Author: Linda Addison
Book: How to Recognize a Demon has Become Your Friend
In honor of the season, I’m sticking with horror — not my usual genre. Yet, I found this book of poems and short stories enjoyable despite (and in spite of) its dark nature. It’s the perfect Halloween read! It’s not your typical horror, like the masked guy with a chainsaw killing people.
No.
It’s “psychological horror” as the author herself, states. Many of the works in this book made me think — as good writing and poetry should. Linda caused me to question things, like mortality and what it means to die. Surprisingly, I concluded that death is not something to fear. The short stories left me wanting more. Linda has a huge and brilliant imagination. There is even some humor and sci-fi woven into the darkness. Check it out for this season of ghosts and ghouls.
To give you a taste of Linda’s style an excerpt from her book is below. Enjoy!
Yours in reading!
Author Lynne Hill-Clark
Lords and Commoners series and
A Woman’s World series
Dust to Dust
My remains have been rudely thrust into the ground without a coffin. There is something unfinished about the whole thing. I wish I could remember dying.
Gasses created in my intestines churn through useless blood vessels and dead tissue, inflating what was a thin body into something large and misshapen. My body fluids leak from every opening into the surrounding earth. There is life in me still, if I count the maggots feasting inside. I must smell and look horrible.
I now know where the soul lives. The enduring bones. Through my bones I’m connected to the earth around me. I hear the murmuring of others, their bones talking, praying, and calling out. The earth answers us, singing warmth and security.
Distant voices of pain cry in deep sadness. There is some horror there, I fear. Are they in Hell? It’s hard to imagine the earth that has been my comfort giving pain. The screams of those tortured souls recedes.
I measure time by the changes in the soft mass surrounding my bones. Gas-filled organs rupture and leak from under skin slippery with large blisters. Escaping fluid purges my maggot guests and allows the earth to move closer. I can’t wait until these soft parts rot away, to have all of my bones touched by earth. Here and there my skeleton is exposed.
Grains of dirt caress parts of my skull and fingers free of skin and tissue. The joy and peace flowing to me is like no feeling I can remember before I died.
There is randomness to my memory of the other side. The memories are fleeting, filled with the needs of the breathing soft body that covered my bones when I was alive. Moments of happiness and pain entangle, making the memories all but meaningless to capture. Nothing like the tranquility the earth gives me. The song of earth’s souls surrounding me is more beautiful than anything I’ve ever experienced. I could spend eternity with this song.
***
All the rotting meat is gone. Finally my bones are touched by earth. I am complete. The only thing better will be when my bones crumble and mix with the earth.
There is a subtle change in the song around me. It’s becoming distant. A white light covers my bones. The light comes towards me. There are others in the light. I’m being pulled into the light, back to the other side. I’m losing all of this. I don’t want to be smothered in organs, muscles and skin again. I don’t want to become deaf to the songs, to be a single, lonely body again.
I start to cry…
Addison, Linda. How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend . Crossroad Press. Kindle Edition.
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