Hello listeners, welcome back to Macabre Monday’s Meet The Maniac.
I'm your host,
, aka Maya, and today I'm joined by our maniac, Mr. , author of the tech noir series “Duel”, amongst other notable stories. Scoot is a Catholic writer on Substack, boasting several newsletters, namely the Peasant Times Dispatch, Gibberish, Stained Glass Catechism, and Bima Sakti. Did I pronounce that right?Yeah, that's a collaboration with
. It's a, I'm sorry, Michael, if I've mispronounced your name. It's apparently the Indonesian word for the Milky Way.
So Scoot, you are a man shrouded in much mystery—I'd say. So why don't we suspend some of that with a proper introduction from you?
All right. Hi, I'm Scoot. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what else to say besides what you said. I write a bunch of things. I don't write a lot of things. And I'm kind of new to the Macabre Monday crew. Kind of, I didn't, I didn't feel right kind of putting my name in the hat for the lottery until I started like writing something scary. So, and it's, it's funny because like, I'm afraid of, or I'm not, I don't handle it very well. So I don't know. I don't, I don't know what else to say. I'm a human being. I have a, like an actual face. That's not like a heart in a Betsy Ross flag. And that's, I don't know. I've already figured it. I've already lost words. So there you go.
Don't worry. I'll have enough room, enough of them for the both of us.
All right.
I'm a chatterbox. So how did you get started on Substack?
So the, the Catholic endeavors were really the first ones. I was on WordPress for a while and Substack kept popping up. People kept on talking about it and there it would like, so in such and such writer is talking about this on Substack. And I was like, all right, let me, let me explore it. Let me check it out. Maybe kind of see what kind of trouble I can get into.
So Peasant Times Dispatch was kind of the first venture. And Substack makes it so easy to like go paid to like feel legitimate. Like, I don't know. WordPress feels like a blog and Substack feels like a professional newsletter. So like the idea was that I was going to start professionalizing my writing and you know, try to see what kind of an audience there is for it.
The fiction side of the house actually came. So Gibberish was originally supposed to be a language newsletter. It was because like I was getting into conlanging and like wanted to do more with that. But I just didn't have the time. And I, I started it, you know, I think a couple months after I started the Peasant Times Dispatch did nothing with it. So then January of 23, I rebooted it. I was like, I'm going to post fiction. I was trying to put fiction on Peasant Times Dispatch. And I just, it didn't fit with everything else that was there. So I was like, all right, let's separate it. Let's have fun with it. And the rest is history. It was, it's been a lot of fun to play around with Gibberish and kind of experiment with things.
It's been a lot of fun reading what you have. You mentioned Conlang. Do you use a lot of those skills for the Bima Sakti newsletter?
That one's, that one has just started like a couple weeks ago or maybe a month ago. So eventually, maybe. But I definitely, I, I love what Tolkien did with his languages. And I love the depth that they, that it adds to worlds. I, I think about just the name of things a lot. And like, it doesn't take a lot of effort to go and either like back rationalize words.
So an example of what, of what I've done is last summer, I posted a longer story called Blood or Flood, which is set in Atlantis. And, you know, I didn't think, I wasn't thinking about like inventing a language for it, but afterwards I was just thinking about it and so I posted a couple world-building articles on like how I might approach building a language based on what I've already done without thinking about it for the story. And so I was able to like, you, you back rationalize things and then you could just, the language expands very organically once you get a couple of guardrails and then you just follow it a little bit.
So it, it added a lot of depth. And if I ever wanted to expand that story, now I've got some direction. I've got, you got to understand like history, culture, just kind of the way people think. And it, it, it kind of all flows naturally from there.
That's so interesting. Were you into conglang before you started writing fiction or?
Yes-ish. Well, it's funny because I was interested in language first and foremost. So my mom is from Canada, grew up hearing French all the time. Like I like to joke that I know how to scold myself in French. Like I don't actually know French.
So languages have always been really interesting to me. And I've done like a stint on Duolingo or two, just kind of exploring other languages. I took like, I took a weird combination of languages in school. Like in high school, I started with Latin, then switched to German for some reason. And then I took like a couple of years of Spanish in college. So like they all just kind of mixed together and it just, it was, it was interesting, but I didn't really unlock language. I didn't know how to understand them until I started looking into like constructing languages.
There's a website Zompist, I'll send a link to it. But it's, it really broke down, like what would, what are the steps that you would take to create a language? And it just kind of unlocked real languages for me. So then I was able to like, in trying to invent a language, I was understanding the grammar rules. And like, the minute constructions that go into understanding like real languages. So kind of both of them ascended together. And that was just really interesting to me.
That is interesting. It's interesting you started with Latin, because I feel like that's a key to so many languages. And it's so mathematical, the way that it's structured, I feel like.
Well, and that's one of the things that I've realized is that it's into, so I forget where I've talked about this, but like, there are people who will talk about being polyglots. And I'm not trying to like, insult polyglots of certain varieties. But like, if someone says that they speak seven different languages, but it's like Latin, French, Italian, German, English, you know, whatever, like, those are all Indo -European languages, they share more things in common than they have different.
But like, when you start looking into like, Austronesian languages, like Tagalog in the Philippines, Indonesian, you know, Vietnamese, things like that, like, you're getting into entirely different language, like an entirely different language family. The way words are formed is completely different. The way like, there are grammar structures that don't exist in English. So it's the closest thing that you can get almost to a truly alien language, because it doesn't have anything in common.
So like, when you find, if you were to encounter someone who like speaks, you know, languages in different language families altogether, then that's just, it's, it's, you have to break down the process and then relearn it from the ground up. So that that's something that's been really interesting for me to, like, approach without really understanding it.
Interesting take a direction that this podcast today that I didn’t expect, but here we are.
Language Monday.
Yes, exactly. So what got you into writing fiction, if you don't mind me changing the subject?
No, please. Fiction at all. I have always been a, like, imaginative person, I would say. I, I live a lot in my head. And so I think the, the, I can't remember the first fiction I ever tried to write. But I have always been just thinking of like, well, what if this and what if that and then just kind of expanding it, I would say, actually, this isn't necessarily like fiction related. But like, when I was in like, high school, there was a online game called Nation States that was run by the author Max Barry based on his book, Jennifer Government. And it allowed you to kind of like create a country and all this stuff. And then like, inevitably, people have like forums, and they would like roleplay their different countries, kind of like D & D, but international politics. And I like I dove deep into that. And I had a lot of fun with it. And so, like, that was kind of I kind of, I guess, that was backing into writing fiction by world building. And then I was able to take take that and then like, start doing it intentionally for writing fiction. And that was a lot of fun.
So I don't know, like, the first serial I wrote on Substack was Sandbox Earth. And that came out of a conversation that I had with my dad about just like, what would happen if aliens came to Earth and then didn't notice us and then they like fought each other and it's like, it's, it's an idea that really stuck with me. And it has just lived in my head for all this time. So writing on Gibberish is really the first time that I have like brought that out and been like, hey, like all of these ideas for my entire life that I've just been swimming around my brain, like, I'm spilling them out for everyone like here, check them out. Like I find them interesting. I hope everyone else does too. So far, so good, I think.
Oh, yeah, so far, so good. So far, so great. Oh, one of your top stories actually speaking of your fiction was Father and Son. I think that's your most popular on your website.
It is.
And for me, that's one of the most impactful stories that I read from you. And I think I've read quite a few of your, your stories.
Thank you.
I'd love to know about the process of writing that particular piece.
Well, that's a, it's funny you should ask that because so that's another one that has lived in my head for a long time. It actually started I drew like a picture at work one time I used to work at a, I don't know one of my first jobs when I was in college was as a bank teller. And so there was a lot of like downtime, I would have like these post-its, post-it notes and I would just draw on them and then I would like put them up like near my desk or whatev—whatever.
And so like I did so the father and son started as like just a drawing it was like a giant—a red giant sun and like a man and his son walking into the sunset and like the shadows and all that and it was really cool so like that was, that was the inception of the idea.
I knew I like I once I started fleshing it out. I, like I knew I wanted it to pack an emotional punch I knew. Generally, the beats that I wanted to hit. But I've tried writing this story maybe like three or four or five times. And it just was not coming together the way I wanted it to be. And so I ended up, I reached out to S.E. Reid and I was just like, listen, I’ve got this story that I’m working on, it is not working for me the way that I want it to. Like, what advice would you have for something like this. I don’t remember exactly how I phrased it, but and she, she mentioned this idea of like having refrains and so I don’t know if this is exactly what she had in mind or not, but the way that I took her advice is that like each character has like a line that they repeat and that is like for them. Like Adina, the woman who comes in, I’m here to protect him. But then she like changes who she’s protecting. I’m here to protect your son, not him. Like, spoilers for people that haven’t read it. Go read that.
So, like, I don’t know. Everyone has, had like a different line so it just clicked. And I was like okay, like I’m able to establish with these refrains the, what the, defining feature of each character is and so, like how they all relate to each other. And it made it all click. It all spilled out very, kind of, easily once I figured out like how to approach it in that way. So it was really interesting.
That is so interesting. So it was more musical, I guess, when you, the perspective.
Yeah.
Or poetic.
Yeah. yeah, it's not a, it's not a way of thinking about writing that I'm very familiar with. But it worked here because I, I needed to have something that connected the scenes in my head together. And so that served as like the, the, I don't know, stitching for it. Like it's, I had, I had these disconnected scenes. I had the beats, but I didn't know how to merge them together in a way that was like that, that made sense. And that kept that kind of emotional depth that I was like hoping for. And so this, like having these refrains against a different backdrop in each beat allowed me to see kind of how everything was going. And so it was, I guess that's how that worked.
But yeah, it's not something that I've, I've, it's not a way that I have thought about writing before. And so that was really, really good advice from S.E. Reid.
Fantastic. She's really great.
She helped me also with developmental editing for a longer piece and it blew my mind.
She knows her stuff.
She does.
It's like she does this professionally or something.
Another shout out to S.E. Reid on the podcast. Two times in a row. I wonder if we can keep this going. That'd be kind of funny.
You mentioned before that you don't write a lot of horror, don't like a lot of horror. And it's kind of funny because I wouldn't describe you as a horror writer, but one of the first earliest stories I think I read of yours was, was Powerless which was a sci-fi horror.
You did a great job with the Blackwater Entry. It's one of my favorites.
Thank you.
How did you come to write those? They seem very different than your usual style.
So it's, it is interesting because I, I, one of the things that I like to do with Gibberish is deliberately experiment with my writing. Like I know I have a natural inclination to science fiction, but like, you know, horror is completely outside of my element. So like, let me try. Like, I'm not losing anything by experimenting, and if I do a terrible job, I'll just never touch it again.
And so, so Powerless, actually, Bounty Hunt was, I think, the first attempt to really get something scary. Like, I wanted to capture the terror of running away from a relentless hunter. And, and Powerless kind of came out of that line of thought, whereas like, okay, like, how can I'm playing with tension, playing with like, the unknown. So I guess, man, I'm trying to think like, Powerless came out of like, I just decided to write something on the drive home one day. And so I, I just, I kind of cranked it out. And I knew generally kind of an idea. I think that one actually, did that one have a musical accompaniment? Some of them have like music that inspired me to write it. I'm trying to remember if that one did.
I don't remember if powerless did. I remember, for me, the audio for Powerless comes from Cole Noble's podcast.
Oh yeah.
So I can just hear the rumbling sound of the ship. But that's the only thing I remember about sound.
Okay, yeah. So I'm probably didn't have like a song for that one. But like, there's some, some of them had like, music that inspired me to, to kind of go for a mood, I guess.
The Blackwater entry, that one, I wanted to do something different. And I was like, trying to think like the original idea when you initially talked about Blackwater, like the first thing that I reached for was like, poor man trying to make ends meet, like trying to make a buck subscribes to this, like clinical trial. And then like, I didn't write it. And so I sat on it. And a lot of other people did, did like a similar kind of idea much better than I could have. So I didn't want to, I didn't want to kind of go in on, on that kind of thing. Then I was like, all right, well, what else would be kind of a unique thing to have in this idea? Cause like the, the, the, the concept that you've brought up here is fascinating to me. Like, and how everyone has been able to be so consistent, like attaching to the lore. Like it's, it's amazing what everyone has done. It's been really fantastic just to, to witness and to be a part of.
Oh yeah.
So yeah, I just like, it's very open-ended. And so I wanted to, to plug in and I wanted to do something, something different. So like, okay. Like somehow I ended up on like serial killer. I was like, oh, great. How am I going to write a serial killer? I don't know what it's like to be a serial killer.
So I decided not to write from the perspective of the serial killer. Like partly also, like, I think I mentioned this, like, like the thing that was difficult about that story for me was like, I did not want to get in the serial killer's head at all. I wanted to like, I wanted to avoid it for as long as possible. And I didn't want to like empathize. I didn't want to put myself or the reader in a perspective where they were like empathizing with a serial killer. So I, I didn't. So I, that's where like the Tracy Shields outside perspective came in. Like she was the MacGuffin to like explain what is happening to him. And then it was more kind of an illustrative perspective from Henry Prowse, the serial killer once he got into Blackwater. So, yeah. So I guess like I, I, I wanted to. I wanted to illustrate that he was deranged and I wanted to illustrate that he was like kind of scary, but I didn't want to, I don't know. I didn't want to make it over. I was just, I'm trying, I'm experimenting with ways to communicate ideas without actually saying them. And so it's like, it's a, it's a fun challenge. And so that's kind of how I approached Blackwater.
You did a fantastic job with it. I think by not showing and the limited perspective, it was, it was well done based on what you've said, do you think, what, if anything has writing horror taught you as a non-horror writer?
Oh man. What you reveal to the reader is, or I guess what I'm trying to think how to say it. Like what you do not reveal to the reader is as important as what you reveal to the reader. And I, so I'm writing something for the Wicked Writing Contest. And I'm like with the music theme and I'm, I'm kind of having a hard time with it. So I'm trying to like wrangle it a little bit. And like what I'm bringing to that anyway, is I'm trying to like, I'm trying to balance how much information to actually share so that I can maintain tension and leave the, like the reader simultaneously knowing what's going on and not having any clue so that it's, it.
An analogy that I like to come back to, is that writing any fiction, but especially kind of writing horror is kind of like telling a joke. Because if you say the punchline too early, then it ruins the entire thing. Like you want to build up this suspense of something. You want to build up this story, build up some expectation, and then you subvert it at the end. And it's like this, you can, in the last line, you can change an entire story. So figuring out how to maneuver that is very challenging and it's a lot of fun also.
What books have influenced your writing style?
Man, that's a good question. A lot of Asimov. So here's how I'll say it. I grew up on, or I guess I literally, literarily grew up on what I call the ABC ages of science fiction, Asimov, Bradbury, Clark, and Heinlein.
They all have very unique and different styles. I would say like Asimov, I really like his expansive universes, the interconnectedness of his stories. That was always really inspiring to me. Bradbury is very, I don't think esoteric is quite the right word, but he's like imaginative and almost mystical about his science fiction.
Arthur C. Clark, a master of the short story. He is someone who can like spend hundreds of words and then change the entire story in like the last minute. It's phenomenal. A recommendation for anyone interested in Arthur C. Clark stories. The short story Rescue Party is one of my favorites of all time.
And Robert Heinlein. Robert Heinlein is very philosophical. I really like how he weaves his philosophical ideas, whatever you think about them, into a science fiction context, into a story that actually makes sense. And I think that's really, really important.
So, yeah, I would say those are kind of the big influences on my writing.
Those are good. I'm writing down Rescue Party.
It's, you will not be disappointed.
So we talked a little bit about your horror stories, but what got you into Macabre Monday?
That's a good question. I think it's, it's, I am fascinated by horror. And not in like a, like, not as a fan, but as someone who like doesn't understand it. Like, there are so many wonderful writers on Substack who just do a phenomenal job writing scary stories. And, you know, horror is kind of an expansive term. There's a lot of like different sub genres and different facets to the whole idea.
So what I enjoy about it is just, the exposure to a lot of these different people. Being able to see and like kind of almost study, I mean, for lack of a better term, like different, there are different writing styles. And just coming to understand a, like a genre that is not my own. I'm primarily science fiction. Horror is not my thing. But it's really interesting just to see kind of how, how everyone, everyone writes and Macabre Monday is kind of the way to do that.
We talked about Macabre Mondays and you mentioned that it was a great way to get you introduced to other writers. Who on Substack are you reading these days?
Oh man. Okay. I was afraid you would ask this because like there's so many people and I am going to like, even like I have a little notepad here and I was like, who I read and then I didn't write anything.
already shouted her out. ’s Kindling. Her stories have been really fascinating for me because again, like, I'm not, not a horror reader or consumer by any stretch. But I like just, especially in the last interview, she talked about kind of her ethos behind writing stuff and like knowing that makes it so much more, so much more interesting to me. Because you can kind of like see the story behind the story. So I really love things like that.Gosh, who else? Keeping it on the spooky side of the equation.
of Halcyon Horror. She does, She does a really great job. With kind of like slow burn tension, at least in the, I haven't read everything that she's written, but I've read a couple stories and I really enjoy that.’s Wednesday Afternoon. Her Lost Circus. I don't know, I forget why I dove into that, but I had a ton of fun, like reading a story that is just. It was a. It's, it's, it's scary. It's kind of gross. It's a, she's still, she's still publishing so I need to catch up on it but that was just, that was a lot of fun to go through as someone who does not really enjoy the genre.Gosh. As far as other science fiction people. Michael Marpaung and his Germanicus. He's, he's got some really interesting ideas. And really interesting ways of like conveying those ideas. So that's why I like, it was a Sci Friday thing where he kind of suggested the Bima Sakti collaboration so having a lot of fun with that.
Writes also. He, I was really in, like when I started writing on, on Substack. I was very jealous of Redd Oscar's style like it's just he does action sequences very well and very imaginative so I really appreciate his writing and have gotten a lot out of it just by kind of. I don't know. Again, studying it. I'm studying everyone's writing so spoiler alert.
He does a great job, Both the short stories, long form, I don't know how he does it, and they're so different. They're so, always so interesting.
Yeah. So I guess that's, I'm going to talk for hours if I start listing everybody.
So, I want to plug your Substack side business, also, you're a narrator—a voice for hire.
Yes. So, if you are listening to this and you appreciate my voice. I can use this voice for your own nefarious ends. So, I don't know that's been that's been a fun kind of side thing. Like it was a
’s Authors and Embers where kind of that the idea of hanging a shingle kind of even came to be. And it's been it's been fun, it's it's a lot more challenging than I, than I realized like there's so much nuance to reading people's fiction.So if you want, like if anyone listening wants to like a taste of what I have produced so far, I think really the only thing that I have put out is
’s. Man, the Good Guys, which is—or the Good Guy, the Good Guys? The Good Guys, which is a like the Archangel Michael and Raphael interrogating a snake, which is was just a lot of fun to read. He's, Michael Atkinson is a very imaginative writer I enjoy his stuff as well.
He's a lot of fun to read.
Yeah.
So, what's next for Scoot? You're wrapping up Duel or you've written, you've wrapped up Duel? I think there's one more episode left?
One more episode, I have, By the time this publishes, if this publishes next Monday then I will have both written and published the final episode.
I gotta get on that, but I'm—
So exciting.
Yeah. So, that's going to be wrapping up here shortly.
The Selected Letters of Armin Talor. I'm really excited about that. The Slowburn kind of letter writing is, it's a fun experiment. That's experimenting with kind of the mediums more.
I've got a gibberish anthology coming soon, where I'm compiling the stories that I wrote in 2023.
has made an amazing cover for it. I'm so excited to get that out. I think I shared a version of it on notes, but so that's going to be just kind of a compendium of everything that I wrote for gibberish in 2023.And, oh man, what else? Gibberish writing competition, probably come in sometime Q1 24. So we'll see more announcements on that but yeah, that's honestly, once Duel is done I'm looking forward to being a reader again because it has been it's hard work getting a serial out and I've learned a lot from it, so it's been fun but exhausting.
It's been fun reading it. I'm sad that it's going to be over. All right, I think we're kind of wrapping up here I can't believe we managed to fit everything into 40 minutes that's—
Somehow we pulled it off.
It flew by though actually. Yeah, so then I guess to our readers we'll sign off here. Is there anything you want to leave our Macabre Monday listeners with?
keep doing Macabre Monday, like just what it is doing for the community is both important within the Substack ecosystem and just fun as a fiction community. So I think it's a great service, so it's great that there's so many people involved. Tell your friends, bring people from outside of Substack in to check out horror writers that are amazing, that are undiscovered in the popular mind so keep doing that. That's my, that's my PSA
Wonderful okay then, I guess we'll close off there. So thank you very much for coming and speaking with us today.
Thanks for having me.
Your Weekly Horror Digest
wrote a short story inspired by the pictures she took when arriving in Japan. What comes to mind when reading her story?That’s all I have for you this week! Check back in next Monday to return to the Cemetery.
Don’t forget about the Wicked Writing Contest! One month left!
Join the discussion on notes here on the Substack platform every Monday!
Stay Spooky.
If you are looking for people to follow on notes for Macabre Monday, check out all the people participating (updated list): John Ward Andrew Smith Carla Pettigrew John Coon Jon T The Chronicler Honeygloom Macey A. B. Frank Cole Noble Leigh Parrish Buck Weiss Jenovia S.E. Reid Edward Rooster Jessica Maison reinancruz Shaina Read Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ Michael S. Atkinson Maribel Jennifer Morrow Stirling S Newberry Susan Earlam Author Michele Bardsley Lauren Salas Daniel W. Davison Daniel O’Donnell Nicolina Torres Michael P. Marpaung Olivia St. Lewis L.L. Ford Joshua T Calkins-Treworgy EJ Trask Anna C. Webster Skyla Redd Oscar Alec Worley Hannah V Kelly-Sibley Kathrine Elaine Renee George The Man Behind the Screen Hamish Kavanagh Kay Moulton Chris Well Brian Martinez A.M. RadioMiguel S.sleightsofheartScootTravis BlakeC.J.’s SubstackJean Marie Bauhaus
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