The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism

Angel in Black

The "Angel in Black" fantasy stories were some of my earliest sales. The first three were sold to a small, hard-to-find publication called Magazine of Horror, although I don't really consider these horror stories in a classic sense. Funny, Stephen King also sold some of his early stories to Magazine of Horror, too, although he and I were never in the same issues. I wonder whatever happened to him.

The stories concern people who have supernatural problems, and go to a place known simply as the Shop, where the mysterious proprietor endeavors to help them out--for a price. But these people are never in a position to haggle.

These stories gave me a chance to explore some interesting mythologies from around the world, myths that weren't part of the standard Western Civilization traditions. The five stories included in this collection are:

For Services Rendered
Bride of the Wind
The Chenoo
In the Land of Angra Mainyu
The Masai Witch

"In the Land of Angra Mainyu" was my first foray into Persian mythology. I returned to it later in more depth with the Parsina Saga.