Leo X. Robertson's Blog

Thoughts on writing and publication news

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Riya Anne Polcastro!

Listen here!

Riya Anne Polcastro is an Oregon-based author whose books include Jane, Suicide in Tiny Increments, The Last Magdalene and the forthcoming Dentata.

We talk about austerity, privilege, murder photography and more!

Riya’s site

Twitter

Facebook

The Anti-Austerity Anthology

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

(But, as I mention, I’m moving, so the podcast is going on hiatus for a bit—see you later this year :D)

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Jenn Stroud Rossmann!

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Jenn Stroud Rossmann is a fiction writer and an engineer. Her first novel, The Place You’re Supposed to Laugh, is out now from 7.13 Books. She writes the essay series An Engineer Reads a Novel at Public Books.

We talk about the ways in which society perceives us, the challenge of pursuing two passions at the same time—and the Navier Stokes equations, of course!

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here! emeraldshitty714.bandcamp.com/releases

[leoxrobertson]

Last Losing the Plot of 2018, with SC Burke!

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SC Burke is 1) a good guy, 2) a force of nature, 3) the author of “Id Cancer” and “The Weird”, 4) editor-in-chief of NihilismRevised.

We talk about professionalism, the ethos of indie publishing, and friends made along the way :)

NihilismRevised Amazon Facebook

As always, if you're a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Matt Spencer!

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Matt Spencer is an author of weird and wonderful fiction, currently living in Vermont. He has work published in Broadswords & Blasters (whom we’ve heard from before on Losing the Plot!), his collection, Story Time with Crazy Uncle Matt: A Tangle of Yarns is now available, and he has a novel forthcoming next year.

We talk about sucky high school experiences, the new pulp movement and getting so high you adapt Shakespeare!

Site

Amazon

Facebook

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Sam Richard!

Listen here :)

Sam Richard is an editor at Weirdpunk Books, whose latest book is “Zombie Punks Fuck Off”, co-released with CLASH Books. He is also an author with two forthcoming books, a memoir from CLASH Books and a collection of short stories with NihilismRevised.

We talk about writing, grief, and people who pretend to be characters in Cormac McCarthy novels!

Zombie Punks Fuck Off

Weirdpunk Books

Facebook

Twitter

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Renee Miller!

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Renee Miller is a prolific indie horror author from Canada, and an undeniable inspiration to us all!

She has a slew of great material out with Unnerving, such as Church, Stranded and Cats Like Cream (now collected in the paperback Licking the Devil’s Horn) and she has a forthcoming short story collection, Flesh & Blood, out with Deadman’s Tome.

We talk about the trials and tribulations of the indie lit world, joining Scientology and Christmas ouija boards!

Renee’s site Amazon Twitter Facebook

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Christa Carmen!

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Christa Carmen is the author of the horror short story collection “Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked”, out with Unnerving. We talk about writing stories, going to conventions, and the subjectivity of horror!

Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked

Christa’s site

Twitter

Facebook

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Zak A. Ferguson!

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Zak A. Ferguson is the author of Eat Your Keyboard, Mr Nick and the forthcoming A Taste of Feeling, all out with Nihilism Revised.

We talk about labels, connecting with people and the catharsis of art!

Eat Your Keyboard

Mr Nick

As always, if you're a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new EP out now! Check out “Emerald Shitty” here!

[leoxrobertson]

Upcoming writings

I’m back in a promotional mood, and just as well, because there’s a veritable plethora of new Robertson material hitting the virtual shelves!

I have a story in the Zombie Punks Fuck Off anthology, which is out now!

“The Advent of Noise” is about how the “noise” music genre was created by a punk band after they died and brought it back from the afterlife. I don’t know if you knew that.

Zombies are anathema to certain publishers who have seen too much of them. Just like a fashion trend trickling down towards Anne Hathaway’s cerulean sweater in The Devil Wears Prada (or like a game of Telephone for those of you who now need to go watch Devil Wears Prada), other publishers and writers started going, “Yeah zombies are totally over”, but most of them saying it without really knowing why, I would argue.

So I like to imagine this book’s title is a response to those who decided to shun zombies.

Zombies don’t die, duh!!

I also have a story in the upcoming Twisted50 volume 2–it’s called “The Art is Absent” and it’s about what might happen if you were a performance artist who’d committed to living in an art gallery for a month but were then like, “Hang on I can’t do this.”

Just like that haunting episode of Sex and the City that Marina Abramovic refused to be in (to her constant dismay now, I assume.)

Last but not least, my novella “Jesus of Scumburg” is coming out on Xmas, but the preorder is available now!

Jesus of Scumburg is about Jesus DeJesus, lead singer of the Nazi Sympathizers, whose music excites audiences into a frenzy, such that they destroy whatever city the band plays in.

So please: give me the encouragement I don’t deserve to create more monstrous writing like the above (I’ve written plenty of tasteful things, but the market has spoken, haha!)

[leoxrobertson]

A Losing the Plot interlude…

Listen here.

Charlie Robertson was my dad. Had things worked out differently, he might well have been a guest on the show—alas, he passed away suddenly, earlier this month.

I take a moment to talk about what’s been going on recently.

Here’s his obituary.

Here’s a lecture on the fear of death that I found interesting (and reassuring).

Interesting chats with cool artists returning asap :)

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with author Darrin Doyle!

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Darrin Doyle has lived all over and worked all kinds of jobs. He has an MFA in fiction from Western Michigan University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati.

He is the author of the novels Revenge of the Teacher’s Pet: A Love Story (LSU Press) and The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo (St. Martin’s), and the short story collection The Dark Will End the Dark (Tortoise Books). Currently he teaches at Central Michigan University and lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan with his wife and two sons.

We talk about his latest short story collection, Scoundrels Among Us (Tortoise Books)—as well as the merits of writing for yourself, living in different cultures, and Sturgeon’s Law!

Darrin’s links:

Scoundrels Among Us

Website

Twitter

Goodreads

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Not only does Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, have a recent album out with Captain Crook Records, he has more exciting stuff in the pipeline! Keep an eye out for him in future and remember you heard him here first!!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Willie Davis!

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Willie Davis is a highly accomplished author, with work in The Guardian, Salon and The Kenyon Review among others. He’s the winner of The Willesden Herald Short Story Prize and The Katherine Anne Porter Prize. He teaches English at Kentucky State University.

We talk about his novel “Nightwolf” (out with 7.13 Books), Kentucky, killing your darlings and Zadie Smith.

Willie’s links: Website Twitter Goodreads

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot, with Scott Hadley!

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Scott Manley Hadley is an author, blogger and book reviewer—and Losing the Plot alumnus! We talk about poetry, happiness and Pierce Brosnan.

His debut poetry collection, “Bad Boy Poet”, is available for preorder now.

We talk about his blog post on turning 30, which you can find here.

His blog here. YouTube channel here. Find his book reviews on Open Pen here.

Check out his first Losing the Plot episode here.

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!

[leoxrobertson]

New interview on Kendall Reviews!

Hello again!

Here’s the interview I mentioned in my post yesterday about all the flurry of my latest news

Love the formatting with the images and gifs!

Many thanks to Kendall Reviews for the opportunity–hope you enjoy reading!

Cheers :D

[leoxrobertson]

All of the news!

As is so common in the writing world, nothing happens for a long time and then loads happens at once.

Here’s what I’ve been up to of late:

I was on the Horror with Marchese & Buller podcast

I woke up at 04:30 this morning to appear on the Deadman’s Tome podcast. Which explains why we talked about moon Jedis, Scandinavian hallucinogenic mushrooms and washing feet, among other things!

(On both these podcasts, we discuss my upcoming release, Jesus of Scumburg [Hindered Souls Press, Dec 25th 2018])

Steve Pool interviewed me on my own podcast, Losing the Plot! It was his much-appreciated suggestion, and we had an interesting chat thanks to his efforts and well-considered questions.

Kendall Reviews will feature an interview with me some time this week (no sign yet, but I’ll post about it when there is. Do check out the site in the meantime!)

Unnerving and Deadman’s Tome had sales recently, which I’ve tweeted about etc. before, though I think they’ve ended now. Still, as good a time as any to check out the content from these great publishers!

The Anti-Austerity anthology, which I had a piece in with many other talented writers, reached #4 on Amazon for fiction anthologies. And Penguin-published author Kit de Waal bought a copy too.

I’m somewhat keen to reassure the writers reading this that news comes and goes in waves, and that I’ve been quietly writing and submitting and chatting to folk for months nay years to make this kinda stuff transpire. But the main point of the post is, 1) Check out all this great stuff and support these cool people, and 2) This is far from the last you’ll hear from me!

[leoxrobertson]

New Losing the Plot—with ME!!

Listen here!

I’m a Scottish process engineer and writer, currently living in Norway. Guest interviewer Steve Pool (episode 31) talks to me about politics, writing motivations and parents reading to you before bed (when you’re little.)

My links:

WordPress

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Anti-austerity anthology

“Every Hour Was Witching Hour” on Every Day Fiction:

Steve’s “Losing the Plot” episode

As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!

[leoxrobertson]

Anti-Austerity anthology now available!

Exciting news today!

The Anti-Austerity Anthology is now available!

I’ve been waiting a long time for this one—I have a story in it, and it contains work from many other authors whom I admire, including M. J. Black, Andy Carrington, Rupert Dreyfus, Rebecca Gransden, Jay Spencer Green, Chris Harrison, Ruth F. Hunt, Mary Papastavrou, Riya Anne Polcastro, Mike Robbins, Harry Whitewolf—AND MORE!

With a foreword from superstar journalist Steve Topple!

Plus, proceeds from this book go to food bank charities. That’s pretty great, right?

Here’s the link to purchase—I’ve ordered my copies and can’t wait to see how the final product of this one has turned out :)