Jason Marc Harris's Blog

You can find "Film Project L" here: https://www.jokesliteraryreview.com/f...

And ""The Perilous Beauty of Golden Angles" which won 3rd prize in the Gertrude Stein Award fiction contest is included in this printed volume of The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review: https://www.eckleburg.org/eckleburg-n...

Crystal Lake Publishing as of January 12th, 2024 has just launched Master of Rods and Strings!

Available for order!

https://www.crystallakepub.com/produc...

Crystal Lake Books has the new cover art for the return of Master of Rods and Strings this January 2024. Thanks to Greg Chapman for the artwork!
Click below to see the new Cover Art:

https://www.crystallakepub.com/cover-...

Sadly, Vernacular Books closed up in November 2022, but very glad to share that Crystal Lake Publishing will republish Master of Rods and Strings in 2024!
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We are super excited to have signed MASTER OF RODS AND STRINGS, a novel by Jason Marc Harris.

Jealous of the attention lavished upon the puppetry talents of his dear sister—and tormented by visions of her torture at the hands of the mysterious Uncle Pavan who recruited her for his arcane school—Elias is determined to learn the true nature of occult puppetry, no matter the hideous costs, in order to exact vengeance.

“Jason Marc Harris’s Master of Rods and Strings is a masterful work the likes of which I have not read in many years. Among its other admirable qualities, it is an adept exemplar of the novella, a literary form peculiarly suited to tales of dark and mysterious themes, among them being Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry James’s “Turn of the Screw, Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as numerous other works of a nightmarish or fantastical nature. In captivating and expert prose Master of Rods and Strings brings to life a world where the enchantment of puppetry inexorably descends into a magical perdition.”—Thomas Ligotti
https://www.crystallakepub.com/author...

The Horrorific Podcast hosted by Colin C. Martin adapts horror stories , and I'm looking forward to seeing what Colin does with an excerpt from Master of Rods and Strings. Probably in October.
The podcast episodes can be found here:
https://anchor.fm/the-horrorific-podc...

Had a new review recently of Master of Rods and Strings from Queen’s Book Asylum (March 2022) “Harris manages to create not only a vivid breathing ‘here’ but weaves around it an ominous and malignant ‘other’ leading to each and every scene being loaded with both the seen and the unseen.

For a novella that runs at just ninety-two pages, there is an incomprehensible amount of depth and plot, perfumed throughout with the occult and drenched in such eldritch esoterica. Master of Rods and Strings is a novella that can be devoured in a single sitting, but whose taste will linger long into the night.”

More here: https://starlitbook.com/2022/03/28/ma...

New review in Heavy Feather Review of my weird novella Master of Rods and Strings out today by Maxwell Malone. Very thoughtful and well-written review. There are spoilers however! Here's an excerpt:
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"while Master of Rods and Strings is certainly both a classic revenge story and a model of the difficult path toward truly mastering a craft, it is also a thoughtfully constructed warning of how it is all too easy to let the pains one suffers in the name of ambition supplant—and even corrupt—one’s goals, no matter how good or pure or heroic those goals may seem at the offset."

https://heavyfeatherreview.org/2022/0...

1. Glad my novella Master of Rods and Strings danced into some of the favorite horror reads of 2021 cited by Rich Gerlach for Staring Into the Abyss podcast. 1:09-1:14.
https://staringintotheabyss.libsyn.co...

2. Master of Rods and Strings was also included on this list of Malvern Books’ best of 2021.

https://bookshop.org/lists/malvern-s-...

3. Also Tangent Online 2021 Recommended Reading. https://tangentonline.com/news/tangen...
Victoria Silverwolf did the first review back in April: https://tangentonline.com/print-other...

Glad to have a feature at the Mystery and Suspense Magazine website: “In the context of horror, puppet and dolls tend to fall into categories that connect with dread, alienation, and powerlessness. [. . .]

Surely not all puppets and dolls are demons. I looked forward to the journey to Make-Believe’s lively puppets in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and many episodes of the Muppets were not frightful at all, though I sometimes feared Mrs. Piggy might tear Kermit apart in her volatile rage, or that Gonzo might plunge his proboscis into some unwitting victim and deplete them of vital juices. Regardless of the horror, some puppets and dolls are examples of incredible artistry, and the subtlety of their movements achieved only by a lifetime of practice by dedicated puppeteers. Perhaps in that very compelling craft of human mimicry we perceive not only another life, but simultaneously discern an equally meaningful or unmeaningful life. Perhaps puppeteers wonder by what motions they too are moved while their puppets gaze at them with fixed grins and eyes that would not blink at the intelligence that stars explode, worlds burn, or people cry with faces puckering and crumpling while tendons pull and tug in a bundle of inscrutable nerves within.“
More at site!
https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/ho...

Glad to have had opportunity to write about horror and identity for November 2021 issue of Nightmare Magazine. Writers mentioned include HP Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Hailey Piper, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, Kate Chopin, and a creepy folktale via Katharine Briggs. Worms, death, metamorphic monstrous revelations. Etc.
Free link here:
https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/no...