In our August Special episode Olivia delves into the horror genre with the guidance of award winning authors and editors, Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan. 

Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan were the editors of Flame Tree’s Folk Horror. A collection of stories that covers a wide range of mythologies and dark corners from around the world. Five of its short stories were selected from open submissions and the remaining twelve were commissioned from authors including Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Adam L.G. Nevill, Alison Littlewood and Jen Williams.

Their upcoming book Witchcraft Short Stories is due to be published in January 2026. 

Biographies 

Paul Kane is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author and editor of over a hundred books – such as the sellout Hooded Man omnibus, Hellbound Hearts, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist) and The Gemini Factor. Find out more at his site shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Olivie Blake and Guillermo del Toro.

Marie O'Regan is a Shirley Jackson, Australian Shadow and British Fantasy Award-nominated author and editor. She is co-editor of anthologies including the bestselling Hellbound Hearts, Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never and is also Managing Editor of PS Publishing’s novella imprint, Absinthe Books. See more at marieoregan.net

Desert Island Books 

Paul’s Desert Island Books:

1. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
2. Dune by Frank Herbert
3. The Rats by James Herbert
4. Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells
5. Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham

Marie’s Desert Island Books:

1. Thin Air: An Anthology Of Ghost Stories chosen by Alan C. Jenkins
2. Bag of Bones by Stephen King
3. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
4. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
6. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

#folkhorror #folklore #horror #interview #author #editor #LondonBookFair

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator) and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.