Fantasy (various sub-genres)
Publication Date: March 31, 2025
The maypole has been adorned with ribbons and blossoms, the bonfire has been lit, and the music is calling you to dance the night away. Join 25 AuthorTubers as they explore the stories of Beltane in the second AuthorTube Anthology.
The magic of SPRING is in full bloom.
Including works by:
Rose Adam, Rachel D. Adams, Aisling Black, Sarah C. Brody, Michael Dawn Brooks, Brandy Bullock, Cassandra Byrnes, Jodee Jean Daniels, S.C. Dickinson, Robert Dorris, C.L. Hart, Katy Manz, Nil ∅, J. Noble, Jenna O'Malley, Kay Parquet, Melissa Power, Alice Reads, Megan Ryan, E.L. Summers, Kyle Thomas, Nicole Ford Thomas, M.M. Ward, Christina Whisler, Sam Wicker
The Beltane Laundress
Contemporary Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Small Town
Ernst Veselá is so mired in memories of his lost wife and daughter that he strolls onto a dark, rain-slick county road without looking. He is nearly run down by Annie Ainsworth, a young woman driving erratically in her hurry to escape her abusive relationship with her child’s father.
Ernst and his son Jozef offer shelter to Annie and her daughter Lizzie. Will the magic of Beltane spark healing in these four broken-hearted souls?
Excerpt
The Beltane Laundress
by C. L. Hart
The rain pounded down on a father and son walking through the tiny town of Honeycomb Grove, Colorado.
“It will be a good Mayday celebration this year, Pop,” said the lanky teenage boy. Tufts of gamboge-golden hair stuck out from his dark orchid baseball cap.
The boy’s similarly built father had graying oxide-red hair and wore a faded red baseball cap. The weary expression on his face and the look of hopelessness in sad eyes the color of a John Deere tractor matched glum words spoken with a thick German accent.
“I don’t want to dim the light in those hopeful hazel eyes. I wish I still saw life with the eyes of a tiger conquering his jungle, but today, I view the world through the eyes of an undertaker.”
The teenager was horrified to see a car barrel out of the fog as his father started across the county road.
“Pop, look out!”
The pair lost their balance on the slippery grass as the son pulled his father out of the path of the speeding vehicle. The battered cherry-red mini-SUV that pulled into the parking lot of the abandoned Honey Wash Laundromat had seen better days. A young woman no older than eighteen stepped out, regarding the pair with eyes like blue marbles peering from behind a curtain of unkempt mouse-brown hair haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail.
About the Author
C. L. Hart, the owner and sole employee of Naughty Netherworld Press and Ornery Owl Ventures, is spoken of in hushed tones. She is an editor who writes or a writer who edits. She is also described as The Mad Scribe of the Northeastern Colorado Plains, The Terrible Old Woman, and The Author That Should Not Be. She is a member of ACES Editing Society, the Denver Horror Collective, First Coast Romance Writers, the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, Passionate Ink (writing as Lil DeVille), Regency Romance Writers, and Rocky Mountain Romance Writers.
Ms. Hart shares a home in a remote rural town of 134 souls with her adult son and three cats. Her sense of fashion is best described as Early Twenty-First Century Unmade Bed. This disabled former nurse can usually be found arguing with herself about subplots or rehabilitating eldritch horrors.
When not penning sanity-destroying works of dystopian fiction, Lovecraftian fantasy, or old-school horror with the occasional sweet romance thrown in to upset the cosmic apple cart, Ms. Hart enjoys creating baked goods she hopes will be considered palatable by someone besides eldritch horrors.
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