Excerpt: The Son of A Mad Father

"It was to have been an ordinary court martial. Had that been the case the accused would have been tried, judged and executed for heinous crimes and that would have been the end of it.

But the thing was it was not ordinary in the least. That is the accused was not your run of the mill soldier. He was from a prominent family and that quite changed everything.

The decision to hold an inquiry rather than a court martial was not unexpected. I just didn’t expect it to involve me.

I am not even in the military but merely an aide to the present Home Secretary.

“Please see about this business, it’s rather something that needs your attention…”

The inquiry was held in my office and if that was odd the whole thing got odder still. The day finally arrived and I was about to hear the testimony from an eye witness, a young lad by the name of Briscoe.

He looked very nervous. I wished to put him at ease.

“This is merely an inquiry, Cpl. Briscoe. But I want to know exactly what happened.”

“Well sir, we had the enemy in our sights. They weren’t 200 yards from us. Captain Stockton-Ripley was firing. But then suddenly he was hit. He let out a scream and went topside. He had apparently decided to charge the enemy single handedly. The thing was sir; he killed several of his own men along the way; men who had merely said they would cover him. Still screaming he even fired at an ambulance crew…!”

“Go on.”

“It was terrible carnage. Terrible, there were scores of dead and dying.”

I thanked the lad and called my next witness.

“You are a doctor at Orchard Hospital, Dartford is that right?”

“Yes I am.”

“I see from your report that there have been more killings.”

“Oh yes, it hasn’t stopped. He’s even cannibalized one of his doctors…and killed three nurses...”

The testimony was unbelievable. But there had been reports about him. High Command was abuzz with this and frankly nearly all of England was too. You see Robert Stockton-Ripley’s father is Lord Ripley who happens to sit in the House of Lords. His mother was one of the Stockton Girls; the youngest being the present Duchess of Blye.

Terrible acts of violence though they were it was all going to be handled carefully. It’s just the way things are.

So here we all were discussing these atrocities when in fact the parents hadn’t even felt obliged to contact me or any of my staff. I was quite put out but not really surprised. I decided before doing anything else to visit them. I was going to at least have the satisfaction of asking some questions.

(end of excerpt) 

In this horror collection you'll find stories of vampires, zombies, murderous midgets, demon clowns, evil dolls, haunted cemeteries, a real shop of horrors, taxidermy gone haywire, serial killers and more! 

Your worst fears and nightmares dished up for you with extra helpings of blood-curdling terror!

Review: 

"There is no doubt that she soars above the endless parade of independent horror authors to shine as a true star in the darkness. With the brilliant anthology House of Horrors she proves why she is a perennial favorite. To put it simply, this is a great assembly of tales anyone would be proud to have in their collection"

~Joshua Skye

DARK MEDIA

AMAZON 

IS ONE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR PERCEPTION OF CLOWNS?

Now, I happen to think clowns can be scary looking--not always, but very often. I think one person is responsible for that. The serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. He dressed as a clown to entertain children in hospitals. Now, I don't know if he realized just how evil he looked in the clown makeup, but he looked pretty scary to me!

Eventually, he was executed for having murdered thirty young men. I never forgot him or the case. 

If he isn't solely responsible for generating fear of clowns (among some of us), he's partially responsible. They scare us. We don't know what they're like under that clown makeup. 

The novel I evenutally wrote was a bit of a departure for me. My longer fiction tends to be Gothic vampires, lusty--sexy and well, vampires just being vampires!

My shorter fiction is different. Two years ago I wrote a short story which is included in my Carole Gill's House of Horrors collection. It was about a circus.

I liked the premise so much that over time, the characters began growing in my head. I mean they were being slowly developed without me doing anything. When that happens, writers know they have a novel.

When the characters were forming in my imagination I saw different sorts of men as these clowns. I didn't see serial killers like Gacy. I saw damaged human beings who kill and cannibalize what they kill. They are so messed up and warped, it is the only way they can 'get back at the world.' 

Still, they are sensitive and surprisingly caring sometimes. There are three of them in this novel. Each was horrifically abused as children. Their faces are badly scarred. They cover those scars with clown makeup. And really, clown makeup is a mask. Who knows what's under the mask? Anything could be. 

My poor clowns are warped and insane and they know it. They are part of a travelling circus that has seen better days. Each character has secrets but no one has a more surprising secret than the owner's son. He no longer remembers what it is, age took its toll. His son knows and has killed because of it. 

A man shows up one night--a stranger who wants to help them. He does. He wins them over. Things are going to change he promises, they surely do. 

I don't think horror should be without purpose. All of the elements of horror should be there  like gore. Gore can embellish a story but it should never be the story. 

I also think that cruelty and abuse, especially meted out to children can produce damaged adults. And if evil is drawn to evil like a magnet and happens to become part of a circus--well, it's going to be a hell of a show, literally. 

Succubus and demons are there, but they're present mainly to seduce and beguile. 

No animals are present, by the way! This is a different sort of circus remember, the 'animals' were conjured. They're not real. Only the horror and damnation is. 

AMAZON