New Fiction! The Piano Time Rag!
The Piano Time Rag
Sadie Louise restores wooden furniture, returning it to its former glory. With just a touch, she finds the strength flowing along the grain or where a joint will shatter with the right pressure.
She also frees the spirits she discovers in the wood, trapped there by accident or design.
The spirit Sadie finds in an old player piano is unlike any other she’s ever encountered.
Maybe not all spirits should be freed.
This story came about a strange way. One of the assignments we had for the short story workshop was to write dialogue that came about while a character was doing something else, some other action.
The original assignment was only about 700 words. I had a woman sanding a piece of furniture, about to apply the second coat of varnish to it, while a detective was in her workshop, asking her about a recent murder.
I knew, by the time I finished the exercise, that I had a novel on my hands. (Touch is the name of it.)
The Piano Time Rag is the ‘origin’ story for the novel. The supernatural element in the novel is created in this short story.
While I was writing this story, lots of other stories were born with these characters, like the first time Sadie frees a spirit (and how that compels her to free herself from her current situation) or the time Sadie frees a pair of spirits that are stuck in the wood of a house, and so are haunting it, etc.
So this story may feel like it’s just the start - and it kind of is. However, I plan on writing the other stories over the next year. And maybe the novel as well.
The story is available at the usual places:
Available at Amazon (Kindle)
Available at Barnes & Nobel (Nook)
Available at Smashwords
I published the story separately on Kobo. While it has already made it through the process everywhere else, it still hasn’t been published on Kobo. Last time it took more than a week. I really hope this story isn’t stuck as well.
Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.