Hello, I'm Victoria from BiblioLifestyle, and you're listening to The Reader's Couch Podcast, the show that will help you bridge the gap between living a full and busy life to one where you're reading, learning new things, and having fun.
Today on the couch, I'm so excited to welcome author Sarah Pinkser to talk about her novel Haunt Sweet Home.Haunt Sweet Home follows Mara, a 20-something who takes on a job as a night shift production assistant.
She's doing this for her cousin's ghost hunting and home makeover reality TV show.Initially, she navigates her role by setting up staged scares, but soon unsettling events and a sinister colleague forces her to confront her own truths.
Haunt Sweet Home is a supernatural tale that's also a journey of self-discovery and growth.
So readers you can expect a mix of eerie suspense, ghostly chills, but we also get lots of personal introspection as we see Mara unravel both the mysteries of the show and finding her own path into adulthood.
But before we get into the episode pretty please subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already, leave the show a five-star rating and write me a review if you love the show.So thanks in advance and now on to the episode with author Sarah Pinkser.
Hi readers, welcome again to the Reader's Couch podcast.I'm your host, Victoria Wood, and today on the couch to talk to me about Haunt Sweet Home is author Sarah Pinsker.Hi Sarah, welcome to the Reader's Couch.Hi there, thank you for having me.
Yes, I'm really excited for us to talk more about Haunt Sweet Home.I know this isn't your first rodeo though but how are you feeling?
How excited are you that your new book is out and readers can get their hands on a copy plus it's in time for spooky season?
Yeah, they timed it so perfectly.I was really hoping it was going to be a fall release and they did that perfectly.I love the cover, I love everything about this book so I'm Really, the process is so long.You wait and wait.
And so it's very exciting to actually have it out in the world so people can read it and share it.
Yes, absolutely.And readers, I really hope you'll pick up this one.I had so much fun.Plus, it's a quick read.You know how the holidays get super busy?
Because September school starts, then we have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all the other holidays and traditions.But this one is something you can really enjoy.
But before I really dive into it and we talk about Mara and Jeremy and just all the characters in this one, Sarah, tell us about your book.What's your elevator pitch?What can readers expect when they pick up a copy of your book?
So it's about someone who goes to work on a reality show.She's the production assistant, so she's the very, very bottom of the pecking order at the show.And the show that she goes to work on is called Hunt's Sweet Home.
And it is a combination of a fixer-upper show and a paranormal show. So she discovers that she's the one who's in charge of haunting the show by night.
So here's the thing.Wait, let's take a step back.Are you a fan of reality TV shows?Because I just have multiple thoughts.Because we have those Fixer Upper shows.Are you a fan?Do you watch them?
But also do you watch personality driven reality TV shows?
I watched some with this weird fascination.I can't say I enjoy them, but I'm compelled by them because of the weird version of reality that they're creating.It's not reality.It's something in between.
Because even if there's not a script, it always has the same beats.Part of what got me into this book was the idea that the Paranormal shows and the Fixer Upper shows have almost exactly the same patterns in the course of the show.
And the main difference is that I actually think the fixer-upper shows are scarier, because you don't know what they're going to do to the house.
And the idea of someone coming into my house who isn't me and deciding what they would do with it and what would make it better is just terrifying to me.
And also, I've known people who've gone on those shows, and sometimes they leave it way worse than it began.Sometimes, how do they create that shot?They took out a wall in order to get the perfect shot of the room that they created.
Do the cabinets actually open?No.It's all way scarier than a paranormal show, because all that happens on a paranormal show is they decide, yes, you have the ghost you thought you had, or no, you don't have the ghost.
And either way, you're going to either move or learn to live with it.But it's still your space, even if you share it.I don't know.
It's very interesting.And I couldn't agree with you more, because when I do watch television, even those reality-based shows,
Yes, it's reality, but I do think there is some guidance from production on the back end because, like you said, it follows similar notes.I agree.Someone redoing your house.I remember there's this one show called, I'm blanking, Love It or List It.
and that show I think of often because they come in they're going to fix it functionally and I guess aesthetically as well in hopes that you stay or you just put it on the market and sell.
So leaving your fate in the hands of these people in the short space of time yeah you begin to wonder.So I guess when you blend the two with the paranormal elements
and come to find out one of our main characters her job is to create the things that scare and spook people it makes you really second guess whether reality tv is really real to some degree or is it all manufactured so let's talk about the characters we have Mara
She is in a point in her life where she doesn't have life figured out yet.She doesn't know where she's going, if she's up or down or all around.She's seen her family during the holidays.She's getting back to school.
She's going to college, but then her cousin invites her to become a production assistant on the makeover house, haunting, ghost reality show and all these things.But of course it doesn't turn out to be what she expects.
Tell us a bit about Mara, who she is as a character, but also this cousin Jermy, who invites her on the job.
Yeah, I wanted... So, like you said, she's very lost.She's trying her best.She's trying to figure out what it is she wants to do and who she wants to be.And she's in a family of overachievers.
Like, she's in a family where... And also, she's the youngest.I think that some level of that is they've forgotten what it is to be at that stage where you're trying to figure things out.And they all...
are being a little impatient with her, because who has it together in their early 20s?And the contrast is her cousin Jeremy, who's the host of the show, and he's the one who invites her to the job.
And he's the family golden child, because he's done everything right, and everything he works on seems to go perfectly.But I also wanted that to be, like the reality show, a little bit of spin.
He knows how to control his narrative, and she hasn't figured out how to do that. That's a contrast I wanted to put in place there.And it's fun playing with a character who's got that smarmy host thing going on.
And then deciding how much of that is actually him and how much of that is the role he has to play.So I had a good time writing him.And there's a fun thing where part of the book is transcripts of the actual show.
So I got to do his host voice as well as his voice when he's talking to his cousin. And that was a lot of fun to do as well.
Yeah, that's very unique and interesting.I really enjoyed that.I thought that was fun.And I love how you also mentioned he knows how to spin his narrative better because sometimes that's exactly what it is with reality shows.
And as a reality show watcher myself, you often hear folks say it's all about the edits. How was this edited?Yes, this happened, but it was edited a certain way to make the viewer perceive someone or something another way.
So kind of having the two voices and the two different ways of being with a journey, it just really shows it's all about how you present yourself to be.
I also think social media is similar to reality TV in that way, because it's like a curated way to present yourself.Would you agree?Yeah, that's a great point.
Yeah, it is a lot of the same stuff because you do have to
decide what your public persona is and it may be close to you or it may be some exaggerated version of yourself but you do have to decide you're going to let people into a view and what you're gonna what you're gonna just create.
Absolutely.We also have a co-worker, co-worker Jo.I think that's also worth mentioning because that's where we see a lot of dynamics with Mara.Mara really starting to question herself about her work, but also this new person.
Tell us about Joe, the new coworker.
Let me think of what I want to say about Joe.So there's another coworker as well, who's also got the day version of the job.And actually, the funny thing is, I'm blanking on her name, right?Kath, I think.And she's had the job for a while.
And she knows that she's got a little bit of seniority on on Mara.And so she's not afraid to stir around a little bit. especially they have to share a room because one of them is on night and one of them is on day.
And so she just shows that she's the one who gets to pick, you know, her bed and she's the one who sets the rules for the room and all of that.
And Jo is fun because I wanted there to be a chance for Mara also to see someone who she could potentially order around and then see what she does with that situation and how she treats her. I think that's what I'm going to say about her.
She was also a fun character to write because she's similar in age to Mara, but she's a bit more sure of herself.
Yes, I think a more assured version of Mara is a great description.That's how I felt Jo coming across in the pages.So needless to say, listeners, this is a TV show, a reality based show, home makeover show, but there's also ghost hunting involved.
Also, like Sarah said, we are going to get those bits of the on screen, off screen pieces, which I think really adds to the narrative.So we get to see what happens on screen in the show versus everything happening behind the scenes.
We see what happens between Mara and Joe.That's also something to look forward to as well.And yeah, just a great kind of spooky ghost haunting kind of story.So again, definitely a book to keep on your radar this season.
I know you said you liked Joe writing her on the page, but who was your favorite character or who was the person who surprised you the most as you were going along?
Interesting.Yeah, Joe might have been the one who surprised me the most.There is this wonderful point when you're writing a book if you're, or at least for me, as someone who doesn't, I don't do a ton of outlining, sometimes none.
I don't remember that I outlined this book at all.But if you get your characters right, there's a point where they start doing things.
And it's not that you're still controlling it to some degree, but it's coming from your subconscious mind instead of your conscious mind.And it's little character
It's a thing that's in a flow state, where the characters start asserting themselves in the way that they want to, and then you get to look and decide, is that actually what this narrative needs?But it was fun discovering Jo's voice.
Yeah, I might go with her for that one.
Where did the original idea come from to blend house haunting, ghost haunting shows?
I can't quite put my finger on where the idea came from, except I think it was another of those flow state moments.In my novel, We Are Satellites, which came out a couple of years ago, there's a character who's in the hospital.
and just idly flipping channels and on a lot of drugs for pain and watching really dumb shows and he comes across this show in that novel and he starts watching it and I had the sort of the bones of it like where the kind of thing where he's watching this show that every episode seems the same someone says oh no we've discovered bones in the wall and then they make a big deal of it the horror of it and then it turns out to be a squirrel
And he's absolutely wrapped by it.And I finished that novel, and I was joking with some friends that I thought I had actually come up with a really good idea for a reality show.I didn't know how to pitch a reality show.
And a friend of mine said, but you know how to write a novel. And I said, oh, you're so right.And so I went off and wrote it.And it was one of those books that pretty much writes itself.It was a quick book to get into and to get through.
A lot of fun to write.I really enjoyed writing the script parts also.I have a group of friends that meets once a month and does a private sort of table read of a movie script. where you can pick any movie you want.
We rotate through different people pick and you get the casting is like everyone sort of grabs for a part and it's a lot of fun.I learned a lot about rewriting from doing that for, I think, four years now.
It was a lot, it was part of what was going into it too.And then there's another element that has to do with art and something that Mara does while she's bored, sitting alone in the woods at night, waiting to haunt the show.
And, and that came from the, there's a museum in Baltimore where I live called the American Visionary Art Museum.
And there's just this, there's this incredible statue that's made from a single piece of apple wood that I had always wanted to write a story about.
But yeah, I just combined all of those things into the soup and found a character that I wanted to, it's nice when you have a character who doesn't know what they're doing, then they can show the world to the reader as well.
what they're doing as well.Yeah, no, that makes sense.Absolutely.Okay.So like I said, I think this is a great fall read spooky season.If you're looking for something atmospheric as well, I think you will be happy with haunt sweet home.
So with that said, let's play a Halloween this or that, or would you rather game?Are you ready?I'm ready.Okay.Awesome.Would you rather spend Halloween in a haunted house or go on a ghost bus tour?
If we're talking an actual haunted house, I'll go on the ghost bus tour.I'm a wuss.That's the secret thing we're about to discover is that I'm a writer who sometimes writes horror and I'm a total wuss.
It's all right.So would you rather dress up as a classic monster like a clown, a vampire or Do you go more pop culture, movie references kind of direction?I go punny.
I always come up with these ridiculous costumes that no one can understand unless I explain it.From Rocky Horror Picture Show, I went as a satanic mechanic once and I had a mechanic's shirt and then like horns and a tail.No one got it.
A brush with death, like where I was carrying around a hairbrush. No one gets my puns, it's a terrible thing.I should go for the monster.
What's scarier to you, a Stephen King novel or watching one of the film adaptations?
The films.I can read horror all day long and I, again, I am a total wuss and there's a hard limit to what I can watch.
Oh no.Okay, would you rather just hang out at a bonfire or are you the person playing the pranks and telling the super scary stories?
I'm probably hanging out at the bonfire, probably playing guitar.
Okay, we're going back to the haunted house thing.So would you rather spend the night in a haunted house or a remote cabin in the woods?Remote cabin in the woods.Same.I'm just like, okay.
Would you rather attend a murder mystery party or watch movies, scary movies?
I like the murder mystery party and I love murder stories so I think I might have fun with that.
Cool, now let's get to the movie section of this.Are we doing Hocus Pocus or Beetlejuice?Beetlejuice, but I only said it once.Did you?Yes, you only said it once.Are we watching the original 1984 Ghostbusters or the 2016 one?
Which I think is the latest I think, yeah.
The one with the ladies or the one with, the one with the women was fun.I might actually, I might go for that one.I love the classic one.
We actually did that in my script group and there's some stuff that I didn't remember from the movie that was a little, so I might go for the women.I thought they had a good time.Are we watching Coraline or Casper?Oh, I love Coraline.
Me too.Twitches or Halloween Town?I don't know either of those. I don't know those, but my sister wrote it down.Yeah, she's like the Halloween buff.Okay, Scream or Halloween?I know both of these.I think Scream.Scream.
Halloween is beyond my limit of what I can watch.
Okay.And Edward Scissorhands or the Addams Family?Addams Family.
Okay.I always loved how they're so in love with each other. I've always loved that as a love story, really.
I love the Addams Family too, I think they're cool.Okay, Halloween candy.First off, what's your favorite Halloween candy?
I would go with Reese's Cups.Reese's Cups?
Yeah.So that's the one I won't ask you about then.Are we picking Hershey's Kisses or Twix?
Butterfinger or Snickers?Oh, that's a tough one.I'm gonna go for the Butterfinger.
three musketeers or peanut m&ms this is fascinating the kid me and the adult me are warring with each other i'm gonna go with the peanut m&ms okay skittles or m&ms because that's the great debate yeah skittles i love skittles too gummy bears or jelly beans oh gummy bears because jelly beans it depends on the brand
True, it does depend on the brand.Last one, nerds or starburst?
Nerds, but also those nerds ropes are oddly compelling.Like the gummy clusters.Yeah, so it's like a gummy candy covered in nerds.It's a new thing.And my 10 year old niece introduced me to those, but they are delicious.
Okay there we go new candy and maybe folks listening will add it to their giving out candy stash if they have kids in their neighborhood.Thanks for playing everything Halloween game with me.
But getting back to your writing you did mention your previous books.Now I have to say this is my first one from you.You mentioned We Are Satellites and we also have A Song For A New Day.
If you don't mind could you share briefly what each of these books are about? Sure.
So those are very different books from this one.Those are both near future science fiction.A Song for a New Day is about a musician living in a world that is post some violence and also a pandemic that drove everyone indoors and closed the venues.
The important thing to know about that book is it came out in 2019.So that's the book where everyone says, how did she know about the pandemic? And I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that.
And it was just, I based it on other pandemics and happened to get a lot right about the one that we were about to experience.That was a weird bit of timing, and I'm glad I came out beforehand.
And I'm a musician also, so that book has got a lot of my heart in it.And then We Are Satellites is about a family and how they deal with a new technology that everybody's getting which is a brain implant that just helps you to multitask.
It's not a huge like it doesn't change anything drastically for you except the people who get it can multitask better which means that like everyone starts getting it in order to keep up.
And the family that we follow one person thinks he needs it in order to keep up, one person wants it because she likes to adapt to new technology, one
One does not want it because she doesn't like the new tech and one can't have it because she has epilepsy.So we follow that family as they deal with that and as society changes.I also have two collections of short fiction.
If you like Home Sweet Home, my short fiction is closer to this book in tone.Like most of the sort of creepy fantasy or cozy horror or whatever you want to call it is in the collections and some of the longer stories in there.
Okay, I am a fan of short fiction, I often say it's a cure for when you have a hangover from novels, just get a quick hit and then okay, next day, next story, quick hit and you keep going.Okay, I'm excited to look into the collection some more.
What would you say is a similarity between all your books?Because I noticed the first two novels, like you said, they're very different from Hot Sweet Home, but what would you say is like one common thread readers can find throughout your works?
people trying their best in strange situations.And that's a theme.I've got like themes of music and themes of memory and themes of that kind of thing.
But if I had to come up with one thing that kind of threads all of my work, it is people who are faced with a weird situation and are trying to roll with it.
Yeah no that makes sense because we see Mara doing just that in Pond Suite Home so that makes sense.Getting into your reading life real quick tell us about the last couple books that you finished reading that you would now recommend.
That's a great question and I'm one of those people who just everything disappears from my head in a second so I'm pulling up just to look at what I've been reading.I'm in the middle of The Fisherman by John Langan which is
a terrific work of, I would call, literary horror.I just finished, this is a classic, but I just finished My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier.What did you think?Stop.What did you think?Oh yeah, so I love her work, and I'm
there's still i keep discovering things like i'm not one of those people who goes to buy everything i like looking at used bookstores and like finding stuff as if it somehow came into being just for me and yeah i found that one and i know that there's been movies made and i want to go check them out now but yeah that is she's so great at like psychological
trickery just like characters who are so sure of themselves and also can see them being manipulated and oh like I don't know what to think but that was great.
I love her again holy grail if folks listening if you subscribe to the newsletter I just did a Demaria roundup edit again because I just I don't know I feel like I have to circle back every year.I love my cousin Rachel I know folks I love Rebecca.
Rebecca is my first love.Yeah Rebecca is fantastic. fan 10 out of 10, zero notes.I just, I love it.But there's something about my cousin, Rachel, that still baffles me.
I have not watched the adaptation, but I'm actually planning to watch it for the fall and report back on what I think, because I think maybe because I do love Demaria so much.I haven't watched even Rebecca.I've watched- Oh, interesting.
nothing and I remember when they had the new Rebecca on Netflix was it Netflix that did a modern adaptation separate from the now I'm forgetting his name sir what's his name blanking who did like the birds.
Hitchcock.Yes.Alfred Hitchcock.Yeah.
Cause that was the original.And I think someone else did something else.And then we had the Netflix version.I haven't watched anything.The one thing I watch was the birds because my husband made me cause he loved it.
And he said, no, you have to watch the birds.Yes.It's old and you watch it now. it comes across a bit cheesy but it's just it's so good.But that's going to be my challenge this fall.
It's funny you mentioned my cousin Rachel because I was just talking about it last week and I said I'm going to take the plunge.I'm going to watch Rebecca first then I'm going to go watch my cousin Rachel and then I'll report back.
Which Rebecca are you going to watch?
I think I'm gonna start with the original.
I think I'm gonna do that and I'll watch Netflix at some other time but I'm gonna watch the original and see how that holds up but yeah my cousin Rachel is something else so it's nice kind of hearing that you read it and you think she's as much of a genius as I think she is.
Yeah yeah there's a couple of mid-century right I think she's wonderful and I think Josephine Tay also, just, for them, their voices, actually, you could throw their books, you could pretend those books came out today and they would still play.
Just, the people are so real, they're character-based, the way that modern books are, and they're, and they're so psychologically interesting and so beautifully written without being, they never feel archaic to me, they just, they feel like they've just stepped out of time.
I agree.I couldn't agree with you more.What was your childhood favorite book?What book captivated you as a child that you just couldn't stop reading?
That's a fun question.I read a ton.I have to talk myself into this question.I've read a ton of horse books.I continue to be a horse girl, but as a kid, I read all of the horse books, like the Black Stallion books and the Margaret Henry books.
But also, I'm going to blink on everything I've ever read.The Wizard of Earthsea. That was part of my introduction to fantasy and I'm not the hugest second world fantasy reader but I am the hugest Le Guin reader and that that's been a thing for life.
Awesome, I love it.That's really cool.So on the show we love indie bookstores as much as we love our authors.Share with our listeners some of your favorite local indies and can folks get your signed books anywhere?Just let us know all the things.
Oh yeah, that's a great question.I have a bunch of local indies, and I'm happy to go to any of them and sign.They all know that they can just call me and say, come over here, we've got special orders.
Snug Books, Books, Greedy Reads, and The Ivy are all super local to me, so I'm happy to go to any of those.There's one called Dreamers and Readers that opened recently.Charm City Books.Baltimore is just full of great indies right now.
Oh, that's awesome.So find one of these bookstores in Baltimore.If you are local, great.If you are not, great opportunity to give them a ring if they have online capabilities and they will get you a copy and mail it to you.
That's what I love about Indies.You can reach out.I just need to know where is the author local to or where has signed books and you just call them and they're really good about taking your order and then shipping your book to you.
Yeah.And they're so great for the whole book ecosystem.Like they have their book clubs. and fun, like all kinds of fun events.And yeah, it's just so lovely to see them all thriving right now.
Yes, I think the appreciation is coming back.I think some folks forgot.
I know most of us, especially readers and just lovers of authors and books and everything literary, we haven't, but I think more people are being reminded of their importance and they're getting the support they rightfully deserve.
So again, shop local when you can. But getting back to your book, Haunt Sweet Home, and wrapping things up, you've written the book, it's done, it's out there.
Readers, you can walk straight into a bookstore, go to your library, you can get a copy, and I would love to talk to you all about it as well.I'd love to hear your thoughts.
But what are you hoping for, Sarah, in an ideal world that readers might think or feel after they've turned the last page and they're like, okay, wow, what a ride?What are you hoping for?
I'm hoping that they seek out other books, obviously, but I'm hoping they actually turn back to the first page and just read the first chapter again.I think that, for me, that's how I can always tell that I really enjoyed a book.
I just want to go back and say, how did that ride begin?And so if people are doing that, then I know I've done what I wanted to do.
I love that because yes that is a sign that you really enjoyed something and guess what here's a little secret you can reread this one right so just make it a weekend you read it first and then you go back and you revisit it and then you just make it a hot sweet home weekend because this is a quick read it is very possible.
I'm going to say also the audio book is a ton of fun.I'm not like, I didn't have anything to do with the making of it.So this is just an appreciation on my part, but they did it full cast for the script parts.
So it was like, it's an actual reality show.And then they bounce to a narrator for the narrated parts.
Okay, well that's good to know because I just read it good all regular but now I'm gonna go see I'm logging into Libby if I can snag the audiobook as well.Oh my gosh, that's really cool.So that's good to know.That is good to know.
Sarah, thank you so much for coming on the show and speaking with me.This has been fun.
Yeah, my pleasure.I'm gonna go listen to your episode about Rebecca but definitely don't worry.Thank you.
Thank you so much for listening to the Reader's Couch Podcast.Please subscribe to the show, share it with a friend, and take a few seconds to leave a rating and review.
Until next time, stay lounging, stay reading, and whenever you're in doubt, go straight to your local bookstore or library.Thanks again for listening and happy reading.
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