Who's That Girl?

This mysterious beauty appears in SGT. JANUS RETURNS, out later this year from Airship 27 Productions.

Who is she? Where is she from? And what role will she play in Sgt. Janus' new adventures?

Stay tuned, Spirit-Breaker fans - the best is yet to come!

Sgt. Janus Wants to Hear from You...with Spirit!

So, as SGT. JANUS RETURNS takes shape and some of his dark and mysterious origins begin to crystalize, I have a few questions for all you Junior Spirit-Breakers out there. If you would, either drop me a comment here on the Spirit-Blog or wherever you saw the link to this post.

Deal? I promise that your comments will prove very helpful to me as I move forward with the the new book.

1) What aspects of Janus' past are you most interested in learning about in SGT. JANUS RETURNS and why?

2) Would you say that learning anything at all about his past will make you enjoy his stories more, less, or about the same?

3) Do you enjoy ghost stories with benign spirits? Or do you like your ghosts adversarial?

Okay, that's all I got! Let me know what you think!

SGT. JANUS RETURNS Materializing

The new Sgt. Janus collection, SGT. JANUS RETURNS, is really beginning to take shape. I'm in the middle of writing the third of the eight new stories and enjoying the new set-up - this is different in some ways from the first book but still very much in the Janus tradition of ghost tales with a pulpy punch. Though the status quo was most definitely upset by the end of SGT. JANUS, SPIRIT-BREAKER, the new book will follow a path to setting that status to right and opening the door for many more Janus adventures in the years to come.

By the way, the third story is called "Cutting the Strings." It joins "Dig Deep the Well" and "That Man Right There."

Jim!

SGT. JANUS RETURNS Sneak-Peek

A wee tiny excerpt from "Dig Deep the Well," the first story in SGT. JANUS RETURNS, to be published later this year by Airship 27 Productions:

"Across from her, over the hole and suffused with a queer light, was a man.

"I rubbed at my eyes – you know, like someone who cannot believe their own eyes is supposed to do. I looked again.

"It wasn’t a man, as I first thought. It was more like the…the absence of a man. A man-shaped cut-out through which I was peering. I couldn’t comprehend it; it hurt my eyes. Then, its edges blurred and wavered, like the rays of heat on a blistering day will distort the landscape. It hovered above the area that I had dug up, wafting as if in a breeze that the rest of us could not feel."

All content (c)2013 Jim Beard

First Day: First Janus

The title of the first new Sgt. Janus story for the second book?

"Dig Deep the Well"

Stay tuned, Spirit-Breaker Fans - the best is yet to come.

Jim

All content (c)Jim Beard 2013. Please pick up a copy of SGT. JANUS, SPIRIT-BREAKER at Amazon.com.

Signs of Life at Christmas?

Excerpt from a letter by Master James Carlson to his older sister, Perchance:

“…and is my custom, I found myself walking the grounds on Christmas Eve, thinking of Holidays past and the joy that was ours every Christmas morning as children. It seems so long ago, but, of course, it was but a few years ago.

“As I passed by Janus House – you know its deserted, dear Per, don’t you? – I was reminded of a tale that Da once told us on a wintry Christmas Eve, one that concerned the sprawling mansion’s former owner…or does he in fact still own it? Anyway, it went something like this.

“Sgt. Janus was called to the house of an old miser who lived on the outskirts of some little town somewhere, as the skinflint was supposedly troubled with ghosts.

“’You of course remember the story of another, ahh, elderly gentleman visited by spirits at this same time of year?’ he asked the codger.

“The man passed his rheumy eyes over the famous Spirit-Breaker and coughed. ‘Just get on with it, young man,’ he spat. ‘I’m paying you to clear this house of what ails it, not remind me of musty old tales of fiction.’

“Janus smiled and turned to his task. After searching the entire house he came to the conclusion that the man was not being visited by the dead, but rather by a few very living rodents. This he told the gentleman and waited for the explosion of denial that was sure to come. But none did. The old man simply stared at the sergeant and then exhaled slowly.

“’Then what am I to do of it?’ asked the miser.

“’My suggestion would be to bedevil this house’s rats no more and move along to your final destination,’ replied Janus with a twinkle in his eye.

“And with that the old man vanished in a puff of ancient cigar smoke and a jingle of dusty coins. Sgt. Janus made for the door, his work done. Save for paying his clients, of course.

“A piece of cheese, good and stout, left by the wainscoting and he was off. The next day, Christmas, the man’s family found his empty shell of a body in the master bedroom, a few crumbs of cheese littered here and there on the carpet, and, strangely, the clear tracks of hooves on the roof.

“Well, Per, let me burden you no more with old wives’ tales and allow me to wish you the very best of the Season and to your husband and my dear nieces.

“Oh, and by the by, I also saw a light on in a window of Janus House. I wonder what that could possibly mean…?”

All content (c)Jim Beard 2012 Please read the entire SGT. JANUS, SPIRIT-BREAKER book by picking up a copy on AMAZON.COM

Sgt. Janus Replies #7

Caine asks:

“What other famous individuals have you come in contact with on your journeys?”

Sgt. Janus replies:

“Your question seems to imply that I myself am a ‘famous individual,” but I assure you that I have never sought out nor am interested in fame or notoriety. If anything, I am perhaps infamous in some circles…

“Allow me to tell you a brief story, though, to answer your question. A few years ago I was asked to come to the house of a wealthy man who was, among many other things, a collector of art. I was astonished by the length and breadth of his collection and, upon seeing my interest, the man insisted that he give me a tour of the many paintings he owned. We walked past Michelangelos and Van Goghs and Cezannes and even a Degas or two, until we approached a small work at the end of one hallway. Pausing before it, the man indicated the signature on the painting. I looked closely to see that it was a Monet, one of his lesser-known achievements.

“The man then looked at me and explained that the work was the only Monet he owned and that he fervently wished to acquire more, but ‘the demmed things are too demmed elusive.” I told him that I was blissfully ignorant of such things and I was more interested in exactly why he had called me to his home – surely it was not to visit his art collection? He harrumphed and explained that he was quite certain that he had somehow acquired a spirit with the painting that hung before us, and that it was the lingering shade of Claude Monet himself. Before I could respond to this claim, the man urged me to contact the spirit and ask if it would not care to produce a fresh work or two for him. In other words, the art collector believed he had a line on wholly new Monets – exclusive to him and potentially worth a neat fortune.

“I told him that my profession as a Spirit-Breaker was to rid homes of ghosts, not parlay with them for a continuation of their earthly works, but the man insisted and I conceded that the exercise might prove valuable for future study. I asked to be left alone in the hallway and once my wish was granted, I asked the spirit for guidance on the matter. After several attempts, the spirit informed me that, to the contrary, he was not Claude Monet at all, but a simple painter of moderate skill who produced small works in his spare time. In life he was actually a chimney sweep, but in the afterlife, well, he had found some kind of fame…at least in the art collector’s eyes. Could he possibly go on without my ‘spilling the beans’?

“The lesson, here, I believe, is that fame is in the eye of the beholder. We are all giants in our own minds and we are also too often too easily blinded by the reputed fame of others. Still, better a famous artist in death than a simple chimney sweep in life…and my abject apologies to the real Claude Monet - REJ”

All content © Jim Beard 2012. Please consider purchasing a copy of SGT. JANUS, SPIRIT-BREAKER on AMAZON.COM.