Hey all, sorry, this event is JAM-PACKED! RSVPs closed! We’ll think about doing another one, once we get through this one. In the meantime, the book releases Tues, Feb 10, so you can come grab a copy and embark on your own magical Journeys.
Friday the 13th, and the day before Valentine’s day.
What better day to gather and celebrate the launch of Stanza’s new novella, DEMON LOVER WITCH, a dark fantasy set right here in Beacon.
We’ll talk magic systems and the first ten spells HEKATE ever taught her kind.
We’ll contemplate the deep and distant realms accessible to our truest and innermost selves.
Then, Mark will partner with musician Tamalyn Miller to lead us on inner Journeys through the book’s ancient landscapes. Powered by words and sound.
About the book:
DEMON LOVER WITCH
Two demons seduce a Witch, and reveal a mortal enemy.
Present-day. Beacon, NY. Carmilla and Vladimir are Gallu demons. Together for eons, their love eternal, they’ve been persecuted, hanged, beaten, and burned. Finally, they learn to live among humans. But human life is so, so boring. The spark is gone. So they prey on small Hudson Valley towns, seducing sexy couples, and devouring them after. It’s simple fun and it works. Their romance is rekindled.
Then, they meet the mysterious bookseller, Sahira. They seduce her like the rest, but the very act reveals her to be a mortal enemy. For Sahira’s veins run with the blood of the Witch. Most people think of Witch as an occupation. But Witches are powerful beings, created by the goddess Hekate at the dawn of time, for one purpose: destroying Gallu demons.
Unaware of her heritage, Sahira seeks enlightenment, power, something she feels deep inside, but cannot express. Until her new lovers show her a world of magic and myth, and awaken the Witch inside.
Carmilla’s lust turns to obsession. Vladimir’s fear turns to terror. A tragic threesome unfolds across space and time, from the modern-day Hudson Valley, to the primordial shores of their forebears.
I wrote this book in 2024, and it was edited and designed in 2025. I’m quite proud of how it came out and excited to share it with the world. Whether you’re a writer in our community, a book club member, or just someone who buys books with us, I’d love to see you at this event.
We’re working on evolving our events in 2026. We started this in 2025 with Sam Rebelein’s turn as conspiracy-board-obsessed professor at Cirque du Creep, then with Matthew Mercier’s one-man POE show, accented by immersive audio by Harlan Guthrie.
So I’m excited to partner with musician Tamalyn Miller for this launch, and take y’all on some magical inner Journeys, that will underline the book’s themes, and help place you in the characters’ shoes. If you know Tamalyn, you know she’s no stranger to making magic with sound.
Mark Harris
Mark is a writer, experience designer, and co-owner of Stanza Books. As a writer, Mark has written plays, interactive stories, audio dramas, and one novel. As an experience designer and creative technologist, Mark has worked on immersive installations, museums, and corporate environments around the world.
Tamalyn Miller
Words are immaterial, yet they have a primal capacity to conjure, to call into existence. I play with this paradox, creating objects, installations and performances that arise from and inform numinous original texts. Drawing upon diverse cultural sources and periods, I blend residues of ancient systems with contemporary perspectives and forms. Through observation and research, often with a focus on the natural world, I distill complex phenomena into otherworldly texts, objects, and music that suggest recovered artifacts or rites charged with mysterious powers and functions. My work hovers at junctures: the threshold between spirit and materiality for instance, or the emergence of meaning from transrationality.
