Ghost Stories, Market Pressures, & Tapping into the Subconscious w/ Naben Ruthnum

In this interview, we chat with Naben Ruthnum about character development, avoiding TV-brained writing, making sense of first-reader notes, and so much more. 

Naben Ruthnum is a Toronto-based writer of fiction, cultural criticism, film and TV. His novel A Hero of Our Time was released by Penguin Random House and was optioned for development by The Littlefield Company. His books include the YA novel The Grimmer, the World Fantasy Award-nominated horror novella Helpmeet and two thrillers penned as Nathan Ripley, both of which have been optioned for development and were published internationally. He has written for Canadian television series including Murdoch Mysteries and Cardinal. As a feature screenwriter, he’s collaborated with Kris Bertin for feature and TV projects in development at Oddfellows, BoulderLight Pictures, Automatik, Skybound, and Blink49. Kris and Naben's script Road Test made the 2024 Black List.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
• The Sorceress in Stained Glass & Other Ghost Stories – Richard Dalby, ed.
• The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
• The Black Dahlia; Killer on the Road; L.A. Confidential; My Dark Places – James Ellroy 
• Black Flame – Gretchen Felker-Martin
• The James Bond series – Ian Fleming
• The Collector; The Magus – John Fowles
• The Green Carnation – Robert Hichens
• The Americans; The Tragic Muse; The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
• The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre; Supernatural Horror in Literature – H. P. Lovecraft
• The Beckoning Fair One – Oliver Onions
• A Fatal Inversion; Master of the Moor – Ruth Rendell
• Flicker – Theodore Roszak
• The Tempest – William Shakespeare
• Ghost Story; If You Could See Me Now; In the Night Room; Koko; The Throat – Peter Straub
• The Secret History – Donna Tartt
• A Dark-Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs – Barbara Vine
• The October Film Haunt – Michael Wehunt