I was scrolling trough my Kindle Highlights (you know you can see all your highlighted passages from Kindle books online, right?) when I came across the following highlights from The Exorcist. I don't remember highlighting anything from it but I read it at the beginning of the year so maybe that's normal. Horror has a … Continue reading Adventures in Unexpected Great Prose – The Exorcist
Nick Mamatas wrote a post on Facebook today about how writers can go about finding an agent. As someone who will hopefully start shopping a book around soon, this was a godsend. Straightforward, no nonsense. With Mr. Mamatas's permission, here is the post as he wrote it. This is *one* method of finding a literary … Continue reading Nick Mamatas’s Simple Guide to Finding a Literary Agent
I'm writing again. The following is a single-sentence paragraph that I think works, mainly due to the emotions involved. Let me know in the comments (no worries, this is first-draft material, so be brutally honest). The argument was mundane, a been-married-for-twelve-years banal tiff, a clichéd and overused disagreement between people who love each other, love … Continue reading Just a few words
Today is release day for GARDEN OF FIENDS! Take a look at these early reviews: For those who don't know, Garden of Fiends is an anthology of addiction-themed horror, and it contains a tiny story by me along with longer pieces by some great writers. "There's something here to scare anyone and everyone. Garden of Fiends … Continue reading The Reviews are In!
This is a guest post by Mark Matthews, editor and publisher of Garden of Fiends, a collection of addiction-themed horror stories. The intoxication from a pint of vodka, the electric buzz from snorting cocaine, the warm embrace from shooting heroin—drinking and drugging provide the height of human experience. It’s the promise of heaven on earth, … Continue reading Truth is Darker than Fiction: An Introduction to GARDEN OF FIENDS
Here's Max Booth III's Isaac, the main character in the book The Nightly Disease, to tell us. "This is my take on it. Hotels are the kind of places you don’t mind bringing your family to—you can expect good service, a nice breakfast. Motels, on the other hand, are where people take cheap dates for … Continue reading What’s The Difference Between a Hotel and a Motel?
Eileen is a well-written and strange little book, that is hard to recommend. But stay with me. It's slow. Fully three fourths of the book are just a few days in the life of Eileen, a rather odd young woman with no ambition and a social recluse by choice. She just goes to work at … Continue reading Eileen – Book Review
Check. This. Out. Garden of Fiends is an anthology of addiction-themed horror stories from some of the genre's best and most promising writers (only slightly marred by including a story of mine). It's out in ten days but there's a discount offer available for pre-orders (or so the publisher tells me). Authors in the anthology … Continue reading Coming in Eight Days…
Laird Barron recommends books. And when Laird recs books, you best listen.
Here are a few books published by small and independent presses that deserve the time and attention of weird fiction/horror fans.
A Collapse of Horses Brian Evenson (great American horror surrealist)
Furnace Livia Llewellyn (sex, lies, and body horror)
At Fear’s Altar Richard Gavin (master occultist)
Ghost Summer Tananarive Due (unsung master fabulist)
Skein and Bone V.H. Leslie (successor of Shirley Jackson and Angela Carter)
Knock, Knock S.P. Miskowski (contemporary gothic storyteller)
Behold the Void Philip Fracassi (from the lineage of McCammon and Matheson)
![Behold the Void by [Fracassi, Philip]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417QTAhw5ZL.jpg)
The Lure of Devouring Light Michael Griffin (ice cold and cerebral horrorist)
Jagannath Karin Tidbeck (weird fiction done with elegance)
Will the Sun Ever Come Out Again? Nate Southard (blue collar, hard bitten)
All images via Amazon.com
This sounds like an excellent class to take.
Hello everyone! I’m going to teach a new creative writing class online called Contemporary Dark Fiction. It’ll be SIXTEEN WEEKS long (I know!) essentially the same length as your average semester. It’ll be a mixture of weekly Skype calls (with guest authors dropping in to talk about their work), creative writing exercises based on my long-running Storyville column, short story analysis (paired with the lectures), novel discussion (four books in total) and monthly writing deadlines (a 4,000-word story per month) with criticism from myself and your peers. This is the class I’ve always wanted to teach, taking the best aspects of the classes that I’VE TAKEN, as well as my MFA, and focusing on books that I love (and think are important) as well as stories I’ve curated. We’ll also have an online forum (location TBD) where we will discuss various aspects of the lectures, stories, and novels in greater…
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