It's A Wicked Night, Wade!

It's time for another tale to get us through the day! Today's story, "It's A Wicked Night, Wade!" takes us back to the middle of the 20th century, where in a little Illinois town called Kowalski, multiple supernatural entities are setting the stage for a Halloween gone apeshit.

Our two vampire protagonists, Wade and Raven, have proven to be some of my most enduring characters, with an extraordinarily long history between the two of them, the surface of which has only been scratched and hinted at in their appearances over the years. At the moment, most of those stories are out of print, but in the near future, I plan on rectifying that, so if you enjoy them and their interactions, there's plenty more to come!

This story, or novella, really, was initially inspired by the Danzig song, "On A Wicked Night," from his killer return-to-form album Deth Red Sabaoth, though it took very little time before the story turned into an extended Peanuts homage, as well. As much as I love horror, action, adventure, and science fiction, few things make me happier than old Charlie Brown comics and cartoons, and while I doubt Charles Schulz would've been thrilled with the content--or language--of this tale, it was all done out of love. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but you'll know who everybody is.

To enhance your reading experience, I've also put together an official companion soundtrack to the story, which consists of selected Danzig, Samhain, and Misfits songs mixed together with some Vince Guaraldi Trio classics to help set the mood. I'm sure it won't be for everybody, but I'm willing to bet some of you are gonna love it. You can find the link to the soundtrack, which is on YouTube, below. I tried to do a Spotify playlist, but of course, most of the Danzig tracks weren't available. Go figure.

The Official "It's A Wicked Night, Wade!" Soundtrack

That's about all you need to know for this one. This tale clocks in at about 23,000 words, which is roughly a fourth of the size of a regular novel, so it ought to keep you busy for a while. Just put on the music, grab your favorite drink, and have at it!

The story is available below in PDF format, but if that format doesn't work for you--or you'd like it to be available in a different format, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'm not at all against wrestling with epub or mobi formats for iBook, Kobo, or Kindle readers...I want everybody to be able to read these things! Also, you're fully welcome to save this (or any of my posted stories) to your device, print them out, share them, whatever. If you know somebody who loves this kind of shit and can use a pick-me-up, please do pass it on!

As always, feedback on content/format is not only welcome, but encouraged. Tell me what you like, don't like, or might want to see!

Also, editing on the forthcoming serial novel has almost been completed by my lovely wife Holly, and I'm feeling like the first chapter will be up here within a week or less, with new ones to be posted weekly, or maybe even more often than that. So between dusting off old tales and creating new ones, there should be no shortage of reading material for you here!

And now, without further rambling, it's time to dive into the mid-20th century of a world almost, but not quite, like ours and to let our own world go away for a while, for this is a Samhain night unlike any other...

It's A Wicked Night, Wade!

Artwork by Nathaniel D. Smith and Charles Schulz.