/ illustrator Jay Cooper takes us on a tour of his night-terrors, which leads us down some dark paths of 1970s and 80s children’s entertainment. He takes us through the magic of Smurf-land, into a Labyrinth haunted by David Bowie’s goblins, past the island where Maurice Sendak spent time with his Wild Things, and into Jay’s own office studio where he once welcomed stress-induced shingles as a result of trying to impress his collaborator and pal, author Maureen Johnson. It’s a Gen X phantasmagoria, and you won’t want to miss it! Some of Jay’s work includes Styx and Scones, The Last Comics on Earth, and Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, all of which are available now at your favorite local bookshop. (Please use discretion if listening to this podcast with young folk – there’s one bloody story in which a puppy is *rudely* murdered, but it’s like, only 30 seconds and easily skippable...) Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

In Episode 4 of Our First Fears, No. 1 New York Times Bestselling author Libba Bray takes my hand to ring the doorbell of the Bramford Apartments in New York City, where Rosemary Woodhouse lives with her husband Guy and, possibly, a cabal of evil cultists, in Roman Polanski’s 1968 film, Rosemary’s Baby. Our chat ranges from recent US supreme court decisions, to the cultural impact this film had over the following decades, from witch hunts, to satanic-panic, and the repetition of atrocities against women throughout history, as well as the pervasiveness and popularity of the “religious horror” sub-genre, and finally, how New York City, as a character, so often inspires terror. Fun stuff, right? I promise it’s a good one! (Please use your own discretion if listening to this episode with young folk.) Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

In Episode 3 of Our First Fears, animator and author Rob Renzetti digs with me through the very old graves of Tod Browning’s Dracula and James Whale’s Frankenstein, both from Universal Pictures in 1931. We revisit our introductions to these classic characters when we were kids. We examine how both films have been reinvented and their horrors possibly defanged over the past 90 years by their omnipresence in pop-culture. And we tie connections (both conscious and unconscious) to Rob’s brand new book: The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things. It’s available now from Penguin Workshop, with the second book in the trilogy arriving in January, 2024. (This episode can be listened to by all ages.) Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

Episode 2 of Our First Fears is a conversation with prolific novelist and anthologist Ellen Oh, who is also one of the co-founders of We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), a non-profit dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusivity in children’s literature. Ellen’s first fears were introduced by her parents, who took her to horror movies at a VERY young age and then told creepy legends about spirits who might eat her face! We get into zombie movies and the evils that billionaires do and we also talk about Ellen’s latest book: Haru, Zombie Dog Hero. (This episode can be listened to by all ages.) Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

For the first outing of Our First Fears, I’m talking with author Anica Mrose Rissi about one of the pillars of horror fiction for kids: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. This collection of American folk-tales has been so impactful since its first publication in 1981—so creepy for the generations who continue to discover it—that Anica and I each ended up recently writing our own collections of scary tales, reaching for what Schwartz and Gammell accomplished way back when. Anica’s book is called Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories, now in paperback from Quill Tree Books. And mine is Tales to Keep You Up at Night, with MORE Tales to Keep You Up at Night coming out on August 15, 2023 from Penguin Workshop. Join us for an exploration of Schwartz's story-telling techniques and Gammell's illustrated nightmare landscapes, both of which made this book one of the most challenged, and terrifying, of all time. (This episode can be listened to by all ages.) Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.