I wrote a book for you: Under the Moon in Illinois
Later this year, Prairie State Press will release Under the Moon in Illinois, stories from a haunted land in print, ebook, and audiobook. To learn more, please subscribe at the bottom of this page.
Oh, and you can hear audio versions of two stories right now!
Press release
This entertaining collection draws on natural and supernatural motifs—farm fields, historic towns, ghosts, rivers, storms—to show characters who do their best amid the perennial weaknesses of human nature. They travel between life and death, past and present, across a haunted landscape, to find love or right wrongs. Knox looks directly at real-life Midwestern social issues, but the characters in this place, dead or alive, strive for good—one brave woman journalist in particular.
“These concentrated gems of fiction take you to a landscape that might feel, at first, like small-town America—cornfields and chickens, sanctimonious pastors and protective mothers, high school kids and dating hijinks. It feels normal—but preternaturally normal, because this is Kipling Knox country, aka Middling, IL, and the crust is thin. Anywhere you step, you might break through into a deeper reality that can be frightening. But these are not horror stories. What haunts you in Middling is the emotional intensity that arises from loss and longing, from the knowledge that nothing lasts and nothing goes away.” - author and lecturer Tamim Ansary
“These interconnected stories, tied to a specific locale, fit in the tradition established by Poe, Hawthorne, and Washington Irving. Not just a compelling collection of ghost stories, this book challenges the reader to understand an original take on the afterlife. The ghost world of Middling has an important ethical dimension, with rules and consequences. This spirit world visibly manifests the history of loss, in America, stretching back through ruined farms and all the animal species—mastodons, passenger pigeons—we have driven to extinction. The small picture—of Middling—is also the large picture.” - author, critic, and editor Elaine Palencia
This collection of stories twisted my imagination in unexpected ways, creating lasting impressions of a vivid world. Kipling paints a canvas of characters you might recognize from next door. But beware: these are not ordinary people. The characters of this world look into their souls and beg the reader to ask why we are here and what our purpose should be. I love a good ghost story, and these tales did not disappoint! – Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto
About Under the Moon in Illinois:
This collection of interconnected stories is set in the fictional town of Middling, where ghosts conspire to redeem a troubled community. We follow a group of eccentric characters yearning for something better--a well-intentioned criminal takes on a corrupt pastor, a young man chases a ghost to impress his first date, a legendary phantom hitchhiker fulfills a dangerous promise, the spirit of a guilt-stricken ad man tries to fix a corrupt councilman. Combining social satire with humor and tragedy, these stories explore the troubles we face in an anxious time. At times dark, they are inherently hopeful.
In the past year, Kipling’s short stories have been published or recognized in the Madison Review, Narrative Magazine, the TulipTree Review, the Bellingham Review, and the Whitefish Review. Learn more...
In media vita in morte sumus
