exclusive metastellar serialization
By E. E. King
Serialization began on Feb. 27, 2024
Interview with author E.E. King
MetaStellar editor Sophie Gorjance sat down for a chat with author E.E. King about her new novel “Gods and Monsters,” which we are serializing online.
King penned much of this supernatural tale while living in a tiny Mexican town practically overflowing with magic and signs from the universe.
Part history lesson, part fantasy, part mythology – King loves to drop in real locations and historical figures for added flavor.
The fusion of literary fiction and magical realism explores destiny and the human psyche. Does fate control our future? Do our beliefs shape reality? Unravel the mystery one installment at a time … coming February 27, 2024.
Praise for E.E. King
“Impish and delightful, a hilarious Zagat’s guide to heaven!”
— Ray Bradbury on Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
“I’ve been going at it in chunks and fangfuls, finding it more than acceptable. Anyone who takes on Scientologists is okay by me, kid.”
— Harlan Ellison on Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
“A fantastical, profound, hilarious and rollicking good ride through the heavens and hells of the Afterlife! A wonderful book.”
— Margaret Cho on Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
“This is the most delightful book this reviewer has read in a while…”
— The New York Journal of Books on Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
“E.E. King is a unique talent whose glittering gems of fiction pack a lot into a small space. Her work combines the O. Henry twist with the poetry and mystery of Ray Bradbury.”
— Connie Martinson Talks Books on Real Conversations with Imaginary Friends
”Deliciously funny and heart-wrenching ..”
— LA Weekly on Real Conversations with Imaginary Friends
All installments
Gods and Monsters Installment 1: Wherein we meet the three Fates
Reading Time: 7 minutes My love affairs ever end thus. I always long for them to turn out differently. It’s so disheartening. If only I didn’t fall in love so often with these warm-blooded vessels of nutrition. I constantly swear I’ll convert, become a celibate bloodsucker, a monastic mosquito, a vamp nun. But then I see some sun-glazed man smelling of day, and it begins again.
Gods and Monsters Installment 2: Beginnings of River and Gabriel
Reading Time: 8 minutes Gabriel is much more unusual than a virgin birth. Granted, human virgin birth is miraculous, but in many species of fish, lizards, insects, and sharks, virgin birth is the norm. It is helpful to remember that a miracle is not necessarily good, it is simply unnatural.
Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths
Reading Time: 7 minutes At eighteen, when Gabriel leaves the orphanage, the sisters breathe a sigh of relief. He has never been any trouble. Never talked back; indeed, rarely talked at all. He is obedient, clean, and scentless. The nuns can find no fault in him, but neither can they feel affection. He makes them forget Christ and contemplate Gabriel. He induces guilt. His very silence screams for attention. He is a shadow in the soul.
Gods and Monsters Installment 4: Club Vamp
Reading Time: 5 minutes Gabriel arrives in San Francisco at dusk. He’s dropped off in the Tenderloin by a man desperate to be rid of him. Gabriel’s presence in his car is like the scent of mortality.
Gods and Monsters Installment 5: Hotel Tail Gate
Reading Time: 6 minutes A week after Gabriel moves in, Kristjan leaps from the window. He hangs in the air, twisting for a moment like an autumn leaf, before falling thirteen floors to the hard, hard pavement.
Gods and Monsters Installment 6: Wild Animals in the Halls of Learning
Reading Time: 7 minutes River is strong, nimble and has the element of surprise. Brian and Tom lie back on damp earth, as if sleeping. River kicks Chip’s face. All of his rage and disappointment, all his sorrow and fear explode in righteous anger.
Gods and Monsters Installment 7: Heaven Can Wait
Reading Time: 8 minutes Chip, Tom, and Brian are never found, or at least not most of them. There are only remnants: a stray finger, a discarded shoe with a foot still inside… Only one entire body is discovered amidst the carnage. It is that of an unknown man, naked and unmarked, save for a hole through his heart.
Gods and Monsters Installment 8: Sweet Dreams are Made of These
Reading Time: 6 minutes He has found a gift. The kitchen, which at home smelled of disappointment and lost hope, is now a place of amelioration. But when the full moon rises, he hears the night call his name. It sounds like fear. It smells like nightmare. It tastes like death. He departs with the sun.
Gods and Monsters Installment 9: Jo-Jo’s
Reading Time: 9 minutes From his booth inside the club, Gabriel sees her spinning on the dance floor, beautiful as a fallen star, deadly as the arsenic hidden inside the seed of a perfect apple.
Gods and Monsters Installment 10: Bucket Orchid
Reading Time: 6 minutes “It sounds,” River says, “like the orchid is smarter than the bee.” He considers. “I’d still rather be a bee though; I’d like to be able to fly.”
Gods and Monsters Installment 11: Cool Grey City of Love
Reading Time: 6 minutes San Francisco has a wealth of vampires. The city calls to them. Perhaps it is the early morning fog that keeps the sun from their flesh a bit longer than most places. Perhaps it is the nightlife. Perhaps it is the dearth of werewolves, who tend toward more rural haunts. Or maybe they just feel at home in the cool, grey city of love.
Gods and Monsters Installment 12: The Mystic Eye
Reading Time: 8 minutes When he leaves Bert’s in the wee hours before first light, River feels extremely foolish, but warmer and happier than he can remember. Huck lands on his shoulder, squawking loudly. He complains noisily the entire walk home.
Gods and Monsters Installment 13: Consequences
Reading Time: 8 minutes At 2:00 am, there are no children about. The police still on duty are sleeping in their cars or hunching over coffee in all-night dives. Even the homeless are asleep, huddled in doorways under blankets of cardboard and crumbled newspaper. But as River walks past, the scent of the sweets weaves into their dreams and makes them smile. Some dream of a time they’d been full of hope. Others live for a while inside illusions, as knights on horseback, or sprouting vast shimmering wings to rise above the city and soar.
Gods and Monsters Installment 14: Queer Beer
Reading Time: 9 minutes Suddenly, something hard and strong strikes his back, knocking the wind from him, propelling him onto the ground. He thrashes wildly. Two needle sharp spikes pierce his neck. A warm, sensuous peace floods over him. He smiles and despite the beard, looks momentarily like a small happy child.
Gods and Monsters Installment 15: The Dog Star
Reading Time: 9 minutes Sometimes, from my prison cell, when the time of year was right and the night was clear, I could see Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Many ancient cultures thought of it as a dog, or a wolf. For me, it was a beacon of hope between the bars. Just one light in the night sky, so bright it looked like a searchlight.
Gods and Monsters Installment 16: Red
Reading Time: 7 minutes Gabriel awakes to his monotone world. The white sun is reaching fingers through the twisted roots of orchids. As Gabriel looks toward the light, he sees that a flower’s throat is freckled deep crimson. On the table, a cigarette paper is dark red. Everywhere, the world is streaked, stained, and tinted.
Gods and Monsters Installment 17: Moirai Mechanics
Reading Time: 7 minutes “Where did you get the gun, River?” Jackson asks. River looks down. His right hand is wrapped around a cold black gun.
Gods and Monsters Installment 18: We Are The Stuff That Genes Are Made Of
Reading Time: 8 minutes He awoke at dawn, sore and scratched. His mouth, clothes, and limbs were covered with gore. His clothes were in tatters. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, trying to remember.
Gods and Monsters Installment 19: Lonely Journeys
Reading Time: 7 minutes I drove that ancient pick-up all the way out into the Catskill Mountains. Even after that trek, that good old Ford was running strong. Still is. I rented a place out in the woods about ten miles from Greene Village, New York. It was tiny; just bed, bath, and stove, but I didn’t need more.
Gods and Monsters Installment 20: The Love Song of the Mole Cricket
Reading Time: 5 minutes Mr. Jones appears to have been mauled by a wild animal. His body shows evidence of teeth marks and claw marks. The wounds are uncommon.
Gods and Monsters Installment 21: Out of Dust – The Lenni Lenape
Reading Time: 8 minutes Out of the earth, up through the floor, dust rises. It clings together, forming a translucent woman. She is brown as earth. Her face is worn. Her eyes are shadows in the night. Red paint dots her cheeks and ears. Her hair is made of darkness, the part decorated by a circle of crimson. “I am Amimi, matriarch of the Lenni Lenape,” she says.
Gods and Monsters Installment 22: Delicate Dust
Reading Time: 6 minutes In the mornings, if he wakes beside the dust of a beautiful stranger, he knows he’s drained the world of a bit of color, a bit of beauty, however deadly.
book cover art Time lapse
E.E. King isn’t just an author — she is also an award-winning painter whose art has been collected internationally. She’s painted murals in California, Mexico, Spain, and Italy, and shown paintings at the LA Contemporary Museum of Art.
She painted the artwork that was used for the cover of Gods and Monsters.
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A Vampire Novel Like No Other: E.E. King on Mixing History and Dark Fantasy
Gods and Monsters cover art painting time lapse
Gods and Monsters Installment 1: Wherein we meet the three Fates
Gods and Monsters Installment 2: Beginnings of River and Gabriel
Gods and Monsters Installment 3: Music and Moths
Gods and Monsters Installment 4: Club Vamp
Gods and Monsters Installment 5: Hotel Tail Gate
Gods and Monsters Installment 6: Wild Animals in the Halls of Learning
Gods and Monsters Installment 7: Heaven Can Wait
Gods and Monsters Installment 8: Sweet Dreams are Made of These
Gods and Monsters Installment 9: JoJo’s
Gods and Monsters Installment 10: Bucket Orchid
Gods and Monsters Installment 11: Cool Grey City of Love
Gods and Monsters Installment 12: The Mystic Eye
Gods and Monsters Installment 13: Consequences
Gods and Monsters Installment 14: Queer Beer
Gods and Monsters Installment 15: The Dog Star
Gods and Monsters Installment 16: Red
Gods and Monsters Installment 17: Moirai Mechanics
Gods and Monsters Installment 18: We Are The Stuff That Genes Are Made Of
Gods and Monsters Installment 19: Lonely Journey
Gods and Monsters Installment 20: The Love Song of the Mole Cricket
Gods and Monsters Installment 21: Out of Dust – The Lenni Lenape
Gods and Monsters Installment 22: Delicate Dust
other works by E. E. King
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