Ghoulish Books Interviews

GHOUL GAB w/ Shannon Riley, author of POCKETKNIFE KITTY

Shannon Riley is the author of Pocketknife Kitty, a novella about how far one woman is willing to go to save her own skin. Reviewers have generously compared it to It Follows, Promising Young Woman, and Cabin Fever. We published the novella through Ghoulish Books earlier this week and we happen to think it’s a lot of fun and hope you consider ordering a copy.

Mindy Rose is on staff with Ghoulish Books as our publicity ghoul. She helps manage our social media feeds, yes, but also so much more that we legally can’t disclose in this post, and we appreciate her spooky enthusiasm immensely. One new thing we’re forcing her to do is interview our authors for the GHOULBLOG and our free newsletter The Ghoulish Times. We’re going to call these interviews GHOUL GAB because can you think of a cuter name? Doubtful.

Earlier this week, Mindy hopped into Shannon’s DMs, and this is what happened:


mindy: hello shannon riley! how was your day today?

Shannon: Hey! Great, I actually snuck out of work a little early today and got a tattoo, so hopefully I’m appropriately swollen, bloody, and in pain for you

mindy: that is how i prefer my interview subjects, thank you for making the effort! what is the tattoo?

Shannon: Believe it or not I got a GHOUL tattoo as a little nod to the book being published (not sponsored)

mindy: holy shit does max know?

Shannon: no haha

[I know now, and Shannon has just set a new standard for all of our authors. I’m in awe. —Max]

mindy: okay well i can’t wait for their reaction pls let me know if they cry

[I did. —Max]

Shannon: It’s not nearly as big or impressive as theirs THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID

mindy: sensible chuckle! ok speaking of crying did you cry more on “hey shannon we’re gonna publish your book” day or on actual book release day?

Shannon: hey we’re gonna publish your book day, a million percent. I remember that I had submitted during the open call and immediately did not expect to make final selections. Like it wasn’t even a reality for me, I was just happy to have written it at all. But then somehow I kept making it through cuts and cuts and cuts and cuts. And every day for months I kept expecting the “Thank you for submitting your piece, HOWEVER…” email, but it never came. And that August, eventually Max tweeted that they were making final decisions and that all emails, yesses and nos, were going to go out that evening. I remember being at the mall at an Old Navy with my best friend when I got the email and I just refused to open it because I truly only expected a rejection, and christ, can you imagine crying in an Old Navy? It wasn’t until I got home and downed a whole bunch of parrot bay that I ultimately made my husband and best friend open the email FOR me.

mindy: to be honest i cannot imagine you in an old navy. also this made me a little emotional. what’s your experience working with ghoulish been like? feel free to spill tea if there’s tea to spill, i’m sure max won’t edit it out for the newsletter.

Shannon: Truly, I wish there was tea, but ultimately, the experience has just been really easy. I really appreciate being allowed to be involved at every step of the way. It’s really cool to be part of cover design and interior formatting and marketing, and while of course none of those were ever an outright responsibility of mine, I was always encouraged to express my opinions if I ever had them. It’s, in my opinion, one of the best parts of working with an indie publisher.

mindy: right? i can’t imagine writing a whole ass book and then having your trad publisher tell you you don’t get a say in the cover. has there been a previous ghoulish title that has particularly rocked your world?

Shannon: let’s go with Moonfellows by Danger Slater, what a bizarro, dark fantasy fable. And if we’re talking about sensational covers, wow, I mean, that’s one of my favorite book covers that came out that year.

mindy: are there any of max’s books that you’ve really enjoyed?

Shannon: I remember getting an advanced reader copy of Abnormal Statistics and I was totally blown away by it. Indiana Death Song in particular was one of the most deeply personal novellas Ive read. It was fiendish and raw and vulnerable in all the right ways. It was like a 200 page therapy session.

[Whoops I’m crying again. —Max]

mindy: what do you think our holy mother gerard way would think of pocketknife kitty?

Shannon: I’ll be honest, I hold him in such high respects that I’d be delighted to hear that he hated it if it meant he read it at [all]. But in all seriousness, he’d probably appreciate the themes of revenge and justified female rage, but ultimately conclude that it could use decidedly more orcs and dragons.

mindy: since this is your first book, was there anything about the book-writing process that surprised you?

Shannon: I think I was mostly surprised by two things. First I realized about myself that it is VERY hard for me to write out of chronological order. I’m very much a planner, I have chapters basically planned out before I even sit down to write, and then I go nearly through the book in order. It is REALLY hard for me to skip a chapter, work on something else, and come back at another time. It makes the process incredibly slow, would not recommend. Secondly, I didn’t realize how much Googling I’d have to do, particularly for the mundane stuff: standard doorknob heights, commonly prescribed antibiotics for UTIs, local weather trends in a given area, banking laws. Oh yeah, and also no matter how clean a writer you think you are, you’re going to still find typos up until mere weeks before your book goes to print.

mindy: this all makes me feel like i will never be a writer.

Shannon: No way no how, anyone can write if you’re patient and delusional enough. That’s all it really takes.

mindy: last question: what is your favorite critter?

Shannon: Critters! I love BATS so much. I’m convinced people that hate bats don’t actually know anything about them, they’ve just bought into all the mush brained anti-bat propaganda out there.


Order Pocketknife Kitty directly from Ghoulish Books.

Max Booth III

Max Booth III is a writer, publisher, editor, podcaster, and indie bookstore owner. They are the author of numerous works, including I Believe in Mister Bones, Abnormal Statistics, Maggots Screaming!, Touch the Night, and many others too spooky to name here. Their novella, We Need to Do Something, was adapted into a feature film from their own screenplay and distributed by IFC Midnight in 2021 after debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival. They co-run Ghoulish Books, a publisher/bookstore hybrid, with their wife Lori Michelle Booth. Born and raised in Northwest Indiana, they now live in San Antonio, TX. Find their work at www.TalesFromTheBooth.com.

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