Johann Thorsson
I recently made a vow to myself to read more books by women, in part to overcome my own bias towards books by white guys (which is, I fear, the default setting for too many of us). In the process I read a whole heap of great books and wanted to share some stories that… Continue reading 5 Weird and Wonderful Short Stories from 5 Outstanding Collections by Women.
Some short stories you just remember. Maybe it's an image you remember, maybe an emotion or maybe the entire story. When it comes to Calcutta, Lord of Nerves, it's a passage for me. A single passage that made me go "Ugh, what the.... are you allowed to write that?" I read the story in John… Continue reading Short Story of the Week – Poppy Z. Brite’s Calcutta, Lord of Nerves
This is the story of how I turned a flash fiction story written in an hour for a Flash Fiction thing on Chuck Wendig's blog into a week-long writing residency in Exeter in the U.K. Chuck Wendig is the author of numerous books (buy Wonderers and thank me later) but I first encountered him as… Continue reading This is How a Flash Fiction Contest on Chuck Wendig’s Website Got Me a Playwriting Gig and Then a Writing Residency in England.
It's Pirates of the Caribbean in Hell. It's the best horror story of the year for me so far, possibly one of my favorite horror stories ever. It has Hell-monks with iron boxes locked over their heads forever, pirate ships, cannibal cults and last and definitely not least, flying, ship-destroying angel-possessed giant squid. I am,… Continue reading This is the Best Pirate-themed Horror Story You’ll Read All Year
I subscribed to Tin House this year. Tin House is a publication that puts out the very best of short fiction and poetry, and getting published there is a sing that you've "got it". The stories are all of the highest quality. Each print issue is also a precious item in it's own right, and… Continue reading Four Tin House Covers
How do you describe a book like Her Body and Other Parties to people? The book is a collection of long short stories and the collection as a whole is perhaps best summed up by the two quotes Carmen Maria Machado puts at the beginning of the book. My body is a haunted house that… Continue reading Book Review – Her Body and Other Parties
There's a deal going on now on an addiction-themed horror anthology called Garden of Fiends. It has novellas by Jack Ketchum, Kealan Patrick Burke, Jessica McHugh John FD Taff, Max Booth III, Glen Krisch and Mark Matthews. (Yes, it also has a story by me, but it's short and you can just skip it). Seriously though,… Continue reading Garden of Fiends – eBook offer something
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
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…
I don't remember what the first story I read by Michael Swanwick is. But I do remember the feeling I got as I read it. It's the same feeling I got when I first read stories by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link and Lucius Shepard. That amazing, wow-this-is-talent feeling. Michael Swanwick is one of many authors… Continue reading The Wonderful World of Michael Swanwick
On Books and Writing 