A Frome Writers’ Collective: what a great idea! It has always surprised me that I could never seem to find writers, or local resources for them, in the Frome area … Continue reading The FWC – Who Are You? Blog Hop
Category: The Blog
Dok Haze’s Circus of Horrors: The Night of the Zombie – a review
Roll up, roll up, for the greatest show on Earth and below: Dok Haze’s Circus of Horrors is in town. Frome Town to be exact.
I was pleased to see a good cross-section of Frome’s wonderful people waiting in the theatre foyer from Vans and Dolce&Gabbana trainers, a classic monster movies print dress (so cool!) to knitted flowerpot hats and M&S casual daywear.
As people took their seats, Nosferatu crept up and down the aisles silently choosing vibrant victims for his pleasure.
The show burst into life with screaming riffs and heavy drums. Immediately, I thought I was at Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare show (in Detroit, no less). In fact, I read in the Tour Brochure, which I had purchased from a very healthy-looking Zombie girl, that Mr Cooper made a special appearance at one of the COH’s shows – kudos, Mr Haze.
The scene was set for us. After the blood of two virgins (the Sinister Sisters) seeps into London’s rotting plague victims, the dead begin to rise. I heard screams from behind me. I turned and saw a wave of zombies crawling over the heads of the audience. Great touch. Welcome to the Circus of Horrors: The Night of the Zombie!
The hard rock intro was to be the soundtrack for the evening, driving the action on with electrified energy and it suited the performance tremendously as the audience were treated to sword and cutlass swallowing, knife throwing, fire-breathing, hair-hanging feats, aerialists, acrobats, and dancing girls.
The ‘relief’ came from Nosferatu, a camp vampire who fails at card tricks, and Captain Dan who is a rather proud member of the COH. Their crazy antics managed to shock a few members of the audience. (Poor Benji).
And that was the first half.
I thought it was slow to pick up after the interval but it got there especially with the dancing skeletons, and from then on it was a hoot with some great visual displays that made the audience applaud, cheer and gasp.
The climax was like a rock show, and at one point I heard Dok Haze shout at the crowd as if he was Ozzy Ozbourne!
I’ve never known the Memorial Theatre to rock, but it certainly did tonight thanks to the Circus of Horrors and all the talented performers who put on a great show.
Today is …
Happy World Book Day!
Speculative Valentine Drabbles 2015
Appearing in Speculative Valentine Drabbles 2015 (edited by Roy C Booth and Jorge Salgado-Reyes), The Banshee’s Gift is a one hundred word love story that is overflowing with passion and … Continue reading Speculative Valentine Drabbles 2015
The Jukebox Series – the lemon song
The posts in this series aren’t going to be witty, and probably not even interesting. They’re not going to be a social commentary, or a sermon, and I don’t expect comments. They will be just a bunch of very short recollections of things that have made smile. I hope they make you smile too.
There are several moments in my life which I remember vividly, this includes the music that was playing at the time. Music is very important to me. It provides an energy; a buzz that spurs me on through the day.
I’d like to share the songs that have stuck with me and the memories they conjure whenever I hear them. Thought I’d start with The Lemon Song by Led Zeppelin.
Over twelve years ago I was seeing a girl who lived in a flat several miles outside London. I lived three hours away and every Friday evening I would ride the distance to stay at her place for the weekend.
Early on Saturdays I would wake, go into the kitchen, and brew some coffee. When I was there the very first morning, I heard the girl pad to the bathroom. I turned, looked down the hall and saw that she had not shut the door and was standing facing the sink with her back to me. She wore nothing but a sarong tied low on her hips. Her legs were straight as she leaned slightly forward and used her left hand to draw her long dark hair clear of her face. That girl stole a piece of my heart as she brushed her teeth.
This tune was playing at the time:
Misconceptions, Notices … and Regrets.
When I was a boy I held the misconception that adults knew what they were talking about. Discovering that they didn’t was a relief, on the whole. However, some things should just be known.
I took a relative to hospital yesterday and as I was sitting in the waiting room I spotted a notice written on a white-board, which read:
THERE WILL BE A TWO MINUTE’S SILENCE AT 11.00 AM TO DAY
At first, I was comforted by Remembrance Day being marked by the NHS and the opportunity to tune into the collective consciousness given to the sick. Then I noticed the errors. I have never been part of the Grammar Police, so maybe it was my age, or the fact that it was a wet, wintry day, or the promise of a four-hour wait, that stirred my irritation, but I don’t think so. When I had children, I found that many of the things which had never really mattered were suddenly carved in stone tablets and hung from my neck while some bearded gent bellowed them constantly from a mountain just in case I’d forget.
The urge to walk over to the white-board and amend the notice was huge. With a little sleight of hand, my finger could erase the rogue apostrophe. The other mistakes would be more taxing. A pen, nay a dry-wipe marker pen, would be needed – I ended up wanting to rewrite the notice. Of course, there wasn’t a marker handy in case some vandal tampered with the important information, or some bored detainee doodled to pass the hours. I would have to ask the receptionist if I could borrow one.
I didn’t ask for the marker. I took out my own pen and wrote a blog post about misconceptions, notices … and regrets. I didn’t look at that sign again: my frustration was out on paper and I was content knowing that I was prepared to correct the mistakes. It was only when I left, that I regretted not having a smudge of ink on my fingertip.
Killion Slade and Me
I had a blast with Killion Slade, the ace husband and wife writing team, when they interviewed me about my story, Pigeon, featured in Sekhmet Press LLC’s Wrapped In Black anthology.
Read the interview on Killion Slade
’s blog
22 More Quick Shivers (Vol 2, 2014)
This piece of drabble is featured in the 22 More Quick Shivers anthology from DailyNightmare.com. As the story is only a hundred words writing a synopsis, I think, would act … Continue reading 22 More Quick Shivers (Vol 2, 2014)
Wrapped in Black anthology (2014)
Maddie followed the path straight to the Goddess; she knew the Goddess took care of her own. ‘Pigeon’ is leaving readers “breathless”. Find it among twelve other wicked tales of … Continue reading Wrapped in Black anthology (2014)
Eric Nash 