Hi, horror fiends! It’s National Poetry Month! Today, I’d like to welcome Cynthia Pelayo. She writes horror, mystery, thrillers and poetry. She holds a special curiosity for superstition, folklore, legend and myth. Her first published work, Loteria, was self-published. Pelayo’s first novel, Santa Muerte, about the Mexican cult of death, was published by Post Mortem Press, followed by Santa Muerte: The Missing. Her poetry collection, Poems of the Night, was published by Raw Dog Screaming Press in 2016.
Alice’s Wonderland Inverse
By
Cynthia Pelayo
Alice, so orderly, truly stable, but curiouser and curiouser, I am not myself, so fall off to Wonderland
The White Rabbit, he’s frantic, manic, hurried, and I allow him to lead me away. I’ll get you executed
The Queen of Hearts, so severe and domineering, ruler of kingdoms, please try and slice off my head
The King of Hearts, you command begin at the beginning, but I’ll go on until the end. You can’t stop me
The Cheshire Cat, will you grin at me, disappear from me? Explain your logic. Drive me mad like you
The Duchess, you tell me that everything’s got a moral, but I can’t seem to be what I once seemed to be
The Caterpillar, treat me with contempt, ask me who I am, I lose myself through your smoke and magic
The Mad Hatter, it is easy to take more than nothing, as you say. Why must I wait for you and you me?
The March Hare, there isn’t any wine, you aren’t very civil. Take pleasure in hating me and serve me tea
The Dormouse, drift to sleep, but take me with you, breathe me in, you might as well say die with me
Author Bio:
Cynthia (Cina) Pelayo is the author of LOTERIA, SANTA MUERTE, THE MISSING, and POEMS OF MY NIGHT. She is an International Latino Book Award winning author, and an Elgin Award nominee. She is represented by Amy Brewer at Metamorphosis Literary. Check out her website at www.cinapelayo.com.
Cynthia Pelayo constructs a narrative in her poetry in response to the work of Jorge Luis Borges that examines the themes and subsequent consequences of insomnia, death, and blindness. There’s a visionary quality to her work that dances along the line between the present world that we inhabit and the other world that lingers beyond the veil. Her poetry folds back this blanket of darkness, and shows readers the quiet violence and beauty that hides beneath waiting to be exposed, experienced, and encompassed.
Pelayo showcases this scream of silence through an urban and metaphysical night as she reflects on the spiritual, the occult, and the everyday happenings that become extraordinary in their own rights. Her poems are sermons, prayers to the voices that surround us in the dark, and comforts to those who watch over us as we sleep. Her style is honest, raw, and her voice will leave readers asking questions about what waits for them in the beyond, and whether or not their sins and frustrations are trapping them in the here and now. She shows us that all too often, there is nothing to be scared of when the sun goes down, but that sometimes, we have every reason to be afraid, especially as we enter her world of blackness and decay, of smudged fingerprints and burnt pictures. These poems are cautionary tales for those who choose not to cover their eyes, warnings for those who refuse to find the light. And when our dreams come to roost, when our sleep eases us in, Pelayo shows us what nightmares are made of, and why there are some stories we can never escape.
The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance. It is similar to our American bingo. However, in Loteria instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images.
There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief – with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires and werewolves and many of these legends existed in the Americas long before their European counterparts.
Many of these stories have been passed over time throughout the Americas, and many have been passed via word of mouth, just like the tales the Brothers Grimm collected. These are indeed fairy tales, but with a much more terrible little slant. Published by Burial Day Books.
WINNER 2014 International Latino Book Award – Best Young Adult Fiction – English
I am your salvation. I am your beginning. Your end. Your life. Your death. All death.
You can run, but you can never hide from SANTA MUERTE
Ariana Molina is a high school student in Chicago and life is quiet until her father, Reynaldo Molina, the lead federal investigator in Mexico targeting criminal organizations arrives on her door step. After her father is involved in a mysterious car accident that leaves one person dead, Ari begins to have visions of a veiled skeletal figure that asks for her father.
Struggling with gruesome ghosts, and being suspicious of suspected gang members that have moved in across the street, Ari soon becomes the target of the drug cartels and their black magic cult of Santa Muerte.
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