~ William Blackwell ~ Dark Fiction Author

Tag: Hat Man

Hot off the Press

On April 15, 2023

The culmination of three years’ of research and countless revisions, The Dark Menace, my latest supernatural thriller, has just been released.

Here’s a synopsis:

Noah Janzen is plagued by nightmares and numerous sleep disorders; night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and a horrifying sleep paralysis that often invokes chilling images of the Shadow People and the Hat Man.

Determined to prevent his nocturnal demons from interfering with his successful career and newly formed relationship with Angela Rosewood, he meets her in a local pub. But when he sees a shadowy figure wearing a fedora and a trench coat eerily watching him through a window, he freaks out and flees.

He soon learns that a hat-wearing psycho has viciously attacked Angela, smashing in her door, trashing her apartment, and nearly killing her. Worse still, Angela suspects Noah has morphed into a conduit for evil and starts distancing herself from him. She might even think he is the Hat Man.

Desperate to save his new relationship and find answers, he seeks the aid of physicist and sleep specialist, Doctor Neil Samuelson. While remaining tight-lipped on his experiments involving the Shadow People and the Hat Man, the enigmatic doctor informs Noah that an old woman has been brutally murdered at the hands of The Dark Menace.

As blood-curdling reports of Shadow People and the Hat Man escalate, Noah suspects Neil has accidentally opened up a portal from another dimension, unleashing a torrent of ghostly evil entities, hell-bent on terrorizing and destroying humanity.

He’s thrust into an epic battle to preserve his relationship and sanity and find answers to a strange and mysterious real-life phenomenon that has haunted and terrorized thousands of people around the world for centuries.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on a copy, click the link below. Or, if you want to learn more about the Hat Man, read on and click the link at the bottom of the page.

Who is the Hat Man? A guardian angel or the devil in disguise?

According to numerous reports, he’s a mysterious spirit entity who often visits people in their bedrooms at night. Sometimes he terrifies them. Other times he leaves them with a sense of peace and calm.

What does he look like? He’s a black, shadowy apparition, darkly cloaked, wearing a wide-rimmed black hat resembling a fedora.

What does the Hat Man want? To some he’s the devil in disguise, a grim reaper of sorts, and a harvester of souls.

Some believe he preys on fear, striking you when your defenses are low and you’re down and out.

Many people report seeing him in their waking lives. Some even claim he’s trashed their houses and tried to strangle them to death in the middle of the night.

According to Heidi Hollis, author of The Hat Man, The True Story of Evil Encounters, he’s not only real, but he is the devil. She writes, “Victims worldwide have reported seeing this man peering into their homes, their bedrooms, their baby cribs, their cars and even—their souls.”

Some have been able to defeat him by calling out the name of Jesus, or having their homes blessed, while others, according to reports, just beat the crap out of him. Some simply order him out of their homes.

But others claim the Hat Man is a guardian angel, whose purpose is to protect them from harm.

The Hat Man is often seen with his band of followers, the Shadow People.

Where did the Hat Man come from? Where did the Shadow People come from?

According to Wikipedia, shadowy entities are “the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit of other entity.”

Some researchers claim shadowy entities date as far back as 300 AD. Wikipedia says, “A number of religions, legends, and belief systems describe shadowy spiritual beings or supernatural entities such as shades of the underworld, and various shadowy creatures have long been a staple of folklore and ghost stories.”

There are other theories about the origins of the Hat Man and the Shadow People.

A neurological theory: Shadow People and Hat Man images occur during sleep paralysis, a mysterious sleeping disorder occurring in that transitional stage between waking and falling asleep during which a person becomes completely immobilized and often sees frightening images. According to the neurological theory, these shadowy entities are merely the manifestation of a sleeping disorder and by extension nothing more than a product of the subconscious mind.

A religious theory: Shadow People are the evil minions of the devil, sent to snatch our souls and drag us down into the bowels of hell.

Another religious theory: Shadow People are guardian angels, sent from heaven to protect our souls and shield us from evil.

The scientific theory: Some physicists believe that unexplained forces are causing other dimensions to merge with ours. This merging of different dimensions would explain why we can only see the Shadow People and the Hat Man as shadowy figures who have the ability to transcend our laws of gravity, float through walls, fly, and change shapes at random.

According to this theory, the Hat Man and the Shadow People are the extra-dimensional inhabitants of another universe or another dimension. That’s why they can disappear and reappear in the drop of a hat. Or maybe in the drop of the Hat Man.

Regardless of what theory you subscribe to, one thing is certain. The Hat Man and the Shadow people drive terror and fear into the hearts of some, and peace and joy into the hearts of others.

While I was researching The Dark Menace, I posted a blog asking people to tell me their experiences with the Hat Man and the Shadow People.

Needless to say, I received a lot of responses—some terrifying, others heartwarming. Here are some excerpts:

Rather frightening:

When I was around four, I think at the time my parents were going through a divorce. I was sleeping on my mom’s bed one night and had to go to the bathroom, so I got up and went to use the bathroom and she was still sleeping. I came back and fell back to sleep. I woke up to a pitch black shadow of a man staring at me at the edge of the bed. It felt like an eternity, he was staring. My whole body was frozen with fear. He started growing in height, almost reaching the ceiling. At this point I turned my body and fell back to sleep. The next night I woke up and felt the urge to walk to the living room. I walked to the living room to see a shadow man at my front door. My dad was sleeping on the couch. I tried waking him up. I tried pushing at him, and to no avail. He wasn’t waking up. I walked back to my mom’s room to sleep, hoping it would go away. I looked back to see the shadow person staring at my dad.

On a more positive note:

The Hat Man visits me nearly every week in lucid dreaming. And I have only good experiences with him. We just talk normally and I often ask him questions. For example, I ask how he comes to my dreams, who he is, and so on. Once he showed me his tarot cards. That was funny. I always try to look in his face, and he looks like an Arabian type of man. But I want to mention, that he’s not the only Hat Man. He has a brother, too. They are very different.

Somewhere in that mysterious twilight zone between black and white:

Hey, I have seen the Hat Man. He was on the left side of my bed but when I awoke and saw him. I did feel an intense sense of fear. I began to think that fear was created by myself over time. I was sleeping next to my partner and we were going through a troubling time, when I saw the Hat Man I saw it wasn’t me he had interest in but my partner. It’s very strange because I couldn’t see his eyes but I knew he was looking at him. He was there until I managed to panic and turned on the light. I have never saw him again but on occasion I think about him and wonder if he will reappear and why he did. I was scared at first but now I feel he is of some good. I am unsure. This was in maybe 2011. I was sexually attacked by a man that year. I put him behind bars for seven years but I felt strong, like I knew I could do it, but then suffered a year with anxiety and depression. Did he cause this? Or was it a warning? I am unsure. I am mentioning this due to other related aftermaths.

Now that’s downright chilling:

He’s from the Void/VALE of DARKNESS. I saw the hooded man/grim reaper. I saw two of them when I was 6 years old and I was shaking and heard whispers and voices and I had a severe high fever. I was hallucinating with nightmares and night terrors. This happened back in 2004 and after that the next day I was blacking out in the morning. I had to go to the doctor. I almost died in that experience.

And on the flipside:

I’ve seen the Hat Man four times in my life. The first time I was about 6 years old, and the sighting snapped me awake from a dead sleep. The next two visits followed that night closely (maybe within 4-7 days apart from the first visit). Seeing him the first time, the tall, dark shadow figure, wearing a fancy top hat, absolutely petrified me. The next two times he woke me from a dead sleep, dressed the same (trench coat, top hat, beard, kind features) and wasn’t in shadow form. I wasn’t afraid of him at all, and actually rather drawn to him. I felt like he was an old friend in this form. I won’t go into much detail but these two accounts are drilled into my memory as something spiritual and friendly. Now, the fourth time I saw him was a few days ago (some 30 years later), back in shadow form, just watching me sleep. I wasn’t afraid and felt oddly comforted. My research the past few days has been really surprising because I’m not finding any other stories of people with good experiences with the Hat Man. Surely, I can’t be the only one?

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but have you ever thought about this: Maybe how you view the Hat Man depends on your perspective.

Are you glass half full? Or glass half empty?

In The Dark Menace, I take a deep dive into these questions and many more.

Piqued your interest? Good, click the link below and buy now:

The Dark Menace is born

By william

On March 20, 2018

In Posts

After endless hours of research, The Dark Menace is born. I’ve completed character sketches, plot outline, chapter summaries, and am still in the throes of researching the Shadow People and the Hat Man.

After the research, the writing begins. Three drafts. After writing, editing begins.

After one editing pass, primarily concentrating on obvious inconsistencies, plot holes, grammar, spelling and punctuation, the manuscript will go to a beta reader to try and get a general sense if it’s even a good story.

On the second and third editing passes, I will incorporate suggestions as well as examining plot, character development, motivational inconsistencies, cadence, conciseness, story arc, word redundancy, pace, point of view, believability, dialogue, etc.

After a month of rewrites and revision, The Dark Menace will meet my editor. The talented Winslow Eliot, who represents New York Times bestselling authors, will apply another layer of polish and return it. After two more thorough coats of wax, The Dark Menace enters the publishing pipeline for yet one more proofread before it will be formatted for ebook and paperback distribution to major book retailers.

Wow. That’s a lot of editing and rewrites. Six editing passes in total before it’s finally released.

Here’s a short summary to whet your appetite:

Mysterious and terrifying attacks by the Shadow People and the Hat Man lead a nightmare-plagued man to suspect an enigmatic doctor has accidentally opened a portal to hell.

Look for it soon in book stores near you.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Creative Process

By william

On March 13, 2018

In Posts

The creative process is probably different for every writer, every artist. I know some authors who write at night, others who write mid-afternoon, still others who write early morning. And their routines often differ. Some like background music playing, others flirt with social media between paragraphs; some light candles, others shut everything down and need silence and solitude to write.

I fall into the latter category. I need silence and solitude to write. I used to write at night, but found I would get bombarded with ideas while trying to sleep and found myself getting up every few minutes to either scribble ideas on paper or just give up on sleep altogether and start pounding away on the keyboards late into the night. In the long run, this strategy affected my ability to sleep so I abandoned it.

Now, I write in the morning hours, sometimes starting at six am, other times at seven or eight. Since I’m not a morning person, I get the coffee going as soon as I wake up, drink a cup or two while catching up on some TV news headlines. Then, when my caffeine-fueled mind begins to feel lucid, I retreat to my office. Before I start writing, I spend a half hour checking my email inbox and checking on social media. Once I’ve completed my personal and promotional posts and responses, I shut everything down. I won’t even turn my phone on and check messages until I’ve completed my daily word count.

Before I start, I usually bring a small tea candle into the office, light it and insert it into a pirate-shaped glass candle holder. The tea candle burns for almost four hours and serves as an hour-glass timer for me. Often when the flame goes out, I go out.

Although I’m more focused on story than word count, I generally write 2000-plus words a day. I sometimes get so involved in a story, I lose track of the words and even lose track of time. I generally envision an entire scene or chapter in my mind before I write anything down.

Toward the end of a story, I get so excited and passionate about the possibilities that I often write six to ten thousand words a day, a kind of sprint to the finish line. I get so involved with the characters I create that I often find myself laughing out loud, feeling sadness, anger, or despair as the situation warrants.

There are at least two kinds of writers, some would say. The plotter, who methodically plots out chapters, scenes and dialogue, determining the end of a novel far before the characters realize what lies ahead for them. I know mystery writers who are plotters and it makes sense for the whodunit genre.

Then there are the pantsers, writers who fly by the seat of their pants. When they start a book, they have no idea where it will go, what characters will be involved, or how it will end. Stephen King is said to be a pantser. He contends that rigidly plotting all aspects of a story may have a tendency to limit the creative process. Maybe the characters you’ve created know better than you do where the story should go.

My style falls somewhere in between the pantser and the plotter. Many of my novels contain a lot of research and I find the pantser style doesn’t necessarily lend itself to weaving painstakingly researched material into a story line. But I don’t like to limit the creative process either. Sometimes I’ll outline ten chapters ahead and compare and contrast ten chapters later to see how closely my prose resembles my outline.

More often than not, I’m surprised at the results. Often the characters, once created, demand that the story follow a different arc.

Many writers are excellent multi-taskers, managing to juggle family, friends, loved ones, other careers and hobbies and a hectic social life while knocking out excellent novels. I’m not one of them. I’m not the best multi-tasker. I tend to develop tunnel vision when I write. Not to suggest the novels will ever replace friends, family and loved ones. If they have a crisis or emergency, I try and be there for them in whatever capacity I’m able to. I’m just not one for a bunch of small talk when I’m trying to work.

And when I’m writing, I become intensely passionate about and focused on my work. My schedule is rigid and self-disciplined. After I write for four or five hours—sometimes eight or nine hours—it is only then that I’ll turn on the communications and check messages from friends, etc. During production of a novel, I generally socialize little and work six days a week. If I want to socialize, I know there will be plenty of time to do that when the first or second draft of the novel is complete. At that stage, I like to leave it for a week or two and then revisit it for revision and rewrites with fresh eyes before I send it down the pipe to my editor.

Much can be said about the creative process. Although at times it is fraught with blood, sweat and tears, writing a novel is richly rewarding in so many ways—ways often difficult to put into words. Creating characters and stories from one’s imagination is nothing short of magical.

In the creation of The Dark Menace, my latest work in progress, I’ve felt the magic, felt the love for the characters, felt their despair and sadness at times. I’m perhaps 10,000 words from the finish line. The ineffable feeling of euphoria, pride, and sense of accomplishment that will inevitably occur when I finally type THE END is what continues to drive me forward.

Here’s a short summary:

Nightmare-plagued Noah Janzen suspects an enigmatic scientist may be responsible for a series of horrifying attacks by the Shadow People and the Hat Man.

Here’s a long synopsis:

Noah Jansen is plagued by nightmares and multiple sleep disorders; night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and a terrifying sleep paralysis that often invokes chilling images of the Shadow People and the Hat Man.

Determined not to let his nocturnal demons interfere with his successful career and newly formed relationship with Angela Rosewood, he meets her in a local pub. But when he sees a shadowy figure wearing a fedora and a trench coat eerily watching him through a window, he freaks out and battens down the hatches of his apartment.

Desperate to save his new relationship and find answers, he seeks the aid of physicist and sleep specialist, Doctor Neil Samuelson. While remaining tight-lipped on his experiments involving the Shadow People and the Hat Man, the enigmatic doctor informs Noah that an old woman has just been brutally murdered at the hands of The Dark Menace.

As blood-curdling reports of Shadow People and the Hat Man begin to escalate, Noah suspects Neil has accidently opened up a portal from another dimension, creating an invasion of evil, shadowy entities, hell-bent on terrorizing and destroying humanity.

He’s thrust into an epic battle to preserve his relationship and sanity and find answers to a strange and mysterious real-life phenomenon that has haunted and terrorized millions of people around the world for centuries.

Expect The Dark Menace on bookstore shelves in a couple of months. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it. THE END, at least of the first draft, is near. As always, thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave comments. Whatever art you might excel at, I’d love to read about your creative process. Remember, your only limitations are self-imposed.

Who are the Shadow People?

By william

On February 20, 2018

In Posts

Just who are the Shadow People anyway? Well, to define the plural, let’s start with the singular—shadow person. According to Wikipedia, a shadow person “is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit of other entity.”

Although some would argue it, Shadow People represent the shadow person, only in droves. According to researchers, images of Shadow People date as far back as 300 AD. Wikipedia says, “A number of religions, legends, and belief systems describe shadowy spiritual beings or supernatural entities such as shades of the underworld, and various shadowy creatures have long been a staple of folklore and ghost stories.”

So what do they want? Well, that is certainly a matter of debate. Here are some theories:

An extraterrestrial theory. Shadow People are negative alien beings, sent to harm or abduct us, who can be repelled by invoking the name of Jesus.

A neurological theory. Shadow People images occur during sleep paralysis, a mysterious sleeping disorder occurring in that transitional stage between waking and falling asleep during which a person becomes completely immobilized and often sees frightening images. In that case they would just be the manifestation of a sleeping disorder and by extension nothing more than a product of the subconscious mind.

A religious theory. Shadow People are the evil minions of the Devil sent to snatch our souls and drag us down into the filthy bowels of hell.

Another religious theory. Shadow People are guardian angels, sent from heaven to protect our souls and shield us from evil.

I could probably go on for hours about the many theories that exist. We know for sure that thousands of people have seen the Shadow People in their waking and sleeping worlds. We know that, due to the supernatural aspect of their existence, nobody has yet to prove what the Shadow People really are. But my favorite theory is this one:

The Scientific theory. Some physicists believe that unexplained forces are causing other dimensions to merge with ours. This merging of different dimensions would explain why we can only see the Shadow People as shadowy figures who have the ability to transcend our laws of gravity, float through walls, fly, and change shapes at random.

According to this theory, Shadow People are the extra-dimensional inhabitants of another universe or another dimension. That’s why they can disappear and reappear in the drop of a hat. Or maybe in the drop of the Hat Man.

Theories also abound on the existence and agenda of the Hat Man. Many people report seeing him in their waking lives. Some claim he’s a guardian angel of sorts while others are convinced he’s the devil come to harvest their souls. He has been connected to alien abduction, preying on fear, and striking you when your defenses are low; when you’re sick or depressed. Some claim he’s trashed their houses and tried to strangle them to death in the middle of the night.

In some reports, The Shadow People and the Hat Man are sometimes interconnected. Some people claim to see the Hat Man with the Shadow People. But the connections are muddy at best.

In Dark Menace, my work-in-progress supernatural thriller, I attempt to clarify the connections between the two strange and mysterious phenomenon that are very real and very terrifying to many people. Here’s a synopsis:

Noah Jansen is plagued by nasty nightmares and multiple sleep disorders; night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and a terrifying sleep paralysis that often invokes chilling images of the Hat Man and the Shadow People.

Determined not to let his nocturnal demons interfere with his successful career and a crush he has on Angela Rosewood, he meets her for a drink in a local pub. But when he sees a dark shadowy figure wearing a fedora and a trench coat peering at him eerily through a window, he freaks out, fleeing in terror and battening down the hatches of his apartment.

He soon learns that a hat-wearing man has viciously attacked Angela, smashing in her door, trashing her apartment, and nearly killing her. Worse still, Angela believes Noah has morphed into a conduit for evil and starts distancing herself from him. She might even think he is the Hat Man.

Desperate to save his new relationship and find answers, he seeks the aid of former physicist and sleep specialist friend Neil Samuelson, now a full-time paranormal investigator. While remaining tight-lipped on his experiments involving the Shadow People and the Hat Man, the enigmatic scientists informs Noah that an old woman has just been brutally murdered at the hands of The Dark Menace.

As blood-curdling reports of Shadow People and the Hat Man begin to escalate, Noah finds townsfolk pointing fingers at him. They believe he’s plunged off the precipice of sanity. Noah believes the Hat Man is not only real, but actually exists in a dangerous and deadly other dimension—one the Hat Man affectionately calls “the dead zone.”

He’s thrust into a violent and unpredictable battle to prove his innocence and sanity, win back Angela’s affection, and confront The Dark Menace he believes responsible for all the bloodshed and carnage.

The Dark Menace will be available in leading book retailers soon. In the meantime, if you’ve ever encountered Shadow People or the Hat Man, I’d love to hear about it. Please post your comments below.

The Hat Man Returns

By william

On February 14, 2018

In Posts

My research has taken me into the fascinating world of lucid dreaming and sleep disorders. I’ve delved into nightmares, night terrors, sleep paralysis, sleep talking, sleep walking, even sexsomnia—a condition in which a person actually has sex in their sleep and wakes up with no recollection of it.

I‘ve uncovered some shocking and terrifying stuff.

Take, for example, the case of a Vancouver man who, after passing out at a party, was charged with sexual assault. He was later acquitted after the defense proved that he was a sexsomniac and therefore not responsible for his actions.

Then there’s the infamous case of the Toronto man Kenneth Parks, who was charged with murder after police discovered his mother-in-law bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her home. There was no question Parks had committed the murder. But was he cognizant and therefore responsible for his actions? The defense was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Parks was sleep walking at the time. The result. Acquittal. Not guilty, by reason of sleep walking.

These true stories are frightening in their own right. But it was during my research on sleep paralysis that another, perhaps even more disturbing phenomenon, emerged. Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs during that transitional stage between waking and falling asleep whereby a person becomes completely immobilized. During these episodes, people may hear, feel, or see things that are absolutely terrifying and panic-inducing. They might be awake and aware of their surroundings, but otherwise completely frozen, leaving many to wonder if they’re actually dying, or even traveling out of their bodies. Some have reported soaring through visually stunning colors and passing through a time warp and into another dimension.

During sleep paralysis, some people see the mysterious Hat Man, a darkly cloaked shadow man with a wide-brimmed hat. Widely documented, some believe he is a powerful evil force who actually exists in another dimension.

Seeds of The Dark Menace, the working title for my work in progress, began to grow. “What is this Hat Man?” I asked myself. “Is he a sleep-paralysis induced figment of one’s imagination? Or is he real?”

Theories abound on the existence and agenda of the Hat Man. Many people report seeing him in their waking lives. Some claim he’s a guardian angel of sorts while others are convinced he’s the devil come to harvest their souls. He has been connected to alien abduction, preying on fear, and striking you when your defenses are low and you are down and out. Some claim he’s trashed their houses and tried to strangle them to death in the middle of the night.

According to Heidi Hollis, author of The Hat Man, The True Story of Evil Encounters, the Hat Man is not only real, but he is the devil.

She writes, “Victims worldwide have reported seeing this man peering into their homes, their bedrooms, their baby cribs, their cars and even—their souls.”

Some have been able to defeat him by calling out the name of Jesus, or having their homes blessed, while others simply just beat the crap out of him. Some simply order him out of their homes.

So what is he? A guardian angel, a figment of the imagination, or a powerful evil force?

That’s exactly what Noah Janzen, the troubled lead protagonist in The Dark Menace, my work in progress, intends to find out. Noah is plagued by a terrifying sleep paralysis that often invokes horrific images of the feared Hat Man. To his horror, he learns he also suffers from night terrors, sleep walking, sleep talking and even the dangerous and little-known condition called sexsomnia.

One morning he wakes up in his pickup truck in the middle of a grassy meadow with no idea of how he got there and no memory of the night before. It isn’t long before he learns two sexual assault charges have been filed against him and one of his enemies has been found brutally murdered. As the noose tightens around him, his life begins to unravel. He’s thrust into a battle to prove his innocence, preserve his precarious relationship with his girlfriend, and confront The Dark Menace he believes is responsible for all the carnage—the soul-harvesting, evil Hat Man.

While everyone around him thinks he’s plunged off the precipice of sanity, Noah believes the Hat Man is not only real, but actually exists in a dangerous and deadly other dimension—one the Hat Man affectionately calls “the dead zone.”

The Dark Menace, a fact-based “fun thriller,” will be released soon. I’m excited about its possibilities. Due to the creative process, plot elements are subject to change. Here’s a tantalizing teaser for your reading pleasure:

The muffled scream echoing eerily from the hallway leading to Noah’s bedroom wasn’t enough to stir Barbara Jansen from her couch-potato, channel-surfing position. With one hand, she reached into the glass bowl cradled on her lap and shoveled a mouthful of potato chips into her mouth, unaware of a few chips that spilled down her gray sweatshirt, one lodging in the crotch of her sweat pants, a few others spilling onto the couch. She grabbed the remote, adjusted her bulk, and turned up the volume. The crotch-trapped chip crunched into powder. Oblivious, she flicked the channel quickly six or seven times and finally stopped at Bride of the Monster, a 1955 B-grade cult horror film. She leaned back and grinned, exposing crooked, decaying and nicotine-stained teeth.

“Mooommmmy… heeeeeelp me!”

Have you seen the Hat Man? If so, drop me a line. Good or bad, I’d love to read about your experiences.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you in the tenth dimension. Don’t worry. It’ll be a riot.

William Blackwell

Dark Fiction Author

Tag: Hat Man

Hot off the Press

The Dark Menace is born

The Creative Process

Who are the Shadow People?

The Hat Man Returns

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