Zombie Spectacular: We Are What We Eat!

So... every once in a while a blogger gets an e-mail containing a new idea, a new book, new short story, new movie, new something. And even fewer times the idea actually is very cool. Such is the case with the new zombie spectacular We Are What We Eat.

We Are What We Eat is a short film centering around Nicole, a high school girl that, after a disturbing 'joke' on her way back from school, wonders if her best friend has become a zombie and, since she has a weird wound on her leg, is she will become a zombie as well.

The crew shot most of the film in 2 days (a staggering 220 shots), but except for a couple of awkward shots and could-have-been-better line delivery, the film does not show the rush. The pacing is fast, the camera work is good and the acting is decent. The awkward shots are basically caused by a desire to find new and interesting point-of-views and in most cases they succeed wonderfully, which makes for the few times they don't.

The film's first screening was on April 27th in Seattle for the NFFTY (that's National Film Festival for Talented Youth, for those of you not familiar with this acronym) and then was invited to play it on the Zombie Voodoo Festival all over the US of A! Since that first screening, Darien has secured major screenings all over the place! Check it out here. There maybe one near you.

Darien Davis and Sam Toller are two very young, but very talented men who have put together this amazing short that is gathering momentum quickly and will probably catapult the two into the movie-making industry. If you get a chance to go and see their film during one of the upcoming screenings, I would highly recommend you do so.

In the meantime, check them out at the We Are What We Eat Blog!

Yours truly, as always, Marcel

I'm BACK (Don't give up)!

You after sticking with it...

Hey everybody,

after a two-month hiatus which involved two bruised ribs and a broken collar bone (don't ask), I decided to get back to Floating Robes. In the meantime I've watched loads of movies, loafed around the house and popped my painkillers (what else can you do?)

I've revised some of my older stories and sent them off to the magazines. Alas, so far without any success. I'm not worried, though. And you know why? Because I believe in my stories. They're like my little soldiers that I send out into the world after I drilled them thoroughly into being lean, mean horror machines! And once I've taught them to be independent, self-thinking, beautiful, nasty little gems, I unleash them! Then it's all up to them to wow and beguile those editors and slushpile readers!

Sometimes they do, but most of the times they come back, head hanging and feeling miserable. I leave them for a few days, sulking on the couch, before I send them out again. And every once in awhile they do find a home and I'm oh so proud of them! My little bloody angels with their crooked teeth and scarred cheeks and forked tongues!

What I'm trying to say in my own rambling, round-about way, is that even IF we send our stories off to magazines and we get them back after a two-month wait with a form rejection saying: "Thanks but no thanks," (literally, once) DO NOT FRET. Do not bang you head against the wall, don't slam your fingers in the door, don't despair, don't threaten to jump off the highest building in your beautiful little corner of the world.

Just revise the story, recognize what's wrong with it, fix it and find another market for it. It may take five, ten, sometimes twenty times, but I'm sure that the right one is out there!

And then, when your story appears in some up-market magazine with your name printed in point-48 Helvetica on the cover and a full centerspread interview inside, and it's picked up by some Hollywood hotshot to make it into a full-length critically acclaimed blockbuster film, you can be sure all the other editors will eat their little form rejection slips in agony while the rest of their lifes a little voice in their heads go: "You passed on that, you passed on that...".

Did I mention I developed a taste for coffee while I was out? You may have noticed.

Long story short: DO NOT GIVE UP!

Hm. That's basically all I needed to say, wasn't it.

Thank you for listening.

Marcel

Night Gypsy: Journey into Darkness now available to pre-order!

Pre-order now!

Night Gypsy: Journey into Darkness, the great new anthology from Indie Gypsy, is now available to pre-order from Amazon! This is your chance to get in on the ground floor! Get it today!

The Night Gypsy Anthology will feature some of the best new horror writers on the international stage. It will have around 25 stories of dark drama with a heavy emphasis on the personal journey into darkness! Make sure to check out the Facebook page and hit the Like-button!

Indie Gypsy is a small publishing company with a wide variety of movie, music and literature projects in production, but that's just the way they like it! The tastes of the editors are plenty and wide, ranging from literature to cooking, so there will always be something interesting going on. Have a look at what they're all about at www.indiegypsy.com.

Marcel

What a story may become! Macabre by Michael L. Kersting

Not so long ago, I published a free story here on Floating Robes. It was Macabre by Michael L. Kersting. If you've missed it, click here!

Recently, Michael sent me this e-mail:

"Hi Marcel, thanks for publishing my short story "Macabre" on your site "Floating Robes"! The synopsis was well written. I appreciate it. I forgot to mention it was also recorded by "Skive Magazine" publisher Matt Ward on PRX. See below and perhaps you will want to hear it. Well thanks again, and have a Happy and Prosperous new year 2012.! Michael Lance Kersting"

I love the fact that things get a follow-up and this was a very nice surprise. Of course, we wish Michael all the best for the future.

Michael's Audio Story

If you have a story, you'd like to see published, please do not hesitate to sent it in. I can't offer you anything except a few extra pageviews, but it may be a nice way to find a home for those shelfed stories.


Regards,

Marcel

The Best of Floating Robes!

Don't worry, we'll start at ten!

After two years of blogging and receiving lots of e-mails, comments, pageviews, hits, click-throughs, backlinks and what not, I've found there are a couple of posts that still garner interest, even after it has disappeared of the blog roll long ago.

So, back by dope demand:

10) Bag of Bones for Sale - I found this on the Internet one day when I was looking for a skull which was to be the cover of my book Beneath Dark Waters. It just seemed funny and a testament that you can find anything on the internet.

9) WTF Movie of the Week: Event Horizon! - Not so old, yet, but well on it's way to become one of the classics. Since it's introduction in 2011, the WTF Movie of the Week has proven a big hit. It allows me put hidden horror gems (or good movies lacking an enormous marketing budget) in the limelight where they belong. I'm happy you feel the same.

8) The Making of 'Beneath Dark Waters' - I'm happy this is included here. My little behind-the-scenes treatise of my first self-published book was a joy for me to write since it deals with the place I grew up in. It gave me a chance to explain some of the characters and landscape I know so well. If you haven't read it yet, do it. It'll give the book an extra dimension.

7) Just plain cool wedding cakes! - A fun post done when my wife and I were checking for cool designs for our wedding cake. Most of these are around on the internet and if you get your girlfriend to order one of these, please let me know where I went wrong!

6) Real life ghosts - Written in a time I wasn't exactly sure what Floating Robes was going to be, this is one of the classics. It just keeps popping up every now and again. They're freaky pics, though. Goose bumps guaranteed.

5) Ten most inspirational horror songs - Inspired by my playlist while running two years ago, this is my personal list of beloved horror songs. I'm happy a lot of you agree! I was surprised by the amount of feedback I got on this one. I always thought I was the only one with Murder in the Red Barn on nr. 1.

4) Welcome to the circus. Juggling a home life, day job, writing career and hobbies all at one! - A bit of a personal post, it deals with my life in 2010. It hasn't changed much. But now I know that I'm not the only one.

3) Top Ten Short Stories of Horror Literature! - My first blog hit! An enormous amount of replies and feedback. Apparently I hit a nerve. I love short literature (both writing and reading) and I'm happy I'm not the only one!

2) Doing what you want: not always easy! - Again a personal post that hit it big. It deals with the running-up to my first publication and the real importance in writing: just having fun! Once again, find your own voice and don't bother with what other people say! Only then will you find that one different voice that everybody's looking for.

1) 10 Tips for the Succesful Integration of Zombies in Human Society - Written after watching an episode of the Walking Dead, it was a joke that went horribly right! The next day I had a big number of backlinks and a couple of good comments, among which 'Hahahaha' and 'LOL'. And that makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

And that's it for now. I hope there will be many more in the future and I hope in two years time, the list will look somewhat different. You can make that happen!

Take Care,

Marcel