Jack tightened his hands on the .45, feeling the silver crosses on its grip dig into his palms. The protective spells sewn into the lining of his jacket were playing havoc with his nerves, jangling them with discordant warnings of the presence of the mal’akhim.

The devils circled around the broken angel like ants around a dead bird, their claws and tongues tentatively touching, probing, tasting. The angel quivered. One tattered wing twitched.

Jack swore. Still alive. He slid the semiautomatic back into his jacket pocket. He wouldn’t get any thanks for blowing a hole through a member of the Heavenly Host. Instead, he slipped out his cell phone and hit speed dial.

Purchase information for various hardcopy and digital formats is also available on the Apex website.

Here’s the back cover copy:

In the divine struggle between good and evil, humans are hardly noticeable to the mal’akhim, but when an ancient seal is broken on the grounds of a California college campus, beings from dimensions beyond the balance of  holy and unholy erupt from the earth. A retired priest and an ailing magickian must trust the mysterious Walker Between the Worlds and his skin-eating demon familiar as they step through Heisenbergian passages of probability and battle forces that are so far beyond demon they cannot be fully seen in earthly dimensions.

Amidst the earthquakes and interdimensional intruders, the students and staff of California Hills University step across the boundaries of their knowledge and faith, revealing their true natures as the night erupts in earth and blood.

No, there isn’t much relationship between this and Clockwork Heart — you won’t find much in the way of romance or steampunk here, although you will find lots of monsters and religion and blood.  Um, I’m guessing the two readerships might not have a lot of overlap….? 

It’s official: Apex Book Company will be publishing my second novel, An Agreement with Hell.

An Agreement with Hell is contemporary horror, and it includes a few of my favorite things: Christian folklore and apocrypha, chaos theory, labyrinths, and poststructuralist magick. Not to mention bizarre creatures laying waste to quiet little California Hills University….

It’s too early to set a firm publication date, but I’m told that Fall 2010 might be in the ballpark.

I’m looking forward to working with the editors and staff at Apex!