O F Cieri (she/her) chats with Carolina Cruz (they/them) about Joe Meek, the origins of ska, and how Nine Inch Nails would destroy a midcentury pop music producer in her queer pulp horror novel Backmask.

Nicholas Hush, 1960s record producer, has a vision for the future of pop music. After a series of prophetic dreams, he wants to combine occult imagery with upcoming trends to create a new, groundbreaking look. His secretary, Valerie Chill, is tasked with finding consultants and funding while he crafts the perfect album. Quickly their project becomes entangled in other, larger machinations, and two teenage pop acts become responsible for international intrigue, brainwashing, and an occult massacre. Inspired by pop music history and written in the style of 60s horror pulp, Backmask is the fake history of a conspiracy theory surrounding the Satanic agenda to control children's minds.

O F Cieri (she/her) is the author of the queer urban fantasy novel Lord of Thundertown, the pulp horror novel Backmask, and the collection Lockdown Laureate. You can connect with her and her work at her website: ofcieri.com

Carolina Cruz (they/them) is the author of the vampire horror romance Blood in the Water and the queer fantasy series The Creed of Gethin (beginning with The Unwanted Prophet). You can connect with them on instagram @ninawolverina