About the Book
The young poet Ashley Dioses has already established herself as a leading voice in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of rhyme and meter, her deft melding of the strange and the erotic, and her novel treatments of such age-old themes as the vampire, the witch, and the ghoul, Dioses now gathers the best of her recent poetry into her first collection--a scintillating assemblage of nearly 100 poems short and long, published and unpublished.
With this single volume, Ashley Dioses takes her place as a worthy successor to the long line of California Romantics, beginning with Ambrose Bierce, Clark Ashton Smith, and Nora May French, and carrying on with Donald Sidney-Fryer and K. A. Opperman (The Crimson Tome), with whom she has worked closely.
Ashley Dioses is a poet from Southern California whose work has appeared widely in print and online venues, including Spectral Realms, Weirdbook, Weird Fiction Review, and HWA Poetry Showcase.
Review :
The title of this collection is spot-on: for if ever there was a sorceress of imagery and language, that poet is the magnificent Ashley Dioses. I am overjoy'd to have this new book in my trembling hand.--W. H. Pugmire
West Coast Romanticism takes a Gothic turn in these richly imagined verses. Crafted in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith and George Sterling -- yet with a fresh, vibrantly female spirit--voices often missing from the dark fantastic speak out clearly. Witch or valkyrie, selkie or sorceress, each has her own story . . . and the right amanuensis. Ashley Dioses delivers an addictive blend of myth, shadow-dream, and pure emotion.--Ann K. Schwader
With incantations both delicate and potent, Dioses' Sorceress teases secrets from the moon and stars, the nightshade and the lily, the creatures of myth and the gilded rogues gallery headed by Lady Bathory. In this exquisite debut, the object of love may be ever-elusive, but the passion it inspires is eternal.--Kyla Lee Ward
From fae to fantastic, from vampires to Valkyries, from Medusa, moons and maenads, from ghouls and graveyards to selkies and sirens, Ashley Dioses' weird poetry, in sonnet, rondel and other forms, runs the gamut of hellish themes. This first collection by a young weird poet proves her a mistress of sorcerous sensuality, weaving a witchery of words that will captivate and enchant.--Leigh Blackmore
Dioses has conjured a collection in the style of C.A. Smith, yet with a fresh perspective that works so well. Her "dark diary" expands as we go. A remarkable collection, recommended!--Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winner
Ashley Dioses' poetry collection sings with a classical style that's accessible, not dated. Each of the four entry sections in this Diary of a Sorceress delivers a different version of magical beings, fantastic creatures, desire and blood offerings. The poems unwind like spells, seducing the reader with beautifully formed language. Flowers fill shadowy nights with scents of death and struggling life pressed between pages, withered, yet fragrant. Come dream a dreamer's dream of longing with Dioses.--Linda D. Addison, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author
Here for your delectation, youthful passionate lyric verses of darkness and dread, the greater number of them having a surprisingly upbeat tone as though Love in the key of Gloom means eternal romance, if not High Fetish.--Jessica Amanda Salmonson, author of Anthony Shriek
With Diary of a Sorceress, Ashley Dioses displays a rare magic with words, assembled into poems that are really spells. Whether she's conjuring a lustful Maenad, the Blood Countess, or lost Carcosa, these enchantments are dark, lush, wondrous, disturbing, and completely hypnotic.--Lisa Morton, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author
Ashley Dioses is one of the brightest talents of the new generation of poets working in the weird verse tradition and a collection of her work is something to be welcomed and treasured.--Pete Atkins, screenwriter of Hellbound: Hellraiser II and Wishmaster
Ashley Dioses' debut, Diary of a Sorceress, is rich with macabre, lyrical imagination. It opens doors to beauty, and labyrinths fraught with radiant blasphemies. Her poetry rests comfortably beside that of Weird Tales, Arkham House, Ann K. Schwader, and Richard L. Tierney.--Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., editor of The Madness of Dr. Caligari
There is delicate music in Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses. Written in traditional forms, Diary is a promising first volume from a new fantasy poet.--Charles Lovecraft, P'rea Press
