Enter the Sandman - "Magical Creations"

[Image courtesy: Gaiman, Neil The Sandman]

It was through the dim glow of the alarm clock that he saw two strange and monstrous beings. Thin and pale, they were human in form, but their faces were pointed, with impossibly slanted eyes. No thicker than a large twig, their arms ended in hands with grotesquely long fingers that clasped around his arms, pinning him to the bed. The air around them smelled dusty...

Yeah baby - they're Sandmen!

 [Magical Creations, coming 7th October]

In the next few weeks, I'll be highlighting some of the magical beings you're going to encounter in my latest release, "Magical Creations" and today I'm focussing on Sandmen.

The Sandman, which is a relatively innocuous title, has a sinister edge I think. Traditionally speaking a Sandman is a benevolent character who brings good dreams particularly to children, and the 'sleepy dust' or 'sleep sand'  in your eyes in the morning is evidence of his visitation. However, the sandman has also been depicted as malevolent. In E.T.A. Hoffmann's novel 'Der Sandman', the sandman is quite frankly hideous, he throws sand in children's eyes, which makes them fall out. He then collects the lost eyes and feeds them to his children on the moon. Gross isn't it? Neil Gaiman's famous depiction of the Sandman in his comic series (of the same name) also has a sinister edge. This depictions seem to have tainted the 'good sandman' image somewhat. Additionally, Metallica's song "Enter Sandman" has a strangely threatening, if not exciting air to it and thus, for me, the negative imagery of the acutual Sandman has stuck.
 
If you want to read about the Sandman the wiki site is fairly informative and if you haven't heard "Enter Sandman" you can listen to it here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3LAFJbKyY&feature=related. (I grew up listening to this as my brother was a massive Metallica fan!)
 
I won't go into to much detail about how and why the Sandmen appear in "Magical Creations" because I don't want to give to much away. Suffice to say they're there, and even in dreams, someone may be watching you!