Release date: December 10, 2018
Subgenre: Cozy Fantasy, Holidays
About The Bakery on Gloomland Street:
A legendary monster threatens Christmas…
It's Christmas time in the permanently fog-shrouded seaside town of Hallowind Cove, which is also known as the "Harbour of the Weird".
Rachel Hammersmith is new to Hallowind Cove and has recently taken over the bakery on Gloomland Street, after Marie Percht, the previous owner, retired.
However, Marie Percht didn't tell Rachel everything, when she retired. She didn't mention the fog, for starters, and she also didn't mention that her bakery plays a vital role during the Christmas season and not just as a provider of holiday cookies either.
For the Krampus, a yuletide monster from alpine folklore, is coming to Hallowind Cove. And the only thing that can keep him from wrecking the town and ruining Christmas are pastries baked according to a secret recipe. Unfortunately, Rachel has no idea what the recipe is.
However, with the help of fellow newcomer Paul MacQuarie, Rachel will bake up a storm to pacify Krampus and save Christmas.
This is a novelette of 9300 words or approximately 32 pages in the Hallowind Cove series, but may be read as a standalone.
It's Christmas time in the permanently fog-shrouded seaside town of Hallowind Cove, which is also known as the "Harbour of the Weird".
Rachel Hammersmith is new to Hallowind Cove and has recently taken over the bakery on Gloomland Street, after Marie Percht, the previous owner, retired.
However, Marie Percht didn't tell Rachel everything, when she retired. She didn't mention the fog, for starters, and she also didn't mention that her bakery plays a vital role during the Christmas season and not just as a provider of holiday cookies either.
For the Krampus, a yuletide monster from alpine folklore, is coming to Hallowind Cove. And the only thing that can keep him from wrecking the town and ruining Christmas are pastries baked according to a secret recipe. Unfortunately, Rachel has no idea what the recipe is.
However, with the help of fellow newcomer Paul MacQuarie, Rachel will bake up a storm to pacify Krampus and save Christmas.
This is a novelette of 9300 words or approximately 32 pages in the Hallowind Cove series, but may be read as a standalone.
Excerpt:
One day, when Rachel was returning from her morning run in Twilight Gardens, the snow seeping through her sneakers, she spotted something big and dark fluttering through the fog. Startled, she came to a halt, turned around and found herself face to face with a raven who was sitting on the wrought iron fence that separated Twilight Gardens from Gloomland Street.
Rachel let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.
“Oh, it’s you. You scared me half to death, you know?”
“Sor-ry,” the raven croaked.
“Oh my goodness, I’m cracking up,” Rachel said, “I’m not just talking to a bird, I’m also convinced he’s answering me.”
The raven’s name was Hugo and the locals seemed to believe that he could talk. But though the raven certainly had an impressive repertory of croaks and squeaks that could sound like speech at times, very little of what he said ever made any sense.
Case in point: “Kram-pus,” the raven croaked.
“That’s nice, Hugo,” Rachel said, “And I’m sure it’s very important, at least to you. But why don’t you bother someone else, cause I have to fire up the oven and open the bakery.”
“Kram-pus is co-ming,” Hugo croaked.
“See, Hugo. Now that was really good. That was not just an almost complete sentence, but a pop culture reference, too. Now if you’d only said, ‘Winter is coming’, you’d have been golden. Or maybe not, cause winter is already here.”
“Wa-arned you,” Hugo croaked and fluttered away.
Rachel looked after him and shook her head. Sometimes, it seemed to her as if he really could talk. Then she continued her jog, doing her best to ignore the cold.
***
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.”
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About the Hallowind Cove series:
Welcome to Hallowind Cove, the quirky little seaside town
which is shrouded in fog for three hundred and forty days a year. Strange
things keep happening here, which is why the town is also known as the “Harbour
of the Weird”.
- Book 1: The Revenant of Wrecker's Dock
- Book 2: The Cursed Arm of Driftwood Beach
- Book 3: The Bakery on Gloomland Street
- Book 4: The Mermaid of Foghorn Point
- Book 5: The Standarounds of Twilight Gardens
About Cora Buhlert:
Cora Buhlert was
born and bred in North Germany, where she still lives today – after time
spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA
degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently
working towards her PhD.
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.
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