Christina Henry on Writing 19 Horror Novels by Hand, Bad Reviews & the Book That Changed Her Career
Talking HorrorShow Notes
In this episode of Talking Horror, Rachel Redd sits down with national bestselling author Christina Henry, writer of nearly 20 books spanning urban fantasy, dark fairy tale retellings, and modern horror, including Near the Bone, The House That Horror Built, and The Place Where They Buried Your Heart. Her upcoming novel Pinfeathers drops this November.
Grab your copy of The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: https://amzn.to/4vbTAQG
Christina opens up about writing her first novel longhand in a notebook at age 12, why she still writes every single book by hand, and the discovery-based process that lets her pants her way through nearly two decades of publishing without ever plotting. We dig into her Gen X horror origin story (Ouija boards, slumber party slashers, and a Freddy Krueger fear that genuinely haunted her) and what eventually shifted horror from scary to fascinating. Christina also gets into why she fought hard not to be typecast as "the retellings girl," how a Guillermo del Toro interview sparked The House That Horror Built, the single image of a house where three boys went in and two came out that became The Place Where They Buried Your Heart, and the tiny black needle appearing under a baby's arm that started Pinfeathers. Plus: the best piece of advice she ever got about bad reviews, what it was like to get a three-book deal while her toddler climbed a slide at Gymboree, and why she's patiently waiting for the right zombie novel idea to arrive.
Timestamps: 00:01 – Welcome to Talking Horror & Meeting Christina Henry 04:21 – Starting in Urban Fantasy: Black Wings 05:17 – A Gen X Girl's Horror Origin Story 11:59 – Writing Every Book by Hand: The Process Explained 14:45 – Pantsing 19 Novels: How Her Brain Works on Simmer 18:14 – The Road to Publication: Writing Black Wings During Nap Time 22:18 – Three Editors, Same Publisher: 16 Years with Ace/Berkley 25:32 – The Urban Fantasy Boom and Bust 26:24 – Writing Alice and Changing Her Own Career 27:23 – Jumping Genres and Writing for Herself 29:02 – Don't Do It If You Don't Love It 30:20 – Why Bad Reviews Aren't Really About Your Book 36:04 – From Retellings to Horror: Not Wanting to Be Typecast 42:23 – The Real Horror: Vulnerability and Poverty 44:15 – Building Dread Without Jump Scares 46:31 – When the House Is the Villain 47:25 – The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: Moving from Forest to Buildings 54:27 – Pinfeathers: Coming November 55:15 – A Baby, a Pin Feather, and Body Horror 58:47 – Juggling Multiple Books at Once 59:46 – What Comes After Pinfeathers: Dark Humor Returns
Grab your copy of The Place Where They Buried Your Heart: https://amzn.to/4vbTAQG
Connect with Christina Henry: Website: https://www.christinahenry.net/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorchristinahenry/
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