I'm pleased to announce the release, in both print and e-book editions, Stone Martyrs by Erik Hofstatter. Hofstatter tells the dark, dark story of the legendary Mother Shipton and the Rollright Stones through poetic prose. It's available now at www.aqueductpress.com, and you can read a sample from the story at http://www.aqueductpress.com/books/samples/978-1-61976-272-5.pdf.
Have you ever written to ether? When pain was the only ink available to you? When envelopes were made of flesh?
Inspired by the folklore of Mother Shipton & The Rollright Stones, Stone Martyrs presents their unheard confessions, their thoughts addressed, but never answered, when only trees listened, when stones had feelings--a collection of words their hearts never had the courage to say. Until now.
If stones could speak, what stories would they tell? We learn the horrific answer to that question in Erik Hofstatter’s intriguing collection of dark prose poetry. Profundity mixes with vulgarity, the sacred with the profane, as the once-human Rollright Stones near the British village of Long Compton come alive to contemplate past conquests and atrocities. Sex and violence, passion and obsession, witchcraft and loss of innocence combine in this powerful, disturbing, yet strangely moving dialogue of forever-earthbound souls.—Anna Taborska, award-winning author of For Those Who Dream Monsters and Bloody Britain
“Hofstatter’s Stone Martyrs has the intriguing drama of ancient myth. Poetry and prose marry perfectly to create a dichotomy of dark and light, base coarseness and ephemerality. It’s not to be missed.”–Mercedes M. Yardley, author of The Rack: Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks
“The stories and visuals that are conjured up as you read each passage are intense, disturbing, and actually quite moving. It reads like a play, almost, and there is great use of language to really please any lover of wordplay.”—Brendan Fisher, review in Games, Brrraaains and a Head-Banging Life
