Then, Midian.
Jul. 28th, 2015 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seanan_mcguireWe are all of us built from the materials we had close to hand when we were children. Fairy tales and songs and pop culture icons and whatever books our parents left on low shelves; comic books and liturgy and playground rhymes and media. Give twenty children access to the same cultural touchstones and they'll come away with twenty different sets of internal stories, building twenty distinct foundations. It's pretty amazing.
For me, one of those foundational texts was a novella called "Cabal," written by a man named Clive Barker, that told the story of Boone, who believed himself a monster, and Lori, who loved him anyway, and Midian, where the monsters were. I wanted Midian more than I wanted anything else, for a long time. I wanted the necropolis, the drums in the dark, and the tribes of the air with the moon inside. I wanted to go home. Everything about the story told me that if I could just find Midian, I would be home.
There was a movie: Nightbreed, which wound up equally, if not identically, foundational. And then there was a long, long time with no clear route to Midian...until I was asked if I wanted to participate in an authorized anthology of stories set in that world. Stories about going home.
Midian Unmade: Tales of Clive Barker's Nightbreed is available today from a bookstore near you. (If it isn't available in your region, remember that Borderlands Books in San Francisco will happily ship.) My story, "The Moon Inside," is the first anchor for a book filled with wonder, and sorrow, and people I am proud to call my friends and peers.
This is the first paragraph:
"Once, Midian. Once, the caves carved from the living rock, the warrens and rabbit-runs like veins through the flesh of the earth. Once, a world lived in constant descent, down, down, ever down, until it seemed that one day in their expansion they would strike the hot molten core of the world, where magma flowed like the blood of Baphomet. Once, safety. Once, home."
Home.
I am so proud, and so honored, to be a part of building something that created my own foundations.
I hope you will enjoy it.
For me, one of those foundational texts was a novella called "Cabal," written by a man named Clive Barker, that told the story of Boone, who believed himself a monster, and Lori, who loved him anyway, and Midian, where the monsters were. I wanted Midian more than I wanted anything else, for a long time. I wanted the necropolis, the drums in the dark, and the tribes of the air with the moon inside. I wanted to go home. Everything about the story told me that if I could just find Midian, I would be home.
There was a movie: Nightbreed, which wound up equally, if not identically, foundational. And then there was a long, long time with no clear route to Midian...until I was asked if I wanted to participate in an authorized anthology of stories set in that world. Stories about going home.
Midian Unmade: Tales of Clive Barker's Nightbreed is available today from a bookstore near you. (If it isn't available in your region, remember that Borderlands Books in San Francisco will happily ship.) My story, "The Moon Inside," is the first anchor for a book filled with wonder, and sorrow, and people I am proud to call my friends and peers.
This is the first paragraph:
"Once, Midian. Once, the caves carved from the living rock, the warrens and rabbit-runs like veins through the flesh of the earth. Once, a world lived in constant descent, down, down, ever down, until it seemed that one day in their expansion they would strike the hot molten core of the world, where magma flowed like the blood of Baphomet. Once, safety. Once, home."
Home.
I am so proud, and so honored, to be a part of building something that created my own foundations.
I hope you will enjoy it.
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Date: 2015-07-28 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2015-07-28 09:00 pm (UTC)BTW, I recommended your fiction to a literature professor at UC Davis today during a meeting. He's going to check it out. He sounded really interested in the Parasitology books. :)
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Date: 2015-07-30 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2015-07-29 12:38 am (UTC)Midian calls to a lot of us--probably far more that modern society would be happy to find out.
Thanks for letting us know about the book--I'll be looking for a copy of it.
:^)
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Date: 2015-07-30 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-30 02:56 am (UTC)I WILL be looking for it--starting tomorrow!
:^}
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Date: 2015-07-29 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-30 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-29 10:21 am (UTC)This post makes my young heart ache. and I am buying this book immediately, grateful that it exists.
Thank you!
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Date: 2015-07-30 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-30 02:41 am (UTC)Seanan, did you know about this? I am DEAD and my wallet is DEADER!
::does crazed otter flail::
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Date: 2015-08-01 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-03 10:55 am (UTC)http://www.darkdel.com/store/p189/MIDIAN_UNMADE_ESSENTIAL_OIL.html
If you don't want to order from them directly, I can get you some next time I'm in. (I thought about picking some up for you at Will Call, but wasn't sure if you'd already arranged to procure a bottle.)
(Also, they had a big display of the books right at the front of the store and they looked gorgeous.)
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Date: 2015-08-05 11:44 pm (UTC)Also, here's the first review I saw for it on bpal.org:
"Midian Unmade:
blood-soaked soil, scorched cypress branches, and faint remnants of Baphomet’s temple incense.
~One of my favorites of the night- My first note on this is, “Mmmmm…” Attention earth/ dirt note lovers…. You Need This. You need this Now! Gorgeous wet black earth, groovy incense and soft rounded cinnamon. There are no sharp edges here….. this beauty lurks…in the very best way."
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Date: 2015-07-30 12:27 pm (UTC)I really need to track down that new cut of the movie. I always wanted a copy of the tie-in book with portraits of all of the Nightbreed and their stories.
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Date: 2015-08-01 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-04 06:43 pm (UTC)I've been waiting for Midian Unmade since I first saw the listing for it on Amazon. I had no idea that you had a story in it but I'm so glad you do. That's a wonderful opening :)
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Date: 2015-11-10 03:33 pm (UTC)