Hey everybody, M. here,

As I mentioned in my earlier post about the release of the new issue of Chthonic Matter Quarterly, it was a really busy weekend for me in terms of fiction-related news! On Saturday I received my copy of Kingdoms Trembling in the mail, and as I’ve mentioned in a few other places online, the physical copy of this book is nothing short of stunning.

The illustration by Matthew M. Skillern absolutely explodes off the cover with colors so vivid I don’t think a picture on a screen can really capture it. That said, here are a couple of pictures to give you a feel for what I’m talking about!

If you’re stopping by for the first time and are wondering what this wizardry is that you’re looking at, Kingdoms Trembling is my debut sword & sorcery collection from DMR Books, containing 12 previously unpublished, bloody, action-packed tales that immerse you in the bizarre, dangerous world I first created and introduced in my stories The Tears of Blood and The Eye Within The Eye, which can be found in DMR’s two Die By The Sword anthologies. (And you can now get the first of those for free to read in e-book format, in DMR Books’ new digital sampler, The Battle Rages On).

Kingdoms Trembling was picked as a 2026 Summer Read by Publishers Weekly and has already been receiving some thoughtful praise from die-hard fans of the fantastic (I’m planning on highlighting more of that in the coming weeks).

In addition to the beautiful illustration and book design, I’ve also included an image of the table of contents here, so you can dig the unique naming convention I adopted when I was writing these stories, which I think sets the tone for a rare kind of reading experience.

But rather than taking it from me, you should see for yourself!

So if you’re into sword & sorcery, dark fantasy, weird horror, and all that other good stuff, grab yourself a copy today and see what all the hype is about!

A Few Thoughts About My Substack Experience So Far
Again, for those only now just becoming familiar with my work, you can follow me on Facebook, where I have been since time immemorial, and on my relatively new Substack to get more frequent updates and occasional posts related to film, literature, comic books and magazines from my youth, and other sorts of things that are broadly associated with my creative interests but aren’t strictly the kind of news on my fiction being published that you will read here.

On the topic of Substack, I have been having a lot of fun in the Substack Notes lately, engaging in more of the types of conversations I used to have on other social media platforms about 15 years ago, before algorithmic manipulation started making polite and insightful discussions more and more difficult.

That said, it is not quite living up to the promise of letting me get my stuff out to everyone who might enjoy it, at least not yet, but I’ve only been there a short time. So if you’re on there, follow me and subscribe! I might actually start making good use of that newsletter with some long-form content the way I keep saying I’m going to soon (it’s been a hectic couple of months, that’s my current excuse!).

Anyway time for me to go work on some stuff, take care everyone!
-M.