C. G. Bauer

“The thing I write will be the thing I write.”

C. G. (Chris) Bauer wouldn’t trade his northeast Philly upbringing of street sports played on blacktop and concrete, fist fights, brick and stone row houses, and twelve years of well-intentioned Catholic school discipline for a Philadelphia minute (think New York but more fickle and less forgiving). Chris has written and lived in multiple states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Pennsylvania (he’s quite the bad penny), plus determined, inspired, confused and euphoric, yet always sober. And contrary to popular belief he harbors no ill will toward the city of Pittsburgh though statements by some of his characters may seem to indicate otherwise. His short fiction will appear in the January 2009 issue of the crime fiction ezine THUGLIT and has been recognized by the National Writers Association, the Writers Room of Bucks County and the Maryland Writers Association. A portion of all sales of Scars on the Face of God: The Devil’s Bible will go to St. Vincent’s Home, at one time an orphanage and now an emergency shelter for children located in the Tacony section of Philadelphia.

If you’d like to know more about C. G. Bauer, be sure to visit his website.
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Quote is from the unnamed narrator in Chance, a novel by Steve Shilstone, Breakaway Books.
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Scars on the Face of God: The Devil’s Bible

“C. G. Bauer writes with passion and intensity, tackling the mysteries of faith and fear. Hotter than the flames of hell.”
—Scott Nicholson, author of Scattered Ashes

Scars On The Face Of God: The Devil’s Bible is one scary title and this book lives up to its promise.

These characters . . . are exquisitely drawn, fully-fleshed beings that leap from the page to engage you in the plot. I found it hard to believe this was C.G. Bauer’s first novel. The writing is pitch-perfect, from the language used to the intricate weaving of plot threads. This is a talented writer, a name I will expect to find on New York Times best-seller lists.

—Kelly Jenkins, SF Crowsnest Review

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Hex signs protect every barn and outbuilding.

The local tannery spews its poison on the land and in the river.

And babies disappear at birth.

An orphan and one-time felon who earned his nickname “from the sound a crowbar makes when it hits a man’s head,” Johannes “Wump” Hozer is now the custodian of Our Lady of the Innocents parish in Three Bridges, PA. Wump is old and tired. He’s fought all his life against the tannery’s waste, against God, and against the blind eyes of his good neighbors. Nowadays he tries to ignore the old priest’s exploits with the young women of the parish and the strangeness surrounding the local orphanage, and does what good he can for his wife, the church, the sisters who run the orphanage, and the poor orphans themselves.

Then childhood memories and strange presentments begin to plague Wump when a brick wall unearthed at the site of a new restaurant collapses, and raw sewage carries hundreds of baby bones into the pit left behind. Looks like the devil’s made Three Bridges his playground, and Wump needs to find out why; the babies keep screaming and he has to make it stop.