Luna's Children: James Hoch

Today's guest is fellow Luna's Children contributor James Hoch, who shares about his contribution to the anthology: "After seeing the call for submission to the anthology, I started researching about werewolves, trying to come up with a unique idea. The most interesting topic I discovered came from a 13th century account by St. Thomas Aquinas who said that 'All angels, good and bad, have, by reason of natural power, the ability to transmute our bodies.'  Hmm, transmute … change into what? Further research revealed that in 1692 an 80-year-old man from Jurgenburg claimed that werewolves were actually Hounds of God sent to do battle with demons. Aha … and that led to my short story, 'Hound of God'."

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An excerpt:

The demon broke free from one of the bedposts and struck out at the priest. Father Rick raked his long, razor sharp nails down Stephen’s chest making the demon scream louder than ever. “The priest is killing me! Stop him,” he said in Stephen’s innocent voice.
Father Rick dodged a kick from the demon just as the bedpost broke off, releasing the demon.
“Now, let’s really get down to it,” the demon whispered. Imitating a boxing announcer, he shouted, “In this corner …weighing in at three hundred pounds we have Father Dickwad, aka The Werewolf Priest. And over here, we have … me … Satan’s soldier who is going to tear the asshole apart.” The demon inside the skinny teenage boy mutated further. Stephen’s skeletal frame screeched eerily as arms became lengthened and muscles enlarged, raising the teenage boy to a height of seven feet. The demon’s teeth protruded from Stephen’s mouth, resembling the razor sharp fangs of a saber-tooth tiger.
Father Rick lunged at the demon, missing only to slam into the wall.
“Not too smart are you? You’re nothing but a dumb animal,” the demon said, spitting out the words clumsily.
The two creatures circled one another, filling the room with a continuous volley of snarls and growls.

Bio:

Brought up on Thriller, Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, James has kept all his dark friends chained up inside his imagination only to let them out little by little in his novels and short stories. For 38 years, he enjoyed a productive career as a music educator. Retirement gave way to a new creative outlet–writing. SynegEbooks is the publisher of his Crimson Pursuit vampire series and his supernatural post-apocalyptic thriller, HECKEL CASEY, is published by Imajin Books. His sci-fi/technothriller, TATS, is available from Amazon.  Hoch’s short stories have appeared in Horror Zine, SNM Horror magazine, Pill Hill Press, 69 Flavors of Paranoia, Sanitarium, SNM Books of Blood V, Dark Eclipse, and Dark Oak Press.  You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and his website www.jameshoch.com