BONUS: Part 2! Even More Questions Comments and Confessions

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hello. Well, you asked for it. Here's a part two of the Q&A session. Some of these, I hope I'm not repeating.

I'm going to try not to, but last time I tried not to skip around too much. It last time I just had a few in a row that were very similar, so I skipped kind of towards the end, but this time I'm going to go in order. So if I answer anything twice, I apologize from, like, from last time. Hopefully not twice within the same episode, I hope I'm not that insane.

“Okay, so this one, this is, I couldn't remember where I left off last time.”

I think it's here, I think. This is which horror writers made you want to pursue writing horror, and who inspires you now.

Initially, when I first started writing horror, when I was very young,

it was Stephen King and Rice, bedgirl and Poe. They were all of my inspirations. I wanted to, I wanted to write like, and Rice mostly. With a touch of Ed girl and Poe, but with some of the modernity of some of King's stories. Yeah, I guess like an amalgamation of them all.

When I was a teenager, I definitely wrote in a way that was, it was too much trying to mimic other people's writing. And it does say who inspires you now.

“It's hard to say, since I've written horror, since I was very young, like, very young,”

I started writing horror a long time ago, and not saying it was good, not saying, I don't want this to come off as if I'm trying to posture myself as some sort of wonderkin to horror. I know, I just started attempting writing horror from a very young age. I feel like now, I have authors who I enjoy, but I don't know. I couldn't tell you who inspires me writing wise.

I'm more inspired by the world around me now. I guess, you know, I feel like that's not fully true, but I can't. Nobody comes to mind the way that the initial three did. Yeah, that is ing, that's not to say that I'm not inspired by others. I just can't think of any that we're like, I don't know, maybe there's initial three or just still my...

“Mount Rushmore. I think there are four people on Mount Rushmore, so I guess I would need to add a four,”

but there's just still knocking around in there. Me trying to become one of them. What kind of music are you into and what was the last artist you went to see live? So the last artist I went to see live was Baby No Money. It was a lot of fun.

I will say I had never heard of him before I went to this concert.

A friend invited me and I didn't want them to go alone because they're... their fiance could not go with them for scheduling reasons. And I was like, I'm just usually kind of down for everything these days, which is... It's new for me. I did not used to be this way. I was very much a very avoidant anti-social person, but these days, I'm not.

So I said, of course, I will go, and I did, and I had a fantastic time. It turns out I had heard a few of Baby No Money songs on TikTok. I just, I got a drink, and I danced, and I had a great time. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. For my favorite, though, I was much fun as I did have that.

I did go to a different concert in December.

That was absolutely incredible.

And that was the K-Rock, almost acoustic Christmas at the K-F Warham. That was another one I was invited to, by my friends, the Shans.

People who live in Southern California know what K-Rock is. It's like the biggest rock radio station. And every year they put on a concert called, almost acoustic Christmas. And this year the lineup was, I have the lineup in front of me. All American rejects, evanescence, pop a roach, the paradox, rise against social distortion.

Third, I blind, wet leg, yellow card.

I mean, it was essentially my youth in a concert, so I, and I had a blast. Seeing, I'm not a big concert gore. I have nothing against concerts, in fact.

“Honestly, I probably, if you would have asked me even a year ago, if I liked concerts,”

I probably would have said no, not really. But after going to a few pretty close together, I think I love concerts. The old, almost acoustic Christmas was so fun. Plus getting to see abanescence live. I mean, they went on at like 10 30 pm.

And it was transcendent. Speaking of that last question, where I talked about, like, writing horror from a young age. I remember I vivid, some of my favorite memories are sitting at my little computer. Clickety-clacketing away on the specific story that I wrote. That I missed so much.

I miss it so much. I wish I had a copy still. It was unfortunately destroyed by someone. I don't. I still couldn't tell you why.

It was, anyway, we're not going to get into that. My only copy was destroyed though. And I have this memory of writing the final scene of, or like the climactic scene of that. And blurring evanescence on my stereo.

And it was just like I was writing to the music. The story is probably not good. If somehow a copy found itself to, or found its way to my, to me somehow, I'm sure it's not good. But it was, it's one of my core memories.

And one of my core memories is of writing and writing to have an essence.

So going to this concert, seeing them live was, oh my God, it was incredible.

I mean, seeing all of it, it was just, it was really cool. Like third eye blind has just been around forever. And it's just neat to see them. And all of them sounded great. It was just such a cool, cool moment.

“Even if you have to pay $50 for parking at the key of form.”

We'll not add the key of form. I had to park down the street because the key of form also does not have enough parking. Hashtag just LA things. Whoops, I started to move on to the next question. I thought this question actually asked what kind of music am I into.

And I'm into like every thing. I have phases like last month. I was really into going on really long walks, listening to like 90s rap, 90s early 2000s rap. Sometimes I'll go through faces, right? Only listen to musicals.

Like I have a certain musicals playlist that I listen to, like, it's basically like the same like five musicals. And sometimes I will go through other phases. I just go through phases of, I'm very open to a lot of stuff. Oh, like last time I was driving home from my family's.

For my hometown, which is like a four, four and a half hour drive. I listen to old country, like old old country, like back in the day. Hank William senior type old country when they still talked about cowboys. I love like like poncho and lefty is one of my favorite songs.

I've always wanted to like write a story based on that.

I mean, the song is a story in of itself and like Marty Robbins. And like all that really old country, about cowboys essentially. I'm not as, I don't, I don't think I've ever listened to any new country. Other than it just being around sometimes. But my country loving it.

Like I like to open just stuff in the 90s.

“I remember because my mom listened to it a lot, but I really love old old country.”

And I'll go through a phase where like, I just listen to that for a whole day while driving, running around doing errands. And really, I've had a playlist. And basically like the offspring radio on Spotify. Like it's the offspring and green day and Lincoln Park.

System of a down, my chemical romance. Of course, Olympus, a sublime, a love sublime. And so that I've been listening to a lot of that just the offspring radio. That's what I've been into lately. Basically, yeah, I kind of, I just, I go through all my playlist.

So that doesn't super give you a great answer. Everything. It's funny. A lot of people, I guess, will usually say like everything except rap and country. I would even listen to late.

I'm sure I'll go through like a polka phase at some point. I have a very eclectic music taste. Okay, next question. I am a neurodiverse aspiring writer. I am currently unmedicated and I struggle with consistency and motivation.

“Do you have any tips on how to stay focused and consistent when writing?”

I wish I had healthy ways to stay focused and consistent. I'm also unmedicated currently. And as many know, I have ADHD. I was diagnosed as a child. One of the few girls, I guess.

I, so funny. I didn't know until I was older that it was less common for girls to be diagnosed as children. Because I was one of the girls. I got diagnosed as a child. So that was news to me when I got older.

But I was medicated for a long time when I was a kid and a teenager. But I'm not now. And to stay focused, honestly, I'm not a very focused person. Ask anyone I know. I get off.

I mean, listen to any podcast that isn't this one that I've ever been on. I, I talk in tangents. I, I, I am not a very, I do stay focused mainly because I have to just for my livelihood. And I'm very hard on myself mentally.

“That's why I said initially, like, I don't know if I have any healthy ways to tell you to stay focused.”

I, I, oh, I'm just really like mean to myself, honestly. Like, it's what I do. I'm not saying to do this. I'm not even giving you examples.

But it's basically the only way that I've learned to go.

It's not good. Don't listen to me. This isn't advice. You did ask for tips. Tips, I guess.

Just, you have to have a passion for it. And it's really hard to sit and write and consistency. If you find, if someone else gives you tips on consistency, can you come back and give them to me? Because I don't, I'm not, and I don't have any, I'm so sorry. Did I mention up top that it's 100 degrees here today?

And you may hear the white noise of my air conditioner kicking on and off. I am, I apologize. I actually love the noise of the sound of, like, an air conditioner or a fan or something. There's this one ASMR, listen to, and she has, like, a fan. A big, like, fan, she moves and, or not fan.

“It's like, I think it's an air purifier, actually.”

But she moves it, like, in and out of the microphone. And it's, like, the most soothing thing to me. But I do have my air conditioner on. So if you hear that, that is what that is. What fuels your passion for horror related stuff?

It's the next question. I don't know.

I, as I've mentioned, it's, always been there.

It's always been there. It's always been there. My mother's side of the family is very, the, the big believers in the paranormal. So I think a little bit of that, it's always been linked to horror. Like, she's always watched, like, ghost movies.

She loves, like, ghost horror movies. She's not really into anything else, but that type of thing. And it's just always been there. Like, even when we were really young, my brother and I, because my brother is into it as well. Not as much as me, but he's more into the paranormal, like, aspect of it.

But my mom, like, would buy us, like, Edgar Allan Poe books. I remember we had this, like, set of books. We were young. And, like, she, like, specifically showed us the Edgar Allan Poe books back in the 90s. You would order, like, sets of books from the TV.

And it would be, like, sets of classics, but they were, like, kind of edited for children. Anyway, she specifically showed us the Edgar Allan Poe one because she loved Edgar Allan Poe. And my brother and I were just really into, like, scary stuff.

We would always love, like, the Halloween versions of our cartoons.

Or, like, if there's ever, like, a ghost or whatever episode of our, like, kid shows, you know. And so I don't know what fuels it. I feel a little on the outskirts of things in the horror community. Because, for instance, like, I don't, I don't have a lot of, like, horror merchandise. I'm not really into, like, shirts with, like, Freddy Krueger's face on it or anything like that.

And it's just, it's not for any reasons. I don't do it to be, contrary and/or, or, like, different.

And so even around my home, you, you can see the background and all of my YouTube videos. It's just, it's a bunch of old stuff. It's, I love antique and things.

And I remember growing up, I was always, like, I want to, I want to live, I want to live, like, I'm in a horror movie.

Not like I'm a fan of a horror movie. I remember having that thought a lot as it, like, growing up. So it's just always been there. I don't know what fuels it. Something in my DNA, who knows, but it's, it's just always been there.

And it hasn't even ever come in phases. It's just always been here. And I just find a real comfort and beauty in horror that I just never fully get from other genres. Next one, not a question, but just popping in to tell you, I have a ginormous crush on you. That's all good day. Thank you.

Next is, I have always dreamed of writing a good scary story.

We've all heard tips, like, write what you know.

“But what other tips do you have for writers looking to dive into the horror genre for the first time?”

Love the podcast and recipes forever. Thank you so much. I'm so glad you love the podcast and the recipes. Let's see, tips for writing in the horror genre for the first time. Wow, it's so funny. None of these. I don't think these are, these are all clearly written by different people. But there's a theme here. So going back, I've always written horror.

I've always written scary stories. So I don't know how to delve into it. Other than tips I do have are scaring yourself. Like sitting there by yourself and scaring yourself. Like the charred man is one of the best examples I can give. And maybe if you're newer to the show, the charred man is a story. I wrote, it's one of the first episodes. It was also on the no sleep podcast.

It was, it's also on Reddit. I wrote it before Reddit. But the way I thought of the charred man was, I had this old apartment.

“And the way that it was situated was, there was this teeny little, you honestly useless patio.”

You couldn't do anything. But there were sliding glass doors going to this tiny little useless patio. And so, you know, at night, and the way that my TV was, you would kind of be, if you were looking at the TV, the sliding glass doors were also in your line of sight. So I would be sitting there at night, and there was one night where I just scared the shit out of myself. I was looking past the TV and I was like, what if I saw this thing?

And the image of what I then ended up describing as the charred man came to my mind. I don't know why. It's just this thing that I thought of. And I was like, what if I just looked over, and it was just there, what would I do, what do you do? And I was by myself. And so I was like, who do you, where do I go, you know? And so I just thought of, like, how terrifying that would be.

There were parts of Lyme's that were also like that. There was a particular part near the end of Lyme's, where we find out what happened to Robbie, that I had heard about in a certain, like true crime case. And I thought it was horrifying. And so I kind of incorporated that.

Is things that do scare me, things that really affect me. I don't necessarily self-insert for my protagonists. I don't believe I've ever done that.

I can't say never. Again, hindsight, I've talked about hindsight looking back at my work

and being like, oh, there was my subconscious. But I don't really find much enjoyment in self-insertion and, like, main characters.

“Honestly, I've got such a vivid imagination.”

And I had to, like, maladaptive daydreaming ever since I was a child. So, like, I don't need to self-insert. I have my own thing going on in my head. I have my own storyline going on. But there's no one's business, okay? It changes from, you know, it changes over the years, but it's not your business.

But anyway, so I don't really self-insert. So I don't mean, like, what scares you. And then, so, I mean, some people do very well. There's a whole website called A03, where self-inserting your self as a character is your, is the bread and butter over there.

And it's still like full. But I'm trying to say, you don't have to, like, like, this is what scares me, so this is what this character, this character needs to be me. If that makes any sense, this is really complicated. I teaching, I don't think, is my strong suit.

But I think doing these Q&As when I get asked for advice or tips,

it's incredibly apparent. I don't think I'm very good at teaching. I'm so sorry. I hope any of this advice is good or helpful that I've given throughout this whole episode.

But it's so hard to put what's in my brain into words, unless I'm putting it into a story. So tips. Yeah, and like you said, right, what you know. Okay, so this is going to get a little crazy.

Right, what you know, of course, you can write about like your own occupation. I mean, how many poor novels have you read? Where the protagonist is a novelist, right? It gets a little old, at least to me.

I get a little, like, I realize a little bit.

I don't think it's to the point where the, you know,

“you need to write exactly what you know.”

But I feel like you can find your style in that way, and it's not so literal of a phrase, you know. Like, I love people. I find people fascinating. I've told you all of many times,

if you find me at a work convention. I will talk your ear off. I find people fascinating. I love people watching. I could sit on a bench in a crowded place for an entire day.

And eat, drop, and people watch. I love it. The only thing I do miss from working like retail jobs is interacting

with different types of people.

Obviously, it's also a nightmare most of the time. But it's still fascinating. And different coworkers and things. So, what I know is that I love people,

“and I love the trivialities of being a person in the world,”

and quirks, and things like that. So, a lot of my stories have started ended up becoming. Character studies, maybe that's too strong of a term to give it myself. But, they're about people.

Think of frosting as one of my most popular stories. It's about annoying coworkers. And it's about someone who snaps. Whether she's justified in her snapping is up to interpretation.

But, you know, all these people in the reason I feel like people do. They like my stories. It's because I write what I know. I write people.

I feel like I do know people pretty well. And so, in that way, I'm writing what I know. Does that make any sense?

“Again, I don't know if I'm good at this.”

This tips and tricks thing. And again, people may not be your thing. Like, I'm terrible at naming characters. I'm terrible at describing physical descriptions. You may notice most of my characters do not get described physically.

For when I like people to just use their own imaginations. And, you know, put in their own images as puzzle pieces. Some of them, ideally, are a celly. She has some pretty distinct physical attributes. Because of what she's been through.

And, I would also say this is actually prompted me to ask. I would love to know if there are any of my stories that people love. What do you think the characters look like? What do they look like to you? I bet they look so different to different people.

So I would love to hear in the comments or wherever. What do some of my characters look like to you? If any are something that really stood out to you in your brain, you have like a real picture of them. It's hard to hijack your question to ask my own question of the audience.

Okay, next is, I don't have a question. But I wanted to tell you that as someone who has listened to you scary to sleep for years, I'm so excited for you and how you are absolutely killing it. You deserve every ounce of the success you are having. Bloody disgusting.

While fantastic is lucky to have you, this is so kind of you to say. I work a lot and I'm really trying to build a life. You know, a life for myself. This isn't just a side gay. This is my whole life.

This is my whole livelihood. And I need to hear that sometimes. It's as thank you. I don't have someone in the household to be like, you're doing great champ, you know.

So it's a really nice to hear that. I appreciate it. And you can tell Bloody disgusting any time you like that you think they're lucky to have me.

Uh, it's so, you don't have to do that.

But if you did, it wouldn't, I wouldn't be mad about it. Next, hey, would you like to get a beer and talk about skin at how skin a marine is one of the best movies of the last decade. That sounds like a dream. What a dream after noon.

I've been getting a lot of flag for my love of skin a wrinkly lately. If you listen to the bloody disgusting podcast, we had hometown ghost stories on. They're great. I loved them.

But oh boy, when they found out I like skin a marine. Did I get roasted? I've been roasted a couple. There's like another show that was on recently too, where I got roasted about it.

People, I never claim to have good taste in horror movies.

I just said I love horror movies, and I also think skin a marine ghost fantastic. But yes, that sounds lovely. I don't know who you are, this is probably not going to happen, but hypothetically, yeah, that sounds great.

Next, if you could only watch one horror movie for the rest of your life, what movie would it be? I thought about this one already, so I have a quick answer and it is Pan's Labyrinth. I don't know if Mr. Del Toro himself would consider it a horror movie.

“I think he's maybe said it's not before.”

However, I consider it one, and also my Spanish would improve exponentially, and my grandma would be so happy about that. Less it's just beautiful to look at. I mean, I could just watch it over and over.

Hi Shelby, I love your show so much. Thank you for everything you do. I hope you realize how many people you help with this show. That's really nice of you to say. Anyways, what are your top three video games?

If you have any, I do. My top three, these are the three games I've put the most time into, so I'm assuming for myself, these would be my top games because I spent so much time in them in their worlds, and that would be probably number three would be fallout for.

Number two would be Red Dead Redemption and number one would be the Witcher 3. I'm still playing Witcher right now. And yeah, those are my top three. There's also games though that I really love that like stuck with me, but I didn't put as much time into them because they're their shorter games.

Like there's one called what remains of Edith Finch. If you ever come across that on like steam or PlayStation,

“I think that one's on sale pretty often.”

It's a beautiful, it's a short game. Beautifully done. The story has stuck with me for years.

I put it here. I put it when it first came out years ago,

and amazing game. And then like if you like horror, like the fears to fathom games are so much fun. They're so spooky, like playing by yourself at night. Oh my god, they're so scary, but they're again, they're really short, so it's hard to put in my top three, just because the other three are like big,

you know, sandbox games where you spend so much time. And so yeah, those are my top three. Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout 4. Are there any fans submitted true horror tales that have really stuck with you? Oh, and I can't think of any right now.

I know they do, though. They usually stick with me for like that week or like that evening. Anything like the shadow monsters, there's been, there have been some there.

“I don't think I remember them because I've like memory hold them on purpose.”

Like there's some that I will read, and I'll be getting chills and like looking over my shoulder. I've mentioned it. I have a big phantom of the opera poster by my desk. The Carl Hamlee, like it's the long chainie one, the old old one, and it's huge. And a lot of it is like dark colored, like black and red, and so at night it just becomes like a mirror. And I can see behind me, and it, I can't look at it while I'm reading some of those stories.

So I just know there's going to be someone behind me. It's so scary. Sometimes clear, I will get up on the back of my office chair, and she'll look at herself, at least I've fucking, I gotta tell myself that, she'll see herself in the reflection and she'll react to it kind of. And I'm like, she's just, she's just seeing her own reflection and she's reacting to that, because I feel like she can see something. But this wasn't fan submitted, this was the scariest, lately true horror that has stuck with me.

Well, no, some of the more spanned submitted to this does count, the fucking Santa Claus stories. The Santa Claus stories, you guys, why I was on night late recently, my friend Princess show.

Those were really scary. I was waiting for Tolpa, no, we decided Edgar Gore Santa Claus to appear in my living room and be like, "Bitch, are you talking shit?"

Like something, I was so scared of Santa Claus. I'm scared of Santa Claus now, you guys. Like the Edgar Gore version. I don't know, it's very scary. Yeah, you can laugh, you can laugh, it's okay. This one got submitted a couple times, I don't know, it's by the same person. But why no setup of the atmosphere you did in a previous dark reddit?

It was like we went to the fair if I'm not wrong. It was so great, and I would love to hear more episodes like that.

“I think it could work for true horror too. I don't remember that, and I've done so many dark reddits by this point, but I'm sure I think maybe one time I had fun with it and made it more immersive.”

And that probably was cool, sometimes I'm afraid they're a little cheesy, and I'm afraid of the intros these days. I got so much hate for a while about the long intros that I've really tried to like tighten up those intros and just jump into the content and then leave the other stuff for the end. But I'll have to find if you know what episode that was, let me know because I'd love to go re-listen and hear what I did. What's your favorite song lately? I would say Doomsday Blue by BamBee Thug. I actually haven't really listened to anything else they've done. I don't know much about them, but that song is I will listen to it over and over and over again. There's something about it.

It scratches an itch in my brain that is so satisfying, but again, that's Doomsday Blue by BamBee Thug.

“Do you have any true crime stories that hit different because it feels close to home? Mine is the Jason Sweeney murder in Philly. I never met him, but we were the same age, same neighborhood.”

We were a lot of the same people, then his friends brutally killed him. It was a huge deal here. And then I can think of my dad worked in law enforcement, so I heard about a lot of cases and things growing up, so I started to pick out like one exactly. So I can't know, I can't think of a singular one, but I did grow up around a lot of true crime before it was like a thing because of the nature of my dad's job. Yeah, hello, this one starts hello, so I guess you're from a land far away, I won't guess which one, but from a land far away.

I just wanted to say that I love you and the show have been listening since late 2020 and it feels like I've been with you through so much, both in my life and in yours from what you tell us hello, is that creepy? I hope not. I don't think that's creepy at all. You have been with me for a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, what a different life I lead, what a different person I am these days, and I'm sure you are as well. And I have that with some, like I met a lot of friends, a lot of my friends, through the last podcast on the left Facebook group, so I was a huge fan of last podcast on the left.

Met all these people in this Facebook group and now some of them are like my IRL friend, the friend I went to with the to the baby, no money concert, her and her fiance, met them through this podcast and left groups, so I understand what it's like to have like a podcast or some sort of creator and it feels like they've been with you through so much. So I totally get it. Yeah, how is your weekend going so far? As I'm reading this, it's not the weekend. It is Wednesday.

“But my week is going pretty good, so thanks for asking, how is yours?”

As, and, oh, this is the next one, by the way, as an insomnia from birth, yes, literally, your show has been helping me sleep for months now. It's my perfect way to unwind from the day as someone who takes comfort in the horror genre, sending love from Chicago. I appreciate that. I also take comfort in the horror genre, and I would love to go back to Chicago someday. I have only been once for the live show I did a few years ago with the creepy podcast and SCP archives. When I didn't really get to see Chicago, I basically saw my hotel room and the music box theater. Oh, and Regley Field, because I was across the street from Regley Field. I didn't get to go to a game though, it was off season. But I haven't seen anything else in Chicago.

And I'd love to go back, not that you were inviting me. You're like, whoa, come on, I'm strong. No, I'm just saying I would love to go back at some point. Okay, next, no crimes committed yet. My question is, if you were a serial killer, what would your style be? Do you torture like BTK guns knives, et cetera?

It is more intact than it once was. I definitely would have had an answer for you years ago, but these days, I don't know. I just, I don't, I'm sorry.

“Oh, this is another one. I think I answered this already last time and I mentioned there was asked a few times in different ways. How is Clara? She's great. She's doing great. Would you ever get a second cat, a dog?”

I would love to. I answered this last time. So really quickly, I would love to. I need more space. So again, if you want to buy me that haunted mansion, can get another cat and a dog. Next is, do you still do any acting? No, I assume you mean like the traditional sense in on-screen. I didn't even back then. I know I've been in some stuff like rest-development, which I've mentioned a million times and a lot of you have seen me and I sometimes will get messages where you've seen me and modern family.

I did extra work for many years. So I was in a lot of TV and movies like a lot like every day would practically be a new production that you'd be on. Or sometimes it'd be like once upon a time in Hollywood, I was on set for like a week and a half. Same with like Ford versus Ferrari. Those big budget things.

“You would be at the same place for a long time. But I never auditioned for anything. I never set out to be an actor.”

If I'm going to be totally honest with you, it's because it looked too scary, not the acting part.

Acting doesn't scare me one bit. Like it's no problem for me. I don't know. I enjoy it. It's never been scary to me.

But it's the whole rigameral around it. The auditioning, finding a manager, becoming sag. It's like a whole thing. And then on top of that, you're really not making enough money to live at all. Doing background, you meet a lot of... or being an extra in the industry. It's called background and you say, doing background. You meet a lot of different people from different walks of life. And I met a lot of really struggling actors and my hats off to them to have the pat. I didn't have the passion for acting to be willing to do all that, honestly. I liked acting when I got to do it.

I liked the fun. It's called featured extras. What I would do if you've seen me in something. You would get paid a little extra money that day.

So that's pretty cool. But anyway, whenever I would be that, I never auditioned for anything. I had a call service who would send me out to jobs.

They had my measurements, they had my pictures, they had my hair color, my eye color, all the different jobs I'd done. You even had to send in what wardrobe you had, like if you owned a wedding dress or if you owned roller skates or what skills you had.

“Could you do yoga? And if you could do yoga, could you do it for 12 straight hours? Because that's how long a filming day is.”

Could you swim where you're willing to work at night? For night shoots, where you're willing to smoke fake cigarettes, where you're willing to... Just a whole laundry list of things. Where you willing to cut your hair was a big one. And so they would send me out to jobs. And every single time, the rest of development was probably my most on-screen thing. I had no fucking idea I was doing that until I showed up that day, until I showed up that day. They were like, "You're the girl!" And I was like, "What girl?" And they were like, "We got a, and I have tattoos that are visible in a bikini in the show I'm in a bikini."

And so they were like, "Pist at me!" Because they were like, "Well, you have tattoos because a lot of times they wanted you to not have tattoos because they have to cover them." So then they were pissed at me, and they had me in the makeup trailer covering my tattoos. I probably told the story before. And so I met Michael Sarah. Well, so one of my tattoos is on my, the front of my, like, by my hip bone, like on the front of my hip bone. Like, it sits like right above my underwear. It's like half cut. It's an old, it's like an American traditional swallow.

And I was like, "Had my hips up, thrust up." I was like, "Had my back in the makeup chair in the seat part with my hips up in the air, in a bikini." And it was like 5 a.m. and it was freezing. We were in Marina del Rey. And they were covering this fucking tattoo that I didn't know I was even, I didn't know. And Michael Sarah walks in and was so kind. He was so nice. He was like, "Oh, I guess we're seeing partners today. He was so nice."

And he made them stop production at one point because he was like, "She's been in the pool too long. She needs to be able to come out and take a break."

“Because extras are like the lowest of the low on set. Like you're treated like, "Absolutely." Like some of the stuff that happened to me on these sets. Like you would be shocked.”

Like you're treated like absolute dog shit. They will talk to you in any, any way. Oh my god, they'll talk to you in any way. But he was very kind. He and the director tried to give me lines, but I wasn't sag at the time. I'm still not sag. I'm sag. It's what's called a must-join actor. People in the industry out there know what I'm talking about. I got a letter that was like, "Hey, you've done too many sag projects without actually being sag. You better join. But that was years ago." And I had no reason to really join sag because again, not really, not really an actor.

I would, again, I would love to, but the whole game of it is, it looks exhausting. You really have to have a passion for it. And my hat, all my hats, my clothes, my shoes, everything's off for actors and the dedication they put into their craft. Because it is a lot. Beside water, what is your favorite beverage? That's fun. Let's see. I have many, I love beverages. I love beverages. I love coffee, hot and cold. I love diet coke.

Every day, I have a coffee and a diet coke. Sometimes I don't have, well, sometimes I don't have one or the other, but most days I have a coffee and a diet coke. Usually not at the same time, coffee in the morning. Be it cold. Sometimes I make a little latte or a merit and usually a merit-cono because I don't like that much milk. With some instant espresso, I don't have an espresso maker. I would love one, but I don't have one. Especially as I used to be a barista. I used to love making really good espresso drinks.

Or just drip coffee. I love cheap. I love fucking love cheap ass diner coffee. Like shitty diner coffee. I love it so much. I love it more than fancy coffee. You know, I've had every fancy coffee.

Not every fancy coffee. I've never had that one that gets pooped out by that wild cat or whatever.

But I have had many fancy coffees and I go back, always go back to shitty coffee.

“I drink folders every day. That's what I drink.”

And you get me into diners or some of my favorite places in the world. You get me in a diner, the cup of shitty diner coffee. Magic. Magic, so yeah, coffee, diet coke. I love iced tea. Like right now I made. I actually made a really good iced tea today. That's like tropical. I combine three different teas. Brute them, chilled it. It's like one of them's pineapple mango. One of them is like a passion fruit.

And then I did a couple black, just plain black tea bags. Amazing iced tea.

And also beer. I love beer. I love blonde beer. I love most beer. I'm not a big IPA gal. I will say. Just not, but I love beer. So those are all my favorite beverages. Thank you for asking. I don't know if anyone's ever asked me what my favorite beverage is before. Oh, also love. An iced latte with coconut milk. I drink dairy. I have no problems with dairy. Which is sometimes an iced latte with coconut milk on a hot day. Beautiful, beautiful, love it.

And if you ever see me at a convention, if you brought me a diet coke, you would be my best friend for life. So many of these conventions centers too have gone to where they only carry Pepsi products, but you also can't bring in outside beverages. And I'm sorry. I hate diet Pepsi. I even, oh, I'm okay with regular Pepsi, but I don't really drink regular sodas anymore. I hate diet Pepsi. I only like diet coke or Coke zero, I'll do too as well. I don't know why these conventions centers. I don't understand.

Next one is who were you? And I passed life. My family thinks I would have been a serial killer in a past life.

“Did we cover past lives last time, whether I believe in them or not, I think you may have.”

I don't know, but I think I mentioned last time that I used to do the past life progression videos on YouTube to try to find out what my past life was because for a while was like really into it. And I swear every time I looked down and I was wearing leather shoes and there was dirt. Pretty sure I was like, if there are past lives, I'm pretty sure I was like a peasant in most of them. And because of my current life and my auto-diodactic nature, that's probably not a correct way to phrase that.

Ironically, but because of that, I think maybe I was someone very learning in a past life.

I'm not very good at school, but I love learning, and I love reading, and yeah, I don't.

Maybe some sort of nutty professor in some sort of life, probably it hasn't in a lot of them, though. I won't lie. This is fun, though. Like, okay, you guys know me pretty well by now.

“I'm a pretty open book. What do you think I was in a past life?”

I'm asking so many questions, what do you think I was in a past life judging based on who, how you know me today? I want to know, tell me. I'm really interested to hear that. What is your favorite stories to receive and read from your submissions? Proofread ones. That may be simplistic. I can't tell you what subject matter-wise I like a lot of different things.

I'm always in different moods for things, but stories that have been proofread would be

excellent. I highly suggest you read your stories out loud, even if it feels crazy. Just read it out loud, not like just reread it with your eyes, reread it, say the words out loud. You'll find your spelling errors, and not just spelling the grammatical errors. You'll also find, this is a big peep of mine. Whenever there's someone, there's like a character. I'll just use my own name, Shelby.

Shelby saw the red door, and then Shelby decided to walk towards the red door, and then Shelby said, "Maybe I shouldn't go to this red door." She thought,

"No, Shelby thought. It's like you overuse their name in the paragraph. I hate that too."

You asked what I like, and I told you what I hate.

“I love it when people don't do that. There you go. That's what I like.”

How did you learn to create sound effects and design soundscapes? I taught myself. I went to Good ol' YouTube University. Yeah, I learned how to do it myself. I downloaded the only free software I could find. I still use her today, and I started watching YouTube every time. I would come to a new type of thing I wanted to do, like an echo or reverb or whatever effect I wanted to do.

Or like someone being on the telephone. I would then look it up, and over the years I've just acquired all of these skills. I wouldn't compare myself to an actual sound designer, but I have acquired a lot of skills. I think, and when it comes to soundscapes and things, I got really into fully for a while. I was wanted to be a fully artist. Being a background, one time I was at Universal,

and I actually had to walk by the fully building and the big doors were open, and they were working on something, and I was like, oh, I would love to do that for a living. I would love to be a fully artist, and if you go to freesound.org, I've mentioned this before. I have an account there, and it's Shelby Shark, and you can find some of my sound effects. I haven't uploaded there in a long time, but there's still a lot of, you can hear me brushing my teeth.

Eating toast, one of the squeaky floorboards for my old apartment. I have a lot of sounds there. I have some, like, just like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." You know, like, horror, ambience, kind of stuff. I should do that more. I'm just doing that. But yeah, I'm also, I'm also off top. Yeah. Just wanted to say that I greatly enjoy your writing and how you perform stories you have written. There's an extra, to the horror that feels extra visceral.

“Thank you. That comes down to cadence. I think another genre of person that I have a lot of respect for is audio book narrators.”

So people write in so many different ways. Obviously, we all have different kind of cadences to the way we speak and to the way we write. So one reason I think it's just a little more youth when I write it, because I'm reading the way I think I think in this way. So it's easier for me to really, like, dig in. There have been some stories that are such great stories. And it is no fault of the author. It is just on me. The way they write doesn't match with the cadence that I think and express in. So I will, like, have a really tough time getting through those particular scripts or stories.

Because it's like, I'm having to find the rhythm of the way the author is speaking by speaking a lot. Going in, I said, before read your stories out loud. And you'll find that you have a rhythm. And this is not a thing to improve or change. Everyone needs to have their own rhythm. There's no problem with having a different rhythm in the way I speak. I need to adapt better. And I think I've gotten better at it over the years.

And I think that's a beautiful skill to have and to acquire and to hone over the years.

And I feel like I've started honing it in, but that is why my stories have an extra own. It isn't even because I prefer the story. It is because of the cadence of the way my brain goes. What is a horror situation? You would like to experience at least once in your life. Seeing a full-bodied apparition, that is what I would like to do.

Hi Shelby, this isn't really a question, but I'd love if you replied to it in the episode.

I've been watching you since I was around 13 and I'm 16 now. I want you to know that by listening to your podcasts,

“you honestly helped me through a really rough time even if you don't know it.”

I appreciate that. And that's one thing that's so crazy about the show being around for so long, like the time just snuck up on me. I have had other people who were like, "I started listening to you from this age, and now I'm this age." And I'm like, "Oh my God, I'm a goodness, goodness. I have grown, you have grown, and I have grown, and we've all grown together different points of our lives." And I think that's beautiful. I'm also sorry because I feel like some of my subject matter isn't maybe. It isn't appropriate for 13-year-olds, so my bad, but I also thank you for sticking around, and I hope you're doing much better now.

I hope you're over that rough time, and I'll be here. I'll be here.

“Ooh, okay, so I asked for questions, comments, and confessions if you remember.”

And I didn't get really any confessions, but I did get this, and I have some things to say about it. I got laid off before Christmas and haven't told my wife yet, but my side gig is paying the bill, so I'm hoping I can find new work and can pretend nothing ever happened. You go tell your wife right now. Go tell your wife. I have tried to keep some things just a little private from my previous life. But this happened to me. However, I will say you are doing one better because you say your side gig is paying the bill, so that's great.

That's fantastic. I wasn't so lucky with my spouse, but to find out that you have been lied to, because lying by omission is a lie, is so devastating. It can be, and I promise you, it is, as devastating. To some people, I am one of those people, not saying everyone, I am one of those people, as cheating, because that has to do, I have a lot of financial insecurity, and so when it comes to lying about employment and not coming to me and letting us come up with a plan of action, it shows that you didn't trust me first of all.

And second of all, you selfishly chose your own comfort over me getting to choose what I do for myself, the next steps I do for myself.

I'm putting myself in your spouse's shoes right now, and you are, you did say wife, your wife's shoes right now, because you're basically, I mean, I'm glad your side gig is paying the bill, so it's great.

“And I do hope you find another gig. I hope you even have by now. This is, I think this was sent in quite a while ago. Tell them, it's not fair to them to not know, to not be able to make their own decisions in the situation.”

If being married, you are a partnership, and that includes financials, but leave me as someone who went through a divorce, that will matter later. Stuff like that matters later. So they deserve to know, and honestly, legally, they deserve to know things like this. I'm not going to get to into the nitty gritty, but they do. So tell your wife about it. Let her make her own decision on how to handle the situation. I mean, I don't know your whole situation. Don't come at me if it's like, well, what if this and what if all these like hypothetical, I don't know your situation.

But you have not given me enough information to think there's a big scary reason why you shouldn't tell your wife other than you just haven't. So please, just have an honest conversation. This isn't cool. It's not cool to leave someone in the dark about their, one half of their entire financial future, essentially. Sorry to, sorry to go so hard. It's just I have literally been in your wife's situation. Again, a little better, a little better in yours because you are paying some bills and you do have money coming in.

I was not so lucky, and it is devastating, and it is really hard to come back from. It is you waste years of your life trying to come back from it sometimes, and especially when you have not been even given the opportunity to try to fix it or try to all because of someone's own pride.

Which pairs beautifully, which pairs perfectly with your beautiful personality? I have a serious crush on you. Oh, and super talented writer. Love your stories. Well, aren't you just the flat most biggest flatter? Most biggest flatter. You just called me a talented writer. Look at me.

Thank you. That is nice to hear. Look, I'm not immune to flattery at all. I've never, I've always said that. I love it. I love adulation as much as the next guy. I'll say it.

I watch that new, or not new, but the Maria Colis movie starring Angelina Jolie and there's a scene where Maria is like, I'm going to the, I'm going to the cafe downstairs. I want to be a Dord.

“And, yeah, I get that. I was like, yes, Maria, I understand that. I get it. She also lived alone. She, I mean, she had like a butler and a maid, but like, I don't have the I have a cat, not a butler and a maid. She had little dogs, I think.”

So like, but I get it, you know, sometimes you just want to feel a Dord. You don't get it all the time. So yeah. So the next several are smart. I won't subject you to those.

So we'll skip and we'll scroll and we'll scroll and we'll scroll. Those are probably all sent in by the same person because it looks like they were rapidly sent in at the same time. Okay, here we are. I am writing a novel and wondering if you'd like to read the first draft of part one. I'm not saying I would not like to, but I don't have time to. I'm actually glad I just read this because a friend of mine sent me the script for a short film they're doing and I have not read that.

“Let's see, first person or second question whenever that was asked about staying focused.”

I'll take any tips. So no, please don't, I'm not in any sort of way. I'm sure it's wonderful. I just do not have the time at the moment to read any first drafts and give any notes at this moment.

But I think, thank you for thinking of me because that I do not take it lightly that you would have wanted my feedback or I think that's what you would want. You just said if I'd like to read the first part, first draft of part one, but I'm just making assumptions. So yeah, I'm unfortunately not just not able to do that at the moment.

“How do you deal with self-doubt? I'm sure it took a lot of courage to start a podcast and branch out into a new career. How did you navigate the anxiety that inevitably came with this?”

You know, it was definitely just kind of jumping off into for one, I didn't think anyone would ever listen to it. So I wasn't that worried. I remember pulling out my phone. I literally, I've told this before. I, my first host, I audio them. I emailed them. The first time I started getting a lot of listeners. Generally, like genuinely asking them to fix my account because it was broken. It was glitched because there was no way I had thousands of listeners, like I asked them to fix it and see what the glitch was.

So I just thought, you know, it's kind of a joke now on like TikTok like I didn't think this would blow up. That's how I felt about my podcast. It was more of a way for me to get out, put my short stories in a place, so maybe I could, I was kind of like, oh, well, maybe I could send these audio versions of my short stories to publishers. It was not that's not, you get published. But I didn't know that at the time, so it was like, well, maybe if I'm different, I can do that. And so it was like kind of a, the podcast was like a, almost secondary to all my other goals, which was eventually writing a novel or putting together an anthology book.

This though, how did you navigate the anxiety that I've really came with this, you know, just grow thicker skin. I came from a lot of different jobs and things to doing background where people aren't exactly gentle with your, with their words towards you. So that helped, but, you know, reviews can be cool. I've gone through phases where I can't read reviews. I have, and I don't think I've read my Apple reviews in a long time, just because sometimes they would be those get those would really sting. I don't, I don't know why.

And I have a few friends who are very, very big podcasters. I won't name them because that's their own business, but they don't read reviews either.

It's gotten a little easier, but there's an anxiety. The initial anxiety is what people close to you will think. And then that grows into what the masses think and retaining those masses, and it becomes a different type of anxiety. But you know, you just have to, there's like a bit of advice I saw a long time ago. I don't know. I might have mentioned this in the first part of the Q&A already because it's one of my favorite bits. It's like right like your parents are never going to read it.

“And that's kind of goes for like content creation. It works until it's silly until it's not. It's laughable until it's not. So I think I don't know if that's the exact anxiety you're talking about.”

There's different anxieties now, like lack of time, finances, and trying not to put all your eggs in one basket, wanting to achieve different dreams with, you know, what you've built. Like I said, my goal, my whole life has been to write a novel.

And I know I will someday. I know I will. With your help, everyone out there, your support, not your help, but your support. So it's like a different type of anxieties, like when do I do that?

When do I do that when I have weekly podcasts plus two other podcasts I do now plus the, I've told you, the more corporate work that I do to supplement my income. Plus, not being a hermit, you know, it's like different anxieties that come, come up and you just kind of tackle them as they come. I've become a lot less of an anxious person these days. I don't know if it's because of the show or because of just many things that have happened in my life.

“But I don't know, it's, I do have nights where I can't sleep though because of the show. I, I've said it, I think I said it in the last one. Yeah, I did.”

Where like I really do, I sit and I, I'll have nights where I just cannot sleep because I just feel like, oh, my whole audience is going to go away. And what do I do then? What do I do if I lose them all? And so, my only tip for that is, it gets better. It gets a little less, I have less nights that I can't sleep. You know, I throw myself into a lot of other projects, so I'm not focusing on like one particular anxiety.

So just give yourself lots of different anxieties, stupid advice. I, clearly, it's a good thing I never tried to start an advice column, am I right?

“What is your favorite? What was your favorite memory of your day? Oh, that's nice. When I walked to the grocery store to go buy some different flavored tropical teas to brew into iced tea.”

That was just kind of nice. I talked to my friend of mine on Marco Polou, I don't know if you guys are familiar with that app. Talk to a friend of mine on that while I had my little walk walked by a big trash truck up close and they, I was like, I even, when I was on the phone, I was like, I understand why little kids love big trucks. They're pretty awesome. Got out in the sun, you know, got a little little movement. And yeah, it was just kind of nice.

Long time listener here, you've inspired me amongst others to finally launch my own podcast. Congrats. Actually, I'm launching two good luck. Ah, they wrote.

Any tips? I know you've spoken about this before, but would love to hear what you would have wished someone would have told you when you started things. Do you make a trailer and do promoswaps? Cold call or cold email? Different shows around your size. Start out with shows around your size. You can try for some bigger shows, but bigger shows tend to get a little overwhelmed. And there is a kind of a, it's a tit for tat kind of thing of like, I have this many listeners. You have this many listeners. So like, like a bigger show might be like, okay, I'll run your promo once and you run mine three times to like, even it out.

Sometimes they'll offer you that. Sometimes not. Sometimes they'll just run your promo, but try to try doing promoswaps with other shows. Grow your audience that way. Don't be for ads. If anyone tells you to pay for ads, don't do it. It doesn't work organic word of mouth is what works best for podcasts in my experience. And promoswaps will help that because people will co- listen to a show they like and hear your voice hear your, hear pitch essentially through your trailer and they'll decide to come listen to you.

And then you meet friends. You meet friends in the industry. All my friends I have in the industry who are so funny to watch all of us grow. We've talked about it over the years.

Just it's so we started, you know, from being little and now I have a few friends who also this is their career. This is what they do for a living. Many much bigger than me. Much bigger by in houses and shit. So, and I'm so happy for them. I love that for them. It's wonderful to meet friends in such a strange way through cold emailing and then watching everyone do what they're doing.

“It's lovely. It's a really wonderful feeling. So, yeah, cold email people. Just be like, hey, I have the show. You have a show that I think your audience might like what I'm doing over here.”

Would you be open to a promo swap? Have your trailer ready? And maybe some talking points as well and tell them. Then you would just, they would play your trailer before an episode or two episodes. So, you know, you can work out how many and you are at you will play there as well before you're one of one or two or three of your episodes. And, you know, you can do pre or mid role, spending on what you'd, you're comfortable with. They might tell you that they, especially the bigger shows, they're a little more. They, they understand where their ads kind of go. So, they might be like, I can do a pre mid or post role.

And, whether you're comfortable with, honestly, when you're first starting out, just be like, yes, wherever you'd like to put me.

However, you can start being more discerning after that, but at first, yeah, just reach out to people. Like I said, you can try to reach out to the bigger shows. It's just a little bit of a harder cell. Find people on Instagram, Google your butt off. Make sure you know how to use your equipment to the best of its abilities. You don't need expensive equipment to start out. I did not start out with expensive equipment. I have expensive equipment now. I did not start out that way. I don't even have the most expensive. Like, there are some mics that go up there. And, I don't necessarily, I don't have those. I have a couple. I have three microphones now.

And, none of them are like the major league expensive ones. But, like, you can start out with something more price friendly. And, just learn to use it though. Watch tutorials. Those microphone companies have tutorial videos, usually on their websites.

“Watch them. That's what I did. I watched them learn how to use them properly. Get your sound really correct. Learn how to edit.”

I mean, unless you're starting out ahead of where I was. I was broker than I was super poor at the time. So I couldn't like afford to hire an editor or anything. So maybe you can, which is cool. Again, starting out ahead. But, if not, just learn how to edit. Learn how to use your equipment. Make a trailer. Yep. Ah, funny, because this was my answer earlier. But, guided nightmare suggestion, elaborate. That is a good idea. If your fans were interested in crowdfunding a haunted mansion for you, where would you want it located? And, how would one go about contributing?

“You don't have to buy me a haunted mansion. I believe it'll come to me someday. But, also, I do have romantic thoughts about living somewhere more, you know,”

than me because it's me. I love the gloom. However, I don't know if I could ever live outside of Southern California. I just love it here. And, maybe it's because I've just was born and raised here. I don't know. I just really love it here. But, maybe it's a vacation home. I don't know. Would you all like to crowdfund a place where it's like a time share? We all get to stay there. Somewhere in the moors. I don't know. But, I appreciate thought. Hi, Shelby. Just finished your most recent episode. I'm a big guided nightmare fan.

I am always commenting asking for more of them. My favorites are library and train. I really like it when it's a normal day.

Day-to-day human activity location. Like my favorites. It's so normal to be there. But now it's scary. I love that too. Thank you. And there will be more. I really appreciate that. I would love to do more library in train. I've kind of wanted to go back to the train. I really liked the train. I just, I like trains. I would love to do like a cross-country train trip. I would love to do some of the European ones. Oh my god. I would love to. Like the really fancy first class ones. A dream. A dream. So, maybe we'll go back to the train. We can go back to the library as well. We can get a different library. There's different trains. There's different libraries. Why not? Let's go back.

Next one is no letter box. Question mark. Question mark. Need your horror Rex.

Because we watch so much, especially for work, that it helps her kind of categorize like what she's already seen. And I like that idea.

“I don't like ranked reading horror movies. I don't like to rate movies. I'm sorry. It's not just horror movies, but rating movies.”

I don't. I don't like rating things. It's not my forte. And like writing a whole review sounds, I don't. It doesn't sound fun to me. So, I don't know. I don't. I've been asked before to get a letter boxed. I appreciate that you guys want to hear my thoughts on movies or recommendations. I really haven't poked around letter box. Maybe I have a whole different idea of what it is than what it is. So, maybe I'll poke around and see if it's from me, but from what I understand, I don't think it is. Next is a few months ago during a post show ramble. You mentioned having very specific chocolate chip cookie preferences and that you've tested many recipes.

Would love to hear your ideal chocolate about your ideal chocolate chip cookie and any recipe insights.

So, one thing about chocolate chip cookies is usually there's white sugar and brown sugar, and those two ratios will depend like depending on your ratios of that. We'll affect the end result of your cookie. I love a chewy soft cookie. I don't like a hard cookie necessarily. You know what? I'll do a bag of like famous, a little crispy chocolate chip cookies, but when I'm baking them, I don't like them hard. I like them soft. Sometimes even gooey. Like I love a like cookie bars, where it's basically a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you put it into like an eight by eight pan and bake it all together, or like a skillet cookie, where it's really soft and gooey.

I love a salt like I love salt on top, sprinkled salt. There's one particular recipe that I love that I've mentioned on the show, and it's like an espresso, salted espresso, chocolate chip cookie, and it's got like powder espresso in it.

“It's got a lot of salt. It's got this that recipe is vanilla bean, but like whoever has vanilla beans just laying around, I use vanilla extract, most of the time. I think I've made it with vanilla beans one time.”

And that's a really fantastic recipe. I can send it to you if you'd like, but I love a softer cookie. Oh, and the chocolate chips have to be like semi-sweet. I do not. Milk chocolate does not belong in chocolate chip cookie. It makes it too sweet. It's to me. I also love walnuts in them every once in a while. Throw a walnut in there. I won't be mad at you. What is your favorite dish to cook that you're most proud of?

That question, and you did not intend this at all. Just like to press the hell out of me. I don't cook for anyone anymore. I know there's not what you said necessarily, but you said that you're most proud of. And my brain went to like what I would be proud to present.

“But I can't remember the last time I cooked for anyone.”

How sad? Probably like I have a really good bowl in a recipe I've used in a red beans and rice. I love recipes that take like all day to cook. Those are the ones that I'm really like. I love presenting to people like a beef-borne yarn where it's like this has been cooking for all day. And it's full of love and time and care. You know, I'm like, I love baking bread for people. I make pretty good enchiladas. I'm not going to lie.

Make really good elbowing to go. Because I follow my great grandma's recipe. But anyway, I'm going to move on from that. I don't know. I don't know. You did not mean to make me sad. That's on me. This is on me. Don't feel bad at all. Don't feel bad. Please. Who are some of your favorite podcasters? I don't get enough time to listen to podcasse these days. But here I feel like I listen to, I love this show called The Rest of History.

It's kind of funny and it's very informative. It's got like a lot of random historical. I listened to one on Alexander the Great that they did and it was fantastic. It was so fascinating. And they argue with each other sometimes too. Like Alexander the Great, a lot of his history is very like up for debate. Because we don't know a lot about him. And so they kind of argued about some facts. And that was really interesting to me. Same for there's another one called your dead to me.

And it's another history podcast. And they'll have like a historian, a comedian.

And I forgot there's like a third person I think there's on there. There's like the host. But usually there's like a historian and a comedian on there as well.

I also love like some like comedy show. Like I love Conan show. I like him as an interviewer. I like Caleb here on.

And Sean Marco, Sean Marco Ceresi, the downside. I like that show. I like Louis The Rose show. I don't know how he isn't update. I don't know. He just update. He's been updating. Okay. He goes in like seasons. He's the one who just did that manuscript documentary. As I said before, I watched our listen to a lot of last podcast and left before I haven't. Again, it's just because I haven't been listening to podcasts much recently. But I have been listening to, oh, I love a normal gossip is another one. That's a fun one.

It's literally gossip. Like normal people's gossip. Like someone who was a dog walker one time. And like, you know, like just like random gossip. It's really fun. And it'll be like a whole story with updates and everything. I've been listening to recently your own backyard, which was a true crime. I'm not really into true crime anymore. But I saw a TikTok that peaked my interest where it was like, it was about the case. And someone was like, I can't like your own backyard. It's such a great job. And it was so respectable and covering this. And like it said they said something about how he like helped solve it.

And I was like, oh, I'm not reading any further. And I'm going to go listen to that. So I've been listening to that. That one came out a while ago, but I'm like the episode I'm on right now is people versus flora's week one and two. And it came up three years ago. So I'm pretty behind. But I've been really enjoying the way he presents everything. The dollops and other fun one for history. It's really funny. If you like history. Ah, listen to a lot of history podcasts.

Yeah, like history and comedy clearly. I need levity in my life. And yeah, so those are a few that I listened to. But I listen to like other stuff. I listen to other stuff. By the way, this is longer. But everyone in the last one said that they wanted it to be long. They were like, make it as long as possible. So I'm just going to go through the rest of the questions.

“I think it'll take me another like, I don't know how long.”

But like, well, you'll see because you're listening to it now. Why am I trying to guess? You are in the future. I'm in the past. I don't know. You know. So the next question is, you are such a talented artist. Thank you. Do you prefer to write or voice act? Writing brings me more pride.

I, this most recent episode of May Fair Watcher Society of Roads. Not even most recent because it's my first May Fair Watcher Society episode.

I've ever wrote. Got such major like accolades in the comments. It was just, it was, it was so well received. It was very well received and people were very kind about the script and I wasn't in it as an actor. So it was really nice as a writer that it was, it was not because of who I am, you know, as a podcaster. It was because of my writing and that made me feel much more pride and just, yeah, I just, I was really, really proud of myself because of that.

“I think because writing is what I want to be good at.”

voice acting have gotten better out over the years. But I, I just, and I am so happy when people like, like it makes me so happy when I'm a guest on a show and in the comments, someone will be like, it shall be like, and you guys are so kind, like it's, you have no idea. It boosts my self-esteem like thousands of percent. It's like, oh man, when I see people are like, I don't show up here, it was just so great. Like someone said, like, you got Shelby, it was on something.

I don't know what, but it was, it was a creepy or like, can't creepy camera, it was something like that. And I was like, oh my god, you got me, like, like, I was some sort of celebrity or something.

It was amazing. Like, walking on air, but I do feel more personal pride when it comes to writing.

Next is Hi Shelby, longtime listener. Here all the way from Little Old New Zealand. I love your, I love your original work. My question is, would you ever consider making an any original work loosely based on a New Zealand true crime. For instance, I live in the town in the town I live.

“Done it in. I think that's how you can say it. I'm so sorry. Done it. Done it in. We have the vain family murders. Thanks for your time.”

I don't really feel comfortable personally creating fiction around true crime. It is something that has done very well by others. It's not something I'm super interested in and I have seen it done very distastefully in my submissions.

Because these are real people. And again, I think it can be done very it's been done very well. I've enjoyed the way it's been done before. But it's a delicate process and I don't it's not one that I care to really.

“You have to have a passion for it and I just don't to handle it in the way it needs to be handled. Basically.”

What's a story you've always wanted to write with the words never came out right?

I have one and I'm not going to tell you and I know that's such a bitch move like, oh, what a dick. But I just I have one and I know the words will come to me someday. And then they haven't yet, but I do have I have that. I have one. It's just it's secret for now. So sorry. Next, hey, shall be a listen to your podcast all day at work and it's such a nice escape. It's even made me consider making a podcast myself.

I know you've spoken about copyright before, but how do you get around copyright issues surrounding Reddit posts?

I'm from the UK. I'm not sure if it's different. It probably is.

I don't feel comfortable at all giving you any advice about copyright because you're in the UK. However, here there is fair use law. You probably see it if you ever watch reaction youtubers or like video essayists. Anyone who's using like clips from TikTok or movies or whatever.

“And fair use law is like you have to you're commenting on it essentially.”

Like here's an example of part of it. It's like long obviously because it's it's a law, but Here's a disclaimer. You've probably seen a lot in the copyright laws the United States recognize a fair use of copyright content section 107 of the US copyright act. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work including such use by reproduction and copies or phone records. Or by any other means specified by that section for purposes such as criticism comment, news reporting, teaching including multiple copies for classroom use.

Scholarship or research is not an infringement of copyright. And then they'll usually follow it up like this video and our YouTube channel in general, may contain certain copyrighted works that were not specifically authorized, blah blah. So I comment on them. I critique. I report, you know, I I feel comfortable in that. Of course, if anyone ever was like take this down, I would. I would have no I would not argue. I wouldn't argue one bit, but again, I'm in the US. You were in the UK, please look up your own laws and do not listen to me.

Next is not really a question, but please please please make more true horror and dark reddit episodes. I've listened to all of them at least five times each and I need more please XXX. I try to keep on reddit and dark reddit and true horror at least once a month. Those episodes are actually my best performing ones, but I do, you know, love to go back to my good old fiction. That's what I started the show for, but you know, I do them.

I think I do them quite a bit, but if you want more of the shows answer below, do you want more of them? I guess I could do more of them. I just wanted to balance them with like other stuff in fiction, but I try to do the true horror or dark reddit at least once a month.

“So, what's the best way to shoot my shot, LOL, asking for a friend and friend to seize me?”

I don't know, I don't even know anymore. I don't even know anymore. I've been having a crisis of romance in my own head, I don't know. Sorry, I just don't. Next, do you have any story ideas that you are having a hard time putting into a format suitable for an audio podcast? Yes, as the other one that was kind of similar to this, as I answer that one and I won't tell you what, but yes. Describe your perfect date, wow. These are like, it's like I got the same question like seeing them, which in between each other.

Maybe the person earlier, who was like skin-a-marine, or talking about skin-a-marine, and drinking a beer.

That sounds great. Are we talking like a first date, or like have we been dating for a while, and this is a perfect date, those are two different things.

Because like a first date, like yeah, let's just like grab a beer, or some coffee, probably coffee during the day, not a movie, because then you can't talk. But like, it gets to know each other if we've been dating, then like, I don't know my perfect date, but like going to a bookstore maybe would be fun,

which is what I love to do on my days off. And I tell people to, like, I'll go to bookstores, like use bookstores with friends. Like there's one here called the Iliad, and it's like, it literally has like boxes, piles, piles everywhere books.

And I will me going to a bookstore with a friend is a much different thing than me going alone, because, and that's one thing I've always thought I was like, man,

wouldn't be so cruel to find someone who was cool with me, like, just existing with me in the space of a use bookstore where I really like lock in, and I'm like digging through, and I'm looking at all these different, and they just find that charming of me, or they're alongside me digging with me, and that would be great, because man, oh man, my friends won't do it, and I don't blame them, it's who wants to watch, like they want to browse like a normal person, and just browse the shelves, or look for one specific thing, I friends who are like, I'm here for one specific thing,

or like this type of book, like annotated books or whatever, and I'm not. I am a feral creature when it comes to use bookstores. You were asking about a perfect date, and here I am, like, because that would be, that would be a perfect date for me. Be like, going to use bookstore, having a coffee later, because good use books stores don't allow you to have food or drinks, getting a little sweet treat or something, then going to, if we have been dating a while, going to a movie,

would that be nice? This next one asks boxers, briefs, or commando, none of the above, I don't wear any of those.

“Is this for me, or like, what I prefer on someone else?”

Not commando, that's for sure. But also, I don't, I don't really understand the question. Next, have you encountered any ghost lately? No, what a bummer, I want to go on like a ghost hunt, I want to go on one, I think that'd be fun. So I'm going to like the hometown ghost stories guys recently, and like, that just sounds like a blast.

I want to go see a ghost. Next, hey Shelby, I've been listening to scary just sleep pretty much since the beginning, and you're my absolute favorite. Oh my god, thank you. So I want to know if you have any recordings/podcast advice for people starting their starting one on their own. I trust your experience and knowledge, I appreciate that.

I did answer that earlier. So I don't know if anyone listening to this right now would want me to recap that. What else did I have any extra advice that I forgot? I don't think so. I don't, I don't, I don't know, I'm sure there is, but like you heard earlier, you heard earlier, but thank you so much.

“And I appreciate you thinking, I give good advice, or I would give good advice, because jury's out honestly.”

Here's more sweat. Do you want to hear some of this month? Scared me to sleep. I wish it was suck me to sleep. Okay.

Next, let us know if you need help moving to Canada. [laughs] I know. I know. I'm a little worried about my trip later this year.

Finally going out of the country for the first time in my fucking life. Taking my first, because I talked about this before.

I've never taken a vacation as an adult.

I've never, as an adult gone on vacation. I've never, I didn't have a honeymoon. I've never had a honeymoon. Never went on vacation with my ex. Never, like, I've never done that before.

Finally going on one, this goddamn, I'm not going to get into it. I'm not going to get into it, but yeah, sure. Are you, like, in what way?

“Do I have to marry someone or, like, what's the deal?”

Hit me up later. For your request here, some of my guided nightmare location ideas. Thank you. A band in shopping mall, empty high school, state fairgrounds. Movie theater, water park.

Ooh, does anybody watch the pit? Water park.

And would love a back rooms part two or second date night.

XOXO Margo, thank you Margo. You know, I would love to do a back rooms part two, 'cause the movie's coming out, and I think that'd be fun. But the second date night. People really, really did not like that one.

The date night guide in nightmare. I got a lot of really, very constructive, much constructive criticisms for that one. No one was outright mean. I mean, maybe there were it, but I don't remember.

But people didn't like that one. I was a little bit embarrassed, actually, about that one, because people were like, this was weird.

So to hear you liked it, it's actually, it's awesome. But I don't know if we'll do another one, because apparently people really thought it was stupid and weird. So if you did like, did like it. Sound off, because I thought people really hated it.

Next, what is it like, oh, but by the way, thank you so much for all the suggestions. I really appreciate that. What is it like having so many strangers feel, did I read this one last time?

I might have.

“What is it like having so many strangers feel connected to you?”

I love falling asleep to my close friend, telling me scary bedtime stories.

But it's wild when I think about how we've never actually met.

You know, it's not, it feels very good. I might have answered this last time, and if I did, I apologize. It feels very good. I also have creators who have helped me through a lot,

who have, I feel like they're definitely, it's like a pair of social aspects, but you know, I think you can have, I don't know. Like there's a pair of social aspects, but you can be not weird about it, you know?

Because it does feel like this person got me through this. There's a creator of mine, or that I have mine see. See, I'm doing it. I'm doing the pair of social things. But like, there was this video that got me through.

Very ugly dark time, very ugly dark time. And it was this ASMR video, and this creator unlisted it. For, I'm sure personal reasons. I think they might have mentioned, it's so funny, they might have mentioned a past relationship for something

in the video, like, offhand.

But anyway, I was kind of devastated, because I was like, no, wait, that's my, like, that's, that's, like, my bad place video. I need that video.

“But I wasn't, I didn't reach out and say, like, why did you delete?”

But I did see comments from other people who were like, why would you take that down? I need it. I need it. I need it.

But I didn't feel comfortable doing that, because it was like, they clearly unlisted it for a reason. I don't think it judging by what this creator talked about in recent videos. I don't think it was because they,

thought it was a bad video. I, I could pick up the context. I was a pair of social enough, actually. It could pick up the context clues that it was probably for a reason of very personal reason.

So that, I'll say, I do feel,

it makes me feel very good. And I'm on both sides of this feeling, this pair of social feeling. I do feel privileged in that, because I feel like I do understand it a little more.

And I do, I've met creators who don't have that feeling towards other creators ever. So they, when it's done towards them, it really unsettles them.

“But I understand, like, I fully understand that feeling.”

And I, you know, I genuinely, like, like, I get it. I don't feel like it's weird if you, like, there's sometimes, especially in my, like, more lonely days, where I just listened to podcasts constantly

and I didn't really have friends. There would be times where I'd be like, oh, my friend said this, but it wasn't a friend. It was a podcaster.

I would totally do that. Like, oh, yeah, my friend was talking about this the other day. It was not a real life friend. It was a podcast friend who, in my head, brought me much comfort.

And I wasn't like about to go stalk them or anything or even write to them. But it, it, the comfort that is there. I don't, I don't know. I, it's undeniable, you know?

And I, I feel, it feels good to know that I am that for other people, because of, because I know the feeling of comfort it brings. And if I can be that for other people, what a beautiful thing to have accomplished in life.

You know, what a beautiful thing. So, yeah, I don't. I, I don't feel like it's, weird at all. You didn't say it was weird,

but like, I'm, I'm just saying, I don't think it's weird at all. I just wanted to tell you, if my pipe dream ever came true, and I want a life-changing lottery,

I would pay off your medical bills, questions asked, and nothing expected in return. That is very kind of you. Very kind of you. You know, I have, I have a lot of plant plan.

They'll be paid off in a few years. A few years, they'll get all their money. I mean, like, slowly, they're getting, they're trickling in, they're getting all their money. It's expensive to, for your fucking gallbladder,

to try to kill you. You almost die, and it's like, do you, either, are you in debt for this long, or do you die? And I'm one of the lucky Americans who got to make that choice.

So, but I appreciate using that. That is very kind of thought. I love your writing. Keep up the great work. I enjoy your podcast tremendously.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Is there a possibility of making CDs

I hope it's not too ungrateful of me. I understand you already work so hard.

“I love to leave that idea in your head, though.”

I love lots of love for you and your show. And by the way, the next one says, my girlfriend already asked this, but we would love a CD or cassette of some episodes. I would love that too.

I don't know how to make that happen. I've seen others' shows, like, bigger shows have that opportunity.

I've never looked into it.

I don't know how much it would cost. Like, on my end, I don't know how to go about it. If the opportunity ever comes up, I would love that.

I would love to. That's, that would be really cool to have, like a CD of my own show. I think that we fucking mettle, man. And the next one is,

Hi Shelby. I wanted to let you know that you've helped me a lot. I haven't my past started as a kid. Been a cutter. I cut mostly at night when my girls would go to bed.

I found scary to sleep, and my friend and your voice. And it relaxed my brain, so I didn't cut. Thank you for that.

Hey, I'm so happy to be your friend. That helps you not cut. I'm so happy for that. And I hope you're doing well.

I hope you're doing better. You know, I know it's a journey. And I hope that you are kicking ass. And I'm happy that anything I do

“could be of any service to you in that way.”

And all my love to you. Next is, Shelby Shark instantly makes me think of baby shark, just so you know, with a little emoji with the tongue sticking out.

Shelby Shark was around before baby shark. Okay. Shelby Shark started. I probably told this on the show before when I was being bullied in elementary school.

It's so don't. I'm not like, it's not. Don't worry about. I'm not like,

still bitter about everything. It's just a fact. When I was kid, I don't know, kids on the playground started this game called Shelby Shark.

And they would get on the jungle gym. And I couldn't get on the jump. I wasn't allowed to get on the jungle gym. And I would run around and try to tag them. And they would try to stay away from the Shelby Shark.

And, me and I haven't really thought about the origin of that in a while. There was like more to the game that was like even meaner. And like, then if I got,

when I got close to the jungle gym, I remember one girl in particular. I won't name her name. She would yell, like she,

I remember her yelling. Like, oh, it's the Shelby Shark. Everybody ran and they would like run

to a whole different part of the playground. Again, it's fine. It's fine. I'm fine.

But that, it was called Shelby Shark. And so I started using it when I got older as like my gamer tag and stuff. And my user name on stuff.

Just because, I don't know, it's a fun alliteration. I also love sharks. I want to be a marine biologist phase, as many of us do as children.

And I was so into sharks. I loved sharks. So kind of like fit, you know, reclaiming my childhood bullying.

So it's been around longer than baby shark. If it reminds you of baby shark, then maybe you're a baby. Have you thought about that? Next is,

hopefully this message counter acts a mean one from what I've heard in your work and rambles.

You're an amazing, resilient, intelligent,

funny person. Your story is inspiring, turning multiple dead ends into a successful career. I look forward to each new episode and enjoy revisiting your body.

I cannot tell you how much this means to me in fact, it's like kind of making me want to cry right now. I can't cry. I've cried too many times on this show.

I can't cry on the show. This is really, really, really, really kind of you. And as I've mentioned so many times, sometimes in my new life, as much as I've become such a happier,

more open person, it does get to where sometimes I don't feel seen at all. Like, sometimes I feel like there's no one to see me. And so this,

this means a lot. Thank you. If I talk more about it, I'm going to cry. And I don't want to cry on the show.

No one wants to hear that. But just know that it means a whole lot to me. And I'll be thinking about this message well past this episode. So thank you.

Oh well, we're down to the last two. So this is the penultimate question.

“What has been some of your favorite stories through the years?”

It's hard to remember. Like, there's a few that stick out. It's, for one, it's hard to remember. Like, titles. I'm very bad at remembering titles.

But like, the journal and the barracks won. Death's witness. The demons, like, pie, too, which isn't even the real title of it.

People always call it that.

Marvin's tavern. In crops for a keep is one of my favorites ever. I like a lot of the classics. But then I have a lot of them on the show that, like, it's funny because sometimes the authors will submit

another story, like years later.

“And I'll be like, I don't know if you remember me, but I will.”

I'll be like, oh my god, you did this one. And I loved that story. But it's like, I have to have sparks of, like, inspiration to remember them. I mean, I do the show every week, you know.

And they're all my little babies in my children. But it's hard to think of, like, just right off the top of my head. Yeah, I ended up a few though. Yeah, there's a few right there. If scary to sleep was, oh, this is the last question, by the way.

If scary to sleep was an anthology TV show, what story slash episodes would you want to see brought to life in season one? Hopefully this makes sense, Ella. It makes perfect sense.

Uh, all my stories. Yeah, I'm gonna be that guy. All my stories. Mine. I want to see all of my stories brought to life.

Uh, what a dream, right? And I know it's like scary because it's your babies or whatever. But like, I want to see my story. I would love to see my stories turned into short films or like an anthology TV show.

Hell yeah. All of mine. Thank you. I'm just gonna say next question. There aren't on.

That's it. That's all the questions.

Of course, you can always send in more questions.

The link is still in the show notes. I'm just gonna keep it there. Just see if we, you know, once we get a few, maybe a few months or a year or whatever. Can I have to do this all again?

Yeah. So if you have any questions, go ahead and send them over. Thank you so much to all those who sent in questions. I was so many questions. I had no idea.

You all know so much more about me.

“I didn't even honestly read all of them.”

There were a couple that just didn't feel. Uh, although there was a lot of smut. There was no point in reading that. I mean, uh, separate, like, you know, those who want to hear that.

But I, I feel like the majority doesn't. So I'm saving the majority from hearing the smut. Um, but yeah. Thank you so much. This means a whole lot to me.

I, these always give me a lot to, like,

think about to and the reactions to them. Like, whenever I, like the last one I released it, and then there are all these comments about that one. And it gives me, like, a, not a crisis of self, but, like, a good sense of self, like, it, it,

has, it makes me very introspective to do these episodes. And I mean, I recommend doing this with maybe friends and family. Let's do, like, an anonymous questions night. I don't know. Then again, that probably doesn't ever work out very well with, like,

IRL people, you know, I don't know. Uh, but yeah, I really appreciate this. I hope you're all having a great week. And feel free to send me more questions. Feel free to, reach out for free to comment.

I really love to hear from all of you. And I really do stay up at night worrying that you'll all go away. And it terrifies me. So I clearly love you all very, very much from the bottom of my heart. And I appreciate everything you do for me.

You've done a lot of, you've all done a lot for me over the years. And yeah, I'm going to let you go, because it's an hour, 44 into this episode.

“Some of you maybe hopefully are actually asleep. Are you having dreams about me?”

If you're asleep right now, can you hear me in your dream? Are you dreaming about me? Have any of you ever had a dream about me?

I'm always dreaming about, like, people I know,

or even people, like, podcasters and things and celebrities. Has anyone out there ever had a dream about me? That'd be so cool if you do, just tell me. I love telling people my dreams. I'm annoying like that. I'm so annoying. I love, like, if someone's in my dream, I want to tell them about it.

Like, the amount of times there's two people I know in particular who are also podcasters, I won't name them. But I've had dreams of us going to Australia together. And I'm always like, oh my god, you guys, we went to Australia again. I'm a dream last night. Like, seriously so many times, it's really weird.

Honestly, it feels prophetic. It's strange. But anyway. Yeah, tell me about your dreams, if you dream about me. And I hope you're having great evening night, go bake something, or buy a baked good from a local bakery, or whatever. Drink water, NT and Diet Coke and beer and coffee.

Go get some sleep, sweet dreams. [Sounds of a coffee]

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