Emphasis on the quotation marks! Grady Hendrix earned my undying admiration for his amazing stories which ran on Pseudopod. I had earlier written him with complaints that there were not more tales of the White Street Society, (investigators of the supernatural in 19th century New York City) and he had cheerfully let me know that one was on the way. Alasdair Stuart’s reading of these satirical pieces is fantastic. Definitely listen to these if you have the chance.

POINT IS, he later hit me back with mention that his novel, Satan Loves You, was on Amazon.com in Kindle format for the low low cost of $2.99 in freedom dollars and, AND, today and tomorrow (25th, 26th) it’s actually technically free to purchase. I’m almost done with the novel and it’s great fun.

What’s it about? Satan hates his job. That shouldn’t seem unusual, we’re maybe used to the idea Satan hates everything, but he hates it in a very sympathetic way. He used to really believe in the work but running hell has been this endless soul crushing experience (ha ha) and the pressures of management have ground him down into a sort of frustrated apathy. If not for his plucky personal assistant he’d be utterly lost. He fires Death in the opening. There’s a marvelous scene where he’s being rebuked by a nun whom circumstances dictate he must share an elevator with, and he’s really just more annoyed than anything. She’s on the offensive, you can’t have my soul, you can’t trick me, he’s telling her he’s not trying to trick her, can she just be quiet, etc. It’s all very reminiscent of Good Omens, but far more harsh. I can’t even begin to make a list of the institutions hilariously slapped around.

If you’re enkindled, give it a read.