All the Bells on Earth

In the dead of night, a man climbs the tower of St. Anthony's Church, driven by a compulsive urge to silence the bells. In a deserted alley, a seemingly random victim is consumed by a torrent of flames. And in the deceptive light of day, a mail-order businessman named Walt Stebbins receives a bizarre artifact - a glass jar containing the preserved body of a bluebird.
Things like this don't usually happen in a town like Orange, California. Ordinary people do not expect to face evil - real evil - in their own backyards. But as Walt Stebbins unravels the mystery of the bird in the jar, he learns that every man's life can sometimes resemble a horror movie. That the battle between good and evil is taking place every day, where you least expect it. And that, in the end, the ordinary qualities of simple human compassion, forgiveness, and love will be our only salvation...

James P. Blaylock is a creative writing instructor at Chapman University.