Happy Hanuukah

The eight-day Jewish celebration of Hanuukah (or the Festival of Lights) commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem where, according to legend, the Jews rose up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors during the Maccabean Revolt in the second century BCE.  After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, his vast empire was divided between his generals, with Seleucus I getting territory that encompassed Israel all the way to India.

At first the Seleucid kings allowed the Jews to practice their own religion.  But then in a total reversal of policy Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered all the Jews to worship Greek gods.  When they refused, in 168 BCE, he descended on Jerusalem, massacring thousands of people and desecrating the Jewish holy Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within its sacred walls.

In the wake of this desecration, a large-scale rebellion broke out against the Seleucid monarchy.  The rebellion was led by Jewish priest Mattahias and his five sons.  When he died, his son Judah Maccabee took command of the rebellion and successfully drove the Syrians out of Jerusalem.  Judah called for his followers to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild its altar and light its menorah, the golden candelabrum whose seven branches represent knowledge and creation.

And this brings us to the miracle which Hanuukah celebrates.  According to the Talmud, one of Judaism’s most central texts, Judah Maccabee and the others who took part in the rededication of the Second Temple witnessed what they believed to have been a miracle:   There was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, but the flames kept flickering for eight nights, giving those rededicating the Temple time to find a fresh supply of oil.

Judah Maccabee defeating the Seleucid forces at the Second Temple

Hanukkah is rich in traditions.

The first revolves around lighting the nine-branched menorah.  On each of the holiday’s eight nights, another candle is added to the menorah after sundown.  The ninth candle is called the shamash (the helper) and is used to light the others.  It is typical to recite blessings during the ritual and to display the menorah prominently in a window to remind others of the miracle that inspired the holiday. Another tradition revolves around food fried in oil.  Potato pancakes known as latkes and jam-filled donuts known as sufhaniyot are eaten in many Jewish homes. Though not fried, a food item that’s steeped in tradition is gelt, or chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil.  The traditions continue in the playing if games, specifically the game of Dreidel with a four-sided spinning top.  And of course, there is gift giving, where most families exchange small, sentimental gifts, like books, games, and even food items, that harken the holiday’s true meaning and grass roots. Lastly, and this is just as important as everything else, the official colors of Hanukkah are blue and white, so wrapping paper and decorations adorning packages and houses will naturally be a bright festivity of blue and white.

From all of us at THE DARK SIRE to all of our Jewish readers, “Hanukkah Sameach!”

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We know that each family has their own unique traditions for Hanukkah. If you celebrate, let us celebrate with you by sharing (pictures are encouraged!) your traditions with us. We’d love to celebrate with you!

If you have a horror and gothic-loving reader you’d like to shop for, be sure to visit the TDS Holiday Store for all your gift needs. We recommend the Holiday Care Box – a present that gives a little of everything, small but personal.

The Creative Nook with Bartholomew Barker

        

The silence surprises me —

no more thumping from my chest —

no more swooshing through my ears —

the little gurgles of a living body

are now absent and missed….

Silence by Bartholomew Barker appeared in Issue 2 of THE DARK SIRE and captured our imagination with its near perfect horror/gothic ambience.  It was and is exactly the kind of poem that TDS feeds on.  It called to mind any number of chilling Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems.  Because of that, The Dark Forest wanted to interview Mr. Barker for our Monday Creative Nook feature.

TDS:  First off, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed Silence.  It reminded me so much of several of Edgar Allan Poe’s pieces that I was wondering which writers influenced you?

Bartholomew Barker: I’m not sure. I read a lot of poetry by both living and dead poets. I’m impressed with Poe’s ability to write metrical rhyming verse that’s also creepy. Whenever I try, it always turns out humorous. That’s why I stick with free verse. I usually enjoy Charles Bukowski, Tony Hoagland and have a crush on Edna St. Vincent Millay.

TDS:  How did you get started as a poet?  Or rather, why did you choose poetry to be your means of expression?

Bartholomew Barker: As with most poets, I started writing to deal with a trauma. Mine was quite minor, just a divorce, it wasn’t even my first, probably won’t be my last. When I shared my angry poems I got enough praise that I thought I’d try to take it seriously. That was ten years ago.

TDS:  This is kind of a which comes first the chicken or the egg question.  How does your poem develop?  Do you write towards an ending, or do you conceive of an idea and start it to see where it goes?

Bartholomew Barker: Depends upon the poem. Some are like fried chicken, others like fried eggs.

TDS:  Most dark poems center around emotions that may appear morbid or disturbing on the surface.  Do you write to the emotion or does the writing act as a cathartic form of relaxation for you?

Bartholomew Barker: I write to the emotion. There are much more cathartic forms of relaxation out there!

TDS:  Have you ever written a poem that frightened you?

Bartholomew Barker: Not really frightened but certainly disturbed that I could think of some images. Makes me wonder where my mind has been.

TDS:  Does a poem ever get so dark that you have regretted sharing it with the public?

Bartholomew Barker: No regrets. When I decided to take poetry seriously, I realized I had to be comfortable sharing my strip club poems with my mother. Once I was good with that, I felt like an emperor with a new suit of clothes.

TDS:  What sparked your initial love of poetry?

Bartholomew Barker: You assume I love poetry. Like all art, 90% of poetry is shit but when you read one of those 10% poems, it’s like injecting another person’s thoughts directly into your veins.

TDS:  What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Bartholomew Barker: When I’m out of wine but too drunk to drive to the liquor store.

TDS:  Do you have a writing group or a community of writers that you share the creation of your work with? 

Bartholomew Barker: Hell yes! I work with Living Poetry, the largest group of poets in the Triangle area of North Carolina. I’ve been participating in workshops for more than ten years and all the success I’ve had is due to the feedback I’ve gotten and given. There’s only one Emily Dickinson per generation who can write masterpieces in isolation. The rest of us have to hone our craft and the best way to do it is through workshops, receiving and genuinely accepting criticism.

TDS:  What other subjects do you write poems about?

Bartholomew Barker: I post new poems to my blog  www.bartbarkerpoet.com on a weekly basis. I post love poems, nature poems, astronomy haiku… These past few months I’ve been writing a lot of political poetry for some reason. My first full length collection was written about strippers and strip clubs. It’s called Wednesday Night Regular. My most recent is a chapbook of food poems called Milkshakes and Chilidogs. Both are available, like everything else in this world, on Amazon.

TDS: Where have you been published recently?

Bartholomew Barker: I have a poem about climbing trees in the current issue of the Naugatuck River Review. I had a fun poem about watching my local fire department put out a practice fire in the Gyroscope Review. I’ve been in various anthologies about everything from dance to science fiction to ekphrastic poetry. And I’m thrilled to have another poem appear in a future edition of The Dark Sire (Winter 2020, Issue 6).

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If you have questions for Mr. Barker, leave them in the comments and we’ll get you the answers.

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Remember to subscribe to THE DARK SIRE and be sure to tell a friend.  Share.  Why keep all the good Gothic, Horror, Fantasy and Psychological Realism to yourself? It is the season for giving, after all.

And speaking of giving, TDS has a new holiday shop open. New sure to check it out and order by 12/14 gir Christmas delivery. Shop now!

Gothic Style Christmas

“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat…” 

Too cheery?  Maybe that isn’t your sort of thing.  Maybe you would like something darker… a little Gothic Christmas.  Yes, Virginia, there is a Gothic Santa Claus, Christmas Tree and all the darker decorations that go with it.  Why decorate your tree with a jolly fat man and reindeer when you can use ornaments that inspire supernatural flights of fancy or mysterious creatures straight from the designers’ nightmares.

Well, The Dark Forest put the question of how do you celebrate a Goth Christmas to members of several Gothic groups on the various social media and here’s what the general consensus was:

First of all, you need to start with a black Christmas tree.  You can either by one or spray paint a regular Christmas tree black. 

Then, again, if you don’t want to spray paint a tree or buy a black one, you can always go the Addams Family route and decorate a tree with naked branches.  Bare branches with red tinsel looking like dripping blood instead of icicles was also another favorite theme.  And don’t forget to hang your Christmas tree upside down from the ceiling.

What makes something Gothic?  Characteristics of the Gothic include death and decay, ghosts and vampires.  When you decorate a Gothic Christmas tree, think terror and wonder.  Santa becomes a decomposing skeleton in a red Santa suit.  Snowflake ornaments are black instead of white.  Black bulbs have white skulls on them.   And don’t forget the black wreath for your front door.  If you are in the mood to hang Christmas stockings, black with skulls will do very nicely.  All you have to do is Google “Gothic Christmas” to find hundreds of dark ideas with which to celebrate the season.

Another recommendation that was popular was the graveyard look, which is a blending of Halloween and Christmas.  Then there was the Nightmare Before Christmas theme or  the Addams Family theme.  And what would say Gothic Christmas more than the presents wrapped with Edgar Allen Poe wrapping paper.

Edgar Allen Poe wrapping paper

A Gothic Christmas needs to be filled with purple, black, dark gray or navy blue colors.  And the images of sugarplums need to be replaced with dragons, gargoyles, fairies, wizards, ogres and ghosts. 

Another suggestion from our responding Goths was to go a little more Pagan and sit around and watch the Yule log burn and listen to Christopher Lee reading Edgar Allen Poe.  Don’t have a fireplace?  Don’t worry.  Check your TV listings.  There are several media groups across the country that offer a Yule Log presentation with their free over-the-air broadcasts.  That hours of commercial free TV with just the Yule log burning in all its fiery glory.

Christmas does not have to be traditional by any stretch of the imagination.  Just paint your tree black and let yourself go.

An Interview with Author Rami Ungar

Rami Ungar’s book, Rose, was the subject of a recent Dark Forest review.  The horror story was deceivingly simple with an engaging storyline that held the reader’s interest from the first line of the book all the way to the last.  It even subtly probed that age-old philosophical question: are we who we think we are or are we merely pawns in someone’s  or something’s larger plan?  Having enjoyed Rose so much, THE DARK SIRE felt the need to ask Mr. Ungar a few questions and he was gracious enough to answer them.  Here is the interview:

TDS:  I just want you to know how much I enjoyed Rose.  You were able to capture my interest from the first line and you held it throughout the book.  What gave you the idea to write Rose?

Rami Ungar:  I’m not entirely sure. I was sitting in my science-fiction and fantasy class at Ohio State (yes, OSU had a class like that), and all of a sudden, this idea popped into my head. A story like Stephen King’s Misery, but with a supernatural bent. I wrote down the idea so I would remember it later, and it developed over time.

TDS:  Why did you choose to tell your story through the eyes of a woman?

Rami Ungar:  It was never really a choice for me. I was always surrounded by girls and women growing up, and a lot of my heroes growing up were women. So, while I would never say I’m an expert or that I have nothing more to learn, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to write from a woman’s POV. So, when creating the characters, Rose Taggert just came to me naturally as a woman, and I didn’t think further on it.

TDS:  Who are your favorite heroines in horror literature and did you draw on any of them in the creation of Rose?

Rami Ungar:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer! She’s not perfect, but she kicks ass and cares deeply for those around her. However, she didn’t have that much influence on Rose. Otherwise, this would have been a very different novel.

TDS:  There is something incredibly sinister about your villain, Paris.  Yet, you can almost feel sorry for him because of the things he suffered.  How did you research his character to achieve that balance?

Rami Ungar:  I think that was just a culmination of a lot of reading and movies. In college, I was devouring books filled with serial killers, as well as watching movies about them, and I guess I just learned from those who came before how to create a villain that, while sinister, had a sympathetic back story.  That being said, I would warn any reader not to get to be too sympathetic to Paris. It’s not easy for me to get into his mind, but I feel like anyone who shows him genuine sympathy is setting themselves up for pain. And not just the emotional kind!

TDS:  This is kind of a which came first, the chicken or the egg question.  Did the character types come to you first, or did the storyline come first and did the characters develop from that?

Rami Ungar:  While the initial idea started me on this path, the characters came to be before I started on the storyline. That’s generally how it works, especially with longer stories. I’ll have a few key characters, and then I’ll write the plot around them.

TDS:  To be honest, you caught me by complete surprise with your ending.  I wasn’t expecting it.  Are you planning a sequel or sequels?

Rami Ungar:  You know, you’re not the first to ask. I have at times thought about creating a sequel, but at this time, I’m not planning any. I think it’s powerful enough as a standalone and I plan to keep it that way.  That being said, if a good idea for a sequel came to me, I wouldn’t be opposed to writing it.

TDS:  How much research did you do to develop the demonic characters who haunt the background? And why did you choose Japanese over another culture’s demons?

Rami Ungar:  I’m a nut for Japanese culture. I grew up on Pokemon, Digimon and Sailor Moon, and I’ve been reading manga and watching anime since I was a kid. Adding all those beliefs and gods and whatnot to the story seemed like a fun thing to do, so I went with it. And while I did do some light research into the subject, most of the knowledge I needed was already there.

TDS:  As a young author, who are some of the other writers who inspired you to be a writer?

Rami Ungar:  JK Rowling was the one who initially inspired me to write, and I’ll forever be grateful to her for that (though I am rather upset by some of the views she’s espoused recently). Stephen King and Anne Rice were a big reason why I gravitated to horror. And HP Lovecraft and his ideas about an indifferent universe have been an influence in recent years.

TDS:  Are you a member of any writing organization or community? If so, which ones? What benefits do you see from belonging to a community that encourages writers?

Rami Ungar:  I’m a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association. For me, I like being able to post frequently and network with other writers. I also get to organize meetings and projects for the state-level chapter, which is an important responsibility.

TDS:  What message do you hope readers take away from this story?

Rami Ungar:  I hope they enjoyed the story, and I hope it gave them the chills. That’s all.

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THE DARK SIRE sincerely hopes that you have enjoyed our interview with Mr. Ungar.  Anyone wishing to read Rose or any of his other writings is encouraged to follow the link to his page on Amazon.com.

The Novella — Not Just A Short Novel

THE DARK SIRE would like to reintroduce you to a time honored format that has been somewhat ignored in the recent past: the Novella.  You are probably more familiar with this form than you realize.  Many of the “books” you had to read in high school and college were novellas but were not presented as such.  Famous novellas include: George Orwell’s Animal Farm; Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend; and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.  Robert Silverberg, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, called the novella “one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms… it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book.”

You might wonder why TDS’s interest?  Everyone who subscribes to our magazine will have noticed that we publish serializations.  Novellas, because of their concentrated focus on the story coupled with an equally focused exploration of the subject, lend themselves quite easily to serialization.  The novella is actually quite difficult to sell to commercial publishers.  It is too long for many magazines and too short for book publishers.  Being able to serialize them fulfills a needed niche in the publishing world, especially to authors who write in the Gothic, Horror, Fantasy and Psychological Realism genres.

From Victorian England to the 20th Century, writers of the supernatural have drawn to this form.  In 1879, Margaret Oliphant published one of the most innovative pieces of horror fiction ever written.  A Beleaguered City tells the story of a city under siege from the dead.  (Familiar plot, anyone?)  Charlotte Riddell’s novellas concern mysterious disappearances, ghosts, greed, murder, and revenge.  Florence Marryat’s The Dead Man’s Message has ghosts, ghost animals, spirit photography and séances.

When a novella has been serialized in THE DARK SIRE, our interest does not stop there.  We intend to publish those novellas as CHAPBOOKS.  In a world where there is a lot of talk about readers’ dwindling attention spans, chapbooks are a great way to soak up great writing.  They are, by nature, short.  Edgar Allen Poe said that the optimum length for a piece of literature was one that could be read in one sitting.  A chapbook can.  This is the TDS way of supporting writers whose work doesn’t fit into the commercial publishing pattern.  We want to give them a voice, to tell their stories and, above all, to entertain our readers.  In the changing paradigm of how readers choose books and shop for them, chapbooks look like the new age way to go.  Their compact style is perfect for readers with busy lives.

If you are a writer and have a story that fits into the novella category, please consider submitting to THE DARK SIRE.  We want to support you and your creative journey. 

Friday the 13th: Another Day to Celebrate

How lucky are we? Halloween is barely over and look what the calendar offers us:  FRIDAY THE 13TH, another chance to celebrate everything dark. Friday the 13th has long been a harbinger of bad luck because of the combination of two unlucky charms. The number 13 has been unlucky since early Christian times and even more ancient Norse Mythology. Friday has been an unlucky day for almost as long, and when the two of them come together, negative superstitions abound.

And when that happens, what do we do at THE DARK SIRE? We celebrate it. We are all about dark things. Our stories, poems and art abound with it, and if you want to celebrate this day with us, we can offer a few suggestions of what you can do. Get together around a campfire or someplace equally as spooky and read a horror story.  Choose any of our magazines and you are sure to find a story that will make you look over your shoulder to be sure the shadows on the walls are just that… shadows.  Read The Mask (Issue 2) by Carl Hughes or any episodes of The Village (Issues 1-5) by David Crerand. These stories are guaranteed to make Friday the 13th more memorable for you. 

Don’t want to read?  Watch a movie! If you are a slasher fan, check out Dream Home (2010), a movie that looks at gore through the eyes of the killer. Rent Lake Bodom (2016), a meta-slasher film filled with murder, betrayal, obsession and deception. Want a laugh with your blood? Check out Psycho Beach Party (2000), a parody of the slasher movies and the 60’s beach party movies. These movies are filled with convoluted supernatural mythology, demonic possession, and all kinds of slasher special effects– some humorous and some stomach-turning. 

You can TV binge on Supernatural’s 15 seasons of Sam and Dean chasing and killing all kinds of ghosts and ghouls and dark angels, even having a confrontation with God over the Apocalypse. Binge on The Originals where vampire/werewolf hybrids return to terrorize New Orleans. And, of course, you have The Vampire Diaries, set in a town charged with supernatural history. 

It doesn’t stop there! Do you want a different kind of chill? Check out what the Japanese offer in their Anime or Manga. Luckily, these are media which excel in spine-tingling horror. Black Butler features a 13-year old Lord who has a contract with a demon to help find whoever killed his parents and exact revenge. Deadman Wonderland follows the adventures of a young man who has been blamed for a massacre and sentenced to live out his days in a theme park-like prison. Follow the protagonist in Death Note as he devolves into a villain drunk with power, or wrap your mind around The Flowers of Evil, a deeply intimate and terrifying examination of obsession.

At THE DARK SIRE, Friday the 13th is the kind of holiday we look forward to. We celebrate the horror, the superstition, the things that make us question the reality in which we live. Are there ghosts? Are there demons? Our authors and artists seem to think so and that’s good enough for us. 

If you love all things horror, you’re in good company. Subscribe now!