JG Faherty was my mentor during a formal mentorship with the Horror Writers
Association. And remains a mentor even now that the formal part is over. It is
not an exaggeration to say he revolutionized my horror writing.

I’ve wanted to write horror as long as I’ve wanted to write. I admire people
who started in horror and succeeded. I had to grow into it. I found my voice in
flash fiction—a genre I adore. My mentor in that realm is Meg Pokrass. I have
this idea that some day, future college students will study the Meg Pokrass
school of flash fiction writing. If I could warrant a footnote, that’d be
grand.

Faherty did that for me with horror. He gave me the roadmap I needed to be
able to analyze my own work. That is no small thing. To read your story and
know if it is on track or not is huge. I’m not an expert on my own horror
writing yet. But he booted me far down the road—farther than I could ever have
gotten on my own.

So anyway, yeah, I’m a fan. His recent book Sins
of the Fathers gave me fucked-up nightmares. (Especially because they
combined with Stephen Graham Jones’ The
Mongrels.)

I don’t read enough poetry. Occasionally a poem will kick my ass all the way
around the block. So I’m trying to read more. So when Faherty came out with a
book of poetry, I was all about it. So I had some fun with it.

And here’s a review:

If you read JG Faherty, you know he’s not afraid to go there. Where? There,
man. Beyond the sane, normal, safe. He’ll go there. In a novel, that’s spread
out over a couple hundred pages. So, take that (razor-wire) edge and condense
it into poetry and you get Songs
in the Key of Death. These poems are dark as a cloudy night sky with
no moon. And they are bleak, or funny, or sly, or gory—all at once. I haven’t
had this much fun reading poetry since… ever? These poems range from cosmic
horror and aliens to slashers, serial killers, and sci-fi. The language is
rumbly and strong, crashing around like giant-thrown boulders or trickling
along like blood from a deep, non-arterial cut. They beg to be read aloud. But
if you do that, stay in the salt circle—please!
Enjoy!