Cover art from the new book, “Madhouse Theater” Copyright © 2010 Scott Scherr and John Ecko.  All rights reserved.

 

Introduction

      What does it mean to be sane? 
      Perhaps it’s nothing more than a state of awareness accepted by the majority to classify what is understood; a way to separate ourselves from all that remains hidden in the dark and questionable areas of our minds. Perhaps sanity is nothing more than man’s dull flashlight beam, struggling desperately to fend off the night and make it to another dawn. Perhaps madness then, is nothing more than the sum of all our secrets kept safely locked away from the daylight where the abnormal has no place among the sane. Or maybe sanity is nothing more than a thin, straight line drawn beneath the sun to keep our bearings in a more mysterious, dark and unknown place that hides within us all.
     Whatever the case may be, just off to the left or right of our temporal life lines drawn in chalk, lie the vast lands of madness where the darkest parts of mankind stay caged, where the nightmares and stories of our youth stay fiction, and where the lie, otherwise known as sanity, acts as a flimsy cork to keep the dark recesses of our minds from escaping while we pretend that we are not mad…merely normal.
     What does it mean to be normal?
     Perhaps that is the most insane question of them all.
     Perhaps it’s possible that each of us are touched by various degrees of madness, and if so, then it’s not much of a stretch to say that each of us have the choice to explore the depths of such madness or stay at a safe distance. Either way, life is nothing more than a theater, and we- its characters, pretend to be creatures of light alone, although in all honesty, we are prone to darkness and have simply learned to resist, while others descend into the dark never to see the light of day again.
      I suspect that if all our secrets came crashing to the surface, we would discover that our worldly theater was nothing more than one big madhouse.
      Perhaps the real question is not “What is sanity?” But, “How insane am I?” For by understanding this question, we may better understand ourselves when the lights go out and we are all alone in the dark…

     We thank you for joining us on this adventure into madness, and although this is entirely a work of fiction, perhaps in some dark corner of mankind these tales take on a slight resemblance to the truth…or atleast…the dark possibilities. 
     Within the pages of this book are tales and poetry covering a wide range of subjects from the paranormal to myths and legends, from maniacs to things that simply go bump in the night. 
     We hope you enjoy these twisted offerings from our collective imagination, inspired by our own collaborative madness. 
     The following is a preview of various poems and stories from the book.

     Welcome to the Madhouse Theater… although you’ve been here all along.
     
                                                                                                      -Scott Scherr

 

 Madhouse Theater is now available for purchase at:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=2893692

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