Listen to Season 2 of Beneath the Rain Shadow!
🔊Listen/watch Season 2 Episode 4 on Mon April 27, 530p Pacific [slight sched change this week!]
ON THE HOT SEAT: Gordon B. White || “Antifasquatch”
[prompts: Sasquatch, “humans are the real monsters,” and Northern State Hospital]🔊Listen/watch Season 2 Episode 3
ON THE HOT SEAT: Clay Vermulm || “Rock the Boat”
[prompts: Derelict boat, “We’re all in on it,” and a county/city park in WA state]🔊Listen/watch Season 2 Episode 2 here!
ON THE HOT SEAT: M. Leigh || “Bait”
[prompts: Salmon, “nuclear shenanigans,” and WA Amtrak]🔊Listen to Season 2 Episode 1 here!
ON THE HOT SEAT: Tamara Kaye Sellman || “Gray Mantid Farms”
[prompts: Seattle sports team, “hitchhiker,” and Eastern Washington grain elevator]🔊Listen to Season 2 Episode 0 here!
START HERE! This is a great introductory episode to get to know the show and its cohosts. We’ll reference this one a lot throughout the season.
Visit the pod-to-pub homepage at RainShadowStories.com
Beneath the Rain Shadow (BTRS) is an interesting quasi-live experiment you can become a spectator of. This Substack/podcast venture (see Season 1 archive below) features a monthly live critique session between authors in response to a writing challenge based on mystery prompts unveiled live on the previous episode.
- A location somewhere in Washington state
- A quirk associated with the Pacific Northwest
- A horror trope (theme, motif, or approach to writing dark fiction)
Each month features a different author in the challenge “hot seat.” The prompts inspire each to write short, dark tales that satisfy the theme and vision of the project’s culminating collection: Rain Shadows: Dark Tales from Washington State.
You can watch/listen to our group chat about the challenge, observe the critique process, and get some insight into the inner workings of a future anthology. Expect us to mine all things PNW—settings, monsters, folklore, climate, insider jokes, and other colloquial details—to round out these stories. You, the audience, enjoy an opportunity to encounter our insider insights about the writing life and our ideas about what horror writing is and isn’t. Listen to the podcast to observe the choices we make based on feedback; we’ll shine a spotlight on other real-time aspects of our audio-literary collaboration. We hope to make it entertaining as well.
CHECK OUT THESE UPGRADES FOR SEASON 2!
NEW PRODUCER
Yes, we’re back, under the umbrella of the popular Fermented Fiction podcast, who will serve as our new producer! If you enjoy podcasts about horror fiction, TV, and film featuring noteworthy voices and influencers, you’ll want to listen in… each episode is an impromptu debate as well as a deep dive into the subject, and you never know what you’ll learn!
Also, there be laughter. We all need some of that in 2026!
NEW VOICES
In 2026, Beneath the Rain Shadow introduces two more voices!
Podcaster and horror author Clay Vermulm and I have invited local horror authors Gordon B. White (left) and M. Leigh (right) to join our lineup.
Clay and I are both fans of their unique voices and we’re certain you’ll enjoy getting to know these two fantastic dark fiction authors, both of them smart, funny, and wise to the weird ways of the PNW!
And that means that there will be a new Rain Shadows in 2027 featuring all four co-hosts, which you’re not going to want to miss.
Watch/listen now to get insight into the behind-the-scenes as each story is written, then get a copy of the book to see the final result!
NEW FORMAT
The change in hosts will also influence the issuing of the prompts, which should make for some real writing challenges this year!
We also anticipate this upgrade in show format—to accommodate four voices in the critiques—naturally lends itself to lively feedback that more accurately represents a typical format for writing groups.
Part of our goal with the podcast is to give a real-world example of this process for newer writers and readers interested in behind the scenes; we expect this change will be fun and interesting as well as educational.
NEW WAYS TO LISTEN & WATCH
You’ll also have two ways to access Beneath the Rain Shadow in 2026:
- We’ll livestream it first in YouTube, where you watch/listen as it happens and interact with the show co-hosts.
- We’ll drop a recording about a week later in the podcast feed so that you can listen/watch later from your favorite podcasting platform.
OTHER NEW FEATURES
Also:
- we’ll have links to topics and resources mentioned in the podcast after every episode in the show notes following the drop of each recorded episode.
- we are working on a Patreon to encourage more interaction with readers, viewers, and listeners… and to help support the book production in 2027.
Stay tuned here for links to the upcoming livestreams/recordings and the Patreon as they occur!
Beneath the Rain Shadow season 1 archive
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BTRS) began as a year-long podcast collaboration between myself and horror author Clay Vermulm. The first episode dropped January 1, 2024, and you will find links to Season 1 episodes below.
2024 episodes
Jan: Meet Tamara & Clay
Feb: “Nurse Log” by Tamara Sellman
Mar: “Gåva” by Clay Vermulm
Apr: “Meow Meow” by Tamara Sellman
May: “Problem Child” by Clay Vermulm
Jun: “Hellmark” by Tamara Sellman
Jul: “The Mystical Menagerie” by Clay Vermulm
Aug: “Leave No Trace” by Tamara Sellman
Sept: “Welcome Aboard” by Clay Vermulm
Oct: “Shanghai” by Tamara Sellman
Nov: “Faultline” by Clay Vermulm
Dec: “Ghosting” by Tamara Sellman
Jan 2025: “Things, Things, Things” by Clay Vermulm
Apr 2025: Postmortem with Clay & Tamara