Paul Whybrow
Full Member
- Jun 20, 2015
As a change of pace from my WIP, I’m about to begin a novella about a monster. Although I’ve written frightening and bloody things in my crime novels, as well as several ghost stories, I’ve never delved into the grotesque.
I find human monsters scarier than fantastical creatures, so Carnivore will resemble a giant man, but he’ll be lacking most human traits, except for a desire for revenge and a taste for torture and raw flesh.
The genesis of this tale goes back 50 years when I read newspaper reports of atrocities in the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. As a teenager, I was already aware of the concept of ‘total war’, but the primitive blood lust of tribes settling scores with machetes was intimidating. White colonists were targetted, including nuns. I won’t detail what happened to them, but one report showed a photograph of a black orphan who’d survived a crucifixion. He looked about 14 years old and was very tall, at least 6’ 6” and heavily built. The nunnery, his home, had been burnt down. He swore revenge.
The Congo has a bloody history and atrocities continue in the 21st-century:
Boys are being forced to rape their MOTHERS in atrocities in Congo
A holiday destination it’s not. Try reading Tim Butcher’s excellent Blood River if you want to be scared!
I’ve kept my eye on what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. In one United Nations report from the 1990s, there was mention of an assassin 7’ tall who’d been wreaking revenge on his enemies, torturing them and eating them alive! It had to be the same man, made monstrous by what happened to him thirty years before.
What if he’s still alive and operating as a hired killer in Europe? That’s my monster!
We had a look at Horror in Writing a few years ago, but these are brutal times, so what scares you?
Is it a monster from your childhood?
Or, has this fiend emerged in adulthood/
Who is the monster at your door?
I find human monsters scarier than fantastical creatures, so Carnivore will resemble a giant man, but he’ll be lacking most human traits, except for a desire for revenge and a taste for torture and raw flesh.
The genesis of this tale goes back 50 years when I read newspaper reports of atrocities in the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. As a teenager, I was already aware of the concept of ‘total war’, but the primitive blood lust of tribes settling scores with machetes was intimidating. White colonists were targetted, including nuns. I won’t detail what happened to them, but one report showed a photograph of a black orphan who’d survived a crucifixion. He looked about 14 years old and was very tall, at least 6’ 6” and heavily built. The nunnery, his home, had been burnt down. He swore revenge.
The Congo has a bloody history and atrocities continue in the 21st-century:
Boys are being forced to rape their MOTHERS in atrocities in Congo
A holiday destination it’s not. Try reading Tim Butcher’s excellent Blood River if you want to be scared!
I’ve kept my eye on what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. In one United Nations report from the 1990s, there was mention of an assassin 7’ tall who’d been wreaking revenge on his enemies, torturing them and eating them alive! It had to be the same man, made monstrous by what happened to him thirty years before.
What if he’s still alive and operating as a hired killer in Europe? That’s my monster!
We had a look at Horror in Writing a few years ago, but these are brutal times, so what scares you?
Is it a monster from your childhood?
Or, has this fiend emerged in adulthood/
Who is the monster at your door?