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Mike Correll Biography

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“Everything in Louisiana is flat, so I found myself lost in the expanse of crawfish fields, telephone lines, rice silos, and lonesome rural homes, and my ability to judge distance became compromised. Nevertheless, it seemed a long, bouncy ride on dirt roads before we arrived at Ardoin (pronounced “ard-wahn”) Cove Cemetery, the rumbling truck engine often stirring pink-tinged Egrets from the roadside slews.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“Chet Zar will be the first person to tell you that he does not know what Dy5topia is. He also does not know where it is, how it came to be, or why it exists. At first glance, this may seem like an odd introduction to a field guide, yet perhaps it is the most apropos. This is exactly where Chet and I began, and so it seems fitting that you should also begin in the same place.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“The Haunting ensures the current state of Dy5topia―a nightmarish world where terrified 'Creeple' nervously travel through an ever-changing, phantasmagorical land filled with Mutants, Robots, unDead, Specters, Beasts, Landscape-lifeforms, and Others. With these things in mind, consider yourself cordially invited to enter the regions of Chet Zar’s Dark Universe!”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“Dy5topia in the context of this book is a very real place, with very real 'inhabitants', but to understand Dy5topia you must first look closely at our world. Like the fisherman’s net that allows so much water to spill through, catching only the aquatic life, so too does Dy5topia collect only the fear of our world. Dy5topia is our dark reflection and a manifestation of our collective fears, and so its structure is created and maintained by our fear.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“The electric hum of cicadas, which was a low drone near the road, become an overwhelming vibration in the neck-deep brush that had taken back what was once a long driveway and front yard. By the time I reached the structure, beads of sweat were rolling off my lips and the tip of my nose, and my skin was covered in the slick of Louisiana humidity.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“The faded lime-colored building was, like so many other residential locations in the area, a snapshot out of time, as if the occupant had simply walked away one day. Blooms of mold seemed strung together by webs lacing the exterior—constellations marked by Mud dauber high-rises and sticky spider holes.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“There is another important element pertinent to understanding this book, and that is a place within Dy5topia called 'The Void'. While we can, in some ways, describe and categorize Dy5topia just as we would our world, The Void escapes any such efforts. Consequently, we can only describe the inhabitants of The Void in terms of their appearance in Dy5topia as 'Interlopers'.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“I always find it curious to discover a home left as if in a state of interrupted daily life, with clothes still hanging like flaccid skins in a closet. Despite the rubble of personal effects, I can imagine someone sitting in their favorite chair, smoking an evening cigarette, or tinkering on their best friend’s truck in the garage.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“Long ago, during the 'Kingdom Reign', the 'power' of Dy5topia lay in the hands of Royalty who employed 'death squads', deemed Undertakers, to 'keep the fear'. Now these Kingdoms have 'fallen' into ruin and their remnants are sprinkled throughout the known regions of Dy5topia.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“Abandoned residential homes are common in the area—often the casualties of severe damage from hurricanes—but what I find fascinating is the mettle of the Cajuns we encountered and befriended. They may lose their roof and be forced to abandon their home, but it is a near surety that they will remain in the same area, raising a family. There is great cultural pride in these resourceful people, and it is evidenced by the tenacity of those who face the power of Gulf hurricanes every year, and yet remain.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“We can think of Dy5topian inhabitants as 'negative thought-form creations', but we must remember that while they are created and sustained by our fear, this does not make them immaterial. These 'beings' have substance and mass. They display relatively consistent physical characteristics and engage in consistent behavior patterns.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“Just as we do not fully understand the miraculous nature of our world―how life came to be, where we are going, and what the meaning is―similarly we cannot fully understand how our fear calls into existence the substance-based, negative thought-form creation of Dy5topia, or how it can exist without our seeing it more readily.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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“One of the things that has always attracted me to abandoned locations is the austere beauty of the neglected or forgotten. The textures, colors, shadows, and lines speak of a life once lived within the confines, and the absence is as empty as it is filled. I can feel the wheel of time turn within these places as nature takes back what was only borrowed, infiltrating the cracks and seams with the tendrils of her vine-fingers, while spray painting the surfaces with moss, mold, and dirt.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“When you first step from your comfort bubble into a new environment, all the sensory details are acutely apparent: the guttural sound of the toads, what locals call the Ouaouarons (pronounced “wa-wa-rons”), the crooning of some foreign night bird deep in a jungle of pine, palmetto, and cypress, the sweet scent of night-blooming flowers mixing with the loamy, earthen banks of the bayou, Spanish Moss draped like early Halloween decorations on the sagging arms of tree-giants, and the feel of thick, wet air filling your head and chest.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“We came to discover a world rich with culture, history, and bayous. This flat swampy territory is riddled with waterways, snaking like veins and arteries between forests filled with crooked cypress trees. Sulphur is home to a Cajun populace, and unlike its more well-known southeastern counterpart, New Orleans, which is predominantly Creole, it was originally settled by Acadians.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“The wet floor was difficult to navigate and the musty smell of rot, tinged with ammonia, was sharp in my nose. It was evident that the building’s current occupants were engaged in questionable activities, so while I wanted to explore and capture the dark beauty of this forgotten place, I did not care to stumble upon anyone living or deceased.”

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Book:Abandoned Sulphur, Louisiana
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“Just as a door can be opened from the inside to allow us out, the same door can allow the outside in. The inhabitants of Dy5topia, namely the 'nOmen'―picture 1940’s style, film noir gangsters, that possess dark 'supernatural' powers―engage in behaviors that allow them 'passage' into our world...where encounters can and do occur.”

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Book:DY5TOPIA: A Field Guide to the Dark Universe of Chet Zar
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