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Strange Nests in Print!

The print edition of Jessica McHugh’s follow up to A Complex Accident of Life is here! (Finally)

We had some troubles with the KDP requirements (troubles Complex did not have…); and we are not going to compromise on this book. The book looks fantastic, and just as we want it, through Lulu! This title really shines in print, so we hope you’ll check it out.

the secret about dying arrived scrawny. it’s growing stronger & fatter though & whispers, “go mad.”

Beyond ancient gates, among thorny overgrowth and carnivorous blooms, a raven called Death waits tirelessly for its chance to roost within us. Using scraps of love, remorse, anger, and pain, it weaves. With erasure, memory, and discovery, it binds. And from the garden of wounds that grows within our broken hearts, it builds Strange Nests.

In the follow-up to her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award nominated collection, A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh uses poetry, design, and illustration to unearth the horrific, consumptive, and transformative nature of grief from the pages of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden.

With an amazing cover by Lynne Hansen

Out today in eBook, print

And a PDF edition featuring the beautiful full spread of art and poetry available only on Apokrupha.com

Advanced Praise for Strange Nests

Strange Nests is a brilliant collection of poems that speak in a subtle voice of deep darkness. Jessica McHugh conjures real magic here.”

—Jonathan Maberry, NYTimes bestselling author of Relentless and Ink

“Jessica McHugh finds the deep truths hidden in plain pages. This collection will plant rose bushes in your heart. You’ll feel every bloom and bleed with every thorn.”

—Sarah Read, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of The Bone Weaver’s Orchard 

“Jessica McHugh’s Strange Nests is a beautiful, somber reflection on life, death, grief, and the bonds between siblings. A wondrous read that will lull you into a lovely breathless silence.”

—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered

“McHugh’s newest offering of blackout poetry is more than words circled on printed pages, each set of two pages shows the original page covered in beautiful, colorful drawings, the poetry outlined and the second page with the reborn poems. The combination is two pages that visually excites our eyes and new poetry that touches our soul.”

—Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master.

Jessica McHugh

Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.”

Please visit McHughniverse.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.

As well as both A Complex Accident of Life and Home Birth both published by Apokrupha!

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A Complex Accident of Life

Poetry has come to the McHughniverse.

Buy it today!

I am a vessel of dauntless courage and severe evil.

My joy will endeavor, my rage possess.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jessica McHugh’s debut poetry collection, A Complex Accident of Life, combines visual art and text to create 52 pieces of Gothic blackout poetry exploring the intense passion, enigmatic nature, and transformative pleasure of life, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of a female horror artist.

Cover by Lynne Hansen! ( LynneHansenArt.com )

Out now on ebook here in our store and Kindle and PRINT

Advanced Praise for A Complex Accident of Life

Full of color and stunning imagery, Jessica McHugh takes Mary Shelley’s classic and finds new depth and meaning within. A Complex Accident of Life is indeed a vessel of dauntless courage, inspiring and hopeful.”

—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered

In A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh strikingly combines different modes of art to create a truly unique collection. This remix of a beloved work through blackout poetry shows a lot of care in every selected word and the arrangement within each piece. I enjoyed the visuals just as much as the poems themselves. True spirit, passion, and creativity live within every piece; the book is not only an exquisite tribute to Mary Shelley, but also cleverly showcases McHugh’s own beautiful poetic talent. Highly recommended! 

—Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland

Renegade alchemist Jessica McHugh revives Mary Shelley even while vivisecting her mind and reassembling the anatomy of her ideas, remaking her as a hauntingly beautiful structure of undead words and lively art. Unlike others working in the medium of blackout poetry McHugh deploys a wide array of both visual strategies and approaches to composition, rendering “A Complex Accident of Life” compelling and compulsively re-readable. 

—John Edward Lawson, author of Bibliophobia

Jessica McHugh

Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.” 

Please visit JessicaMcHughBooks.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.