I got run an Infernal Salon workshop at WisCon just now! Since I was on my computer to do so, I just wrote this write into my blog, so what you see is what you get after 20 minutes of free-writing off these prompts. LOL! First drafts!
The woman in the sun mask smiled at the musicians. The drummer had her eyes closed, but the guitarist caught the smile and reflected it back like a mirror. Only a few of the masqueraders were dancing. It was early in the night, and most were still replete from the feast, sitting sodden in their chairs. A few of the younger people, teenagers minding their toddler siblings, had ventured onto the dance floor and were bopping along, wearing the faces of frogs or flower petals or, in one instance, the mask of a much older man. As the person in the mask was maybe no more than five or six, it caused much uproar among the onlookers, to see a nonagenarian leaping and spinning and hooting, a hooligan among hobgoblins.
The woman in the sun mask was interested in the music. Had she not been attending the masquerade for a very specific purpose, had she been there solely to enjoy herself, she might have joined the children on the dance floor. She could have orbited around them benignly, casting her light upon their antics. But there were rules to this sort of encounter. No one could no who she was. She had to complete her task before the stroke of midnight. She then had to disappear. After that, the ball–as it were–would be in the other’s court.
Above the glass ceiling, clouds smudged the closed eyelid of the sky like phosphenes. No stars tonight. Perhaps, like her, they had all fallen, here, tonight, to attend this masquerade. Or perhaps they were all in hiding, like the one she sought.
Perhaps the one she sought was not here at all. Perhaps they had broken their pact, or had forgotten, or sought to punish her for what had happened after the last masquerade, not a hundred years ago, in a different country. She had worn a different mask that night, stitched leather, red, with a bull’s great horns. She had been the pursuer, and they the pursued. She had driven them into a mountain cave, and rolled a great boulder over the entrance. Their hundred-year challenge? To work their way back out, and design an even greater challenge to trap her here on the planet for her turn, whilst the other was granted leave to return to their celestial orbit.
They weren’t gods, exactly. But humanity benefited from their presence among them, no matter how remote. One time, she had been dropped at the bottom of a well. But humans figured out how to extract wishes from that well, and she did find the damp and dark soothing. She came out of that trap wealthy with coins, which she distributed where she saw fit before returning to her sphere.
She wondered if her partner had discovered something in those mountains that had made their stay worthwhile. How could they not? She had chosen that range most carefully, most specifically…
But where were they?
Ah. There.
Across the ballroom floor, dancing with a group of three toddlers, each of whom were wearing masks made out of twists of metal, orreries and astrolabes and armillary spheres. They themselves, barely clothed in a diaphanous sheet–thankfully this present age was not at all prudish–wore a mask of one of the baby-faced wind gods–the god “Enemigo” she thought, the hot dry wind from the south.
The moment she saw them, they turned their mask and peered in her direction.
Masks cannot smile, she thought.
She knew they could not smile. And yet, this one did.
They nodded their head, just once, regal. She turned her shoulder, brushed past a teenager wearing a dung beetle for a face, and kicked off her shoes.
Traveling the World (well okay, a bit of Canada & the Midwest), Finishing a Novel (1st draft anyway), Reading, Blurbing, Poetry Panel, Narration Podcast, you know…
A Widow’s Charm Tour with Caitlyn Paxson
I wrote extensively about our tour dates and stops in an earlier newsletter, so this one’s mostly pictures. What an adventure! This is what they mean when they say “time of your life.”
Caitlyn and I have been rising authors together for almost twenty years. It has taken decades to build our careers to this point, and the most important thing I’ve learned is to CELEBRATE OUR VICTORIES WHENEVER THEY COME, BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY.
I am so so so happy to celebrate Caitlyn’s incredible success with her. I LOVED being her conversation partner, and just GLOWING at her the whole time!
This is outside Hopeless Romantics in Toronto. I dressed to match the store.
This was at Artemis Books and Goods in Traverse City, Michigan. We were their FIRST AUTHOR EVENT.
They have LOTS of signed books—both mine and Caitlyn’s—if you wanted to order a signed one from them! Maybe mention you’d like a signed one, so that they know!
This was a great event, at CityLit Books in Chicago. SO MANY OF MY CHICAGO and CHICAGO SUBURBS friends came—in a torrential downpour!!! with tornado warnings!!!!—and I got to meet some old family friends of Caitlyn’s while we were there too!
Oh, and JULIA RIOS showed up, on their way to another state. They made sure to have a layover in Chicago, JUST TO COME TO THE EVENT! They’re the greatest.
I was so so happy.
Finishing (the FIRST DRAFT of) a Novel
Yes, it me.
I finished the first draft of Saint Death’s Doorway.
Yes I did.
HEE HEE.
Now I gotta git gud. Due date’s July 17th. Eep. Not much time.
“I’ve always relied on the kindness of beta readers.”
Poetry Panel and Narration Podcast
The poetry panel with Ali Trotta and Connecticut Poet Laureate Antoinette Brim-Bell was pretty awesome. They were both so insightful and passionate about poetry, and I got to brush off my performance piece “The Sea King’s Second Bride”—memorized, no less!
This is what I wrote about it: “Ali Trotta’s Offerings for Ordinary Gods is a merge of witchcraft, myth, love potion, and grief memoir. Feminist, fervent, and at times forlorn, this poetry collection champions female figures who have been done dirty by history and myth’s trad narratives (as well as present day voices of the #MeToo movement), dispenses wisdom to the lonely and hurt from unexpected sources, and warns of dire curses awaiting those who do harm. Many of these poems are love poems, and none so deep as the love poems to a lost mother, for whom the poet’s yearning sounds the very depths of a siren’s sea.”
And Antoinette Brim-Bell’s website is full of her collections and collaborative art projects—including ballets based on her work! I suggest “Freedom is Red,” found here, among some of her others: https://www.antoinettebrimbell.com/poems
The narration podcast featured Andrew Hiller, whose comedic noir novella “Hornytown Chutzpah” recently came out with Atthis Arts. Andrew and his sister did the co-narration for that book. The podcast also featured Trendane Sparks, a renowned narrator of many BattleTech and Shadowrun audiobooks!
The incredible cover artist is Anouck Faure, whom I adore. And the incredible translator is Anne-Sylvie Homassel! I am so happy! So honored! I have to see how I can order a copy! I want to hug it!
Carlos made me a decal of the cover for our living room window, and then we had the wrap-around version of the color printed out so we could frame it.
And… just WAIT till you see Anouck’s cover for Anne-Sylvie’s translation of my novella The Breaker Queen! It’s currently my desktop wallpaper, but it’s not for public consumption yet.
I mean, say no more. Except, I will. Or maybe I should let the creators speak for me:
Imagine Milton’s Paradise Lost, except God is an alien overlord, Satan is a bitter divorcee, and Eve is a feminist icon. Throw in drag queen space demons, cosmic rock anthems, and a mysterious substance called Space Jelly, and you have the irreverent new musical, Paradise Lost in Space.
At a time when the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people are being challenged, we wanted to reclaim Western culture’s foundational creation myth, to make room for the true, queer beauty of our diverse experiences. Revitalizing this old story as a campy space opera, Paradise Lost in Space has the power to entertain and connect audiences
I really loved it. I laughed my ass off. It came out of a piece of queer ritual theatre at a fairy festival, and you could feel the holiness right there the whole time, with all the sacred and profane together.
Cumulo, by Emily Batsford is a “nonverbal puppet piece explores our accumulation of self and the experiences that shape us. Soar with Plum as they free-fall through the sky, meeting weather and whimsy along the way.”
Yeah, that’s what the text said, but the experience was beautiful and harrowing. I thought it was going to be like the cotton candy they were serving at the concessions stand. No. No. It was… a nightmare in free-fall. It was thunderous. I can still feel it in my chest.
I love the puppet designer, Yuliya Tsukerman, both as a poet and a mask-maker as well as a puppeteer. I highly recommend you follow her on Instagram and Patreon!
This is me in the onboarding portion of Cumulo. It only LOOKS soft and pink. But watch out for the monsters.
This was an awesome immersive theatre experience. Imagine going to a family party, where the family has been mariachis for GENERATIONS, and ALL the drama is going down. You are fed tamales, chat with the actors, and are encouraged to gossip about what’s going on in the other rooms.
Theatre Now New York runs the Sound Bites Festival of 10-Minute Musicals. I was in it last year! This year, they were in Symphony Space, which was a great place for them.
I love any new plays festival. It’s like reading an anthology; you may not like everything, but you love the work as a whole, and the high level of the work individually. And the ones that ring in you, SING IN YOU.
Books I’m Blurbing
These are all blurbs for novels and novellas forthcoming THIS YEAR! Keep an eye out for them!
The Asterist by A. T. Sayre.
Pre-order it on Bookshop, B&N, Amazon, or at your friendly indie bookstore!
What I wrote about it:
What do you get when you take a bitter, demoralized loner finishing up his last tedious job in space and introduce him to a flash-frozen alien who’s just crash-landed on his asteroid? A.T. Sayre’s The Asterist. What a hero’s journey: to watch a grumpy curmudgeon strip off decades of bleak ennui to reveal complex layers of competence, scientific curiosity, excitement, and affection, as he learns to communicate with this wanderer in his midst. Fans of Murderbot’s blistering sarcasm and Project Hail Mary’s last-ditch problem solving will thrum to the themes of The Asterist. Pretty damned satisfying.
These next two are novellas coming out this year, but I don’t have pre-order links for them yet. I’ll get them to you as soon as I do!
A House of Perfect Safety (novella) by Virginia Mohlere
What I wrote about it:
When a book so singularly focused on healing meets the current tropes of SFF, it might easily be relegated to the sub-genre of “cozy fantasy.” And while A House of Perfect Safety by Virginia M. Mohlere is deeply comforting, radiant with care, I would not call it cozy. There is such ferocity in its desire for the safety and well-being of its characters, such passionate fury at the cruelties of a world that inflicts harm on the poor, the weak, the low of status, and such profound acknowledgement of pain, that every flicker of light, every new growth, every step towards freedom, is an enormous victory against the powers that seek to break us. Mohlere’s magic and invention call to mind Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle, but the deep work undergirding her prose sounds an alternative to LeGuin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, entreating us not to walk away from suffering, but to serve to alleviate it instead—and not only that, but to end it at the source, both individually and in community, for once and for all.
A River Wide (novella) by Amanda J. McGee
What I wrote about it:
Like Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, and Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots, Amanda J. McGee’s novella A River Wide taps the bonds of sisterhood, survival, and power, and floods the senses with river water and witchcraft. McGee’s characters have a deep, Dillard-esque, and—dare I say—holy bond with the Appalachian landscape, which can be capricious, cruel, generous, or tender in turns, much like the prose itself. A River Wide wanders deftly into various creeks and hollows of genre: thriller, ghost story, romance, family drama, and a middle-of-life coming-of-age. It moved me, deeply.
A young woman undertakes a terrifying journey—and a terrifying transformation—in this genre-blending speculative suspense novel set in South Korea and the US which mixes fantasy, gothic vibes and queer longing, with a shot of feminist body horror.
Fairytales are for children.Until the day we awaken in a place full of monsters, being softly enveloped by the dark.
Nineteen-year-old undocumented immigrant Hee-Jin lies on the floor of her cramped Seoul apartment, listening for footsteps.
But the knock on the door isn’t the police finally coming to deport her to North Korea. Instead, sprawled on the doorstep is a disfigured, bird-like corpse—and it has her eyes. Her younger sister, artist Hee-Young, is meant to be on an art program in America, not dead of a strange overdose.
But in Hee-Young’s pocket is a plane ticket and US passport. Seeing her chance for freedom, Hee-Jin steals her sister’s identity and takes her place, determined to uncover what really happened to her.
But the deeper she dives into the program’s strange workings, the closer she gets to the monstrous secret at its heart.
A page-turner of a mystery filled with gorgeous, creepy Korean folklore and imagery, Aviary, written by critically acclaimed Korean American author Maria Dong, is also a story about power, violence, exploitation—and transformation. And, above all, it’s about the choices women make from within a system where all the available options are bad ones.
IN THIS QUEER POLITICAL NECROMANTASY, A SECRET MARRIAGE PACT FOR SURVIVAL COULD UNDO A KINGDOM . . .
As the daughter of a foreign ambassador, Rissa hoped living abroad would protect her from home’s puritanical customs where women are forbidden to walk at night or use magic except to support a necromancer’s dual identity. Alek, the youngest prince of the Memric Isle, hasn’t yet taken his Second body. Fearing he’ll be accused of sin and his body claimed as a Second himself, Alek lives piously while studying abroad, even though he’s distracted by magic—and his handsome roommate, Gable. When Alek meets Rissa by chance, his quiet life is thrown into chaos. One of Rissa’s fathers has been abducted, and Alek and Gable are witnesses. Alek and Rissa form a secret alliance to find her father and uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, risking life and freedom as they follow clues straight to the heart of the Memric Isle’s government.
Artists I Love
I was at the Nyack Street Fair last Sunday, and stopped in my tracks for two things: the artist Amy Ackerman and a Bloody Mary Mix by a chef-artist named “K.”
I don’t even like Bloody Mary mix, but I loved K’s instantly. Hand-made, small batch, BIPOC owned.
It’s so good. SO GOOD. I got some for Carlos, both the Original and the Deep Heat. It’s award-winning, and really… just worth it.
As for Amy Ackerman, I was just strolling by, and then this picture caught my eye.
It’s the one on the bottom left, a woman being embraced by a horned shadowy creature and a translucent ghost creature. And then, the more I looked, the more I fell in love with the art. Instead of spending ALL my budget on a big piece of art, I bought several cards to spread the love to my friends. B
ut… really. I loved so many pieces SO MUCH.
This is exactly what I saw when strolling by Amy Ackerman’s booth at the Nyack Street Fair:
My brain has been muppet-flailing since, well, since Terri Windling reached out and asked me to write poetry in response to Brian Froud’s Green Women paintings.
First of all… TERRI WINDLING.
Second of all… BRIAN FROUD.
Third of all… GREEN WOMEN??? GREEN WOMEN!!! GREEN WOMEN!!!
Reader, I wrote three.
THREE GREEN WOMEN POEMS to THREE OF BRIAN FROUD’S PAINTINGS!
Excuse me, young Dark-Crystal-watching Claire, you have attained GELFLING STATUS, okay? YOU HAVE WINGS NOW.
Anyway, that’s some news I’ve been sitting on. I cannot wait to read the GREEN WORKS of these other authors:
Sharon Blackie, Maria DeBlassie, Carolyn Dunn, Sarah Beth Durst, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Forsyth, Wendy Froud, Claudine Glot, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Frances Hardinge, Joanne Harris, Kat Howard, Angela Mi Young Hur, Ai Jiang, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, T. Kingfisher, Ellen Kushner, Katherine Langrish, Carolyne Larrington, Karen Lord, O.R. Melling, Jeannette Ng, Sofía Rhei, Lisa Schneidau, Delia Sherman, Angela Slatter, Shveta Thakrar, Tiffany Trent, Lisa Tuttle, Catherynne M. Valente, Kris Waldheer, Jo Walton, Kit Whitfield, and Terri Windling HERSELF.
So SO SO many goodies–signed books and workshops and mugs and stickers and t-shirts–but here’s what I contributed:
“This C.S.E. Cooney Starter Pack is a treasure! Includes Includes SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, SAINT DEATH’S HERALD, BONE SWANS, THE TWICE DROWNED SAINT, and DARK BREAKERS. Signed and Personalized with hand-painted jewelry.”
(By the way, the hand-painted earrings are by my sister-in-law Martha Hernandez Polanco of Martha’s Art Series, and the necklace was a long-ago gift from a friend, which I treasure, and which I now pass on to some other fairy-tale-minded reader.)
Going on Tour with Absolute Genius CAITLYN PAXSON! Plus other stuff!
February is over, and with it all emergencies, surgeries, and recoveries. I am almost, in fact, full recovered. Which is good. Because a lot of stuff is coming up!
For FAWM—February Album Writing Month—I wrote lyrics to 9 songs (9 of the 14, so I didn’t “win” FAWM), and two of them garnered musical collaborations! But I’m into it! I want to do it again next year, possibly with my brothers, if they’ll agree!
I also passed 50K on my novel wip, Saint Death’s Doorway. Trying to amp up the writing in March and get the greater part of the REST of it done.
Meanwhile, things are happening! This week, even. And beyond! BEHOLD!
Wednesday, March 11—Fantastic Fiction at KGB
A night of Fantastic Fiction with guest writers Kristina Ten and yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney
Saturday, March 21st—Negocios Infernales at Shore Gamers!
TTRPG game: 1-5 PM Infernal Salon: 6-7:30 PM Play the new TTRPG Negocios Infernales, run by game designers Carlos Hernandez and C. S. E. Cooney, at Shore Gamers in Red Bank, New Jersey! This will be followed by an Infernal Salon, open to all!
What is Negocios Infernales?
A DM-less, diceless, collaborative ROLEPLAYING GAME: “the Spanish Inquisition INTERRUPTED by aliens!” Play a desperate wizard who’s made a devil’s bargain: but the “devils” are ALIENS just trying to save humanity! Instead of dice, use weird, spooky cards to determine your fate!
What is an Infernal Salon?
A fun, low-stakes creativity workshop. You’ll draw one or more cards from the very spooky, PG-13 deck from the TTRPG Negocios Infernales. Then, we set a timer for 25 minutes, and everyone shares what they’ve made! Great for writers, DMs, musicians, and creatives of every stripe.
Monday, March 23—The Power of Poetic Imagination in Our Time
( RESCHEDULED from snowpacalypse)
A panel of poets at Saint John’s University: with Connecticut Poet Laureate Antoinette Brim-Bell, Rhysling Award-nominated poet Ali Trotta, and yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney.
APRIL 7 – APRIL 20th
CAITLYN PAXSON’S BOOK LAUNCH TOUR FOR A WIDOW’S CHARM!
Caitlyn starts her tour in Charlottetown, P. E. I. on March 31st at 7 PM, with Haviland Book Club at Bookmark P. E. I. She writes:
But then I have the UNUTTERABLE pleasure of joining her on the rest of her Canadian and U. S. book launch tour! I get to be her conversation partner and BASK IN HER GLORY!
Caitlyn writes:
I am so excited to chat with Claire at all the Ontario and US tour stops – besides talking about A Widow’s Charm, you can expect us to cover topics such as writer friendships and how they sustain us, creating loveable necromancers, and many other topics!
About A Widow’s Charm
In this witty fantasy romance, a widow attempts to resurrect her dead husband by blackmailing her rakish necromancer neighbor—only to find herself falling for him instead.
“Witty, whimsical, and deeply kind, A Widow’s Charm is beyond charming—it’s wholly enchanting.”
—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting
Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he dies unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde die along with him. What’s a widow to do?
Potential salvation arrives in the form of Lord Elmwood, who is fleeing the consequences of using his forbidden Charm to raise the dead. Now he’s injured, destitute, and hiding out at the neighboring estate.
For Hilde, blackmailing Lord Elmwood to resurrect Thorgoode seems like the perfect solution. For Elmwood, beautiful Lady Croft seems like the ideal distraction from his troubles. The problem is, all she wants from him is the horrifying power he knows he can never use again.
My blurb for A Widow’s Charm?
“Caitlyn Paxson’s A Widow’s Charm is hair-raising, dead-raising, and utterly arousing. Sexy, absurd, cozy, lovable, hold-on-to-your-pants thrilling. The whole thing charmed the hell out of me. What even is this book? It’s everything I want to read!”
—C. S. E. Cooney, author of World Fantasy Award-winning Saint Death’s Daughter
About Caitlyn Paxson
Caitlyn Paxson has a degree in writing and cultural history and has worked as the artistic director of storytelling performances, a harpist, a book reviewer, a nineteenth century jack-of-all-trades, a shepherdess, and a fake Victorian spirit medium. She lives on Prince Edward Island with her husband and three orange cats. A Widow’s Charm is her first book.
Dear friends, in little over an hour, at 2:30 EST, as the blizzard conditions set in, Carlos and I will be hosting a virtual reading on my twitch channel–twitch.tv/csecooney!
Our Eldritch Horror line-up is amazing. Read more about our readers here!
Mike Allen writes spooky things — a Publishers Weekly reviewer once called his stories “nightmare fuel.” Two of his collections of horror tales, Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, were nominees for the Shirley Jackson Award. To Mike’s delight, his newest novel, Appalachian horror yarn Trail of Shadows (Broken Eye Books, 2025), has been named a finalist for the 2026 Webster Award — founded to honor the memory of his dear departed friend Bud Webster. Mike’s other novels include the post-apocalyptic swarming-undead sidearms-and-sorcery adventure The Black Fire Concerto. Other stories and poems of his have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Best Horror of the Year, Interzone, Nebula Awards Showcase, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, and more. With his wife Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, home to numerous award-winning and award-nominated sci-fi and fantasy volumes that defy categories and expectations. As an editor and publisher, Mike has twice been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Follow him on Instagram @mythicdelirium and Bluesky @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.
Christa Carmen is the Bram Stoker Award-winning and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island, Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, “Through the Looking Glass and Straight Into Hell,” & the forthcoming Beneath the Poet’s House. Find her at http://www.christacarmen.com.
Sarah Hans is an award-winning writer whose stories have appeared in more than 50 publications, including Apex Magazine and Pseudopod. A former special education teacher, she has written numerous books, primarily in the horror and dark fantasy romance genres. You can read along chapter-by-chapter as she writes her newest book at patreon.com/sarahhans. She lives in Ohio with her husband, a varying number of teenagers, more pets than she can afford, and enough craft supplies to keep her busy for the next 200 years.
Nicholas Kaufmann is the Bram Stoker Award-, Shirley Jackson Award-, Thriller Award-, and Dragon Award-nominated author of numerous works of horror and suspense, including the bestsellers 100 FATHOMS BELOW (co-written with Steven L. Kent) and THE HUNGRY EARTH. His latest is the collection MONUMENTS IN DARKNESS, which celebrates his 25th anniversary as a published author. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
CASSANDRA KHAW is the USA Today bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Library at Hellebore, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, The Salt Grows Heavy, Breakable Things, and coauthor of The Dead Take the A Train with Richard Kadrey. They are an award-winning game writer.
Haralambi Markov is a Bulgarian fiction writer and editor with a background in content creation. In 2014, they became the first ever Bulgarian accepted to attend the Clarion Writers’ Workshop. Their short story “The Language of Knives” was long-listed for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and their essay “My Father, My Private Monster” made it onto the Bram Stoker Award long list for non-fiction in 2025. Their work has appeared in Reactor, Uncanny Magazine, Evil in Technicolor, Weird Fiction Review, Stories for Chip, Eurasian Monsters, and Fractured Reveries. They were part of the team of BonFIYAH 2021. Mythic Delirium Books will release their debut collection of short fiction, The Language of Knives: Stories, in July 2026. Follow them on Instagram at @somethinghaunted.
S.P. Miskowski’s stories appear in many anthologies. She’s received two NEA fellowships, multiple award nominations, and This Is Horror Novel of the Year 2017. Recent works: If You Knew Me (Thomas & Mercer), Daughters of Catastrophe (Grimscribe Press), and The Skillute Cycle (Broken Eye Books).
Jeffrey Thomas’s books include Punktown, Deadstock, Blue War, The American, and The Idol. He has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and John W. Campbell Award, and his stories have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor, Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors, Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). Thomas lives in Massachusetts
A Horror Reading with “The Sinister Six” authors from Ruadán Books’ anthology Sinister Societies: Six Novellas of Secrets and Horrors
Who is?
Cindy O’Quinn is an Appalachian writer. She grew up in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia. She writes fiction, nonfiction, and speculative poetry, which all lean heavily into the horror genre. She is the author of Dark Cloud on Naked Creek. It was Cindy’s fifth Bram Stoker Award nomination that garnered her the prestigious award. Her poetry has been nominated for the Elgin, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star awards.
Errick Nunnally was born and raised in Boston,Massachusetts, he served one tour in the Marine Corps before deciding art school would be a safer—and more natural—pursuit. He is permanently distracted by art, comics, science fiction, history, and horror. Trained as a graphic designer, he has earned a black belt in KravMaga/Muay Thai kickboxing after dark, and first prize in one hamburger contest. Errick’s writing includes: the novels Blood for the Sun, All the Dead Men, and Lightning Wears a Red Cape; a comic strip collection, Lost in Transition; and a short novel The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile from upstart publisher Clash Books. The following are some magazines and anthologies that he has appeared in: Galaxy’s Edge; Fiyah Literary Magazine; Lamplight; and Nightlight, a Black Horror Podcast. Eventually, Errick came to his senses and moved to Rhode Island with his two lovely children and one beautiful wife. Visit erricknunnally.us to see more of his work.
Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears red lipstick, and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of numerous works including Darling, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, Detritus in Love, and Nameless. She is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and “Fracture.” Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com.
Michael Burke is the co-founder of the Eisner-award-winning comic and collectible store Comicazi in Somerville, MA. When not sorting the comic stacks at work, Michael can be found at home, releasing the hobgoblins of his mind into story form. He has had several short stories published both online and in print, including The Horror Zine, Monster Fight at the O.K. Corrall, and the ‘80s-themed anthology, Totally Tubular Terrors. He also has a weird western novella, Last Sunset of a Dying Age, in Crystal Lake’s Dark Tide series and a small sword and sorcery collection, Fragments of a Greater Darkness, from Tule Fog Press. Michael is a member of the New England Horror Writers’ Association and lives outside of Boston, MA with a patient wife in a house with more books than he can possibly read, which doesn’t stop him from acquiring more. He continues writing every chance he gets.
Tom Deady‘s first novel, Haven, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. He has since published several novels, novellas, a short story collection, and the first book in his middle grade horror series. Most recently, he released The Rack II, a follow-up to the popular anthology The Rack, themed around celebrating the bygone days of mass market horror paperbacks. He has a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing and is a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the New England Horror Writers Association. You can find out more about Tom and his work at www.tomdeady.com.
Sarah Read is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, Out of Water, Root Rot & Other Grim Tales, and The Atropine Tree. She lives in northern Wisconsin where she works as a public librarian, knits, and collects stationery and pretty rocks. Visit her at authorsarahread.com.
A Horror Reading with many of my Dark-Arts Friends! With bonus COVER REVEAL of Haralambi Markov’s upcoming short story collection The Language of Knives
Who is?
I’ll post their full bios later as we get closer to the event, but here are the stars:
St. John’s University’s second Storytelling event: The Power of Poetic Imagination in Our Time, a discussion moderated by me featuring poets Ali Trotta, C. S. E. Cooney, and Antoinette Brim-Bell
Yes. I think I just wrote a fan song for my own fiction. That’s okay. It makes me happy. Shout out to Saint Death’s Daughter, Saint Death’s Herald, and my current WIP–the last of the trilogy–Saint Death’s Doorway.
Necromancy Is
Hey hey hey hey Don’t look at it that way All that gray gray gray All that death and decay
It’s not like you might think it is (Okay, I mean, I guess it is) But also it’s so beautiful To raise an undead friend
Hey hey hey hey Let me tell you ’bout my day First I have to say say say Hello to all the graves
I kiss the air about their tombs I walk into their stony rooms And tell them they’re so beautiful Oh, all my undead friends
Hey hey hey hey Why keep them all at bay? That’s not my way way way And I think we do okay
Necromancy’s not a sport It’s kind of like a secret art And damn, it’s really beautiful To meet new undead friends
BRIDGE
I’ve raised a queen from just her toe I’ve raised a wolf cub too I’ve raised a tiger from a rug And now I’m raising you
Your face is smiling, bones so green I think we’ll get along I’ll sing, you’ll play your moldy harp We’ll dance the dance macabre
Hey hey hey hey It’s the end of our fun day Now I’m gonna lay lay lay You in your resting place
Our time together, sweet and rare Well nothing else quite can compare We were so very beautiful My darling undead friend
Speakeasy Magick Secret delight Sneak in the back room It’s only at night
And the boys pick your pockets But the girls are in charge There’s a man at the piano His heart like a forge
There’s a devil at the table And he’s flirting in French There’s a geezer at the microphone Whose jokes make you cringe
And I’m not supposed to say it I’m not supposed to tell About the coins, the cards, the rubber bands Their neck tattoos, their clever hands Their secret rings and all those things That make us clap until we bleed That make us laugh because we need A world that still has magic
Speakeasy Magick Prosecco’s on me We lean in and laugh the same My hand on his knee
And the waiter’s adorable Their hair up in knots They haven’t slept for seven nights They’re ready to plotz
And this night is for wonders For tricks quick as light A handkerchief becomes a dove A dozen doves take flight
And I’m not supposed to say it I’m not supposed to tell About the coins, the cards, the rubber bands Their neck tattoos, their clever hands Their secret rings and all those things That make us clap until we bleed That make us laugh because we need A world that still has magic
Yesterday, we made our characters for a short-shot DND game my sister-in-law is DMing for us over the next few weeks. I’d never played a Druid, so I chose that class–Circle of Spores, baby! BECAUSE MUSHROOMS! (And decay!) (Thus, I named my character “Golden Chanterelle.” Possibly “Chant” for short. Or “Goldie.”)
And I love Changelings, so that’s the race I chose. I like shapeshifting, not only into animals but other things as well.
Background is “Feylost”–also a first for me. I love a girl who falls through a mushroom circle. And it’s sort of backwards for Changelings, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
So anyway, I figured I’d write today’s FAWMling song à la D&D, in the manner of my people. (My people being specifically… Dr. Mary Crowell, of “I Have Missed You at My Table” and “I Put My Low Stat.”)
I think I’ll spend the first half of the month writing lyrics, and then the second half of the month working up melodies or collaborating for them.
Golden Chanterelle
Whiff of nectar, golden-sweet Smell of honey, dripping mead Draw too near, you might find more Breathing in her cloud of spore
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
Under hemlock, under fir You might find a trace of her Look again, she’ll disappear Misty-stepping far from here
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
Giant boar and wild bear Tiger, spider, goat, or hare Chanterelle is girl and beast Isn’t anybody’s feast
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
BRIDGE
What can she protect? What can she preserve? Whom is she looking for? Whom will she serve?
Hungry to connect Afraid to be seen Shy in the shadows She hides in the green
She is Golden Chanterelle Coat of moss and fairy bells Fell asleep and fell through worlds Now she walks, a wild girl
C.S.E. Cooney 