I’m thrilled to have published “The Angel Azrael Battles a Dead God Among the Heretics,” my sixth tale of Azrael the angel gunslinger in Beneath Ceaseless Skies — thrilled and also bemused. When I wrote the first Azrael story, “The Angel Azrael Rode Into the Town of Burnt Church on a Dead Horse,” I never imagined it as anything more than a solo story in between other projects. And now here we are with a book’s worth of weird west tales. And I’ve written an Azrael novel as well!

How did this wild and very weird west world happen?

The truth is Azrael’s enigmatic and a bit of a mystery to all who meet him — including myself. After finishing that first story I wanted to learn more about him. So I followed him out into the badlands and kept writing more tales to discover his secrets — his relationships with other angels, the nature of the peculiar world he lived in, his troubled past in that world, the curious nature of the buzzards that trailed him everywhere, even the origins of his supernatural six shooters. And each new revelation opened up other questions that led to more tales. How do bibles work in this world? What kind of wars did Azrael fight in during the past? What kind of gods were there before the angels came? The more of Azrael’s world that I uncovered, the more other characters started calling to me to tell their stories, too. So it is that one little story has led to an entire world of weirdness and wonder.

BCS editor Scott Andrews deserves so much credit for helping bring Azrael and his world to life that he should probably have co-author status. He’s helped me to refine Azrael’s voice and his world, and reminded me of what’s compelling about both when I’ve had a tendency to wander. And he’s led me to develop as a storyteller with these tales, guiding me to the true guts of each story so I don’t get lost in my narrative wanderings. Most of all he’s believed in Azrael and his world — sometimes I think more than I have myself. Every writer knows that kind of support is more valuable than anything else.

Given the growing number of the Azrael tales, I thought I’d provide a brief intro for each so readers new to the angel gunslinger series can figure out where they want to start and what to read next. I’ve listed them in order of publication, which is my preference, but you can read them in any order you like.

• The Angel Azrael Rode Into the Town of Burnt Church on a Dead Horse – The angel Azrael rides into the town of Burnt Church for a drink and ends up helping the very strange inhabitants fight off a gang of demons that’s been tormenting them.
• The Angel Azrael Delivers Small Mercies – The angel Azrael encounters an angel who is determined to turn the world into her own personal Hell and only Azrael can stop her.
• The audio version of “The Angel Azrael Delivers Small Mercies” with a new introduction I recorded for the story
• The Angel Azrael Delivers Justice to the People of the Dust – The angel Azrael rides into a mining town that is under siege from curious bone creatures stealing the town’s children. When Azrael intervenes, he discovers that nothing is what it seems in this strange place.
• The Angel Azrael Encounters the Revelation Pilgrims and Other Curiosities – The angel Azrael is hired by a group of pilgrims to guide them through a dangerous stretch of land, where they encounter a city of the dead and an outlaw band of half angels intent on ensuring they don’t make it to their destination.
• The Angel Azrael and the War Ghosts – The angel Azrael tries to stop a group of ghostly soldiers from preying upon travellers and rides straight into his own troubled past.
• The Angel Azrael Battles a Dead God Among the Heretics – The angel Azrael encounters a village full of crazed golems intent upon resurrecting a dead god to unleash upon the world — a god that Azrael has already killed once.

If you like the Azrael stories, please share them with a friend. Word of mouth is one of the best forms of recommendation for a writer and helps lead to new readers. And new readers means the kind of support a writer and journals like Beneath Ceaseless Skies need for new stories.

As always, thanks for reading.