Ganja Bruja available now

My cannabis life zine, Ganja Bruja #1, is now online for preview. 

You can also buy a physical copy at microcosm.pub/ganjabruja if that's your thing.

A paragraph of happy; of feeling like light and sun and life. {For Mary}

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

A Chapter {The Selkie}

“Mommy, can you tell me a story before bed?”

Iris glanced at the small brown bookcase across the room. Now that she’d become aware of the cold, she was reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed.

“Sure,” she said after a moment. “What would you like?”

Ella seemed to hesitate. “Is daddy going to be home soon?”

Iris gave her a curious look and spoke slowly. “I don’t think so…”

Ella’s expression brightened in that way that only seems to happen when you feel delighted and mischievous. “Can we read one of the fairy stories?”

A laugh tickled at Iris’s throat, but she just smiled at the pleading green eyes with flecks of golden brown.

She reached over the edge of the bed and pulled out a small pink shoe-box decorated with plastic beads and glitter-glue from underneath it.

Ella had fallen in love with fairy tales as soon as she could understand them. But despite her grandmother’s insistence that she only watch the Disney versions, she’d always been fascinated with the much older, mature classics. The perfect gift for her was a new Grimm story, or one of the Andrew Lang Coloured Fairy collections.

Like his mother, Jon had never been impressed by the gruesome, tragic nature of many of the original tales, and refused to consider allowing Ella to read them. But Iris encouraged it.

They were darker than she’d like, for a six-year-old girl, but Ella’s favorites always seemed to be the ones where the frightening, depressing elements were somehow overcome in the end. Often this resolution was not what she expected, but she liked the surprise even more.

Iris liked to believe that, even at her age, Ella appreciated that you have to go through a lot of struggles before you can get to your happy endings. Maybe she even understood in some way that so-called “happy endings” weren’t ever what you expected them to be, too.

Sometimes she figured she was probably over-thinking it, or even that she was giving Ella too much credit. But other times, while she read to her, she saw a glint of quiet, patient understanding in her eyes, and Iris knew she that neither of those things were true. Ella was smart. Ella was amazing.

“Okay,” she said, sifting through the books in the box, “what do you want to hear?”

“Something… new.”

Iris nodded, searching. One book, near the bottom, still had a bookmark only a few pages into it. The cover was a faded green with Celtic knots around the edges. The pages were yellowed with age and Iris turned them carefully.

She hadn’t gone through the book of Irish tales to weed out the ones that were a little too mature, but the story right after the bookmark looked good enough.

“The Selkie,” she read, her voice soft but commanding, and she began to read.

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

I made a big pile of these graphics of beautiful words (with an online program; I'm not that awesome) because I'm obsessed.
Words have power and should be known.
Please feel free to comment with your own favorite beautiful words for me to share!

Word of the Day 1.0

A Little Light Reading

Okay, so, crazy change of subject: me!

Just kidding. I write about me all the time.

But I want to do a little "plug" for my new writing endeavors on JukePop.com

JukePop is a really interesting site made for readers and indie writers to connect and develop working relationships via serialized updates of the writer's work.
So, a writer begins their novel on the site, posting one chapter at a time, and updates periodically  -- often or sporadically -- so that readers can follow them, read each serialized chapter, and offer opinions, praise, critiques, questions, etc. Readers can also donate to the writer, as well as encourage and promote their favorite stories.

I love the concept, and I really hope the site grows and gains more dedicated readers and followers.

the generic Romance cover

So I've uploaded the beginnings of two of my works-in-progress.
My poetry baby, inspired by the works of YA authors like (of course) Francesca Lia Block, Ellen Hopkins, etc. -- Poison In Her Blood (which is the newest working title)

Three tales of poison, reinvented.

Sephony can't watch the man she loves with another woman, and runs, losing herself in an underground club with bodies that writhe like souls, and an owner like shards of ice, with a ruby-red addiction.

Winter has a mother she adores, but who envies her youth and beauty. After spending her life trying to make her mother proud, Winter falls in love with a dazzling young girl, and want's to impress her, instead. But her mother will do anything to keep Winter quiet, and still, and all to herself.

Evie stands under the tallest tree in the woods, considering the dangerous offer that was whispered in her ear, and whether she can live with the consequences of her choice.

My writing obsession of the year, The Life We Didn't Live. A fantasy-woven romance inspired by the craziest dream that I could just never forget.

"Your time-line is wrong..."

Iris McEwan has dreams about a man she can't see. She feels sorrow she can't explain. She clings to the only thing in her life she feels sure about; her daughter, Ella.

But when a stranger at a carnival makes her suspect something unsettling -- and impossible -- about her life, she begins a trip through memories of her past, and a past she doesn't remember having.

So, if you have a moment and are looking for something to read, try these two fantasy reads. 

I got a comment on TLWDL really quickly, which boosted my hopes for it's success on the site, but I haven't gotten any since. I'd really like to see some more reactions before I post more chapters.

Please check it out!

My Book!

Coming out this Sunday! My first novel!

I can't wait! I'm sorely excited to have this out in the world. If it's at all successful, I'm hoping to make actual prints next year. For now, cheek out the ebook!

"A Study in Steel", a new cyberpunk noir by Eliana Vale at Smashwords! 

Vera is a Search Engine; a private investigator driven to find the truth in a world of machines. When her client is murdered, she finds herself caught up in the sordid history of her city's past, and those trying to survive within it.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/393997

Check it out, and email me for a coupon code to get yours!

If My Novels Were Relationships.

A Study in Steel
would be my love-child. I'm always caring for it, nurturing it, working to improve it, defending it from others, and preparing it for the real world.

Night Terrors
would be a bad ex-boyfriend. I keep coming back to it, thinking this time we can make things work. But ultimately we hit the same roadblocks, and in the end we disappoint each other.

Persephone
would be the one that got away. Always wishing it would work out, always imagining, with deep melancholy and wistfulness, how great it could be (if only...), but always inevitably seeing that it's just out of reach.