D is for The Darkest Midnight in December.

This novella featuring my 1930s demon hunters, the Soldiers of the Sun, Caleb, Agni, Temple & Li. Actually it started out as a short story about a krampus-like demon (the French version, Le Père Fouettard) running through the remains of a reclusive religious group outside of Pittsburgh, in Old Economy Village (now Ambridge) for a Christmas anthology.

Shockingly they didn’t want a Christmas story about a demon that eats little kids! 🙂 Instead I decided to fluff it up a bit with more story adding in a second demon, blood/lifeforce- sucking alps. Did I mention alps, in some of the literature, resemble butterflies. Yeah, blood sucking butterflies (One of my friends who’s no longer with us used them in a Mulder/Scully-esque story that stuck with me.)

I had paid a visit to Old Economy Village before writing this and felt like I needed to use it.

(House in Old Economy)

I love using places I’ve been in my stories. I had really wanted to write something more for Caleb and company and realized this would be just perfect for them. I’ve been attracted to stories with the monster of the week sort of theme for years. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still one of my favorites in that genre and the Soldiers of the Sun stories are my homage to those shows.

Even though I know this novella is a hard sell – I mean, come on historical urban fantasy? – but I love these characters and I love writing them. It does make me a little sad that their story doesn’t get around a bit more (and it’s not helped by the fact it’s listed as romance and it’s not a romance, so people end up disappointed). I love them for all their faults and hope there are a few out there who do as well.

Blurb The year is 1930, and something is hunting infants and young couples in Economy Village, PA. When a local priest begins to suspect a demon may be the culprit, the sheriff calls in a team of Soldiers from the Sun.

Caleb, Agni, Temple, and Li specialize in demon hunting, but they can’t rule out an old religious sect as the true culprit. Prejudice, distraught parents, and angry townspeople don’t make the team’s job any easier. And if something goes wrong, they’re on their own, because by the time their backup arrives, it will be too late.

You can find it for sale here.