Jeremy Wagner: The Drug, The Detective, and The Meat Grinder

Death metal guitarist, horror novelist, and accidental publisher Jeremy Wagner joins The Dark Mind Podcast to discuss his savage new novel Wretch.Set in Chicago during the hottest summer on record, Wretch follows three men on a collision course: a hard-boiled detective tracking a killer who should not exist, a mob boss running on grief and vengeance, and Derek Hoffman, a steroid-abusing sociopath whose body and mind have been rewritten by an experimental drug called LIBIDONAL.Wagner breaks down how a real person he knew in the 1990s planted the seed for Derek Hoffman.He talks about his own experience as a human guinea pig in a pharmaceutical research program and how it inspired the Big Pharma horror at the heart of the story.He explains why he spent months interviewing a retired Chicago police detective and doing ride-alongs to get the psychology of law enforcement exactly right.He discusses why even the most monstrous characters in the book needed layers, backstory, and something worth losing.He reveals the one scene in the book that he knew would be misread as pure shock value, and why it was never written that way.Wagner also talks about becoming an accidental publisher with Dead Sky Publishing, what horror fiction needs more of right now, and why Broken Hope lyrics were always micro horror stories long before the novels began.Wretch is available now wherever books are sold.LINKS:Websitehttps://jeremyxwagner.comInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/jeremyxwagnerFacebookhttps://www.facebook.com/JeremyWagnerOfficialX (Twitter)https://x.com/JeremyXWagnerGoodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3145526.Jeremy_WagnerIMDbhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm7990420WRETCH - WHERE TO BUYDead Sky Publishinghttps://deadskypublishing.comAmazonhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/1639511326Barnes and Noblehttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wretch-jeremy-wagner/1143024616Bookshop.orghttps://bookshop.org/p/books/wretch-jeremy-wagner/de816042391431e5MUSIC - STREAM AND LISTENBroken Hope on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/7yFcBZceMVuvIoTnZXprFdBroken Hope on Apple Musichttps://music.apple.com/us/artist/broken-hope/74969262Earthburner on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/7fqhfpH3XM8547KokH7tZmDEAD SKY PUBLISHINGWebsitehttps://deadskypublishing.comX (Twitter)https://x.com/DeadSkyPubSubstackhttps://substack.com/@deadskypublishingBROKEN HOPEWebsitehttps://brokenhope.comEARTHBURNERWebsitehttps://earthburner.comSupport The Dark Mind Podcasthttps://www.patreon.com/c/thedarkmindpodcast