John Langan review and new story

My apologies for the hiatus on the site - it's been over a year since I've posted any new material either here on the blog, or on the website. Really, there are no excuses I can offer that won't sound either pathetic or self-serving. Put it down to a year long torpor.

Anyway, it's my intention to rectify that, particularly to keep things more up to date in what I've been writing, reading, watching and listening to. Over the next week or so, I'll be posting updates here on the blog, but in the meantime, I've posted two older pieces on my website.

First up is a story that first appeared at the Litro Fiction website. I wrote Hunger in 2022 and it was published online there in April 2023. It's what you might call a quiet, post-apocalypse tale. I won't say more than that. Hope you enjoy.

Hunger can be read here.

The second piece is for fans of the writer John Langan, whose story collection, Sefira and Other Betrayals, I reviewed for Black Static #70, back in August 2019. Having recently reread the book, I found the stories have lost none of their visceral power to subvert and unsettle, in particular 'The Third, Always Beside you,' which posits a unique exploration of the idea of vampirism, without, in fact, any vampires appearing in the harrowing tale.

Both 'In Paris, in the Mouth of Kronos', (which feels more vital than ever, given the current state of world political affairs, particularly in the Middle East), and 'At Home in the Devil's House', possess an hallucinatory quality, which makes the truths they reveal all the more profound.

Read my full review here.