Trivia

While it has long been customary for mourners to bring flowers to a funeral, why do we feel obligated to do so? After all, the deceased obviously do not care if their coffin is bedecked with colorful, expensive and soon to be wilted foliage.

The answer to the origins of this custom once again take us back in time--a long way back. Early burials were usually simple, shallow-dug affairs, else the bodies of the dead were placed deep inside caves, in a possible attempt to return their dead to the womb. Those buried in shallow graves away from caves frequently had their graves covered with large stones to protect the body from scavenging animals.

Later on, as religion played a more important role in our ancestor's lives, bodies of the dead were placed on display (or laid out) so mourners could come from greater distances to honor them and share their sorrow with relatives of the deceased. Since embalming had not been perfected yet (if you don't count the Egyptians), these bodies quickly became overly fragrant, so fresh cut flowers were piled around the body to tone down the smell of putrification. Mourners also brought fresh flowers with them to add to this bouquet until sometimes the body of the deceased was literally buried in flowers.

We see the same activity today in funerals, with flower bedecked caskets and colorful, fragrant flowers piled high around the deceased. Today, however, the presence of flowers at a funeral does not serve the same purpose as the original offerings once did. While offering up dead plants at a funeral may show respect for the deceased and the dead person's family, today this gesture is merely the remnant of an ancient custom and no longer a necessity.

Horrotica Trivia--2008






Introduction

Greetings, and Be Well Come to Horrotica's Second BIG Year of Publication!

Our first year of publication was not without its problems. Breakdowns in communication, breakdowns in personnel, personal breakdowns, the stress of attempting to put out a viable magazine every month, being fined for sexually explicit and easily assessable reading material--all of these things nearly caused Horrotica to close its pages before our First Anniversary.

However, after some staffing changes, a new membership policy, going to a quarterly publication and LOTS of medication, we are Proud to present our Biggest and Best issue EVER! This issue includes a number of New Features, as well as some new contributors, and a lot more material for you, the reader, to enjoy.

New Features include the Fetish Pages, Classified Ads, a Featured Articles section, and a new way to leave Feedback for the authors and artists who contribute to Horrotica. At the end of each poem, story and art feature will be a 'Feedback Link' button. If you would like to leave a message to the author or artist, simply click on the link and it will take to a Forum style page, where you can leave praise, comments or complaints. This Forum will be available to all of our readers and contributors.

Also in this issue we are pleased to announce that for the first time Horrotica would like to present our readers with Two interviews. The first in-depth interview is with the Mukis, who are owners and operators of the famous (or infamous, depending on where you stand on the subject) Muki's Kitchen web site. If you are not familiar with the Muki's Kitchen fetish/fantasy web site, you must read this interview. And that's all I will say about it. See for yourself.

Our second interview is with artist, author, musician and fire eater, Kurtz the Alchemist. His art work has appeared in previous Horrotica Art Gallerys, as well as on the very first cover of Horrotica. Kurtz is also the Featured Artist in this issue, so stop by both areas to check out his amazing work.

On our cover this issue is art from Nicolas Caesar, who was the Featured Artist from last issue.

In the Story Section, we present a set of somewhat blood-laced stories from a new contributor, Destiny West, but after reading her work I am sure she will be seen within our pages again. ~Kim returns after a short absence from our pages to titillate us once more and Zed Holt, another new contributor joins our group of fetish loving writers.

All of our poets are returning contributors this issue, so well come back Dead Man Poet, Greg Jenkins and Dudgeon to our pages.

The Art Gallery contains all new contributors. Please well come Jesse Lindsay, Big Tasty and Jeremy Rogers to the Horrotica fold.

In the new Featured Articles section we have, "Why Do Zombies Eat People" and "Elizabeth Bathory--The Truth about the Blood Countess."

As a special feature we have author Sarah Wilson Basore with a book review of "Meat." (Wonder what that's about???)

In the Readers Gallery we have some readers tattoos on display. If you would like to have your own body art shown to our readers, contact us.

The Horrotica Movie Matinee this issue is the all time classic Zombie movie, "Night of the Living Dead," a great piece of movie and zombie history for your entertainment. And we don't go in for all of that 'Digitally Remastered' crap. Our version looks just as it did back when it was first released. Grab some popcorn and board up all of your windows!

Don't forget to stop by the new Classified Ad section this issue to see what some of our readers have for sale. And if you have something unusual or even bizarre to sell, but don't know where to offer it, check out our Classified Ads.

And last but surely not least, Barbara Bucolic presents another chapter of Rancid Recipes. This issue, along with giving us insight to what the next few months have to offer, she shares some recipes to help ease your over-burdened grocery bills.

And that, my friends, should be enough to keep you busy for a few minutes. Please return as often as you like to absorb all of this issue and if you like what you see and or read, be sure to leave feedback for our contributors--and don't forget to tell your Friends about HORROTICA!

And I would like to offer my personal Thank You to our great and talented contributors--one and all--and to our many readers who have helped to keep Horrotica afloat this past year. We sincerely hope to bring you better and better issues of this magazine in the coming months, so please stay tuned.

We are also offering our readers a final chance to own a copy of the 2008 Horrotica Calendar, which contains 12 pieces of art work from last year's Horrotica issues. This will be your last chance to purchase this collector's item before the New Year. In addition, we have available copies of Creep Creepersin's "Blood Lust Romance" and signed copies of Terry D. Scheerer's book of short stories and poetry, "Dreams of Darkness, Dreams of Night." Information on how to purchase any of these items is located throughout this issue.

As a bonus, we plan to offer copies of this issue of Horrotica in a printed version. Information on how to obtain a copy of the printed magazine is located within the pages of this issue.

And as always, the contents of this magazine are the property of Dark Myth Publications and each story, poem, piece of art work, and any and all articles are copyrighted by the author and/or artist. No portion of this publication may be copied or electronically stored without written permission of the copyright holder and Dark Myth Publications.

Once again, I thank you all. ~Blessings.

Terry D. Scheerer
Editor in Chief



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