A scarecrow to mock any crows. My costume from a few years ago. I love Halloween so much I wrote several books about it. One is kid’s story and the other is a craft book for the serious Halloween fanatic. You know who you are! The Halloweenies One and Two on amazon.com
ZOMBIE U.: A Tasty Sample
Prologue
Death Row holds no hope for me since all my legal appeals are now gone! Five years have passed and little has changed. My hopes and dreams are dashed since the full blame falls on me. All the physical evidence shows me to be a murderer: a vicious serial killer, the taker of many innocent lives. People see me as a monster, as hideous as anyone could possibly imagine. My madness has spread to make others suffer a terrible death. I went from hopeful to hopeless because the news media has made public opinion slanted against me.
“I am innocent!” I ranted over and over as I am walking inside, taking my final one hundred and twenty-three steps. This count is well known to anyone on Death Row. The cells have these numbers written all over the interior walls and floors.
“One, two, and three; each step means the end of me!” Death Row rings with this chant anytime someone leaves. They aren’t playing hopscotch! That’s for sure. Lethal injection will be how I meet my quick end. A regular clamor outside told me that today is to be my special day. People jeer and wave their protest signs in an effort to defeat the death penalty. There are twice as many people here today than yesterday. I stood on top of a bench to look out the high and narrow window. It is safer inside than being out there in the mob of people. Over the past few days the crowds of protesters clash on both sides of the issue. The National Guard comes to keep the peace when violence breaks out.
Prison guards bring me to the entry of the Death Chamber. I see rows of satellite trucks for the growing flock of news media. Laughter comes out of my mouth because sarcasm is the only emotion left untouched. Solitary confinement this past week makes me hunger for some human interaction just for the sake of hearing someone’s voice. Now there are too many angry voices. Most are calling for my death. The hecklers and the curious are the least of my problems. My guilt covers everything like a thick fog. I act brave but inside I shudder with fear and remorse. None of this changes anything.
A spectator throws a rock to hit me hard in the face. Pain tells me that life still belongs to me since my head now rings like a bell. Blood comes out of my nose and mouth to run down my neck. I use my shirt sleeve to wipe off the blood. Full shackles keep me from moving around too much. A doctor comes over to tend to me. I refuse his help. So much for wearing that bullet proof vest so that the authorities can kill me when I get inside! What is the purpose of protecting me from the crowd when I am about to die anyway? At this point how I meet my death does not really matter! Death has filled my every moment since my conviction for murder five years ago. Five appeals have only made the waiting more terrible. The state spent over a million dollars to try me in the courts and then to keep me alive until now. What a waste of good money! Kill me and put me out of my misery! The waiting and the indecision are the biggest battle. Guilt has killed me long before anything else will. My body is just an empty shell waiting to be disposed of like so much trash.
The clock shows that an hour is left until midnight. Inside the Death Chamber is a gallery full of all the various family members. Close friends of the numerous people that I am accused of killing are staring at me. None of my family is represented here. They would not help me if I were on fire! They were always jealous of my success. It is too late now for either of us. Most of all, here is some of Angela’s family who all looked like they could kill me solely with their looks of anger and contempt. They would love to have me alone for five minutes to do their worst to me. Seeing their concerned faces make me laugh. Where were they when she needed them so much?
“Now… they really care for her!”
Before I came along she was left on her own to work so many hours that her body and her school work suffered. She lived “hand to mouth” most of the time before I came along. She whined about it all the time. Even during sex. If it weren’t for her many boyfriends giving her physical and financial support, then she would have starved to death or been living on the street as a homeless person. Working minimum wage and part time could not support a hamster. Who could blame her for using her physical charms to her advantage? Many would do the very same thing. Today, that is the way of the world. The tough economy has hurt many people’s lives. All this did not change the facts of my guilt over killing Angela, and those that are affected by her actions that caused the largest number of mass murders in the history of this state. Just make me the scapegoat as the ring leader of the “Off Campus” murders! Many of these dead people would never be missed by anyone as far as I knew. Society has made whole groups of people valued like some trash to be placed in a vast dumpster. Only the rich elite have value. Everyone else is a pawn to be used at will. The same will be true of me since my life no longer holds anything of value.
Zombie University
A serial killer looks back on his life as he leaves Death Row for the last time. He faces death with the certainty that he is innocent. The families of those he killed wish him no mercy. He is setup to be the scapegoat for numerous murders and missing person’s cases. Someone has to take the blame. Before this he was highly respected in his field as a college professor and scientist. He was a child prodigy that excelled in math, science, and biology. He graduated early from high school and college to get his doctorate when his peers were being college freshmen.
Life has been great for Doctor William Melrose since he recently made some amazing medical discoveries. William taught at Ingram University while he did experiments with gene therapy to find a possible cure for cancer and organ rejection by growing new viable organs for transplant into humans. He applied for grants and patents making him able to purchase a rare radioactive isotope that came from a returning Icarus space probe. Doctor Melrose tries to bind unique cells to repair the genetic flaws that often cause disease and premature death. His plans are to make new and unique strands of stem cells to fight disease and stop the spread of cancer.
All his time and effort has been about completing his education and making new scientific discoveries. This left little time for personal relationships with anyone. This is where Doctor William Melrose is lacking with basic knowledge about real life situations. Melrose teaches biology to a failing student named Angela. She becomes his girlfriend to teach him what books do not. She also takes him down a path that leads to his destruction.
This work includes a bonus piece of flash fiction: “Living by the Sword.” Also a commentary “Horror and Its Roots in Our Primal Fears and Realities.” https://twitter.com/FamiliarBlevins/status/212628864181084161 http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-U-Mr-Joe-Blevins/dp/1477540466/
Pride Comes Before the Fall
November 20, 1639. Willia still objected to Warren’s control. She complained like she does to me. I am use to this because we are friends. He grew tired of her so he raised his left hand up high. She was raised off the floor to almost where her head touched the high ceiling of the room. Fire and lightning flew from his fingertips. Willia quickly died and she was thrown into the fireplace where she burned with a terrible fire! An awful smell filled the room. Panic filled my thoughts. Stephen ran over to Warren because he objected over his actions. Warren raised his left hand and Stephen was raised up high. Fire flew out of Warren’s fingers. Stephen’s body flew across the room and he too burned up in the fireplace! The fireplace crackled and sparked like dry cedar is burning. I was scared so I lay prone on the floor humbling myself. I cried and shuddered with grief. My life would soon be over as far as anything truly known to me!
The longest time passed. Warren tapped me on the shoulder as I raised my head to look at him. He smiled as he moved his left index finger back and forth as he shook his head “No!” Now, I get the message, so there was no more contempt from me! He just wants to deal with me and no one else at this time. He has my full attention.
“I won’t be trifled with! Do you understand?”
I bowed with humility and said “Yes. You are my new partner to act in their place.”
Warren said, “Very good. Now I am your new master…not your lowly partner! Now, do we fully understand each other?!”
“Yes. I will do as you command.” My body shook uncontrollably from fear. He holds all the control. Again I am their puppet on the strings. They pull the strings and I am their fool. Nothing has changed. Magic has only made me its slave!
For a short time I was in charge of my own life. I wanted more power and more money thinking that this would bring me some happiness. This was my fault for my own spirit to be so bold and proud. Now I see the error of my ways and nothing can change this to be right again. Now Willia and Stephen’s ghosts stand in front of the fireplace waiting to do his bidding. They remind me of an empty turtle shell by the way they now appear. They look hollow and wanting. They plead with me to help them be returned to their mortal bodies. Warren grows tired so he sends them away until he has need of them. He turns to walk away from me because he is not worried about me. He can find me when he has need of me.
I went to my room to cry and find some solace to this strange new situation. Inside my room there are tears for my friends because we now have no comfort from each other. Our séance has opened the door to something terrible and now it has a strong hold on us! They are dead and I am all alone to ponder my fate and future. I get deeper into trouble like a peat bog. The more I tried to fight it, the deeper it gets. There is no way to escape this strange warlock but to heed his words or soon perish. Warren’s magic has the power of many fiery demons and my magic is like a candle that can be easily snuffed out.
Losing Control
Warren left me alone for a few days so there was time to think about things. He knew that my fear was his best weapon against me. His is quite correct to think so. Warren’s presence was felt all around the house, so there was little sleep for most nights. He enjoyed his hold over me so he was not worried over me going anywhere. My dreams are filled with the events of my past life. I think about my wife and my life back in England. I dreamed about the long boat trip across the Atlantic. I see the birds and the shore of the first land that we spotted. There were knots in my stomach and I sweated. The many days I spent working to raise corn and tobacco with some natives I hired for a few trade goods and a chance to sleep in the cow shed. Then the bad drought that came and the sudden deaths of the native people that helped us farm. My dreams then change to Salem where I slept in the cemetery. I saw Willia as I was burying Stephen. I fell into his grave because I was ill from the scurvy. Then I watched my own demise and the lunar eclipse that changed me to what I am now. The witches I met were peculiar but these spirits that came with Warren made the witches seem almost like some normal folks. I tried to sleep some but I awoke when there was a loud knock at the door.
The maid came to clean, only to find the many odd bones in the fireplace. She then saw both their skulls piled in the firebox. The maid now fully knew what she was dealing with! Warren made her clean them up and hide their bones in an old trunk. Then he used magic to make her forget the incident. She had to be about the village so she could return home and not raise some trouble against us. He now has her to spread the story that Stephen and Willia have left for Boston to take care of an ailing father. Warren has all the notions on what to do to make things go well. Lies come easily to a liar! He is no novice. It was hard not be scared of him and still admire his tactics all the while. We have done all the hard work and he comes in to take the business and my friends away! Anger filled me as my form changed to a ram that knocked the west wall to pieces. I kicked out the southern window and tried to run for the hills. From a safe distance I watched the house. It is too cold so I return.
Warren comes in and he claps his hands together as it brings the window glass and wall back together like it was supposed to be. My form changes back to a familiar. He patiently scolds me for having a bad fit of anger. He acted more like a concerned father today than my tormentor. His tactics are to be more of a mentor since he has heard me cry out as I was a terrible drunk many nights. I am little use to him in such a bad state. He must have a great need of me for the present time. This Warren is a cunning and vicious creature that has some grand plans for his future schemes. My fear of him kept me from being too haughty or out of my proper place. He knows this fact as he delights in this place of refuge where he feels safe from any discovery. This same notion is something that was considered when we all moved here. Why did we move here? It was to start over here by feeling “brand new” with a clean slate. Now this warlock and his legion of demons wish to rewrite the history of the past as they make a new future here. This is not what I had in mind.
Lock your doors
And say your prayers
For evil abounds Everywhere!
The Familiar: A Gothic tale of terror.
Now available from Black Bed Sheet Books on December 8th, 2011.
http://blackbedsheet.goshopper.net/i/244657/the-familiar.htm
Priced for $3.95 as a sensible gift for your new Kindle, Nook, iPad, Sony Reader, iPhone, Kobo, and BeBook formats!
Joe Blevins will be in London, England as part of the London Book Festival on January 25th, 2012!
The Familiar will be available as an E-book at Black Bed Sheet Books on Sunday December 4th! Nicholas Grawbowsky has made the new book version which is even better than the print version and at a nicely discounted price of $10 or less! That Kindle is screaming for some new media! Keep me in mind as the Christmas season comes and you consider a new and unique gift to give. All versions are friendly to all media devices and downloads. My hope is to go to London and New England in January for their respective book festivals. Stay tuned. Thank you for your kind support and encouragement to me. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year!
Jingle all the way...
2011 Halloween Book Festival Winners List
The Familiar wins a place in the Halloween Book Festival for an Honorable Mention for Fiction. Out of over 2,000 entries the judges had some difficult decisions to make over which books merit closer promotion and recognition as the Holiday buying season draws near.
The festival was judged by Robert Engleman producer of the Blade series, who have done the series “Falling Skies” and “True Blood” the most popular series. The award ceremonies are being held in Hollywood, California at the Roosevelt Hotel where the first Academy Awards were held. The festival is part of the 2011 Aliens to Zombies Convention (The A to Z Convention) in Hollywood, CA.
The Familiar is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds as it is now available as a new Kindle format in the United Kingdom and France through Amazon.co.uk and amazon.co.fr.
The Familiar-Summary:
A larger coven of witches comes to Salem for the first full lunar eclipse of the winter solstice in over three hundred seventy four years. They drug the man to make him their slave. When he is found drunk in possession stolen jewelry from a grave, he is sentenced to be hung. The witches give him a strange potion that mimics death. The authorities bury him thinking he is already dead. The rare lunar eclipse during the winter solstice passes. He emerges from the grave a changed: now he is in the form of a large cat that changes into the form of a man during the full moon. His powers allow him to be charming and gamble to control others with a “second-sight” ability he lacked before. He can change to many forms of beast when his life is threatened. He can see what scares someone the most to use that against them. He takes the name Winston Rupert Wallace. Winston uses his new powers to build great wealth to become an entrepreneur who controls a big part of New Amsterdam. Willia and her brother Stephen join Winston to buy some ships to move goods up and down the eastern seaboard. They use their powers and influence to build New Amsterdam into a thriving city to live.
Willia conjures up a member of the Roanoke expedition named Sir Christopher Warren. He is a warlock who comes to take control of all their lives. He seeks the ancient Book of Spells that Willia has hidden during the Salem witch trials when many innocents were persecuted and some real witches hid from the community and some paranoid officials. Follow the adventures of Winston, Willia and Stephen as they use their magical powers to make themselves filthy rich and popular. They fight the evil influence of Warren to make a decent life in New Amsterdam, the future New York City.
Contents:
Life in Salem
A Time in Prison
The Coming Lunar Eclipse
Moving Along the East Coast
Aboard the Wallace
Willia and Stephen return
Evil Finds its Way Around
The Tempest and the Tempters
The Crystal Ball
The Séance
Pride Comes Before the Fall
Losing Control
The Book of Spells
Blackbirds Fall from the Sky like Rain
Gone to Boston
The Evil Eye
The Lord Mayor of New Amsterdam
All Hollow’s Eve
Captain Anderson and the Winston return
The Trade with the Algonquian Nations
The Chupacabra
Breaking Our Ties with Warren
Willia and Stephen go back to New Orleans
The Missionary
Epilogue -the Present Day
Glossary of Seventeenth Century Words
As an author of seven books my intent is always to write something suitable for adults and young adults to read. Adults need good books as well as young adults these days. As a teacher of ten years my own experience is that often people do not read enough in their younger years. Adults also want something good to read that provokes their interests. Often adults have fewer choices that interest them. The many distractions of modern life often takes away from people using their imagination and their natural sense of wonder about events and people that lived in the past. Our busy lives have often robbed us of some quiet time for ourselves. My experience in various reading programs has taught me that making something interesting and challenging to read took some time and much consideration.
The use of the English language in The Familiar is that of a person living in the seventeenth century with certain words shown in italics being listed in a glossary in the back of the book. The reader gets a sense of the times and the events. I did all the illustrations to add to the book to make the mystery and excitement grow. This adds to the adventure and the lure of the story. We learn about adventure, about several native cultures, and the new settlers coming to early America. It is about how people actually lived in a different time and place. Their lives are different in many ways but some of their basic struggles mirror our own. Times change but people’s characters do not. On top of this is a good scary story like you might hear over the campfire on a long winter’s evening. It is a scary story and an adventure as you see how a man coming to the New World to find riches only found more than he could bargain for. His life takes unexpected twists and turns as he goes to Salem to see if he can find work. Winston saves a drowning man to find himself put in prison for helping an escaped slave.
Prisoners from England are sent to the New World to work to build a fort on Long Island. He sent there to die since most men do not survive the harsh conditions in a rock quarry. A prison revolt happens and he helps stop the death of many men: prisoners and guards. He survives by writing letters for many people to their families. The corrupt warden has him work in his household to fix the records of his theft of food and money set to feed the prisoners. The warden is found out in his deception when an auditor comes. Winston gets a reprieve only to have his past haunt him as he goes back to find work. He fails terribly to provide for himself. He can only find work as a lowly grave digger. He falls down from scurvy that left him almost crippled. Willia helps him as she buries her brother Stephen. She helps him by giving him medicine from her apothecary where she collects herbs and native medicines to sell. She is a practicing witch with plans for Winston. Winston falls under the spell of a coven of witches to do their bidding. He becomes a “changed person” as he almost dies and he is buried. He emerges the grave to find that his life is not his own. He takes on the power of magic to free himself only to find that magic has made him a slave to its will. Willia congers up the spirit of a powerful warlock to assist them in their magic. This survivor of the Roanoke expedition turns the tables to make them his slaves.
Lock your doors And say your prayers
For evil abounds
Everywhere!
The Familiar: A Gothic tale of terror
Horror has always been a popular medium because it preys on our deepest fears and secret desires. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Dracula, The Hounds of the Baskerville’s, Frankenstein, 1001 Arabian Knights, Pet Cemetery, and the list goes on. What is that thing that goes bump in the night? We are scared and still want to know, even if we can’t readily admit it! The desire to unlock the door to our fear and psyche has been a part of who we are since we have walked upright as a human. If you can dream it, fear it or even love it, then there is some chance to find a story lurking there! It is a premise that only lurks waiting for its chance to pounce upon the unexpected reader: an old house with a reputation of being haunted, or a stranger who seems dark and aloof because he is a serial killer, a babysitter all alone late at night, a terrible family curse, a mad scientist who is a twisted doctor with visions of grander. All of these things add up to many of the fantastic stories that the true horror reader cherishes like a dark and scary valentine.
Fantasy and fear have its roots in factual details. The laws of nature have always been under close scrutiny by those who sought answers to those mysteries that defy rational explanation. We find ourselves on the grand breakthrough of many scientific advances, but at what risk to ourselves? Do we open up a Pandora’s Box to try to cure something like cancer or do we possibly create something much worse like the viruses some doctors falsely try to cure with antibiotics to only make stronger bacteria that won’t eradicate easily. These might kill thousands to leave the world uninhabited but by a few fortunate persons. Such are the details of many movies and books.
Cancer seems to be caused by unique forms of viruses that are common to our world. Combinations of these affect the human body to change and disfigure what is considered normal. These are the monsters who form the basis for the aliens we should fear, not the odd creatures that emerge from a stunning metallic spacecraft but from something so small that hundreds of thousands might fit on the head of a single straight pin. Then the science fiction of the transplantation of human organs was once fearful as the monster of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. But today such things are common place in the transplantation of numerous human organs from hearts, livers, kidneys, blood vessels, skin, stem cells, and bone marrow. Hands and faces and various body parts have been implanted as well as new artificial ones. These things seemed far-fetched and bordered on fantasy just a century ago. These are removed from corpses and some living donors. Now they are common place and accepted as common practice to restore those that have been affected by malaise. What would have Shelly thought of such things if she could see them in our modern perspective? Past generations would have seen such things as fiendish or even bordering on the realms of witchcraft and sorcery. Magic was really defined by the effects of drugs on an innocent person. Early Salem had stories of those people affected by such incidents of being influenced by the drugs of witches being imposed by the fear of black magic. These things were unthinkable and the figment of someone’s nightmarish visions. Now how do we answer these riddles that life offers? Horror authors reach the length and breathe of the imagination. These offer what seems a possible explanation. It is only limited to what we can imagine and fear the most. Death and malaise plant the seeds of fear of the unknown. Fear is a blank canvas that can be filled with our dreams of success and possible threat of failure. How to best quell our remorse over possible failure or how to best postpone our terrible death?
Success is paved by those that failed numerous times and built upon the knowledge of others. That knowledge depends on how well we understand our true human natures. Horror begins in these places where fear and doubt meet our vivid imaginations. We seek answers to explain what we do not know. For as long as man has been around there have been stories of the unexplained has filled our distant memories. How we deal with them to explain the world around us is the answer to what makes horror so popular through the ages. What we read today as horror or fantasy might be the scientific fact in another time. It is up to us what we make of it. Do we dare to dream or do we live in fear of what we dare not try to understand? Horror and fantasy gives us those answers to what the unknown holds. It reaches out to grab our fears and make them seem rational and reasonable. This gives us hope for all the possibilities that death denies and life still holds dear. So when you hear that next bump in the night, just ask yourself: “What was that, really?!”
Over the past year I have got to know Nickolas Grabowsky CEO of Black Bed Sheet Books. He is associated as a writer and with the last of the Halloween movie franchise. He is an awesome guy that is leaving a great impression on the independent publishing industry.
He can often be found on Blog Talk Radio on Sunday nights with his fiancé Francy Weatherman on Francy and Friends. The show is 10 PM Central and 11 PM Eastern in the US.
Thirteen time New York Times bestselling author Craig Spector will be on Blog Talk Radio on Sunday August 14th.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/francy/2011/06/13/rolling-out-the-red-carpet-for-craig-spector
If you want to know what is new and hot off the presses then tune in and hear about new works that are worthy of your time and money.
This is the link to the newest Black Bed Sheet Books Catalog:
http://downwarden.com/Black%20Bed%20Sheet%20Books%20Catalog%20Summer%20Fall%202011.pdf
A good read is often hard to find these days. Mr. Grabowsky offers some of the newest and best authors of the Gothic genre.
Regards, J Blevins Author of The Familiar
familiartales 