This steampunk short story is about an excommunicated Jesuit priest turned demon-hunting witch who has to face down a demon plaguing a small Colorado mountain town. The character is the focus of my next manuscript “Curse of the Devoted.”
EXCERPT:
Earl shivered again. “Just thinkin’ bout that salooner who come through here a ways back. Can’t shake the look on his face.” Earl poured three watered-down whiskies for Sheriff Tate, Tinker Flaherty and Bob Wilson, the St. Elmo telegraph operator. They didn’t know the whisky was watered down, of course, but Earl wasn’t about to use straight whisky for locals who had open tabs. In the case of the Tinker, barn-door open. Business was business, after all, and business had been bad – real bad since all the trouble started in Buckeye at the beginning of summer. The aspens up on Mount Princeton were already turning rusty, and it was starting to look like a mighty hard winter for everyone in St. Elmo, what with the demon trouble and all.
This story is currently under review at Steampunk Tales and the Writers of the Future quarterly contest.
