About The Christmas Collection:
Romance, cozy fantasy, murder mysteries, pulp thrillers, science fiction, horror and humor – we have all that and more.
Watch young people find love in the pre-holiday shopping rush at Hickory Ridge Mall, at a Christmas tree lot, on the parking lot of a shuttered outlet mall and at the one bar in town that’s open on Christmas Eve.
Experience Christmas in Hallowind Cove, the permanently fog-shrouded seaside town, where strange things keep happening.
Watch as Santa’s various helpers unite to depose him.
Follow
Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd and her team as they investigate the
death of a robber dressed as Santa Claus as well as a wave of thefts at
a Christmas market.
Meet Richard Blakemore, hardworking pulp
author by day and the masked crimefighter known only as the Silencer by
night, as he fights to save an orphanage from demolition in Depression
era New York City.
Watch Alfred and Bertha, an ordinary married
couple, as they decorate the Christmas tree and live their marvellous
twenty-first century life.
Experience Christmas on the space colony of Iago Prime as well as after the end of the world.
Enjoy thirteen novellas, novelettes and short stories in six genres.
This is a collection of 118000 words or approx. 390 print pages.
Contains the following stories:
- Christmas Gifts
- Christmas Shopping with a Broken Heart
- The Crappiest Christmas Ever
- Christmas Eve at the Purple Owl Café
- Driving Home for Christmas
- The Bakery on Gloomland Street
- A Bullet for Father Christmas
- Santa’s Sticky Fingers
- St. Nicholas of Hell’s Kitchen
- The Tinsel-Free Christmas Tree
- Christmas on Iago Prime
- Christmas after the End of the World
Excerpt:
Later that morning, Rachel put a tray of fragrant vanilla crescents, still hot from the oven, into the bakery display. She was about to return to the bakery proper behind the shop, when the doorbell chimed, its sound like the silver bell laughter of fairies and angels getting their wings.
Rachel looked up and saw Sheriff Alastair Angus Aberdeen entering her shop, hat in hand and tan uniform stretched tight across his pot-belly.
“Hello, Sheriff,” Rachel said, “The usual?”
She took a box and was about to fill it up with lemon sprinkle doughnuts and chocolate vanilla eclairs, when she noticed that the sheriff wasn’t alone. For filing into the bakery behind him were Wilbur W. Orville, the mayor of Hallowind Cove, Father Benedict MacGillicuddy, the local priest, Dr. Marvin Cuttlefish, curator of the town museum, Ian Rayburn, landlord of The Croaking Foghorn down by the docks and Paul MacQuarie, who’d moved to Hallowind Cove shortly before Rachel and now lived in a shambling old house a bit down the street.
With the six men, five of them important pillars of the community, lined up inside the shop, Rachel’s little bakery suddenly seemed very small indeed. What was more, Rachel had the sneaking suspicion that they didn’t all just happen to get a hankering for pastries at exactly the same time.
“So, gentlemen…” Rachel said, facing the delegation, “…what can I do for you?”
“Miss Hammersmith, we need your help,” Mayor Orville began.
“It is of utmost importance that you listen to us,” Sheriff Aberdeen added.
“Local lore and tradition require your assistance,” Dr. Cuttlefish declared.
“Only you can save Christmas for all the good people of Hallowind Cove,” Father MacGillicuddy implored.
“And besides, you really wouldn’t want to piss off Krampus,” Ian Rayburn added darkly, while Father MacGillicuddy looked scandalised at his choice of words.
Only you can save Christmas? Honestly? Who did they think she was, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
“I’m sorry, but none of this makes any sense at all,” Rachel replied.
“Don’t look at me,” Paul MacQuarie said with a shrug, “I only came here for a blueberry muffin.”
“As I said, the town of Hallowind Cove needs your help, Miss Hammersmith,” Mayor Orville declared.
“Only you can save Christmas,” Father MacGillicuddy announced.
By now Rachel was getting a definite sense of déjà vu. “Excuse, but what exactly is the problem?”
“The problem…” Dr. Cuttlefish announced, “…is Krampus.”
He obviously thought that this explained everything. But instead it left Rachel even more confused than before.
“Excuse me, but what is a Krampus?”
“Not what, who,” Ian said darkly.
“According to legend, the Krampus is a companion of Saint Nicholas…” Dr. Cuttlefish began.
“The martyred bishop of Myra, not the Coca Cola-fied abomination known as Santa Claus,” Father MacGillicuddy added.
Dr. Cuttlefish cleared his throat. “As I was saying, Krampus is a companion of Saint Nicholas, one of several such companions. Commonly depicted as a shaggy creature with horns and a cloven hoof, Krampus embodies dark, chaos and evil, while Saint Nicholas embodies light and good.”
“That’s… uhm… very interesting,” Rachel said, unsure what this had to do with anything.
Undaunted, Dr. Cuttlefish continued, “According to legend, Saint Nicholas and Krampus go around town on the night of December 5…”
“Which happens to be the night before December 6, that is Saint Nicholas day,” Father MacGillicuddy interrupted.
Dr. Cuttlefish shot him a dirty look. “As I was saying, Krampus and Saint Nicholas go around town on the night of December 5. They enter houses, where Saint Nicholas gives apples, nuts, candy and tangerines to the good children, while Krampus spanks the bad kids with a birch rod. Some also say he snatches bad children and takes them away to hell.”
“Though that has never happened here, at least not as far as anybody can recall,” Sheriff Aberdeen added hastily.
“That’s… uhm… a truly fascinating story,” Rachel said politely, “But what has all this got to do with me?”
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About Cora Buhlert:
Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. She is the author of the Silencer series of pulp style thrillers, the Shattered Empire space opera series, the In Love and War science fiction romance series, the Helen Shepherd Mysteries and plenty of standalone stories in multiple genres.
When Cora is not writing, she works as a translator and teacher. She also runs the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene and contributes to the Hugo-nominated fanzine Galactic Journey. Cora was a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award.
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