10 Interesting Facts about The Macabre Masterpiece

10 Interesting Facts about The Macabre Masterpiece

10. Rage of Hades wasn’t originally a Horror Poem

If you read “Rage of Hades,” you immediately think wow, this is gruesome and brutally honest horror from the lips of the Lord of the Underworld. Truth be told, it was never a horror poem. It was a poem I wrote, apparently, when I was in a bit of rage myself and quite steamed. As I was going over poems, I came across this and decided to add it in because it’s sheer talk of brutality. I then gave it a title, and the Rage of Hades was born.

9. “Vampires” was nominated for the 2005 Poem of the Year

This is something I don’t normally ever mention. While I was in high school, I started writing poetry. During that time, I wrote the poem called “Vampires”. I came across a poetry contest in a magazine to which I submitted the poem. While it was nominated, it didn’t win, but they made me feel like a winner, as I have a plaque of the poem.

8. The title of the book came to me while sitting at my kitchen table

Believe it or not, I had all fifty poems written with no title. As I sat at my kitchen table examining the paper that had all the names of the poems, I asked myself what they had in common, which was horror. Even more so, they shared something else, elements of Poe and then Macabre popped into my head and then from there, Masterpiece found its way in and as I put them together, The Macabre Masterpiece was the title I decided on.

7. The Grim Reaper was not originally a horror poem

Another poem that wasn’t originally intended to be a horror poem, in fact, it never even had a title. However, like Rage of Hades, as I read over my pile of poems, I came across this. I showed it to my father, and he said it sounded like The Grim Reaper, unsure of what to do with his newfound title and powers. I read it over a few times before I saw what he saw. I then decided it fit the criteria and gave it the title The Grim Reaper.

6. There are more Vampire poems than just the 4 in the book

Believe it or not, as of right now there are seven parts to the Vampire series. I never included part 5 because I couldn’t find it, kind of like part two(long story). Six and seven were recently written. Perhaps I’ll post them to my site someday for people to read. (update: the rest are in The MAcabre Masterpiece: Repressed Carnage)

5. The current edition is actually the 2nd edition

It’s no secret that I originally went with PublishAmerica to have the book published. What’s also no secret in the writing and publishing world is how bad they were. Having been in a dispute with them over pretty much everything, I finally got out of my contract with them in 2012. I had the cover re-done and the book edited before re-releasing it with CreateSpace.

4. There is a reference to “Macbeth” in “The River of Blood” poems

This is a fun fact that many may not have known. In the poem “River of Blood,” there is a line which reads “In this river your hands will not be washed clean.” This is a reference to Lady Macbeth washing her hands constantly as she sees blood on her hands when, in reality her hands are clean, but she merely feels guilty having committed a sinful act. It is again seen at the end of the poem with the ending line “Wash thy hands in the river of blood” and returns a third time in “The River of Blood pt.3" with the line “It’s time once again for the annual flood and for thou to wash thy hands in the river of blood”. Not only does Edgar Allan Poe's work show up in this book, but now you know Shakespeare’s does too.

3. The poem “The Screaming of Bloody Murder” was originally called Clue, based on the popular board game

If you read the poem, you sort of get the feel that it’s like one of those things where you can go stay and reenact a murder. If you're good with details, you’ll feel as though it sounds like the game Clue. Well, that’s because that was the original idea. I decided against it because I felt it was kind of corny, and I wanted the poem to scare and not make people laugh. The last, which reads “upon the cries and screaming of bloody murder,” originally read “It was Colonel Mustard in the parlor with a wrench” ...I know I know, I should have kept it right?

2. I rhymed the word orange in “The River of Blood pt.3"

The River of Blood pt. 3 shows up on the list once again, but this time for a reason far greater and actually has to do with the color of Lady Macbeth's hands are upon washing them a few times. The line reads” Yeah, that river number one blood supplier and storage,” to which I make the infamous rhyme of “turning the skin red, the mind a clockwork orange.” Honestly I never realized how either absurd or impressive this was (whichever way you want to look at it). I don’t force rhyme but I liked storage and didn’t want to change it as I realized that orange sounded similar I couldn’t think of how to connect it, I thought of how blood is orange a few times after it’s washed but then A Clockwork Orange a book written in 1962 by Anthony Burgess and a film in 1971 by Stanley Kubrick stuck in my head. I knew it was a bizarre book and film, so knowing just that, I inserted it into the poem, and not only did it fit and make sense, but the rest is history.

1. The original draft of the poem “Slaughterhouse” was far more graphic and gross than what's in the book

I liked to think that this would be a great rumor that I could have had going if I had gotten the word out about it. I could hear people saying, “They say he wrote an even more disturbing version”. However, I am confirming and telling you right now that yes, the original version was a lot different and much more graphic. So why didn’t I keep it? Why did I change it and keep the version you all can read in the book now? To be totally honest, I was afraid of offending people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid of shocking people; in fact, I’m sure some lines within other poems in the book are borderline offensive in some way, but the intention of the original Slaughterhouse was just as it states in the poem: raw, unnerved, and disturbing.

One example of this would be with the line, “Body parts of gutted people and animals desecrated and raw”. The original line went into detail about how the people were mutilated, along with the animals as well. Not wanting to make people sick and not wanting to have PETA on my case, I decided to tone it down and go in another direction. There was also a line that mentioned something about eating a filthy welcome mat and washing it down with a cold glass of blood fresh from the stomach of... You see, I’ve already said too much. So that’s why we have the version that’s in the book. Will I ever let the public read the unedited, unreleased version? Ehh, I don’t know, I think it might be too much...

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