Raymund Eich

Science fiction and fantasy - from Middle America to the ends of the Universe

Hi ,

Growing up in Middle America, Mardi Gras seemed like some exotic and decadent thing that only happened in New Orleans. Turns out Houston is only a hundred miles from the Louisiana border, and the appeal of Mardi Gras has been growing around here during the decades I've lived here. You can buy beads and decorations at the discount store, and king cake at the supermarket. I've also attended a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. Pro tip: befriend a bar or restaurant owner or manager along the parade route, to have a place to drain all those hurricanes and daiquiris you might happen to drink.

In case you don't know, Mardi Gras is French for "fat Tuesday," a reference to the next day being Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. In the buckle of the Bible belt in the '80s, the Catholic backstory of Mardi Gras further added to the exotic and decadent air about the whole thing. Anyway, Mardi Gras-or as it's more commonly known outside of Francophone countries, Carnival-is celebrated throughout much of the Catholic world.

Including the Catholic parts of Germany, such as the Rhineland. A few years ago, I was doing some random link-surfing and stumbled across the factoid that the Rhineland Carnival season begins on November 11 of the year before.

I'm more than enough of a history buff that the most famous November 11 was the one in 1918, marking the armistice ending hostilities in World War One.

Putting that together with the historical hindsight that Germany would blunder into a far worse disaster than WWI, plus an invitation to a dark fantasy anthology, led me to write what might be the only historical dark fantasy short story set at the Rhineland Carnival:

Carnival in Sorgenbach

The horrors of the war just ended. Visions of the war to come.

Hans returned from the Great War, haunted. Not only by the horrors of the trenches, but haunted by visions of a more terrifying war to come. Would the parties and parades of Carnival 1919 offer him love and hope? Or doom him and his country to the devastation he foresaw?

Since Mardi Gras is coming up in less than two weeks, I've decided to make the ebook edition of this short story FREE at every major ebook retailer. US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. But only through March 10.

Amazon Kindle

Apple iBooks

Barnes & Noble Nook

Kobo

Scribd

Smashwords

Other Stores

That's it for now. I'll be back in a couple of weeks, with some sort of publishing news. Hint: a cover reveal will be part of it.

Till next time,

Happy reading!

Raymund