NEWS: I’m off to LA this week for Shriekfest! Hopefully THE HUMANITARIAN will knock ’em dead and suck their blood. Or something.

 EXCERPT:I leaned backward to look at Rudolf.  Thirty centimeters taller than me, and he always stood too close.  He never forgave me for despising him, and I never forgave him for seducing my sixteen-year-old brother out of my home and into his decadent life.  Inside of a week of meeting Rudolf, Ernst left school, moved out of the apartment, and started singing at the new El Dorado, a queer club on Motz Strasse.  I barely saw him after that. Rudolf had turned him from a serious student into a chanteuse.

“He’s not a child any more,” Rudolf said.  The front door swung shut behind his back.  “In fact, he’s turned to defiling them himself.”

 “What are you doing here, visiting Ernst?”  I knew Ruldolf was not just visiting, but a lie from him might be illuminating.

“He’s not here.”  Rudolf pursed his thin lips.  “You look pasty in that horrible coat, Hannah.  It is the color of a paper bag.  And the cut is all wrong.  Are you dressing out of the dustbin?”

“Where is he?”  A cold weight lodged in my stomach.

“Cavorting with that Nazi boy he’s seeing no doubt.”  Rudolf scanned the street.

“Nazi boy?” I stuttered.

“Someone more his own age.  A luscious youth.”  Rudolf hefted the box against his narrow hip.  “Someone of whom you would approve.”

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