1,200 word non-fiction article published in A Muse Gallery’s "Musings" newsletter for January-March 2008.

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Scratches

Written by Scott Lambridis
Illustrated by Angie Needels

450-word flash fiction piece written and illustrated for a Ferret Press publication (the theme for this anthology being the ferrets themselves).

Since it’s short enough to post, here’s the full text.

Johnny got a ferret for his thirteenth birthday. He was too kind a boy to ask what the creature was and just assumed his mom thought she was buying him another cat. It certainly scratched like his old beloved kitty Jasper did before he died. After accidentally pricking himself on a spine of his mother’s favorite cactus plant Jasper ran into the killing fields of highway 89. Since then, Johnny had developed a weak heart.

Johnny’s step-father complained about the smell as soon as his mother brought it home. Johnny liked the smell though, despite his heightened sense. It was pungent enough to take him somewhere else, somewhere beyond the seeming perfection of his suburban surroundings. Johnny’s step-father said the ferret would be a lot cuter if it smelled less like a skunk, but Johnny wouldn’t let him take the ferret away.

On the fifth day Johnny and his mother went to show their doctor the raised spots and beautifully sinuous markings the ferret left on his skin. Puffed and raised like the Braille Johnny read with his mother every night, the doctor claimed Johnny was just very sensitive. Johnny’s step-father called the ferret a mongrel with dirty nails, but Johnny wouldn’t let him take the ferret away.

On the tenth day Johnny lay still as the ferret scratched and scratched at the door, sending his mom’s dreams into haunting places where her marriage was more than its de facto state. His step-father roused first, found him, and saw the extremely exacerbated swelling. The ferret hissed at the man and jumped over to his usual spot atop Johnny, not letting either of them be taken away.

It stopped hissing when his mother came in and touched the edges of the swellings, now almost an inch tall. She traced the Braille-like words with her fingers, reminding herself of the giant wooden letter blocks Johnny loved in the years before she realized why he never made sentences. He loved the geometry of the letters, the dotted mirror of which lay now on his cold skin. She never told her husband, but she swore she could read Johnny’s words in the ferret’s scratches. She read Johnny’s love and hopes for her. She read the passages from the stories she read him in her unpublished book. She read Johnny’s instructions on how to find the life he knew she truly wanted. She silently thanked the ferret and told him she would never let anyone take him away.

On the fifteenth day, Johnny’s ashes were carried in the soil of a six inch potted cactus pot in his mother’s left arm, and a suitcase in the other, containing, amongst many things, the manuscript to a book she had finished years ago. At her feet, attached to a small red leash hooked around her left arm, was the ferret who was quiet and not scratching for once, being occupied by the task of suckling the meat off of the middle aged make finger held between his two small front paws. Though he struck her when she protested, she didn’t let her husband take the ferret away. 

>> Link to the document

God’s Acre, book one, The Ravens & the Rhyme

Limited edition of 300 hand-numbered books.
Illustrated by Angie Needels and Dave Senecal.

Synopsis
Where is the line between the unreal and the real? God’s Acre is a twelve-part series of artfully designed macabre modern fairytales. These stories explore the blurry line between reality and fantasy, in a manner that appeals to both adults and children ages 10 and up. God’s Acre cemetery provides the setting for the unsettling journey of the Kruk children as they search for the truth about their past. Each book features the Kruk children as well as a story-within-the-story about a deceased resident of the cemetery. The intertwining storylines are illustrated by separate artists, evoking a shift in perspective and reinforcing the intrigue as the role of God’s Acre cemetery in the town’s – and the Kruk’s – history comes to light. In this first book, young Norman Kruk, his spirit strained by his grandmother’s strict oversight, is led to God’s Acre cemetery by his imaginative and adventuresome sister Isabel. As Norman watches over Isabel, the gravedigger spins the yarn of the late Norman Criddle, whose remains reside in the cemetery. In life, Criddle was a lonely man with an intense and ultimately chilling love for ravens.

>>Text-only manuscript (16,500 words, 44 pages)
>>Full description and preview

Eleventy Billion Miles Away

A beautifully illustrated book of lyric and verse, Eleventy Billion Miles Away is packaged with a full-length CD soundtrack of macabre music that explores humankind’s quest for a place in the universe.

Music by Blackcat Revival.
Illustrated by Tyler Landry, Bill Jordan, Angie Needels, Dave Senecal, and Scott Lambridis.
Lyrics by Bill Jordan and Scott Lambridis

>>Text-only lyrics
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Brainchild, a collection of artifacts

Illustrated book. Released as a hand-numbered limited edition of 250, this book is sold out.

Synopsis:
What happens when the world burns around you? This fictional collection of artifacts answers that question as it details the raw output of survivors who scatter to whatever safe havens can be found in the wake of an Undead uprising. As the reader is moved along with them in their constant struggle for survival, a quiet order emerges reflecting the journey from shock and chaos, to resolute adaptation. Artists and writers from more than ten countries contribute zombie-inspired work to “Brainchild, a Collection of Artifacts.”

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>>Text-only manuscript for "The Red Room" flash fiction (344 words)
>>Text-only manuscript for "The Oldest Profession" flash fiction(560 words)
>>Text-only manuscript for "Finnegan’s Scoop" flash fiction

Life at the Gallows

by Wigglepussy, Indiana

#9th Most Added album on CMJ for its release week. The tracks Big Blue Machine, Diamondback Jaws, and Doorlock Keyhole were licensed and placed by Bunim-Murray Productions in MTV’s Real World & Road Rules.

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Volatile Composition

Album by Wigglepussy, Indiana

Wildsound Productions licensed the song "She & Her Lips" for Phreakers, an independent short film which received an honor for Festival Vision Award-Best Short Film in the Atlantic City Film Festival. Ferret Press also licensed songs for their Big City Blues independent comic book CD soundtrack. 

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