2019 Reading List Monthly Update: March

Books read in March of 2019:
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"The Secret History of Twin Peaks" (Mark Frost) 3-7-19
"This Planet is Doomed: the Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra" (Sun Ra) 3-8-19
"Batman: Knightfall Volume 1" (Doug Moench/Chuck Dixon) 3-13-19
"Four Circles" (Meg McCarville) 3-16-19
"The Purple Cloud" (M.P. Shiel) 3-24-19 
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2019 Reading List Total:
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1. "The Paintings of William Blake" (Raymond Lister) 1-1-19 
2. "Fascination" (Kevin Killian) 1-10-19
3. "Neo-Decadent Manifesto of Women's Fashion" (Justin Isis) 1-11-19
4. "Halyartes and Other Poems in Prose" (Éphraïm Mikhaël) 1-12-19
5. "In the Stillness of Marble" (Teresa Wilms Montt) 1-13-19
6. "Harlem Smoke" (James Champagne) 1-18-19 *
7. "The Shadow" (Maurice Level) 1-20-19
8. "Batman: A Death in the Family" (Jim Starlin/Marv Wolfman) +
9. "Death Mort Tod: A European Book of the Dead" (Steve Finbow/Karolina Urbaniak) 1-26-19
10. "Of Kings and Things" (Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock/ed. David Tibet) 1-27-19
11. "Batman: Sword of Azrael" (Dennis O'Neil) 1-30-19
12. "The Rita: Anatomical Charisma" (Sam McKinlay/Gabrielle Losoncy) 2-1-19
13. "Sea of Love" (Simon Morris) 2-3-19
14. "Inside the Castle" (Josiah Morgan) 2-4-19
15. "War with the Newts" (Karel Čapek) 2-5-19
16. "Granite City Blues" (Josh Peterson) 2-8-19
17. "Bloom" (Kevin Panetta/Savanna Ganucheau) 2-8-19
18. "The Metapheromenoi" (Brendan Connell) 2-10-19
19. "Batman: Prelude to Knightfall" (Chuck Dixon/Doug Moench) 2-13-19
20. "Tosh: Growing up in Wallace Berman's World" (Tosh Berman) 2-24-19
21. "The Ballet of Dr. Caligari and Madder Mysteries" (Reggie Oliver) 2-26-19
22. "Negrophobia: An Urban Parable" (Darius James) 2-27-19
23. "The Secret History of Twin Peaks" (Mark Frost) 3-7-19
24. "This Planet is Doomed: the Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra" (Sun Ra) 3-8-19
25. "Batman: Knightfall Volume 1" (Doug Moench/Chuck Dixon) 3-13-19
26. "Four Circles" (Meg McCarville) 3-16-19
27. "The Purple Cloud" (M.P. Shiel) 3-24-19
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*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading:

"Faustina and Other Stories" (Renée Vivien and Helène de Zuylen de Nyevelt)
"Death in Midsummer" (Yukio Mishima) 

THE MAN WHO MURDERED HIS MUSE

THE MAN WHO MURDERED HIS MUSE, a story I wrote back in 2017, is being released as a chapbook by Eibonvale Press and is now available to order from their website, along with various other new chapbooks by Gaurav Monga, David Gullen, Andrew Hook, and Sophie Essex:

http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/chapbooks/Chap09_Muse.htm

From the publisher: 

"Set among the alt and goth scenes in a small US college city, this novella is a dark and sharp horror story about the art of writing, twisted intellectualism, mainstream success and the sometimes highly warped relationships people can have with their creative muses. James Champagne’s prose is colourful, dark, complex and intense, with the flavour of an ancient bitter herbal liqueur served in a goblet of industrial glass and barbed wire."

Having read some of the other Eibonvale Press chapbooks over the years (to say nothing of some of their full-length books) I consider this quite the honor!

Last Dark Ride RIP

Contrary to my last blog posting, I've recently decided to abandon LAST DARK RIDE, which was to have been my 3rd horror short story collection. While some of the stories within it I feel have merit, there are many others that lack the same passion that I felt when doing stories for my previous two collections, and I'm uncomfortable about trying to get published anything unless it's something I'm 100% passionate about. The few good stories I'll save for a future collection, and the lesser ones I'll go through at some point and see if there are any good sentences I can scavenge for future projects. 

In related news, the French Decadent novella that was to have been the first entry in the collection I'm thinking will now be a standalone (short) novel.