Moonstone Presents:
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The Beast in the Pines: A Horror Novel Launch Party
The Beast in the Pines: A Horror Novel – Launch Party
Wednesday June 11, 2025 – 7pm
Live at Ferge’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street
In October of 2003, a 19 year old named Cody considers joining the Army to fight in the Iraq War so that he can escape the boredom of small town Woodville, New Jersey. He finds a mysterious book that a strange man leaves behind at his mother’s job. The book is about the Jersey Devil, a legendary demonic creature that haunts the Pine Barrens, a desolate wilderness that spans the middle of the state. The book inspires Cody to explore the Pine Barrens in search of the Jersey Devil. What he ends up finding changes his perception of reality. The Beast in the Pines is a disturbing novel that delves deep into the human psyche and bridges the gap between the psychological and supernatural horror genres.
Sean W. Lynch is a writer and editor who lives in Philadelphia. He is the author of five books of poetry including, the city of your mind, Broad Street Line, 100 Haiku, On Violence, and Halo Nest: Poems on Grief. He has been the editor of various magazines, journals, anthologies, and books, including Rocky Wilson’s The Last Bus to Camden, Chidi Ezeobi’s Remind the World: Poems from Prison, and Beyond the White Stone Lions by Lamont Steptoe. He’s worked for non-profit organizations such as Moonstone Arts Center and the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association.
C.A. Bryson is living in South Philly and has written pieces focusing on working-class issues, which have been featured in Whirlwind Press, Toho Journal, The Industrial Worker, Castlejackle, Weird Visions Society, and Bohemians FC Matchday Program. He previously contributed to a monthly labor organizing bulletin for the Teamsters Airline Division. He has a self-published chapbook which was released in 2020.
J Johnson (JJ, they/them) is the author of Janky Materiality: Artifice & Interface (punctum books, 2025), The Book / Or / The Woods (punctum books, 2021), and Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics (punctum books, 2018). JJ co-edits the horror poetics journal Cul-de-sac of Blood, is a staff writer at MovieJawn, and lives in Philadelphia.