Kat Dunn on Haunted Houses, Hamlet and Writing in the Dark

Good Grieving, Spooky Readers. For the very first episode of the Ghost & Quill podcast, Marlene summons the brilliant Kat Dunn — author of Bitterthorn, Hungerstone, and her spellbinding new gothic novel Rottenheart, a gender-swapped reimagining of Hamlet.Together they wander through Kat's earliest stories (a girl, a land of chocolate, a beginning, a middle and an end), how a part-time goth found her way to horror, and the long battle to silence the inner critic and write the haunted house books she was desperate to read. Along the way: teenage Hamlet and who is allowed to suffer, why writing villains means looking your own worst self in the eye, the emotional toll of living inside two very different narrators, Victorian ghost stories churned out to pay the rent, lucid dreams, a showdown with Jigsaw, and the eternal mystery of why nobody ever gives up their secondhand horror books.Whether you believe in ghosts or simply suspect your brain is a badly organised machine, pull up a chair by the fire. The nightlight stays on for this one.Rottenheart by Kat Dunn is available now from Ghost & Quill — Scotland's first horror-themed bookshop. www.ghostandquill.co.ukStay Spooky,Marlene