SCREENWRITING, WESTERN HORROR AND MORE WITH NATHAN D. LUDWIG

🎬🌌 In this new episode of The After Hours Chats, I sit down with Horror author and Screenwriter, Nathan D. Ludwig. Join us for a fascinating discussion on his works, experience in film and screenwriting, travel, and a little on the genre of Gothic Western Horror! And of course we touch a little on the paranormal as well! 

Another awesome person I met at the Horror Hotel International Film Festival!

Give him a follow on his socials @loogenhausen

Find his books on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nathan-D.-Ludwig/author/B08RB4M48V?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=1a09dfc3-261b-4e22-a1e9-daa524e28442

#westernhorror #horrorstories #horrorfilm #paranormalstories

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Well, hey there, and welcome to another after hours chat. And for this episode, we have another very awesome creative that I met at the uh horror hotel. Just call these next few my uh horror hotel series on this podcast because I just met so many awesome people there. And uh yeah, I just had to uh have them on. I did do a brief um interview with a couple of them for the YouTube channel while at the festival, but there were so many of them that I wanted to have on for a more in-depth chat. And we had on the uh lovely, uh very talented ladies of the film Legato, uh director Christine Jensen, and screenwriter Ana Perez, and we just had uh John Ward on. And this week we have on Nathan D. Ludwig, who is another author and screenwriter uh in the horror genre, or at least that, you know, that's what it seems, that's what we discussed while um at Horror Hotel. So yeah, Nathan, I would, you know, love for you to introduce yourself uh to anyone who might be brand new to your work.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Yeah, thanks for the intro. Yeah, my name is Nathan, and um I am a um kind of a filmmaker author. Uh I run a film fest, um, I run a small press, so I'm kind of like a jack of all trades when it comes to like indie, you know, entertainment books, movies, all that kind of stuff, screenwriting, all that stuff. So I kind of do a little bit of all of it. So that's the long and short of it. So yeah, I'm having fun doing all of it and keeping busy.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, yeah. And uh you've released uh quite a few uh books. Uh would you uh love to would you care to uh list some of your bibliography for us?

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Sure. I have a couple like standalone novels out. One of them's called Love Potion 666, which is kind of like a grindhouse-y kind of tribute to 90s action crime films. So if you like From Dust Till Dawn, Natural Ward Killers, um uh like The Serpent in the Rainbow, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, all that kind of stuff. It's it's kind of like in the spirit of those movies. In one kind of fast-paced road revenge movie about a rivalry between a mother and a daughter. It involves, you know, guns and sex and voodoo and all kinds of crazy stuff. So that's a lot of fun. And then my latest novel is called The Resurrection Girl, and that is it's still a little pulpy like Love Potion, but also it's a little bit more serious. Uh, takes place in the 80s, and it's about uh an FBI special agent who can resurrect the dead by touching them. And the FBI is kind of exploiting her as almost like an indentured servant to raise dead criminals in like hostage standoffs and like murder suicides to bring them back from the dead to force them to stand trial. So they can look good in the press, and you know, their numbers can look good, but the innocent victims are are not brought back. And she's not allowed to do that, she's not allowed to do any good for them. And she's been obsessed with these uh pair of like cannibal serial killers called the Butcher Brothers, and she finds an opportunity to kind of track them down as they're searching for like the when to go and the secret to immortality, and it just becomes this race against the clock to see who can reach their goal first, and she's gonna try to like stop them to like try to to she's she's trump traumatized from her job and she's trying to like do some good for the world. So that's that's a that's a lot of fun to do. It's like kind of like a creature feature across with like a crime drama, like thriller or thriller. So um, yeah, that one seems to be doing well, getting a lot of good, really good reviews, and I have a bunch of collections too. I don't want to go through the whole thing, but like yeah, some some short horror and uh like the cannibal we're gonna talk about is like a trilogy of novelettes I work with a couple other authors on. So I do a lot of other collaborations too.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, yeah. And I um I'm going to be doing uh because I'm getting uh back to um I've been getting back to doing book reviews on uh my podcast channel. Because I I I go through, I've said before, I go through spurts where I'll do a bunch of book reviews and take a little break. Because sometimes things get busy and you don't always have time to read a bunch of stuff, even though you'd love to. And I don't want to like promise a review if I'm going, if I'm in like a space where I can't really, you know, deliver it. But um, but I am gonna be uh reviewing uh Consume, which you wrote with Paul Grammatico, who's going to be a guest on uh on a future episode, and also Chad Farmer, who I've not met yet. However, you know, I'm sure he's awesome since you guys all got together and seemed to write this really, really interesting and unique looking book called Consume. So what can you tell us um about Consume?

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Oh yeah, um yeah, Paul Gromatico's uh more of a recent friend of ours. Chad Farmer is my original partner in crime. He's he's my best student. Um he couldn't make it to Horror Hotel, but he's usually there. So he'll hopefully he'll be there next year. But couldn't make it this year, but yeah, we we write a lot of stuff together. We um we have a couple other books that we've written together, like double feature novellas and stuff. And we met Paul recently a couple of years ago, and he's become part of our weird little inner circle. And uh we wrote three kind of novelettes. So, like if you're not if you don't know what a novelette is, it's like a short novella, like you know, 10 to 15,000 words.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

So each one of those is a novelette about then the theme is cannibalism, and it's everything from you know, weird foodie cruises to um to I don't know how what what the language is like on this uh channel. I don't want to go crazy, but like uh uh uh Meat Eaters Anonymous gone horribly wrong. Uh we'll put in little like uh uh there the name of the name of his short is called But I'm Hungry, but it's B-U-T-T, But I'm hungry. So you can probably figure out where it goes from there. Mine's a little weird and dystopian, kind of like what would happen if the government legalized cannibalism kind of thing, you know, a little bit of tender as the flesh or or something like that. So um yeah, it's a good mix of weird, funny groups. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, yeah. Wow. Well, it definitely sounds like um an interesting read. And um, like who would you recommend the book for?

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Um, I would recommend the book for people who like eclectic horror. Um the the first one is mine, it's it's weird and dystopian. Uh Paul's middle one is kind of gross, but it's doable. You can you can get through it. Um Chad's is that's where I would have to give a ratings warning if if you that is extreme horror, and so that can be a hard stop for some people. That one goes a little over the line, so it it gradually increases in in as far as what people can handle, I think. But um, I mean it's a lot of fun. If you like cannibalism and you like kind of thinking outside the box when it comes to that theme, uh you probably enjoy it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yeah. Oh wow, yeah. And um, and you've also uh you're you're a screenwriter as well. So and you uh you won an award too at uh the horror hotel festival. So yeah, tell us a little about your work in uh screenwriting and film.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Yeah, well, thanks for mentioning it. Yeah, one third place uh horror comedy short screenplay for Apologize, which is doing well. Yeah. Uh so I I write a lot of short screenplays. It's been a while since I've written a feature. I'm I'm actually working on a new one, but um yeah, I like to have you know a couple out in the out in competitions, right? I just got into Horror Hound uh Film Festival with uh two short screenplays, just found out today. So that was that was exciting. So yeah, I write a lot of horror comedy, whether it's books or screenplays. I that's how I started writing, like like trying to make something of it in my early 20s was trying to be a screenwriter is obsessed with that, but that's a hard nut to crack, it really is. So you know, I've had some of my stuff made into independent uh films, but nothing like you know, Hollywood or anything like that. But I'm still working on trying to get there, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yeah. Yeah. So um, what of your works have been made into films?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Um, so I got um this feature coming out called Dead Format, which is directed by a gentleman named Mike Lombardo, who's a super cool dude, uh, one of our friends, and I co-wrote that screenplay with him, and it is a really cool kind of grief horror uh horror film about uh a kid who lost his dad. He's he's in his young early 20s.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

He's kind of it's kind of takes place in the early 2000s, and it's kind of like that transition from VHS to like DVD, kind of like video stores were closing down, that kind of stuff. So he's kind of obsessed with kind of archiving movies, and he's he's kind of stuck in the world of VHS, kind of mourning his dad. And uh from that, this kind of cursed videotape horror film kind of goes from there. So it's yeah, it starts off very sad and forlorn, it gets really gory at the end. So that's that's actually just finished shooting. So we're very excited.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah, and when when will that do you is there a like a prospective date on when that will be out?

SPEAKER_03 9:28

So we're hoping to have it in film festivals pretty much all next year. So it should be done by the end of this year, and we'll be submitting to festivals next year.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Oh, very cool. Maybe it'll be at Horror Hotel, you think?

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Or I hope it's all in all the cool places, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Cool, yeah, where all the cool people are at. Yeah, so um, what inspires your work? Um, what have like, is there any particular writers, screenwriters, filmmakers that has inspired your work over the years?

SPEAKER_03 9:59

I mean, as far as yeah, people that inspire me, as far as creatives, like I love John Carpenter. He's probably my favorite director, you know, filmmaker. Um, I love all his stuff, you know, whether it's funny or serious. So I kind of skirt the line between both, funny and serious and my stuff. So, you know, I like Sam Raimi, I like John Carpenter. Um, those are probably my favorites. Um, as far as like any kind of writers, um, like I don't know if you're familiar with um David Wong, he's also known as uh Jason Pargan. He wrote like John Dies at the end and those books, like really funny, like horror sci-fi comedy stuff. So I kind of like that kind of mix.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Mm-hmm. Oh, nice, very cool. And um what when did you start writing? And when did you know that this was this was what you wanted to do, that this is what your passion was and where your talents were. Um, you know, how long like when when did that all start?

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Oh yeah, um, I've always kind of been telling stories. I like used to write little short stories, you know, ever since probably like middle school, I'd say um writing like little short screenplays to kind of kind of get in a feel for it. Um I've always loved movies. Before there was IMDB and the internet, I would have little notebooks of like who was in what movie, and I would have like their own filmography and everything.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

So you kept your own little filmography log.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Yeah, I would like tune into like Siskel and Ebert in the 90s and find, you know, look in the TV guide, and you know, I was just obsessed with movies. Like I love it. I love the minutiae of it, like feel like an O C D level. So I've always just been into movies and that went into screenwriting, and then I realized I could turn my screenplays into books if I wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Kind of where it evolved from.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah. Oh wow, cool. And um, and as far as because I um because I bought uh because I ended up getting one of your uh books that were in anthology, and it was uh one of your one of the your paranormal experiences that that happened to you. So yeah, so uh can you talk a little about that? Like have you had any paranormal experiences that maybe influenced pieces of your work or anything that happened and you were just like, okay, holy crap was that you know?

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Well, I mean, I've never been a huge believer of the paranormal. I'm open to it, but I've never been easily swayed by it. But I did have, you know, in the book that you got, there I did have an experience when I was in Korea. I used to be in the army way a long time ago, another life. Um, and I when I lived there, I had an experience that I I still to this day can't explain. And I'm just gonna leave it at that. Like I'm gonna chalk it up to I just can't explain it. I'm not gonna try to if I think about it, it creeps me out. But I love writing horror and scary, creepy stuff that has like that atmosphere to it, like that that that feeling of dread, and like it's not necessarily always explained. So, kind of like maybe like a lot, like Asian horror, like that really creepy kind of dream logic stuff. I that's that you know, that experience is ex inspired me a lot to to write a lot like that. So um, but yeah, I don't know if you've read the story or not, but it's like the it was absolutely something that I can't explain. And I'm glad I didn't I didn't fully see what what it was. I know you know how you see something out of the corner of your eye, you know something is in there and you're not losing it. So I'm glad I didn't fully see what it was because I didn't want I don't want to know what it was.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

So I'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

It still still creeps me out to this day.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Mm-hmm. Oh gosh, yeah. And what was like do you have like a favorite paranormal horror film?

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Um, you know what? Actually, I'm a huge fan of found footage horror movies. I love the genre. Yeah, even the stuff that's not great, I'm super into it. I love it. I just like the vibe, I like the atmosphere. So I love stuff like paranormal activity, the Blair Witch Project, um anything like that, like super. I know a lot of people are not into it and they they don't find it scary, but I'm just I don't know, I'm just tuned into it. I love that kind of stuff, especially like Asian found footage horror. It's so scary to me. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, I I I really like found footage. I just to me, there's just something about the whole prospect of finding a camera or a phone and witnessing, okay, first you're witnessing people just going on like a road trip and having a good time, and then all of a sudden they're starting to slowly have all these weird thing things happening, and then it's at the very end where it suddenly cuts off, and maybe you see a little bit of something, but you don't quite know what it is. Yeah, I like found footage. What's your favorite found footage film?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Oh gosh, there is one. Um, there's a Korean one, it's called Ganji M, spelled G-O-N-G-I-A-M. Gan J M Haunted Asylum. Oh that movie is so it I had to stop it one time because it it was freaking me out so bad. Oh my gosh. It starts off a little slow, it kind of builds the characters, but once it gets to like the the halfway mark and it just never lets up for the rest of the film, and it was super stressful to watch. Um, so I recommend that one. It's called Ganjium Haunted Asylum if you can get a chance to watch that. It was super scary.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah, I'll have to look that up. I haven't seen that one, but um, but yeah, it sounds, yeah, absolutely. You yeah, convince me to look at all absolutely. And um, so what was the um was there a horror movie that really uh scared you as a kid?

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Um, as far as something that affected me, like I would say um when I grew up, I was super into movies, but I wasn't really into horror right away. Um, I would say my favorite genre of film is action. I love action adventure. Um I still love horror. It's not it's not uh anything I um discount, but um the first time I watched a really scary rated R horror film was Candyman. And it was uh probably probably you know, and I wasn't that young. I was probably I don't know, 13, 12, 13. So I wasn't that young.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

But I was I don't think I was old enough, I was prepared for that, that kind of level of horror. Uh that one freaked me out pretty bad, especially in the beginning of that movie when they're they're in the they're counting Candyman in the mirror. Oh yeah. I don't like that kind of stuff. It freaks me out. So that's a classic horror film. I love it, the horror film, but uh I love that horror film. But uh when I first saw it, it's it it really bothered me. And I was like, I don't know if horror is the right genre for me. But uh I I grew into it. I grew into it a lot later on.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Yeah, yeah. What was the horror film? Was there like a horror film or anything that made you be like, okay, yeah, maybe I can get into the horror genre?

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yeah, that's actually a good question. Um, I would say probably like um, and I watched these later on. I didn't watch them when they came out, obviously, but like Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness. Yeah, that's my favorite trilogy of horror movies, probably. Especially I watched, I probably when I watched, I rented Army of Darkness and I watched that first because I hadn't seen the first two Evil Dead movies. And this is this is so much fun. And then I watched Evil Dead 2, which is a masterpiece, and that's probably my favorite. My favorite horror movie is probably Evil Dead 2. So yeah, that one was like, okay, I get it now. This is yeah, it's funny but scary at the same time. I love yeah, I love that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

And since you're a writer and a very creative mind, I was just wondering, um, was there is there anything that maybe you would like to see more of in the horror genre or um even any of its you know sister genres like horror comedy, anything like that, but is there anything that maybe you would like to you know see more of um within that that film genre?

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah, absolutely. I think about uh films and books, I would love to see um more horror westerns. Okay, I would love to see more deep space horror.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

So like kind of like event horizon, that kind of stuff. I would love to see more deep space horror. I don't I feel like there's not enough, and definitely western horror. When that's done right, that's so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, I got um one of Paul one of Paul's books that I'm going to be reviewing was a um is like a western, kind of like a paranormal Western book. And I went when he showed it to me, I was like, oh, this is interesting. Is it because it's different from what I would normally read? I mean, like I've read like Stephen King's, like the Dark Tower series, like the gunslinger and all of those, but I haven't really gotten into um Western, like actual Western horror. But it it it intrigued me enough to where I was just like, okay, you know, I mean, yeah, why not check it out? Check out something that's maybe a little bit different from what I would normally read. And um because his uh his Gothic horror book, because I I immediately like looked at that. I was like, okay, this is up my alley because Gothic horror is up my alley. But then he showed me his um it's it's his like science gone wrong, his um his like it's like a giant insect book, like his science gone wrong, and then his um his Western supernatural western. And I was just like, Yeah, you know what, I'll give those a you know, I'll give those a chance and review them. And you know, because like I said, there there's it there's nothing wrong with you know trying something that maybe you haven't really read before. Because like I said, other than you know, gunslinger, I can't really say I've gotten into uh Western horror, but uh but it definitely intrigues me because when you think of Westerns, you know, you think of like out on the range and you know, some of those old Western movies. Uh but but it but it really but it can't but when you really think think about it, the old west is kind of creepy in its own right.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

For sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah, like you go out west, there's because we you know, we live in um in like this tri-state area, Ohio. I live in Pennsylvania, where there's a lot of woods and a lot of trees, and of course we have our cryptids here and all of that. Um, but when you go out west, there's it's like a completely different world out there. And especially those like the ghost towns, the western ghost towns where everybody just disappeared. Um, have you ever been um to any of those places?

SPEAKER_03 20:44

You know, I I heard I I've hear I hear of a lot of urban legends, but um I know a lot of friends who kind of live in the areas there in that tri-state area. But no, I never seeked out any urban legends. I I like to stay at home where it's safe. So that's paranormal investigations. I've never searched out any um urban legends, but I like reading about them. That's what I like to do, is read read books about them.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

You like to read them in the safety of your own home, basically. Yeah, yeah. But but like getting back to the whole Western thing, I I actually because at first it just kind of doesn't, it's kind of like, oh, can those two go together? But then when you think about just all the history of the West and all that happened out there, and it like I said, just all the ghost towns, and it's it's it has a very kind of dark and creepy history. It's not like, you know, Hiho Silver all the time, you know. It's it's very dark, kind of like a creepy history. Um, are there any urban legends or tales of the um old west or anything that maybe you would like to write about or anything that you think is just so creepy? That it freaks you out?

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Um, as far as like a Western horror, I had a couple ideas for some novels, but they were more like like kind of like almost like horror action adventure, kind of supernatural thrillers, kind of. Um, I do think the idea of coast towns are super creepy. I would like to maybe check those out sometime if I ever get out that way. I actually used to live in Arizona. Um, after I lived in Korea, I lived in Arizona for a couple of years and probably down south, about an hour south of Tucson. It was close to like Bisbee, a couple other mining towns down there. So uh I have been to Tombstone. Um it's very touristy, so it's not really creepy. But uh I didn't get a chance to go to any like actual ghost towns, but I would love to check those out. They are very, they are very creepy. So uh I bet doing like a paranormal investigation of one of those would be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah, nice. Yeah, and um and have you ever been on a paranormal investigation, or is that something that's like on your bucket list?

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Or I've never been on one, um, but I would love to check one out. Absolutely. That would be pretty interesting. Um, I've never had the opportunity to do so. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Is there like an old Western legend that intrigues you most of all that intrigues you more than others?

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Um maybe, I mean, not anything in particular, um, just kind of the history in general and the exploring, you know, kind of old ghost towns. Um, yeah, nothing in particular as far as the West goes. So I like to kind of make my make up my own stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Oh, cool. Very, very cool. So and um is there anything that you're uh currently working on right now?

SPEAKER_03 23:34

Uh yeah, I'm working on a couple things. Um I've got a collaboration with, I don't know if you remember RJ, who is at the table.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Oh yeah.

unknown 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

So me and RJ and another guy that we know, Caleb, we're working on kind of like the cannibal one. It's uh it's a collaboration, three authors, but it this one is one story. It's three parts. So part one, one of us writes part two, then part three, a different author for each one. And it's called Suck. And it is um it's about uh human-sized mosquitoes that are feeding on people, like in the mountains. So it's kind of a slasher, but instead of like a slasher human, it's a it's a giant mosquito sucking people's brains out. So it's definitely a horror comedy, obviously. So that's that's fun. We're writing that right now. And I've got another um novel I'm working on called Method Hack. It's a solo novel of mine. Hopefully, get it that out by the end of this year, and it's kind of like a cosmic horror mixed with like showbiz satire, so so it's kind of like a Hollywood, you know, meets you know, the old gods kind of horror. Nice. So that's I'm hoping to get that. So it's super weird, and I'm hoping people dig that one. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Yeah. Oh, awesome, awesome. And are you appearing at like any conventions or traveling anywhere as of late?

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Well, I'm always going to horror hotel. I've already got my plans booked for next year for horror.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Oh, yeah. We too.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

But uh yeah, I actually run a film festival called Genre Blast Film Festival. Um, and is in Winchester, Virginia every year uh on Labor Day weekend. So it's September 3rd to 6th this year at the Alamo Draft House Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. Um, so it's right in the hump of Virginia in between West Virginia and DC, for those who don't know where it's at. But yeah, we do we do a film festival all weekend. We have tables in the lobby where people sell stuff. So it's a lot of fun, a lot of good time, sell my own books there too. Um, but other than that, you know, I just try to find, you know, where I can where I can scooch in and get it get some table space. I just went to uh a convention in New Jersey a couple weeks ago called Beers and Fears, which was super cool. It was at like a Viking brewery, and they just had tables set up for books and did great. I did great business. That was so much fun. So I like going to kind of smaller events like that. It's they're a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So you prefer like the smaller events to the larger ones?

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. The ones that are kind of focused on like maybe like a dozen authors at the most. Um, because I've been to a lot of book conventions where there's like a hundred, a hundred and fifty authors, and yeah, just not enough people to buy everybody's books. It's just right, kind of get lost in the shuffle. So something a little bit more intimate is beneficial for all the authors, I think.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah, because I know um a lot of people have experienced actually doing better at some of the smaller shows than at the larger ones. I mean, yeah, it's cool to get booked at the larger ones, but there's always that chance that yeah, you're going to get lost in the shuffle just because there's so much to see at uh the larger events. Whereas, and I feel like at this at smaller events, you get more of an opportunity to like really talk to people and talk to the people coming to your table and answer their questions and really make that connection with them. Uh, what what are you what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_03 26:49

I totally agree with that. Yeah, it's you have a lot more time to um talk to your um to your readers, your potential readers, and you get a lot more business at a smaller, uh, at a smaller event. So you if you get booked and you're with, you know, five, 10, 15 authors as opposed to 100 authors, your chances of selling books are better and you get recognized more as far as like you get your your name out there. And it's all about networking too. I've been to a couple conventions where I didn't sell anything. This is a couple years ago, but like I still give up my business card, bookmarks. I I plug my website that way. People know, at least know maybe they'll buy it later. So, you know, yeah, it's you know, slowly getting that recognition every time I make an appearance is is important.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

So just yeah, yeah, absolutely. And and that's the thing though, too. It's it's always worth it, even if all you do is hand out like your business cards and you know, or do do some networking. And I mean, you know, to be honest, when I went to Horror Hotel, my I was basically I was like, hey, you know what, I'm here to network to get some uh content. And if I sell stuff, that's an added bonus. And I ended up actually sell I self sold a lot. I was actually kind of surprised because that was a new, like a new place for me. So I was like, I was I was pleasantly surprised. So you know, when they asked me, oh, like when the um the organizers asked me, oh, how did you? I was like, I did I did well, you know, for for a newcomer here, I did well. And yeah, and it was um and it it ended up being a great time. And they're like, oh, you know, would you be interested in coming back? I'm like, absolutely, yeah. So yeah, yeah, I was I I I had a lot of fun there, and um, you know, and I got to meet all kinds of cool people, and a lot of them are gonna be on the the podcast, and it's it and it's always and and that's the thing. I always just love meeting people, meeting other filmmakers, seeing new films, uh, and and that's also what it's about too, is you know, just kind of growing in that sense, where you maybe you see a movie that might be a little bit, okay, yeah, uh that might not be a movie I would have thought to go see, but I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Yeah, yeah. So I think, and that's why that's what's so great about these events. And um, have you had um like an an experience at an event that really, really stood out to you in a positive way?

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Um, yeah, I love going to Horror Hotel. I've been going since, you know, off and on since 2015. I've I think I've only missed a couple years, and every year I'd go there, I've I'd watch at least one film where I will try to program it for my own film festival, or I'll reach out to the filmmakers and be like, hey, that was uh that was really good. Like, you know, thanks for screening it. So yeah, I always have that experience anytime I love going to film festivals and discovering new stuff, like you said, like you wouldn't normally see anywhere else.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Sometimes they're they're still not available anywhere. So the only way you can see them sometimes is at these film festivals, which yeah uh is cool, but also kind of sad because you kind of want them to get more distribution and everything. But yeah, uh film festivals are my favorite places to go to catch, you know, hidden gems and that kind of stuff for sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Oh, yeah, uh absolutely. And like I said, and you can meet all kinds of cool um artists and artisans and authors and musicians and all just just the whole atmosphere and just the people. I is what I mean I enjoy about events like that. So, but um but what have you ever had like a weird experience or anything at an event?

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Oh a weird experience?

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah, just kind of like I don't like just something where something paranormal or something maybe that you know just kind of I don't know, where where you were you were just kind of like okay, that was a little weird, but all right, moving on.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

I don't know about any film festivals. I know I've been on a couple movie sets where we've been in some creepy places, especially if you rent out Airbnbs, you get what you you don't you never know what you're getting until you get there. And I know we shot um we shot a short film in Staten Island, New York, one time, and this house that we rented out was the creepiest house I've ever been to. And I had to sleep up in the attic and like the the top floor that had some beds, but it had like this weird door in the back corner that was padlocked. Oh, okay. And it was it was the creepiest thing, and I had to sleep up there by myself. And um I kept waking up thinking that there was somebody at the door, like like trying to get out of the door or anything. Oh my gosh. Freaking me out. So that was pretty creepy overall one. It was a weird one.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Uh-huh. Yeah, I asked that because um at the hotel where Horror Hotel was, I thought that that was the perfect area in place to have it because where it is, it does kind of have this like kind of dark, creepy, just horror. It's a perfect place for a for a horror film festival. And there were some areas where I've told people, I'm like, this is giving kind of overlook vibes.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

So I was just like, I wonder what happens in here like after all the lights go off, and yeah, there's any any activity or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:29

So well they said the elevators weren't working, so I wonder if that was the ghosts.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

So I don't know. I don't know. Oh goodness. But um, but yeah, but what um what else do you have going on? Because I know you said you're working on um a few other uh a few new uh books, a few new uh screenplays, um, and that you're uh doing some shows. Uh what what do you have coming up in the um immediate future?

SPEAKER_03 33:01

Um so yeah, I've got the those two books that I'm working on. I'm actually working on Final Decisions for John Orblast Film Festival this week. So that's kind of taking my all my time up this week uh for films and scripts, picking who's gonna be playing and whose uh screenplays will be picked for this festival coming up. So that's kind of what I'm working on right now. But yeah, in post-production for a movie, I just started a movie this past weekend. I drove up to Sleepy Hollow, New York. Um yeah, so we did a kind of we're I was shooting a uh movie for a friend. I was I acted in kind of a weird, kind of quirky kind of midnight cult movie. So very kind of like John Waters. So that was fun to be in. But yeah, we were right in Sleepy Hollow. So he drove me by the cemetery and all that stuff. It was super cool to see all that stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah, oh wow, yeah, that's that's really I I love little historical towns like that. That's just one area I love to visit is Gettysburg.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

And yeah, if you want to visit a place that has a lot of activity and but also really, really has preserved, like worked hard to preserve its history, and just kind of keep everything or at least most of it as it was back then. It really is like you're it's like it, like a lot of those, a lot of the uh buildings and things there that have been frozen in time. And yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

We actually, my wife and I, we went on uh Gettysburg tour last year because I was going there for a book convention at Gettysburg College. So we actually did the tour. Yeah, you can absolutely feel that that energy there. It's crazy. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Yeah. Yeah. And I think Gettysburg has both residual energy as well as the uh the energies and like the souls of people that might not have crossed over after after passing, especially since a lot, you know, there is a lot of trauma that happened there. And um yeah, and I've I've been to Gettysburg a couple of times and I've uh visited the Farnsworth Inn, which is said to be one of the most uh haunted inns uh there. It was a field house, so you can imagine all of the just the stuff that went on in there. And of course, there's like the Jenny Wade House where and and in a lot of the the buildings they still have the bullets and the bullet holes uh within the walls, and it's just it's crazy. And and and that's the thing. It's like I I you know, because I know like when I was looking at some of like the bullet holes that are still in the walls with the bullets still lodged in with some of them, it's just like somebody from over a hundred well over a hundred years ago shot that into that wall. Like that's still there, yeah. That that's just oh my gosh, wow. Yeah, yeah. And um, was there any other historic towns that you've uh visited that had a bit of an impact on you?

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Yeah, I mean, I live in you know in Virginia. So I when I was in school, you know, we always used to joke that you know it's it was uh we went to field trips more than we went to class because there's so much historical stuff here. We would always go on field trips to like Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, um, you know, Mount Vernon, all over the place, Monticello. But I say the creepiest one I've ever been to is Jamestown. That was by far there's something about that place, especially at night. I don't know if it's haunted, but it definitely feels like it is. Like there is definitely a vibe there.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

And they just re-excavated an old church there too, and a bunch of other locations. So there's a lot of ruins there.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

You're talking like 1600. So like there's there's definitely a vibe there of creepiness, especially if you're there at dusk. It's a really weird feeling. So I would if you've never been to Jamestown, just for the history aspect, but also to check out just kind of the potential creep factor, Jamestown's a pretty good one.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, and I wonder if it's because it's one of like the oldest and first settled places in in the colonies. So and there were there's a lot that happened with that too, with the the skirmishes and just all of the yeah, so yeah, I yeah, I I know um definitely Williamsburg has its ghosts. So yeah, yeah, but Jamestown, because that's that I I that might be one where people may not think that, oh yeah, you know, go there for the creep factor, but yeah, but that you know, sometimes it's the places you least expect to have the creep factor that end up being the creepiest.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

So that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Yeah. Are there any that you would like to visit but haven't yet?

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Um, I would actually love to check out like Roanoke Island. I'd love to check out check out there. That's actually not too far, only a couple hours from where I live. So I'd love to check that out. Um as far as like anything else, like um I don't know. I mean, I've been I went I used to live in Richmond and they used to have the Poe. I mean, they still do. It's called the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

That was really cool. They used to do a lot of ghost tours around that area too. So if you've never been to Richmond, definitely check it out. They got a lot of haunted history in Richmond.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Um that's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

But I love history in general. I'd love to go to like uh go go to Europe and check out like all the castles and all that kind of stuff. That would be great. Like after dark deck kind of stuff, I'm sure there'd be a lot of creepy stuff going on there.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Oh yeah, absolutely. So, but yeah, but it's um it's really really fascinating just seeing all the different things that are just out there in the world and especially you know, in all in all the all the different places, because here in Pennsylvania we have our stuff, and Virginia, you guys have your stuff, and out west they have their stuff, and and I think just experiencing it all, you can really just just completely just enrich your life just by experiencing just different things in different states. So yeah, absolutely. So, do you think you'd ever want to like write like a historical uh ghost novel or uh screenplay?

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Yeah, I would love to do that. Um, you know, I'm a little lazy when it comes to doing research, so I'd have to do my work as far as that, but I would love to do like an like a an old west or something even that took place in like like medieval Europe or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

It'd be very cool. And like add a horror element to it. Yeah, I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah, I'm actually working on a music project right now that's um inspired by the wars of the roses of medieval England. Um takes place, yeah, it takes place from the wars like during the Wars of the Roses, uh, like like the songs during the Wars of the Roses up until up until and kind of through the reign of King Henry VIII. So yeah, I've been working on that, and yeah, the songs are coming together nicely. So I've I've performed a couple of them uh live, the ones that are ready to be performed live. Right, you know, like the like it's like the songs are done, but they're not quite live material ready uh if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

But that sounds fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Yeah, thank you. But yeah, but I've been um working on on that, and that's another very fascinating time in history, and definitely, especially when we get into Henry VIII and um his split from the Church of England. I mean, that's that was definitely a very um a split from like the Catholic Church and starting the Church of England. That's what I meant to say. This is what happens when you do multiple um interviews in one night. But uh but yeah, but that was uh but that was another uh very pivotal time in history because it really it um because I I often wonder like what what might have happened if the Wars of the Roses might have ended differently, if the Yorks had won and Henry the Seventh did not become Henry the Seventh, if Richard III stayed on the throne, and how different would that be? I mean, we might be looking at a completely different royal family right now.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

It's like alternate history, that's so cool to think about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah, yeah. I think about that kind of stuff all the time. Just yeah, like how how different would that part of history had turned out? And like I said, I mean, we would probably be looking at a completely different royal family.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Yeah, it's really, really trippy when you think about it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

I hope you finish it. I hope because I would love to see that.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, I'm definitely, definitely planning on finishing it. So yeah, definitely working my way down and getting um kind of upgrading my uh my music, my home studio. And yeah, so just been updating that and while I I work on the songs and yeah, it's been it's been coming along. So yeah, yeah, cool. So uh where can people find you in your work?

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Oh yeah. Um, so I'm on social media, I'm on most platforms. I don't do X, but I am on Instagram, um, TikTok, Facebook, all that stuff. Um, you can find me at Nathan D. Ludwig anywhere. Just search that and I'll pop up. And uh also genre blast, that's all one word, genre blast.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:00

Books and and movies and the film festival were on social media too. Uh, so that's so two different accounts you can find me on.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Nice. And you said that the genre blast festival is um on Labor Day weekend.

SPEAKER_03 43:13

Yes, it's on Labor Day weekend at the Alamo Draft House in Winchester, Virginia, September 3rd to 6th. Uh, come on out and have a great time. Um, we watch movies all weekend. If you've never been to an Alamo Draft House, they serve food to your table while you're watching movies, beer and food and whatever you want to do. And it's a great time. It's like summer camp for movie creeps.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

I love it. I love it. So yeah, but definitely uh check Nathan out, check his workout, and uh wait for my review on consume. I yeah, I definitely can't wait to read that. And yeah, definitely wait for my review on that.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

So yes, excited.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Yeah, cool. So well, thank you so much, Nathan, for for coming on and for chatting with me a little bit more about your work. And yeah, it was definitely a very cool conversation.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Absolutely. Thank you for having me on, Tiffany. It was a lot of fun. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Yeah, no problem, and absolutely would love to have you on again um once you release um some of those new works that you talked about that you're working on. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

And if if not sooner, we'll see you at Horror Hotel again.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Yay! All right, so well, thank you again, Nathan, and thank you to everybody that's been tuning in and listening. And we drop a new episode every Friday, so be sure to tune in, unless I I state otherwise. There will always be a new episode on Fridays. And next week we have the Haunted Housewives on. So stay tuned for that. And then we also we have uh Nathan's friend and colleague, uh Paul Gromatico, coming on. So a lot of really cool guests coming up. And thank you for tuning in, and thank you again, Nathan, for coming on. And wherever you are and wherever, whenever you are listening to this, day or night, as you go about uh your day or your evening, please stay safe, stay fierce, but always stay spooky.