June 13, 2024
Steven Dos Santos - Malicia
🎶 It's a small underworld after all! 🎶 In this conversation, Ayden interviews Steven dos Santos, a writer and college professor, about his latest novel, Malicia. They discuss Steven's journey as a writer, his love for horror and folklore, and the intersection of queerness and horror in his book. Steven shares how his Dominican roots and personal experiences influenced the story.
Want to share your own creepy story, picture, or recording? Leave a 5 star review with your story attached, email Ayden at sustopodcast@gmail.com, DM on social media, or visit SustoPodcast.com to be shared on the show!
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Hey gool friend, it's me Adrian
or Aiden. Either way, I want
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to ask you to wish SUSTO a
happy birthday. As we celebrate the upcoming
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fifth anniversary of Sustal and its dedication
to exploring the rich tapestry of Latin,
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American and Hispanic folklore, I invite
you to join me in taking this paranormal
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project to the next level. Over
the past five years, I've delved deep
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into the mysterious realms of ghostly apparitions, supernatural legends, and chilling tales that
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have captivated audiences worldwide. Now,
as I embark on the next chapter of
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this journey into the unknown, I
need your support to enhance your experience as
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a listener. Your generous donation will
allow me to invest in a new recording
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setup, ensuring that future spine chilling
narratives are captured with crystal ball clarity and
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devilish detail. With upgraded equipment,
I'll be able to host ghoulish guests with
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greater ease and transport you even deeper
into the heart of darkness, where legends
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come alive and the paranormal awaits.
Every dollar contributed will aid in advancing the
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quality of SUSTOL, enabling me to
continue preserving and sharing the enchanting folklore of
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Latin American and Hispanic cultures with the
world. Join me in celebrating five years
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of fear inducing tales and help me
amplify this spooky saga for many more to
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come. Together, we can unlock
the secrets of the supernatural and keep the
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spirit of storytelling alive. To make
a donation, you can visit gofund dot
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me, Slash one zero, BC, DC two seven. Thank you for
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your support and may the spirits guide
you on your journey through the unknown Eternally
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yours Adrian or Aidan either way.
Hey gool friends, it's me Adrian or
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Aiden either way. I am still
your host and you are still listening to
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Sustal, the podcast of Ouky Spooky
Scary Stories. Welcome back. Thank you
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for being here, and if this
is your first time, welcome, thank
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you so much for joining us,
golfriends. Just to let you know off
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the bat, this episode is available
in video format on Patreon two best goolfriends.
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That's patreon dot com slash Sustal podcast. I'm very excited about today's episode
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and as you can see in the
title and I slightly teased it. I
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think last week I posted something on
my stories about this recording session and I
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had the book Malisia in the frame
of that picture. So but as you've
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probably guessed by now, we are
interviewing Steven Dos Santos, the author of
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My Stephen was an amazing guest and
is an amazing author. So if you
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haven't had the chance, please check
out his book. It's available now everywhere
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books are sold. This episode,
as always, is spoiler free. We
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do talk about the book and we
talk about Steven and his work, but
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rest assured nothing is spoiled. So
I'm very excited for you to hear this
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episode. As always, you can
be on SUSTO and he let us from
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beyond episode. All you need to
do is send your scary story, a
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video, picture, audio, recording, whatever you have that is paranormal or
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spooky. Send it over to me. You already know how in an email,
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a DM on social media, in
a review or a Q and A
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of Spotify, or by visiting soustalpodcast
dot com. With that being said,
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let's go ahead and get into today's
episode, which is a very special interview
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with Steven Losantos. The girl friends, please welcome our very special guest today,
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friend of the Pod, now,
Steven Dos Santos. Thank you so
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much for being here. Well,
thank you so much for having me.
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I really appreciate it, of course, of course. So Stephen, could
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you introduce yourself to the audience to
maybe someone who hasn't heard of you yet.
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Okay, Stephen Dos Santos, I'm
a writer. I'm also a college
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professor. I teach English composition,
creative writing, science fiction, fantasy,
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and horror lit. Malsia is actually
my fifth novel. I've taken a little
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break, but I have a trilogy, the Torchkeeper Trilogy, which was published
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in twenty thirteen, and I also
have a paranormal espionage novel called Dagger the
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Dusk Stops. So yeah, I'm
a writer, english professor, and I'm
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very happy to be here today.
Thank you. We're so happy to have
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you in our Haunted House, if
you will. I was so excited about
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my lead when I heard about it, because I was reading, you know,
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the kind of the press release that
we got right for the advanced reading
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copies, and I was like,
this is right up my alley. This
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is perfect for anyone who listens to
sustill for anyone who's interested in this kind
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of content. And so I just
wanted to know a little bit more about
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you as a writer, especially with
your journey with Mylsia. So can you
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tell us about how you started writing
and maybe what initially drew you to storytelling
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in the first place. Oh well, definitely, I mean in terms of
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I always loved writing, even when
I was a kid, and I remember
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my first short story I wrote I
was in second grade, called The Enchanted
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Prince, and I actually illustrated it. Even back then, I was all
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about magic and romance and all that
kind of fun stuff. And then over
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the years I would write for the
school newspaper. I always told myself I
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want to write. I even sat
down years and years ago to try to
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write a novel. Didn't get very
far. But it wasn't until early two
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thousands where a coworker I was talking
to a co worker I used to work
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in a law office, and she
was telling me about how she would go
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to these writers groups at the bookstores. At the time, Borders was all
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over the place, and Barnes and
Noble is still here, but even though
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there's not as many left. And
she told me about these writing groups where
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people would bring their manuscripts and they
would give each other critique and feedback,
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and she's like, you know,
if you want to write, you really
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should do this. So I remember
for Christmas that year she gave me a
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book. I think it was called
Writing Children's Books for Dummies. Oh.
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And the funny thing about it,
though, it was very resourceful because it
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had a lot of I didn't know
anything about, like the Society of Children's
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Book Writers and Illustrators and the whole
procedure on how you had to query and
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get an agent and the publishing houses. So that really was the catalyst that
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drove me to want to start telling
my stories. And of course I wrote
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my very first novel was This Fire. It looked like a telephone book,
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the old family book. It was
like five hearted page middle grade fantasy novel
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where I wasn't exactly sure what I
was doing. And I remember showing up
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to my very first manuscript critique group
at Borders Bookstore with my huge volume.
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And that's when my journey began,
because it was through the writing group that
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I discovered the society of children's book
writers and illustrators. I started going to
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the conferences, meeting agents and editors, and that's how I met my very
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first agent. Because I graduated from
writing middle grade. I said, you
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know, I'm a little bit constrained
here, so I want to take this
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further. I want to start writing
more. What I like about YA is
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there's that immediacy and that urgency of
the characters. You know, their teens,
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and they're just very passionate about life. They haven't become jaded or bitter.
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So so I shifted the focus.
But I also wanted to include LGBT
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characters, which at the time,
as I soon discovered, was not very
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popular in the publishing industry. Yeah, unfortunately, And that's part of why
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I was so excited to read this
book and why it resonated so much with
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me, is because of the queer
characters in the book. Like you said,
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you know, it was difficult for
you to get these kinds of stories
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out. I'm sure it's gotten or
hopefully it's gotten easier over time, but
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you know, I remember reading when
I was younger, in junior high,
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in high school and not being able
to find literature that I felt represented in,
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so that it was really special what
you've done. It was quite a
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challenge because this was back in I
mean, this is not that long ago.
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This was like I would say,
like two thousand and seven, two
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thousand and eight, And I remember
when I started going on queries, when
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I started querying the book, I
should say, it wasn't my ducat was
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a different book, and the feedback
I would get would be like, Oh,
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this is such a great book.
Is it possible you could change the
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gender of the characters. And then
one person at one agent at the time,
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actually put it in writing. She
said, I love this book,
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this would make a fantastic series.
However, and then she proceeded to go
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into this whole marketing explanation that the
majority of the audience for YA are female
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and not gay, and nobody's going
to buy books that have gay characters,
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I'm saying. And this was two
thousand and eight, so you imagine how
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discouraging it was to hear that,
because it was like, they're basically saying,
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I don't want books. I don't
want you to write books about people
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like you, so, but good
luck, if you have something else,
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we'd be willing to look at that. Yeah, anything else, Yeah,
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anything else. So you know what, I was determined at that point,
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I am not going to let this
stop me. So I started writing another
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book, which became the Torchkeeper series, and that very first book, actually
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I went on to finally sell that
book and it actually made that year it
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made that was twenty thirteen. It
made the American Library Association's Rainbow List top
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ten selection. So I went from
being told no gay characters to at least
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getting that. But even then,
it was kind of one of those things
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at the time where publishers because I
even had publishers talk to me at conferences
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and they even back then, it
was almost like one of those things where
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like, Okay, well we already
have our one gay book for the season.
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Yeah, so we can't have two. Yeah, so now, And
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I'm so happy to see how that
has changed so much in the past ten
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years. Yeah, that's amazing,
I mean, and because of people like
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you who kept trying to put the
work out there, who despite being told
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no multiple ways, you still went
for it. So thank you for your
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contribution to that. And I'm sure
that there are so many other spooky little
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queers like I was in high school
are gonna get their hands on this book
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and love it. But I mean, speaking of spooky and the paranormal,
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you know this book is so steeped
in folklore. Can you tell us about
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the folklore or paranormal myths that you
heard growing up or even recently as an
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adult. Oh sure, well,
definitely. I remember growing up. I
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grew up, I mean, my
family is Dominican, I have strong Dominican
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roots, and I would hear stories
about some of the legends, like there
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was one who which was kind of
like the equivalent of the Boogeyman, So
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you had to behave yourself otherwise this
boogeyman creature would come and get you,
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and all sources of things with brujas
and witches, and it's not like the
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kind of witches that most people might
be familiar with. These were witches were
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like, we're really not only were
the old crones, but then the way
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that would work that they would they
would actually take their skin off and oh
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my god, and they would hang
their skin and then that's where they would
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go off flying in their rooms.
And they also could transform into like bird
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like creatures. So I always had
a really vivid imagination and a lot of
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these stories stuck with me, and
even when I was writing about other things
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I always gravitated towards paranormal, supernatural. I mean as far as movies.
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That's I love horror movies. So
those stories always stuck with me, and
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I was so pleased that I finally
got a chance to incorporate some of those
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in this book. Yeah. One
of the things that I like about doing
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my show is making connections to other
cultures. So I'm Mexican American and a
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lot of the stories that I heard
grew up are from Mexico and South Texas.
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I grew up right on the border. And so reading not only your
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book, but reading you know,
other folklore from other parts of the diaspora,
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if you will, it's been so
fun to make connections. And in
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reading your book and just hearing you
talk right now, I'm thinking about,
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like, okay, a shape shifting
kind of bird creature. You know,
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we have like our own kind of
legend like that from Mexican culture or at
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Cuckoo we call him el Kukui,
but it's essentially the same thing. So
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just seeing how these stories span across
different cultures and honestly like bridge them,
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it's it's it's so fun, and
I just I love having that conversation with
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people. Yeah, and it's funny
because another one that most people have heard
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of the chupacabra. Of course,
yeah, Puerto Rico, but it was
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also in a lots of other places
too, included the Dominican Republic and actually
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Florida where I live. Well,
yeah, I was actually wanted to ask
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you about that. So in your
book, when you're talking about the chupakabadas,
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they're presented as these like aquatic creatures, and growing up, I always
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heard of them as landlocked creatures,
so they're on ranches, they're in agricultural
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areas. So I was just curious
about the background of chupacabada's that you heard
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growing up. Well, I mean
one of the things, like I said,
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in Florida coase we have the Everglades, which is like swampy air.
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So to me, I always associated
them with swamps and water and murkiness,
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and you know, there's that reptilion
and they have the spikes, so I
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know, so when I was creating
this book, I kind of still carried
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over that water theme. But again
it's just a variation because every culture has
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a different take on it. Yeah, and it would make sense to go
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that way because the evergreens are so
like lush with vegetation under the surface of
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the water, so it's kind of
hard to see through. So yeah,
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you really don't know what lurks in
those waters sometimes. Yes, yes,
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So in Malicia, we follow the
journey of four characters and they're each navigating
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their own inner demons, if you
will, well, while also trying to
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survive this night of horrors at this
abandoned amusement park. Can you tell us
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what you were hoping for the audience
to take from each of their journeys.
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Yes, actually, I'll tell you
what. From the existing version, there's
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a lot of things that didn't make
and I think one of your we could
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hopefully talk about some of the stuff
that didn't make it in. But as
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far as their existing journeys, what
I wanted to go for is they each,
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as you know, they each had
a secret that they were kind of
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keeping from everyone else, some more
so than others, and I wanted to
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explore because the whole thing with horror
and the supernatural, I always think it's
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interesting when a lot of it comes
from the individual characters themselves. So in
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exploring the fact that they each have
these secrets, that they're keeping things from
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each other, that actually what they're
keeping from each other is contributing to some
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of the horrible things that happened in
the story. I think quite fascinating because
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I mean, I don't think we
have to worry too much best spoilatory toward
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because I think the back of the
book pretty much says Ray brings them all
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to this island. Yes he has, of course innocent intentions, but basically
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he's just put all his dear friends
in danger. And you know, so
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I always think that that's While I
love the creatures and the monsters and all
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the blood and all that kind of
fun stuff, I also, to me,
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I love that whole human interaction and
how a lot of the scares come
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from the things that we do to
each other. Absolutely, I'm constantly saying
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it on the show that the livings
scare me more than the dead. That
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will that will always rain true for
me. So, yeah, this is
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a great example of the horrors of
you know, not only the monsters that
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we may have grown up hearing about, or real monsters in the world,
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but the like the I guess,
in a sense, the way people can
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be monsters too, depending on how
you perceive that has often been a genre
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where marginalized voices can explore their fears
and identities. You know, kind of
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jumping off off of this question,
like the Horrors of Humanity if you will,
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how do you see the interaction or
the intersection of queerness and horror playing
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out in this book? Especially Bet
the relationship between Ray and Joaquin A great
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question. Yes, definitely there's a
connection there. Lots of times. You
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know, there's a lot of people
that struggled with their sexualities in particular teens
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and with their families, and they're
always kind of almost lots of times they're
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leading our double life. I mean, of course you have great examples now
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of teams being able to be more
out, but there's still a lot of
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closeted people that are afraid what their
family and friends will think of them.
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So in a way, what's going
on here is you have these characters and
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in a way they're all kind of
closeted because they all have something that they
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feel that if the other people of
their friends found that out about them,
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that it would turn them against their
you know, their friends, which turn
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against them. So kind of like
with Jaking, you know, he has
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a secret that nobody knows about,
and he's afraid that if Ray finds out,
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in particular, that he's going to
lose that friendship. Likewise, with
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Ray, he's afraid that if his
friends find out these things about him,
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he's actually been duplicitous. He's been
lying to his friends, which sometimes a
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lot of times closeted people they don't
they're not they cannot be themselves, even
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characters like Sophia and Isabella. They
are also like Isabella with her whole do
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surreptitiously. She has another agenda for
her documentary to expose her friends that they
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don't know about as well. And
then Sophia has all these aspirations. She's
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always been the one that takes care
of the group, but I also wanted
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to explore, especially with what happens
to her, and I don't know,
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I don't want to go to the
two may spoiler territory, but that maybe
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that inner resentment for always having to
be the caretaker of your friends and being
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the maternal figure that's always has to
make sure that everybody's in line. Maybe
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there's some resentment that comes along with
that, and maybe because of the influences
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of Malicia that kind of gets magnified. Yeah, there's there's something for everyone.
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There's trauma for everyone enough to go
around. So kind of jumping back
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to your experiences or what these stories
that you grew up hearing, were there
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any specific experiences or stories that influenced
this story and your writing process of Malicia
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as particularly from your own culture growing
up. Well, it's interesting because I
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mean I grew up with the stories, and like I said, I loved
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I've always loved horror. But I
actually there was something that happened. It
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wasn't directly related to a culture,
but it's something that happened that actually jump
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started the writing of Malsia because I
started writing My Lisia in twenty seventeen.
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Twenty seventeen was the year of Hurricane
Irma, which, as you know,
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there's also a hurricane in my book. And I remember at the time I
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was traveling and all the flights,
of course were canceled. All the flights
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back to Florida were canceled, and
so we had to drive all the way
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back. And you know, right
after a hurricane, especially like everything is
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dead. So we had gotten back
to the airport because we had a rental
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car that had to be taken back
to the Orlando Airport. And it was
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the serious thing because when we drove
the car into the airport, you know,
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and when you drive a car in, there's no way of getting it
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back out again, you know,
when you would take back a rental car.
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The Orlando airport was abandoned. There
wasn't a single soul in that airport.
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And then we were trapped in the
airport right after or a hurricane.
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To me, and we're wandering through
this airport. It was the weirdest thing
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because you're used to an airport bustling
with people and security, and here and
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here we are just walking through this
empty airport. And it started thinking.
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I started thinking to myself, to
me, that's like really creepy, kind
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of like it takes me back to
Stephen King's the Shining where you have a
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hotel and that's usually bustling with people, but then it's really scary when there
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are no people there. So I
started thinking about this airport and getting this
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eerie feeling like it almost felt like
being watched. It was almost like one
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of those those scenarios Twilight Zone episodes
where all of a sudden, all the
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people disappear, and so that was
kind of the germ of the idea,
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like what if that whole idea of
being in a place that's usually really populated
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right after a hurricane and there's nobody
there and you're trapped there because we were,
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in essence trapped there because we couldn't
even get an uber driver to pick
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us up because I guess when they
would come and see at the airport was
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closed, nobody wanted to pick us
up. And of course, being in
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Orlando, that's theme park city.
So that and my love for the supernatural,
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and I started thinking about I started
making these connections big empty space that's
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normally populated theme parks and some of
those stories that I had heard growing up
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from the Dominican Republic, and that
all started to coalesce, and that's when
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I started writing Madsia. Abandoned Spaces. I think attract so many people.
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You know, it's its own genre
on YouTube, the rbex or the urban
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Explorer is so definitely especially when they're
supposed to be, like you said,
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busy spaces and then there's suddenly nobody
there. So I think that's also why
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hospitals feel extra creepy, is because
it's supposed to be filled with life.
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There are supposed to be people,
There are supposed to be interactions happening.
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And then when you're alone and it's
silent, you're like, Okay, well
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there's nobody here, but there should
be so where are they? Uh?
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That's such a You did it.
You did an amazing job of recreating that
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sense in the book. I had
one or two things tabbed from the book.
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I think one was about, oh, yes, I wanted to ask
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so and we can cut this if
it's too much of a spoiler. But
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the the demonic kind of parasite that's
in this book, it reminded me a
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little bit, and I really enjoyed. I enjoyed in this. Have you
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ever seen the movie rec like Record? Yes? I love that movie.
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That's one of my favorite movies.
Yes, Okay, it kind of gave
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me that. Was that intentional or
is it just was it just a coincidence,
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Like maybe it's an homage to that
or just this idea of like a
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contagious possession. You know, it's
funny you mentioned it because I love rec
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But I don't remember consciously making that
connection while I was writing the book.
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But I love that movie, I
mean, well the first two in particular.
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Yeah, so so yeah, So
I wouldn't say there was a conscious
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decision or an homage so to speak. It was more like an homage to
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all the horror movies that I love, So I guess it kind of is
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included in that. Yeah, No, it was. It was so good.
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I was reading it and then,
you know, I read through it
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and I was like, wow,
this is oh my god, like wild
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chills whatever because of how it's happening. And then I think it was maybe
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like a chapter or two later when
it hit me and I went, wait,
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let me go back and read that
again. So I went and I
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read it again. I was like, oh my god, it's it's just
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the faintest reminder of it. So
for anyone who hasn't seen that movie,
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they also remade it in English,
but they just completely they basically completely ripped
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it off. They just re recorded
it in English and it's called Quarantine,
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00:24:56.119 --> 00:25:00.200
which is also you know, well
done, but reck is. But they
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got rid of the best part because
in Quarantine they got rid of the demonic
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demonic possession via virus. Yeah yeah, yeah, Actually, to me,
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the most fascinating part of it exactly. So if anybody has seen Quarantine,
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you must must go watch REC.
And if you've seen rec, then then
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00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:22.720
if you know, you know it's
such a good movie. I had the
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00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:27.039
opportunity to see that one in theaters
recently at an event, and it was
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00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:30.839
just like, it shook me to
my core again because I hadn't seen it
330
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in so long. But yeah,
just that came up for me and I
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wanted to make sure to ask it. And then the last thing I had
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marked in my book is I'm not
going to read it too because it's kind
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00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:49.240
of a spoiler. Okay, but
oh my god, I will say it
334
00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:55.480
is one of it's it's at the
end of the book. I'll tell you,
335
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but I won't include it in the
episode just so I can give you
336
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:04.759
the context. But it's I cried. I literally have screaming written in my
337
00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:08.759
book here. I underlined it and
I wrote screaming, crying, throwing up
338
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.319
because it just, oh my god, it got me so good. The
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entire time I was reading the book, I could just see little Aiden,
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like who would have loved nothing more
than to be trapped in a haunted theme
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park with his crush. So yeah, this, oh my god, I
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finished it and immediately was crying.
And I looked over at my boyfriend and
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he was like, was it good? Are you okay? And I was
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like, y sitting down, Oh
my god. It's so interesting because even
345
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when I wrote, even though I
wrote it, when I was listening to
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the audio book and I thought that
the actors were great brought walking at a
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00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:57.799
raid. They really brought that whole
aspect to life. And I remember even
348
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:03.440
at that scene, listening to it
being portrayed by actors, it actually got
349
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:06.880
to me as well, You're like, that's so beautiful. Who wrote that?
350
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Oh? Wait, exact it was
so good? Oh my goodness.
351
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So is there anything else that you
would like to share, maybe parting words
352
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:22.079
of wisdom for writers or any sort
of other like a spooky story, anything
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that you have on the mind currently. Well, actually, in terms of
354
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what I'm working on right now,
I'm actually working on a it's not a
355
00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:37.599
sequel to Maysia, but it takes
place in the same universes. Okay,
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So I'm actually I actually finished the
draft of it, so I'm actually gonna
357
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:48.960
be tinkering during the summer to get
that in good shape. So hopefully it'll
358
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be and It's written in a way
that you could each you could read each
359
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:59.160
one independently in whatever order, but
there's a definite connection. Okay. So,
360
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and it explores more, of course, more of the Dominican mythology,
361
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including some of the mythology that I
didn't get to because there was so much
362
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that was cut from this book.
There's so much mythology that I was not
363
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able to explore, just like there
was so much more to Sophia and Isabella
364
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:23.000
there. They had so much more. Their backstories were so much darker.
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Yeah, and of course maybe one
day there's a director's cut those will come
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to Oh absolutely, I would love
that. I was yet that was definitely
367
00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:37.680
hungry for more, not in a
bad way, but just like I want
368
00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:41.640
more. So I'm excited that you
are adding more to the universe, the
369
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.799
Malisia universe, if you will.
That's going to be very, very exciting.
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And we will be talking more in
the Patreon exclusive content about some of
371
00:28:51.079 --> 00:28:56.000
the things that didn't make make the
final cut, So if you are a
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00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:59.440
best school friend on Patreon, you
will have access to that shortly. But
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for now, Stephen, thank you
so much for joining us today. Thank
374
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:08.440
you so much for writing Malicia,
can you please tell everybody who's listening where
375
00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:12.200
they can follow your work and where
they can find the book. Okay,
376
00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:15.519
great, Well, first of all, you're so welcome and thank you for
377
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:19.160
having me on the show. I'm
really honored to be here. You can
378
00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:25.200
visit my website Stevenjosancheles dot com.
The book is available and as you see,
379
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:30.799
hardcover, ebook and audiobook everywhere books
are sold, so not only Amazon
380
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.599
and Barnes and Noble, but your
independent bookstores. They all have it.
381
00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:40.240
So I hope you go out and
experience it for yourself. There's more to
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00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:44.759
come, and I look forward to
giving you much more of the mythology to
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00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:49.519
explore. Yay, thank you so
much, and girlfriends, I will be
384
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:53.279
seeing you in a bit again.
If you are a best goolfriend on Patreon,
385
00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:56.519
go ahead and head head on over
there to see the bonus content.
386
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:18.440
Bye, welcome back, girl friends
again. If you are a best ghoul
387
00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:22.880
friend on Patreon dot com slash Sustal
podcast, then you have access to extra
388
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:26.640
content bonus content for this episode.
It was a healthy amount of content.
389
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.240
I think like ten extra minutes of
a video chat between Steven and I.
390
00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:36.160
He was so gracious to offer that
to you all and Patreon. He went
391
00:30:36.279 --> 00:30:41.240
through some extra I guess, plot
points and character developments that didn't make it
392
00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:45.200
into the final cut of the book, which were so good. My jaw
393
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.880
dropped several times hearing him talk about
that, and he even read an excerpt
394
00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.920
from the book that made me tear
up once when I read the book and
395
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:56.200
then again as I was listening to
him read it to us. It was
396
00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.640
just so good this book was.
It was very healing too, like the
397
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Inner Little gay Bee, Little Spooky
Me and I know that we were doing
398
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.480
the Ganda Dismo series, but I
was very excited about this book, especially
399
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:17.400
as a horror that features queer characters. It is Pride month, so how
400
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could I not had to make sure
that we got in during June. But
401
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:23.160
either way, thank you so much
for listening. As always, you can
402
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:26.440
be on a sustal Letters from the
Beyond episode. All you need to do
403
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:30.839
is send in your scary stories to
me. It can be a story,
404
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:33.880
a video, audio recording, photo, whatever you have that is paranorm or
405
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:37.880
spooky. Send it over to me. You already know how email DM,
406
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:44.319
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, visiting the
website using a summoning circle and just telling
407
00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:48.200
me directly. I appreciate all your
support. Remember that the easiest way to
408
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:51.839
support the show is by interacting with
it online, following it, subscribing all
409
00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:53.759
of that good stuff, sharing it
with your galfriends. But if you would
410
00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:57.079
like to support SUSTO, you can
always visit the GoFundMe. The links are
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00:31:57.079 --> 00:32:00.480
in all my social media bios and
link tree, or you can sign up
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00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:05.720
for Patreon. That's patreon dot com
slash sustal podcast. Thank you so much
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00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.119
to this episode's patrons. You are
Liza, Sadie, Rachel, Alejandra Luther,
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00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:15.279
April, Mario, Eva, d
Josette, sam Angela and co Mandy,
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00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:20.359
Jules, Lori, Genie, Desiree, see Anna, see Ashes,
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00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:24.599
Nedessa, Rachel Asukena, rios Anna, Marlene, Chata, Laney, Desiree
417
00:32:24.599 --> 00:32:30.880
A, Aliyah, Cynthia, Serena, Iflamenka, Lupe and Belinda. Thank
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00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:34.119
you all so much from the bottom
of my heart. I will talk to
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00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:37.440
you all in the next one and
until then, please keep all hands and
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00:32:37.519 --> 00:33:09.960
legs inside the ride at all times. Bye.
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00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:09.359
Hey gool friend, it's me Adrian
or Aiden. Either way, I want
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00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:14.199
to ask you to wish SUSTO a
happy birthday. As we celebrate the upcoming
3
00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:19.120
fifth anniversary of Sustal and its dedication
to exploring the rich tapestry of Latin,
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00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:23.800
American and Hispanic folklore, I invite
you to join me in taking this paranormal
5
00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:27.879
project to the next level. Over
the past five years, I've delved deep
6
00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:33.399
into the mysterious realms of ghostly apparitions, supernatural legends, and chilling tales that
7
00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:38.320
have captivated audiences worldwide. Now,
as I embark on the next chapter of
8
00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:42.719
this journey into the unknown, I
need your support to enhance your experience as
9
00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:47.640
a listener. Your generous donation will
allow me to invest in a new recording
10
00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:53.119
setup, ensuring that future spine chilling
narratives are captured with crystal ball clarity and
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00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:58.399
devilish detail. With upgraded equipment,
I'll be able to host ghoulish guests with
12
00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:03.240
greater ease and transport you even deeper
into the heart of darkness, where legends
13
00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.000
come alive and the paranormal awaits.
Every dollar contributed will aid in advancing the
14
00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:12.400
quality of SUSTOL, enabling me to
continue preserving and sharing the enchanting folklore of
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00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:18.480
Latin American and Hispanic cultures with the
world. Join me in celebrating five years
16
00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:23.120
of fear inducing tales and help me
amplify this spooky saga for many more to
17
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.280
come. Together, we can unlock
the secrets of the supernatural and keep the
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00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:32.239
spirit of storytelling alive. To make
a donation, you can visit gofund dot
19
00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:36.719
me, Slash one zero, BC, DC two seven. Thank you for
20
00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:41.640
your support and may the spirits guide
you on your journey through the unknown Eternally
21
00:01:41.680 --> 00:02:16.560
yours Adrian or Aidan either way.
Hey gool friends, it's me Adrian or
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00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:21.000
Aiden either way. I am still
your host and you are still listening to
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00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.120
Sustal, the podcast of Ouky Spooky
Scary Stories. Welcome back. Thank you
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00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:28.719
for being here, and if this
is your first time, welcome, thank
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00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:30.879
you so much for joining us,
golfriends. Just to let you know off
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00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:37.240
the bat, this episode is available
in video format on Patreon two best goolfriends.
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That's patreon dot com slash Sustal podcast. I'm very excited about today's episode
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and as you can see in the
title and I slightly teased it. I
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think last week I posted something on
my stories about this recording session and I
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had the book Malisia in the frame
of that picture. So but as you've
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probably guessed by now, we are
interviewing Steven Dos Santos, the author of
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My Stephen was an amazing guest and
is an amazing author. So if you
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haven't had the chance, please check
out his book. It's available now everywhere
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books are sold. This episode,
as always, is spoiler free. We
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do talk about the book and we
talk about Steven and his work, but
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rest assured nothing is spoiled. So
I'm very excited for you to hear this
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episode. As always, you can
be on SUSTO and he let us from
38
00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:23.360
beyond episode. All you need to
do is send your scary story, a
39
00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:28.000
video, picture, audio, recording, whatever you have that is paranormal or
40
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:30.080
spooky. Send it over to me. You already know how in an email,
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00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.879
a DM on social media, in
a review or a Q and A
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00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:38.360
of Spotify, or by visiting soustalpodcast
dot com. With that being said,
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00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:42.080
let's go ahead and get into today's
episode, which is a very special interview
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with Steven Losantos. The girl friends, please welcome our very special guest today,
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friend of the Pod, now,
Steven Dos Santos. Thank you so
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00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.719
much for being here. Well,
thank you so much for having me.
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I really appreciate it, of course, of course. So Stephen, could
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you introduce yourself to the audience to
maybe someone who hasn't heard of you yet.
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Okay, Stephen Dos Santos, I'm
a writer. I'm also a college
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professor. I teach English composition,
creative writing, science fiction, fantasy,
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and horror lit. Malsia is actually
my fifth novel. I've taken a little
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break, but I have a trilogy, the Torchkeeper Trilogy, which was published
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in twenty thirteen, and I also
have a paranormal espionage novel called Dagger the
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Dusk Stops. So yeah, I'm
a writer, english professor, and I'm
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very happy to be here today.
Thank you. We're so happy to have
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you in our Haunted House, if
you will. I was so excited about
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my lead when I heard about it, because I was reading, you know,
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the kind of the press release that
we got right for the advanced reading
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copies, and I was like,
this is right up my alley. This
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is perfect for anyone who listens to
sustill for anyone who's interested in this kind
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of content. And so I just
wanted to know a little bit more about
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you as a writer, especially with
your journey with Mylsia. So can you
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tell us about how you started writing
and maybe what initially drew you to storytelling
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in the first place. Oh well, definitely, I mean in terms of
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I always loved writing, even when
I was a kid, and I remember
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my first short story I wrote I
was in second grade, called The Enchanted
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Prince, and I actually illustrated it. Even back then, I was all
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about magic and romance and all that
kind of fun stuff. And then over
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the years I would write for the
school newspaper. I always told myself I
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want to write. I even sat
down years and years ago to try to
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write a novel. Didn't get very
far. But it wasn't until early two
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thousands where a coworker I was talking
to a co worker I used to work
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in a law office, and she
was telling me about how she would go
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to these writers groups at the bookstores. At the time, Borders was all
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over the place, and Barnes and
Noble is still here, but even though
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there's not as many left. And
she told me about these writing groups where
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people would bring their manuscripts and they
would give each other critique and feedback,
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and she's like, you know,
if you want to write, you really
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should do this. So I remember
for Christmas that year she gave me a
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book. I think it was called
Writing Children's Books for Dummies. Oh.
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And the funny thing about it,
though, it was very resourceful because it
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had a lot of I didn't know
anything about, like the Society of Children's
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Book Writers and Illustrators and the whole
procedure on how you had to query and
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get an agent and the publishing houses. So that really was the catalyst that
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drove me to want to start telling
my stories. And of course I wrote
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my very first novel was This Fire. It looked like a telephone book,
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the old family book. It was
like five hearted page middle grade fantasy novel
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where I wasn't exactly sure what I
was doing. And I remember showing up
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to my very first manuscript critique group
at Borders Bookstore with my huge volume.
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And that's when my journey began,
because it was through the writing group that
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I discovered the society of children's book
writers and illustrators. I started going to
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the conferences, meeting agents and editors, and that's how I met my very
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first agent. Because I graduated from
writing middle grade. I said, you
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know, I'm a little bit constrained
here, so I want to take this
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further. I want to start writing
more. What I like about YA is
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there's that immediacy and that urgency of
the characters. You know, their teens,
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and they're just very passionate about life. They haven't become jaded or bitter.
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So so I shifted the focus.
But I also wanted to include LGBT
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characters, which at the time,
as I soon discovered, was not very
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popular in the publishing industry. Yeah, unfortunately, And that's part of why
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I was so excited to read this
book and why it resonated so much with
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me, is because of the queer
characters in the book. Like you said,
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you know, it was difficult for
you to get these kinds of stories
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out. I'm sure it's gotten or
hopefully it's gotten easier over time, but
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you know, I remember reading when
I was younger, in junior high,
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in high school and not being able
to find literature that I felt represented in,
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so that it was really special what
you've done. It was quite a
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challenge because this was back in I
mean, this is not that long ago.
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This was like I would say,
like two thousand and seven, two
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thousand and eight, And I remember
when I started going on queries, when
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I started querying the book, I
should say, it wasn't my ducat was
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a different book, and the feedback
I would get would be like, Oh,
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this is such a great book.
Is it possible you could change the
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gender of the characters. And then
one person at one agent at the time,
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actually put it in writing. She
said, I love this book,
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this would make a fantastic series.
However, and then she proceeded to go
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into this whole marketing explanation that the
majority of the audience for YA are female
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and not gay, and nobody's going
to buy books that have gay characters,
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I'm saying. And this was two
thousand and eight, so you imagine how
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discouraging it was to hear that,
because it was like, they're basically saying,
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I don't want books. I don't
want you to write books about people
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like you, so, but good
luck, if you have something else,
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we'd be willing to look at that. Yeah, anything else, Yeah,
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anything else. So you know what, I was determined at that point,
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I am not going to let this
stop me. So I started writing another
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book, which became the Torchkeeper series, and that very first book, actually
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00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:16.279
I went on to finally sell that
book and it actually made that year it
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00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:22.200
made that was twenty thirteen. It
made the American Library Association's Rainbow List top
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ten selection. So I went from
being told no gay characters to at least
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00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:31.679
getting that. But even then,
it was kind of one of those things
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00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:35.200
at the time where publishers because I
even had publishers talk to me at conferences
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00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:39.399
and they even back then, it
was almost like one of those things where
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like, Okay, well we already
have our one gay book for the season.
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Yeah, so we can't have two. Yeah, so now, And
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00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:52.759
I'm so happy to see how that
has changed so much in the past ten
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years. Yeah, that's amazing,
I mean, and because of people like
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you who kept trying to put the
work out there, who despite being told
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no multiple ways, you still went
for it. So thank you for your
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00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:07.440
contribution to that. And I'm sure
that there are so many other spooky little
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00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:11.840
queers like I was in high school
are gonna get their hands on this book
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00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:15.600
and love it. But I mean, speaking of spooky and the paranormal,
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00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.480
you know this book is so steeped
in folklore. Can you tell us about
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00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:24.759
the folklore or paranormal myths that you
heard growing up or even recently as an
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00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:28.440
adult. Oh sure, well,
definitely. I remember growing up. I
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grew up, I mean, my
family is Dominican, I have strong Dominican
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00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:37.320
roots, and I would hear stories
about some of the legends, like there
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00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:41.840
was one who which was kind of
like the equivalent of the Boogeyman, So
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00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:46.159
you had to behave yourself otherwise this
boogeyman creature would come and get you,
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and all sources of things with brujas
and witches, and it's not like the
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00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:56.480
kind of witches that most people might
be familiar with. These were witches were
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like, we're really not only were
the old crones, but then the way
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00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:05.879
that would work that they would they
would actually take their skin off and oh
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00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:09.519
my god, and they would hang
their skin and then that's where they would
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00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:13.960
go off flying in their rooms.
And they also could transform into like bird
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00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:20.399
like creatures. So I always had
a really vivid imagination and a lot of
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00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:26.559
these stories stuck with me, and
even when I was writing about other things
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00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:33.039
I always gravitated towards paranormal, supernatural. I mean as far as movies.
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00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:37.320
That's I love horror movies. So
those stories always stuck with me, and
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00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:41.279
I was so pleased that I finally
got a chance to incorporate some of those
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00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:46.240
in this book. Yeah. One
of the things that I like about doing
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00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:52.120
my show is making connections to other
cultures. So I'm Mexican American and a
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lot of the stories that I heard
grew up are from Mexico and South Texas.
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I grew up right on the border. And so reading not only your
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00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:07.639
book, but reading you know,
other folklore from other parts of the diaspora,
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00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:09.240
if you will, it's been so
fun to make connections. And in
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00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:13.159
reading your book and just hearing you
talk right now, I'm thinking about,
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00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:16.559
like, okay, a shape shifting
kind of bird creature. You know,
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00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.600
we have like our own kind of
legend like that from Mexican culture or at
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00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:24.159
Cuckoo we call him el Kukui,
but it's essentially the same thing. So
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00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:30.360
just seeing how these stories span across
different cultures and honestly like bridge them,
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00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.559
it's it's it's so fun, and
I just I love having that conversation with
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00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:37.399
people. Yeah, and it's funny
because another one that most people have heard
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of the chupacabra. Of course,
yeah, Puerto Rico, but it was
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00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:46.320
also in a lots of other places
too, included the Dominican Republic and actually
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00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:50.440
Florida where I live. Well,
yeah, I was actually wanted to ask
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00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:54.919
you about that. So in your
book, when you're talking about the chupakabadas,
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00:13:54.919 --> 00:14:00.360
they're presented as these like aquatic creatures, and growing up, I always
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00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:03.639
heard of them as landlocked creatures,
so they're on ranches, they're in agricultural
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00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:09.120
areas. So I was just curious
about the background of chupacabada's that you heard
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00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.000
growing up. Well, I mean
one of the things, like I said,
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00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:16.159
in Florida coase we have the Everglades, which is like swampy air.
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00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:22.759
So to me, I always associated
them with swamps and water and murkiness,
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00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:26.039
and you know, there's that reptilion
and they have the spikes, so I
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00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:30.960
know, so when I was creating
this book, I kind of still carried
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over that water theme. But again
it's just a variation because every culture has
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a different take on it. Yeah, and it would make sense to go
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that way because the evergreens are so
like lush with vegetation under the surface of
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the water, so it's kind of
hard to see through. So yeah,
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you really don't know what lurks in
those waters sometimes. Yes, yes,
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So in Malicia, we follow the
journey of four characters and they're each navigating
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their own inner demons, if you
will, well, while also trying to
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survive this night of horrors at this
abandoned amusement park. Can you tell us
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what you were hoping for the audience
to take from each of their journeys.
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Yes, actually, I'll tell you
what. From the existing version, there's
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a lot of things that didn't make
and I think one of your we could
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hopefully talk about some of the stuff
that didn't make it in. But as
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far as their existing journeys, what
I wanted to go for is they each,
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as you know, they each had
a secret that they were kind of
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keeping from everyone else, some more
so than others, and I wanted to
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explore because the whole thing with horror
and the supernatural, I always think it's
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interesting when a lot of it comes
from the individual characters themselves. So in
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exploring the fact that they each have
these secrets, that they're keeping things from
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each other, that actually what they're
keeping from each other is contributing to some
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of the horrible things that happened in
the story. I think quite fascinating because
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I mean, I don't think we
have to worry too much best spoilatory toward
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because I think the back of the
book pretty much says Ray brings them all
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to this island. Yes he has, of course innocent intentions, but basically
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he's just put all his dear friends
in danger. And you know, so
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I always think that that's While I
love the creatures and the monsters and all
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the blood and all that kind of
fun stuff, I also, to me,
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I love that whole human interaction and
how a lot of the scares come
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from the things that we do to
each other. Absolutely, I'm constantly saying
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it on the show that the livings
scare me more than the dead. That
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will that will always rain true for
me. So, yeah, this is
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a great example of the horrors of
you know, not only the monsters that
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we may have grown up hearing about, or real monsters in the world,
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but the like the I guess,
in a sense, the way people can
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be monsters too, depending on how
you perceive that has often been a genre
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where marginalized voices can explore their fears
and identities. You know, kind of
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jumping off off of this question,
like the Horrors of Humanity if you will,
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how do you see the interaction or
the intersection of queerness and horror playing
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out in this book? Especially Bet
the relationship between Ray and Joaquin A great
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question. Yes, definitely there's a
connection there. Lots of times. You
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know, there's a lot of people
that struggled with their sexualities in particular teens
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and with their families, and they're
always kind of almost lots of times they're
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leading our double life. I mean, of course you have great examples now
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of teams being able to be more
out, but there's still a lot of
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closeted people that are afraid what their
family and friends will think of them.
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So in a way, what's going
on here is you have these characters and
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in a way they're all kind of
closeted because they all have something that they
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feel that if the other people of
their friends found that out about them,
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that it would turn them against their
you know, their friends, which turn
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against them. So kind of like
with Jaking, you know, he has
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a secret that nobody knows about,
and he's afraid that if Ray finds out,
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in particular, that he's going to
lose that friendship. Likewise, with
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Ray, he's afraid that if his
friends find out these things about him,
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he's actually been duplicitous. He's been
lying to his friends, which sometimes a
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lot of times closeted people they don't
they're not they cannot be themselves, even
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characters like Sophia and Isabella. They
are also like Isabella with her whole do
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surreptitiously. She has another agenda for
her documentary to expose her friends that they
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don't know about as well. And
then Sophia has all these aspirations. She's
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always been the one that takes care
of the group, but I also wanted
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to explore, especially with what happens
to her, and I don't know,
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I don't want to go to the
two may spoiler territory, but that maybe
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that inner resentment for always having to
be the caretaker of your friends and being
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the maternal figure that's always has to
make sure that everybody's in line. Maybe
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there's some resentment that comes along with
that, and maybe because of the influences
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of Malicia that kind of gets magnified. Yeah, there's there's something for everyone.
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There's trauma for everyone enough to go
around. So kind of jumping back
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to your experiences or what these stories
that you grew up hearing, were there
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any specific experiences or stories that influenced
this story and your writing process of Malicia
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as particularly from your own culture growing
up. Well, it's interesting because I
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mean I grew up with the stories, and like I said, I loved
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I've always loved horror. But I
actually there was something that happened. It
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wasn't directly related to a culture,
but it's something that happened that actually jump
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started the writing of Malsia because I
started writing My Lisia in twenty seventeen.
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Twenty seventeen was the year of Hurricane
Irma, which, as you know,
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there's also a hurricane in my book. And I remember at the time I
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was traveling and all the flights,
of course were canceled. All the flights
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back to Florida were canceled, and
so we had to drive all the way
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back. And you know, right
after a hurricane, especially like everything is
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dead. So we had gotten back
to the airport because we had a rental
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car that had to be taken back
to the Orlando Airport. And it was
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the serious thing because when we drove
the car into the airport, you know,
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and when you drive a car in, there's no way of getting it
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back out again, you know,
when you would take back a rental car.
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The Orlando airport was abandoned. There
wasn't a single soul in that airport.
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And then we were trapped in the
airport right after or a hurricane.
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To me, and we're wandering through
this airport. It was the weirdest thing
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because you're used to an airport bustling
with people and security, and here and
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here we are just walking through this
empty airport. And it started thinking.
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I started thinking to myself, to
me, that's like really creepy, kind
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of like it takes me back to
Stephen King's the Shining where you have a
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hotel and that's usually bustling with people, but then it's really scary when there
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are no people there. So I
started thinking about this airport and getting this
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eerie feeling like it almost felt like
being watched. It was almost like one
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of those those scenarios Twilight Zone episodes
where all of a sudden, all the
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people disappear, and so that was
kind of the germ of the idea,
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like what if that whole idea of
being in a place that's usually really populated
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right after a hurricane and there's nobody
there and you're trapped there because we were,
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in essence trapped there because we couldn't
even get an uber driver to pick
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us up because I guess when they
would come and see at the airport was
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closed, nobody wanted to pick us
up. And of course, being in
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Orlando, that's theme park city.
So that and my love for the supernatural,
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and I started thinking about I started
making these connections big empty space that's
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normally populated theme parks and some of
those stories that I had heard growing up
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from the Dominican Republic, and that
all started to coalesce, and that's when
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I started writing Madsia. Abandoned Spaces. I think attract so many people.
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You know, it's its own genre
on YouTube, the rbex or the urban
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Explorer is so definitely especially when they're
supposed to be, like you said,
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busy spaces and then there's suddenly nobody
there. So I think that's also why
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hospitals feel extra creepy, is because
it's supposed to be filled with life.
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There are supposed to be people,
There are supposed to be interactions happening.
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And then when you're alone and it's
silent, you're like, Okay, well
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there's nobody here, but there should
be so where are they? Uh?
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That's such a You did it.
You did an amazing job of recreating that
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sense in the book. I had
one or two things tabbed from the book.
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I think one was about, oh, yes, I wanted to ask
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so and we can cut this if
it's too much of a spoiler. But
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the the demonic kind of parasite that's
in this book, it reminded me a
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little bit, and I really enjoyed. I enjoyed in this. Have you
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ever seen the movie rec like Record? Yes? I love that movie.
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That's one of my favorite movies.
Yes, Okay, it kind of gave
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me that. Was that intentional or
is it just was it just a coincidence,
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Like maybe it's an homage to that
or just this idea of like a
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contagious possession. You know, it's
funny you mentioned it because I love rec
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But I don't remember consciously making that
connection while I was writing the book.
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But I love that movie, I
mean, well the first two in particular.
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Yeah, so so yeah, So
I wouldn't say there was a conscious
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decision or an homage so to speak. It was more like an homage to
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all the horror movies that I love, So I guess it kind of is
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included in that. Yeah, No, it was. It was so good.
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I was reading it and then,
you know, I read through it
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and I was like, wow,
this is oh my god, like wild
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chills whatever because of how it's happening. And then I think it was maybe
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like a chapter or two later when
it hit me and I went, wait,
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let me go back and read that
again. So I went and I
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read it again. I was like, oh my god, it's it's just
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the faintest reminder of it. So
for anyone who hasn't seen that movie,
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they also remade it in English,
but they just completely they basically completely ripped
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it off. They just re recorded
it in English and it's called Quarantine,
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which is also you know, well
done, but reck is. But they
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got rid of the best part because
in Quarantine they got rid of the demonic
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demonic possession via virus. Yeah yeah, yeah, Actually, to me,
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the most fascinating part of it exactly. So if anybody has seen Quarantine,
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you must must go watch REC.
And if you've seen rec, then then
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if you know, you know it's
such a good movie. I had the
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opportunity to see that one in theaters
recently at an event, and it was
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just like, it shook me to
my core again because I hadn't seen it
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in so long. But yeah,
just that came up for me and I
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wanted to make sure to ask it. And then the last thing I had
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marked in my book is I'm not
going to read it too because it's kind
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of a spoiler. Okay, but
oh my god, I will say it
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is one of it's it's at the
end of the book. I'll tell you,
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but I won't include it in the
episode just so I can give you
336
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the context. But it's I cried. I literally have screaming written in my
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book here. I underlined it and
I wrote screaming, crying, throwing up
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because it just, oh my god, it got me so good. The
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entire time I was reading the book, I could just see little Aiden,
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like who would have loved nothing more
than to be trapped in a haunted theme
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park with his crush. So yeah, this, oh my god, I
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finished it and immediately was crying.
And I looked over at my boyfriend and
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he was like, was it good? Are you okay? And I was
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like, y sitting down, Oh
my god. It's so interesting because even
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when I wrote, even though I
wrote it, when I was listening to
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the audio book and I thought that
the actors were great brought walking at a
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raid. They really brought that whole
aspect to life. And I remember even
348
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at that scene, listening to it
being portrayed by actors, it actually got
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to me as well, You're like, that's so beautiful. Who wrote that?
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Oh? Wait, exact it was
so good? Oh my goodness.
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So is there anything else that you
would like to share, maybe parting words
352
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of wisdom for writers or any sort
of other like a spooky story, anything
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that you have on the mind currently. Well, actually, in terms of
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what I'm working on right now,
I'm actually working on a it's not a
355
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sequel to Maysia, but it takes
place in the same universes. Okay,
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So I'm actually I actually finished the
draft of it, so I'm actually gonna
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be tinkering during the summer to get
that in good shape. So hopefully it'll
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be and It's written in a way
that you could each you could read each
359
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one independently in whatever order, but
there's a definite connection. Okay. So,
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and it explores more, of course, more of the Dominican mythology,
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including some of the mythology that I
didn't get to because there was so much
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that was cut from this book.
There's so much mythology that I was not
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able to explore, just like there
was so much more to Sophia and Isabella
364
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there. They had so much more. Their backstories were so much darker.
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Yeah, and of course maybe one
day there's a director's cut those will come
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to Oh absolutely, I would love
that. I was yet that was definitely
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hungry for more, not in a
bad way, but just like I want
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more. So I'm excited that you
are adding more to the universe, the
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Malisia universe, if you will.
That's going to be very, very exciting.
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And we will be talking more in
the Patreon exclusive content about some of
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the things that didn't make make the
final cut, So if you are a
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00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:59.440
best school friend on Patreon, you
will have access to that shortly. But
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for now, Stephen, thank you
so much for joining us today. Thank
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you so much for writing Malicia,
can you please tell everybody who's listening where
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they can follow your work and where
they can find the book. Okay,
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great, Well, first of all, you're so welcome and thank you for
377
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having me on the show. I'm
really honored to be here. You can
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visit my website Stevenjosancheles dot com.
The book is available and as you see,
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00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:30.799
hardcover, ebook and audiobook everywhere books
are sold, so not only Amazon
380
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.599
and Barnes and Noble, but your
independent bookstores. They all have it.
381
00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:40.240
So I hope you go out and
experience it for yourself. There's more to
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come, and I look forward to
giving you much more of the mythology to
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explore. Yay, thank you so
much, and girlfriends, I will be
384
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:53.279
seeing you in a bit again.
If you are a best goolfriend on Patreon,
385
00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:56.519
go ahead and head head on over
there to see the bonus content.
386
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:18.440
Bye, welcome back, girl friends
again. If you are a best ghoul
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00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:22.880
friend on Patreon dot com slash Sustal
podcast, then you have access to extra
388
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:26.640
content bonus content for this episode.
It was a healthy amount of content.
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00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.240
I think like ten extra minutes of
a video chat between Steven and I.
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He was so gracious to offer that
to you all and Patreon. He went
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00:30:36.279 --> 00:30:41.240
through some extra I guess, plot
points and character developments that didn't make it
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00:30:41.319 --> 00:30:45.200
into the final cut of the book, which were so good. My jaw
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00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.880
dropped several times hearing him talk about
that, and he even read an excerpt
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00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.920
from the book that made me tear
up once when I read the book and
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00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:56.200
then again as I was listening to
him read it to us. It was
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00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.640
just so good this book was.
It was very healing too, like the
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00:31:00.759 --> 00:31:06.519
Inner Little gay Bee, Little Spooky
Me and I know that we were doing
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00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.480
the Ganda Dismo series, but I
was very excited about this book, especially
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00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:17.400
as a horror that features queer characters. It is Pride month, so how
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00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:19.880
could I not had to make sure
that we got in during June. But
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00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:23.160
either way, thank you so much
for listening. As always, you can
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00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:26.440
be on a sustal Letters from the
Beyond episode. All you need to do
403
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:30.839
is send in your scary stories to
me. It can be a story,
404
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:33.880
a video, audio recording, photo, whatever you have that is paranorm or
405
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:37.880
spooky. Send it over to me. You already know how email DM,
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00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:44.319
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, visiting the
website using a summoning circle and just telling
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00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:48.200
me directly. I appreciate all your
support. Remember that the easiest way to
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00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:51.839
support the show is by interacting with
it online, following it, subscribing all
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00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:53.759
of that good stuff, sharing it
with your galfriends. But if you would
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00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:57.079
like to support SUSTO, you can
always visit the GoFundMe. The links are
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00:31:57.079 --> 00:32:00.480
in all my social media bios and
link tree, or you can sign up
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00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:05.720
for Patreon. That's patreon dot com
slash sustal podcast. Thank you so much
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00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.119
to this episode's patrons. You are
Liza, Sadie, Rachel, Alejandra Luther,
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00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:15.279
April, Mario, Eva, d
Josette, sam Angela and co Mandy,
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00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:20.359
Jules, Lori, Genie, Desiree, see Anna, see Ashes,
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00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:24.599
Nedessa, Rachel Asukena, rios Anna, Marlene, Chata, Laney, Desiree
417
00:32:24.599 --> 00:32:30.880
A, Aliyah, Cynthia, Serena, Iflamenka, Lupe and Belinda. Thank
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00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:34.119
you all so much from the bottom
of my heart. I will talk to
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00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:37.440
you all in the next one and
until then, please keep all hands and
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00:32:37.519 --> 00:33:09.960
legs inside the ride at all times. Bye.