Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: Joining us today is Brit Griffin to talk about her novel, the Haunting of Modesto O’Brien! Brit, tell us about your work!

Brit: A gothic tale from deep within the boreal forest…

Violence and greed have intruded into a wild and remote land. It’s 1907, and silver fever has drawn thousands of men into a fledgling mining camp in the heart of the wilderness. Modesto O’Brien, fortune-teller and detective, is there too – but he isn’t looking for riches. He’s seeking revenge.

O’Brien soon finds himself entangled with the mysterious Nail sisters, Lucy and Lily. On the run from their past and headed for trouble, Lily turns to O’Brien when Lucy goes missing. But what should have been a straightforward case of kidnapping pulls O’Brien into a world of ancient myths, magic, and male violence.

As he searches for Lucy, O’Brien fears that dark forces are emerging from the ravaged landscape. Mesmerized by a nightmarish creature stalking the wilderness, and haunted by his past, O’Brien struggles to maintain his grip on reality as he faces hard choices about loyalty, sacrifice, and revenge.

Rachel: The only thing cooler than a gothic is an eco-gothic. What inspired you to write this book?

Brit: The witnessing of a schoolyard act of violence – it stayed with me, bothered at me, kept me thinking about violence, spectacle, and the ability to stand up to bullies. To be able to finally work through/around this event in The Haunting of Modesto O’Brien was a relief and gave form and structure to something that had been troubling and ever present, but also somewhat hard to decipher in terms of its impact. 

Rachel: Is there a visual image—a painting or a photo—that inspired you?

Brit: Yes, it is a series of three photographs of a team of horses, unsettling and powerful. I first saw them as part of the Thomas Wilfred Foster collection (shared by the photographer’s grandson, John Weatherburn). Foster was a young photographer working during an early 20^th century silver boom, and he managed to foreground the very creatures that provided the horsepower to drive this propulsive economic and cultural event. The labour that horses provided – pulling loads, carriages, sleighs- was usually rendered invisible, insignificant, but for some reason Foster saw the horses. The three images capture their story of hard labour, suffering and loss. When I engaged with the photos I also found myself stepping into that time and place – and it was there that I found Modesto O’Brien, my main character. So it was with that dapple-grey horse that the story began to stir.

Rachel: We all have influences—what are some of yours?

Brit: I really like the characters of Paul and Martha Cable from Last Stand at Sable River. It is one of Elmore Leonard’s early westerns. I like their mutual trust and respect- like too the way Paul Cable thinks, creating scenarios in his mind and working his way through them; his absolute confidence and comfort in his own skin, the solid way he confronts the ‘villain’; his absolute confidence in Martha’s strength. I think in these two characters Leonard created an ideal thoughtful and heroic pair. 

Rachel: If you weren’t a writer, what do you think you’d do instead?

Brit: Think now I might want to hang out more with creatures, study wildlife rehabilitation or something to understand how to be more helpful, maybe be a goat herder.

Rachel: I too often prefer goats to people. But in the meantime, what’s your next writing project?

Brit: I’m just starting to sketch out a novel/novella about changelings, the unknown, and sins against nature. I’ve already met some of the characters and am getting interested in their story. 

Rachel: I suspect our readers will be as intrigued about your work as I am! Where can we find it?

Brit: The Haunting of Modesto O’Brien is available through Latitude 46 Publishing.

You can follow me at:

• Substack
• Facebook
• Instagram
• My website

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: How about I just let our featured author describe herself?

Elizabeth: Hello! My name is Elizabeth Schechter, and I write speculative romance that has its own Scoville scale. My work ranges from steamy to scorching, and celebrates love in all forms. My pronouns are she/her, and I am a queer chaos gremlin masking as a suburban mom.

Rachel: You have my attention! Please tell our readers all about your latest spicy concoction!

Elizabeth: My upcoming book is Ravenflight, the final book in my Blood of the Raven series, which follow the demigod children of the Morrigan as they search for their fated mates in a fantastical ancient Ireland, and in Imperial Rome. Have a small taste:

A hero. A son of Eire. A reckoning long overdue.

Leaving behind the splendor of Empire, Lorcan returns to the emerald wilds of Eire, where ancient magic stirs and old loyalties are tested. Beside him stand his mates and his chosen kin—fierce, loyal, and willing to follow him into the heart of danger. But the blood that binds can also betray, and the most dangerous enemy may not be on the battlefield… but seated at his own family’s table.

Ravenflight is the last book in the series, but the first book in this series, Ravenborn, has the distinction of being my first published novel. When it came out, the title was Princes of Air, and I thought it was a standalone. I feel like I should apologize to readers for the end taking sixteen years, but since book two only just came out last February, the wait hasn’t actually been that long.

Rachel: Who is your favourite of the characters you’ve written?

Elizabeth: My favorite character that I have ever written isn’t in this series. His name is Owyn, and he’s in my Heir to the Firstborn series. He comes into the series in the first book, and tries to take over every scene he’s in, even if he isn’t the main character in that scene. He’s snarky and deeply wounded, but he loves with his whole being, and when I wrote him, I could hear his voice clearly (he sounds like Phil Nightingale, who plays Sam Yao in the Zombies, Run! app, for anyone who is curious.)

Rachel: It sounds like you think pretty deeply about your work. How much research do you do?

Elizabeth: The amount of research I do for a book varies. There’s always some, but if I’m creating a world, I might not do as much research as I would if I’m writing something based in the real world. Blood of the Raven was deeply researched, because even though it is fantasy, it has one foot planted in recognizable history. For example, in Ravenfall (book 2) we meet Lorcan, who is training with his mother to be a healer. He ends up as a gladiatorial slave in Rome, and the person tasked to teach him Latin is the daughter of his owner, who is a medicae. A healer. So I need to know the proper medicinal herbs for various things, and what they would be called in Latin AND in Irish!  (There’s a glossary in the back of book 3.) I also researched Roman baths, how gladiators got to the arena (tunnels!), the layout of the now-ruined Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestals in Rome, how Romans got tattooed, and how long it would take to get from Rome to London by ship in early summer. 

Rachel: I have been known to fall into these research holes myself. Once you dig yourself out, what’s next?

Elizabeth: For my next trick, I’ll be wrapping up another series – my very spicy science fiction romance Tales from the Arena, which is about genetically engineered super-soldiers and the submissives who love them. Books one and two have been out for ages. Book three is ready to be sent  to my editor, and book four is about a third complete. 

Rachel: Where can our readers find you and your work?

Elizabeth: If you want to follow my shenanigans, you can find me pretty much everywhere but Twitter (I refuse to call it X). I also have a newsletter, which comes out once a month. You can find all those links here: https://linktr.ee/schechterelizabeth

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: If you’ve followed the tumultuous writing projects of us at Night Beats, you’ll know we have a soft spot for anarchists and submersibles that overwhelms all of our good sense. Ben Zalkind’s novel Honeydew might not be entirely sensible, but it is a delight, so here’s Ben to tell us about it.

Ben: Honeydew follows a quartet of second-rate saboteurs that runs afoul of a mega-corporation and its celebrity CEO. It’s got everything: a billionaire tech bro who plans to pilot a submersible drill to Earth’s mantle, a criminal kingpin who bankrolls an anarchist collective, a Swiss family doctor moonlighting as a spook, and even a direct action splinter cell composed entirely of elderly activists. One of my blurbers, the novelist Ryan Chapman, described it as “a Monkey Wrench Gang for the frenzied, techno-dystopian now.”

Zilla: What inspired you to write this madcap book?

Ben: Honeydew was a sort of outlet for my (many) preoccupations: tech oligarchy, surveillance capitalism, the clarifying power of humour, and why, to paraphrase the great cultural critic, Thomas Frank, Johnny still can’t dissent. The spark for the story itself was an illuminating Evan Calder Williams essay in The New Inquiry that traces the history of sabotage and highlights the early-20th-Century Industrial Workers of the World organizer and early feminist radical badass, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. She coined the term “fine thread of deviation” to distinguish capitalist subterfuge (e.g., planned obsolescence) and worker sabotage. The former is “good for business” and the latter is a crime. This led to an encounter with the recently declassified OSS (now CIA) Simple Sabotage Field Manual and the journalist Brian Merchant’s fantastic Blood in the Machine, which sets the story straight about the unfairly maligned Luddites, who were among the earliest resisters of automation. To my surprise, the narrative that emerged from this hodgepodge of research was a farce, equal parts A Confederacy of Dunces and The Monkey Wrench Gang, about a quartet of feckless wannabe saboteurs who have the right idea but can’t quite follow through.

Zilla: You’ve named plenty of nonfiction influences on your philosophy and writing. Who are your fictional favs?

Ben: It’s so hard to choose just one. Let’s go with Steerpike from Mervyn Peake’s extraordinary Gormenghast Trilogy. I don’t think a more developed, sympathetic antagonist has ever been written. Peake’s dense, descriptive prose is unlike anything else I’ve read, and his characters are so richly detailed that they seem to be drawn on the page (Peake was equally famous for his art, some of which accompanies certain editions of his books).  Through the course of the story, we watch Steerpike transform from an oppressed kitchen wretch in a sprawling castle to a Machiavellian mastermind bristling with resentment. And what’s most stunning is that we can trace the formation of his consciousness. We know why he does what he does. We might not agree, but we can’t help but understand. Truly a masterclass in characterization. 

Zilla: So do you write character-driven books? Or plot driven?

Ben: I would describe Honeydew as a plot-driven novel with an ensemble cast of characters, perhaps a bit like one of Terry Pratchett’s Vimes books.

Zilla: Now that Honeydew is out, what’s next?

Ben: It’s a sort of follow-up to Honeydew, but not quite a sequel. I don’t want to say too much, but we will see much more of Mo Honeydew, whose story will be one strand of a three-part braided narrative that will expose new cracks and crevices in Bonneville City, where a very large infrastructure project looms darkly. 

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Ben: You can get the book at the press’ website. You can find me on my website, on Substack, Instagram as @benzalkind, on Facebook as Ben Zalkind – Author, and on Bluesky as benzalkind.bsky.social.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: We love a good space opera epic, and with us today to talk about her latest one is T.K. Toppin! T.K., tell us all about it!

T.K.: The book is called Bis Rose:

The guilty must pay, but so will the innocent…

Across the icy, untamed stretches of Neptune’s Kuiper Belt sprawl humanity’s habitat stations, repurposed generation ships and terraformed moons.

From megacity utopias to the Wild West of rundown ghettos, veteran Galactic Judicial Authority (GAJA) retrieval agent, Bis Rose, apprehends nefarious criminals. But when escaped convict Jun Hiro, the heir to the infamous Hiro Syndicate, drops in her lap, her stellar record may be in danger.

Bis follows the clues to capture her prey, but instead finds herself on a quest to prove Jun innocent of murder. An impossible task when an unknown force stalks her at every step.

Rachel: What inspired you to write this book?

T.K.: Bis Rose just sort of popped into my head. I envisioned the opening scene where she emerges from the transport shuttle and struts down the gangplank like she means business, or something like that. Full of attitude and all that “older woman, today’s not the day” vibe. It just went from there, full-on pantser mode.

Rachel: I love an older woman with no damns let to give. Is there a visual image—a painting or a photo—that inspired you?

T.K.: Cowboy Bebop – love that gritty, grungy, urban-ness. The many worlds and space ports in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe from upscale utopian to stark dystopian and everything in between. I also threw in some homegrown images from the present, and then I tried to combine them altogether.

Rachel: Why do you write? What drives you?

T.K.: I’ve always been a creative, starting my journey in the arts where I was a graphic designer for the last 30+ years. Writing was always there, albeit juvenile enough that it simply needs immediate incineration if ever it’s unearthed. To me, writing is another extension of my creative side, another way of expression. Plus, I’ve always been a reader and love being immersed in another world inside the book. I wanted to create something like that, and mostly, create something that I would want to read, again and again, like many of my favourite books.

Rachel: I’ve worn a number of hats too. What’s the secret to editing?

T.K.: I’ve a few processes. First step, once I reach the end, I immediately go back to the beginning and review it. Next step, wait a few days/weeks, and go back at it. Then beta readers. Then, repeating step 1 and 2, again, and again…until it “feels” right. But it’s like any other art, it’s never really right or done.

Rachel: What’s your next writing project?

T.K.: Another, and definitely the final, Jax Marlin novel. I wasn’t going to write about her and her copper again, but…it just sort of happened. I’m hoping for a release by the end of 2025.

Rachel: Tell us where the Night Beats community can find you and find your work!

T.K.: Universal book link to all my work

Instagram

Threads

Bluesky

Website

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: Today we’re joined by Joanna Cockerline, author of Still. Joanna, can you tell us a little about your latest book?

Joanna: Still is the story of Kayla, who is living and working on the streets of Kelowna, BC, Canada, and of Little Zoe, a woman in the sex trade who is missing. Set in a vibrant and diverse community of people living on the streets, the novel explores sex work, living unhoused, the opioid crisis, friendship, what it means to survive, and what it means to find a home—especially within one’s self. 

As Kayla—whose past is darker than she tells—searches for her missing friend, she also uncovers much about her own life. The novel delves into both the pain and resiliency of childhood, with flashbacks to Kayla’s past with horses and how she came to be on the streets. Kayla also becomes friends with an outreach worker whose outwardly picture-perfect life belies her struggles with postpartum depression, alcohol abuse, and bipolar, and who yearns to rediscover her passion for photography and share its magic with Kayla.

The narrative considers what home means, how different forms of community are possible, and how we can tell the stories that are ourselves. 

Still asks questions about what it means to be missing and what we can—and cannot—go back to. Ultimately, Still is a story of community, friendship, resilience, and hope.

Rachel: That sounds like an intense and fascinating premise for a novel. Is it drawn from your own life?

Joanna: Still is inspired in part by some of my own experiences as well as experiences as a longtime street outreach volunteer, and co-founder of a street outreach organization that focuses on people involved in the street-level sex trade. The novel is a testament to strength and resiliency, despite the struggles people many face. Still is dedicated to people I know who live, or have lived, on the street, including some in memory, and I want to do them justice. 

Rachel: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Joanna: To Kayla, the protagonist of Still – an 18 year-old living and working on the streets – I would say “keep going”, in so many ways.

Rachel: Who is your favourite fictional character someone else wrote? And why?

Joanna: I admire the strength of Sethe in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, as she stood by herself as she faced impossible situations.

Rachel: Who is your favourite character you’ve written, and why?

Joanna: The character of Little Zoe–the missing woman in Still–is kind, magnetic, savvy, and enigmatic. She came to life as I was writing her, and lives on for me far beyond the page.

Rachel: Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven? Or a secret, third thing?

Joanna: While Still is character-driven, it also embodies a vivid sense of place—as though the streets and the Okanagan Valley are living, breathing characters too. Still also celebrates the small moments of beauty that are possible despite–or because of—difficulty, and the magic that can be found in small things that sometimes go unnoticed unless you lean in close.

I wrote it for the people who lived it, hoping to do them justice. Many of them have read it and love it, which makes my heart happy. I also hope it will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys literary fiction, who appreciates stories of the underdog, who is captivated by mystery, and who has known struggle in its various forms.

Rachel: What’s your next writing project?

Joanna: Many readers have wondered if there will be a sequel to Still, and that’s what I’m working on now. The characters came alive for me and had more to say, more to live.

Rachel: Tell us where the Night Beats community can find you and find your work!

Still is available in stores and online, wherever books are sold. Supporting local independents is always great! If it is not in stock, it can be ordered. 

Publisher link

Amazon link

You can follow me on Instagram @joanna.e.cockerline or check out my website (which includes dates and locations for my cross-Canada tour) on www.joannacockerline.com.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: With us this week to tell us about her latest novel, The Chorus Beneath Our Feet, is Melanie Schnell! Melanie, can you tell us a little about the book?

Melanie: The Chorus Beneath our Feet is my second novel.  Jes is a a grief-stricken soldier who accompanies his best friend’s body home after eight years away, only to find his non-speaking sister, Mary, missing and wanted for questioning by the police in the murder of an infant in the city’s central park. As Mary’s life hangs in the balance, Jes must follow the obscure clues she’s left behind, the only means to find her and absolve her of wrongdoing. In his labyrinthine search, the mystery of the park’s infamous Harron tree and its connection to his sister, and their community, is slowly revealed. 

Rachel: As an artist myself, I’m immediately struck by the visuals here! Was that the inspiration for the book?

Melanie: Fifteen years ago, when my son was a year old, I joined several other writers for a weekend retreat at an ancient farmhouse in the country in the middle of a cold prairie winter. It was just the five of us women, no wifi, our burgeoning stories, and my baby. I was working on my first novel, which was in its final stages, but during this weekend it was interrupted by a vivid image of two women standing barefoot and hands-free on a tree branch, impossibly, in the midst of a violent storm. I sketched the image in my notebook and promised to return to it later. This image became my second novel, The Chorus Beneath our Feet. 

That tree in the picture grew into a central character, and what I became immediately interested in was what lay beneath her: roots, soil, fungi, long-lost treasures, scattered bones of skeletons, and all the memories representing what has lived over millions of years before us. The question the tree was asking me as I wrote was, What is our connection to what came before us? How are we impacted by these previous lives? The answers slowly unfurled into my literary mystery, The Chorus Beneath Our Feet, which follows Jes, a soldier returned home from Afghanistan after eight years away. 

Rachel: Sounds like a powerful moment. If you weren’t a writer, what do you think you’d do instead?

Melanie: I would still need to be some kind of storyteller, so probably a documentary filmmaker. (Which requires lots of writing. Is that cheating?)

Rachel: I won’t tell if you don’t. Tell us where the Night Beats community can find you and find your work!

Melanie: Instagram: @melanie_schnell (7) Instagram

Facebook: @ Melanie Schnell Facebook

Amazon link: The Chorus Beneath Our Feet : Schnell, Melanie: Amazon.ca: Books

Publisher Link: The Chorus Beneath Our Feet by Melanie Schnell — Radiant Press

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: Today we’re pleased to welcome back Macy Lewis to talk about her newest book, Infinite Intelligence! Can you tell us a little about it?

Macy: Aria Marsh works as a line manager at super factory Fitton’s Fixtures, Fittings, and Fancy Goods. Employees from a range of disabled communities produce lawnmowers and sewing machines to lighting fixtures, furniture, and wheelchairs. It even houses a call center, connecting disabled individuals to government services.

When Aria brings Nigel—her Natural Interactive Guide for Enhanced Living—the AI program her husband Jasper designed to help her with everyday tasks that requires visual assistance to the factory, Nigel’s ability to control the factory machines and internal computer network make everyone uneasy. When a team of AI-powered robotic police officers go rogue at an airport, harming a family, the characters are forced to question whether humanity will survive or be ruled by AI?

Rachel: That sounds unfortunately timely. I guess I don’t need to ask what inspired it!

Macy: My inspiration for Infinite Intelligence came from my own use of screen reading technology, fears of AI taking over the world, and trying to get used to AI being present in the world forever more.

Screen readers make my phone and computer accessible.  There are numerous apps that use AI or human assistants in real time to help with everyday life. I couldn’t forget the virtual assistants found on our phones and homes, as well as the chatbot programs and the smaller robots who are connected to our Wi-Fi.

I tried to combined the best features from all the technology we have today and create a super screen reader who could help Aria navigate her world.

Rachel: What are some of the questions your book grapples with?

Macy: With AI having no regulation at the moment, I asked the following questions, some are answered in Infinite Intelligence and some I’ll have to answer in the next book.

Would AI outsmart humans without regulations?

If AI takes over, how would we as a human race react to it? Would we survive, or would AI start walking among us, trying to be human?

If we had humans and robots living together, what would that look like and how would we differentiate between robots and humans?

What will it take to get AI regulated so we don’t end up in a war of Man VS. Technology?

What’s the line of AI helping and hindering us?

You can find Infinite Intelligence at your favorite online bookstore, but I’m also on:

www.facebook.com/AuthorMacyLewis and www.x.com/MacyLewis6

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: In dark times, fantasy can offer a vision of the future that challenges the present. This week, C. R. Collins is here to tell us about her Tales of Ardonna series!

C.R.: Tales of Ardonna is an epic, eco-centric, hopepunk fantasy series. Each work in the collection (save for the trilogy) has a standalone main plot. Most can be read in any order and serve as an entrance to the world, though those set later in the timeline will have spoilers for earlier events.

Rachel: What inspired you to write this book?

C.R.: My first book, Woodspell, was started many years ago, shortly before extracting myself from my first marriage. It has a main character escaping from domestic violence. My original purpose was to give others in that situation a fantasy hero to identify with and root for, but the story (and world) grew into so much more from there. There are now 10 books (with 2 more in progress) with a variety of main characters and situations.

Rachel: Speaking of characters you can identify with, who is your favourite fictional character someone else wrote? And why?

C.R.: Eowyn from Lord of the Rings. As a young girl, I found her courage and perseverance inspiring. You didn’t get a lot of heroic female tales back in those days. Most fantasies had male protagonists with women in supporting roles, if they showed up at all.

Rachel: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it? And who ended up reading it?

C.R.: I assumed they’d be primarily women, as I write first-person POV with female protagonists, but I’ve gotten good feedback from men. Nowadays, I say that anyone who values nature, wildlife, found families, free spirits, acting with heart, and questioning the status quo might enjoy these books.

Rachel: Sounds like our readership for sure! Where can the Night Beats community can find you and find your work?

All my books, with more info, sales links, and maps, can be found on my website, crcollins.org.

Anyone interested in learning more about me and my work is welcome to follow me on Mastodon.

I also have a Bluesky account, but I’m not as active there. 

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Regular Night Beats readers will know Marten Norr as the illustrator for the Sad Bastard Cookbook. But did you know that he also has a book out? And it’s amazing? The man is just too talented and we’re all jealous.

Zilla: Both Rachel and I are obsessed with your debut novel. Tell our readers all about it!

Marten: Demon Engine is my publishing debut—a genre-fucky, self-indulgent, gross pirate adventure full of Problematic™ queers and weird allegories (try as I might, I cannot stop the allegories from appearing in my writing. They haunt me). Said problematic queers include Salvador AKA Sally, a skrunkly trans dude who could beat Jack Sparrow in a rum-drinking contest and who my wife has deemed a “deadbeat brotherfather” to Dru, an eleven-year-old wunderkind who wields her extremely well-earned attitude problem to great effect. The two of them are business partners—Dru serves the ale at the tavern they own; Sally drinks it to drown out the 200 ghosts trapped in his skull and thereby spare everyone around him from his cursed magic. Their perfect lives are disrupted when two naval sailors come to town intending to recruit Sally for the famously-straightforward One Last Job. The sailors are Captain Chelsea Millard, former pirate turned team dad (his left arm is an eel) and First Mate Mary McCracken (she made a faustian bargain with an eldritch chaos entity to trans her gender. It had Unforeseen Consequences and she will make that your problem). They’re joined by a self insert silly little academic who uses their autism for evil. There’s also a tentacle that speaks in Shakespearean free verse.

The ruler of their country has commissioned them and their ship, the Steadfast, to hunt down an ancient sea monster so they can stuff it inside a battery and use it for imperialism. This obviously ends up going extremely well for them, and they definitely don’t encounter any meat rooms, sentient storms, angler fish gods, or ethical crises along the way. Certainly no found family, either.

Zilla: One of the themes in the book is the idea of second chances–whether we think we deserve them or not. What drew you to this theme?

Marten: When I set out to write this abomination it was meant to be low-stakes and full of monsterfucking. No themes only vibes. The theme of second chances didn’t really manifest until the original vibes (low stakes and monsterfucking, to reiterate) had been unintentionally defenestrated. I got to the first scene where the monsterfucking was supposed to occur and some cosmic force gently guided my hands away from the tentacles and toward…well, more tentacles, but these tentacles ended up being more concerned with whether or not humanity as a whole deserved to recover from climate change and whether a person can make up for the harm they enabled or enacted under a colonial regime. The tentacles are indeed the ones asking those questions, to be clear. Specifically the Shakespearean one mentioned above.

That said, I’m certain that the theme of second chances eventually appeared because I’m fascinated by hauntings as a concept. Sally’s haunted by literal actual ghosts, but he’s also haunted by the poor decisions he’s made. He can banish the ghosts themselves easily enough if he has the right spell components, but what components does one require to banish the ramifications of one’s own actions? The book asks that question again and again, and sometimes the answer is “you can’t,” and sometimes the answer is that you have to try again, you have to look straight at the bad stuff you did, and if you can’t go around it, you have to go straight through. Often the answer is that, even if you do get a second chance, you have to be okay with taking it, and doing the work, and getting exactly zero pats on the back for it. But sometimes you get the second chance and you take it and the ghosts get quieter.

Zilla: Please infodump about ocean creatures to me. Please.

Marten: Siphonophores can grow to lengths of over 150 meters. There’s a species of sponge that has a lifespan of at least 15,000 years. Oarfish are a likely cause of early mariners’ tales of sea serpents; they’re also called “doomsday fish” because they are said to wash ashore just before earthquakes. Fish that live between 100 and 1000 meters below the surface (mesopelagic fish, the ones we rarely catch samples of) make up NINETY-FIVE PERCENT of the world’s fish biomass. Starfish vomit out their own stomachs in order to eat. A pufferfish makes crop circles in the sand to attract a mate; the process can go on for days. There’s a type of mollusk that steals other creatures’ shells and glues them onto its own. Many deep sea fish are reddish in color because red’s wavelength is the least visible in darkness. Sharks as a species are older than trees.

Zilla: It’s shocking to read the book and realize I’ve devoured 400+ pages in a handful of days—but the book is impossible to put down. How did you keep the pace of the story without it ever feeling rushed?

Marten: One thing I felt was really important when going into this project was that I didn’t want to strictly adhere to the 3-act story arc they teach you in high school English class (you know the one: inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, etc.). I’ve always had the ability to predict the course and events of a story, like…really really accurately, to the point where when I’m watching a movie I can see a character and instantly know whether they’re going to survive the film. I’m pretty sure it’s just autistic pattern recognition and a deep love of/familiarity with storytelling, but it honestly gets pretty tiring because I know the prescribed story arc progression so well that any story which follows it super closely feels less exciting because of that fact. More than that—the three-act story arc I’m referring to is so vehemently championed by mainstream publishing (not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation) to the point where other narrative structures, such as those from non-Western storytelling traditions, as well as those that are simply less-used in general, are actively discouraged. While Demon Engine doesn’t follow any one narrative structure in specific, I did make an effort to play with story beats in a way I hope is engaging for people like me who yearn for something stranger and more surprising than the three-act structure. Most if not all of the people who’ve read Demon Engine at the time of this interview have indicated in some capacity that I achieved that goal, with comments from beta readers ranging from things like “this reads like a hot knife through butter” to “why does this feel like a slice-of-life anime with no plot; I’m sorry but I literally cannot finish it.” I’m pretty pleased with both assessments.

Zilla: Squelch.

Marten: …Listen. Sometimes I truly feel wicked for bringing Barnaby Tethers as a character into the world. At first he was just going to be a nameless voice in Sally’s head saying ‘squelch’ over and over to add to the creep factor, or maybe the silly factor. I honestly don’t remember what gave me the idea for his backstory, but it was one of those times where you write something and then have to stand up and go for a walk and think about your life choices for a couple minutes.

I strenuously debated how to read his lines for the audiobook. He only ever says “squelch,” “walls,” and “please.”

But.

In a thing I wrote for myself to flesh out Sally’s backstory, well…here’s an excerpt from that. (Spoilers ahoy.)

Another familiar sound coalesced out of nothingness. But although it was undeniably the sound of viscera squelching rhythmically, it oddly sounded like a person imitating it with their voice.

“Tethers?” Sally whispered, remembering the impressions he’d gotten of the inside of the Whale’s heart and the horrific sounds it made as Barnaby joined his school of remora. The tears in his eyes spilled over. “Saints, Tethers, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Yeeeah…Anyway, I left it up to the reader’s imagination in Demon Engine whether or not Barnaby is saying “squelch” or making squelch noises—whether or not it was a little bit silly or just plain horrifying. In the audiobook I ended up just saying ‘squelch’ so listeners don’t have to hear a bunch of wet mouth noises in their ear.

But Barnaby’s situation as a character is similar to two others of Sally’s ghosts: Ioan (which is pronounced YO-an, for anyone who’s curious) and Ronald. For the first third-ish of the book, Ioan comes across as slightly overbearing, maybe a bit passive aggressive, but overall interested in Sally’s wellbeing. Ronald’s just a grouchy guy who loves tea so much. At first they function as something like comedic relief—quirky and almost endearing at best; dubiously redeemable just like every other character at worst. About halfway through the novel, you find out their real pasts and motives and, like Barnaby, their words, actions, and backstories become much more sinister. Barnaby, however, is just a dude who got the absolute shortest end of the stick. You’ll have to read the book to find out what Ioan and Ronald did.

Zilla: Where can we find you on social media? Where can we buy the book?

Marten: I am, regrettably (but blissfully), pretty inactive on social media. I’m only on tumblr (martennorr) and Instagram (@martennwrites). Demon Engine is available in physical, ebook, and audiobook format almost anywhere you find books online.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite read. Today I’m talking to Mel Grebing about their book, Bulletproof Heart.

Rachel: Please tell our readers a little bit about you and your work.

Mel: Hi ya’ll. I’m Mel/MsLanna and my pronouns are they/them. I’ve been writing since I was six though my first stories lacked plot. Nowadays I write Old Adult stories, mostly romance and SFF with a side of fanfic. I mulled my debut novel Bulletproof Heart over in my head for 30 years. This is what I landed on:

Professional do-gooder Salma comes up against an assassin hired to kill her. She tries to save his life anyway, and finds herself as his target in a very different sense. But to make this relationship work, they will have to take on an international organisation of hitmen. Pan protagonists, kinky sex, and a hint of autism give this novel its unique flavour.

Rachel: What inspired you to write this book?

Mel: When I was a young girl, I watched MacGyver (1985) on TV and there was this unkillable villain who looked hot in black with a bazooka. I fell in love and just never stopped. I spent thousands of hours telling myself versions of the story of how to love/be loved by that man. I’m glad I finally landed on a version I am proud to share.

Rachel: How much research did you need to do for your book?

Mel: Surprisingly little. I looked up how fast people die from burning.

Rachel: Oh my! Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven? Or a secret, third thing?

Mel: Bulletproof Heart is mostly smut driven. I had those scenes first and then constructed a plot
around them. In general my characters take priority. They have issues to work through and I only give them a journey to do that.

Rachel: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it? And who ended up reading it?

Mel: I imagine myself reading the books I write mostly. Stories I want and need. I don’t know who’ll end up reading Bulletproof Heart. I hope there are pan people out there looking to see themselves represented in m/f relationships.

Rachel: What’s your next writing project?

Mel: A second romance is in the making for publishing spring 2026. A non-binary protagonist dating a millionaire to help him win a bet. What could go wrong?

In October there will be a short romance novelette set in a hotel convention titled “Pros at Cons” in which an nonbinary volunteer has to be personal assistant for a celebrity they crushed on hard.

Rachel: It sounds like you have a lot going on! Tell us where the Night Beats community can find you and find your work!

Mel: I have a website I neglect too often http://melgrebing.com/ and am mostly active on Bluesky Of course, you can find me under MsLanna in other places as well. I like grabbing my username just in case.