Author Spotlight: Samuel Marzioli
Next in our Author Spotlight series (this month featuring contributors to A Darke Phantastique), we have Samuel Marzioli.
“Bittersweet Bedlam” is Marzioli’s take on what would happen if “God” suddenly appeared in the sky:
“On Saturday, July 12th, 2014, a mile-long face appeared in the sky. It was a man’s face, aged though unwrinkled, with a salt-and-pepper beard extending past an unseen neck. It had a shock of shoulder-length silver hair and two thick eyebrows that puffed above probing brown eyes.
Religious leaders around the world immediately began a massive media campaign. They sent emails and newsletters, made television and radio broadcasts, and held interviews all declaring the identity of the head was none other than God himself. This was it, they said. Judgment day…”
He writes about its genesis:
“This story started off as an image in my mind of a giant head appearing over a suburban neighborhood, its hair and beard disheveled and its mouth an exaggerated grimace. Obviously, it was a god, or something like a god, but I didn’t know what it wanted or why it had appeared. From the start I titled it ‘Head,’ and then, ‘A Head Appears,’ and finally, ‘Headmageddon.’ The latter proves that, on some level, I must have known its coming signaled an apocalypse. Just not the kind John of Patmos had in mind. Once I created a cast of characters, the basic outline of the story wrote itself, and the title demanded to be changed to something less ridiculous.”
Samuel Marzioli was born and raised, and that’s all you need to know about that. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including Penumbra, Ares Magazine, The DarkFuse Anthology Series, and Stupefying Stories. You can find out more about his current projects and releases by going to http://Marzioli.blogspot.com. He currently resides in Oregon with his family.