D. Matthew Urban
@breathinghead.bsky.social
weird fiction person • TX → NY • stories here and there • SHAKY PICTURES OF VANISHED FACES out now from Cursed Morsels Press! • he/him • https://dmatthewurban.com
Pinned
Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces has breached containment! Thrilled to have my first collection out in the world. 18 tales for enjoyers of spider kisses, eerie grandparents, and endless whirling in trackless voids!
Order from @cursedmorsels.bsky.social at www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/shak...
Order from @cursedmorsels.bsky.social at www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/shak...
Last book finished in 2025: Solenoid by Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu, which I've been reading in fits and starts for a long time, accelerating over the last week or so. Tremendous IMO, though recommended only if the phrase "gnostic surrealist Knausgaard" doesn't make you want to jump out a window
January 1, 2026 at 12:58 AM
Last book finished in 2025: Solenoid by Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu, which I've been reading in fits and starts for a long time, accelerating over the last week or so. Tremendous IMO, though recommended only if the phrase "gnostic surrealist Knausgaard" doesn't make you want to jump out a window
Ending 2025 feeling grateful for the publication of my first book. Huge thanks to @cursedmorsels.bsky.social for adding Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces to their roster, and to everyone who blurbed, reviewed, read, is reading or will read this bundle of weird contraptions!
Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces paperback | Cursed Morsels Press
Budget cuts drive a burned-out humanities professor to master the art of annihilation. A girl on the verge of a transformation seeks out a new member for her isolated, inhuman family. A glitching brai...
www.cursedmorselspress.com
December 31, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Ending 2025 feeling grateful for the publication of my first book. Huge thanks to @cursedmorsels.bsky.social for adding Shaky Pictures of Vanished Faces to their roster, and to everyone who blurbed, reviewed, read, is reading or will read this bundle of weird contraptions!
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
Hey hey hey, look what’s 25% off at the Barnes & Noble sale! Preorder your most anticipated books of 2026 (including @shortwavebooks.bsky.social titles) and maybe SLEEP ALONE wanders into your cart too…
December 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Hey hey hey, look what’s 25% off at the Barnes & Noble sale! Preorder your most anticipated books of 2026 (including @shortwavebooks.bsky.social titles) and maybe SLEEP ALONE wanders into your cart too…
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
Merry Christmas to all endosymbionts: mitochondria, chloroplasts, nitroplasts, the whole gang 🎄🦠
Scientists Re-Create the Microbial Dance That Sparked Complex Life | Quanta Magazine
Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the first time, biologists made it happen in the lab.
www.quantamagazine.org
December 26, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Merry Christmas to all endosymbionts: mitochondria, chloroplasts, nitroplasts, the whole gang 🎄🦠
grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg: A Knives Out Mystery
December 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg: A Knives Out Mystery
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For Tiny Tim whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Did NOT die, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For Tiny Tim whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Did NOT die, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, beats on, boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, where the shadows lie, One Tim to rule them all, One Tim to find them, One Tim to bring them all, and in the darkness, bind them.
December 25, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For Tiny Tim whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Did NOT die, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For Tiny Tim whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Did NOT die, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice
December 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice
It's true! If you're looking to start a new holiday tradition, or just wondering what to cook for the big family potluck, "Winter Savory" is full of festive ideas. 🍲🌿👑 Just a few of the lifehacks you'll find in my collection of weird horrors! www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/shak...
December 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
It's true! If you're looking to start a new holiday tradition, or just wondering what to cook for the big family potluck, "Winter Savory" is full of festive ideas. 🍲🌿👑 Just a few of the lifehacks you'll find in my collection of weird horrors! www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/shak...
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
The “Pink Flamingo Rat King” is an extremely rare phenomenon that’s only been seen in the wilds of the suburbs of Los Angeles. The smog of the urban sprawl becomes infused into the plastic of the flamingos, causing them to temporarily animate and attempt murder suicide of other lawn ornaments
December 23, 2025 at 7:37 PM
The “Pink Flamingo Rat King” is an extremely rare phenomenon that’s only been seen in the wilds of the suburbs of Los Angeles. The smog of the urban sprawl becomes infused into the plastic of the flamingos, causing them to temporarily animate and attempt murder suicide of other lawn ornaments
Very excited that my weird vampire story "Invitation to a Feast" will appear in Ghoulish Tales #5, coming next spring from @ghoulish.bsky.social! 🧛😭😋
December 23, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Very excited that my weird vampire story "Invitation to a Feast" will appear in Ghoulish Tales #5, coming next spring from @ghoulish.bsky.social! 🧛😭😋
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
Well-deserved crowns for two killer books! Congrats to my @cursedmorsels.bsky.social comrades and all the other excellent authors on this list! 🎉🎉
Both Lupus in Fabula by @flameswallower.bsky.social and The Writhing, Verdant End by @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social, @tiffmorris.bsky.social, and @ericraglin1992.bsky.social made it on Blog Without A Face's best horror of the year list!
theblogwithoutaface.com/2025/12/22/b...
theblogwithoutaface.com/2025/12/22/b...
BWAF Selects: The Best Horror Books of 2025
Phew, what a year. Your freaky friends at BWAF are going to be taking an extended break over the holidays. We’ll be seeing you in 2026, but before that, want to welcome you to our annual roll…
theblogwithoutaface.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Well-deserved crowns for two killer books! Congrats to my @cursedmorsels.bsky.social comrades and all the other excellent authors on this list! 🎉🎉
It’s true! Check out FCQ #8 for gnawing tales of weird and cosmic horror, plus cover art that will send a chill up your spine 🥶😱
December 20, 2025 at 11:32 PM
It’s true! Check out FCQ #8 for gnawing tales of weird and cosmic horror, plus cover art that will send a chill up your spine 🥶😱
Grinch, the Wrath of God
The Cook, the Grinch, His Wife & Her Lover
She’s Just Not That Into Grinch
December 18, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Grinch, the Wrath of God
Really loved Plasmas by Céline Minard (@deepvellum.bsky.social, translated by Annabel L. Kim). Can't think of a book I read this year that evoked a deeper sense of speculative wonder at the strangeness of the world. Favorite story: as a fan of bradypods, gotta go with "Uiush"
December 18, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Really loved Plasmas by Céline Minard (@deepvellum.bsky.social, translated by Annabel L. Kim). Can't think of a book I read this year that evoked a deeper sense of speculative wonder at the strangeness of the world. Favorite story: as a fan of bradypods, gotta go with "Uiush"
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
I’m thrilled and proud to have my story included in the newest issue of khoreo! This is a dream pub for me. I hope you’ll grab a copy and read all the wonderful stories inside 💕
Please check the CWs. Inspired by a tragic Thai spirit, my story of generational trauma was a tough one to write.
Please check the CWs. Inspired by a tragic Thai spirit, my story of generational trauma was a tough one to write.
In "The Body is a Cage Opened Only By Fire" by @jawmccarthy.bsky.social, a woman returns to burn the last of her mother’s body, in the wake of her mother’s death. An effort to escape a dark entity that has sealed itself to the bones of three generations of Thai women.
December 16, 2025 at 12:02 AM
I’m thrilled and proud to have my story included in the newest issue of khoreo! This is a dream pub for me. I hope you’ll grab a copy and read all the wonderful stories inside 💕
Please check the CWs. Inspired by a tragic Thai spirit, my story of generational trauma was a tough one to write.
Please check the CWs. Inspired by a tragic Thai spirit, my story of generational trauma was a tough one to write.
Before man was, SantaCon waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.
December 13, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Before man was, SantaCon waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
"is what happens in this book ethical?" listen babe, I want to read books about making new holes in people with extra large drill bits
December 13, 2025 at 4:53 PM
"is what happens in this book ethical?" listen babe, I want to read books about making new holes in people with extra large drill bits
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
one of the nineteen collages i made for Gore Poetics (specifically, for my NIGHTMARE story "sharp house") has been shared in the newsletter for your viewing pleasure 🪡🩸
December 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
one of the nineteen collages i made for Gore Poetics (specifically, for my NIGHTMARE story "sharp house") has been shared in the newsletter for your viewing pleasure 🪡🩸
Hey @chmmagazine.bsky.social Patreon members, that hideous thing is scurrying through the streets again! Will he make it to the room where the people are waiting? Read my story "Running Late" to find out!
Patreon Exclusive Fiction: Running Late | Cosmic Horror Monthly
Get more from Cosmic Horror Monthly on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Hey @chmmagazine.bsky.social Patreon members, that hideous thing is scurrying through the streets again! Will he make it to the room where the people are waiting? Read my story "Running Late" to find out!
"Good Morning, Captain" by Slint turning this walk to the sandwich shop into a doomed trek toward some terrible reckoning
December 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
"Good Morning, Captain" by Slint turning this walk to the sandwich shop into a doomed trek toward some terrible reckoning
a slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears
she seemed a thing that could not feel
the touch of earthly years
no motion has she now, no force
she neither hears nor sees
rolled round in earth's diurnal course
with rocks and stones and trees
I had no human fears
she seemed a thing that could not feel
the touch of earthly years
no motion has she now, no force
she neither hears nor sees
rolled round in earth's diurnal course
with rocks and stones and trees
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 6, 2025 at 8:54 PM
a slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears
she seemed a thing that could not feel
the touch of earthly years
no motion has she now, no force
she neither hears nor sees
rolled round in earth's diurnal course
with rocks and stones and trees
I had no human fears
she seemed a thing that could not feel
the touch of earthly years
no motion has she now, no force
she neither hears nor sees
rolled round in earth's diurnal course
with rocks and stones and trees
Reposted by D. Matthew Urban
I checked out my Abandoned Video Store Wrapped where they showed me a montage of all the times I ended up in there, wandering the labyrinthine shelves, trying to find my way out. Here and there, I played moldy VHS tapes, watching people in Jeremy masks acting out mundane scenes of my life.
December 6, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I checked out my Abandoned Video Store Wrapped where they showed me a montage of all the times I ended up in there, wandering the labyrinthine shelves, trying to find my way out. Here and there, I played moldy VHS tapes, watching people in Jeremy masks acting out mundane scenes of my life.