Happy journeys—or a solid container!—to Martha Hood’s The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say, the fifth shuttle to emerge from starship Candlemark’s Reckless imprint. Miasma is a witty fusion of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard with a pitch-perfect take on small-town bureaucracies, alliances, enmities and intrigues—brought to a head by a semi-sentient cloud of evil-smelling fog. Here are excerpts of some informed opinions about Miasma (longer takes are on the book page):
An innovative take on a classic tale, Miasma examines the practical side of having an eldritch monster haunting your small town. Stephen King fans will enjoy finding the answer to the question: what if the only thing standing between you and armageddon was the city council? —Justin Robinson, author of the acclaimed neo-noir pulp monster series City of Devils
…Hilarious and wistful, the book engages with the petty and destructive aspects of mundane human nature, as the miasma reaches out from beyond the grave to…run for political office? Which could give new meaning to “Foggy Bottom.” —F. J. Bergmann, poet, editor of Star*Line, winner of multiple speculative poetry awards
And to whet intellectual, if not physical appetites, here’s a salient synopsis:
A noxious miasma returns to the seaside town of Lovely after an absence of seventy-five years, bestowing a living death on those it snares. Mayor Carol Asher, her contractor, and her City Council allies contend with political adversaries and bureaucratic intransigence while battling to defeat the smelly murk and the lost souls within. If their efforts fail, the town of Lovely will be lost.
Martha A. Hood lives and writes in Irvine, California. Her fiction has appeared in a number of publications, including Interzone, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, The Sockdolager, and Tales of the Unanticipated. She blogs, sporadically, at Speculativemartha.wordpress.com. She shares her abode with a husband and two cockatiels. The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say was inspired by a bad smell during construction in the Hoods’ dining room.
The cover image for Miasma comes from Unsplash; the background comes from the talented Alan C. Caum whose covers, maps and witty interior illustrations (camouflaged as context-rich ads) grace many Candlemark works..
The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say is available on Amazon and on our website, where buying the lovingly prepared trade paperback also brings along the full digital bundle (PDF, Epub and Mobi) . All C&G ebooks are DRM-free.
Come brave the shoals of small-town politics with us—and keep an eye on your house foundations!
