Authors’ Note
This is a work of fiction, so any similarity to real people living or dead is entirely coincidental. The towns and landmarks mentioned do exist, but the businesses are completely fictional, and any similarities are also coincidental.
I grew up in Meadville, and Larry grew up in Sandy Lake, so Northwestern PA is home turf for us. Although we’ve lived in the South now for quite a while, we make frequent visits back and have enjoyed the chance to explore and revisit favorite places when we do our scouting expeditions for this series, the Iron & Blood and Storm and Fury Steampunk series (set in an alternate history Pittsburgh in 1898), and two upcoming series also set in Western and Central Pennsylvania. Rogue, one of our Storm and Fury novellas, is set in and around Meadville, Cambridge Springs, and Mercer back in the Gilded Age.
The Linesville Spillway and its carp are real, and we’ve posted photos on Facebook about the truly massive and closely-packed fish, so you can see for yourselves. Likewise, the Keystone Ordnance Works old TNT ruins are also real—and off-limits. Urban explorers have posted photos online. Gail heard the story about the Nazi sniper from the father of a high school friend, a man who claimed to have done guard duty there in the army during WWII. We haven’t been able to verify it, but hey—this is fiction. Squonks figure in Pennsylvania lore, but remain unverified cryptids. As for Gus the ghostly deer hunter, a surprising number of injuries and fatalities happen in the PA woods due to drinking and tree stands, which are a bad combination.
The text Father Leo quotes at Johnny Vasili is from the Malleus Malificarum, Part 3 Question XXX, and you can find the public domain version here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm03_30a.htm.
This is the first of at least four novellas in the Spells, Salt, and Steel series, so watch for new episodes!