Beneath the Holy City

[Ortho the Frank]

Critiques? Comments? Suggestions? Put them here!

If you've read my dad's stuff, then you know golems pop up again and again. This story of mine is no different -- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess.

This was a difficult story to sell. It wasn't really steampunk, not quite science fiction, not exactly horror, and not a conventional mystery... although it had elements of them all. It finally found publication (in what was essentially a non-paying market) with Elm Books.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised when the book was finally released, and my story was used for the cover! It was a brilliant drawing by Virginia Cantarella of the clockwork golem the rabbi-detective encounters in the aqueducts beneath Jerusalem. She even included Hebrew characters and the Kabbalah Tree of Life etched into the metal! Furthermore, the editor called out my story as one of the best in the anthology, and one of her two favorites! So it may not have been a money maker for me, but it WAS appreciated by the readers... which, in the end, is all a writer really wants.

Enjoy!