Matt Cardin

About me:

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PRAISE FOR MATT CARDIN:

"Matt Cardin's horror stories are the real thing: works that are committed to expressing what is irremediably strange and terrible in human existence. They are examples of what compels true seekers of horror to page through miles of magazines, collections, and anthologies in search of a few, or even a single story that speaks to the darkness within us all."

- Thomas Ligotti, winner of multiple World Fantasy Awards and Bram Stoker Awards, author of The Nightmare Factory and My Work Is Not Yet Done

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"[In Divinations of the Deep], Cardin massages the dark and hidden, and penetrates the ancient deep to fashion unique visions of horror and deity. Each piece has its own depth and unwavering regard to the theme. The settings are universally dark, murky, and decadent, putting you in mind of Poe especially, but also some of the more depressed turn-of-the-(20th)Century writers. In each of these stories, the author personalizes the apocalyptic question of ultimate power and order. It is a fascinating approach."

- Cemetery Dance

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"It's a bold writer who, in this day and age, tries to make modern horror fiction out of theology, but [in Divinations of the Deep] Cardin pulls it off. Like most heretics, he may be wrong in the eyes of the Church, but he can cite texts: lots of scary Old Testament passages that suggest a gnostic mystery underlying perceived reality. What was the 'face of the deep' upon which there was darkness, before the first act of Creation? Was God's act one of pushing back or containing a primal Chaos older and vaster than Himself? Cardin manages to turn this into a vision of terrifying, Lovecraftian nihilism. No mean feat, that."

- Darrell Schweitzer, World Fantasy Award-winning editor, author, scholar

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"Matt Cardin is one of those rare horror authors who is also a true scholar and intellectual. His studies in philosophy and religion inform his fiction, which is heavily influenced by both Lovecraft and Ligotti, and his work is usually the highlight of whatever venue it graces."

- Jack M. Haringa, author, scholar, editor

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"Matt Cardin's tales are imbued with a sense of cosmic dread reminiscent of Jean Ray or Thomas Ligotti. [Divinations of the Deep] is a notable addition to any library of horror and surrealism."

- John Pelan, award-winning author, editor, publisher; creator of the best-selling Darkside anthology series

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"Matt Cardin's stories display a thorough appreciation of what cosmic horror is all about. As the product of an evangelical upbringing who has made a serious study of religion, including several years of postgraduate work, and who has been involved in various Christian settings throughout his life, he knows that the Bible staked out the territory long before Lovecraft came on the scene. You might even say that he saw where Lovecraft went off the tracks by dismissing the power of the pre-existing symbols. In Divinations of the Deep, he has steered the train back onto the mainline of Western religion. I don't want to suggest that these stories are devout or uplifting, or that they follow the Christian party-line. Far from it. The reputed consolations of faith are notably absent from Matt's bleak universe. He comes by his credentials as a horror writer honestly: not by reading Stephen King with a felt marker in hand and one eye on the cash-register, but by suffering through a dark night of the soul that very nearly undid him. He merely writes what he knows."

- Brian McNaughton, winner of the World Fantasy Award for The Throne of Bones

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"Like Lovecraft and Ligotti, Cardin excels in creating a truly terrifying atmosphere of dread and decay by revealing what may lurk just beyond our view of reality. Few people succeed in this, but Matt does it with aplomb. His prose is intelligent and poetic, his execution, effortless. I believe [Divinations of the Deep] will become a classic of weird fiction."

- Durant Haire, writing for www.feoamante.com

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NOTE:
I run a blog titled THE TEEMING BRAIN where I share news about my writing projects and my musical project DAEMONYX, hold contests with neat prizes (books, DVDs, VHS movies), and discuss books, movies, music, religion, philosophy, society, and culture. I invite you to stop on by!

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ABOUT MATT CARDIN:

I'm a writer of horror fiction and scholarly essays with two books to my credit as well as many published stories and essays. My books are:

DIVINATIONS OF THE DEEP -- A collection of literary horror stories with a dark spiritual theme

THE GOD OF FOULNESS -- A novella about a cult that seeks salvation by worshipping a god of disease

A second collection of my work, titled DARK AWAKENINGS, will be published in late 2008 or early 2009 by Mythos Books. It will feature most of my uncollected fiction since 2002, as well as upwards of 50,000 words of my nonfiction writings about horror -- both the existential experience and the entertainment genre -- and religion.

Probably my best known short story is "Teeth," which appeared as the final story in the Del Rey anthology The Children of Cthulhu in 2002 and went on to become a semi-finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. In the nonfiction arena, I'm best known for my many essays about contemporary horror legend Thomas Ligotti, three of which appeared in The Thomas Ligotti Reader from Wildside Press in 2003. My stories, essays, and reviews have also appeared in The Best of Horrorfind II, In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, The HWA Presents: Dark Arts, and elsewhere.

I'm a longtime pianist and keyboardist who composes original multi-instrumental music using Yamaha digital production gear. My personal musical project is named DAEMONYX. The music is dark and rich and representative of a variety of forms and genres (orchestral, New Age, metal, rock, more). The link just given will take you Daemonyx's Myspace page, where you can listen to sample tracks and read great blurbs about the music from various prominent figures in the horror genre, including Ramsey Campbell and Thomas Ligotti. The first album will be titled Curse of the Daimon and will be released in late 2008 or early 2009 with fabulous original cover art by World Fantasy Award-winning artist Jason Van Hollander(who also created the cover art for my Divinations of the Deep collection described above). In addition to this type of musical activity, I have also worked as the pianist at numerous Protestant churches over the years (United Methodist, Southern Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Christian Church, Freewill Baptist).

I taught high school English at a rural Missouri public school for six years. Currently I'm teaching some classes at a college in Waco, Texas, having relocated from Missouri to Texas with my family in the summer of 2008.

I have a graduate degree in religious studies and have labored intermittently over the years to achieve enlightenment or realize my Self, or something like that.

Finally, and definitely falling into the "last but not least" category, I've been married with a stepson for nearly 14 years. My wife is a wonderful cook who has won several national recipe contests (including one from Mission Tortillas that got us all flown out to Disneyland for the royal treatment). My stepson is employed as the Wildlife Damage Management Technician for Bosque County, Texas. That means he's a professional hunter/trapper whose job is to control the populations of coyotes and feral hogs that cause tremendous damage and economic loss to farms and ranches.