Dora Esquivel's Blog: Ancient Bond: Masters and Servants, page 20
May 20, 2019
Why Death Positivity is Important
Life Is Impermanent
I was initially going to write an article on “green funerals,” but I thought I’d do something different. You see, I can rant for hours about all the different ways you can handle your body after you die.
How to plan your funeral before you die, and so on. However, I think it would be beneficial to talk about why I find the Death Positivity Movement so important.
[image error]
Now, I won’t lie. I think death is scary — the inevitable end. How life is so impermanent is intimidating. It’s downright uncomfortable to think about, but the first step in fixing a problem is to acknowledge it, and I’m afraid to die.
I think we all are in our in own ways. Even for those that believe in Heaven and Hell, death is scary and sad.
Comic Books & Deaths
I’ve always liked what people consider creepy and scary. I blame my older siblings for introducing me to comic books and monster movies/books! Not really, I appreciate them for it. I’m the person who had her funeral planned out before her wedding. That’s how creepy I am.
At a young age, people told me that I would have been a SIDS i.e. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, statistic. ~2,500 babies die of SIDS each year. So, in a way, death has been with me since I was a baby.
[image error]
The idea of me not existing has always been at the back of my mind. I’m not mad that people told me; in fact, I think it was a blessing. I’ve known how life is so fleeting, just by knowing I almost died.
It sounds poetic, but the hard truth is, everything ends. We are going to die. That is life, and though we don’t want to talk about it, we should.
I Did It My Way
Many cultures handle death differently. Some celebrate it, while others have professional mourners show up to funerals. We handle grief and death differently, but from my experience, when you are capable of talking about it. When you are capable of laughing and crying about it, it takes a big load off your shoulders.
Feeling scared is natural. Fearing death is natural. Moreover, the best way to beat this fear is to talk about it. Is to acknowledge it. When I’m lost, and in a dark place, I think about how I want my funeral handled. I think about how I want everybody I know to be laughing and remembering me as I was. So, naturally, I came up with a funny funeral/wake.
[image error]Père Lachaise Cemetery
When I die, I want to be either cremated or aquamated, while Another One Bites the Dust by Queen plays in the background. I want someone to put a few of my ashes, if it’s legal, on their food, and when they eat it, I want them to yell, “I’m a cannibal!”
I want everyone to wear tacky, brightly-colored Hawaiian shirts, and I want all my happy music. I have a playlist for this, to blare from speakers. I want someone to show up in a Grim Reaper costume, with a cartoony scythe, and wander the party making sure everyone is having fun. I want people to be happy. I want them to laugh, and I want them to feel loved, even if I’m not there with them.
I People To Feel Loved
When I think about this, I remember all my loved ones, and that keeps me going. Even in the dark days, when hope is hard to come by. Because, when that day comes.
[image error]St Mary Cemetery – California
When I pass on, I want people to feel loved. I want them to see that life is a precious thing that we are blessed to have. Also, death reminds us of this. That’s why the Death Positivity Movement is so prominent and why I’m a positive death advocate. Also, that’s why I will never stop talking
about death.
May 14, 2019
GOOSEBUMPS! The Haunted Mask
The Original 1993 Summary
Face to Face with a Nightmare…
How ugly is Carly Beth’s Halloween mask? It’s so ugly that it almost scared her little brother to death. So terrifying that even her friends are totally freaked out by it. It’s the best Halloween mask ever. It’s everything Carly Beth hoped it would be. And more. Maybe too much more. Because Halloween is almost over. And Carly Beth is still wearing that special mask…
A Glued On Mask!
There is a meme that I have seen recently on Facebook about quicksand. It features all the movies in which quicksand is an element of life that one would just stumble upon in the world.
The meme is a joke reference about how as a kid, quicksand was featured quite often and was something to be feared. For me, The Haunted Mask, had the same effect, only instead of quicksand it was a mask that couldn’t be removed.
[image error]GOOSEBUMPS – The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine
I was too ready to believe that somewhere in this world there was a shop with a mask that was searching for a face, later I would discover Aliens and that would change my look on that particular aspect.
There are myths and legends galore that deal with masks, even psychology has quite a bit to say about the reasons for mask. R.L. Stine gave us this trope and did so quite well. Let us join eleven year old Carly Beth as she learns to be more careful about the masks we wear.
Halloween Plans Gone Awry
Carly Beth is tired of being so scared all the time; her friends thrive on terrifying her. Even her best friend Sabrina has gotten in on the shenanigans. Things go a tad far when a few of them put a worm in her sandwich. EW.
I mean I can’t see anyone actively wanting to stomach a worm…that reminds me of another tale… nope, another time. Carly Beth goes home and gets a surprise of her own. Not only has her Mother crafted a Plaster of Paris replica of Carly Beth’s head, she made her a duck costume.
[image error]
But Carly Beth has made up her mind, she doesn’t want to be something cute this Halloween, she wants to be terrifying. She evens tells her eight year brother Noah he can have the duck costume, she knows of a party place that has terrifying masks for sale.
After another series of pranks to cause fear, she is through and marches her way to find a costume that will scare her friends the way they consistently do her.
There’s Always A Back Room
At the last second Carly Beth makes it to the party store, but none of the masks seem to be as scary as she is wanting. Aisle after aisle of wrong masks, until she finds the back room with two shelves of the most grotesque and real looking masks that she has ever seen.
Of course there is something off about them, as though they are alive. The shopkeeper even warns her away from them. She should have listened.
[image error]GOOSEBUMPS – The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine
Mask in hand she gleefully rushes home and it is there that the mask gets its first victim. Noah, who has opted for cockroach over the duck costume, gets the fright of his life when Carly Beth gets him. But things start to get a bit crazy from there. Carly Beth notices how warm the mask gets and how much harder it is each time she tries to remove it.
How the longer she wears it, the more it conforms to her face and the more real the mask look. Perspiration included. She sets out for revenge but will Carly Beth be able to accept the consequences?
Conclusion
This was one of my favorites as a kid and rereading it was an awesome reliving of no only the book but the TV series episode, which was really great. The ending is pretty good and the scenes that it sets up are great. This was definitely as good as I had remembered it.
So readers beware, this one will scare. That is all from The Phantom for this review; join us next time as we delve into “wishful” thinking!
May 12, 2019
Gothic Bite Magazine Interviewed Susannah Shannon
Who is Susannah Shannon?
I live in the American Midwest. I have been married to my college sweetheart for, well a long time.
[image error]Susannah Shannon Author Picture
We have five kids, and our youngest is nineteen. In my day job, I work with young children. I have always been a voracious reader — fiction, nonfiction, anything.
I am an incredibly good cook and a lousy housekeeper, priorities, people!
THE INTERVIEW!
ALEXA WAYNE (A.W.): When did you find out you would want to
write novels?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: I think I started writing and telling stories when I was tiny. I got busy with marriage, career, and kids; but the call came back, and I answered it.
A.W.: You mentioned me your work, all set in paranormal or Gothic settings, would you let our readers know why you are more attracted to that genre?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: I have written contemporary books too. Currently, I love supernatural settings. My Norse Warriors series is set in a land of myth-where saber-toothed tigers roam, and your battle scars tell the world who you are, what’s not to love?
[image error]The Sorcerer’s Willful Bride – The Love and Other Magic Series Book One by Susannah Shannon
My most recent series The Enchanting Submissive series is set in a parallel universe where a young witch has been living among us and getting a Ph.D. from Harvard.
When a spell goes wrong, this brilliant scholar finds herself in an arranged marriage to a sorcerer. I would love for the magic to be real and I love creating worlds that speak to my heart.
A.W.: When writing about paranormal, do you do research and if so, how far do you go with your research?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: What a great question. I have done research- Not so much with the magic part- but I learned a lot about knights and feudal societies and Scandinavian lore.
Dru, The Sorcerer’s Willful Bride, is an expert on the Salem witch trials, so I dusted off some old books on that.
[image error]Claimed by the Gilded Dragon by Susannah Shannon
A.W.: What is most important to you when writing your novels?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: I want to share the experience of the world and the characters with anyone reading it.
A.W.: Which authors influenced your writing?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: Geez, how much time do you have! Jane Austen, because she taught us that smart girl could get the guy.
Ursula Le Guin because those are the first fantasy books I vividly remember. Carolyn Faulkner because she included spanking in her romances and it was a hook, and I bit!
J.K. Rowling because she is the queen of world building and hairpin
plot twists.
[image error]Guarded by Susannah Shannon
A.W.: Which of your novels is your favorite and why is it your favorite?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: The favorite of my books is, Her Gilded Dragon. In that book, I introduced the snowforce and my favorite magical creature, Ragnifer, who is a cranky wood sprite, and the romance between Hanne and Jonis is epic.
A.W.: Do you believe in the paranormal, by that I mean in hauntings, that there are creatures out in the wild we still don’t know the existence of?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: I think there are undiscovered corners in the universe. There’s still so much to seek in our universe we have been gifted!
[image error]Her Guilded Dragon by Susannah Shannon
A.W.: What was your reaction when you learned a publisher wanted you as part of their authors?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: I danced around my living room. I knew nothing, nothing about the publishing industry! I was so grateful for the chance to have a book published.
A.W.: What sets you apart from other paranormal and Gothic authors?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: The world’s I strive to create are sophisticated and constructed in a way that they are transportive. I want the world to work. All my books contain a variety of genres- romance, characters growing, lots of humor and power exchange.
[image error]
A.W.: What can readers look forward to from Susannah Shannon in 2019?
SUSANNAH SHANNON: Book 2 in the Enchanting Submissive series out in April. May has the final, Norse Warriors book. I am also involved in some co-writing. Can’t wait to share it!
May 11, 2019
Jo Vallianatou The Photographer
A Greek Dream
Jo Vallianatou is a Greek Fine Art photographer currently living and working in Athens.
Her work is alluring and unexpected focusing mainly on capturing beauty and emotion in a still shot of time. She began photography ten years ago as an artistic outlet, and it grew into a full-fledged devotion.
[image error]Model Ellada Elven and photographer Jo Vallianatou
FOLLOW JO VALLIANATOU ON FACEBOOK!
Jo enjoys the challenges in creating something classic and timeless from a thoroughly modern process and the contradiction between the two is a strong theme throughout her work.
[image error]Model Ellada Elven and photographer Jo Vallianatou
Currently, she is mixing the realms of art and fashion, working on expanding her current open series.
VISIT JO VALLIANATOU’S WEBSITE!
[image error]Model Ellada Elven and photographer Jo Vallianatou
Her work has been published several times nationally and internationally.
By Jo Valliannatou
You Have Art Too?
[image error]Model Ellada Elven and photographer Jo Vallianatou
If you wish to have your art appear on Gothic Bite Magazine‘s website, all you have to do is go to SUBMISSIONS and follow our easy steps! We’d be happy to promote your art!
[image error]Model Ellada Elven and photographer Jo Vallianatou
Don’t forget to visit Jo Vallianatou’s Website and follow her on Facebook to see more of her amazing photography!
The OCD Vampire,
Alexa Wayne
May 8, 2019
Trepanning The Horror
Careful with your Behavior!
This week we are going to look at another procedure still used today! Trepanning was a procedure where they took a circular shaped tool and drilled holes into people’s heads. This was supposed to improve the quality of life and general health for most individuals.
There is evidence of it being used to treat those behaving erratically, and it can be assumed that the behavior can be attributed to mental illness. However, they believed that mental illness was caused by being inhabited by a malicious or evil spirit.
[image error]Trepanning
Evidence of trepanning goes as far back as Neolithic times, and from several resources I found, the bit of bone removed was kept as a charm to ward away evil spirits. Over the course of history, it was hailed to increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain, thus expanding and
enhancing performance.
I Volunteer For Trepanning!
People often would even have them done voluntarily! There is no specific evidence to support the reasoning behind having the operation done. However, you are safe in assuming the vast majority of patients lived. There has been a vast amount of proof of that from examining ancient skulls. There were quite a few that had evidence of bone and skull
structure healing.
[image error]Head Surgery – Trepanning
Today we use the procedure to help relieve swelling of the brain by removing a portion of the bone to be replaced at a later time by some sort of plate or with the bone itself. This specific process is referred to as a craniotomy and is aimed at preventing brain damage after a severe
head injury.
If you do not create space for the blood to go you will have severe brain damage and possibly even death. With the way it is performed today, it is not nearly so graphic as the olden procedures. We also use the procedure to clear the way for life saving brain surgeries.
When The Horror Begins
Now, you may be wondering where the horror
side of it comes in if it was so widely accepted, and there was no lasting
brain damage if performed correctly.
Put yourself in the patient’s shoes. You are sitting on whatever table, chair, or bed they are going to perform this procedure in. You have no idea what is going on or why they want to do this other than you are possessed. There is nothing wrong with you and you advocate for that over and over.
[image error]
You cry, plead, even beg them not to do it. You know it is going to hurt. They did nothing to drug you or sedate you to counter the agony you are going to go through. At most you would have received alcohol to curb the pain.
They strap you down and prepare the skin where they are going to drill. You feel everything—the pulling of your hair while they shave the scalp clean. They cut in your skin, and you feel the blood from your scalp pouring down your head. Scalp cuts always bleed excessively.
[image error]Asylum Corridor
You try to beg them to stop again, the pain is overwhelming. However, they respond by stuffing a bit in your mouth—silencing any further protest beyond your quiet sobbing before they peel back your scalp.
Then it begins. They drill into your skull.
You hear the grinding, the way your skull gives beneath the metal drill. You
smell burning of the bone. You feel the vibrations with each rotation and hear
the bone shards clinking against the floor. If you have not passed out by now,
you feel the sudden release—your head no longer being tugged and twisted by the
drill.
It Is done.
Now you think, for the rest of your life you will have to protect your head. You were lucky. They only drilled one hole in your head. The likelihood you will be okay is high. However, there are others who were not so lucky. There are others that had nearly the whole top of their skull removed.
[image error]Pennhurst Hospital – USA, Pennsylvania – Spring City
And you count yourself lucky, oh so lucky. Yet, now you have to deal with the torture they administered for the rest of your life. Would you contract an infection and die? Or would you die from a minor head bump one day while working outside in the garden?
Living On The Edge
Your life has been drastically altered and nothing will ever be the same again. Bone does not regrow, nor does the hair lodged within the future scar.
You will forever hold the evidence of this procedure, and you will never forget what they put you through—all because you were depressed, anxious, read novels, or something else that could have been handled differently.
May 7, 2019
FEATURING: L.E.D. Living with Eating Disorders – The Band
The L.E.D. Band’s History
UK writing duo, Living with Eating Disorders, is Andrea Kerr and Jared Hawkes who began writing together back in 2001.
The band caught the attention of renowned producer John Fryer—Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, NIN, who produced their debut EP, White Like Snow, which was released in August 2004 on Johns label, Something to Listen To.
[image error]L.E.D. – Living with Eating Disorders
The band received high praise for the EP and played several UK shows including support for Psychic TV and Whitehouse in London, but increasing pressure surrounding the name forced the band to withdraw from the public eye and in March 2005 LWED performed their last gig—a multimedia gallery project, Parliament of Monsters, with live sets, projections and sculptures.
Keen to move beyond the controversy surrounding the name, the band returned on Halloween 2005 as Colt, to release their debut album These Things Can’t Hurt You Now, So Throw Them in The Fire on John Fryers label Something to Listen To to critical acclaim from the independent
worldwide press.
[image error]Andrea Kerr from L.E.D.
In 2008, after changes in the live line-up and the dissolution of Something to Listen To, Colt released the EP You hold on to what’s not real featuring four tracks, and remixes by artists including Arlen Figgis and William Bennett, on their own label Obvious Records along with the video for Black Rabbits.
They also re-released These Things Can’t Hurt You Now, So Throw Them In The Fire with bonus tracks Arm and Lullaby Remix by Arlen Figgis featuring Mike Figgis on Trumpet, from the LWED EP White Like Snow, and the previously unreleased Gag Reflex.
FOLLOW LIVING WITH EATING DISORDERS ON SOUNDCLOUD!
In 2016 Andrea contributed lyrics and vocals to the track She Stands on a Storm by John Fryer for his project Black Needle Noise.
Jared and Andrea are currently working on music to be released later this year, and on Beltane, May 1st, release Superhero, the first in a series of original EP’s remastered for digital release for the first time.
[image error]L.E.D. – Review in Burn Magazine
SOME REVIEWS
“LWED have crafted such an enthralling slice of scarred beauty…music that will work its way into your head and deep, deep into your soul”
Rocksound
“Weird, unsettling, and wonderfully unique for it”
Zero Magazine
“A much more delicate Kate Bush playing with soothing caressing warm silky electronica”
Organ Zine
My Thoughts
While the group has several dates for releases this year, I got a chance to listen to a few of their tracks that are releasing on Beltane, the EP Superhero, and on May 31st, the EP Polaroid.
The press release for L.E.D gives big expectations, I mean it sets the stage of excitement for what you are about to hear.
“LWED have always worn their scars on the outside: a half-torn coat of arms you can trace like veins throughout their work, from title to credits (and not forgetting, early EP covers.) There’s no pivotal moment in the band’s timeline where the theme song suddenly bellows and a quickfire montage turns cotton into kevlar. No, instead, the beauty and fascination has always been with vocalist Andrea Kerr’s ability to wear her vulnerability like an x-ray, as she visibly picks at every loose joint and stitch with a fighting kick of her feet. Like a horse unafraid of the fall. Meanwhile, in amidst even the most barbed synths, Jared Hawkes could always carve out a space in the dark for us to safely catch a breath and untangle.”
L.E.D.
I have to agree that vocalist Andrea Kerr not only has a phenomenal haunting voice but the song Menace has smart lyrics to match her almost ethereal voice.
[image error]L.E.D. Review
The duo harken almost an instant connection for me to the 90s and 2000s horror scene where you needed ambiance set. It is like an earwig in the way their songs flow and curl up for a bit in your mind.
They remind me a lot of The Engine Room, Crystal Method, something in that vein. They are very unique in their style though creating their
own world.
[image error]Andrea Kerr from L.E.D.
They are definitely a group to look out for this year and to keep an eye on their social media outlets to see when new tracks will be coming out!
Social Media links below and later this year we will be taking a look at some of their new songs that are set to hit later this year!
Tweets by lweduk
FOLLOW LIVING WITH EATING DISORDERS ON TWITER!
For now though enjoy this taste of their melodic charms and I thank them so so much for giving us this great chance to not only partake but help spread the word! Thank you Andrea Kerr and Jared Hawkes!
May 6, 2019
Vampire People Pt.1
Greek, Polish, Egyptian…
The vampire has gone by many different names. In Greek, they are called Vrykolakas. In Czech upir, Upeer. The Polish called these creatures of the night Wampir. Myths and legends the world over have given these creatures name since the beginning of time.
Creatures that take the blood of the living to survive dated back into Greek Mythology. Also, people rising from the dead to walk among the living. Well, we need only go back to the Bible itself for such legends.
[image error]Monster – Vampire
I sat down and looked at two resources for the ancient legends on vampires—a website called Ancient-Origins.net and A&E‘s television series Ancient Mysteries. I wanted to compare the data.
A Curse Maybe?
Now before I go on here’s that old Artemis Dai disclaimer; every coven, clan, house, pack whatever you want to call generally has this own book of legend. Their theories as to how vampires came to be. Some say that Lilith, the first wife of Adam, was the original vampire.
Others venture into Egyptian Gods cursed humankind. I’ve even heard some still cling to the myth that the original vampire was sent to earth by the devil himself if you believe in such things. I have my theories. However, that would take much paper to explain.
[image error]Pharaoh Mask
So back to the theoretical origins of the vampire. The first reported case of vampirism was in 1656—Jure Grando from a small town in Croatia. Jure Grando was what some would call a “Strigon” type of vampire. He was attacked by a vampire as a child and only became one in death. An odd little type of vampire, if you ask me.
Grando The Vampire
They’re tricksters, knocking on people’s doors and taking blood only from children. Grando’s reign of terror lasted until 1672 before nine men from his village went to the cemetery he was buried in and dug up his corpse, which was reported by a priest in the group to be “remarkably fresh.”
[image error]Vampire Hunter Kit – Dallas Auctions
From here there are conflicting stories. One story says the men including the priest ran in fear of seeing Grando’s body in what was surely an unholy condition. After all dead for sixteen years and “Fresh.” Another version of the story says that one of the men stabbed Grando in the stomach with a wooden stake.
However, Grando rose that night. The third version states that one of the men cut Grando’s head from his shoulders and that blood gushed from the sixteen-year-old corpse.
That is it until next week for the sequel!
Artemis Dai
Folklore of Secrecy
First of All
When I started writing, I promised myself that I would have
Native Americans in each of my stories. Some may ask why, and this is my
answer: I live in the French province of Quebec in Canada where many older
people sharing the bloodline of Native Americans suffered shame from other
cultures.
Me, I am proud and taught my grandpa, who raised me, to be proud of his blood and magnificent rich ancestry. My grandfather was Native American, part of the Mohawk people to be more précised. On my grandmother’s side, while she was Acadian, she did also share some Native American blood we believed to be Ojibwe.
While the mystical creature in question belongs to the
Navajo culture, when I researched the subject of folklore and legends belonging
to Native Americans from the south due to my novels heading back and forth I
stumbled upon the Skinwalkers. To my surprise, while mostly spread in the
Southern states it also crossed over to others.
[image error]Examination of Skinwalker
I immediately asked my 2nd cousin—I’m an only child. Thus they are my mother’s cousins if she knew about the Skinwalkers despite being Ojibwe.
“Yes, we are all aware of them now. It is part of a few First Nation folklores including Mohawk, and carries much horror with it. Not many likes to talk about it.”
Tracy Toffoli
Hush in Respect
I promised myself and everyone when I created Gothic Bite Magazine that I would respect the legends and folklore to the best of my knowledge and those of the writers. I do know that this particular folklore is not one that is easy to talk about due to its secrecy and for a good reason.
I am careful with every word I use and therefore, this month
is for the respect of one mythical creature belonging to people I share my
ancestry with and have much respect for in every way.
[image error]
I wanted to bring in history, facts, and respect. With a quite popular series such as Supernatural among others either televised or written, many folklores, borrowed from various cultures and First Nations are not an exception. However, some forget that sometimes particular creatures are better left undisturbed.
So this month, we promise only to share what is already public about the dark mythical being that is a Skinwalker shared among a few First Nation cultures, though mainly Navajo and Mohawk. We are not demystifying the legend but merely share what it means and what it implies so that if one decides to bring such a being in their artistic creation, they do know what it means and carries with it.
Consider Yourself Warned
Among First Nations, Skinwalkers are a subject of silence
and taboo. Sometimes because people are afraid of the repercussion, it might
imply or sometimes, by the respect of the elders carrying the weight of such a
being part of their folklore.
[image error]Examination of Skinwalker
Was I curious to know more? Of course! I’m a history nerd
and passionate about the paranormal! I dug more and more into the legend, and I
stopped. I stopped for respect. I realized that if this subject was so dark
that it had created an entire nation to keep it silent, it was for a reason and
I would respect that.
Then, I turn on the television and see the Skinwalkers used in series, movies, and books. I decided I would bring my research to light so that at the very least, the readers of Gothic Bite Magazine would know that this particular monster no one should mess with under any circumstances.
Next Week: The Dark Side of the Witch.
May 4, 2019
Tales from The Shadow Booth Vol. 2 with Andrew Darlington
Andrew Darlington
I’ve had masses of material published in all manner of strange and obscure places, magazines, websites, anthologies, and books.
I’ve also worked as a Stand-Up Poet on the Alternative Cabaret Circuit, and I’ve interviewed very many people from the worlds of Literature, SF-Fantasy, Art and Rock-Music for a variety of publications, a selection of my favorite interviews collected into the Headpress book, I Was Elvis Presley’s Bastard Love-Child.
[image error]Andrew Darlington Author Picture
My latest poetry collection is, Tweak Vision, Alien Buddha Press, while my new fiction collection, A Saucerful Of Secrets is now available from Parallel Universe Publ.
My Scientifiction novel, In The Time Of The Breaking, Alien Buddha Press, published in January 2019.
The Shadow Booth Vol. 2
New, And Newer Shadows by Andrew Darlington
The iconic ‘Pan Book Of Horror’ paperback series launched modestly in 1959 curated by Herbert Van Thal, it offered a fiendish cauldron of classic tales stirred in with tyro untried writers.
Accused of down-market bad taste and vilified as garishly nasty, it nevertheless nurtured and fed the gory thrill-hungry appetites of a misfit generation. It survived for thirty editions, before finally winding down in 1989. Yet it’s legacy lingers on like a noxious aroma, suggesting further possibilities of otherness.
[image error]Tales from the Shadow Booth Vol. 2 – Edited by Dan Coxon
Until now – as Dan Coxon explains, there’s ‘The Shadow Booth’, ‘a bi-annual journal of weird and eerie fiction I’m editing, published as a mass market paperback with a nod to the old ‘Pan Books Of Horror’.’ The concept of this beautifully-produced pocketbook is that the ‘Shadow Booth’ itself offers an outré portal into a Twilight Zone located just around the dogleg of your subconscious, a step off the path into a parallel realm of weirdness.
‘Enter the Shadow Booth, and you will never be the same again.’ The first volume included fiction by Paul Tremblay, Malcolm Devlin, Sarah Read, Timothy Jarvis and others. And already its momentum accelerates…!
The voyage into unfamiliar strangeness is one of the earliest human story-telling devices, all the way back to Homer. Gareth E Rees innovatively utilizes climate-change oddness to infiltrate renewed dimensions of the unknown in “We Are The Disease”, as his Research Vessel ‘Salvo’ investigates mutant spores and microbial biochanges released by the melting icecap of ‘a planet in awful transformation.’
[image error]
And elsewhere, subaquatics form a meme that deep-ripples through other tales. ‘The water wants to drown us’ protests George Sandison in “Keel”, ‘it’s all it knows.’ Caught in the lure of past times, haunting yesterdays that submerge beneath the former festival site lakeside.
While the mismatched duo in Dan Grace’s “Waves” are also camping, on Jura this time, to encounter a creature that’s not quite a bird. ‘Life and art feed off each other’ in postmodern awareness, ‘we’re copying the movies, but then they’re copying us copying them,’ into a place where memory becomes ‘the Tardis of my skull.’ Then Chikodili Emelumadu details the problems and etiquette of interspecies relationships with aquatic life-forms.
Already the mainstream contemporary edge and character depth goes places those dusty old Pan writers never suspected. Into the unsettling trauma of never-born children, the Halloween anniversary of a stillborn son, from Mark Morris in “Buddy”, as children slip by like a shoal of fish, and assume the Mer-horror costume-guise of ‘sharp teeth and mean faces and hair like octopus legs.’ Or the terrible memories of an absent father blurred by merciful amnesia, in Giovanna Repetto’s “My Father’s Face”, translated by Amanda Blee.
There’s also a surreal continuum about Kirsty Logan’s “Good Good Good, Nice Nice Nice”, a step sideways from anything as unsubtle as visceral shock, where post-war mutant shark-children are hatched from net-cage pods, with all the tenderness of a maternal lullaby. And the deceptive normality of Aliya Whiteley’s “Ear To Ear” about the butcher’s daughter persuaded to wear floral hats in order to disguise the hole that runs through her head, temple to temple.
[image error]Zombie
Then the elegant poised prose of two slipstream tales from Anna Vaught, a haunted old house in the sleepy French village that is ‘a living breathing organism’ thronged with a company of ghosts (“Feasting; Fasting”), and the mesmerizing sorcery of the strange cold street in the beguiling “Cave Venus Et Stellas”.
Ralph Robert Moore’s “Monkeys On The Beach” documents the most disaster-prone of Caribbean family-bonding holidays, while Johnny Mains’ stunning “The Joanne” returns to the voyage into unfamiliar strangeness theme beneath a double-sun, nudging Samuel Taylor Coleridge through a space-time anomaly, combining elements of the surreal with epic nautical adventure and downright eldritch ‘Weird Tales’ fantasia.
Interestingly enough, there’s another continuity loop at work here, for Johnny wrote an introduction to a ‘Pan Book Of Horror’ relaunch edition published in 2010. But on this evidence, let’s just ensure that ‘The Shadow Booth’ continues as long as its illustrious predecessor.
BY ANDREW DARLINGTON
REVIEWS
The booth juts at an angle from the sand, the canvas taut beneath the weight of the drifting dunes. Janet almost passes it by. But it’s the sign that snags her attention. Painted in rust-red onto three pieces of driftwood, the sun-bleached planks lashed together with lengths of twisted blond twine, it looks surprisingly fresh. Enter the Shadow Booth, it says, and you will never be the same again.
GOODREADS
[image error]
The Shadow Booth is a journal of weird and eerie fiction, edited by Dan Coxon (Winner: Best Anthology – Saboteur Awards 2016) and published as a 200-page mass market paperback. Drawing its inspiration from the likes of Thomas Ligotti and Robert Aickman, as well as H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Machen, The Shadow Booth explores that dark, murky territory between mainstream horror and literary fiction. From folk horror to alien gods, the journal aims to give voice to the strange and the unsettling in all its forms.
GOODREADS
Be sure to get your copy!
The OCD Vampire,
Alexa Wayne
May 3, 2019
Far Cry: New Dawn – The Review!
Favorite in the Household!
Far Cry has become something of a favorite in our household, while I had played other titles in the series before, I always did them alone.
Now, my wife has taken a keen interest in the series as well, after having experienced the story in 5 and this one first hand. Any game is so much better when you can experience it with someone you love in my professional opinion, even a solo player game like Far Cry.
Narrative Sequel
It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in February of 2019, a narrative sequel to Far Cry 5, one of the first of its kind from Ubisoft.
They had done side stories in the past, like Far Cry: Primal and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, but this was the first time they had actually picked up the plot threads from the previous game and continued them with a full story.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
Set seventeen years after the events in 5, this one opens on a world in the process of restarting.
SPOILER ALERT: At the end of Far Cry 5, events had been set into motion throughout the game that led to Nuclear Weapons being used, and human being on the brink of extinction.
What remains of humanity is spread out, rebuilding, and being attacked by bandits, more specifically a group calling themselves Highwaymen, led by twin sisters known as Mickey and Lou. These will be your enemies throughout the story.
Hope Country
As with previous games in the series, your character is set upon your path through the new/old Hope County, a massive open world that you explore at your leisure.
There is plenty to do, story quests, side missions, hunting challenges, collectibles to find, enemy bases to capture, and the list goes on. They have always given you a ton to do in this series, and this entry is no different, even if it is considered a side story.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
You gain new weapons by crafting them at your workbench, which you will need to upgrade to get the “Legendary” weapons in the game, some of the best if you ask me.
You do have a central hub area that acts as your base or home, where you gain access to all of your extras, like the weapons workbench, healing garden where you get the ingredients to craft your own med kits, garage, where you gain access to multiple tiers of vehicles, including ones with mounted turrets and the like.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
All of these are upgraded with Ethanol, and you achieve that through taking over enemy bases and then scavenging them afterward for higher rewards.
New Characters
Also, throughout the game, you will meet up with unique characters; most of these will join you in your quest to free Hope County and become part of your Roster.
You can assign roles to you, and they will help out in the field. There are eight in all, two of them are animals, which my wife adores, by the way, especially considering that the dog companion looks like our Husky, Chewie.
Like previous games in the series, you get better at the game by earning Perk Points, which can be spent to level up any of your natural, and some unnatural, abilities.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
Some of them are as simple as lock picking, while others can make it so you can chain together multiple stealth take-downs. By the end of it all, you are a one-man army, able to craft on the fly and mow down your enemies with superior firepower.
On a side note, and namely, because I didn’t bring this up when I briefly discussed the story, another character from Far Cry 5 sits front and center in this game, Joseph Seed, the cult leader who basically started the end of the world.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
He lived, along with your character from the first game, the Deputy. It is a fascinating time in the story when you have to venture out and find him and his people; his story makes this game so much more worthwhile.
To Sum It Up!
So, in summary, I would say this is an excellent entry in the series, though a little short for my liking.
I think I managed to beat this one in a matter of three or four days, where I spent considerable more time on previous entries in the series. That does not detract from the game in any way mind you, only makes me want a new one to play.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
So, all in all, a great time, a fun and engaging game, and well worth the $20 I spent on it. I will say it usually retails for $40 and can be found on your PlayStation Store or on your Xbox Store, as well as a physical copy where ever games are sold, I’m pretty sure you can find them cheaper at a local Gamestop if you pick it up used.
So, my final score for this game is a solid 8.5 out of 10, and the only reason it wasn’t higher is because of how short it felt. Still, well worth a play through and an excellent addition to any Far Cry fans collection.
[image error]Far Cry – New Dawn by Ubisoft
Thanks to all of you who tune in for these reviews, I will try to keep them coming as quick as I can. Most of them I review off of new games I have been playing, or ones I have recently finished.
I will see what I can work up for you in the next review, maybe another Far Cry game, seeing as I restarted Far Cry 4 the other day, or something else, you never know unless you tune in and check it out. Until next time folks, I will see you in the games.
Edward Hale
PSN ID: BatEd700
Xbox Live: SENSEIZEEANBEE
Ancient Bond: Masters and Servants
Centuries ago Lucien's family and pack were slaughtered and betrayed by family. Lucien was then enslaved for five hundred years by the demon who killed ...more
- Dora Esquivel's profile
- 131 followers
