A perfect Sunday with... Clay McLeod Chapman
Peanut butter, geek love, classic cable horror and talking scared!
Every week, a top writer, artist or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today, it’s the turn of What Kind of Mother author, Clay McLeod Chapman.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… brunch
So... starting off really weird here by admitting most mornings my perfect meal is a spoonful of peanut butter and coffee spread intermittently throughout the day. Peanut butter is my comfort everything. I thrive off of peanut butter. But if this is Sunday, the day of rest, and I'm not working... I might slather some PB on some pancakes. PB pancakes would make for a perfect brunch.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… read
My favourite book, hands down, would be Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I've returned to the Binewski family so many times, I can't even count at this point. I own so many different copies of this book, all of them strewn throughout our bookshelves, I can pull one from the shelf like plucking an apple off the tree.
Speaking of apples, I recently finished Chuck Wendig's Black River Orchard and I'll never be eating apples ever again. Ever. Also recently read Gone to the Wolves by John
Wray, which, if you've ever dipped into heavy metal as a kid, this is the book for you...
Clay’s perfect Sunday… comic
I've been dreaming of Black Hole by Charles Burns a lot lately... I don't know how many times I've read it. I love that comic so much. The sweaty temples. The slipshod skin. The teen angst. It all feels so real, so palpable, to me.
Recent reads I can't stop thinking about are Hairball by Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins and Breath of Shadows by Rich Douek and Alex Cormack.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… movie
Tubi has become a feel-good streaming service for me. It's the closest I've ever come to feeling those bygone video store vibes of walking down the aisle and staring at all the VHS covers on the shelves. Their documentary section has some amazing deep cuts... which gets to one of my all-time faves: American Movie by Chris Smith. I watch that film at least once a year, if not more. I teach a screenwriting workshop and I share it with my class nearly every year. It's an absolute must for any aspiring artist.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… TV binge
I'm itching to binge Michael Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House. I took my time with it when it first came out, but now I want to devour it in one sitting. I've grew up loving the basic cable horror anthology series that cropped up late at night, so I might indulge in a string of Tales from the Darkside or Monsters or The Hitchhiker or Werewolf or Friday the 13th: The Series or Tales from the Crypt or the 80s reduxes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or The Twilight Zone... but my softest of soft spots goes to Amazing Stories, particularly eps "Hell Toupee," "Mummy Daddy," "Family Dog," and the one where Christopher Lloyd loses his head. Loved that show as a kid.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… podcast
I've been bouncing back and forth between Talking Scared and She Wore Black, both of which focus on horror lit and all of its contemporary compatriots. They both do a great deep dive on particular niches and shine a light on current authors worth reading. My fam gets into joint-listening to podcasts while we're on the road and have been plowing through the Normal Gossip podcast as well.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… album
I've had Father John Misty's "Fear Fun" on heavy rotation lately. Heartachey and a little humorous at the same time. I'm haunted by "Hollywood Cemetery Forever Sings" and could just listen to that song over and over and over again... I sure do love myself some sad alt country. Bonnie Prince Billy/Palace Brothers is always on deck.
Clay’s perfect Sunday… treat
Doing nothing is truly a treat these days. If I could just... sit at home with the fam, crack open a book and pretend to read for a few minutes before falling asleep, I'd be a happy man. I've become so boring the older I've gotten, all I want to do is catnap.
Please, for the love of god, let me sleep.
What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman is out now from Quirk Books with the UK edition coming from Titan Books 31st January 2024!
A palm reader is swept into a bizarre missing-child case in this modern Southern Gothic horror with a twist you won’t see coming.
After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market.
It’s at the market that she reconnects with her high school boyfriend Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying monster waiting at the center of the labyrinth—and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear.
Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman’s reputation as a “star” (Vulture) and “the 21st century’s Richard Matheson” (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)
Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the storytelling session “The Pumpkin Pie Show” and the author of Rest Area, Nothing Untoward, and The Tribe trilogy. He is the co-author, with Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick, of the middle grade novel Wendell and Wild. In the world of comics, Chapman’s work includes Lazaretto, Iron Fist: Phantom Limb, and Edge of Spiderverse. He also writes for the screen, including The Boy (SXSW 2015), Henley (Sundance 2012), and Late Bloomer (Sundance 2005).
