Cthonic Matter Quarterly is the latest of C.M. Muller's publications of dark fantasy and horror stories. Issue #6 of CMQ contains 8 stories of the macabre, the unsettling, and the grotesque. M.C. St. John's story Take This Body happens to be all three.
In a rural village, resident Kellen Turner is dying. Turner also happens to be the village's sin eater, one who consumes the transgressions of the recently deceased to absolve them of sin. However, the residents have coerced Turner into eating their sins while they're alive, making them complicit in Turner's demise. The situation brings up an unsettling question: where will the sins of a village go when there is no sin eater left to deal with them?
A folk horror story only M.C. St. John could write, Take This Body explores sin and salvation and the roles we all play to balance the scales. Pick up your copy of CMQ here to read this tale along with others by compelling writers of dark fiction.
Oddity Prodigy Productions has released their long-anticipated anthology Beneath The Yellow Lights, a collection of urban fantasy stories from writers across the country.
Among these stories is M.C. St. John's Bringing the Hocus. Set in a metropolis where magic is outlawed, graffiti artist Hector and his crew, Jayla and Sammy D, are out to conjure some change. When the "tunics," the city police, intervene, the group must decided what magic is worth fighting for.
Part speculative future, part dark fantasy, and all parts harrowing, Bringing the Hocus is like nothing M.C. has written before. Pick up your copy of Beneath The Yellow Lights here to find out.
Flame Tree Publishing has released Learning To Be Human, an anthology of science fiction stories exploring robots, AI, and machine learning and their impact on the future of humanity.
Among the collected stories is M.C. St. John’s “Thy Will Be Done,” a meditation on religion in the smart robot age. Order Learning To Be Human here, and find out if a fugitive robot can find sanctuary in “Thy Will Be Done.”
You can also find a Q & A among the authors, M.C. St. John included, about their inspiration for their stories here.
For all manners of monsters, Tales of Sley House 2023 has the full range of what goes bump in the night. M.C. St. John’s story “O’Shaugnessy’s Spirit and Cryptid Removal, LLC” is collected here, and it has a doozy of a monster: family disfunction.
Frank and Norah are the father and daughter of a family business—exterminating creatures of the night. But not all is well between Frank and Norah since the death of Wren, Norah’s mother, during an extermination job. Now Frank and Norah must team up to take on a strange unknown creature together. Because if they don’t, it will be the end of the business…and the family, too.
Read M.C.’s monster story by purchasing a copy of Tales of Sley House 2023 here.
Nora just wants to be one of the kids in the neighborhood. A sweet, dark tale, “Nora Nora” is about the stories we tell ourselves and who we can become when we do.
Thirteen Podcast presents an audio production of M.C. St. John’s “Nora, Nora,” narrated by Bridgett Howard. Become a patron for Thirteen here to enjoy this wonderful rendition of “Nora, Nora.”
Cosmorama, the online speculative and literary fiction website, has just published M.C. St. John’s latest story, “It’s Tough Being A New Parent.” An sweet, odd, and darkly philosophical story, “Tough” follows the foibles of one “new” dad in helping take care of an infant. But to say this particular dad doesn’t understand child-rearing is a massive understatement…
Learn about the joys and dangers of parenting with M.C.’s latest here.
Coffin Bell, a journal of dark literature, has released Volume 6, Issue No. 2 Familiars. This issue centers on the people and creatures who serve dark forces.
M.C. St. John’s story “Unfamiliar” will be included in this issue. Focusing more on Renfield than Dracula, “Unfamiliar” follows the manservant Worsley and his dark deeds for the vampire Countess Rosalind. Despite his devotion, Worsley may have a more complicated situation when he’s tasked with taking care of the body of a nobleman. A tale about the toils of servitude, “Unfamiliar” reveals the lengths some people will go for eternal love.
Check out the Familiars issue here.
The Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers presents the 15th issue of Eerie Tales: It Came from the Movies. Each GLAHW writer takes a classic, obscure, or just plain scary movie monster and recasts it in an original tale. And just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies…
M.C. St. John’s story, “These Things Move In Cycles,” finds the Creature from the Black Lagoon in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and follows the creature as it fulfills the biological credo of “life finding a way.” Part eco-horror tale, part monster movie, and part love story, “These Things Move In Cycles” shows how perennial all of our hopes and fears can be, no matter what you are.
Grab your copy of Eerie Tales 15 here to read M.C.’s story, as well as the other terrifying tales from GLAHW writers.
It’s never too early to ring in the holiday season. Flame Tree Publishing has released Christmas Gothic, a collection of eldritch tales dedicated to the spirits and creatures of the winter season. Among them is one of M.C. St. John’s latest and scariest stories—“The Dark-Eyed Boy.”
A father, a cabin, a snowstorm. From these details spins a fiendish fairy tale about trying to escape the past. But some things bide their time and keep lists for those who are naughty.
Find out what’s coming up the snowy lane in “The Dark-Eyed Boy” with Christmas Gothic.
