Dave’s Anatomy: My History As a Writer #124: Religion, Politics, and War: “The Saint”

I’ve often heard that politics and religion do not mix. Well, that’s a fairly new idea. In ancient times, if one nation defeated another, the explanation was that the God of the victorious nation was stronger than the god of the defeated one. Early on, Christians used the sword to spread the faith (e.g., Franks forcibly converting the pagan Saxons); Islam spread its faith by war. Christians and Muslims, and factions within those two religions, often fought against each other. Leaders used religion to drum up nationalistic fervor.

 Many early science fiction writers thought that religion would not be a part of the future—overlooking the fact that religion is part and parcel of the human race and has been around since our history began. In Arthur C. Clark’s Childhood’s End, religion fades away when a new race of being introduces Earth to matters that advance our evolution. In the early Star Trek series, religion was irrelevant. Then a funny thing happened on the way to Degoba. After Star Wars, with its Zen-like Force and  Zen-monk-like Jedi Knights, religion suddenly made a roaring comeback. Even the later Star Trek spin-offs, Voyager and Deep Space Nine, gave place to religion:  the Borg worshipped a mandala-like geometric pattern and the Bajorans were a very religious people.

I have no doubt that all the faith, good, evil, sincerity, hypocrisy, and politics that religion has brought about on Earth will also exist in a galaxy where space travel is possible. So in my sci-fi universe, religion exists as much as it presently does. Other races have their own faiths and, sometimes, convert to religions brought from Earth. I cannot be convinced that just because a man or woman can ride about in a spaceship they will not feel a longing for the Divine.

My story, “The Saint,” takes place in a future world where the Terran Alliance (Earth and its colony planets) is a major player. There are pro- and anti-Terran systems. One of the races that the Terrans and many of the others in the galaxy constantly fight is the Housali. The Housali are treacherous, technologically advanced, and completely unscrupulous. They often engage in espionage and are eager to use religion as a manipulative tool for furthering their political ambitions. 

In “The Saint,” special forces operative Laurissa Culdoon is sent on assignment to capture the leader of an insurgency. The insurgent, Justina Zita, has convinced the people of the planet that God has spoken to her and she is his appointed messenger. Laurissa has orders to capture her. With the help of a supporting platoon, she is able to defeat the force Justina is leading, kill her bodyguards, and knock her unconscious. 

In my sci-fi universe, the Terran (Earth) Alliance is dominated not by Europeans but by Indians. Hinduism the most widespread religion and Hindu culture the primary cultural force—though there is significant minority or Europeans and other races who also belong to the Alliance. Justine Zita’s insurgents have attacked Hindu temples, massacred clergy and committed outrages on renunciate women in ashrams (Hindu nuns). The Alliance knew that only by taking Zita out would they be able to end the violence of the insurgency. When Laurissa has captured the woman, she contacts her commanding officer, Kamala, to tell her the mission is accomplished.

After the capture, Laurissa learns that Zita is being mistreated. She talks to Kamala, whose life she once saved in battle, and asks if she will grant her a favor. Kamala, who owes Laurissa “obligation” because she saved her life, agrees. Laurissa asks to see the woman.

She finds that Zita has been stripped naked and is guarded by male guards. Kamala has filed a petition for a writ of torture—permission by the government and military to use torture on the woman; and they plan to execute her. Laurissa uses her influence with her friend Kamala to get clothes for Zita. They talk and Laurissa’s suspicions are proven true. She has female doctors examine the prisoner. They find hallucinogens in her system. She convinces her superiors that the Housali have used the woman. Hoping to stir up an insurgency on the planet, they have convinced her that God is speaking to her and she must lead a military effort to remove the Hindu influence form her planet. The hallucinogens make her hear voices she assumes are from God. The Housali also want her executed. If she is made a martyr, they realize, this will spur her follows to continue fighting.

A medical examination and “drying out” from the drugs she had been given makes Zita return to her old religion and repudiate her role as a military/spiritual leader. The insurgency is fully broken by this. Zita will not be executed but returned to her home planet, where the government will mediate between Hindu and Christian claims and concerns. Home with her husband and children, Laurissa recalls how religious violence on her old world had hurt her as well.

“The Saint” appeared in the anthology VFW: Veterans of Future Wars. It is available in print. Get a copy here.

The Court of the Sovereign King is a story of intrigue and perseverance. A young woman is taken in the annual levy, placed under a vow of chastity, and sent to serve in the Court of the Sovereign King. She soon knows the evil that dwells there. And it knows her. Get a copy here.

For additional titles, see my Writer's Page.

Dave’s Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #123: Vampires in Space: “Soil Samples.”

In high school, I read a collection of stories called Rod Serling’s Triple W:  Witches, Warlocks, and Werewolves. One story in particular fascinated me. Written by Joe E. Hensley, it was titled “Not Quite Human.” I never forgot the story, but I forgot the title, the name of the author, and the book in which I was published. It was forty years later (literally) that, with the help of the internet, I found it and got to read it again. It still impressed me after all that time. 

The story begins with the destruction of the earth. An alien race has destroyed Earth’s civilization and is about to report back that a new world is available for colonization. And something else will please the authorities on their home word:  miraculously, forty of the planet’s inhabitants somehow survived the attack. They are imprisoned on the ship and are being taken back for study. 

Soon, however, strange things begin to happen. A crewman commits suicide. You learn that the alien world is a repressive world. Anyone who makes a mistake is “exterminated.” The Captain of the ship will probably die due to what happened under his command. Soon others follow. The crew seems to be going mad. Everyone but the Captain is soon dead. The leader of the earth inhabitants that did not die tells the captain that this is because they are vampires. They were buried for centuries in the earth with stakes through their heart. “Your fire burned away the stakes,” he said, and they have revived. The story ends like this. But there is at least a hint that the vampires will force the captain to fly the ship home so they will have a new race of beings that can be their prey. 

This was the inspiration for a story I published called “Soil Samples.” Earth is not destroyed in my story. The aliens come as scouts. They land on earth, survey it, capture some its animals and collect samples of its plant life. They also bring soil samples in large boxes. During the course of the voyage, a wild boar gets loose and attacks one of the aliens. Bleeding badly, he climbs up on one of the boxes of dirt from Earth and dies of his wounds. Unfortunately for the crew of the ship, the blood revives remains embedded in the soil samples.

The Vampires—Rebecca, Hugh, Ethan, Mia, and Felicity—come from various eras. Like the creatures in “Not Quiet Human,” they have been revived—not by fire burning away the stakes in their heart, but by blood soaking down into the soil where they were buried. 

Rebecca transforms to a bat and flies about the ship. She hears someone speaking English, takes on her human-like form, and captures an alien woman, Devva. She tells Rebecca she has been inducted into the military to learn the English language. Rebecca tells her they need her help. She dresses in one of Devva’s extra uniforms and the two of them head back to the where other vampires are waiting. Devva decides to warn the crew when three of her fellow aliens appear. Rebecca makes short work of them and threatens to kill her if she betrays her again. Devva has noted that the earth beings are not harmed by the weapons of her people. 

She tells the group of vampires that the ship is monitored but puzzles that no one has seen them. Mia, a vampire who lived into the second millennia, suggests that just as they do not make reflections they also may not show up on camera. The vampires, aided by Devva, manage to take control of the ship. They learn of a rebellion going on. A prisoner on the ship is involved with the rebellion and will help them connect with rebel factions.

Rebecca

  

Rebecca feels badly that she has been so brutal with Devva and wonders why this human woman cooperated so much. Devva tells her that her sister got involved with the rebellion, was captured, tortured, and killed by the government. She has a family but despairs of ever seeing them again, knowing that because her sister was a rebel she will eventually be killed as well. Rebecca remembers how her crossing over into the world of vampires separated her from her husband and family. 

In the last scene, the ship is going to join other rebel ships. Their destination is the alien home planet—a new world on which the vampires can settle and find blood. 

“Soil Samples” appeared in Bloodbond, published by Alban Lake. Get a copy here.

For additional titles, check out my Amazon Page. Here is a link.

I would love to hear your comments.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #103: Religion and Outer Space: "Antigone"

One of my earliest blogs was titled "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Dagobah . . . or, How Science Fiction Got Religion" (read here). Early science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and a host of lesser lights depicted the future in outer space as devoid of religion. In their stories, religion is simply gone, a relic that has passed off the scene along with mule trains and triremes. The supreme expression of this assumption was a story by Lester Del Ray called "Evensong," in which a desperate being is fleeing from pursuers, finds a planet where he thinks he is safe, but then is captured. Quoting from that blog:  His benevolent captor tells him he will be taken to a planet where he will be well-treated and have a nice home. The creature whimpers pathetically, "But I'm God!" His captor returns, "Yes, but I am Man." The story appeared in Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison. You can read it here.

So it was and still is in some science fiction. But the funny thing that happened was that science fiction suddenly became laced with religion. This was first apparent, at least to me, in Star Wars, where we learned about the Force, met the Jedi (who were rather like Shaolin monks), and encountered Yoda (whose name sounded like Yoga and who greatly resembled a Zen master). Religion, banished in the 1950s and 1960s, suddenly made a rather spectacular comeback.

Antigone, from the play

My story "Antigone" happily inhabits this new world where to talk about religion is okay. In my science fiction world-building, various religions thrive. The Mervogian races worships the "holy light" of the Besrid nebula. Numerous planets kneel before the Goddess Robinna. Earth, of course, has transported its religions into space. Some alien races have accepted earthly religion. The Barzalian and Golorian planetary systems have converted to Roman Catholicism—the Barzalians expressing the Catholicism of Saint Francis, the Golorians that of Cortez and the Conquistadors. Other religions exist in various places. Again, quoting my own writing, The human race … has always had religions. To assume religion will simply go away because people can fly into space seems a bit specious. And to assume other civilizations would not have religions is equally specious.

"Antigone" takes place on a colony planet that is part of the Earth-led Terran Alliance. In my world, the predominant race of the Terran Alliance, the most populous and influential, is the Indian race. The most common religion is Hinduism (though there is a significant "European" minority and all races have equal status). On Planet Antigone, a cult has grown up that worships the figure of Antigone. It draws mostly from the European population of the Indian-dominated planet, but attracts people from all faiths. They have Temples, icons of the goddess, and many converts. The government is tolerant, but the Thebans (followers of Antigone, who came from that city) are militant. When the government begins to develop a grove that Thebans consider sacred, they revolt.

Thebans: Antigone worshipers

Their revolt is well-planned. They surprise the army, win some initial victories and, as terrorists often do, take hostages. One of the hostages is Asha, the wife of Lorac, an army officer who is the main character of the story. She is a doctor.

The military counterattacks. They find the followers of Antigone are not well-trained. They are, however, led by a formidable military commander named Evangeline Müller. After some fierce fighting, the Terran military manages to surround the main force of Thebans. A group of commandos infiltrate the camp and find out the Antigone worshipers are in collusion with a hostile race of beings, the Housali, who are supplying them with arms. They also find out why many of the Theban militants claimed to have seen Antigone. The Housali have selected a young woman to impersonate her. They have done plastic surgery to make her look like images of Antigone. They also give her mind-altering drugs that enable her to project mental energy that induces a peaceful, ecstatic feelings in anyone close to her. The Thebans believe their blissful, supernal feelings come from being near the goddess. They are ready to give up everything and to die for her.

The Terran military also finds a Housali ship, with cloaking capabilities, moored in the middle of the Theban camp. And Lorcan sees the captured Asha. He controls his desire to liberate her.The Terrans seize the Housali ship and rescue Asha. She is quiet. After a while, Lorac realizes the Housali have sexually assaulted her.

Using the ship's monitor, they find the location of Evangeline Müller and capture her. The revolt dissolved without her leadership. The Terrans also capture the Housali woman who impersonates Antigone.

The aftermath of the revolt brings stern retribution. Insurgents are punished with death or imprisonment. The woman who impersonated Antigone is acquitted of all guilt because the Housali forced her, a slave, to participate in the ruse. Evangeline Müller is tried for treason and sentenced to be hanged. Lorac goes to her to tell her that neither he nor Asha bear her any ill will. She has been told that the guards who will execute her are planning to conduct the hanging in such a way that she slowly strangles to death. Lorac knows the soldier assigned to do the execution. She pleads with him to intervene for her so he will make it quick. Thinking of all the suffering Müller has caused, and what happened to his wife, he is reluctant but agrees and successfully intervenes on her part. When she is executed, she dies instantly. Asha is asked, at the last minute, to participate in the autopsy that certifies her death.

At the end, he and Asha pay a tribute to her. They realize how people are caught up in falsity and how all of us are vulnerable to deception. The ceremony they perform indicates Evangeline has been forgiven. The planet is renamed Gargi Vachaknu, after a Hindu sage. Worship of Antigone is severely restricted, though not forbidden.

The story appeared in Fiction on the Web. Read it here.

For more titles, see my Writer's Page.

Coming soon:  the sequel to my vampire novel, Sinfonia: The First Notes on the Lute. Read the first book in the series to prepare you for the second one.

Happy summer.

Happy reading.  

Dave’s Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #73: Science Fiction and Religion: “The Priestesses of Light”

Deep Space Nine

Science fiction occupies several sub-genres. Hard Science Fiction deals with technology and contains quite a lot of “science”; this is what writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke used to do. Space Opera is Buck Rogers and Star Wars and the like. Cyberpunk centers around technology, artificial intelligence, and informational science. Military science fiction explores war and soldiering in future and interstellar settings—Elizabeth Moon’s Rules of Engagement comes to mind. My story, “The Priestesses of Light” is more on the sociological and cultural side of things.

Kai Winn, Bajoran Priestess

Think of Deep Space Nine, a Star Trek series that ran for several years and primarily deal with cultures, their interactions, conflicts, and natures. Deep Space Nine was a space station that orbited the planet Bajor. The Bajorans were a very religious race of beings. They had been conquered and occupied by the Cardassians, a ruthless, aggressive planet system who had cruelly oppressed the Bajorans, who are still recovering from the ill effects of the occupation and have allied themselves with the Federation. Deep Space Nine is a trading post and so attracted an endless variety of beings who represent different cultures and ways of life:  Klingon, Ferengi, Trill, Lurian, Vulcan, Romulan, and many more. They interact.

With the Bajorans, religion is important. This is an interesting development in science fiction. In the future worlds of Asimov and Clarke, religion has disappeared, and science fiction generally ignored the subject for years—then a funny thing happened on the way of Dagoba. Religion re-emerged very strongly in Star Wars. And it became a subject once more.

Re-enactor dressed as Roman Vestal Priestess

My story, “The Priestesses of Light,” deals with a planet strongly influenced by religion (the worship of a goddess). On this particular world, a parasitic creature that causes blindness infects children. The custom for female children so infected is to enroll them as priestesses of the Goddess Robinna, the deity worshipped on the planet. For centuries, the blind priestesses conducted worship. Until a physician named Lalayna, from the nearby planet Mervogia, discovers a cure. She is praised—but not by everyone.

Tradition is a strong element in most religions. A large faction on Planet Suva want to keep the tradition of blind priestesses. This creates an ethical dilemma. Will certain young women be denied the vaccine Lalayna has developed? Other planets that worship Robinna point out that there is nothing in the religion that demands priestesses be blind. Lalayna will attend and speak at a symposium where officials will announce that the serum preventing blindness will be offered to all children and the tradition of blind priestesses will end.

Lalayna, who has devoted herself to medicine has a revelation:  One winter noon, eating lunch and watching the snow fall outside the window of her office, she realized she was forty years old, unmarried, still a virgin, and without a single romantic prospect on this world or any other. Luck has it that she becomes engaged. In a few weeks, she will go to the altar as a virgin bride and become a wife.

She is disappointed that the chief priestesses cannot attend the session as promised. Lalayna gets up to speak, urges the people of Suva to accept change, and assures them that their religion will not be harmed by having sighted priestesses—after all, it so on the other planets in the area that worship their goddess. As she is speaking, an explosion shatters the windows of the building. Blaster fire erupts and she is seized and taken to a small room by partisans of the old traditions of the religion.

They tie her to a chair. One of their leaders holding white-hot iron rod tells her what he plans to do. “I can’t stop what you’ve set in motion, but I can ordain you as a priestess. We called them the Priestesses of Light because though they lived in darkness they give light.” As he lowers the glowing steel, Lalayna realizes, with horror, that when he blinds her, she will indeed be qualified to be a priestess of light in every way:  she is a woman, she is a virgin, and, now, she will be blind.

Lucine

A voice comes through the darkness: "Stop this at once.” Lalayna’s tormenter lowers the rod. It is Lucine, the chief priestess of the planet, She has learned of the plot to blind Lalayna and taken steps to prevent it. By this time, soldiers have secured the building and taken the rebels into custody. Asha, a colleague and friend of Lalayna, rushes to her and begins to care for her. She is shaken and sobbing but unharmed. The priestesses of light, though blind, have more insight than the traditionalists. The changes in religion will go on as planned. Lalayna will be married. The insurgency will come to an end.

The story appeared in a journal called Four-Cornered Universe, now defunct and with no archive. It was reprinted, however, in an issue of Startling Sci-Fi and is available for purchase. Get a copy here.

For additional titles, check out my Writer's Page.

How do lutes, vampires, Shakespeare, and Queen Elizabeth I figure in together? Find out:  Sinfonia: The First Notes on the Lute

I would love to hear your comments.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #31: "Wolf Moon," Writing About Werewolves

If you write paranormal fiction, you will eventually deal with werewolves. Some really high-up people wrote about them. Rudyard Kipling had a story called "The Mark of the Beast," where a British guy defiles a Hindu temple and turns into a werewolf; but the other British guys torture the priest and he turns the guy back to a human. Great colonial story! Frank Norris, a socialist writer from the turn of the century wrote a story called Vandover and the Brute, about a businessman who periodically turns into a werewolf. So some major players in the world of literature took the genre on.

For me, it was movies starring Lon Chaney:  The Wolfman, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Abbot and Costello Meet the Monsters. Later came The Howling and, of course, that classic, An American Werewolf in London. Maybe the best one of them all was the 1957 film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf starring Michael Landon. I had never tried to write anything but then the idea for a mixed genre story came to mind and I started composing "Wolf Moon."

Michael Landon as a teenage werewolf

Werewolves, like vampires, are tormented by what has happened to them. They don’t' want to be caught up in a life that turns them into a monster, but they don't know how to get out of the situation. So they are lost, tormented souls who are very nice guys sometimes, but when the full moon emerges, watch out. There's a scene in Abbot and Costello Meet the Monsters where Bud is tied up by Dracula. Lawrence Tabot shows up to rescue him, but just then the full moon comes out from behind a cloud and he transforms scene. Bud is okay and at the end of the film Talbot the wolfman plunges into a lake after getting his vengeful hands on Dracula, who has just transformed to a bat.

"Wolf Moon" is the story of a group of alien slavers who capture some Terrans living on a remote planet. The captain of the ship is a little puzzled over them. They are the only humanoid inhabitants of the planet. They live in small houses and have modern accommodations but no communication equipment and supplies that look like they have been dropped off by a government or other agency. There are many more men than women.

The crew of the ship wants a woman and he gives them one. They plan to take her to a house on the planet they have landed on to refuel. The full moon on the wintry world makes the night bright, but the minute the crew of three drags the woman outside, she rips them apart and disappears into the frigid landscape.

The planet is part of the Italian League. In my sci-fi universe, there are still nation states on Earth and some of them maintain colonies. Italy is one of these. The Italians tell the slavers they need to leave at once, threaten to kill them if they won't and tell them the Terrans are werewolves. The captain doesn't understand the word, though he recognizes the word "wolf" in the compound. When he comes back on board, the other Terrans have escaped. They send him out to find the woman, saying they can't go out in the moonlight themselves. When he asks if this is a religious restriction they laugh at him. He finds the woman in a cave. She attacks him and tackles and scratches him before he is able to stun her with a blaster.

He wraps the naked woman in his coat and carries her back to the ship, wondering how she has survived the cold and wondering why, when he first saw her, she looked like a bear or some other upright-standing animal. The other Terrans care for her. Their leader tells him he will be required to take them back to their home planet. They also notice a scratch on his neck.

The captain is a Housali, a race with blue skin. The physician among them wondered if he will transform, but their leader reminds her that some of their numbers are not Terrans but come from other planets. She wonders if he'll have blue fur and starts to clean his wound. The ship is sealed up so no moonlight can get inside, but the Housali feels a wild stirring in his blood—something savage he had never felt before. He knows it lies outside, waiting for him, something frightening but also oddly appealing.

The journal in which this story was published is defunct. It does not have an archive. I've been marketing it to other journals, but with no success so far. 

A scary non-werewolf tale, Le Cafe de la Mort, 

is available from Amazon. 

 See more titles on my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments!

What's your favorite werewolf movie?

Where did the legend originate?

Werewolf is from Anglo-Saxon, but the legend goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks. 

Revision note!  A journal called Grey Matter will be printing "Wolf Moon" in the near future.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #29: "The Wood of the Suicides"

"The Wood of the Suicides" is one of the two stories by me that were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Every year, a book of award-winning stories and poems is published—a very thick volume—and constitutes what is considered the best writing of the year in English.  Nominations are supplied by magazines and journals, and even to be nominated for one is considered an honor. I've been nominated three times (one poem, two stories), though none of the nominations has landed my writing in the Pushcart volume. Maybe someday . . .

The story under discussion here originally appeared in a journal called Four-Cornered Universe, which folded after about a year. I let the story sit but 1) since I don't write a lot of science fiction; and 2) since I thought the story was a good one and wanted people to read it, I decided to work on it and resubmit the piece.

 

Dore's Illustration of Dante

"The Wood of the Suicides" was inspired by Dante's Inferno. When Dante and Virgil visit the area of hell where the violent are tormented for their sins, they come to a place of punishment for suicides, those who are violent against themselves. The suicides are turned into trees. The trees resemble humans somewhat; you can see faces on them and you can identify them as male and female. They can talk to you. The deeper their roots go down, the more their pain; and harpies, mythical creatures who are half-human and half-bird, perch in their branches and tear at them, pulling off the bark and drawing blood (reminiscent of a section of Virgil's Aeneid). I had read Inferno in an issue that carried French illustrator Gustave Dore's woodcuts, and the one of the Wood of the Suicides stuck in my mind as particularly gruesome.

But my story was not about hell. I thought, What if such a punishment was used not to torment but to rehabilitate? What if the purpose of doing so was both benevolent and retributive?

"The Wood of the Suicides" is told from the point of view of a Terran soldiers stationed on a remote but strategic planet at the edge of Terran space. The planet is inhabited by a race of beings called the Anva. They are a quiet, unassuming people. Their skills in such areas as medicine and agriculture are more advanced than any other race of beings in the galaxy. And they have a unique way of dealing with murderers.

Cullen, the main character, has a sister, Bria, also a soldier, who has murdered someone. The Anva turn her into a tree, their standard sentence for murderers. Upon returning from a deployment, Cullen's wife tells him the Anva have informed them that Bria's term of "rooting" (imprisonment in the form of tree) has ended and she is to be released. They set a time for him to pick her up. When he and his wife arrive, they are surprised at a couple of things:

After a short while, two priestesses came in with Bria. Two things startled him [Cullen] so much he stood up.

One, she was naked.

But even more than that, she was green.

He gaped. It embarrassed him to see his sister bare. He had thought the change of clothing would be for after she took off prison clothes. Instead, she had no clothing at all. And what also amazed him was her apparent lack of concern about it. She did not attempt to cover herself.  Her eyes looked bright, her face intelligent (if a little solemn); she did not seem drugged or incapacitated in any way. She stood there with her arms to her side as if being nude were the most natural and logical thing in the world and nothing to wonder at.

Cullen and Kassa, his wife, dress Bria and take her home. She asks him if it's "okay" that she's green and says her color will never revert to what it was before. The next day she tells about what it was like to be a tree. In a sense, it was beautiful living an elemental life, feeling the rain, snow, cold and heat. But being a tree was simple. Only one life system functioned. As a human being, you had eight or nine systems working simultaneously. Bria has learned, from the transitions her journey has taken her through, how complex and miraculous a human being is—and has taught her the crime of destroying another human life in all its glorious complexity. Her green coloration will never go away. It will always remind her of what she has done. This is the Anva way of dealing with murderers.

"The Wood of the Suicides" turned out to be an adventure in the imagination. It depended on an existing literary source but took the idea in new directions—which is a primary mode of creative endeavor, at least as I see it. And this one got an award!

Read "The Wood of the Suicides" in Empty Oaks. Scroll down to page 32.

For more titles, see my Writer's Page.

A great Halloween read is Le Cafe de la Mort. Coffee to Die For, Lady Death from Sandman

to serve you--along with Joe Black, Misa Amane,

Lady Death from "Appointment in Samara," and a mysterious Israeli woman who may be the Angel of Death from the book of Exodus.

I would love to hear your comments.