Black Shapes in a Darkened Room

by Marshall Moore

Fiction. Horror. Gay and Lesbian Studies. Revenge, eroticism, humor, despair, the supernatural and the everyday all share center stage in this collection of witty, visceral, darkly compelling short fiction. "Moore's characters all wear bruise-colored glasses... a perspective which can be both odd and exhilarating" -- Gemma Files. Marshall Moore has also authored the novel The Concrete Sky.

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2004

About the author

Marshall Moore is the author of several books: The Concrete Sky (Haworth Press, 2003); Black Shapes in a Darkened Room (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004); An Ideal for Living (Lethe Press, 2010); The Infernal Republic (Signal 8 Press, 2012); Bitter Orange (Signal 8 Press, 2013); A Garden Fed by Lightning (Signal 8 Press, 2016); Inhospitable (Camphor Press, 2018); and I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing (Rebel Satori Press, 2022). With Xu Xi, Moore is the co-editor of The Queen of Statue Square: New Short Fiction from Hong Kong (Nottingham: Critical, Cultural & Communications Press, 2014). A collection of his short stories (Sagome nere) was published in Italian by 96, rue de-la-Fontaine Edizioni, in 2017. With Sam Meekings, he has coedited two academic books on the subject of creative writing: The Place and the Writer: International Intersections of Teacher Lore and Creative Writing Pedagogy (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Creative Writing Scholars on the Publishing Trade: Practice, Praxis, Print (Routledge, 2021).

Forthcoming:

Blood and Black T-Shirts: Dispatches from Hong Kong's Descent into Hell 2019-2020 (Camphor Press, 2023);

Love Is a Poisonous Color (Rebel Satori Press, 2023), short story collection no. 4;

and a third coedited academic book that will focus on the concept of creative practice.

As of 2020, he lives in Cornwall, England, after more than a decade in Hong Kong and several years in the outskirts of Seoul.

Note from MM 8 Aug 2022: I'm listed as the author of short stories that appear in a few supernatural anthologies, and the links connect to my account. I suspect this is another writer with the same name. No disrespect to whoever this might be, but we're not the same person.

Reviews

[Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second book. I'm a better short story writer than novelist, if that says anything. Not that this stops me from writing novels. I just prefer short fiction. I think.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perhaps not the kind of book I would normally pick up, but the author is a good friend of mine from college and I wanted to support him and see what he was up to. The stories are imaginative, insightful, cutting and vicious. They take you to some dark places, and it is worth the journey. And that's not even getting into the, um, more explicit parts. Yes, be warned, this book contains hard-core gay erotica. If that is your cup of tea, or at least not offensive to you, this is worth checking out for the storytelling, otherwise, stick with tamer fare.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read these stories nearly ten years ago and enjoyed them at the time - I recently took another look at them and, though I can't fault the writing I was left underwhelmed. I have to say really didn't want to have to say this because Mr. Moore is a good writer but I was left unsatisfied and I have to say I would not anytime soon read any of his other books.

Having said that I would still recommend that, if curious, give these stories a chance - I did enjoy them once - maybe you will too.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good friend of mine and a solid collection of stories