Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with C. S. W. of Boulder, CO

We’re looking forward to introducing you to C. S. W.. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning C. S. W., it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
The fact of the matter is that fiction podcasts are treated as the unknown, black sheep, second fiddle product when compared to nonfiction, discussion-based podcasts; that much is known to anyone even a little bit familiar with the field. The misunderstanding, though, is that they are incredibly, extremely more difficult to create. The work is not performed by setting up a discussion topic and hosting a conversation – it’s writing an entire script or several scripts, seeking and hiring actors, finalizing a production team, acquiring funding to fuel the project and get people paid, coordinating the recording schedule and directing actors from a virtual standpoint, sound designing all the separate audio pieces into one assembly with music, FX, ambience, consistent production quality, and that’s all just to create the thing in the first place. Making a profit from it is an entirely separate process on top of all of that, and that’s if you can make a profit at all. The creation process is fundamentally different from that of discussion shows, and that’s not something a lot of people are privy to.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is C. S. W., and I am a horror writer. My podcast HEMOPHOBIA is essentially the American Horror Story of podcasts, with every season telling a different fictional tale, and it is likely the most graphic and explicit podcast in the entire world of RSS. I write, direct, narrate, and sound design the entire project myself, along with a full cast of actors all the way from Broadway to NoSleep to Knifepoint Horror. If you like listening to absolute batshit insanity that will cost you quite a lot of sleep, then you’ll like what I do very, very much.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who taught you the most about work?
My grandfather. My grandpa was a poet, and one with a profound ability to see the beauty in everything, then show it to others in his work. He taught me how to write from a very young age, and was incredibly insightful and encouraging. He told me I was the seed he planted, and that I would go on to do amazing things. His words ring with me still, and I try always to form a legacy he would be proud of.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
When I realized the pain would never end. I’ve lived through many horrific things in my life that have irreversibly changed who I am, and that did not come with happy endings. Once that happy ending faded from the narrative, however, horror became my place to exist within. Because in horror there often is no happy ending – there certainly aren’t any in my work – but that does not make the story any less complete, any less compelling, or any less true.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
My ultimate goal in this life is to leave the world of horror fiction better than I found it. I am not so naive as to think of myself as the greatest creator in my field, but I do believe that I have something of incredible value to offer to this craft, something that I hope will leave a lasting impact that outlives me, and that my fingerprint will be left on the genre in a way that inspires, engages, and even help relieve other people.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days. 
Strangely, I find that I feel most excited to do my work when I’m in the creation process of my most intensely dark projects. A chapter or a scene that contains some of the most horrific, despair-fueled, and profoundly ruthless subject material – often these are the parts that excite me the most to work on. To me, it feels like I’m on a tour of these circles of hell, able to see and appreciate them, but preserved and protected by the glass windshield of fiction. It’s not literally real, so it can be more easily viewed, and understood.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cswhorror.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cswhorror/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091738301467
• Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cswhorror.bsky.social

Image Credits
Headshots taken by Lachlan Quintana of LVL Creative Studios