Chapter 1

It was December the first in the uncanny country of the apparitions and spirits and in a old-fashioned, crumpling mansion-house, coffins creaked leisurely in a room with pictures of famous people, cobwebs and Christmas trees.

The things in the coffins were the skilful spirits society. Now, the skilful spirits society weren't the kind of ghosts you'd see in Halloween.

Put it this way. If you made a chart of how many specters came out at Halloween, you'll never have had the skilful spirits society. These are the species of ghosts who come out at Christmas which included Sam Smart, Gary the graveyard guardian, Wilbur the wraith, Percy the pumpkin and Bill the bogyman.

These were sharp-witted phantoms which were the only ones to talk and were marvelous to any ghost in the universe. That day, the phantoms had a scheme. "Let's plan a Christmas party for our phantasm pals. "Wilbur cried.

"But h ... Read more »

   To Luke, sitting now in his parent's living room, puffing on his pipe, watching the red glow of the setting sun, and studying the spire of the old Parker House through the leafless trees in the front yard, Hell was a fabrication of the Church and, therefore, a delusion. The views of this thin bespectacled man were reinforced by Neitzche, Marx, and Derrida, whom he claimed in seminar after seminar as his most significant influences. A doctoral student in English, studying at a major California university, Luke was finishing a dissertation applying deconstructive principles to Bronte's ... Read more »

I.  Worn around the edges, yet dreaming of vampire strippers, Professor Michael Haddux drove his dilapidated black ‘85 Buick Le Sabre into the parking lot of Tarantula Lil’s. It was getting late, approaching midnight, and a full moon shone brilliantly overhead like a fluorescent clock. His heart racing with nervous excitement, Michael had decided to risk his good reputation in the academic community for one night at the club that Time magazine had described as the wildest and dirtiest strip club in America.

... Read more »