I just received word from my publisher, I Ain’t Your Marionette Press, that we are aiming for a release on Christmas Day. Sounds like an excellent late Christmas present. Here’s this week in Pandemonium.

December 2, 1957—A group of Fieldhands led by Walter Washington attempt to integrate bus services in Pandemonium, hoping to imitate Rosa Parks. However, when Washington sits in the Whites only section of the bus, the White riders respond by fleeing the bus in mass. Satanic High Priest Blaise Jackson later performs a curse on the bus company, which actually supported the protest.

December 3, 1917—Stranger businessman Franklin Maplethorpe starts his own automobile company and begins an assembly line in Pandemonium. Maplethorpe attempts to turn the North side of the Line into a company town, with company stores selling bones, salt and rum in exchange for company issued currency. This experiment ends when the workers unionize, leading to the end of the company and Maplethorpe’s humiliating bankruptcy.

December 4, 1634—A group of thirteen Strangers attempt to start a second colony on the South Carolina mainland called Miller’s landing. The settlement lasts for four months and is then mysteriously abandoned, with only the word “False Shepherd” written on a trees as the only clue as to why.

December 5, 1933-Prohibition ends. The bootlegging Witches celebrate by bringing boxes of mason jars full of moonshine to the North side of the Line and getting intoxicated in front of the teetotaler Strangers, as well as local law enforcement. This doesn’t end well, however, as alcohol remained illegal in South Carolina until 1935. Approximately one-third of the Witch community wakes up the next day in the drunk tank.

December 6, 1865—The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is officially ratified, abolishing slavery within the United States. The Fieldhand community rejoices, with several freedmen choosing to move North. The Witch community mourns, as plantation owners wake up to find their house servants have abandoned them. Unable to care for themselves, no fewer than seven former slave owners in Pandemonium commit suicide.

December 7, 1941—A day that lives in infamy. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States enters World War II. Several Pandemonian citizens serve in the war, first and foremost being Medal of Honor Recipient Bunim Greenblatt, who takes out an entire German division one night during a particularly clear full moon.

December 8, 1992—Damien Brody opens fire in The Athena Oratorium, Pandemonium’s famous jazz club, killing four people including a promising saxophone player named Mable Jefferson. When asked why, Brody answers “they won’t go away.”