Inspired by Music: Courtney Skelton’s Stories of Horror and Hope
Art
Meet Courtney Skelton, an author from Illinois who loves local bands and supports them through his own art form: writing. Skelton is the author of Inspired, a book composed of short stories based on songs by local bands he supports. When music inspires you to create your own art, it creates something beautiful and inspiring in its own way.
Inspired consists of five short stories rooted in psychological horror, with touches of paranormal and thriller elements. Throughout the book, the main characters face impossible odds and life-threatening situations where fight-or-flight is put into play. They face trauma, confront their past, get revenge and even find hope — despite being in places where there doesn’t seem to be any left, almost like a Saw movie.
Underneath all of the horror, Skelton’s stories are about perseverance and discovering that people can be stronger than they realize. “I think perseverance is the message,” Skelton says. “Everybody in life seems to get bogged down. These characters are stronger than they really thought they were.”
Each of the five stories is based on songs by rock/metal bands Reign of Z, Bullet to the Heart, Eden On Fire and The Almas. Music is what brings these stories to life. Each story in Inspired started from a song that Skelton loved and tried to find a narrative within, taking ideas and emotions from each song and turning them into his own characters and situations.
Two of the bands featured in the collection are artists Skelton has seen more than 10 times. He initially reached out to some of the musicians to tell them about the stories inspired by their work. Reign of Z, whose music inspired the first story, was excited about the project. “I said, ‘I wrote a story based on your song. How do you feel about that?’” Skelton recalls. “They loved the idea.”
Skelton hopes readers will take that inspiration one step further. He wants people to look into the individual bands featured in the book, listen to their music and hopefully see them live when they come through their area. Inspired is his own personal way of supporting the artists he loves and hopefully encouraging them to gain new fans through his book.
For Skelton, music has always been a source of motivation. “I can live without news, but I have to have music,” he said. “The music inspires us to keep going, keeping us out of the dark.”
His journey as a writer started long before Inspired. In eighth grade, Skelton told his teacher that he thought he could write a book someday. His teacher encouraged him, and that moment stayed with him. “It was a watershed moment,” Skelton says. “If he had said the wrong thing, or if he had just ignored me, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”
Years later, his wife Robin became another important source of support, helping edit his work and giving him the courage to publish. Skelton released his first book, Right on Red, in 2013, followed by Godless Failure in 2026 before eventually creating Inspired, also released this past year.
His influences range from Stephen King to Clive Barker, particularly Barker’s work in horror film Hellraiser. More recently, author Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid has influenced his writing through her short chapters and fast pacing, which Skelton has his own take on in Inspired.
Courtney Skelton is already working on his next psychological horror story, inspired by an unsettling incident that happened in his neighborhood. For now, Inspired brings together three things Skelton clearly loves: music, horror and writing. It is a collection built from one artist inspiring another, proving that creativity does not always have to begin with a blank page. Sometimes, all it takes is love for a song. You can pick up a copy of Inspired on Amazon here. —Cherri Cheetah
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