In this episode of Talking Horror, Rachel Redd sits down with Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, author of The Mean Ones, Such Lovely Skin, and the upcoming dark fantasy What Feeds Below. Tatiana dives deep into how her background writing deeply personal essays about family trauma and living with her mother's ex-boyfriend ultimately pushed her to seek pure escapism through horror fiction.

We discuss her childhood exposure to Resident Evil and Stephen King , the catharsis of surviving toxic male gaming lobbies , and balancing the mentally taxing world of publishing with the physical discipline of Olympic weightlifting. Whether you're a cozy gamer , a powerlifter , or just looking to dive into an immersive void filled with diabolical mushrooms, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Horror as a Comfort Genre & Writing for Fun

00:36 – Introducing Tatiana Schlote-Bonne & Her Bizarre, Unsettling Worlds

02:41 – Childhood Tastes: Goosebumps, Dean Koontz, and Resident Evil

04:31 – Chasing Scares & Desensitization in Horror Movies

08:50 – From High School Family Trauma to the Iowa Non-Fiction Writing Program

16:31 – The Pivot from Memoir to Fiction During the Pandemic

19:31 – The Parallels of Writing Horror and Olympic Powerlifting

21:35 – Navigating Toxic Masculinity in Call of Duty Lobbies

27:30 – Cozy Gaming, Brain Rot, and Video Game Inspirations

32:22 – Such Lovely Skin: Demonic Video Games and Horrific Secrets

38:46 – The Mean Ones: Cults, People Pleasing, and 2000s Mean Girls

46:02 – What Feeds Below: Anime Inspiration, Diabolical Mushrooms, and Body Horror

52:23 – Adapting Voice for Protagonists & The Agony of the Publishing Industry

55:06 – Author Confessions Rapid Fire: Ghost Rom-Coms and the Dread of Starting

Connect with Tatiana Schlote-Bonne:

tatiana-schlote-bonne.com

Instagram: @thebuffwriter
TikTok: @the_buff_writer

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