SUMMER URGES FOR SUMMER READING

I learned that some folks have been revisiting my short story, "Summer Urges," each year prior to the season's advent. 

For the record, the story gained greater exposure through Eighth Tower's Dark Fiction volume, The Beyond: Stories Inspired by the Lucio Fulci Death Trilogy, and prior to such, a shorter version appeared in my long-ago, self-published, Wonderful, Magical, Literary Elixirs! 

The story is about a boy who meets a ghoul at the seashore. As a result of their friendship, the lad's bestial side surfaces. The remake ties the scenario into Fulci's "Death Trilogy" chapter, City of the Living Dead, aka The Gates of Hell. 

I got the notion to revamp "Summer Urges" (the original title being "Of Summer Urges and Sweet, Balmy Blood") when my brother, Freddy, and his lady friend, Terry, took me to an Adam Ant concert at Asbury Park several years back. It got real stormy before the concert, with the sky churning an ambiance that I found similar to the movie's. When Eighth Tower's CEO Raffaele Pezzella reached out thereafter for his authors to pen tales for his upcoming, The Beyond curation, I was more than set to embark on the revision.

I'm glad my concept has caught on, and it does seem to be one of my most popular, though one individual did go the extra mile to defame the original, Elixirs cut. 

He said that the story was "problematic" because it painted alternate lifestyles in a bad light (i.e., it was anti-gay). In truth, the concept is anything but that. In fact, it works as a counter-culture anthem that celebrates an uncommon existence. Condemning my vision is like condemning Dracula as a bad emblem for heterosexuals because the Count prefers to bite women. Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't place much stock in the criticism. The individual who spewed it also said that the people of Japan weren't responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I mean, who the hell was flying those damn planes? The Australians?

The Beyond: Stories Inspired by the Lucio Fulci Death Trilogy can be purchased in hardback (along with its audio version) at

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Stories-Inspired-Lucio-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B09GVRSC5R/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+beyond+stories+insired+by+Lucio+Fulci%27s+death+trilogy&qid=1646087833&s=books&sr=1-1-spell