Relic of the Damned!: A YA Pulp Short Story: Rot Gut Pulp, #1

By CT Liotta

The thrilling first story in a series from CT Liotta and Rot Gut Pulp

 

When a dying woman thrusts an antique ring into 14-year-old Ian Racalmuto's hands, he and his brother must discover its origin. From rooftops in Algiers to a dinosaur museum in Berlin, destruction follows. Can they evade a criminal syndicate before dinner? Will their gunslinging mother want a piece of the action? And will Ian find answers to gnawing relationship questions before a boomerang-throwing killer sends him home on ice?

 

An incautious, funny, sometimes-inappropriate contemporary tale based on absurd pulp magazine adventures of the '30s and '40s, Relic of the Damned! is the first entry in a new series of 45-minute neo-pulp quick reads.

 

Part Hardy Boys, part Indiana Jones, and the start of an LGBT coming-of-age, It's perfect for the beach or camp, mindless study breaks, short flights and long commutes.

Rot Gut Pulp: Entertainment, not Genius™

Relic of the Damned! is a work of fiction. Not everybody will find it to be an accurate depiction of their lived experiences. It may contain difficult subjects and offensive themes and language. Neither Rot Gut Pulp nor the author offer advisories, as sensitivities vary from person to person.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rot Gut Pulp
• Release date: Apr 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781955394055

CT Liotta

CT Liotta was born and raised in West Virginia before moving to Ohio for college. He now uses Philadelphia as his base of operations. You can find him the world over. Liotta takes interest in writing, travel, personal finance, and sociology. He likes vintage airlines and aircraft, politics, news, foreign affairs, the scientific method, evidence-based decisions, ’40s pulp and film noir.

Book preview

Relic of the Damned

CT Liotta

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Rot Gut Pulp

Copyright © 2018, 2021 by CT Liotta

All rights reserved. This story or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Relic of the Damned! is a work of fiction. Not everybody will see themselves reflected in the characters, or find it to be an accurate depiction of their lived experience. It may contain difficult subject matter and offensive themes and language. Neither Rot Gut Pulp nor the author offer advisories, as sensitivities vary from person to person.

Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Second Edition February 2021

Cover Illustration & Design Copyright 2018 by Malinda Dekker

Book design by Catherine Curry

Editing by Curt Sembello & Corliss Wilborne

Rot Gut Pulp. It’s not meant to be good. It’s meant to be read.

Contents

2nd Edition Author’s Note

Relic of the Damned!

Buy NO GOOD ABOUT GOODBYE today!

About CT Liotta

2nd Edition Author’s Note

In 2018, I wrote the original incarnation of Relic of the Damned over three days for small press Rot Gut Pulp. The final product, while adequate, was a fast-writing exercise that never satisfied me as much as it did them.

RGP moved away from fiction not long after publication. In late 2020, I was at last able to regain the rights and revise this tale more to my liking. You now hold what I hope is a better, more readable version in your hands.

I’ll continue to publish Relic and subsequent tales under the Rot Gut Pulp banner. I appreciate their original mission of writing fast fiction with abandon. Curt Sembello and company have offered their support and resources, so I’m excited to see what lies ahead.

If you enjoy this story, buy the next one.

Sincerely,

CT Liotta

Rot Gut Pulp. Entertainment, not Genius. ™

Relic of the Damned!

Based on a true story.

When boredom gripped Ian Racalmuto, he made things disappear. At age 7, he started with playing cards and coins, learned from a book of magic tricks. By age 14, he found himself bored so often, he could make any object smaller than a smartphone vanish into the ether.

Make the dirty dishes in the sink disappear, his Mother would say, before you begin your Vegas residency.

We should be a mother-son duo, Deena, he would reply. You could show the audience how you make vodka disappear. He enjoyed calling his mother by her first name because it irritated her.

Deena huffed. "Stai