Author Archives: root52stern

Startling Stories reviews! Sign up for my e-mail list!

Hey everybody, M. here.

It has been a busy couple of weeks here over at M. Stern Headquarters so I have not had a ton of time, but I wanted to share some quick updates:

Reviews of “Payload” online at Tangent and SFRevu
“Payload” got a very thoughtful, in-depth and insightful write-up from Tara Grimravn over at Tangent Online in her full review of the new Startling Stories. Check it out! If you haven’t read the story yet, this review just might pique your interest. The story also received some kind words from Sam Tomaino at SFRevu, so dig that one too!

And if you have not gotten your hands on the new issue yet, you can order a print copy from indie retailers like Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records, from the new Startling Stories website run by publisher Wildside Press, or if you want an electronic version to magically appear on your Kindle you can buy the e-book at Amazon.

I personally am as print-centric a fiction reader as can be, so I firmly encourage you to pick up a physical copy to keep on your shelf and impress your friends and family. That said, the more I think about it, the more it strikes me that it would be a slightly different experience to read this story in particular on an e-reader. What do I mean by that? You’ll just have to buy it and see…

Sign up for my e-mail list!
One other little thing is that I installed a sign-up box for an e-mail list over there on the right hand side of the screen. Why? Well, because at the moment most of the way I have been getting word out about my stories is on Facebook, and it seems like the site keeps adding hurdles to make it more difficult to promote legitimate stuff (while at the same time doing apparently as much as they can to facilitate scams, bad vibes, and all sorts of other things that are driving humankind insane).

Don’t get me wrong, I would definitely still appreciate it if you follow me on Facebook to stay in the loop, but I have begun to imagine what a post-social media world might look like and it seems it would be good to still be able to get the word out if one or more of the social media channels we have become dependent on becomes terminally unfashionable or craps out entirely.

So if you’re at all interested in getting dispatches from the strange and fantastic world of M. Stern direct to your email, drop your email address right in that box. It might also inspire me to start doing movie reviews regularly like I always tell myself I am going to.

Just in the past couple of months I have found myself signing up for more genre authors’ e-newsletters like this and I have to say there is something pleasant about receiving that kind of content directly. Maybe it is because social media just shows me a constant stream of the same memes and people arguing with bots every day. Maybe it is because 99.5 percent of the email I receive is spam so it feels nice to get something I actually signed up for. Either way I have found it introduces a small glimmer of surprise happiness into my day.

Anyway time to get back to the shit, hopefully I will have more news coming soon. Stay safe everyone!
-M.

My contributor copies of Startling Stories have arrived

Hey everybody, M. here,

My contributor copies of Startling Stories showed up in the mail the other day, so here’s a quick glimpse of what there is to dig inside:

Want to read more? Pick yourself up a copy and check it out! Not only is the magazine available on Amazon, but if you want to give your local indie bookstore some support (and you absolutely should!), Startling is now available through traditional book distributors — so ask your local bookstore owner about getting it in and they should be able to hook you up! Or you can grab one direct from the publisher, Wildside Press,

Hope everyone is still hanging in there and staying safe, take care!
-M.

Returning to the pages of Write Ahead/The Future Looms!

Hey everybody, M. here,

Happy to say I just signed the contract on another story with Write Ahead/The Future Looms, and my story “Memories of Emma” is slated to appear in their pages. Get ready for more action! More poetry! More anxiety! And more punk of the cyber variety! Keep your eyes glued to this window for more news, and/or follow me on Facebook to stay up to date on the latest developments. Take care everyone!
-M.

Received a print copy of Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror Candlemas 2021 Edition

Hey everybody, M. here,

Excited to say that my Pnakotic Pnostman dropped off a copy of Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror Candlemas 2021 Edition in the mail! We’ve got oft anthologized veteran U.K. horror/SF author/poet and Beat poet scholar Bryn Fortey and Chaosium editor/prolific purveyor of modern Mythos fiction Glynn Owen Barrass on the cover, and here’s a tiny glimpse of what you’ll find inside from yours truly:

Does that snippet make you curious about what happened at the party, and what happened at the after party and, most importantly, what happened after the after party? Head over to Amazon and snag the issue in print or ebook to find out. Within those pages you’ll find a varied assortment of Cthulhuvian tales to weirden your mind beyond its breaking point! Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
-M.

“Payload” now available in print in Startling Stories!

Hey everybody, M. here,

The day has finally arrived – the long anticipated first issue of the relaunched Startling Stories from Wildside Press, edited by Doug Draa, is out in paperback and available on Amazon (and with, as you can see, a different cover than the prospective one that was floating around early last year). This relaunch of the classic pulp science fiction magazine contains my science fiction story “Payload” alongside a bunch of other cool brand new stories, not to mention a ‘50s one by Silverberg (a story which was, from what I understand, written originally for the classic incarnation of the mag).

I had a whole big blog planned exploring the ins-and-outs of “Payload.” Firstly because I do believe that, as a story about intertwining and mutating varieties of contagion, it’s more germane to the world as it now looks – in the midst of a pandemic with one or perhaps numerous infodemics happening alongside it – than it would have been had it run closer to when I had written it. In fact I think the story probably speaks more to the experience of living through a pandemic in a technologically advanced society than it would have had I written something more immediately, directly recognizable as a piece of pandemic fiction. Secondly, waiting for a long time for something gives you a lot of time to think about it. And boy have I thought.

So I could honestly probably talk for an hour or two about this one – about its Ballardian (I think?) vibe and where that might fit in the context of Campbell-era of science fiction, about the approach to virology and epidemiology and how that might have changed given that concepts like spike proteins and adenoviral vectors are now, bizarrely, part of the common parlance, and about a million other aspects of this story. Some parts of it have a long, long history in my brain, despite it all having come together, as these thing sometimes do, rather quickly. But in attempting to write such a blog I found that I was just asking myself questions that I hadn’t been asked and then answering them, which felt sort of silly. More importantly, as I’ve said elsewhere, it’s a story not a philosophical treatise – one that I hope will keep people guessing and deliver some entertaining thrills more than anything. So check it out and get Startled!

And if you want more M. Stern in your head…
Earlier this week my cosmic horror-comedy “After the After Party” — a story with quite a different sensibility than “Payload” — made its appearance in Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror. Check it out in print or e-book, as nothing goes down better after an M. Stern story than an M. Stern chaser, so they say. “They” being, in this case, me. Anyway take care everyone, stay safe.
-M.

“After the After Party” OUT NOW in Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror!

Hey everybody, M. here,

Wishing a belated Happy New Year to all of you! I Just got word a little bit ago that my story titled “After the After Party” has arrived in print (and Kindle format) in Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror. This story is sort of a funny one, I’ve described it as having the sensibility of sort of a madcap rom-com — so what can you expect? Self delusion! Quixotic romance! Weird intrigue! Arcane rituals! People acting like assholes! References to the classics! Gloppy monsters! And a touch of existential fear and trembling — what would cosmic horror be without it, right?

Sound like your kind of thing? Head on over to Amazon and snag a copy, and I hope you mythos mavens and weird horror aficionados get a kick out of this one. Follow me on Facebook for more updates, not to mention brief thoughts on technological miscellany, songs I like, and whatever else I post when the spirit moves me.

And speaking of updates …

A new way to get your M. Stern fix
The duo over at cyberpunk mag Write Ahead/The Future Looms have launched a “digital news-stand” for the purchase of individual digital issues. That means if you haven’t grabbed Vol. 11. yet, featuring my story “Head on the Door” and you want something to cool to read on your electronic device of choice — or are yourself a cyborg and are capable of downloading ebooks directly to your brain — you can now get the entire issue for a mere 3 pounds sterling (or whatever that converts to in your preferred currency).

If it is at all helpful in driving this micro-transaction, I said somewhere else that the moral of “Head on the Door” is that anyone can break your skull but only you can break your heart — an aphorism I believe to be no less true now than I did like three months ago when I made it up.

Anyway hope everyone is holding up out there, take care and stay safe!
-M.

Nove-M.-ber update (new story acceptance and other stuff!)

Hey everybody, M. here.

Hope everyone is staying safe and hanging in there during what is by my calculation the eleventy-thousandth month of this goddamned wretched pandemic. I’ve got a few new developments to share, so without further ado…

New story on the way at Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror
I’m excited to say that the other day I got an acceptance from Lovecraftiana: The Magazine of Eldritch Horror for my story After the After Party, which is slated to appear in the Candlemas 2021 issue early next year. I don’t want to get too deep into what this one’s about and run the risk of dropping spoilers, so suffice it to say I’ve been calling this story a cosmically horrific rom-com romp. Looking forward to it making an appearance in print.

Write Ahead/The Future Looms back issue pack available
Speaking of print, for those who want to get their hands on a physical copy of my short story Head on the Door, Write Ahead/The Future Looms has made their most recent back issue pack available for purchase. Along with Vol. 11 —  which contains my story of broken hearts, shattered skulls, self-deception and miscommunication both human and android — you get two other issues packed with all sorts of cyberpunk madness from both seasoned authors and up-and-comers from around the world. In addition to the contents, these mags have a unique design aesthetic and look super cool when you’ve got a bunch of them together — so pick up a stack and dig in.

Follow me on Facebook for more M. Sternerrific updates
That’s about all the big news I have at the moment. Hopefully there will be more forthcoming soon but, in any case, if you’ve checked out my stories and are digging what you’re reading or have any burning questions you want my take on, give me a holler in the comments or follow me on Facebook,

Also if you’ve got a theory about what Ancient Greek tragedy the events in Head on the Door very, very abstractly map on to, let me know here or over on FB. If someone can actually get this one I might even mail them a prize or something — at the very least I’d be incredibly impressed.

Take care everyone!
-M.