J.C. Skala Fiction
J.C. Skala is my fiction-writing pseudonym.
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I write fiction in the tradition of Flannery O'Connor. Stories that live at the intersection of the physical and the spiritual — where grace breaks through violence, desire, and despair.
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My fiction isn’t polite or sanitized; it looks honestly at the wreckage of sin and the stubborn hope that still pulses underneath. These are stories of fallen people haunted by the possibility of redemption.
DISCLAIMER: These stories contain strong language, violence and disturbing images. Parental discretion is advised.
Geared toward the mature, imaginative, spiritually literate reader.​​
the least of these
(Skala's first full-length novel. Coming soon.)
St. Winifrede, Louisiana:
Where the veil between brass knuckles and redemption, life and death, flesh and spirit, are paper thin.
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Mick Doyle, PI. Not quite divorced, not quite sober, and not backing down.
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Drawn into another bird-dog domestic case by a soccer mom with curves too dangerous for the local PTA, Mick finds blood, corruption, and something far more sinister than adultery, the darkest kind of sleaze.
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And the one thing he never expected: that maybe there is grace available for the scumbag, for the lost, for the abandoned, for...
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the least of these.
I've been blessed with a long and fruitful friendship and collaboration with Steve Metcalf at Red Jack Press.
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Steve has been a great great encourager of my fiction writing, the first guy to publish any of my stuff, and an all-around good dude.
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For years he's been doing this series called "The Event," where he comes up with a premise or situation, an event, if you will - and a bunch of people write stories off it. Then he publishes it and it's awesome.
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It is in these Event collections that Steve convinced me to pick up fiction again, which I hadn't done since college. I'm so grateful he did that as I am now fiction writing a lot more, diving into novels, etc.
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See the stories I've published in The Event series below, and the Red Jack Press stuff on the right.
The Blanchard Boy
Skala's first published work of fiction!
After an unfavorable court ruling, a clan of backwoods hibillies kidnaps a federal judge to stage a daring rescue of one of their own.
Humanity 2.0
Lehna, corporate cog at Precision Robotics, is in the strange position of having to kill her boss – who some think is the antichrist – as he prepares to reveal the corporation’s most anticipated innovation: Humanity 2.0...
Quantum: The Time-Treveling, Zombie-Killing Ninja in the Wild West
When a time-traveling ninja arrives from the future in a sleepy Old West town, he quickly finds out the dusty buildings hold a deadly secret.
Zombies.
And lots of 'em.
Will he stay and eradicate the danger, saving the woman he loves? Or will he escape and let the sand reclaim the doomed city?
Miraculous Medals
Two teenage boys witness a gold heist.
Do they call the police or keep the loot for themselves?
Why not both?
Just War
God might have mercy. Bullets do not.
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Just War is the origin story of Archbishop Stanislaw Bronczyk — a shepherd to the faithful and, to his enemies, a ghost. Before Mick Doyle ever set foot in the fight, Bronczyk was already waging a hidden war against the predators rotting the Church from within.
When he uncovers a child-trafficking ring tied to one of his own priests, Bronczyk knows that justice won’t come from the courts or the Church.
This kind of evil can only be exorcized by prayer, fasting, and Bronczyk’s twin submachine guns – Alpha and Omega.
When redemption is lost, all that’s left is a reckoning.
Sometimes it isn’t about mercy and it’s not about justice. Sometimes...
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It’s just war.
