Into the Obscuradrome 11/13/25
Welcome back to the Obscuradrome. I'm Bob Pastorella, co-host of the This Is Horror podcast, author of The Small Hours, co-author of They're Watching with Michael David Wilson, and Mojo Rising, which is out of print as of this writing. This is my newsletter, housed now at my website powered by Ghost.
Writing With Your Whole Chest
Mentioned in one of my recent journal entries, and inspired by a recent conversation with Clay McLeod Chapman, I've been very curious how much confidence factors when writing fiction. Writers must be a confident bunch from the get go. It takes a lot to overcome the mostly irrational fear of actually writing a story. So many people out there have the imagination to put a story on the page, but the reality is most people don't have the confidence to actually do it. They're afraid of so many unknowns ...
What if it sucks?
What if someone else wrote it better?
What if I can't get it published?
Not every story is going to make it to publication. Hey, that's the rules, don't get mad at me. You won't know if it sucks until you actually write it. Ideas cannot be legally protected, so yes, you can write a story about an alien who gains superpowers from our sun, you just can't call it Superman or have any characters that even resemble characters from Superman. Of course, you probably wouldn't want to write a story based off this idea, but you do you, show us what you got.
Anyway, it takes some real spine to commit to the page and write the story. That's one form of confidence, but I'm going to assume you've got that in abundance.
The other kind of confidence is about pulling those wild-ass ideas out of thin air, putting them on the page, and fully committing to making them work. Take Clive Barker's Weaveworld. This fantasy novel features a world trapped in a carpet. What the actual fuck? It works because Barker's world-building is top-tier, and he knows how to give us compelling characters, and knows how to raise the stakes. He put his whole damn chest into the story and produced something that is considered a classic in the genre.
Science-Fiction and Fantasy seems to work from this angle spectacularly. You have to be pretty confident to create an entire world from scratch. Nathan Ballingrud is weaving tales that mix horror, science-fiction, and fantasy and that takes some serious spine to make all of those element work together. On a recent podcast interview, Nathan said "I don't let any fear of realism get in the way of the idea." As much as realism can sharpen the edge of a story, sometimes it can hinder the more fantastical elements, and when you're working in a speculative genre, that's probably the last thing you need. Going back to Clive Barker, he has famously said to "make it all up" because there really are no rules.
This is the main thrust of writing fearlessly.
Go into your fictional worlds confidently, with your whole chest. Push boundaries, and don't let realism place a roadblock in front of your fantastical ideas.
What I've been reading/watching/playing ...
Currently reading We Are Always Tender With Our Dead by Eric Larocca, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi, and I'm still re-reading Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez.
Playing: Ghost of Yōtei, which is fantastic, perhaps one of the best games I've played in a while.
Watching: The Lowdown, which is quirky crime and I'm so ready for a series like this it's not even funny.
I recently watched del Toro's Frankenstein, which was excellent. I wouldn't necessarily call it horror, but it's definitely Gothic with a capital G and Gory with a capital G.
My splatterpunk vampire novel debut, The Small Hours is out now. Southeast Texas Backyard Noir meets small town Urban Dread. It's funny, it's horny, and it's so, so bloody. Think Fright Night meets Suicide Kings and you're on the right track. A playful and gory spin on a vampire classic.
Get it at the Ghoulish website
If you've read it, please leave a review.
That's all for now.
peace&love