Nik Korpon
Encyclopedia
Nik Korpon is the author of the Neo-noir
thriller Stay God, released by Otherworld Publications in December 2010, the novellas Old Ghosts, and By the Nails of the Warpriest and the story collections Baltimore Stories: Volume One and Baltimore Stories: Volume Two. He is an editor for Dirty Noir and Rotten Leaves, and reviews books for Spinetingler, NoirJournal, The Nervous Breakdown, and Outsider Writers Collective. He also co-hosts Last Sunday, Last Rites, a monthly reading series. He lives in Baltimore. He earned his Masters in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University in London, England .
Synopsis
Damon lives a content life, playing video games and dealing drugs from his second-hand store while his girlfriend, Mary, drops constant hints about marriage. If only he could tell her his name isn’t really Damon. If only he could tell her who he really is. But after he witnesses a friend’s murder, a scarlet woman glides into his life, offering the solution to all of his problems. His carefully constructed existence soon shatters like crystal teardrops and he must determine which ghosts won’t stay buried—and which ones are trying to kill him—if he wants to learn why Mary has disappeared.
By the Nails of the Warpriest
Synopsis
“Children climb piles of discarded furniture and chunks of collapsed building in the alley. Mud and ashen water streaked across their faces. One stands at the top, holding a broken table leg in place of a scepter, shouting that she is Queen of The Struggle. The others scramble towards her, hoping to steal her spot. My stomach clenches at the sound of her declaration, the pang of guilt like rusted metal on my tongue. They don’t yet understand that no amount of violence or coercion can replace complacency with the religious fervor sovereignty brings. Their hands are still pristine. The streetlamp flickering alternates their faces between playmate and ghoul.”
Rife with political and religious undertones, By the Nails of the Warpriest follows an unnamed thief who steals memories from the elderly–those who have a a vague memory of The City before The Struggle–and sells them to memory-junkies. He ekes out an existence by ruining the very souls he’d tried to save. As a fallen leader of The People, he’s almost thankful that his family is not alive to witness the depths to which he’s sunk.Then he finds a memory that suggests they weren’t killed in a riot, that someone lied to him. That someone wants to keep him from his family.
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
thriller Stay God, released by Otherworld Publications in December 2010, the novellas Old Ghosts, and By the Nails of the Warpriest and the story collections Baltimore Stories: Volume One and Baltimore Stories: Volume Two. He is an editor for Dirty Noir and Rotten Leaves, and reviews books for Spinetingler, NoirJournal, The Nervous Breakdown, and Outsider Writers Collective. He also co-hosts Last Sunday, Last Rites, a monthly reading series. He lives in Baltimore. He earned his Masters in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University in London, England .
Novel
Stay GodSynopsis
Damon lives a content life, playing video games and dealing drugs from his second-hand store while his girlfriend, Mary, drops constant hints about marriage. If only he could tell her his name isn’t really Damon. If only he could tell her who he really is. But after he witnesses a friend’s murder, a scarlet woman glides into his life, offering the solution to all of his problems. His carefully constructed existence soon shatters like crystal teardrops and he must determine which ghosts won’t stay buried—and which ones are trying to kill him—if he wants to learn why Mary has disappeared.
Novellas
Old GhostsBy the Nails of the Warpriest
Synopsis
“Children climb piles of discarded furniture and chunks of collapsed building in the alley. Mud and ashen water streaked across their faces. One stands at the top, holding a broken table leg in place of a scepter, shouting that she is Queen of The Struggle. The others scramble towards her, hoping to steal her spot. My stomach clenches at the sound of her declaration, the pang of guilt like rusted metal on my tongue. They don’t yet understand that no amount of violence or coercion can replace complacency with the religious fervor sovereignty brings. Their hands are still pristine. The streetlamp flickering alternates their faces between playmate and ghoul.”
Rife with political and religious undertones, By the Nails of the Warpriest follows an unnamed thief who steals memories from the elderly–those who have a a vague memory of The City before The Struggle–and sells them to memory-junkies. He ekes out an existence by ruining the very souls he’d tried to save. As a fallen leader of The People, he’s almost thankful that his family is not alive to witness the depths to which he’s sunk.Then he finds a memory that suggests they weren’t killed in a riot, that someone lied to him. That someone wants to keep him from his family.
Collected Stories
- Baltimore Stories: Volume One, a mini-collection of previously published short stories. Some are noir, some are horror, all take place in Baltimore.
- Baltimore Stories: Volume Two, a mini-collection of previously published short stories. Some are noir, some are horror, all take place in Baltimore.
Short Fiction
- Amber Flowers, published in You're Dead and I Killed You
- Montevideo, published in Shotgun Honey
- Intersections, published in Crime Factory #7
- Mori Obscura, published in Speedloader #1
- This Will All End Well, published in Warmed And Bound
- List #2, published in Everyday Genius
- The Bones Of Miracles, published in Short-Story.Me
- His Footsteps Are Made Of Soot, published in Troubadour 21
- Eyes That Melt Wings, published in Sex And Murder
- Hanging On Saint Jude, published in Rotten Leaves Magazine
- Currents, published in Troubadour 21
- Eucharist, published in 3:Am Magazine
- Glass Bubbles, published in Cause And Effect, Issue 12
- ‘Til The Man Comes Around, published in Mechanics Institute Review, Issue 4
- Giggles The Clown, published in Sideshow Fables Magazine
- Slivers Of A Voice, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 9
- Blink, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 8
- Our Blessed Mary, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 7
- She Sleeps Beneath Clouds Of Embers, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 6
- The Mourning Is The Dawn Of Our Love, published in Gold Dust Magazine, Issue 14
- Pugs, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 5
- Alex And The Music Box, published in Out Of The Gutter Magazine, Issue 5
- Complications, published in Colored Chalk, Issue 3