Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

C. Matthew Smith

@cmattwrite.bsky.social

890 followers 800 following 2.8K posts

Old with wandering. Probably sore from it, too. Author of TWENTYMILE (“taut, page-turning”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution). THE ONES IN THE CORNER forthcoming from Winding Road Stories. www.cmattsmithwrites.com.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · Nov 8

“TWENTYMILE is packed with everything I love: A strong, female character; a wilderness setting; gripping storytelling; masterful writing.” —Diane Les Becquets, author of BREAKING WILD

“a taut, page-turning thriller” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

www.latahbooks.com/blank-1/twen...

Twentymile | Latah Books

Book Description When wildlife biologist Alex Lowe is found dead inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it looks on the surface like a suicide. But Tsula Walker, Special Agent with the National P...

www.latahbooks.com

9 18

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 8h

Oh HELL yes.

NO OTHER CHOICE - Official Trailer - In Select Theaters December 25

YouTube video by NEON

m.youtube.com

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 9h

I’m just saying, that dinosaur was FEELING it.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 18h

#WarRavagedPortland

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 1d

“He thought of Jenna and how they’d met at that crowded downtown party all those years ago, how those first few months together were like driving the fastest car ever built—only the car had no brakes or headlights, and the only way out was through the windshield.”

Cover of CW Blackwell’s collection WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN

2 5

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 1d

Lawyers in possession of client funds have to keep those funds in a separate account so they’re always there and not diminished by the law firm’s finances. I’d think a publisher who did the same—kept royalties separate from business accounts—would inspire an awful lot of confidence in their writers.

Beau Johnson 🇨🇦 🪓 @beaujohnson44.bsky.social · 1d

Do not buy my books from Amazon or Down and Out Books directly. I will not get paid. I should get paid, as per my contract, but in an email from D&O I’ve been told ‘no further payments will be issued.’
It absolutely blows it is ending this way, but man, pay your authors what they are owed.

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 1d

I was in one of the Mickey Finn volumes and hate to think of all the anthologies that now won’t be put out.

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 1d

Polis before that. The indie options are shrinking.

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 1d

As a writer and lover of crime fiction, this makes me very sad. Support your small presses, people.

Notice from Down & Out Books of its imminent closure.

2 8

Reposted by C. Matthew Smith

Rock and a Hard Place @rhppress.bsky.social · 2d

The past clings to us, but only if we let it. Don't miss October's STONE'S THROW story "Like Silver" by Derek Alan Jones. Read it here: bit.ly/4gUnanB

ST3.10 | "Like Silver" — Rock and a Hard Place Press

Sometimes, we're trapped by the memories of our past loved ones. Sometimes they get trapped too.

bit.ly

2 3

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 2d

I did not think there was a team I despised more than the Florida Gators, but the noise I made when I saw this score says otherwise. #GoDawgs

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 2d

Ain’t no way I’d be confessing that to nobody.

1 1 2

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 3d

There’s no reforming this. The rot is too deep. Scrap it all, fire everyone. Hold people accountable.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 4d

A WILD ONE: A man broke his leg during an arrest by ICE at a car wash south of L.A.

ICE has held him under 24/7 guard at a hospital, registering him under a pseudonym, for *37 days* without telling him why.

A judge has ordered his immediate release.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 4d

Gunner. Fuckin. Stockton.

a mascot is dancing in a stadium with the words go dawgs written on the bottom

Alt: a mascot is dancing in a stadium with the words go dawgs written on the bottom

media.tenor.com

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 4d

Y’all, I cannot overstate how good a collection this is. Get it.

Rock and a Hard Place @rhppress.bsky.social · 4d

AVAILABLE NOW from @rhppress.bsky.social: Read what @meaganlucas.bsky.social says about WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN--stories of heartbreak and hope from Derringer Award winner @cwblackwell.bsky.social. Don't miss picking up this collection. Order your copy today: amzn.to/4nQ5bl7

3 6

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 5d

I don’t understand what they want hospitals and physicians to do. EMTALA requires them to assess and stabilize everyone, regardless of ability to pay. This money goes to the hospitals to help defray costs of supplies, equipment, etc. Do they just want providers to eat it?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d

REPORTER: US law already prohibits giving healthcare to illegal immigrants

LEAVITT: Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens?

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 5d

A great interview with one of my favorite working writers. The Happy Doll series and YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE are fantastic modern noirs.

Frank Reardon @frank212.bsky.social · 5d

Next up in my all of 2025 interview series is with the fantastic Jonathan Ames. Author of books such as YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (made into a film by Lynne Ramsay.) He also wrote the fantastic HAPPY DOLL series
@jonathanames.bsky.social

Click on the link to read

mrbullbull.com/newbull/the-...

Reposted by C. Matthew Smith

C.B. Bernard @cbbernard.com · 6d

Fun interview with Ali Karim for Shots magazine. We had a wide ranging conversation in which I out myself as a weirdo and shill for @pazsays.bsky.social and @ginphillips.bsky.social, because their books are amazing. Check it out at wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

The Bear Necessities: C.B. Bernard talks to Shots Magazine

Book reviewers can tell you how exciting it is to discover a novel that is ‘different’, that engages the mind and makes one contemplate, p...

wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.com

1 2 6

Reposted by C. Matthew Smith

Bobby Mathews @bamawriter.bsky.social · 6d

If you're in the #BHM — that's Birmingham, Ala-damn-bama — area on October 19, I'll be reading some of my short fiction and talking about what inspires me in this city. Come see me at the Hoover Public Library! Event is free and open to the public. :-)

1 11 18

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 7d

Y’all, I fuckin love this novel. Get. It.

Kirsti MacKenzie @keersteemack.bsky.social · 7d

Proud to share this today. Coming November 2025 from @sweettrashpress.bsky.social / @houseofvladpress.bsky.social

1 1 4

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 7d

Poster for my novelette, THIRD-YEAR PRACTICE, in the MYOPIC DUPLICITY anthology.

2 1

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 7d

A’ight, people. The anthology’s audiobook is available TODAY on Audible. I’m super proud of the job Megan Tusing did narrating my novelette, “Third-Year Practice.” Get on this anthology. Eighteen long crime stories total, like an advent calendar of people’s worst impulses.

Myopic Duplicity

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Power, conspiracy, loyalty, manipulation, and betrayal. Justice and revenge driven by anger, depression, loss. Compromise, jeopardy, fortitude, and redempti...

www.audible.com

1 4 3

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 7d

Oh shit. That dictionary goes hard.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 7d

Tucker Carlson and Russia.
Dennis Rodman and N. Korea.
Will we never learn?

1 3

Reposted by C. Matthew Smith

Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 8d

If you hate Bad Bunny and aren’t too clear on his citizenship…wow, do I have a novel for you! Boricua to the core. Taíno blood in its heart. Full of history and anticolonialism. Angry as fuck. Dark and full of magic. Bilingüe y sabrosa. Come learn…

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316...

4 22 140

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 8d

“In a shallow bay he saw a broken-down dock, silvered by weather and leaning over its own reflection, puzzling itself out at the end of days.”

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 8d

One way you know Mother Nature approves of Halloween is that right about October she starts dropping these creepy fruit brains (aka Osage oranges). An earnest contributions to spooky season.

A light green fruit with ridges like a brain lies in the gutter.

2 2