Published

Snapdragon Tea, Chapter I

Ver Sacrum Books - Snapdragon Tea - The Orange Moon Tea Society Chapter I, Introductions

“Finally a sign pointed towards the house in the distance and labeled it as: Hathor Boarding House. Beneath the big letters, in small print it read: Prospective tenants please note: Must bring with you joy and your favorite tea. Our occupants (dead and living) like stories. Our brownies like honey. Our bees like to whisper. And our remaining Jack o’ the bowl will see your room right if you leave him a bowl of cream at the end of the night. Beware of Quantum’erks.”

Snapdragon Tea, Chapter I, In which we meet young Emily, who has lost one family and is about to meet her new family at great aunt Emma’s boarding house. Questions of where the selkies went, why Minerva Mox is so grumpy and are fairies real are raised. Read the full chapter here. More about this serial fiction here.

Published

Riker Rouge, Chapter IV

Ver Sacrum Books - Riker Rouge - Serial Fiction Chapter IV, Black Waters, The End of the Reevers & Oleander’s Secret

“The sunlit swamp was a distant memory now. Cecil sat huddled between his two companions in the darkness of a moonless night. The small torches the three men gripped were not up to the task of throwing much light over the dense scene around them. What was worse than the darkness for Cecil was knowing there was something moving in that darkness. His demons were in those black places that could not be illuminated.”

Chapter IV, in which we are introduced to the beings who worship among the black waters, an old collective comes to a violent end, and we find that Oleander has more to him than once thought. Read the full chapter here. The first book is now available for free download or book purchase here.

Published

Monday Shorts: Sunflowers

When Saturn Yawns - A Collection of Short Stories by Bethalynne Bajema When Saturn Yawns Collection – Sunflowers

“Not straight through, but down through the voice had said. Keira reached for the small corn doorknob and pulled it instead of turning it. The woven door came open easily to reveal a space below that looked neither quite like a room that had been dug into the dirt, nor like a room being given access from a strange door actually much farther away. It was more like a mirror surface that was reflecting a room behind her. She could see her own reflection placing her within this room. When she turned to look behind her, expecting to see that room, there was nothing but the tall sunflowers gently moving with the wind.”

Water, a sample of a short story in which we meet a little girl who runs into old things in the middle of an old sunflower patch. Read the story sample here. More from this collection here.

Published

Book Store: Snapdragon Tea

Snapdragon Tea has been added to the Book Store. This is my second serialized story that is geared towards young adult readers. It features the ever more fantastical days of Emily as she comes to live with her great aunt Emma at her bordering house. This title also features some stand alone short stories I’ve written over the years that are devoted to the good people of Orange Moon Downs. I think every author has that strange and familiar town that is all their own and Orange Moon Downs is mine. Chapters for this story will be added the second and fourth Friday of the month. More info can be found here.

Published

Insect Taxidermy

Sepia Insects

“A strange thing we saw the day we crept into the old man’s room. All of the eerie taxidermy creatures had been removed from the shelves and the wall. Not one pair of mammal eyes watched us. In their place a glutton of smaller eyes, many of them fractured and alien to us.

“The walls were covered with insects given the taxidermist’s treatment. Their bodies were frozen in time and preserved; but beyond that decorated. The mystery of Nanna’s missing jewelry was revealed to us and solved in this vision. Chains and rings, the old woman’s gems and the guts of the woman’s old watches, all broken down and used to decorate the little insect bodies. The old man had made a shrine to the insect and its breed that had taken his wife’s life from him.

“The sting that had killed her was somehow perverted and beautified in equal measure within this overwhelming collection.” From Sepia.

Published

Monday Shorts: The Dreaming

Ver Sacrum Books - When Jupiter Sighs by Bethalynne Bajema When Jupiter Sighs Collection – The Dreaming

“The Sun is holding a grudge. He thinks when he sets over the horizon, when his back is turned, that his lady steps to the advances of another celestial body. Maybe the massive man of Jupiter asks her for a dance… maybe Saturn slips a ring upon her finger before placing his lips to her palm. I can hear her soft giggle, like a winter sigh, as she enjoys the attention. After all, she only has the company of her mate, truly his attention, when the night touches the day at dusk and at dawn. The time when morning’s colors of rose and yellow come bleeding through onto the deep blue velvet curtain of night. Maybe this is why that time is so odd, so foreboding. Maybe we can all feel the tension between the ancient lovers in the sky. I would tell him to step back, step away, no Sun could match the love Jupiter could offer. He would be my prince if it were my choice.”

The Dreaming, a short story in which we take a moment to visit the dream and an artist dreams of the simple and strange things an artist dreams of. Read the full story here. This book is available for free download or book purchase here.

Published

Melancholy and the Art of Baseball

I’m a hockey fan. A hardcore, life long, traveled this country to follow my favorite teams, kind of hockey fan. I had a hockey comic strip in my mid twenties; this is always something that gives people who know me a giggle. Not just that I created a comic strip, but that it was devoted to hockey. My Foxglove Hockey Comics Collection is probably one of my most favorite books I ever self published. Why does any of this matter? Because now I’ve added baseball to that hardcore type of fan thing. That doesn’t make people who know me giggle; it makes them scratch their head.

My path to baseball love happened in much the way it does for many ladies: My gent did his best to get me into it. It didn’t take until his father put his two cents into the mix. That is probably where the melancholy comes into play. I was thinking of this tonight as we get invested in a new baseball season. It stung a little deeper as we sat outside after the game was over, enjoying the beautiful spring night. You see, my gent might have tried to get me into the sport, but it was his father Bob who taught me the ins and outs of the game.

Published

Riker Rouge, Chapter III

Ver Sacrum Books - Riker Rouge - Serial Fiction Chapter III, Sapling Sacrifices, The Magnus Certatio & Frangipani

“Frangipani smiled, bemused by being called out. ‘Oh it’s all a scripted drama Octavius. Be sure of that. However, this is my take on the drama that is about to play out. You see the Vitandi wants a great many things from you to make this event as grand as desired. They also want to offer you many things in return to bribe you into getting those things they want. You stand to make out very well in this arrangement. We are indeed looking back to the old days where such an event will help us add to our numbers and we’ll get that fresh blood I remarked upon. And yes everyone hopes this will help bring the Vitandi back into the spotlight and bully up our reputation again. We want our power and influence back. Your own reputation will become a thing of legend I would imagine. However, when all of this fluff and fodder is set aside, you’re not going to like the Vitandi’s true goal.'”

Chapter III, in which we meet a young woman in her last beautiful moments, Octavius is introduced to the Driad twins, and we learn a bit more about the obsessions of Octavius the First. Read the full chapter here. The first book is now available for free download or book purchase here.

Published

Monday Shorts: Water

Ver Sacrum Books - When Jupiter Sighs by Bethalynne Bajema When Jupiter Sighs Collection – The Dreaming

“The sound is like cool metal sliding down a length of ice. A delicate noise of such succulent smoothness that it draws you closer, makes you feel sheer and cold. It places you flat against the flawless floor as a river of water slides over you body. It chills the skin and relaxes the soul. It is winter and heaven. These were the words my grandmother would say to me when she tucked me into bed.”

Water, a short story in which we lose all sense of form and move past the present to a place at the end of the waters; a place where strange entities live. Read the full story here. This book is available for free download or book purchase here.

Published

Riker Rouge, Chapter II

Ver Sacrum Books - Riker Rouge - Serial Fiction Chapter II, First Sightings, The House of Obediah & The Baron’s Proposition

“There were many eyes there to bare witness to the unfolding events, but nearly every pair of them was turned downwards observing the strange fluctuations on mechanical devices few of them had any true understanding of. No one was looking at the scene before them. It was too much for the blind man named Max. He needed their eyes and they were looking in all the wrong directions.”

Chapter II, in which a very special photograph is taken of a phantom thing, we are introduced to the enigmatic collector that is Octavius Orwell Obediah the Second, and the good Baron pays an unwanted visit to make an offer few could refuse. Read the full chapter here. The first book is now available for free download or book purchase here.