Battery cables smoking hot??

I'd just buy new cables and see if it resolves the issue, if not, roast hot dogs

Check/clean all of the connections. If they've got a lot of resistance, the cables will get hot, and might get hot enough to cause a fire. I had one of the battery terminals on my 95 get hot enough to melt into a pool of lead on top of the battery (replacement terminal, not the stock one).

First I would stop trying to start the car because you will cause alot of electrical issues in everything else. I know this sounds stupid but check to make sure you have the pos term hooked to the pos and neg to neg. (preliminary)
Remove the starter solonoid wires and check the continuity between the two lugs with no power across the small lug (solonoid coil). There should be none. Then check to see if there is continuity between the solonoid lugs and ground. There should be none. Energize the solonoid and check the lug to ground(none). Check across the lugs you should get continuity.
After that the next step is to check the starter lug to ground. there should be no continuity.
The starter system is pretty simple on these cars and a large current which will smoke the cables is a sure sign of power going diesctly to ground. I believe the solonoid is broken it is probibly directing some electric to the starter and some to ground through the solonoid. Or the starter is shorted out and bleeding electric direct to ground, its just a matter of testing the solonoid and starter to find which one is bad.

A dead short would definetally cause that kinda heating issue. On a dead short amps will be through the roof. Usally that would blow a fuse but if there was short before the protection then watch out. Glad you found the problem before you burnt the car down.