Intermusings

by David Niall Wilson, Patricia Lee Macomber, Stephen Mark Rainey

These stories represent decades of collaboration between author David Niall Wilson and a wide array of talented authors. All have been professionally published - some have been reprinted and collected. All are the result of two muses meeting on paper. Meet a modern day Don Quixote, fighting Y2K bug nightmares, and striving to save the woman of his dreams. Learn how Edgar Allen Poe might have found his tales. Face off on a lonely mountaintop with Lovecraftian nightmares. Join a young man in a ghostly race to save a relative from cancer. Follow a cross-wired detective in his hunt for a lycanthropic killer bent on ending every serial killer she encounters. See what might happen when two minds fall into 'balance'. What if Dr. Watson was the client … and someone who was dead – was not quite there? Visit a science fiction future where artists capture images in crystals. What if government control over sex and reproduction got out of control? Read along as a piano man drops back into the nightmares of his past. Finally – a sailor on his way home finds a place even farther away than he ever dreamed. These are the tales of Intermusings – previously published as "Joined at the Muse". This new edition includes links to the Kindle books of all the authors included, an Introduction by David Niall Wilson on the art of collaboration, and a sneak preview of the first chapter of the collaborative novel HALLOWED GROUND by Steven Savile & David Niall Wilson. Contents Introduction by David Niall Wilson A Poem of Adrian, Gray – With Brian A. Hopkins The Purloined Prose – With Patricia Lee Macomber A Wreath of Clouds – With Stephen Mark Rainey Moon Like a Gambler's Face – With Richard Rowand La Belle Dame, Sans Merci – With Brian A. Hopkins La Belle Dame, Sans Regret – With Brian A. Hopkins Ribbons of Darkness Over Me – With Brett A. Savory Death Did Not Become Him – With Patricia Lee Macomber Within an Image, Dancing – With John B. Rosenman Virtue's Mask – With Brian A. Hopkins Sing a Song of Sixth Sense – With Patricia Lee Macomber Deliver Us From Meeble – With Brian Keene Special Sneak Peek at HALLOWED GROUND by Steven Savile & David Niall Wilson Find more collections and novels by a wide range of authors through Crossroad Press, including mysteries, horror, fantasy, westerns, biographies and much more from such authors as Irving Wallace, William Bayer, Tom Piccirilli, John Farris, Joe R. Lansdale, Bill Crider, Ronald Kelly, Bill Pronzini, Loren D. Estelman, and many, many more. Don't miss our original series O.C.L.T. or our Space Opera series Tales of the Scattered Earth. Just search CROSSROAD PRESS in the Kindle Store for more titles!

358 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2012

About the author

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David Niall Wilson has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction since the mid-eighties. An ordained minister, once President of the Horror Writer 's Association and multiple recipient of the Bram Stoker Award. He lives outside Hertford, NC with the love of his life, Patricia Lee Macomber, His children Zane and Katie, occasionally their older siblings, Stephanie, who is in college, and Bill and Zach who are in the Navy, and an ever-changing assortment of pets.

David is CEO and founder of Crossroad Press, a cutting edge digital publishing company specializing in electronic novels, collections, and nonfiction, as well as unabridged audiobooks and print titles.

Reviews

[Roland Curit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 26 of 2019: Earlier this year, I read "On the Third Day" by David Niall Wilson - a buddy of mine from my naval days last millennium. He had written a story and used me (or at least my last name) as a character. I am the scientific genius, Dr. Edmond Curit. Not so far off from the realities in my own mind :) That story is one of a dozen or so short pieces in "Intermusings: A Cabal of Dark Fiction." Themes run the gamut from historical fiction to dystopian futures. Most have paranormal activity or blood and guts or both. The narrator, Chet Williamson, has a deep radio voice. He does a great job changing into character with new accents and dialects for each. He is not so convincing on the female leads. Too much testosterone in his voice :) Aside from "my" story, there were two others that stood out. "That Extra Mile" is the story of a newbie runner who believes he is hallucinating murder scenes after running a few exerted miles. He soon realizes he has not been hallucinating. Rather, he is transported back in time to the actual scene where he has the ability to prevent the murder. The second, "Virtues Mask", takes place in a dystopic future where sexually transmitted diseases are rampant and no one has sex outside of a monogamous relationship. Someone has cloned a bunch of disease free women that you can rent for the evening. The story is centered on a punk band's desire to play suicidal music, a genre that has been banned because too many people took the music seriously. Most of the stories last less than an hour and a majority of those center around 30 minutes. The only outlier is the La Belle Dame series that covers a full 3 hours. It is a good story with a vivid final scene, but not a good fit for my half hour ride to work. Dark fiction is not my genre. I wouldn't have chosen this audio download if I hadn't known the author. But the stories are well written and there is always a plot twist just around the corner. I give it 4 stars out of 5.
The Pros: Great descriptive prose. Interesting plots. Baritone narration. My cameo appearance.
Cons: Non-convincing female voices. One 3-hour story that Gilligan would appreciate, but too long for my daily commute.

[Jonathan Echevarria · Rating 5 out of 5]

INTERMUSINGS is a collection of short horror stories by various famous horror authors. Some of them are spectacular and some of them are just down right creepy. This ebook can be found on Amazon for a very affordable price and should be picked up by everyone who loves horror . While it does have something for every horror fan, the main reason I picked up this book was for Brian Keene's short story Deliver Us From Meeble. As most know I am a big fan of Brian Keene's Labyrinth mythology and I consider myself to be a completionist when it comes to the mythos. Deliver Us From Meeble is a hard to find short story and I was very pleased when I found this ebook.


(A pretty good idea of what Meeble looks like.)

For those of you who don't know what a "Meeble" is, he is part of the thirteen entities that are the main antagonists in a lot of Brian Keene's work. Currently Meeble only has a guest appearance in Tequila's Sunrise and King of the Bastards. Meeble and his minions are responsible for the mysterious disappearances of Towns and civilizations that vanished without a trace over the course of time. In "Deliver Us From Meeble" the main protagonist stumbles across a small town that was yet another victim of Meeble. The spirits of the murdered inhabitants of this town try to help the protagonist escape before he falls under Meeble's wrath. While this story won't win any points of originality, it is still a fun read for any fan of Brian Keene's work.



For those of you who are into ghost stories, I suggest checking this collection out. It's a quick fun read, especially if you end up looking for something around Halloween time. This collection is currently being sold for under three U.S. dollars in America. For that amount of money you are getting a lot of quality horror for a very low price! Thanks for checking out my review! Also don't forget to stay away from small towns, otherwise Meeble might just come visit you!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think of writing as such a solitary pursuit that the very idea of a successful collaboration is always astonishing. Intermusings contains not one, but multiple collaborations between David Niall Wilson and many other great writers of dark speculative fiction. The stories in this collection run the gamut from horror to science fiction to a tale featuring Holmes and Watson. My favorites were the La Belle Dame stories, but I enjoyed every piece in the group.

[Bill Borre]

Deliver Us From Meeble – With Brian Keene - Justin finds himself in a ghost town murdered by a demonic spirit named Meeble.