Dwelling in Probabilities

My new novella, Speak My Name is out today. Thank you so much, Catherine, for letting me stop by your blog to talk about it.  Catherine’s new collection of stories, Unfinished Business has the same birthday as Speak My Name, so we traded. Go read her post at Martha J Allard right now! I’ll wait.

Okay. Now that you’re back. Speak My Name is part one of a series about a demon named Frank. Both he and his companion, the angel Ithuriel first appeared in a couple of short stories that show them doing what neither of them really enjoy: collecting souls. In the novella, Frank wonders if there’s more to his existence than just that. If he will ever be worthy of love again. When the mortal, Mica comes into the bar, Frank longs for the redemption that Mica offers. But Lucifer isn’t quite ready to let either of them go.

Excerpt--

I kissed Lucifer’s cracked lips, tasting burnt flesh, blood, and nothing of my Dark Master left. Now there was only cruelty, evil, pain. I forced his mouth open, searching for Mica’s green-leaf soul within the wreckage. He cried out again, and the soul shifted. It came to me gladly, and I pulled harder on Lucifer’s mouth, his wail piteous as it passed into me. Something in me wanted to relent.

I lowered him back to the rock floor of the cavern, knowing I couldn’t. Lucifer had truly brought it on himself. I looked down at the demon-fetus that convulsed back in on itself at my feet. There would never be another war in Heaven. Lucifer was never going to be more that what he was now. He would never even regain what he had been.

“If you leave me now you can’t come home.” Lucifer ground out. “I won’t...”

“Hell’s not my home anymore.” I shook my head. I left the cavern, feeling the soft touch of Mica behind my collarbone.  END

Blurb:

The triangle from hell.

Before time began, Frank was an Angel who followed his beloved Lucifer into battle. When they were defeated, Frank lost his wings. He’s been falling ever since. Now he’s the sole tender of Darks, a bar at the edge of reality that is owned by hell. Mica is mortal, but able to see through Frank to all his true forms. He wants Frank, but Frank still longs for the scorch of Lucifer’s heat. But Lucifer has cast Frank aside, and now his attention is fixed on Mica’s soul.

Isbn: 978169274487

Asin: B07XTQ5PLW

Buy link  https://www.amazon.com/-My-Name-Part-One-ebook/dp/B07XTQ5PLW

Bio:

Martha J Allard is a writer of contemporary and dark fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines like Talebones and Not One of Us.  She was the editor of Nice Tattoo, the Magazine of Shadow Fiction, and co-edited the anthology, Out of the Green. Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect and Deaths Garden. Her novel, Black Light is a tale of love, sacrifice and rock and roll in the 1980's. Her short stories are collected in Psychic Surgery. You can find her blog at Martha J Allard.com