Donna Lynch

Choking Back the Devil by Donna Lynch is an invocation, an ancient invitation that summons the darkness within and channels those lonely spirits looking for a host. It’s a collection that lives in the realm of ghosts and family curses, witchcraft and urban legends, and if you’re brave enough to peek behind the veil, the hauntings that permeate these pages will break seals and open doorways, cut throats and shatter mirrors. You see, these poems are small drownings, all those subtle suffocations that live in that place between our ribs that swells with panic, incubates fear. Lynch shows her readers that sometimes our shadow selves—our secrets—are our sharpest weapons, the knives that rip through flesh, suture pacts with demons, cut deals with entities looking for more than a homecoming, something better, more intimate than family. It’s about the masks we wear and the reflections we choose not to look at, and what’s most terrifying about the spells is these incantations show that we are the possessed, that we are our greatest monster, and if we look out of the corner of our eyes, sometimes—if we’ve damned ourselves enough—we can catch a glimpse of our own burnings, what monstrosities and mockeries we’re to become. So cross yourselves and say your prayers. Because in this world, you are the witch and the hunter, the girl and the wolf. "Lynch mixes in childhood fables with waking nightmares, the result is electrifying; sometimes in a few razor sharp words; sometimes in longer numbered verses counting down the cycle of a damaged life. The silent cries of souls tormented to healthiness by pills and poultices, force fed by imperfect humans, echo in the silhouette of these poems. I smiled at the shadows unexpectedly delivered by her words, as will you." —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend and HWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner "This collection is not for the chronically disturbed, as fear is doled out in terse, potent portions. I got the shivers reading these unsettling poems."—Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winner, SFPA Grand Master Poet "Choking Back the Devil is unlike any other poetry collection you've ever read. Donna Lynch crafts beautifully terrifying worlds, packed with dense imagery and horrifying yet lush details. This collection will get your blood racing even as it breaks your heart." —Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens "Some dark poets use their verse as a means to exorcise their demons. Lynch instead embraces her torment, nurtures it, and transforms it into equal parts hideous and heavenly. With a mix of wicked wit, carnal fury, and commentary that has sharpened its fangs to drain you until you’re left with nothing but despair, Choking Back the Devil is essential sustenance for harrowed souls." —Chad Stroup, author of Secrets of the Weird and Sexy Leper

Choking Back the Devil

This book is merely a record of dark events, the kind that you can sometimes move on from, yet can't help but see in every old house, high school, or crumbling bridge. In the county, eerie stillness can be mistaken for stagnation. In the county, rumination on pain and guilt can be confused with omens and curses. In the county, feelings of claustrophobia stem from understanding what the encroaching darkness brings with it. You've heard of country girls, and city girls, but what of the forgotten girls from the in-between space of the county? Confronting the things too wild for urban areas, and too methodically malevolent for the countryside, girls from the county are often dismissed by popular narratives, left to solve riddles of grief and rage for themselves. Known for weaving folk horror with confessional poetry, unflinching true crime approaches with myth and fable, contemporary appetites with gothic literature, award-winning author Donna Lynch has composed a lyrical reconstruction for readers to navigate the lives-and deaths-of girls from the county.

Girls From the County

As a young woman raised in the soot-covered mediocrity of an English industrial town, Isabel has led a common and directionless life. Secretly she yearns to be the center of something, anything, that is momentous and vital. She dreams of making marks on the world. Her new job as housekeeper at Grace mansion is hardly exciting but does surround her with the accouterments of aristocratic lineage while allowing her to observe the habits of the enigmatic Dr. Edward Grace. Captivated by his tales of travel to Africa, Isabel is inexorably drawn into a tumultuous relationship which eventually reveals the Grace family's dark heritage and lays bare every secret, even the ones she keeps from herself.

Isabel Burning

Steven Archer and Donna Lynch collaborate once again for a collection of illustrated poems and short stories about witches--some familiar and some secret; some based in history and lore, and some manifested directly from the minds of their creators. This 7″ by 10″, full-color art book includes more than 30 poems and paintings and is the sequel to Daughters of Lilith, their collaborative work released in 2010.

Witches

Steven Archer

"And when it was done, these beautiful monsters, children, serpents, killers, lovers, and mothers became our new saints and sisters. And, as we would quickly learn, they were also the daughters of the original libertine-the first beautiful monster-Lilith." -From the Introduction Daughters of Lilith is a collaboration between poet Donna Lynch and artist Steven Archer. This 7" by 10," full-color art book includes more than 25 poems and 50 paintings dedicated to all types of women, from the muse to the murderess.

Daughters of Lilith

At an annual summer's party, Allyson Porteus met charming Kyle Riker, and she soon began an affair with him. But when Janice Caldwell, his prominent and wealthy wife, learned of this, she had plans of her own, quickly ending the romance. When Allyson meets real estate attorney Marc Kelsey, she embarks on a new friendship that slowly develops. Kyle, however, attempts to rekindle his romance with her and Allyson cannot keep herself from falling under his spell once more. She dreams of a future with her baby's father; she yearns for the three of them to live as a family. But when Allyson finds her best friend, Felicia, in bed with Kyle, her dreams are finally destroyed. And, Marc is always there for her, despite her confusion and obstacles. Allyson realizes that Marc is the man with whom she'll truly find happiness. When Kyle is suddenly hospitalized, however, everything rapidly changes, and Allyson faces the most difficult decisions of her life.

Donna Lynch

About

Books

Join the club