M. Todd Gallowglas's Blog: Going Slowly...

Online-Casinos gibt es heutzutage wie Sand am Meer – jedes verspricht das beste Spielerlebnis, riesige Gewinne und eine riesige Auswahl. Aber was davon stimmt wirklich? Ich habe mir in den letzten Monaten StarGames genauer angeschaut und möchte hier meine persönlichen Eindrücke schildern. Wer also nach ehrlichen und authentischen stargames erfahrung sucht, findet in diesem Bericht hoffentlich wertvolle Antworten: von der Spielauswahl über die Bedienbarkeit bis hin zu Stärken und Schwächen der Plattform.

Spielauswahl: Viel Altbewährtes und frischer Wind

Wenn man StarGames betritt – natürlich virtuell – fällt einem sofort das übersichtliche Layout auf. Aber dazu gleich mehr. Was mir als Erstes ins Auge gesprungen ist: Die Spielauswahl ist klar strukturiert, und es wird sofort deutlich, dass hier vor allem Liebhaber klassischer Automatenspiele auf ihre Kosten kommen. Besonders die bekannten Novoline-Titel wie Book of Ra, Sizzling Hot oder Lucky Lady’s Charm dominieren die Plattform. Ich habe viele Stunden mit diesen Automaten verbracht und finde es nach wie vor faszinierend, wie zeitlos diese Spiele sind. Sie wecken einfach nostalgische Gefühle – ich erinnere mich sofort an die früheren Spielhallenzeiten.

Doch StarGames bietet mehr: Es gibt auch moderne Video-Slots mit verschiedenen Features, Jackpots und Bonusrunden. Das Angebot wird regelmäßig erweitert, sodass einem als Spieler nicht so schnell langweilig wird. Besonders gefallen hat mir, dass StarGames die Klassiker mit neueren Titeln mischt und immer wieder neue Spiele hinzufügt. Auch in anderen stargames erfahrung Berichten wird die Mischung aus Tradition und Innovation oft positiv hervorgehoben. Tisch- und Kartenspiele sind vorhanden, aber in eher kleinerer Auswahl: Blackjack, Roulette und Baccarat bilden hier die Grundausstattung. Das Live-Casino ist ebenfalls vorhanden, aber eher überschaubar – hier wäre meiner Meinung nach noch Luft nach oben.

SpielkategorieBeispieleMein EindruckSlotsBook of Ra, Sizzling Hot, Lucky Lady’s CharmGroße Auswahl, Klassiker im FokusTischspieleRoulette, Blackjack, BaccaratSolide, aber ausbaufähigLive-CasinoLive-Roulette, Live-BlackjackQualität gut, aber geringe AuswahlNeue SpieleImmer wieder UpdatesFrischer Wind im AngebotBenutzerfreundlichkeit: Klare Struktur und einfache Bedienung

Was mir an StarGames wirklich gut gefallen hat: Die Plattform ist extrem benutzerfreundlich. Ein gutes Casino erkennt man daran, dass man es ohne Anleitung versteht – und das trifft hier zu. Das Menü ist einfach gehalten, die Spiele sind leicht zu finden, und auch die Ladezeiten sind erfreulich kurz. Über Filterfunktionen kann man sich schnell durch die Spiele klicken, sei es nach Beliebtheit, Neuheiten oder Typ. Gerade für Einsteiger ist das super, weil man sich nicht erst lange orientieren muss.

Ich spiele oft mobil, deshalb war mir auch wichtig, wie sich die Seite auf Smartphone und Tablet macht. Und hier kann ich sagen: Alles läuft einwandfrei. Die Seite ist responsiv, passt sich dem Bildschirm an, und man verliert auch auf kleineren Displays nicht den Überblick. Eine App braucht es da meiner Meinung nach nicht – die Browser-Version reicht völlig aus. Laut vieler stargames erfahrung Berichte wird die mobile Bedienung ebenfalls oft gelobt, was meinen eigenen Eindruck bestätigt.

AspektMein EindruckDesktop-VersionSehr übersichtlich, schnelle LadezeitenMobile-VersionSehr gut optimiert, alles läuft flüssigNavigationIntuitiv und benutzerfreundlichSuche & FilterHilfreich, erleichtert die AuswahlZahlungen und Sicherheit: Keine Überraschungen, alles solide

Bei Ein- und Auszahlungen bietet StarGames das, was man erwarten darf: Kreditkarte, Sofortüberweisung, diverse E-Wallets. Einzahlungen gingen bei mir schnell, Auszahlungen dauerten 1-3 Tage – völlig im Rahmen. Wichtig ist natürlich die Sicherheit, und hier gibt es nichts zu bemängeln. Die Seite ist offiziell lizenziert, verwendet SSL-Verschlüsselung und erfüllt alle gängigen Sicherheitsstandards. Ich hatte zu keinem Zeitpunkt das Gefühl, dass etwas unseriös ist oder nicht sicher abläuft.

Wo könnte StarGames besser sein?

Klar, perfekt ist kein Anbieter. Bei StarGames hätte ich mir ein größeres Live-Casino-Angebot gewünscht. Auch Bonusaktionen für Bestandskunden gibt es eher selten – hier konzentriert sich das Casino vor allem auf Neukunden. Optisch ist die Seite eher funktional als modern. Wer auf besonders stylische oder innovative Designs steht, wird hier nicht unbedingt fündig. Aber das ist Geschmackssache und nicht zwingend ein Nachteil, wenn man Wert auf Funktionalität legt.

Fazit: Ein solides Casino für Fans von Klassikern

Zusammengefasst kann ich sagen: Meine StarGames Erfahrung war überwiegend positiv. Die Plattform richtet sich klar an Spieler, die Klassiker mögen und ein einfach zu bedienendes, seriöses Umfeld schätzen. Die Spielauswahl ist für Freunde von Book of Ra und Co. ideal, auch wenn das Live-Casino noch ausgebaut werden könnte. Bedienung, Sicherheit und Zahlungsabwicklung haben mich überzeugt. Wer also seine eigenen stargames erfahrung machen möchte, dem kann ich einen Blick auf die Plattform empfehlen. Am Ende zählt ja immer der persönliche Eindruck – und der war bei mir gut.

 

I have a new book out, Honest Dating App Profiles.

Here are bits from the book that I like quite a bit.

Still, // enough potential customers remain // hopelessly hopeful enough to spend // money to keep searching and never // worrying about spraining their thumb. – from “21st-Century Courtship”I specialize in exposing the absurdities // of human behavior, particularly when it involves // courtship, dowries, and those who think // a large home can impress me if it lacks a library. – From “A Satirical Dating Profile for Jane Austen in the Style of Mark Twain”My kidneys and liver // haven’t managed // to process her out of my system. – from “Balance Transfer Denied”Isn’t a libido // such a delicious manipulator? – from “LadyLike”A man can drink // in all the best parts // of a woman until // he’s stammering unintelligible // across the table. – from “How to Lose a Bad Woman on a Good Date”If you want to wallow // in our existential dread // of the impending endothermic // heat death of the universe // you should match me. – from ExistentiallyLost4EternityIf you will allow me, // I’ll take you on a murder // free journey of romance. – from “TotatllySweetAndNotACreeper”My quill is my compass, my tongue is my sail, // and I’m seeking love in this modern-day tale. – from “A Satirical Dating Profile for William Shakespeare in the Style of Dr. Suess”More shame, moaned my // Irish Catholic upbringing. // Again, shame. All the shame. – from “Love Life”After our second date, // the first was axe-throwing, // this one at a rage room, // she takes me home, straddles me, // and pulls her dead husband’s // Dirty Harry pistol from under the pillow // and caresses my face with it. – from “We Are Restless in Our Quantum Memories”

 

Greetings! Happy holidays! Merry Winter! OR… Bah humbug! Depending on your personal feelings toward the colder months of the calendar.

Books make great gifts! I’ve got three bundles as you’re considering gifts this year! I’m more than happy to sign and personalize them.

Fiction Bundle

Poetry Bundle

Writing Bundle

I recently released books 2 and 3 of Tears of Rage. This time for 10 for Tuesday, I’ve got 10 bits from the series so far that I love. I won’t claim these are the absolute best of the series. So many of the really awesome bits require so much story context that they wouldn’t be a great choice for this list. So, this time around, it’s short, sweet, and to the point.

10 – All Priests lie, including me.

9 – Murder is only an easy way to exchange one problem for another.

8 – Revenge is the best revenge.

7 – If we mortals are so far beneath the gods, why do they constantly interfere in our affairs?

6 – Traveling is thirsty work, I have a dislike for water. You never know what animals are doing in streams and rivers. Besides, the drink makes the road seem shorter.

5 – Damn you for your overly self-righteous sense of honor and friendship.”

4 – Are you threatening me?
I am.

3 – I never asked you to accompany me. And I never promised to be entertaining.
Indeed, but you don’t have to go out of your way to be so immensely boring.

2 – If the gods don’t hate me, they certainly don’t like me very much.

1 – My father’s god is going to eat your soul.

What lists would you like to see on future Tuesdays?

I’m not really sure what I want to talk about in this post. I thought about how I’ve been spending a lot of time with some old friends. That is, talking about how the characters in tears of rage are like old friends, but it’s more than that. In reimagining these latest books, I’ve learned a lot about myself. Who I am. Who I was. What kind of relationships I had when I first wrote these books and all the ways those relationships have changed over the years—both professionally, personally, and literarily.

I wrote the first sentence of Tears of Rage on my 30th birthday. (Fun fact: the original first sentence does not appear anywhere in the series.) The stories and characters had been bouncing around in my head and heart for several years before that in various iterations and incarnations. Once I started writing, I wandered around this story for eight years or so before self-publishing the first bit of it. By the time I did self-publish the first book, I had over 1400 pages of a manuscript. (Fun fact #2: I originally thought those 1400 words were all part of the same first book in the series.) Luckily, I’d written it in such a way I could break the story down into more digestible chunks. Sometimes less is more.

Four books and several years later, a small press took over publishing the series. We got one book out… and realized it wasn’t a great fit. Not for them. Not for me. Not for tears of rage. Discontentment, discouragement, grad school, other projects, divorce, and COVID kept speed-bumping and stalling me from getting back to work on the reimagined additions of these stories. With everything, they lingered (Juliana, Phelan, Xander, Damian, Grandfather Shadow, and all the rest), lurking in the back of my mind.

Sometimes, the time is just right. Sometimes, the motivation kicks you in the butt and gets you going. Enough of the right people — old friends and new, real and imaginary — poked me at the right time, synchronizing my life and imagination, synapses fired off, and the road opened before me. I got down to the business of reacquainting myself with these old friends.

Bringing these new additions to life has been both awesome and bittersweet. I may be a weirdo (Okay: I am, but not just for this), but when I go back over a piece of writing, I get flashes of what my life was like when I wrote those words. In a deep dive into irony, seeing some balance and parallels to the writing the first version of Once We Were Like Wolves and this new one. As much as my life has changed, I’m definitely seeing reflections in parallels. That’s life for you. Sometimes it forces balance upon you. I can imagine Grandfather Shadow’s self-satisfied and smug chuckling.

Feels like I’m rambling a bit. Luckily, it’s my blog, and it can be whatever I want or need it to be for any given post. Perhaps this morning, I needed it to be a place to wax nostalgic about continuing the journey of this fantasy series that’s taken up part of my brain space for half my life. I realized the first version of the Lord Morigahn was the Lord Morgan and he (yeah, it was a he) came along when I was 25.

I guess this is reminding myself not to give up an idea, no matter how awkward or bittersweet returning to it might be, and let it simmer until the right time is right to dive back into it. After all, Spellpunk began when I was 22. Now, it has become something greater and crazier than I could have imagined back in my youth. It needed literally 30 years to ferment. I’ve tried returning to spell punk a few times over the decades, but mostly it was me cleaning up the sentences, not exploring the depths of where the tale could go or the seismic activities the story could bring to speculative fiction.

This gives me outrageous levels of optimism for HUSH and Manuscript X once my subconscious finally figures out what’s really going on with those two stories. I just need to chill and trust my imagination to take care of things. It’ll let me know when it’s time to go back to work on either one of them.

I suppose the essence of this blog post is that I should follow the advice I give to other writers: it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

In 2019, I challenged myself to write a novel one page a day in an Italian leather journal, just to see if I could do it. The result of that experiment became The 9/10 Memwar.

Since then, I’ve repeated the process, resulting in 366 flash fiction stories, two books of poetry (The Caretaker Project and The Wandering Project), two novels (The Kingdom’s Wild and Children in Trees), and for 2023, I’ve written a non-fiction book, The Wondering Project, consisting of daily writing meditations. Because I hand-write these experiments in journals, I call them The Journalist Projects…. because I’m terribly clever.

I’m gearing up for a couple of projects next year. Since it’s a leap year, I’m going to be doing a flash fiction story every day. I’m also going to be doing a poem a day because I feel like I neglected poetry in 2023 a little too much. So, some solid writing in store, but this year, I don’t want to do it alone.

I’ve already recruited a couple of writers to join me in The Journalist Projects, but the more the merrier. I want some more folks to dive into the crazy, awesome, year-long experience. The basic details are: get a journal and write a page in that journal every day. Here’s what you’ll get out of 15-30 minutes a day of writing: a completed novel (or a bunch of stories or poems) of between 80-100K words, building toward a sustainable writing habit, and the comradery of some super awesome writers as we cheer each other on.

If you’re interested in joining us, hit me up. I’m pretty easy to find.

1) New York Trip

Hands down the best thing out of the year. I got to explore NYC for over a week. I got to dance Lindy Hop in the Big Apple. My mother and I bonded. We took a side trip to Massachusetts where I got to see her college and I spent a couple of days in Salem. Even having some terrible stomach thing that kept me from eating more awesome food, this was one of the best experiences of my life.

2) The R25 Arts Complex

This has become a kind of creative home away from home. I started attending poetry open mics on Mondays at the Sacramento Poetry Center and discovered a couple of new theaters for performing my storytelling. I performed Bard for Life 4 or 5 times last year in the Wilkerson Theater. In 2024, I’m moving over to the 3 Penny Theater in the same complex for no less than 8 performances.

3) Davis Poetry Series with Dr Andy

I tried this on a whim, and now I’m a regular. Dr. Andy runs a solid poetry event every 1st and 3rd Thursday at the Davis Arts Center. During the summer, they moved up on the roof, and those evenings were glorious. Dr. Andy has also had me as a guest on his weekly radio show, Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour.

4) Books Finished

This year, I published 150 Days After the End of a Universe. Earlier this year, I finally finished, The Kingdom’s Wild. On Christmas Eve, I finished Children in Trees. You can read the very first draft of Kingdom’s Wild by supporting my Patreon page. I’ll post Children in Trees to Patreon on New Year’s Eve.

5) The Wondering Project

Speaking of books finished… It’s technically not done because it’s getting one page a day, but we’re close. Every day in 2023, I’ve written down my thoughts about writing in a journal and posted them to Patreon. Doing that has fundamentally changed how I think about writing. It’s changed how I approach my teaching. It has reignited my passion and love for storytelling. That will be available on New Year’s Day.

6) Disneyland

Toward the end of summer, my mother took the Warrior Princess and I to Disneyland. It was just magical. If we’re hanging out somewhere, ask me to tell you about the Warrior Princess calling out Sleeping Beauty.

7) Writing Process Changes

This year, I fully embraced my new writing process. Most every rough draft I do now, I write by hand. Most projects have a specific journal. I have these crazy, multi-colored gel pens that I love to write with. I’m back to being productive again. Writing makes me happy again. Once I write the rough draft, I dictate it into my computer, which is also fun because I get to hear the words bouncing against each other immediately. This lets me do a soft line edit as I go. I’m engaging in each rough draft on multiple levels.

8) Trivia Nights

A couple of friends and I do a fun trivia night on Wednesdays. (We need a sports guru is anyone in Nor Cal wants to join us.) One of the best things doesn’t have anything to do with the trivia bit. I started writing silly little limericks for the host and one of the other teams we get along with. Last week, they wrote a limerick for me. That was hella cool. I just really like the vibe all around.

9) Mental Health Victories

I had some pretty solid blows this year, some of which would have seriously sidelined everything for long chunks of time while I recovered. This year, I’ve been bouncing back faster and faster. I’ve also learned to give myself a little grace period where I can feel the rough feels and knowing when it’s time to get back to the business of living.

10) The Gallowglas Army

Yeah, it’s a little cheesy… but… Y’all are amazing. I couldn’t be doing this crazy writing and storytelling gig-career thing without you. Thanks for being along for the ride and supporting me. If you’re not already hanging out on Patreon or Discord, you should join us.

I’ve been in a funk for a while. As I said in my Last Post, I tried writing a couple of blog tober entries, but they came out sounding whiny and bitchy. The other day, my brain put a couple of things together, and a Joycean-level epiphany struck me out of nowhere.

Last weekend was supposed to be Slipstream weekend. Of course, I was going to be a bit bummed. I worked hard on that event. I’d been excited about it. It hurt when I had to cancel it. Even though my conscious mind didn’t remember, my subconscious mind was going to muck about with my moods.

This post isn’t about Slipstream though.

This post is about moods and emotions. It’s about checking in with what’s going on. It’s about giving ourselves room to feel what we need to feel. It’s about taking stock of what we’re doing, our plans, and the necessity of course correcting.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in therapy is that we cannot control our emotions. At least not all the time. We can regulate our body’s reaction through practice and training period we can choose how we react to our emotions. But, we cannot completely control our responses to external stimuli or to our thoughts.

This leads me to one of the most important tools in managing mental health. Whenever I’m hit with any kind of extreme emotion, I ask myself, is this level of emotion appropriate to my current situation? I’m really good about this with sharp anger and deep sadness. With being bummed, sometimes it can take me a bit to get to this kind of thinking, but eventually, I’ll get around to asking myself about it.

Checking in with yourself is vital.

Giving yourself the freedom to feel is vital.

Giving yourself permission and freedom to feel does not equate to wallowing in the emotion. At some point, we gotta figure out healthy regulation and get back to getting on with life. Sometimes getting on with life means changing up some of the things that we focused on previously. Sometimes those things aren’t healthy anymore. Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. Sometimes those things are affected by events outside of our control. It’s all about checking in, asking questions, and noticing what’s really going on.

So… With that in mind… I’m calling it quits on Blogtober.

It’s not serving me in any way other than Adding stress and distracting me from other writing I need to be doing. I’m not having much fun with trying to come up with yet another filler post that doesn’t really make any kind of difference to anyone, least of all myself. As I said, I have a couple of really bitchy posts that are just me kvetching because life is hard right now.

Sometimes, it’s important to stop something that we originally thought was a good thing, but then turns out to be anything but. This year, blog tober went downhill really fast.

I’m reminded of the old chestnut, “Winners never quit.” Well, maybe. Perhaps it depends on the perspective. While I’m not going to keep banging my head against Blogtober, I don’t consider quitting as much as I consider it redirecting my energy, effort, and creativity in different directions. I’ll still be writing, probably with greater productivity because I’ll be writing things that excite me, engage me, and will eventually lead to making money, (I hope.)

The basic point to all of this is: sometimes we need to take stock of what’s going on check in with ourselves, and make sure the things we’re doing add to the overall trajectory of our journey towards success, rather than detract from it.

Recently, Marvel Studios did the same kind of thing with their overall plans for the MCU. They course-corrected on their entire Disney+ show lineup in general. In specific, rumor has it that Kevin Fahey looked over footage from Daredevil: Born Again, and scrapped everything; writers and directors got fired, and they are starting everything over fresh.

If Marvel can course-correct when something isn’t working for them, that’s good enough for me, maybe it should be good enough for you too. So, after everything, between my mood, life events, and what I’m looking for out of my writing, Blogtober wasn’t a failure, but an experiment that led me to know what’s really important to me in the here and now with my writing. While this decision doesn’t’ fix everything going on, it does take some of the stress away.

I have written three different potential posts, but they all make me sound like a whiny little bitch.

So…

This is my post today because I don’t wanna put my kvetching on the Internet.

NOTE: This teaser for Halloween Jack and the Red Emperors has not gone through any edits. You’re reading as it exists in rough-draft. Final, published-version subject to change. 

In Which Moira Dalton Waits to Ambush a New Enemy

On a foggy Halloween night in San Francisco, Moira Dalton hid in a wardrobe, wondering how it could be possible for a demon to not be afraid of jack o’lanterns. She’d pondered this question from every possible angle, since sunset, when she had herded the children who lived this orphanage into the attic to hide before climbing into this wardrobe to wait in ambush. Moira would have preferred to hide the children in a basement, but few buildings in San Francisco had basements or cellars. Nothing could go down. Everything in this “Paris of the West” had to go up, up, up.

Well…with the children secreted away, and Moira laying in wait for a demon that preyed upon children and who apparently wasn’t afraid of jack o’lanterns, her thoughts wandered. This was the first time in fourteen years, she was not playing hostess to demons after their shenanigans on the darkest night of the year. Instead, she was trusting her greatest of grandmothers to deal with the demons and the Dalton children while Moira followed her cousin Jack’s master scheme to deal with this situation.

Not for the first time, Moira wondered how much of Jack’s oddities came from being the descendant and heir to Jack of the Lantern and how much of it came from growing up an American.

Strange place this America. Stranger still to think that in her youth, Moira dreamed of visiting this vast land and having grand adventures. But that was before she met Sam, and before they had Fiona, and now the twins. That was before she had survived two great adventures with her cousin Jack. Make that, narrowly escaped. And while she knew that if she and her family hadn’t lived through those adventures, if given the choice, if someone ever asked, “Moira Dalton, would you care for an adventure?” Moira Dalton would reply, “Thank you, no. We’ve had quite enough adventure for one lifetime. Don’t you think another family might appreciate a little adventure for once?”

However…

Moira Dalton also understood the reality of who they were and where her family had come from. Descended from the legendary Jack of the Lantern, and now the protectors of humanity on the Darkest Night of the year, her family didn’t really have that option of turning down adventures or offering them to other people

And thus it was that Moira had spent a decent portion of this Halloween Night crammed into a wardrobe.

Waiting.

And waiting.

She spent part of the time worrying about Fionna and the twins. Of course the children would be fine back at the cottage with their greatest of great grandmothers. Truthfully, in many ways, the demons feared and respected the woman they called, the Lady, more than anyone else in their bloodline. Besides, Sam, Moira’s husband, could be back their, in any number of automaton bodies. And, truth be told and all things considered, since Halloween Jack had trapped the Devil himself to hammer, possibly for all eternity, with one of their family’s ancient heirlooms the demons had gotten far less rowdy and rambunctious.

Still, mothers worry. Especially since last year when they all learned that at least one demon had decided it was no longer afraid of jack o’ lanterns. Shortly after Halloween Night nearly a year ago, when their many-times-removed cousin, Father Sean, brought them word that Jack o’Lanterns had failed to keep a strange dog-shaped demon from ransacking an orphanage in San Francisco. And so, that was the reason Moira Dalton hid herself away in wardrobe. She waited on the possibility that this demon dog would come sniffling around looking for a tasty orphan treat, at which point, Moira would remind the demon why it should be afraid of Jack o’ Lanterns.

And so, she waited…

…and waited…

…and…

…waited…

…and…

“Oh, this is bloody stupid,” Moira said to no one in particular. “I hardly think any demon that’s worked up the courage to ignore the lanterns is going to be put off by me jumping out and saying, ‘Boo!’”

Pushing the wardrobe doors open, Moira got out, and stretched her arms, legs, and back. Her cousins’ “early warning” system could go pound sand, as she’d heard people say here in America. She’d been dealing with demons and dark beasties long before either Halloween Jack or Daniel McRory.

Feeling less cramped, Moira walked over to a table, and hopping up onto it, she sat facing the door with her legs hanging over the edge. As was her habit over the whole of her life, Moira swung her legs back and forth, back and forth, counting each swing to mark time. Unlike most people, Moira was perfectly content to sit quietly without any need for excitement or entertainment. So, when she swung her legs for the one-hundred-fifty-first time, she began to think perhaps this demon had either come to its senses about the lanterns, or it had gone to one of the other orphanages. Either way, for the first time in fourteen years, Moira Dalton allowed herself the faintest glimmer of hope that she might have the first quiet Halloween of her life.

And, as if by merely giving that thought consideration Moira cast it as a dare to the great powers-that-be of the universe, a large shadow moved across several of the windows.
Moira sighed and gave her eyes a little roll. She should have known better that to get her hopes up. Still, she remained sitting on the table, and only stopped her legs from swinging long enough to pull her pistol from its holder and set it on the table next to her.

The shadow passed by another window. And then another.

“Angels and ministers of grace,” Moira said. “Will you please break down the door already so we can get this over with?”

She was fairly certain the creature outside couldn’t hear her. Truth be told, she didn’t care much one way or the other.

Long ago, Moira decided that once she learned about any impending doom lurking in the shadows, she’d much rather just get down to the shouting and fighting. Of course whatever demon happened to be out there most likely figured on a quick snack of some orphans, and, for some reason, creatures of darkness always seemed to prefer to frighten their prey. Moira wondered why. More than that, she wondered why she’d never wondered that until now.

“I’ll have to ask Mixxplik about that,” Moira mused outloud.

By the time the shadow had gone across a window for the fifth time, Moira stopped swinging her legs and picked up her pistol.

Now, it wasn’t just any pistol. The family descended from Jack the Blacksmith did not use conventional firearms. While firearms were loud and flashy with the bang and spitting fire and smoke and all, they couldn’t really hurt demons. The descendants of Jack of the Lantern, along with their family and friends used more creative weaponry. Some few of the items they used to fight the creatures of darkness either came from wishes granted by divine powers or else were magical in some way. However, Moira’s cousin, Daniel McRory had crafted the pistols, as did most of the weapons they used to fight demons and other dark creatures. The pistols bore a passing similarity to the Colt Peacemaker; however, the bit of the gun where the bullets had been replaced by a glass orb, and a ball of yellow energy swirled within the glass, and each had a small dial and two switches where the hammer would have been. Daniel had given Moira this gun and its twin in thanks for rescuing him from the clutches of a vile succubus fourteen years earlier.

Moira pointed the gun at the orphanage door…

…and waited…

…and…

She didn’t have to wait nearly as long as she had while cramped in the wardrobe before she heard something scratch at the door.

Once…

Twice…

A pause…

Just to be sure she didn’t tip her hand too soon, Moira waited a few more moments.

And then the scratching resumed in earnest. No longer tentative little rakes of claws on the door, the creature increased its attempts to get in, the scratching became heavy raking sounds, and Moira imagined chunks of the door coming away with each swipe.

The corners of her mouth curled upward. Moira’s smile was not the wide, mischievous, wicked grin of her cousin, Halloween Jack; rather, it was the subtle smirk of a parent catching a child being too clever for his or her own good. While she no longer possessed the desire for adventure she’d yearned for in her youth, Moira Dalton’s heart still warmed any time she could get one over on the any beasty or baddy. Perhaps it ran in the family.

As she squeezed the trigger, Moira wondered, why didn’t the thing just open the door? It’s not locked.

By then, it was too late. The pistol went off. The sound of vworp filled the front room of the orphanage as ring of yellow-gold energy flew from the barrel and hit the door. The door blasted outward. It hit something large and dense with such force that the door shattered.

A large creature, unlike anything Moira had ever seen stood just beyond the door shaking its head and snorting like something that had been whacked on the nose as one might discipline a dog with a book or rolled up towel. Only…it was definitely not a dog.

With all the years she served demons coming out of the Devil’s Gate on the Darkest Night of the year, she’d never seen anything like this. As strange as some of those demons came, their forms had at one time been angelic, and therefor somewhat human like. The thing standing just outside of the snorting steam and now glaring at Moira with its green and golden eyes had no human-like characteristics what-so-ever. It looked like a strange cross between a dragon, a bull, and a lion. Three horns sloped out of its head, one right behind each eye and one in the middle of its forehead. Its claws gouged deep holes into the porch just outside of the door.

“What kind of bloody demon are you?” Moira asked, pointing her gun right at the thing.

Over the years, they had learned that if they got a demon talking, it would eventually give you the key to defeating it. In their pride, most demons were more than eager to talk about themselves in length and detail.

The demon in front of Moira responded, though not in any language she recognized, much less understood.

Moira repeated herself in both Latin and Irish.

The creature replied again, still speaking in that unknown language. Its eyes flicked to her gun for a moment and then rose to meet Moira’s gaze once again. It said something else. Flicked its eyes back to the gun. Cocked its head to the side, sniffed, met Moira’s gaze again, and took a step forward, which put its snout slightly through the door.

“Going to be like that is it?” Moira asked.

It was a rhetorical question, as were most queries she made to demons. Instead of waiting for an answer, Moira squeezed the trigger.

VWORP.

The circle of energy hit the creature, whatever it was. It slid back a few feet, its claws gouging deeper grooves in the porch. Moira did not like that at all. Not one bit. The thing should have gone tumbling through the air and crashed into the buildings on the far side of the street.

The creature cocked its head again, and again, fixing its eyes on the gun.

A deep growl rumbled from the creature’s throat

With a backward somersault, Moira rolled off the table. The monster surged forward, slamming into the door frame. Wood of the wall cracked and splintered. One or two more hits like that, and the beat would be in the orphanage. The last thing Moira wanted was to be stuck in such a confined space with that thing. The next to last thing she wanted was to keep fighting it alone.
As the creature backed up to make another run, Moira kicked the table over. Even as the edge thumped on the floor, she aimed her gun at it and fired.

VWORP.

The table flew across the room and slammed into the monster’s snout just as it struck the door frame again.

Moira didn’t wait to observe its reaction. She holstered one of her pistols, turned, and dashed back to the wardrobe, reached inside, and pulled the string. Within moments, three flares would launch from the roof, each five seconds apart. Now, all Moira had to do was keep the thing busy until they arrived.

The original plan had been for her to hide inside until the demon came, send up the signal flare through the tube that Daniel had installed, and wait for the cavalry as it were. She was supposed to be the surprise reinforcements if things got out of hand. Well, now mister oh-so-clever Halloween Jack could be the surprise reinforcements.

She didn’t suspect the Jack would scare this thing, even if he brought a hundred Jack o’Lanterns. Though even if Jack didn’t scare this thing when he first arrived, Moira was certain her cousin would rectify that with little trouble at all. Of all his talents, Jack was particularly skilled at terrifying the dark creatures of the world.

Moira raced across the room and snatched up her chair. Without slowing, she tossed the chair through a window. A few steps later, she leapt through that window, following the chair into the street.

She needed a plan.

First, get the thing’s attention and draw it away from the orphanage and the children.

Second…

Moira would worry about second after she took care of the first part of her plan.

Adjusting the dial on the gun pistol in her hand, Moira took careful aim, and fired.

This time the gun fired a circle of golden energy about the size of a silver dollar. It hit the creature’s hind flank, causing its hind quarters to fly away from Moira. This spun the beast’s body so that its head slammed into the inside of the door frame.

“Mind the door frame,” Moira called. “It can jump out at you.”

She didn’t speak so much as to be understood as much as she did just to make sure the creature knew where she was.

The beast pulled its head and shoulders from the doorway into the orphanage. It looked about for a moment before its gaze fell on Moira. The roar that followed held a the blend of irritation and rage that only someone descended from the line of John the Blacksmith could instill in something immortal.

Moira smiled, curtsied, and picked up her chair with her free hand.

First part of her plan accomplished.

“Now,” Moira said, mostly to herself to bolster her courage, “I only have to stay alive long enough for Jack to show up and work his mischievery.”

Maybe then this thing would why it should fear the lantern, and things could go back to normal.

The monster roared.

Moira stood her ground, unflinching. After having threatened the Devil himself without fear or reservation, she just couldn’t find other creatures quite as frightening.

It set back on its haunches, getting ready to pounce.

Moira leaned forward on the balls of her feet, ready to move. And that was the moment that

Moira realized that thing facing her might be preternaturally fast, that it had only been toying with her up to this point. Demons and other dark creatures were known to do that. Well, too late to worry about that now, so Moira just stayed ready, intent to carry out her original plan.

The creature leapt. Blessings upon blessings, it did not move preternaturally fast.

Moira waited until the last possible moment before diving underneath it as it pounced. Passing under its hind legs, Moira tossed her chair upward so that the seat of it connected with the monster’s back left foot.

A moment later, the creature landed and stumbled with the chair attached to its foot.

It tried to set to pounce again, but the chair obviously made its balance awkward. For a moment, the thing turned its attention away from Moira as it tried to shake the chair off its foot. It could keep trying. As far as Moira knew, she was the only person in all of creation who could get the chair to come away from the foot.

As this new foe dealt with the change in its situation, a figure came out of the air, landing between Moira and the creature.

The newcomer held a carved pumpkin in his left hand and a stick about two feet long in his right. The stick was covered in silver and iron crosses. He wore a coat of black wool and orange silk. Moira couldn’t see his face, but she imagined either his wicked-clever smirk or his maliciously-gleeful grin.

Now that Halloween Jack had decided to grace them with his presence, this creature might finally learn to fear the Jack o’Lanterns.