Hey everybody, M. here,

So we’re now just about a month into 2025 and I’m finally getting around to posting this update (though I did put some of the images that you will find below up on Facebook earlier in the month). Truth is I’ve been a little distracted, but I’m happy to report that not all of it has been the type of unproductive distraction I’m always complaining about. I’ve made a concerted effort to get back to reading as much as I used to and have been doing alright in that respect. I’ve also been making my way through the movies I picked up during the Vinegar Syndrome Black Friday sale, thus far having watched the excellent philosophical sci-fi flick Phase IV, an early-’70s curio which was the only film shot by film title designer Saul Bass, and the less essential but nevertheless interesting (and sort of Larry Cohen-adjacent) late-’80s building horror flick Dark Tower, both about which I might write more later (really, I might. I know I always mention this but I keep feeling like I’m on the verge of doing some writing about movies again, I just haven’t quite made the commitment yet).

Anyway now on to the important stuff.

Pictures of Chthonic Matter Quarterly, Winter 2024 issue
I received my contributor copies of Chthonic Matter Quarterly #8, the Winter 2024 issue, in the mail a few weeks ago. This has to be one of the most excellent looking publications I have appeared in thus far, and you can see the beautiful book right there pictured among some of my most paranoid favorites.

Right there on page one begins my story Sticky, a tale that adheres itself to your fingers/eyeballs/cortex and won’t let go. So pick one of them up in print or for your Kindle and get yourself thoroughly sticky with my tale of anxiety, isolation, and love or something like it. And it contains seven other strange and horrific new tales from some great authors to enjoy as well.

Stories that came out in 2024
Another year-end/year-beginning recap post means, of course, another one of those pictures of all the anthologies I appeared in over the course of the year. So you can see the three anthologies I was in last year all lined up. I think they look pretty excellent next to each other, and I think each of them has some of the best anthology cover art/design of anything I’ve been in so far.

First pictured is Necronomi-RomCom (Dark Edition), the edition of the two-book duology from Transformations By Obsidian Butterfly which contains my body-horror rom-com Hearts Synchronize, in which our hero’s search for love and metaphysical truth brings him into contact with horror and hilarity from beyond space-time. If anything, I am almost certain this story is the only piece of Cthulhu Mythos fiction wherein experimental composer Iannis Xenakis is mentioned, or if not that, then the only romantic comedy in which he is mentioned. (My story also appears in the hardcover omnibus edition of Necronomi-RomCom, which contains stories from both the Dark and Light editions and has a cover that does a super creative visual mashup of the covers of the two books.)

In the middle is Die By The Sword Vol. II which contains my story The Eye Within The Eye, a direct followup to The Tears of Blood which appeared in the first DBTS anthology from DMR Books. The story continues the adventures of Ulxedomus, the Crown Prince of K’Zal, as he seeks revenge against his brother the usurper. This one’s filled with even more weird phenomena, bloody battles, mad monarchs, clashing steel, and brooding romanticism than the first one!

And then last and certainly not least is the latest issue of CMQ, containing my story Sticky which I discussed at greater length up above, but I’ll repeat it–check this one out!

2024 may not have been a high-volume year for me in terms of having stories come out, but I think each of these stories, in their own way, represent some of my best work that has appeared in print to date. So don’t hesitate to grab one and give it a read! (Buy Necronomi-RomCom here, buy Die By The Sword Vol. II here, buy Chthonic Matter Quarterly Winter 2024 here.)

On the way in 2025 so far…
So what’s on the way in 2025? My new story #FireOfLove is slated to appear in an upcoming horror anthology from Burial Books sometime later this year. They’re an up-and-coming indie publisher who are behind the successful Inanimate Things anthology series, and I’m really excited to be appearing in one of their books.

What’s the story about? It’s maybe a supernatural horror story, maybe a twisty noir thriller, maybe a meditation on the meaning of meme-ified mayhem, and maybe all three of those things and more.

So keep an eye out for more word on that one later in the year, and hopefully there will be much more news to come as the year gets moving. Take care everybody!

-M.