Then Comes the Child

A novella.

A new horror novella from Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes.

Dennis and Alison Walker will do almost anything to have a child. Their woeful yearning even touches the lives of their families and friends; so much so, that while on a writing assignment in Benin, friend and co-worker, Wesley, purchases a stone fertility fetish from a Voodoo priest as a gesture of hope for the couple. Hope isn't the only thing that Dennis brings into the house with Wesley's gift. When Alison begins behaving strangely, seducing Dennis at odd hours of the night, it becomes violently clear that a destructive supernatural presence has invaded the Walker's lives. Then comes the child longed for, prayed for, and desperately desired. But is little Jamie everything that Dennis and Alison have ever wanted? Or is the coming of the child only the beginning of a hellish nightmare?

"With Then Comes the Child Angeline Hawkes and Christopher Fulbright pull off something of a magic trick; not only have they created a story of extreme horror that would make Brian Keene and Clive Barker wince in more than a few places, they have taken some very familiar horror tropes and turned them inside-out, making the so-called 'old-hat' seem new and fresh and vibrant – and vibrancy permeates this suspenseful, erotic, horrific, and unsettlingly feverish novella. If all extreme horror had this much grace, style, and intelligence, I'd read a hell of a lot more of it." – Gary A. Braunbeck

"Take Angeline Hawkes’ penchant for the fantastic and mix in Christopher Fulbright’s gritty, dark vision and what do you have? Then Comes the Child is the best work by either author. It is compelling and chilling and will not let you put it down. Reading it, you can see that this literary couple are the perfect complement to one another and, God help us, separate or collaborating, Hawkes and Fulbright have become a force to watch." – Steven E. Wedel, Author of Shara and Murdered by Human Wolves

"A gritty, realistic tale, well told by two writers that fuse to speak in a fascinating voice... one worth hearing from again. An excellent yarn of horror and the humans enmeshed in it." – Steven L. Shrewsbury, author of Godforsaken, Thoroughbred, and Black Ribbon of Josephine