Books & Short Stories
In his downtime during the pandemic, Zac spent much of the time on a passion project, successfully finishing a 130 page cosmic horror book: The Sky Sickness of Aber's Gowt - a story based in the late 1800's about a man attempting to find his brother in the titular, plagued Welsh hamlet of Aber's Gowt.
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As he searches, the strange oddities and questionable culture of the isolated fishing hamlet cause him to question why his brother moved there in the first place, especially when he arrives to find the entire town wearing bags over their heads in order to combat what is only referred to as Sky Sickness; a malady which is unheard of within the civilised world...
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The story is heavily inspired by the many pieces of fiction penned by H.P. Lovecraft (Author of the Cthulhu Mythos) and taking particular note from The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
The Sky Sickness of Aber's Gowt
One of Zac's passions in writing is poetry, with him spending much of his adolescence building a small compilation of poetry in a mostly morbid, black-humoured style; usually centring around paranormal misfortunes that befall the characters of each story, similar to stories such as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror, a book Zac was very fond of in his youth.
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"A poem book, a book of rhyme
Not from a time like yours, or mine.
It was discovered long ago,
In a hollow grave - yet no-one knows
To whom, or what that it belongs,
This enchanted book of rhyme and song.
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The one thing that we know for sure
Is that nobody can endure
To be in its possession, say it's a curse;
Those who read it end up in a hearse.
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For the stories which you'll read today
Are of people; six-foot-down they lay,
Whom died in quite a horrid way.
But don't let that cause you dismay,
Do not delay, read it today!"