John is an attorney who has taken up writing as a hobby. He lives in West Virginia with his wife

Rachel, and his two sons, Francis and Anthony. He has published the short stories Identical to the

Real Thing in Synthetic Reality Magazine and Hostile Work Environment in the Quagmire

Magazine and a novella called Beer Run with Solstice Publishing.

Christmas in Pandemonium

Pandemonium is a town on an island on the eastern coast of South Carolina founded in the year

1620 by two groups: the Witches, a group of Satan-worshiping sorcerers who come to America

looking for religious freedom, and the Strangers, a dissolute band of pirates who become

Christian religious fanatics after watching the Witches commit an act of human sacrifice onboard

the Strangers’ ship. While initially at each other’s throats, the two parties make a deal after

being threatened with annihilation by a local Indian chief. 400 years later, the town of

Pandemonium, much like Plymouth, still exists, and it’s not unlike any other town in America.

The story follows Pastor Atticus MacDonald and his adopted children, Gilbert and Deanna,

during the Christmas season as the Stranger church is sold to prosperity gospel preacher Miles

Simon. Simon discovers Theo, Atticus’s friend, is a vampire and proposes to Theo that he

hypnotize people into giving Simon money. Theo refuses, and Simon then uncovers the

existence of Scratch, a theocratic vampire and Theo’s rival. When Simon decides to resurrect

Scratch, our protagonists have to put the Bloody Puritan down. Meanwhile, on the Witch side of

town, the Davis family works to reform the ancient Satanic rituals, unbeknownst to Acton

Ravenwood, the current Satanic High Priest, who loses his job when the reforms are instituted.