It is Christmas morning in Eastland, Texas. The year is 1996. My maternal grandfather and grandmother are still alive. My siblings and cousins and I are sitting in a living room that faces the southern edge of Lake Leon. We are surrounded by innumerable packages, all of them wrapped in shining gossamer paper, piled high…
The Hero Who Stands Before the Flames – A Final Reflection
At the center of a child’s heart there is a pillar upon which they place an indelible marble carving. That pillar is the champion’s perch. Its height stretches beyond cynicism. Time cannot reach its summit. The Champion’s Pillar is unassailable, unbreachable, because a child built it with a child’s imagination from childish hopes and dreams. For the child, the pillar will stand forever, sincere.
America is an Airport
It is a dangerous proposition to wax nostalgic about the American tradition in the 21st century. As a national community, we don’t care much for the company of each other. It’s like we’ve all overstayed our welcome at Thanksgiving, the conversations turned political, the Cowboys lost, and someone dropped Grandma’s seventy-five-year old recipe for mashed…
The Threadbare Prince to be published early 2020.
THE THREADBARE PRINCE is a story about about a war older than any living memory, older than the long-dried ink writ upon any human chronicle. It is populated with stories of honor and betrayal, love and sacrifice. It is a contemporary fantasy tale that draws the strings across the first notes of an empire of song.
Sidebar: All That Love Inside You
It is not self-aggrandizing to say, nor is it meant to be boastful, when I tell you that I have a deep and abiding love for you. If we’ve known each other for years and consider ourselves thick as thieves, or if you befriended me just because we met a long time ago, I want…
The Massacre at Yellow Hill Wins 2018 PenCraft Award
I am really happy today to announce that my novel THE MASSACRE AT YELLOW HILL has won the 2018 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence in Supernatural Fiction. I’d like to openly thank Rob Bass and Brad Ellison, to whom the book is dedicated. Rob, especially for his hard work in editing the book. Thanks to Laird Barron for providing a…
Author's Reviews – The Massacre at Yellow Hill
Thanks so much to the Author’s Reviews for reading THE MASSACRE AT YELLOW HILL. They loved it! Humble shows great talent for writing scary, creepy stories that might make it a bit hard to sleep when the lights flick off. His storytelling is polished and moves along nicely. If you are looking for a scary…
THE MASSACRE AT YELLOW HILL REVIEWED BY THIS IS HORROR
“Therein lies the ultimate strength of this fine debut; Humble’s ability to inject his characters with life… They leap from the page in this action-packed, character-driven slice of weird horror.” Thanks so much to Thomas at This is Horror for reviewing the Massacre at Yellow Hill. Read, enjoy, share! http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-the-massacre-at-yellow-hill-by-c-s-humble/
Waiting on Luke Skywalker
My grandmother introduced me to Luke Skywalker when I was nine years old. We lived in Snyder, Texas, a sun-blistered West Texas town that served as my very own Tatooine. I’ve told the story a hundred times, and I’ll happily tell it a hundred more even to the people who’ve heard it before—The story of…
In Thinking of America
Parasitic fear has latched itself to the heart of the United States of America. There was once an idea, or at least the dream of an idea, that American’s could trust one another if for only the sole reason that all of us share a liberated homeland. This mostly unspoken virtue runs through the consciousness…