Matthew C. Woodruff
Award Winning Author of
Dark Humor, Cosmic Weirdness and Fairy Tales Gone Wrong.
Most people pass through life believing the world is exactly what it appears to be.
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They are mistaken.
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Beyond everyday reality lie forgotten gods, impossible places, strange coincidences, quiet miracles, and moments when ordinary people find themselves standing at the edge of something ancient and unknowable.
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In these thirteen tales of cosmic weirdness, Matthew C. Woodruff explores the thin places where myth brushes against modern life, where grief opens unexpected doors, and where the greatest mysteries rarely announce themselves with monsters or mayhem.
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Sometimes the strangest journeys begin with nothing more than a wrong turn, a chance encounter... or a single coin.
Inspired by Edward Gorey’s classic The Gashlycrumb Tinies, these twenty-six stories imagine the curious adventures, unfortunate decisions, bizarre coincidences, and occasional acts of spectacular bad judgment that led Amy, Basil, Clara, and the rest of the alphabetic cast to their famously untimely ends.
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Blending absurdist fiction, dark comedy, and macabre whimsy, the collection follows an unforgettable cast of children whose bizarre fates range from unfortunate to utterly ridiculous.
Equal parts satire and cautionary tale, 26 Absurdities celebrates the strange, the tragic, and the laughably inevitable.
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From mysteries and fairy tales to science fiction, gothic adventures, and dark comedies, each tale expands upon one of Gorey’s immortal children while preserving the wit, absurdity, and mischievous spirit of the original.
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After all, nobody simply dies of gin. There’s always a story.
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Latest from The Sacred and Strange
The Sacred & Strange Substack is a journey through the curious borderlands where history, folklore, science, religion, and the paranormal collide. With equal parts humor, skepticism, and wonder, Matthew C. Woodruff explores bizarre true stories, enduring mysteries, forgotten legends, and the wonderfully absurd moments that make our world far stranger than fiction.
About Matthew
Matthew C. Woodruff is an award-winning author, journalist, editor, and publisher whose work blends dark humor, speculative fiction, and philosophical whimsy. His writing has been recognized by the American Fiction Awards, the International Book Awards, Readers' Favorite, and the Self-Publishing Showcase, where he was named Author of the Month.
In addition to his work as an author, Matthew has served as a judge for essay competitions sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and as a judge for the Sunshine State Book Festival, helping evaluate emerging writers and their work.
A native New Yorker now living in Florida, Matthew writes stories that explore the strange intersection of humor, folklore, mystery, and the absurd. Whether chronicling bizarre misfortunes, impossible fairy tales, or the peculiar corners of modern life, his work invites readers to laugh first—and think a little afterward.
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Awards
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