Book One in a tapestry of tales spanning continents, kingdoms & time itself...
BASED ON HISTORICAL EVENTS
Folly Beach, South Carolina
4th of July
I’d just burned down my old life: strange dreams were a given.
I didn’t want to think, much less to dream. Fresh out of Kansas, I leaned back on my porch, savoring the sultry heat of a South Carolina afternoon.
“Honey Crowley?” a low voice said.
“I am.” I looked down over my porch to see a man in the street below. “Do I know you?”
Blue eyes, black hair. He almost smiled, but not quite. “Keeper said I’d find you here,” he said. Keeper. The word glittered between us like a flipped coin.
“You must be Rhett,” I said.
“Not beyond the line of duty. Recognize me?” Heat rippled the day like antique glass, making the air around his wild, inky curls shift as if around a flame.
I stood. “I met someone called Keeper last night. But I thought I’d dreamt her.”
His eyes were intoxicating, impossible oceans. “Or maybe you prefer to ignore what you don’t want to believe.”
“You’re tougher than you look,” I said. “Hello to you, too.”
“Well.” Rhett gave me a heartstopping smile and shrugged. “I’m not from around here.”
“Anyway, she couldn’t have been real. She was with all these extraordinary… um… ” I flushed. “Wait a second. We’ve only just met, and here I am telling you my dreams. Usually it’s the other way around. Which I prefer. Let’s try again. Why are you here - what do you want?”
“Creatures,” Rhett said, coming onto my stairs. “That’s what we call ourselves. Creatures. And as you might be noticing, we have an amplifying effect on one another.” He came closer. The shifting in the air between us intensified, my consciousness seeming to surge out across the whole of my skin.
“As for why I’m here,” he said, “see if you can remember.”
“Whatever she was, she said Rhett Coltart would find me today. That you have a task for me.”
Images began crashing across my mind like waves.
I’ve fought my Second Sight all my life. It’s corrosive, knowing so much about people without loving them first. Especially in a small Midwestern town where you’re bumping into everyone all the time. But even with all that practice, nothing I did now could hold back the oceanic force of Rhett’s past. Scenes from it rose up around him in constellating tides, each one a door thrown open into the stories of his life. Ancient medinas and river kingdoms, Rhett glittered through them all, threading the corridors of space and time itself.
He reached the top of my stairs. “Tell me what you See, Honey Crowley.” He said my name as if it were an invocation; the taste of his ability made my blood sing. But it felt too good to speak. I swam deeper into his secrets instead....
Folly Beach, South Carolina
4th of July
I’d just burned down my old life: strange dreams were a given.
I didn’t want to think, much less to dream. Fresh out of Kansas, I leaned back on my porch, savoring the sultry heat of a South Carolina afternoon.
“Honey Crowley?” a low voice said.
“I am.” I looked down over my porch to see a man in the street below. “Do I know you?”
Blue eyes, black hair. He almost smiled, but not quite. “Keeper said I’d find you here,” he said. Keeper. The word glittered between us like a flipped coin.
“You must be Rhett,” I said.
“Not beyond the line of duty. Recognize me?” Heat rippled the day like antique glass, making the air around his wild, inky curls shift as if around a flame.
I stood. “I met someone called Keeper last night. But I thought I’d dreamt her.”
His eyes were intoxicating, impossible oceans. “Or maybe you prefer to ignore what you don’t want to believe.”
“You’re tougher than you look,” I said. “Hello to you, too.”
“Well.” Rhett gave me a heartstopping smile and shrugged. “I’m not from around here.”
“Anyway, she couldn’t have been real. She was with all these extraordinary… um… ” I flushed. “Wait a second. We’ve only just met, and here I am telling you my dreams. Usually it’s the other way around. Which I prefer. Let’s try again. Why are you here - what do you want?”
“Creatures,” Rhett said, coming onto my stairs. “That’s what we call ourselves. Creatures. And as you might be noticing, we have an amplifying effect on one another.” He came closer. The shifting in the air between us intensified, my consciousness seeming to surge out across the whole of my skin.
“As for why I’m here,” he said, “see if you can remember.”
“Whatever she was, she said Rhett Coltart would find me today. That you have a task for me.”
Images began crashing across my mind like waves.
I’ve fought my Second Sight all my life. It’s corrosive, knowing so much about people without loving them first. Especially in a small Midwestern town where you’re bumping into everyone all the time. But even with all that practice, nothing I did now could hold back the oceanic force of Rhett’s past. Scenes from it rose up around him in constellating tides, each one a door thrown open into the stories of his life. Ancient medinas and river kingdoms, Rhett glittered through them all, threading the corridors of space and time itself.
He reached the top of my stairs. “Tell me what you See, Honey Crowley.” He said my name as if it were an invocation; the taste of his ability made my blood sing. But it felt too good to speak. I swam deeper into his secrets instead....
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Thank you so much for reading :)
take an winter's journey with my short, gothic tale...
“The night I met Death, he thought he was just passing through.”
The NeverSeas is a short, deliciously gothic tale... Think Edgar Allan Poe meets Stephen King, with a twist of Rikki Ducornet. A winter's Negroni, if you will.
Buy your copy here!
love books like the Witching Hour, by Anne Rice?
You might enjoy the novel I wrote under my first pen name, Pauline West.
Think YA Girl Interrupted + Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - like Evenings Kingdom, my first novel features a wild, free-spirited cast as they step into their powers & tap into the collective subconscious.
Richly preternatural and spine-tinglingly erotic, the story is an exploration of love, loss and loyalty that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.
And you can buy it on Amazon - click here :)
Think YA Girl Interrupted + Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - like Evenings Kingdom, my first novel features a wild, free-spirited cast as they step into their powers & tap into the collective subconscious.
Richly preternatural and spine-tinglingly erotic, the story is an exploration of love, loss and loyalty that will haunt you long after the last page is turned.
And you can buy it on Amazon - click here :)
For reasons I mention below, I plan to revisit EL and edit the story for the podcast, giving Jupiter Snow a much more prominent role, combining a few characters & tightening/clarifying the narrative overall.
I wrote the story as a way to honor my sweet brother, James. As I've mentioned on the show, we lost our James early in the opioid crisis, as Ada loses her best friend Faye.
If you're inclined to peek, it's interesting to notice themes repeated across my stories:
-Dark, complex women with dangerous gifts they must learn to wield without ego
-Seductive, charismatic anti-heroes,
-Journeys into the Collective Unconscious
-Reconciling otherworldly knowledge & allies into the waking world....
Buy your copy here today :)
As I revisit this story down the road, I'd love to incorporate your ideas! Please tell me your thoughts in a review :) I read each one, and would love to know which characters you like, the improvements you'd enjoy, and the scenes you can't get out of your head.
I wrote the story as a way to honor my sweet brother, James. As I've mentioned on the show, we lost our James early in the opioid crisis, as Ada loses her best friend Faye.
If you're inclined to peek, it's interesting to notice themes repeated across my stories:
-Dark, complex women with dangerous gifts they must learn to wield without ego
-Seductive, charismatic anti-heroes,
-Journeys into the Collective Unconscious
-Reconciling otherworldly knowledge & allies into the waking world....
Buy your copy here today :)
As I revisit this story down the road, I'd love to incorporate your ideas! Please tell me your thoughts in a review :) I read each one, and would love to know which characters you like, the improvements you'd enjoy, and the scenes you can't get out of your head.
Last but not least.
Ok, I admit it. Once upon a time, I wrote some erotica....
Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance, the Complete Series.
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& find out why readers are saying:
“FIVE STARS.” “beyond steamy…” “Captivating.” “WOW!!! Brilliant…a book that I just couldn't put down...” “on the edge of my seat for the next!” “I think I may be a little in love with Ry Calhoun…” “...fast paced with heaps of suspense… "“Addictive Series... once again given me a book I simply could not put down!!! “ “Enthralling.”
Some like it hot....
Lily is a bold free spirit from the foster system of small town South Carolina. She knows what she wants and how to get it, and a spoiled rich playboy is not part of her plan... but Ry Calhoun is irresistible.
The bad boy heir to a historic family fortune, Ry is a notorious playboy who's never met a challenge like gorgeous Lily Inoue...