To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows

Winner of the 2019 Wonderland Award for Best Collection, To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows is a bleak and unflinching look at grief through the lens of horror fiction. Written in the early days of widowhood and in the spirit of J.G. Ballard, Kathe Koja, and Georges Bataille, these stories are a cross-section of literary splatterpunk, transgressive fiction, and weird horror, which explore loss, grief, and the alluring comforts found within the heart of oblivion. This revised & expanded version includes the never-before-seen novelette "There is Power in the Blood". ► A punch to the soul. I mean you can really feel how difficult this was to write. ‘To Wallow in Ash’ is a bleakly profound - and on occasion uplifting - expedition through grief-induced mania (and without ever succumbing to mal du siècle). Richard offers us an authentic, raw document of depression and loss; and to have moulded the stages into artful monographs while staring the abyss right in the eye every step of the way is truly commendable. ◄ Chris Kelso, author of The Black Dog Eats the City ► With To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows, Sam Richard has crafted a book of stories that will rip your heart right out of your chest... and it's absolutely worth every moment. At turns brutally raw, incredibly beautiful, and always unexpected, this is an unforgettable ode to a love lost far too soon, and a collection that is absolutely worth seeking out. ◄ Gwendolyn Kiste, author of The Rust Maidens and The Invention of Ghosts ► This book is grief weaponized. ◄ Emma Alice Johnson, Wonderland Award-winner ► Witches and rituals and weird gods but most terrifying of all is a sense of deep grief that stalks the pages like a predatory beast. Sam Richard has gifted readers his private terrors but also his heart and soul. Violent, weird, and compelling work. ◄ Nicholas Day, author of At the End of the Day I Burst into Flames and Grind Your Bones to Dust CONTENTS Introduction by Sam Richard 1. To Wallow in Ash • (2019) • short story 2. Love Like Blood • (2019) • short story 3. The Prince of Mars • (2019) • short story 4. I Know Not the Names of the Gods to Whom I Pray • (2019) • short story 5. Those Undone • (2019) • short story 6. We Feed This Muddy Creek • (2017) • short story 7. Nature Unveiled • (2019) • short story 8. Deathlike Love • (2019) • short story 9. There is Power in the Blood • novelette * First published in 2019 by Nihilism Revised < one story (The Verdant Holocaust) dropped in 2021 edition > Cover art by Don Noble