literary horror

Short Story, “Feast Your Eyes,” to Appear in NIGHTSCRIPT, Vol. VII

/ Clint Smith / Leave a comment
Cover Art Courtesy of Jana Heidersdorf

Received word that my short story, “Feast Your Eyes on the Yawning Monotony of Humdrum Rot,” will appear in the forthcoming installment of C.M. Muller’s Nightscript, Volume 7, featuring absolutely stunning cover art by Jana Heidersdorf.

I’m certain more will make announcements in due time, but I have word from my colleagues, Douglas Ford (Ape in the Ring: & Other Tales of the Macabre and Uncanny) and Joshua Rex (What’s Coming For You) that they too will contribute stories to this edition of Nightscript.

This particular tale was constructed with the (fictional) setting as the centerpiece: the Mooring Cove Inn situated in a vague province along the coast of Lake Michigan. My characters find themselves lodged in this novelty, tourist-attraction of a hotel on New Year’s Eve, 2000. There is, indeed, a party of sorts; but, for my protagonist, the Gregorian festivity (and time itself) slips into the a rather grim event. Keep your “eyes” peeled on the noble month of October, 2021.

A diagram of naval shipworms, a.k.a. “termites of the sea”

UPDATE: Table of contents for Nightscript, Vol. VII announced on C.M. Muller’s site, wherein I find myself in profoundly talented company…

1. “Feast Your Eyes on the Yawning Monotony of Humdrum Rot” — Clint Smith

2. “The Passing” — Joshua Rex

3. “When Sleep At Last — Douglas Thompson

4. “The Summer King’s Day” — Timothy Granville

5. “Roadkill” — Elin Olausson

6. “It Looked Like Her” — Gordon Brown

7. “Little Gods To Live In Them” — David Surface

8. “We Are The Gorillas” — Douglas Ford

9. “The Body Trick” — Alexander James

10. “Feed” — Jason A. Wyckoff

11. “’Neath The Mirror Of The Sea” — Rhonda Eikamp

12. “Clipped Wings” — Steve Toase

13. “The Cardboard Voice” — Tim Major

14. “The Validations” — Ashley Stokes

15. “A Perfect Doll” — Regina Garza Mitchell

16. “Madam and Yves” — Marc Joan

17. “The Delf” — Danny Rhodes

18. “Where the Oxen Turned the Plow” — Charles Wilkinson

19. “Feast of Fools: A Heartwarming Holiday Romance” — LC von Hessen

Nightscript, Volume VII will be released on October 1st, 2021.

Location, Location, Vocation

/ Clint Smith / 1 Comment

These first few months of 2015 are marked by several pieces of writerly news — notably, the acceptance of a pair of stories in two, inceptive publications, each helmed by estimable editors possessing inventive visions.

“Nøkken,” Theodor Kittelsen, entitled (1904) XNOYBIS, No. 1

My story “Animalhouse” found placement in CM Muller’s inaugural Nightscript,  “N. is a venue for ‘strange tales’,” writes Muller, “fictions supernatural, uncanny, [and] weird.”  The content will no doubt possess “subtle and darksome literary horror.”  Look for fictions in the vein of Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson, Dennis Etchison, Flannery O’Connor, Terry Lamsley, Lisa Tuttle, Thomas Owen, Mary Shelley, and Arthur Machen,

The second odd abode in which my tale “The Rive” has found a “home” is in Jordan Krall’s venture, Xnoybis, a journal of weird fiction, the first issue of which will feature a “never-before-published interview with Thomas Ligotti from 1999 which has been approved by Tom himself,” according to Krall.  (The interview was conducted by David Edwards.)