Hey everybody, M. here,

If you have been following the goings on in the sword & sorcery and heroic fantasy world lately you’ve likely heard about the hotly-anticipated launch of Mordschlag Magazine, a publication focused on fiction and tabletop gaming from the editorial team at The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing. I’m excited to share that, having hit its first funding goal in only a matter of hours, The Arcanist just announced its first backerkit stretch goal for the magazine: a new sword & sorcery tale by yours truly!

So if reading Kingdoms Trembling has you wanting more mind-bending action and adventure done my way, soon, head over to Mordschlag’s Backerkit and back the project!

I’d love to say more about the story, but all I can tell you right now is that it’s new and it takes place in a world you haven’t seen before. For anything more, you’ll need to make sure that this one appears on the table of contents for Mordschlag #0.

And if you’ve been hearing my name and still have yet to check out my new book, don’t hesitate to grab yourself a copy of Kingdoms Trembling from the mighty DMR Books and see what everyone’s talking about!

More news to come, take care everyone!
-M.

Hey everybody, M. here,

I’ve had quite a bit going on since the other week at the Detroit Festival of Books with D.M. Ritzlin, so much so that I’ve been losing track of what I need to post and where.

So I’ll start with the most recent news, which is that I had the pleasure of appearing on the always excellent Rogues in the House podcast the other day, where I discussed the inspiration behind a few of the weird ideas on display in Kingdoms Trembling and my stories in the Die By The Sword anthologies, the art and craft of writing weird stories, and a bunch of other good stuff.

Had an excellent time on the podcast talking with James D. Mills (the mind behind The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing and the author of Ashen Rider) and L.D. Whitney (author of the Jangar series and publisher of CLIFFHANGER!) Watch the episode of the podcast on YouTube and see for yourself!

Recent reviews of Kingdoms Trembling
I’ve been kicking around the idea of revamping the rarely-updated “Press” section of my webpage for a while, but since some excellent reviews of Kingdoms Trembling have been appearing since the book came out, I figured I’ll worry about the Press page later.

So if you have been hearing about Kingdoms Trembling and want some insightful critical perspectives on it (or stumbled onto this website by accident and have read this far and still want to know what it’s all about) here are a few recent, excellent reviews.

Earlier this month the aforementioned James D. Mills reviewed Kingdoms Trembling on his Letters from the Arcanist Substack, in which he calls it:

“…an excellent read and breath of fresh air for folks looking for something different. It’s a masterclass performance of composition and imagination… It cherishes its Sword & Sorcery blood, but isn’t afraid to branch out to serve the immersion. There isn’t a weak story in the contents.“

And that’s just a small snippet, so check out the full review and subscribe to his Substack while you’re at it.

And in June, author and musician John Zaremba likewise did an incisive deep-dive into the book with his video review on YouTube, exploring highlights from his favorite tales therein, themes he detected throughout, and lots more (including the perennial mystery of my first initial). Well worth a watch!

After you check out those two, very thoughtful and thought-provoking explorations of Kingdoms Trembling, grab yourself a copy of the book from DMR Books, give it a read, and see what you think!

More news to come
One of the reasons I wanted to get this blog entry up today is because I’ve got some more announcements coming up pertaining both to horror and sword & sorcery stories pretty quick here, and I didn’t want to get too far behind.

So I should be back once or twice in the coming weeks with more updates. As always, you can check me out on Facebook and on my relatively brand-new Substack.

Take care everyone!
-M.

Hey everybody, M. here,

Happy to say that I had a wonderful time at the Detroit Festival of Books AKA Detroit Bookfest, where I was once again helping D.M. Ritzlin spread sword & sorcery to the world at the DMR Books table. Big thanks to anyone who dropped by and grabbed a copy of Kingdoms Trembling or any of the other great titles available from DMR, and to anyone who just came by and shot the breeze as well!

And if you happened to be eyeing Matthew M. Skillern‘s beautiful illustration of my new book at the table but didn’t get a chance to pick it up on the spot, you can, of course, still order one from DMR directly or get one from Amazon today!

Much more to come. Now I’m going to go wait and see if I got my sunscreen on quickly enough to avoid a sunburn. Take care everyone!
-M.

Hey everybody, M, here,

Had what you might call a discombobulating weekend (albeit a largely enjoyable one minus an extended loss of electricity) which wiped me out a bit, so I spent a lot of time yesterday engaged in the meditative task of re-bagging and boarding my old comic book collection and old magazines to recuperate. This, along with some other obligations, kept distracting me from writing this blog. But here I am with some very exciting news to share.

I’m thrilled to say that I will be once again returning to the pages of Chthonic Matter Quarterly. This time I will be appearing in the Winter 2027 edition with my story The Move Out.

The story is the third in a thematic triptych that begins with my story Sticky from the Winter 2024 issue, and continues in my story which was just released a few weeks ago in the Summer 2026 edition, What’s Behind The Walls.

So you’ve got a while to go before you can see the horrific, paranoid, and dare I say occasionally humorous places where I take the third one (and any attempt at offering more detail at this point would be a spoiler too far beyond what the title might already imply). But the second of these thematically linked tales, What’s Behind The Walls, is brand new, so if you have yet to see what that one is all about you can pick up a copy of the latest issue of CMQ and dig into it along with six other new, thought-provoking and disturbing works of dark fiction by some excellent other contemporary authors.

And if you’re looking for more of my work in that vein, you can of course also start at the beginning and grab a copy of the Winter 2024 issue of CMQ if you have not checked it out yet.

Also always worth mentioning that you can get back-issue bundles and subscriptions straight from the publisher over at the Chthonic Matter website. So you can catch up on what’s come out so far and be one of the first to get CMQ in your mailbox four times a year.

I realized that with all the excitement going on over the past few weeks, between the release of my sword & sorcery collection, Kingdoms Trembling, from DMR Books and What’s Behind The Walls coming out in the latest issue of CMQ, that I ended up getting the pictures of my contributor copy of the new issue of CMQ posted everywhere I have an internet presence besides here on this blog. So I am including them here now throughout this post. As you can see this one is a beautiful book to hold in your hand (as issues of CMQ always are).

I think the two issues I’ve been published in so far look pretty cool next to each other as well.

If you are digging these stories and want more, fear not, you won’t have to wait for 2027 for a new one. There is still more horror to look forward to from me (and from Chthonic Matter Press!) this summer.

Next up, in August, my story Sherman Dismantled and Afloat will be appearing in Chthonic Matter’s Nyctalocos: A Collection of Night Terrors themed anthology.

So get ready for that one and stay tuned for more news! Take care everyone!
-M.