Praise for
Scott Nicolay
“Remember when you first read the stories of Clive Barker, or T.E.D. Klein, or Thomas Ligotti, or John Shirley, or Dennis Etchison, or David J. Schow, or Lucy Taylor, or Caitlin Keirnan, or Michael Shea, or Melanie Tem, and realized you were in the presence of a major talent in modern horror? I got the same feeling reading Nicolay. He steers clear of stock monsters and tropes of the horror genre. His fiction is clear-sighted, hard-edged, realistic, Raymond Carver-like. . .”
— Dead Reckonings
“Nicolay’s punch is grim and honest, his horizons vast, alluring, and keenly attuned to what unfurls in our darkest dreams.”
—Joseph S. Pulver, Sr, author of Blood Will Have Its Season
“Nicolay lays claim to the attention of everyone interested in the future of weird fiction, and his claim is a strong one indeed.”
—John Langan, author of The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
“Scott Nicolay is consistently one of the most exciting and original voices in modern weird fiction. His prose is exquisite, inventive, savage, and chilling, without being beholden to pulp-era titans. This is Weird Literature, circa now.”
—Ross E. Lockhart, editor of Cthulhu Fhtagn! and The Children of Old Leech
“We are not in the presence of a callow and bullish youth, but a man of erudition and experience. Nicolay is one who has seen much, endured much, has undergone prolonged pressure and the result is a diamond among stones.”
—Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
“Nicolay’s writing is clean-limbed, not a shred of rococco excess on it. Poetry and the demotic mix well in his prose. He expertly delivers clues and foreshadowings and backstory tidbits attendant upon his enigmas and frights without hammering the reader over the head with gore or hyperbole. His characters are engrossing, if often repellant, his plotting assured, and his venues enticingly nasty.”
— Locus
“Scott Nicolay is a writer in the tradition of modern practitioners of the weird such as Mark Samuels, Terry Lamsley, and Laird Barron. He gives us the unease of Ligotti with the fluid prose of Clark Ashton Smith. Ana Kai Tangata is a serious contender for best collection of the year.”
—This Is Horror
“The first thing that hits you while reading Scott Nicolay. . . That old black magic that comes with encountering great weird fiction for the first time.”
—Crows N’ Bones
Noctuidae
SCOTT NICOLAY
A KING SHOT BOOK
Portland | Athens
FIRST KING SHOT PRESS EDITION
King Shot Press
P.O. Box 80601
Portland, OR 97280
Copyright © 2016 by Scott Nicolay
Cover design copyright © 2016 Matthew Revert
www.matthewrevert.com
Interior layout by Michael Kazepis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written consent of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Where the names of actual celebrities or corporate entities appear, they are used for fictional purposes and do not constitute assertions of fact. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-9972518-1-4
Printed in the United States of America
Scott Nicolay was born in New Jersey but now lives in the desert where he keeps a garden and a rather large library. As a teacher, he and his students co-founded the New Mexico Youth Poetry Slam and the National Youth Poetry Slam. Ana Kai Tangata , his first book of weird horror tales, was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 2014. His story “Do You Like To Look at Monsters?” won the
Scott Nicolay
“Remember when you first read the stories of Clive Barker, or T.E.D. Klein, or Thomas Ligotti, or John Shirley, or Dennis Etchison, or David J. Schow, or Lucy Taylor, or Caitlin Keirnan, or Michael Shea, or Melanie Tem, and realized you were in the presence of a major talent in modern horror? I got the same feeling reading Nicolay. He steers clear of stock monsters and tropes of the horror genre. His fiction is clear-sighted, hard-edged, realistic, Raymond Carver-like. . .”
— Dead Reckonings
“Nicolay’s punch is grim and honest, his horizons vast, alluring, and keenly attuned to what unfurls in our darkest dreams.”
—Joseph S. Pulver, Sr, author of Blood Will Have Its Season
“Nicolay lays claim to the attention of everyone interested in the future of weird fiction, and his claim is a strong one indeed.”
—John Langan, author of The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
“Scott Nicolay is consistently one of the most exciting and original voices in modern weird fiction. His prose is exquisite, inventive, savage, and chilling, without being beholden to pulp-era titans. This is Weird Literature, circa now.”
—Ross E. Lockhart, editor of Cthulhu Fhtagn! and The Children of Old Leech
“We are not in the presence of a callow and bullish youth, but a man of erudition and experience. Nicolay is one who has seen much, endured much, has undergone prolonged pressure and the result is a diamond among stones.”
—Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
“Nicolay’s writing is clean-limbed, not a shred of rococco excess on it. Poetry and the demotic mix well in his prose. He expertly delivers clues and foreshadowings and backstory tidbits attendant upon his enigmas and frights without hammering the reader over the head with gore or hyperbole. His characters are engrossing, if often repellant, his plotting assured, and his venues enticingly nasty.”
— Locus
“Scott Nicolay is a writer in the tradition of modern practitioners of the weird such as Mark Samuels, Terry Lamsley, and Laird Barron. He gives us the unease of Ligotti with the fluid prose of Clark Ashton Smith. Ana Kai Tangata is a serious contender for best collection of the year.”
—This Is Horror
“The first thing that hits you while reading Scott Nicolay. . . That old black magic that comes with encountering great weird fiction for the first time.”
—Crows N’ Bones
Noctuidae
SCOTT NICOLAY
A KING SHOT BOOK
Portland | Athens
FIRST KING SHOT PRESS EDITION
King Shot Press
P.O. Box 80601
Portland, OR 97280
Copyright © 2016 by Scott Nicolay
Cover design copyright © 2016 Matthew Revert
www.matthewrevert.com
Interior layout by Michael Kazepis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written consent of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Where the names of actual celebrities or corporate entities appear, they are used for fictional purposes and do not constitute assertions of fact. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
ISBN 978-0-9972518-1-4
Printed in the United States of America
Scott Nicolay was born in New Jersey but now lives in the desert where he keeps a garden and a rather large library. As a teacher, he and his students co-founded the New Mexico Youth Poetry Slam and the National Youth Poetry Slam. Ana Kai Tangata , his first book of weird horror tales, was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 2014. His story “Do You Like To Look at Monsters?” won the
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