In Roots Of Ash – coming in October

This year has been one with lots of writing and this book is the result of some of that writing.

For many years I have been writing about the Sisters Six, six sisters who were tree in form but were indeed witches of the woods who offered to give someone one wish/desire…for a price. An often steep price. I have been writing about these beings for many years and then one day realized that they shouldn’t go unchecked, there should be an adversary to them – the Woodsman.

In recent years I started to think that it might be time to put this mythos to bed, not because I tired of writing it but because I needed there to be a resolution. I needed there to be some sort of an ‘ending’. Whatever it was. I wanted someone to be able to pick up one book and read these stories and get what they were saying and feel like they weren’t left without resolution of some sort.

I needed an ending.

I had an inkling what I wanted but I wasn’t certain until I started writing the last story, a novella, to wrap it up. It was here that I could tie up the loose ends I had left and really position the whole as something larger. It was here that I could have through characters that had to deal with the Sisters and the Woodsman. It was here that I could tie into the mythology of the small towns I had been writing about for years. In some ways, this book even ties into my two novels A SHADOW OVER EVER and ROAD KILL.

This book still feels new to me but I love that all of these stories are connected now inherently. I love that this mythology is together finally. I love that there is a definite ending to this mythos but one that opens other doors.

I have always been worried about dying with unfinished work lying around. There’s no way to avoid that completely. No way unless I finish every project but the thing with creatives is we’re never done. There are always loose threads and unused ideas. I am happy though that so much of the work I started is out. That so many of the bigger ideas are out. I have new work started, big work started, but we’ll see what happens.

For now, I am excited to bring out IN ROOTS OF ASH for people to explore and experience. The books never quite end up as I imagined – from written word to finished product offers a vast gulf to navigate – but I am pretty happy with how this came together.

I hope you will be too come October.