Episode 135: Authorial Enchantment with Joshua Cutchin
A box of author’s copies of Joshua Cutchin’s novel, Them Old Ways Never Died. Photograph by Joshua Cutchin 2023. Front and back over art by Miguel Romero.
Joshua Cutchin’s newest books are a set of essays he curated and edited called Fairy Films: Wee Folk on the Big Screen and a novel entitled Them Old Ways Never Died.
Josh and I sat down to talk about his experience of editing and selecting essays and authors for the fairy film anthology, and then we delved into the experience of writing his first novel.
This episode is a deep exploration into the differences and similarities in writing non-fiction and fiction, and how there is a mystical current that runs through the process of creating fictional characters.
And that is a very interesting thread that is explored in our discussion. Many fiction authors, myself included, have experienced characters popping into our minds while we are doing something else entirely, and having them start chattering away, taking their story in directions that we authors never intended.
Joshua set out intentionally to have such an anomalous experience by trying his hand at creating a novel,
I’m not entirely unbiased as I did work as an editor on the book, but it turned out to be a worthy first novel and I hope its not the only one he writes. I think there’s quite a few other stories lurking around in his subconscious, waiting to be put to paper.
And, Joshua teased a project he and I are working on as co-authors—we are researching and writing together a book on the subject of anomalous light phenomenon. I’ve been devouring books left and write, and doing online research and taking down unpublished experiencer testimony; soon, we will start interviewing other sources and transcribing stories from podcasts.
If anyone has anything interesting they have experienced having to do with anomalous lights and want to share it with us—send me a message on FB or Instagram, or send an email to me at 6djk67@gmail.com.
I hope you enjoy listening to this episode!
