{"id":15544,"date":"2021-05-28T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=15544"},"modified":"2021-05-18T22:16:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T02:16:19","slug":"revelations-russell-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelations: Russell Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9055\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/introducing-revelations\/revelations_banner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?fit=830%2C120&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"830,120\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"revelations_banner\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?fit=830%2C120&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9055\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?resize=830%2C120&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Banner for Revelations, the column written by Kevin Lucia for Cemetery Dance\" width=\"830\" height=\"120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?w=830&amp;ssl=1 830w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?resize=350%2C51&amp;ssl=1 350w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Revelations_Banner.jpg?resize=768%2C111&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15546\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15546\" style=\"width: 278px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15546\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/rkirk\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?fit=780%2C982&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"780,982\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"rkirk\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Russell Kirk&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?fit=780%2C982&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15546\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?resize=278%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?resize=278%2C350&amp;ssl=1 278w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?resize=768%2C967&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/rkirk.jpg?w=780&amp;ssl=1 780w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 85vw, 278px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russell Kirk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you engage in any kind of artistic \u201ccareer\u201d over a certain period of time, lots of preconceived notions are shed. Nowhere is that truer than in writing. It&#8217;s part of the gig. Over time, idealistic goals either vanish altogether, or, in the best case scenario, transform into more obtainable goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, it was the notion of writing full time. Writing as the day job. Spending my workday solely in my invented worlds. Many of my fellow writers have gone through the same transition. Realizing that for whatever reason, writing as a full-time career simply wasn&#8217;t in the cards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I began my exploration into the history of the horror genre, accepting this as a reality became a lot easier. It amazed me how many wonderful writers I encountered who never broke into a \u201cfull time\u201d writing career. In some cases, they wrote one or two stories, and never wrote again.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the case of David Clayton Carrad, whose story \u201cCompetition\u201d originally appeared in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Running Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0(of all places), and was eventually chosen by Karl Edward Wagner for his <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Year&#8217;s Best Horror<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> series. It&#8217;s a great story, and apparently the only one he ever wrote.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or take Robert Marasco, who wrote the marvelous <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burnt Offerings, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and who wrote only one other novel, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parlor Games. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I read more deeply, I realize how everyone has their own career path, and this has helped me become more content with my own career, whatever path it might take.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another joy of reading deeper into the horror genre is when I encounter short stories for the first time and they lead me on rabbit trails (as &#8220;way leads unto way&#8221;) to discovering writers who did indeed go on to write other <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15548\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/ancestralshadows\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ancestralshadows.jpg?fit=319%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"319,500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ancestralshadows\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ancestralshadows.jpg?fit=319%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15548\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ancestralshadows.jpg?resize=223%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ancestralshadows.jpg?resize=223%2C350&amp;ssl=1 223w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ancestralshadows.jpg?w=319&amp;ssl=1 319w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 85vw, 223px\" \/>things, whether a voluminous output which would be almost impossible to cover completely (such as Manley Wade Wellman), or writers like Robert Marasco and T. E. D. Klein, who certainly wrote other things, though I wish they&#8217;d written more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this fashion, I discovered the work of Russell Kirk, when I encountered his short story \u201cLex Talionis\u201d in one of Stuart David Schiff&#8217;s editions of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whispers<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This led me to seek out his short story collection <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ancestral Shadows<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and two of his three novels, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old House of Fear<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Hollow Dark.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many ways, his fiction-writing career seems like a side-gig to his political career. He didn&#8217;t write fiction full-time, but what fiction he did write ended up standing the test of time (which, in its own way, gives me hope that my writing \u201cside gig\u201d is much more than a hobby, also).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many ways, Kirk is the American answer to M. R. James, though his conservative ideals and Roman Catholic faith impact his fiction a bit more, though not to an intrusive degree. Like James, Kirk\u2019s stories deal with the enduring power of times gone by, the survival of the ancient world, and the shadowy realm in which the land of the dead intersects with the land of the living.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As stated, Kirk&#8217;s Catholicism is present in many of his stories, though they don&#8217;t come off preachy or proselytizing. Kirk&#8217;s worldview is certainly Catholic, but within that worldview swirls the mists of mystery and legend, so his stories don&#8217;t read as regurgitated \u201cBible stories,\u201d though they are moralistic in nature, very much like the work of early Dean Koontz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15547\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/hollowdark\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hollowdark.jpg?fit=337%2C499&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"337,499\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"hollowdark\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hollowdark.jpg?fit=337%2C499&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15547\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hollowdark.jpg?resize=236%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hollowdark.jpg?resize=236%2C350&amp;ssl=1 236w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hollowdark.jpg?w=337&amp;ssl=1 337w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 85vw, 236px\" \/>In fact, I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to learn that Koontz has read Kirk&#8217;s work, especially Kirk&#8217;s supernatural novel, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It reads very much like early Koontz, though with a richer style.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> isn&#8217;t a horror novel, really. It&#8217;s more like a supernatural Gothic fantasy ruminating on the nature of Good and Evil, suffering, atonement, redemption, forgiveness, and punishment. Rich with myth, history, and allegory, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is perhaps more disturbing in its metaphysical implications regarding a life lived hollowly and selfishly. It&#8217;s also a work in which Kirk&#8217;s conservative sensibilities are most on display.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">*<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There&#8217;s a lot to be said for stories (especially horror) trafficking in gray areas, because life is most often gray. It makes for better reading when a story&#8217;s morality is complex, because that&#8217;s most often how life is. We&#8217;ve all got good and evil inside of us, and when a horror story can tap into that complexity, it often hits a lot closer to home, and is all the more powerful for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there&#8217;s something comforting in reading tales with strong moral backbones, if only because these stories remind us how important it is to strive for the light over the dark. This is where Russell&#8217;s work finds its strength, especially his short stories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, that&#8217;s what drew me to seeking out his work when I first read \u201cLex Talionis\u201d &#8212; which, of course, means <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">criminals should receive punishment equal to the injuries they visited upon their victims<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In many ways, it&#8217;s a classic ghost story which does just that: a reformed \u201csinner\u201d becomes the tool of God to repay evil men for the evil they&#8217;ve done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would definitely stop short of calling Kirk&#8217;s work \u201cChristian\u201d or \u201creligious,\u201d however. It certainly does preoccupy itself with the ideas of forgiveness, redemption and atonement, making it very moral. However &#8212; again, mostly in his short stories &#8212; he&#8217;s very happy to deal with the mysteries of the supernatural and unknown world. The short stories in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ancestral Shadows<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are classic ghost stories with rich but never overburdened prose, and they hum with an antiquarian feel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15549\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/oldhousefear\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/oldhousefear.jpg?fit=294%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"294,500\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"oldhousefear\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/oldhousefear.jpg?fit=294%2C500&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15549\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/oldhousefear.jpg?resize=206%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/oldhousefear.jpg?resize=206%2C350&amp;ssl=1 206w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/oldhousefear.jpg?w=294&amp;ssl=1 294w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 85vw, 206px\" \/>His novels &#8212; the two I&#8217;ve read &#8212; do display a bit more of his conservative Catholic ideals. His touch is lightest in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old House of Fear<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is a very enjoyable and engrossing natural\u00a0 Gothic tale which is also spiced with intrigue and suspense. Kirk is very adept at painting lush, atmospheric, Gothic environments. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old House<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> revels in this, taking place on an isolated island in an old ancestral house which might as well be a castle from one of Anne Radcliffe&#8217;s novels. The only hint of Kirk&#8217;s political ideas rests in the villain, who is of course a sadistic communist bent on chaos and anarchy. That&#8217;s the extent of it, however, and Kirk does a marvelous job mixing the disparate genres of Gothic fiction and political intrigue into a compelling tale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kirk&#8217;s Catholicism is most present in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Hollow Dark. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In it, a charismatic cult leader gathers a group of degenerate men and women of influence, power, and vice to a retreat at an isolated manorial home, Balgrummo&#8217;s Lodging. His hope is to re-enact occult practices which legends claim the Balgrummo men trafficked in for generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deep beneath the house are caverns rumored to have been used by ancient monks and the Knights Templar alike. A cavern filled with a maze worthy of the mythical Labyrinth. In an obscene and profane ritual, this cult leader &#8212; Apollinax, who has taken his name from a T. S. Eliot character &#8212; wishes to trap he and his followers in what he calls the Timeless Moment, in which they can revel in degradation for all eternity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kirk&#8217;s Catholic ideals certainly present themselves strongly in this novel, but they don&#8217;t get in the way of the story, which becomes a very basic conflict between Good and Evil. Also, the use (and overuse ) of symbolism in fiction has been debated for decades, and will continue to be debated. Some claim authors should never utilize them; others claim symbols are central to a story&#8217;s meaning. In any case, the symbolism in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is clear, central, and used to powerful effect &#8212; especially because the caverns below the lodging bear the name of Purgatory, and that it has a Labyrinth supposedly leading to purification, sanctification, or, literally, the surface, and freedom. If one is brave and strong enough to survive the darkness of the caverns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> very much reads like a Gothic tale which could&#8217;ve been written by Dean Koontz, though the prose is more robust. Our protagonists are flawed and weak people, working out their own \u201csalvation\u201d in their own personal purgatories. Again, it&#8217;s really less of a horror novel, and more of a dark, fantastical and metaphysical treatise on the forces of good and evil, and the need for everyone to walk through their own kind of purgatory to reach the \u201csalvation\u201d on the other side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of it&#8217;s Kirk&#8217;s work is out of print, and several of his books &#8212; take <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lord of the Hollow Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, for example &#8212; are a bit pricey on the secondary market, though <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old House of Fear<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is in print, and well worth the money. Even so, you never know what you&#8217;re going to find at second-hand stores, used book stores, or flea markets, so I <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">highly <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recommend keeping an eye open for the ghostly fiction of Russell Kirk. If you find an inexpensive copy of one of his books, you&#8217;ll be that much richer for picking it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/hz\/wishlist\/ls\/2F2BALLILC87Z?ref_=wl_share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russell Kirk&#8217;s Fiction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Kevin Lucia\u2019s short fiction has appeared in several anthologies, most recently with Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Bentley Little, Peter Straub and Robert McCammon. His first short story collection,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>Things Slip Through,<\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0was published November 2013, followed by\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>Devourer of Souls<\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0in June 2014,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>Through A Mirror, Darkly<\/strong><em><strong>, June 2015, and and his second short story collection,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>Things You Need<\/strong><em><strong>, September 2018. His novella\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/mystery-road.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Mystery Road<\/strong><\/a><em><strong>\u00a0was published by Cemetery Dance Publications in May 2020. For three free ebooks, sign up for his monthly newsletter at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kevinlucia.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.kevinlucia.blogspot.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1611277963632000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE8ydOo4cBPrvD5lpMyCUirDc7O7Q\">www.kevinlucia.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you engage in any kind of artistic \u201ccareer\u201d over a certain period of time, lots of preconceived notions are shed. Nowhere is that truer than in writing. It&#8217;s part of the gig. Over time, idealistic goals either vanish altogether, or, in the best case scenario, transform into more obtainable goals.\u00a0 For me, it was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-russell-kirk\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Revelations: Russell Kirk&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[948],"tags":[294,783,949,2331],"class_list":["post-15544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revelations","tag-columns","tag-kevin-lucia","tag-revelations","tag-russell-kirk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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