Just when I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to the human race, I came across this zinger of a story:
In 2023, a vascular surgeon in the UK decided it was a good idea to amputate his own legs with one of two goals in mind (we’ll get to the second shortly). The first:
AN INSURANCE PAYOUT.
(Surprise, surprise.)
But to claim it, he had to convince them that there was absolutely no foul play involved. So, he froze his feet with dry ice to bring on gangrene. I know, quite the party trick — and certainly one I won’t be practising any time soon.
While he didn't end up amputating his legs himself for reasons quite obvious, the gangrene got so bad that he had to be induced by doctors to save his life.
Sure enough, he got the payout to the tune of £500,000 (or just under a million dollars for my American lords and ladies), which, in today’s world, is a paltry sum considering what he sacrificed.
I don’t know about you, Legionnaire, but you’d have to pay me a hell of a lot more coin to chop my legs off. They might have catwalkers scurrying off the stage, but they are my only ones.
So, yeah, I cannot quite understand the motive here.
That was until the news report took a dark turn…
It turns out this leg-chopping lumberjack had an “obsession” with removing his own body parts. Honestly, where do we get these people? It’s bad enough to get caught with your trousers down and the proverbial hacksaw in hand, but this?
I have no words.
Which says a lot considering I’ve built a career off them.
Short story long:
Two years after the payout, he got caught and is now serving a prison sentence in a wheelchair.
“Hella cray, cray,” as kids say these days.
I guess it just goes to show that wild imaginations aren’t reserved only for fiction authors like yours truly. Just some are more palatable than others, like, say…
The Divided Region.
I assure you that the only limbs wounded in this series are those caught up in ambushes and wild encounters with legendary beasts. And while the world of Estos isn’t as large as Westeros, the North and South Divide of Elron and Vlencia — separated by the Forbidden Forest — carries a lot of tension and political intrigue that underpins the plot.
I spent weeks at the beginning sketching out the regions and creating a map with some pretty dated software. From that sprung a story with all the hallmarks of classic fantasy, but with a modern twist.
We’re now five books deep into this trench, with at least a couple more to go, and plenty of ideas for spin-off series.
(More on that in a coming email.)
If you’d like to buy The Divided Region, you can now do so not only in both audiobook and digitally signed e-book…
But paperbacks, too.
Grab your crutches and hop along here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW