Book Spotlight: The Witch by W.C. James

The Witch is a modern horror story set in rural Colorado in the early nineteen eighties. The story unfolds around a colourful cast of characters as they are confronted with a growing evil that is mustering around a haunted house; a little place the locals call The Witch. It turns out that The Witch has a dark history, and things get interesting when a mysterious cult arrives on the scene and starts stirring up trouble. It is a classic story of ordinary folks thrust into extraordinary circumstances and how they navigate the troubled waters of the supernatural. All of them react in different ways, but are all working toward a common purpose of defeating an evil foe that threatens to destroy their town and everyone in it.

Excerpt:

…the old man bolted up the hill as fast as his legs would move, calling out to little Paco. His shotgun was cocked and propped upon his hip. Junior finally reached the edge of the hill, breathing laboured, and saw that Paco stood frozen in his tracks. The old man was shocked to see that the mob had dispersed. Where the hell did they go? Junior mused. It hadn’t been five minutes since he placed his distress call, yet they had vanished. All that remained was a smouldering cross and few lonely embers glowing in the darkness. Junior and Paco edged closer to the cross, and some instinct inside of him was roused, and he began to feel a touch queasy in his stomach. The dog could sense something too as he started to whimper and whine. Junior and Paco took a couple more steps forward then stood still.

Suddenly, a small cloud of smoke started whirling about the base of the cross. At first, it was only a whisper; soon the smoke thickened and roiled in a black vortex. Paco started barking and growling and hopping around in nervous circles. Junior backed away - his eyes seemed to betray him as he saw two, glowing red orbs hovering inside the smoke. The old man stared in disbelief as moss-green flesh began to materialize around the orbs, and he could begin to make out the image of a hideous face. Paco took to yapping louder, but the dog dared get no closer to the ominous cloud. Junior turned and started running back in the direction of his house as Paco bolted past him. The old man stopped once he felt he’d put enough distance between himself and the cross, but his curiosity demanded that he take another look. There before him stood a living, breathing imp shining in the moonlight. The thing was proportioned much like a chimpanzee; three feet in length with powerful limbs and two stout legs. The creature was decidedly reptilian in that it had scales, and it reeked of a dead snake cooking on hot asphalt. It stood motionless, but then it started blinking and looking around with it’s horrible red eyes. It twitched two pointy ears and then it unfurled grotesque bat wings. The wings, outstretched, were six feet across. With a few powerful flaps, the demon then took flight. The creature circled overhead, fifty feet above Junior and his dog. With a hideous screech, the terrible creature dove towards them exposing a mouthful of jagged, rotten teeth and flexing two razor-sharp claws that resembled eagle talons.

Junior shuffled backwards and fired his shotgun; he let forth two blasts, the second clipping one of the wings. The creature let out a baleful moan, then listed drunkenly to its left. It quickly righted itself and - with a final screech - it steered westward into the mouth of Devil’s Canyon. That is when it occurred to the old man that the demon was flying in a very specific direction; the direction of the Witch…


Title: The Witch
Author: W.C. James
Publisher: Black Dawg Press
Length: 233 pgs
Sub-Genre: Horror

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W.C. James schooled at Colorado State University, where he graduated with a degree in creative writing in 1993. This latest book will be his forth work of fiction and his first attempt at the horror genre. James continues to work a regular job hoping and praying that someday, maybe, a bestseller will break through and free him from the corporate matrix, which at this time is destroying his soul.

Visit the author online at http://wcjames.com/