CRIES TO KILL THE CORPSE FLOWER on the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

As I'm sure you've seen, if you follow news from the Horror Writers Association, Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower has made it onto the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot.

Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower is a confessional horror poetry collection that follows the loose story arc of a "Crow Crowned King" discovering the projection of his internal condition onto those around him, essentially coming to know that the "rot of the Corpse Flower" originated as a parasite inside of himself.

"Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower is a stomach slit by knives and guts spilled on the pavement. It is the organized chaos of a man on the brink of running, a man gasping for air in those split seconds his head breaks through the surface—a man who’s realized you can’t outrun yourself—told in the narrative arc of a Crow Crowned King and a Corpse Flower Queen in their castle in the suburbs.

Ronald J. Murray’s debut dark poetry collection is a hard look in the mirror through forty poems that examine of one of the most terrifying monsters that could ever exist: the darkness that can bloom inside any one of us, and which can wreak havoc in every shadow-laden corner of our lives. It’s something sinister that can feed on our insides and reign from an unseen throne. Our ears are filled with its insidious, manipulative whispers that it’s those around us stealing our joy, our love, our lives. Our vision is clouded by its tendrils, taking root in our brains. It tells us to take that final plunge into a sea of lost identity. It uses our hands as extensions to enact its will, giving us a false sense of sovereignty.

Will you relinquish your crown?"

If you're a voting member of the Horror Writers Association, feel free to use the contact form on this website to receive a digital copy of this collection.

Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower is available for purchase from JournalStone, Amazon, and other online retailers.