Interview: URX-QUONOX, S&S, The Occult with Church Ghost Distro

The incredible Church Ghost Distro posted the interview I did - the occasion being Church Ghost's convenient US stocking and shipping of the Occult Press edition of my Sword & Sorcery novel URX-QUONOX along with other incomparable titles from OP. 

We discuss the occult as relates to weird and barbarian fiction; the politics and visual art of S&S; the personal practice of the occult vs its literary presentation; and more. 

https://churchghost.substack.com/p/the-bataille-barbarian

https://www.churchghost.com/product-page/urx-quonox

https://occultpress.net/

https://occultpress.net/urx-quonox/

Addendum: Onyx Book of Occult Fiction features "Moonpaths of the Departed" from A Pallid Wave on Shores of Night

I had a lot of news in the previous post but I forgot one of the best pieces: my story "Moonpaths of the Departed" from A Pallid Wave on Shores of Night was selected for The Onyx Book of Occult Fiction from Snuggly Books.  I scarcely believed it myself, maybe that's why. 

Nice table of contents with this one, Reggie Oliver, Mark Valentine, Farah Rose Smith, Connell, Weighell, Damian Murphy, on and on. 

Snuggly did a series of these occult anthologies, this was the sixth. The others contained historical writers, this was the only one to feature contemporary/recent authors. Edited by Damian Murphy. 

This should be easy to order and reasonably priced, in hardcover or trade paperback.

October 30 2025

Hello, living in the US feels like being inside A Descent into the Maelstrom but depressing, but here is a new post, in which I have new things to talk about. This blog is stale because I'm suspiciously bad at self-promotion for my writing. But anyway! 

• My most recent story collection (see preceding blog post) was 2022's A Forest with its Mouth Open Wide from Personnel Press in California. The publisher sold it through Amazon where it is now out of print. I am selling the last handful of my copies on eBay, look it up if interested. Available signed, inscribed, with drawing of a skull, etc. 
• I wrote a new story since then, for a book for Ernst Jünger published by Raphus Press (Brasilia). Its title was "The Man With Rose Breasts". Raphus' excellent books can usually be found at https://www.ziesings.com/
• My short sword & sorcery book URX-QUONOX was re-published in a new edition from Occult Press (Italy), actually two, a hardcover that is now sold out and a paperback edition of 120. These are very well-made books with superb paper and binding. https://occultpress.net/urx-quonox/   
• My next short story was announced in Raphus' forthcoming book for Hasan-i-Sabah, my piece to be called "Captagon Summer". 
• Working on my next submission, should have specifics before the end of the year.
• There may be more book news in the near future, there are grumblings. 

I'll do a separate post here soon about books not my own.

A Forest With Its Mouth Open Wide, a collection from Personnel Press (CA, USA)

Personnel Press published my collection of weird fiction A Forest With Its Mouth Open Wide & Other Stories in November 2022. It is a jacketed hardcover printed in an edition of 200. Artwork is by Nao Ikuma. 

These pieces are mostly taken from various previously published collections, literary tributes or themed anthologies, written between 2015 and 2021. Also included is my short novel Orphans On Granite Tides, published by Ex Occidente/Les Editions de l'Oubli in 2013 as a limited hardcover. 

Contents:   

    Orphans on Granite Tides

    Black Chroma 

    The Chamber in the Universe 

    The European Monster Part II 

    Torso In Shadow 

    The Bow, The Arm, The Arrow 

    A Forest With Its Mouth Open Wide

    Vod The Wrecker 

    The Oligomancer

    The Hag, The Cutthroat, The Amputee

Recent Reading, Purging

Recently reading: 

Entombed by Guy N. Smith (will not finish)

Lords of the Starship by Mark Geston

The Ship by Hans Henny Jahnn

Also recently I capriciously deleted my Goodreads account of many years. Now I really regret losing the (incomplete) list of my books. People seem to really hate that site but I really never used it for anything other than cataloging my stuff. I'll probably reclaim my page or whatever it's called but I don't think I can re-do all that work. 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4842152.Adam_S_Cantwell

A Booklet From Mount Abraxas: The Hag, The Cutthroat, The Amputee

Late posting this but: Mount Abraxas of Bucharest has published my short anti-nationalist screed The Hag, The Cutthroat, The Amputee in an attractive limited edition pamphlet with excellent artwork by Heo Tsop. 

URX-QUONOX

My short book Urx-Quonox was published by Mount Abraxas Press (Bucharest) in 2021. It’s a work of literary weird fiction/sword & sorcery that engages the thought of Robert E. Howard, Georges Bataille, and others

Northern Sea Songs

I contributed a story titled “The Oligomancer” to an anthology from Egaeus Press called “Songs of the Northern Seas.” Published December 2021.

Weird Fiction in Mount Abraxas' Frostsigils

I contributed to Mount Abraxas' Frostsigils, a book of art and text dedicated to the music and atmospheres of Paysage d'Hiver. My piece borrowed its title from Werner Herzog: "A Forest With Its Mouth Open Wide."

A Translation in "Crystal Castles" (Raphus Press)

I am responsible for a translation of a poem of Tristan Corbière that appeared in Raphus Press' Crystal Castles in 2020. This was a limited edition collection of fiction around the theme of intoxication. 

Also appearing were Roman Lasalle, Rhys Hughes, Fernando Naporano, Justin Isis, Fábio Waki, Jonathan Wood, Chris Mikul, D. P. Watt, Thomas Phillips, Fernando Klabin and Stephan Friedman.

I reproduce it here: 

The Poet’s Pipe (La Pipe d’un Poete)

 

I’m the pipe the poet smokes 

The tit he sucks,

I’m the one who sedates his beastly nature.

He summons ragged monsters

To bash him in the face, 

So I smoke... until he no longer sees

          The spiders on the ceiling.

I make for him a sky, clouds, 

The sea, the desert, mirages;

He lets his dead eye wander there...

And when they fall too heavy—thoughts of nude bodies— 

And he thinks he sees a shadow he knows,

I’m the one who feels the bite on my stem.

Another volute of smoke releases

His Soul, his shackles, his life!

And I feel myself dying away. He sleeps—

—Sleeping still, the beast is calmed,

And your dreams go to the end of the line

Poor bastard! If it’s true

That everything is smoke then smoke is everything...

Fiction in Borges tribute The Conspirators

I contributed to Raphus Press' anthology in tribute to Borges, The Conspirators, published in 2019. 

The gentlemen contributing to this book were: Rhys Hughes, Mark Valentine and John Howard, Fábio Waki, Thomas Phillips, Alcebiades Diniz Miguel, Justin Isis, Jonathan Wood, Stephan Friedman, Brendan Connell, D. P. Watt, Adam S. Cantwell, Eric Stener Carlson, Fernando Klabin, and Roman Lasalle.

Fiction in Cioran volume "Wound of Wounds"

Wound of Wounds was Ex Occidente/Mount Abraxas' book in tribute to Emil Cioran, published in 2017.

 My piece in the book is titled "The European Monster Part II," it's a despairing meta-fiction. 

Great work in this one: 

Misanthropos by Eugene Thacker

The Infinite Error by Jon Padgett

The Aristocracy of Weak Nerves by Justin Isis

Obsolete Systems by Adam Golaski

Bach’s Marionettes by Douglas Thompson

This Disquiet Demiurge by Alcebiades Diniz Miguel

The Translator of God's Silences by Thomas Stromsholt

Saint Severina's Fire by Damian Murphy

He is Heading Your Way Already by Rhys Hughes

Decade by D.P. Watt

The Genealogy of Night by Andrew Condous

Horrill Hill by Karim Ghahwagi

Dead Engrained Skin by Jonathan Wood

The Treasons of the Rue de L'Odeon by Colin Insole

The Funeral Cry by Stephan Friedman

The European Monster Part II by Adam S. Cantwell

Untitled by Charles Schneider

Original fiction in "All is Full of Hell," a book for William Blake

"All is Full of Hell" was Ex Occidente/Mount Abraxas' book for William Blake, published in 2017. 

My piece "The Torso in Shadow" was included. 

New fiction in "The Gift of the Kos'mos Cometh!" (Ex Occidente/L’Homme Récent)

I have a short piece entitled "Black Chroma" in the anthology The Gift of the Kos'mos Cometh! A Homage to Night and Kosmos, a literary tribute to Night from Ex Occidente Press and editors Geticus Polus and Damian Murphy. 

Gorgeous book. John Gale is in this one. 

New fiction in "And the Whore is This Temple" (Ex Occidente Press)

 

I had a piece in Ex Occidente's 2015 collection "And the Whore is This Temple" - a themed anthology around temples and worship. 

Another big fine book filled with very good writers. My piece was entitled "The Chamber in the Universe."

http://www.i-m.mx/Thessarether1941/proba2/the-whore-is-this-temple.html

http://golgonoozamancy.blogspot.com/2016/08/and-whore-is-this-temple_11.html

Contents:

John Howard: Another Sea

Alcebiades Diniz Miguel: Tidal Wave of Virginal Blood

Thomas Strømsholt: The Waning of the Light

Avalon Brantley: Corpus: A Mandala of Anathomy and Metaphysiology

Leopold Nacht: The Savants of the House of Exile

Stephen Friedman: The Ophidian Revelation

Thomas Phillips: Picture at an Exhibition

Colin Insole: The Abdication of the Serpent

Rhys Hughes: The Nine Impossible Temples of Chaud-Mellé

Andrew Condous: Saints of a Cataphysical Syncretism

Charles Schneider: The Panopticon Virus

Jonathan Wood: Anima OV Animus

Adam S. Cantwell: The Chamber in the Universe

D.P. Watt: Imperium Sine Fine

New fiction in Huysmans tribute "Transactions of the Flesh"

A short fiction of mine entitled "Martyr's Fuligin" will appear in Ex Occidente / Zagava's forthcoming tribute to J.K. Huysmans, Transactions of the Flesh.

Ordering information and details about the two editions offered are here. It appears the book may be available before the end of 2013.

Here's a table of contents that may or may not be final:
Pray to the God of Flux, Jonathan Wood
Ziegler against the World, John Howard
Towards Nature, Douglas Thompson
In Our Deep Vaulted Cell, Derek John
Summer Dusk, Winter Moon, Berit Ellingsen
Ash Sun, Raspberry Sky, Adam Golaski 
Angel Head, Harold Billings
Starless Mornings Find Me Older, Peter Holman
An Expiatory Pessimism, Eugene Thacker
The Red Seed, Louis Marvick 
Indescribable, M.O.N.
The Key to Jerusalem, Mark Valentine
Endgame Aesthete, Jeremy Reed
The Sulphur Remedy, Oliver Smith 
Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit, Colin Insole 
Again, the Granite, or A 21st Century Secret Experiment in Devastating Ennui, Charles Schneider
A Hive of Pain, D.P. Watt
Martyr’s Fuligin, Adam S. Cantwell 
Pierrot the sceptic (1881), Léon Hennique & J.-K. Huysmans 

Another really interesting project that I'm very happy to be a part of. A few new faces in addition to the usual gang--needless to say I'm thrilled that my work will appear in the same volume with the filthy smut of M.O.N. (check out gnOme if you haven't already.)

"Orphans on Granite Tides" available now!

My latest book Orphans on Granite Tides is available to order now! US customers are encouraged to order from the wonderful Ziesings.com of Shingletown, California. It's also available directly from the publisher Ex Occidente Press (the site does not currently show Orphans but you are encouraged to send inquiries directly to exoccidente@gmail.com .)

Please click here for a brief summary and cover image. 

Customers who buy from Ex Occidente or from Ziesings will receive as a bonus the wonderful portfolio of drawings that Charles Schneider created to accompany the text. The portfolio is still at the printers but is expected soon; if you order now, the book will ship now with the portfolio to follow.

I'm really proud of the text, Charles' amazing and macabre drawings, and the lovely quality of the book's design, printing, and binding. I hope readers enjoy it.

Reviews can be found on D.F. Lewis' site and on The Stars at Noonday.


*There's an unfortunate error on the copyright page that I must note and take responsibility for: Charles' name was left off of the copyright page. He created the image used on the endpapers, as well as the capital at the beginning of the text. I can't thank Charles enough for his work on my book and I regret the blunder.

New Story in Fiddleblack.com 's H.P. Lovecraft Issue

My new story "Offal" can be read free of charge in Fiddleblack #8 - their H.P. Lovecraft issue. My tale incorporates the always-relevant and fascinating theme of hoarding. Some really great writing in this number, please enjoy it.

Preview of new book "Orphans on Granite Tides" available now

My next book Orphans on Granite Tides will be published in the coming months by Ex Occidente Press/les Éditions de l’Oubli. There is now a preview available to download here.

Thanks to Dan of EO and to Charles Schneider, who provided the custom capitals as well as a sheaf of spectacular drawings which will accompany the book as a portfolio.

A brief description of the book follows:

ORPHANS ON GRANITE TIDES
A Metaphysical Grotesque by Adam S. Cantwell

The German watches the door. White faces rush by like bubbles.

The Russian emerges with the parcel under his arm. Raindrops darken the brown paper.

Inside the parcel, a silk-lined box; inside that, the ragged, stained pages of the Miwok’s manuscript. The cryptic memoir recounts the life and dreams of an obscure mystic—a childhood on the wild coast of America, at the edge of the earth; servitude on the Continent; flights to worlds within the world… It illuminates everything and nothing, it prefigures and obscures the new world forming beneath the fissured crust of 1939.

The German and the Russian have been sent after the manuscript and will judge whether it is authentic, or a late forgery, a hateful slander, or an epochal testament of planetary history. They will chase the dead savage’s words through Paris, to the edge of the precipice, and beyond.

The Miwok’s words would help them, would warn them, if the gulf separating them all could be bridged…

New Story in Fiddleblack's print antho "Apparitional Experience"

I'm a bit late with this news: Fiddleblack.org's first-ever print annual features a new story of mine entitled "The Curse of Desert and Flesh." (It's sort of a companion piece to my story "The Face in the Wall," which appeared in Fiddleblack #4. ) The theme of the annual, which is titled Apparitional Experience, has to do with the idea of "ghost stories without ghosts."

It can be ordered from the publisher here or on Amazon here. Check out the publisher's link for an evocative book trailer and to read about the other fine authors featured.