LATEST
FAKE BELIEVE​
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THE EIGHTIES, LOS ANGELES
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"The weird tales contained in 'Fake Believe' offer hypnotic excursions through the interstitial psychic environs of a timeless LA populated by an interacting demimonde of rich freaks, bemused lowlifes, and players on the cusp of an awareness they may eventually regret. More please."
-- Jamie Delano (Hellblazer and the Leepus novels)
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“Maxwell’s prose is austere and stinging.”
– Laird Barron (Swift to Chase)
“A slick night ride through LA's underbelly. Full of pulsing music, mystery and the darkest of magic—you'll be hooked.”– Emma J. Gibbon (Dark Blood Comes from the Feet)
Crowdfunding for Fake Believe, the new Hazeland story collection, begins on February 27th. Yes. I'm doing a crowdfunding campaign for the book. I know. I said I'd never do it. I was wrong. The campaign for All Waters Are Graves was a solid success and got me connected with a bunch of new readers. Of course I'm doing it again.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/highway62/fake-believe
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Fake Believe contains seven new stories, somewhere between horror and fantasy and crime, all on the streets of a fantastic LA of the 80s which is as weird and wonderful as the real place. It's a great place to start with the series, all the stories being standalone features that weave gently into the rest of the books.
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Fake Believe will be available in softcover, hardcover and as an ebook from Amazon and Ingram Spark distribution, likely in July. I'll post a firm date when I know it.
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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES
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THE QUEEN OF NO TOMORROWS
Book one of Hazeland
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Cait MacReady is an ex-punk rocker, having spent her college years bouncing around the underground that was quickly burning out and becoming something more hardcore. She spent time interning with occult mystery hunters running their own ramshackle television show. She became a librarian and book restorer. She became a forger, recreating lost and forbidden volumes of magickal power, all the time never once believing that there was anything to all that and steering well clear of anyone who did.
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She made up a book of her own. Just to see what happened. To see if she could fool anyone into thinking that it was real history, real magic, real power.
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Then she met the Queen.
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The Queen already knows about the book, already believes in its power, already craves what is written within those pages. And she'll do anything to possess it.
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Order The Queen of No Tomorrows here
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ALL WATERS ARE GRAVES
Book two of Hazeland
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Cait is left hanging on by her fingernails, losing her identity, her focus, her job and maybe even her sanity. She's hearing voices that can't be and seeing things that can't exist. Something waits out not only in the Pacific but in every body of water, every stream, every droplet of rain that never falls in Los Angeles. And it wants.​​
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Following The Queen of No Tomorrows, All Waters Are Graves takes Cait from being haunted by the events she's lived through and adds a wayward Appalachian witch seeking her lost brother, a police detective who wants her behind bars and a man who's been possessed by the presence in the waters, driving them to rise until the lands themselves are no more.
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Order All Waters Are Graves here
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“Matt Maxwell gives us a lean, weird, noir meditation on yearning and creation that's as guarded and dangerous on one hand and lonely and desperate on the other as the 1980s Los Angeles punk rock underground of its setting. Queen of No Tomorrows delivers with economy and surprising heart.”
– Matthew Wayne Selznick (Light of the Outsider and Brave Men Run)
“This dark, subversive ride produces profound longing for an LA you've never experienced but wish you had. Maxwell has the rare ability to craft stories that leave you saturated with horror and awe in equal measure. I absolutely loved this book.”
– Corinna Bechko (The Expanse and Green Lantern: Earth Two)
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“LA noir goes weird and eerie in Matt Maxwell's Queen of no Tomorrows. You might think you’re merely faking an ancient text for profit, but the power of The Word is real and its truth will likely slither from the shadows of your imagination and bite you. Intriguing and finely written.”
– Jamie Delano (Hellblazer and the Leepus books)
“Queen of No Tomorrows is a dark and riveting page-turner where magic and otherworldly horrors lurk just beneath the surface of everyday life (and between the covers of a unique book). Mixing a noir-vibe with supernatural fantasy, the story is a suspenseful ride that comes to a satisfyingly epic finish.”
– Maria Haskins (Six Dreams About the Train and Other Stories)
​Contact - maxwellm AT pobox DOT com
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@highway62 on Bluesky (not on Twitter)
Don't even try on Facebook. I'm not there.
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WHAT I DO
California, USA
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maxwellm AT pobox DOT com
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If you really wanna call, just drop me a line first, okay?