iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

“She was lean and angular, five feet, six inches tall, and built like a knife that unfolds.”

Jonathan Ames’s novel A PAST WITHOUT PICTURES

C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Already Dave’s grief was charging the room, changing the feeling in it. Being beside him was like being next to a spitting power line.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Having just finished two seasons, and it being nearly Halloween, may I humbly recommend The Terror to y’all? Season One is a stone-cold masterpiece. Season Two might be a little disjointed at times, but it’s unnerving, thematically richer than its predecessor, and even more emotionally engaging.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Folks, if you love gothic horror fiction, you can’t do better than HAIL HOLY QUEENS by Chris McGinley. A skillfully written tale of a convent of nuns who battle a horde of demonic creatures, becoming their fully realized, ass-kicking selves in the process. Tense, funny, and gory in equal measure.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“This guy, it was fair to say, was deader than a Texas salad bar.”

Ron Currie’s novel WE WILL SEE YOU BLEED

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“What was the .purpose of getting upset at life’s fickle randomness? You sure weren’t going to change anything. Have a drink, have a laugh. Watch the clown show.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

“Each one of us is trapped in our own skull, alone at the center of all creation. Even when we’re with those we love. All we can really do is decide to love them anyway, even if we have no clue who they are.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

“The poet, his window, and his poems are creatures of the shore that the river gnaws, dissolves, and carries away. He is a tree of a sort, rooted in the dark, aspiring to the light, dependent on both.”

The great poet Wendell Berry, leaning against the bed of a truck with a dog in the background.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

“To multiply the years and divide by the will to live is a kind of false accounting. We’ll keep track of this little rill, of tying on fresh tippet and the tufty fly, and we’ll blow on it for luck. Of this cast and the next. And if we ourselves are lucky, it will add up to nightfall.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Tonight’s viewing. A generous and altogether lovely film.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Navajo Nation and Lower Antelope Canyon.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Slot canyon in Utah. Unlike anything I’ve seen before.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

“Marie had told me that the average lifespan for a man on our rez was just forty-seven years, compared to seventy-five just across the border in Todd County. I wondered if Natives burned faster and brighter, our lives arcing across a span that we couldn’t see and could only dimly comprehend.”

Cover of David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s novel WISDOM CORNER

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Over the past few days, I’ve discovered that it’s possible to be highly, highly impressed by a film’s craft and yet feel absolutely nothing after leaving the theater. No thoughts or ideas that linger in my head. No particular character or moment I keep coming back to. Strange.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“The Odyssey” translator Emily Wilson didn’t care for Nolan’s adaptation. Here she is going in for the kill. This shall, henceforth, be the primary metric by which I judge films.

“There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I’m sorry, is Mads Mikkelsen coaching the Swiss team?

Murat Yakin looking an awful lot like Mads.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Get in, losers. We’re going book signing.

Stack of THE ONES IN THE CORNER on a table at the Newnan Book Co.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

“But this was how life was. People break or are broken. You’re surrounded by their pieces.”

Cover of Adam Plantinga’s novel THE ASCENT

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Me when the cinnamon roll tube says “press here.”

A still shot from “The Hurt Locker”: Jeremy Renner in his bomb suit.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

South metro Atlanta friends! You can find me signing books at Newnan Book Co on Friday July 10 from 4-6pm.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Tonight’s viewing. A chilling, anxiety-inducing piece of work. So meticulously crafted, every frame matters and every line of dialogue counts.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Seriously, is there a director with a wider divergence in his/her work than Ben Wheatley? I’m not just talking style and subject matter, I mean quality as well. This film fell sort of in the middle for me. Zany, violent fun with a plot that makes zero sense.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I’m sure Jessie Buckley was great in “Hamnet,” but have you seen her as Nurse Oreatta Mayflower in “Fargo” season 4? Because that shit is terrifying.

Nurse Mayflower in her 1950s nurse outfit.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Newnan Book Company has signed copies of THE ONES IN THE CORNER! And I’ll be signing there on July 10 from 4pm to 6pm. I’d sure love to sell out their inventory. If you’re not in the area, you can also order from them on bookshop.org/p/books/the-....

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The writing is stellar, the performances perfect. But give some love to the unsung star of this marvelous show: David Fleming’s original score. My god, is it great.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

“He had an ordinary, lived-in face that reminded Noland of old socks.” Man, some of the descriptions in this novel have me rolling.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

THE ONES IN THE CORNER is out in the world! If you fancy a strange and violent tour of an Atlanta underworld I totally made up, but probably also existed in some form, check it out. And if you like it, I’d sure appreciate you telling your friends and leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Crime novel of the year, I’d venture.

Jordan Harper’s novel A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

“This long silence. How long since he felt this way, like he was too big for this skin, too clumsy for this life?”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

“He had one of those broad, bland, Protestant faces that were a prerequisite of doing business in that part of the South, a good-old-boy businessman, handsome but not overly so, aging well in the way prosperous men do.”

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I feel like the Australian Tourism Board’s new campaign could use some work.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Last night’s viewing. Vintage Sam Raimi gore and a great performance by Rachel McAdams. But “Triangle of Sadness” did this story way better, IMO.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

A no-shit quarter mile line to sign a petition that, if successful, would force a citizen vote before more data centers can be foisted upon Coweta County. This is just one of several locations across the county. Billionaires want you to accept them as inevitable. The citizenry may have other ideas.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Man, this finale had me all kinds of fucked up.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Breaking: Marty & Elaine have also withdrawn from the Great American State Fair.

From the movie “Swingers”: a woman on keyboard and man on stand-up bass

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Last night’s viewing. A meticulous, thrilling ride that, unlike most Netflix offerings, actually requires you to pay attention. Riz Ahmed does more with his face than most actors managewith reams of dialogue.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

“His hair is the green of a poison toad—the kind that advertises its toxicity. He’s got a black leather jacket, his face smug as a freshly wiped asshole.”

Jordan Harper’s new novel A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Tonight’s viewing. Gorgeously shot. Extremely well acted. Seedy as hell.

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C. Matthew Smith @cmattwrite.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Last blurb to share, this time from one of my favorite noir writers working today: Jonathan Ames. If you don't know his HBO show "Bored to Death," his novella YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, or his series of PI novels featuring Happy Doll, you need to correct that now.

Jonathan Ames says THE ONES IN THE CORNER (out June 17) is "A thrilling work of crime fiction. Hell, any fiction for that matter. Great characters, great writing, and great, heart-pounding action sequences."

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