In our July Podcast Special, Olivia interviews Shilpa Varma, Flame Tree’s Writer in Residence and author of the Blood in the Battlements series! Contained within is a discussion of the series, Shilpa’s other work and her upcoming projects. We’ve also got her reading of ‘Bubban-bu’, the second episode in Blood in the Battlements, for the episode.

Blood in the Battlements is a 7-part horror series about India's most haunted forts and monuments. Its stories are released monthly on Flame Tree’s Substack page and produced as limited edition print zines for book fairs and conventions.

Shilpa Varma typically writes three articles a week on Substack with words of wisdom and relatable content for writers. To find out more about her upcoming audio drama, When The Forest Watches make sure you are following Flame Tree on Instagram and staying up to date with our podcast episodes.

For Blood in the Battlements, Imogen Patel, a multidisciplinary London-based artist, has created eight immersive Khadi paper designs, each reflecting one of India’s haunted forts through colour, motif, and local architectural or natural inspiration.

This episode was hosted by Olivia.

Bubban-bu is ©2026 Shilpa Varma and appeared in Blood in the Battlements (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026)

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (British Fantasy Society). Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.