ecstaticFor 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.
