Many writers say they hate the process of trying to ask for “blurbs” (the trade nickname for little bits of promotional text offered in support of a book). I understand that it’s no fun to ask somebody for a favor, especially when you’re afraid that just to ask might be an imposition on someone you respect.

I’m very lucky to have found four brilliant people, some of my favorite writers, who were willing to read my first book and say flattering things about it. Here are the advance blurbs for The Lure of Devouring Light:

“Mike Griffin skillfully works the rich seams of quiet horror and contemporary weird. The Lure of Devouring Light is a superb selection of strange stories. It’s the kind of debut that should command attention from genre fans and critics.”
–Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

“Michael Griffin’s fiction is sleekly poetic, disorienting, light and fierce. With this debut collection, Griffin establishes himself as a writer of already matured sensibilities, fiercely dedicated to the exploration of pain. Merciless.”
–Michael Cisco, author of Animal Money

“Often, Mike Griffin’s stories isolate an extraordinary dynamic between individuals who can only sustain the strange world they inhabit, secretly and together, with abject devotion to it. Anything short of passion will cause a rift in the narrative they’ve created, disclosing uncertainty, selfishness, ambition. Opening old wounds, or asking new questions. (For example, is love worthwhile or even possible set against a natural environment we’ve degraded beyond recognition? Or, what kind of integrity will we maintain if the monsters come for us?) At his finest moments Griffin achieves either a luminous grace or a breathtaking plummet into the unknown. In both cases the shock is earned by the tale that precedes it, and the stakes are as high as they can get. What I admire most (and there is plenty to admire in his writing) is an unforced, elegant ability to make his characters matter to us, in all their preening desire and almost magical expressions, like people we’ve known, loved, and left behind when all the bad shit happened—but with deep regret.”
–S.P. Miskowski, author of the Skillute Cycle

“The focus in these stories is often on relationships that cause the characters to analyze how they intersect with the lives of others, and to contemplate their lives as individual beings—these examinations reflected outwardly in an environment of nightmarish disorientation and dreamlike transformation. This is dark fiction of a rare literary refinement, crystalline and poetic, that never sacrifices the frisson of the weird and horrifying. A highly impressive collection.”
–Jeffrey Thomas, author of Punktown

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Often I have learned about interesting new writers from the recommendations of fellow writers. I don’t know to what degree this holds true for others, whether blurbs effectively convince others to read a book, or maybe they’re just something to make the author and publisher feel better. Whatever the case, I’m very flattered to have received votes of confidence from writers like Laird Barron, Michael Cisco, S. P. Miskowski and Jeffrey Thomas, and I thank them for their time and attention.