***I found this in one of John the illustrator’s discard files while looking for images to attach to my wonderful flash-stories. I absolutely love it. It will be perfect for this week’s post – the last week before Christmas, there’s just something a little ‘off’ about this one, though…I just can’t put my finger on it… Oh well, Merry Christmas everybody!!!…go to our site and buy our books. -Marsha
***The editors at EEW Books got hold of a leaked CIA study, thoroughly analyzing the history of the Middle East since before WW1. It was thinner than you’d expect (thick as a porter house steak), printed on bright yellow (saffron) paper in a succulent Helvetica Bold font, and absolutely stuffed (like tur-duck-en) full of big, juicy, important words…but it’s conclusion rendered down to one simple, tasty theme… which John has illustrated into a single cartoon image. Bon appetit! I’m off to lunch…I’m famished. -Marsha
All speckled and fuzzy, she tasted like blue with spiny black tendrils of yellowish goo. She dribbled and hissed in licorice throes and sang like a frog-apple shoved up her nose. Shredded and pulpy and gnawing in heat while her farts were so pungently sweet. flailing in fancy with peppermint splashes, her mango-bat claws left slashes. And when she was salty she prattled and leapt and when she was orange she slept. And when she was rancid, with droplets of dew, she definitely tasted like blue.
***I didn’t write this drivel. Even my artist, John, in all his bizarre idiocy couldn’t compose this kind of brilliant shat. But, as I recall…I think it was the mutant tiger chick and her kinky prey who did it. Well, read it again and try to find the clever hidden meaning to it – then buy my books (find them at www.sallemander.com). John’s illustration was first licensed for use as the Jan/Feb 2009 cover for Analog Magazine, for a story by Rajnar Vajra (one of John’s favorite authors) -Marsha
Billy O’Banion had to be the ugliest man alive. He was monstrous to look at, an absolute fright and there was no hiding it.
Some liked to speculate that his father was a mutant clone or an alien invader. There was even a vicious rumor that his mother took a demon into her bed. Really though, the O’Banions were perfectly respectable. In fact, Billy’s birth was completely normal and he had a decent, happy childhood. He’d never succumbed to any horrible illness or accident and was never bitten by an irradiated lab rat. He simply started getting ugly at some point and kept getting uglier and uglier with each passing day. He was an inexplicable freak of nature…an awful, tragic figure…..how sad!?
The funny thing about Billy, however, is that he seemed perfectly okay with his predicament. He took it all in stride and made lemonade out of the rotten tomatoes he was dealt. He figured he was a cross between Darth Maul and a Gothic dragon…cool! See, Billy had an outrageous sense of humor that dwarfed his ugliness. He was a clever practical joker and filled his days with gigantic gobs of fun.
Nothing tickled his tendrils more than slipping quietly into a mob on the street, disguised in a hoodie…only to burst out suddenly, flashing his most charming grin, yelling “Surprise!!!” He could barely contain the giggles as they screamed, shat themselves and fainted (usually in that exact order). It never got old. He could clear a fast food joint or a movie theatre in seconds and never had trouble getting a good seat.
For a while, he made piles of money in the Mexican masked wrestling circuit but eventually retired on a generous pension provided by several New Jersey towns – “to stay the hell away!” These days, he lives quietly in a posh Hoboken penthouse where he writes creepy clown poetry and practices his banjo…but still gets a kick out of scaring the bajeebies out of solicitors, delivery boys and trick-or-treaters. He likes to leap out of the elevator and gobble them down whole. Oh, don’t worry, he craps them out onto the carpet an hour later…completely unharmed (at least physically), after all, he always was a vegetarian.
***HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!…the best holiday of the year. I wrote this in our Saturday ‘Montclair Write Group’ writing workshop with John’s image as the prompt. Its good practice, good exercise and good inspiration. John’s image was originally published in a 2010 issue of Analog Magazine. -Marsha