Friday Free Sample: Resurrection of a Broken Mind!

In the days leading up to its publication of my VERY FIRST AUDIO STORY, I can't wait to let you hear what we've done with it. Below you will find a sample of it!

My latest story 'Resurrection of a Broken Mind' centers around Peter Holleweg, a reclusive young man who tries to make the best of his life since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. When, one night, his house is wrecked by a derailed train, he starts to understand the source of the apparitions that plagued him for the past years.

 

 

If you liked it, pass it around! Full story will be available from the first week of May!

Marcel

How to make a Book Cover!

Recently, I've been working on the launch of my first audio story 'Resurrection of a Broken Mind'! It'll be up here around next week for all of you to enjoy! 

With a new book comes a new book cover and this is where I got to endulge a little bit in my OTHER PASSION: PHOTOGRAPHY! Luckily, I found a WILLING MODEL to have herself made-up beyond recognition (her boyfriend seemed to enjoy the transformation). I also found a MAKE-UP ARTIST who could do the job! And the result, well, I'll let you decide for yourself.

Still enjoying all the attention!

Pucker up!

 

Watch... the... pencil...

Smear it?
But it was all nice and tight!

The final touch...

...and the end result.

Hope you liked this little 'Making of...' I'd like to thank Sandra Taborda who was a wizard with the powder and black coal. And of course Luminita Olteanu as my favorite scary person!

And for all the readers, please, do not hesitate to spread the word:

'Resurrection of a Broken Mind' available from Floating Robes from the beginning of May!

See you around!

Marcel

3x Holiday Horror: Easter

When he refused to reveal the
location of the hidden Easter Eggs,
the kids stepped up their interrogation
techniques.

With Easter drawing in, I was thinking. Easter is not so commercialized as, say, Christmas (thank God, some would say). Come to think of it, it's kind of odd how a holiday in such a cold and harsh season gets to be so big, while one in a more pleasant season hardly gets any attention. I can see it now, singing songs around the budding linden tree, searching for presents around a spring garden, getting a swim suit instead of winter socks... But, why get into that...

This probably is also the reason why there are not so many EASTER HORROR MOVIES as there are Christmas ones. Commercial succes and BLOOD seem to go hand in hand. I tried to come with an Easter horror list and decided on these three.

1) Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit - I watched this half-dozing on a long flight from Amsterdam to Miami and it seemed even more unreal that way. Of course it's an ANIMATED COMEDY with the lovable clay characters from Aardvark, but it borrows heavily from WEREWOLF movies both obscure and well-known. Wallace and his dog are called in to deal with the mysterious disappearance of some of the PRICE VEGETABLES in the village, only days before the great vegetable-growing contest. HILARITY ENSUES!

2) Donnie Darko - Okay, okay, technically not a horror movie, although I couldn't name you any genre that this movie fits into. It deals with the mind of young Donnie Darko ('sounds like a superhero') who has a SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VIEW of the world around him. Add to that his tendency to sleepwalk, overall adolescent angst and his obsession with TIME-TRAVEL, and you've got one weird movie. And don't tell me for a second you weren't freaked out by that bunny with the SKULL FOR A FACE.

3) Critters 2 - The Main Course - I think the DADDY of all Easter horror movies (judging by the hits I got on Google). A small town is UNDER SIEGE from the NASTY LITTLE BEASTIES just around the Easter celebration. Many hilarious scenes follow, among which one of the critters being deep-fried, the EASTER BUNNY GETTING KILLED AND EATEN, an alien turning into a PLAYBOY CENTERFOLD (complete with staples) and so on. For lovers of NON-SENSICAL, violent spoofs, a modern classic!

So, gather around your television screens (or these days, maybe your home entertainment center) and plug one of these in. Maybe you'll laugh, maybe you'll cry, maybe you'll never look at your BUNNY SUIT the same way again. But it's sure to kill a couple of hours (and maybe make your in-laws leave).

HAPPY EASTER!

Ze German Zientist tells us 5 ways of reanimating the dead!

Ve have a duty, yez, to strife
for zomething better, yez....?

Yez... I am very pleased zat ze good people of Floating Robez has given us thiz chance to explain some of the experiments ve have done over ze past years. Just have a zeat while I prepare the last bits for my prezentazion...

You zee, ve, as zientists have a duty to the world to continually strife for something better... Yez? In ze past we have tried to find a cure for zat most unfortunate and inevitable of diseases: Death. Yez? Well, although we have booked some succezzez in this field, the rezults have been, shall we say, unsatisfying. To say the least.

At first we acquired ze help a elderly doctor from Whitechapel, London. He was all too willing to find us some fresh... specimen. Soon, however, we found out zat he liked the acquiring of ze specimen a little too much. We took care of him with... extreme prejudice, as you put it.

Back in Germany, a young doctor tried to piece together a human from several body parts. To enzure the success of zis experiment we made sure that we got the bezt parts of the several bodies before ... azzembling them. Then we tried to animate the corpse using ze lightning, yez? Zis was quite 'tricky' as you put it, for how could we get ze tunder down into the corpse, yez? For zat ve used ze kites.
Unfortunately, ve had not anticipated ze human feelings still instilled inside the creature. When it broke loose and killed ze family of ze scientist involved, we were all more zan shocked.

After zat we attracted a promising young man from the American North-West. From Arkham University to be precize. This young man, and his little friend, booked slightly better succezzez in the field of Reanimation. During ze First World War we monitored his progrezz closely, although our prezence was sometimes regarded with slight... paranoia by his superiors, yez?
Still, we believe the strain of ze experiments weighed heavily on young Herbert's conscience as he mysteriously disappeared one night and was never zeen again... yez?


For many years ve searched for a suitable replacement of young Dr. West. Ve found him in the guise of a secluded priest on ze Caribbean island of Haiti vhen our prezence in Germany vas no longer tolerated. He claimed to have ze secret of reanimation, but did not employ scientific methods. Rather he used religious means... not our 'cup of tea' as you put it...
But he suczeeded in resurrecting a young girl and we were almost impressed, yez... But he had not counted on her ze young man she was going to marry. Eventually, he pushed the poor doctor of ze cliff, yez? Before we could step in, yez? And with him went all ze secrets...


Again we searched the world for a scientist of note and ve thought ve had found him (together with a group of his college 'buddies', as you put it) in ze United States. A dapper young man experimenting with Death, yez... Mr. Labraccio succesfully managed to come back from the dead several times and repeated the suczezzez with his friends. But, alas, ze experiments vere stopped due to... unfortunate psychological damage of one of ze 'college buddies'. Very unfortunate, indeed....yez...

But, ve continue to search for ze scientist zat will succeed in fully beating death. For ze future ve are looking towards an elderly scientist, recently released from St. Claire's mental hospital, yez... Hiz work in the 70's have been well documented. Rezently he has been quite occupied with his work on alternate dimensions... But once ve have dissuaded him enough on zat ve are quite positive ve can have him... see it our way... yez?

Once again, ve would like to zank Floating Robes for giving us zis opportunity and ve all wish you a good night. Rest assured vhile ve search for a cure for zis horrific affliction called...  Death...  Yezz...

Ze German Zientist.

A Message From Extra #34

Try ignore the strange animal
noises coming from the lab!

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? I hope so for this is the only chance I'll ever get!

My time is short and I need to get this out to the world before it runs out. I'm here stuck in a dark corridor. The lights just went off and I'm pretty sure that suddenly and without warning my life might end in a silent, yet dramatic way.

I never should have taken this job. My mother warned me. Oh, man, I should have listened to her! But then, I couldn't disappoint my wife. We need to eat, especially with the little on underway. The nursery is already done. We're gonna get a little boy. I couldn't let them down. So when I saw the add for 'Security Guard for Highly Secretive Laboratory' I applied. What else could I do?


The doctors are nice enough, especially the younger ones. The older ones are a little bit strange and don't say much. Most of them are bald, walk around hunchbacked and never speak above a faint whisper. They hardly ever notice the security guards, as if we do not matter.

We do the rounds, see if everything is safe and then we go back to the cantine for some donuts. Sometimes the receptionists are there. Mary is a pretty little thing and especially Mike likes to tease her a little bit. I guess he likes to do that with a lot of young women. He's a bit of a prick, but good enough. I think he's out in the Second Wing now. He got transferred just a week ago. Never heard from him again.

Others are Johnny, Fred and Paul. Fred is the oldest of us and he showed all of us the ropes. Here's the cantine, there are the donuts. Walk around the hallways, don't pay too much attention to the screams coming from the labs and whatever you do, never enter any of them! Just shine your flashlight around and close the door again. Especially the older doctors are very keen on privacy.

I don't know what they do here, exactly, I'm just Security Guard #34. But sometimes you read things in the newspaper, people talk at parties and when I say I work for Highly Secretive Laboratory, they either go into a big rant or stop talking to me at all. I know that what they're doing is not right, but we got to eat!

So when the protests started I tried not to pay attention. Only, it got bigger and bigger. My wife pleaded not to go in to work today, but I can't afford to loose this job. So I made my way past the protesters and got into work. The hallways are a little eerie, these days. All the doctors seemed to have left, the animals are going nuts in their cages and only me, Mary, Fred and Paul are left. Come to think of it, I haven't seen them neither.

And there's something in this hallway. All the lights are off, the animals scream so loud now I can barely think. But I know something is here. Wait, let me get my gun out.
"Hello?! Is somebody there!"


There, over there! In the corner of the hallway. I can hardly see its shape, but the eyes burn in the darkness. It growls. OMG, it must be one of the animals. It's gotten out!

It crawls around the ceiling, it's coming my way, people, this is it! I have to shoot it! There it comes!
<BANG BANG>

Tell... everyone... my... name... is...

<GRRRR-RRIIIPPPP>

Silence....

Sgt. Tough says: if you can still scream, it ain't so BAD!

Bunch of whining
maggots! Get your
garlic and stakes
in gear!
NOW!

OH MAN! THESE GUYS ARE TOO MUCH! FRICKING WHINO'S ALL THE TIME. It's all I ever see! Sent one vampire or zombie their way and all they can do is sulk and moan about their miserable existence and their bad luck!

Before long they're hauled up in some abandoned farm or shopping mall, trying to act like nothing happened while the world in falling apart around them. ARGH! I would grab them sons-of-mothers and SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS! I didn't go through three wars and five minor conflicts to be bitten by one of these walking casualties!

I'd take my AK-47 and give them a good talking-to! Then I'd light me up one of my Cubans and wash my sweaty face in their BLOOD! That's what I would do! Like the man said: "I came to kick-ass and chew bubblegum! And I'm all out of bubblegum!"

And the same goes for these mother-kissing VAMPIRES! What is this with their angelic faces and good manners? THEY'RE EVIL BLOODSUCKERS, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Now they're even sweet-talking our girls? What's the world coming to, I wonder.

If one of those would come up to my daughter and dare to make a pass at her, I'd show him who's boss. Maybe my trusty AK-47 won't work. And I don't go in for no hoity-toity crucifix or garlic, neither. A quick Bowie-knife straight through the heart would do the trick nicely, I'm sure. One for him and one for every member of his ancient, evil family! HAHAHA!

You know, men! This all reminds of the time I was sent behind enemy lines to enter this castle where they were doing God-knows-what. Had something to do with piecing together a human from corpses or something disgusting like that! I remember the kite high above the spiky tower and the whole score of monsters that came at me as I went up the spiral staircase. I could hear the demented laughter of the hunchback:
"He's coming, master, quickly now!"

Well, I gave them what was coming to them! Let him know who's BOSS. That's right! Mr. Tough isn't scared of nobody. Knee-deep in the dead I was and I still managed to KNOCK THEM DOWN! When I was through with them, there was NO CASTLE NO MORE! And as I swung to safety to the nearby treeline I could still hear the last thing that hunchback was saying:
"It's alive! ALIVE!"

Sometimes I still wake up screaming, hearing that. But I got the JOB DONE! And that's what counts!

So don't be a whining maggot, tough up, and make sure you're packing heat. If all else fails, shoot everyone and ask questions later. Let the good Lord sort them out, is what I always say!

Good Hunting!


Sgt. Tough!