October 2021 – aliciajoseph

HOW TO MAKE A ZOMBIE from Sharon Ledwith Much has been written about the walking dead we’ve come to know as ‘zombies’. Immortalized in movies, television shows, books, comics, and music videos (remember Thriller?), zombies have become so much a part of our culture that people can’t get enough of these brain-eating horror icons. When researching for The Last Timekeepers and the Noble Slave, the third installment of my young adult time travel adventure series, I wanted to incorporate a Voodoo ceremony that included creating a zombie. Oh, where to start, I asked myself, as there was so much information out there to glean, and only a chapter to fit it in.

Buried Zombie Rising Out Of Ground In Misty Cemetery

So do zombies exist? The people of Haiti certainly think so. Here they are considered to be more than spooky stories, but rather very real entities. Stories of zombies persist in Haiti right up to the modern day, with sightings of the poor, haggard creatures fairly common in many rural areas. In fact, cases are so prevalent that there have been wild estimates claiming that there are as many as up to one thousand new cases of zombies a year. Wow, that’s a lot of the undead roaming around a small island! Zombification is even a crime under the Haitian Penal Code (Article 246), in which it is considered to be on par with murder despite the fact that the zombified individual is technically still alive. Bet you’re dying to know how to make a zombie? Read on…

The zombies of Haiti were said to be corpses that were reanimated through black magic by powerful Voodoo sorcerers or priests known as bokors, for manual labor on farms and sugarcane plantations. Zombies can allegedly be made from those who are still living if the bokor is powerful enough to wrest the victim’s soul from their body. The process of turning a living person into a zombie is said to follow certain steps. First, the bokor will place a hex on the target of the ritual, who will subsequently fall mysteriously ill and die soon after. The exact methods and concoctions used vary among the bokors, but many use a powerful neurotoxin derived from pufferfish. Some zombification processes use blood and hair from their victims in addition to using Voodoo dolls. Ohers involve a carefully prepared mixture called ‘coup de poudre’ (powder strike) made of mystical herbs, human remains, and animal parts. Administrating this mixture can also vary from ingestion, injection, or even a blow dart. Once the family of the victim pronounces the victim dead, he or she is buried in the family tomb (usually above ground), where the responsible bokor will steal the body from its grave and set about reanimating it through dark sorcery. Next, the bokor performs an ancient Voodoo rite where he or she captures the victim’s ti bon ange (the part of the soul connected to an individual) within seven days following the death of corps cadaver, while it is still hovering over the corpse. This effects a split in the spiritual parts of the victim and produces two complementary types of zombies: the spirit zombie and the zombie of the flesh. The bokor then traps the spirit zombie in a small clay jar or container, and replaces it with the loa (Voodoo spirit) that the bokor controls. The container is hidden in a secret place and is wrapped in a piece of the victim’s clothing or some other personal possession. After a day or two, the bokor then administers a hallucinogenic mixture called the ‘zombie cucumber,’ (made from the plant Datura stramonium) that revives the victim and is used to keep the zombie in a state of submissive confusion. In this brainwashed condition, the zombie cannot speak, has no memory, and no longer resembles its past human personality. Now easy to control, the zombie is completely under the control of the bokor who created them until the bokor dies. Once released from bondage, the zombies can finally return to their home village or place of burial, and die. There seems reason to believe from work and research done in the past that there may possibly be a concrete, scientific basis for stories of zombies, so perhaps time will tell. For now, these mysterious creatures lurk along the fringes of Haitian villages and our imaginations. Whether drug addled slaves or corpses reanimated through dark sorcery, the enigma of real zombies beckons us. Perhaps one day we will bring them out into the light and have the answers we seek. With that, I’ll leave you with this line in the song Thriller, by Michael Jackson: It’s close to midnight! Something evil’s lurking in the dark! Hopefully, it’s not a blood-thirsty corpse. Stay safe, my zombie-loving readers! Here’s a glimpse at my latest time travel mystery.

True freedom happens only when you choose to be free.

Eleven-year-old Drake Bailey is an analytical thinker and the genius of the Timekeeper crew. However, no logic or mathematical acumen can change the color of his skin, or prepare him for this third Timekeeper mission in antebellum Georgia. To survive, Drake must learn to play the role of a plantation slave and when confronted with the brutality, hatred, and racism of the deep south, he’ll have to strategically keep one move ahead of his sadistic captors to ensure his lineage continues.

In a dark world of Voodoo, zombies, and ritualistic sacrifice, the Timekeepers must ensure a royal bloodline survives. Can Drake remove both literal and figurative chains to save both himself and a devout slave girl from a terrible fate? If he can’t summon the necessary courage, humanity could stand to lose one of its greatest leaders.

Amazon Buy Link

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the middle-grade/YA time travel series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, and the teen psychic mystery series, MYSTERIOUS TALES FROM FAIRY FALLS. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, exercising, anything arcane, and an occasional dram of scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario, Canada, with her hubby, one spoiled yellow Labrador and a moody calico cat.

Learn more about Sharon Ledwith on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter, and Smashwords. Look up her Amazon Author page for a list of current books. Be sure to check out THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS TIME TRAVEL SERIES Facebook page.

If you’re a baseball fan, or just a general sports fan, you’re probably watching the baseball Playoffs right now. As a fan of baseball, I watch the Playoffs regardless of what team’s playing, but being that the team I grew up cheering for is in the hunt for a championship, I’m much more vested. Although, as I write this, my beloved White Sox are losing 6-1 in an elimination game. But I’m not giving up hope. They can definitely make a comeback. Right?

Pretty please?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

A couple nights ago, social media lit up as Tom Cruise made an appearance at the Dodgers – Giants playoff game. Cruise was captured on camera, sitting in the stands amongst other fans, looking a bit…. different. Cruise probably has one of the most recognizable faces in the world, so when something in his appearance seems a little off, people notice.

And social media makes sure everyone knows about it.

I wasn’t watching the game, but when I jumped on my Twitter account, I saw the explosion of tweets asking what the heck happened to Tom Cruise’s face. I saw the camera shots of a smiling Tom Cruise, enjoying a night at a ballgame with his son, and immediately thought…prednisone.

Yes, Tom looked different. He had, what I unfortunately have come to know very well, “Prednisone Face”. His face was looking quite puffy – a common side effect of taking prednisone – a steroid used to decrease inflammation in one’s body.

Obviously I don’t know what medications Tom Cruise is or isn’t taking. Most people on social media jumped to conclusions that his swelled face was the cause of some botched cosmetic procedure. But me? I looked at the pictures of Cruise littered all over social media and thought, “I feel you, Tom. I got the puffy face, too.”

I’ve written a little here about the flare-up in my health I’ve been dealing with for some months now. In August, when I wasn’t showing signs of improvement, my doctor put me on my most dreaded drug, prednisone.

Fourteen years ago, I was put on that drug and had spent about five years on it, at adjusting doses, but gaining over 70 pounds, dealing with mood changes, insomnia, and anxiety and constant shakiness. Finally by 2013, my doctor put me a new treatment plan and I was completely off prednisone…until now.

What I remember most about finally being off the preds was enjoying taking pictures again with friends and family. I finally looked like myself again. My smile was my familiar smile again. My hair was no longer thin, and dry and frizzy (yes prednisone messes with your hair too). I looked healthy again, and I loved that. I missed me, and I swore that I would never be on that drug again…but here we are.

Though it’s only been about two and half months, and we are already tapering, which I’m grateful for, I’m feeling the effects of this hell of a drug. Yes, it has helped ease some of my ailments, but it has done so while also destroying me at the same time.

Almost from the start of taking the drug in August, I experienced muscle wasting in my legs, so walking, even up a flight of stairs, was exhausting. Then the insomnia and shakiness came, and of course, the puffiness.

But I did make the conscious decision to change my diet. If you follow my blog, you know I’ve been eating a more plant-based diet. When I started the steroids, I decided my diet had to be especially clean. Prednisone raises your glucose levels, so I eliminated sugar from my diet, as well as most processed foods. And I drank a lot….a hell of a lot… of water. Water helps with fluid retention.

Luckily, I learned a lot from my first stint with prednisone, and with my cleaner eating I’ve been able to stave off the usual prednisone weight gain, but I can’t seem to control the puff in my face. My smile is not my smile. And I think that’s what people noticed about Tom Cruise. The world knows a Tom Cruise smile. Is there a more perfect smile in Hollywood? But just a little puff in the cheeks changes everything.

The good thing is, it’s only temporary. That’s what I keep telling myself. As we taper and I get off this drug, I will be myself again, and it’s not just about looking like myself. It’s about feeling like myself again.

Here are some of the plant-based meals I’ve been eating to not only keep the calories low, but to also help feed my immune system. I’m hoping that in the future, if I’m eating a plant-based, anti-inflammatory diet, that will give my immune system the boost it needs to get through flare-ups without needing prednisone. That’s my hope. And what do we have if we don’t have hope?