Author
A Priest, a Possessed Girl, and Spontaneous Combustions
Author Leon Blanda discusses his journey from stand-up comedy to writing horror novels, the inspiration behind his books, and his experiences with local legends and wildlife in Louisiana and Idaho.
Episode notes
Leon Blanda spent years in stand-up comedy, including about a decade booking and hosting shows at House of Blues in New Orleans. When COVID stopped live shows, he made himself write every day and finally finished a novel: High Moon, a vampire cowboy story he self-published after learning far more about book formatting than he ever expected. Andy Weir provided a cover blurb.
His new book, Old Soul, began with one scene he kept rewriting: a possessed little girl and a priest talking in a Waffle House. It became the story of Charlie, an exorcist investigating the spontaneous combustions of religious and political leaders, who is called to Pearl Creek, Louisiana, for what he expects to be a routine exorcism. Getting the entity called Lucy to let go means helping solve her mystery, and the pair settle into a grizzled veteran and loose cannon rookie routine. Grendel Press published it.
Leon also tells the true story behind Bridget's Baby Bump, a nonfiction short story about a woman who joined his family's small Southern church claiming to be pregnant, then turned out to be neither pregnant nor who she said she was. After that, the conversation wanders happily through bison, moose, snow ice cream, and mosquitoes, with plenty of Idaho and Louisiana comparisons.
In this episode
- From stand-up comedy to horror novels
- Rejection and self-publishing High Moon
- Writing Old Soul around a single Waffle House scene
- The true story behind Bridget's Baby Bump
- Life in Louisiana versus Idaho
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Books mentioned
- High Moon
- Old Soul
- Bridget's Baby Bump (short story)
- Jingle Hell, in the anthology Santa Rage
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