A ghost story for Christmas

We could have knitted you some socks. Or given you a box of handmade crackers that explode with a green flash. But in the end we decided to go with a traditional Christmas ghost story. Christmas Eve in particular is a time when the world holds its breath, the pulse of time fluttering to nothing for an instant before it begins again. Could there be a more appropriate time to settle down with a tale to send shivers up your spine?

“A Wrong Turning” is one of half a dozen self-contained seasonal stories originally written to promote Mirabilis. There’s nothing about the story that marks it as being set in the Mirabilis universe, though. A bereaved father and son take a detour that leads them into an eerie encounter with the next world. The tight, atmospheric pencils are by Martin, and you’ll see right away why he is so in demand for movie storyboarding. His artwork on this little tale reminds me of the great Creepy artists like Gray Morrow, Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres and Al Williamson.

You’ll find the PDF of “A Wrong Turning” here. Go ahead, it’s our Christmas present to you. All we ask is that, if you enjoy it, please send it to at least two friends who you think might like it, and ask them to do the same. If you have a blog or a website whose readers might appreciate a little scare, by all means feel free to put it up there too. 2010 is the year we’re planning to embrace viral marketing, and we mean to hit the ground running.