weird

Lou Pendergrast’s Review of THE SKELETON MELODIES at More2Read

/ Clint Smith / Leave a comment

There’s a revealing review of The Skeleton Melodies courtesy of Lou Pendergrast at More2Read: Must Read Books. “Pitting characters of various walks of life against terrors and dilemmas…through a modern weird horror telling, ancient and modern aspects fused with a few stories like a Flannery O’Connor and John Cheever tragedy with a horror mutation.” Pendergrast writes. “These tales will bring you to certain places with haunting remnants remaining and with this author the weird modern metamorphosis continues…”

The review is also available on Goodreads:

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.