March 24, 2024

Endings and beginnings

Flowers are blooming, the trees have buds all over them, and boy am I ready for the warmer weather! Check out this view from my porch -

Also - I found a bug in the new website that was making it so the actual product pages - i.e. when you clicked on which book you wanted to buy - weren’t showing the proper background color. That meant the white text - disappeared! I’m sorry I didn’t catch it sooner. Apparently an update deleted the setting and I didn’t notice. It has been fixed, however, and thank you for being patient with my technical hiccups.

In the technical errors department, I also managed to screw up sending out last Sunday’s newsletter. I was trying to update things and ended up only sending it to the paid subscribers. So, here’s the link for last week’s newsletter so you can check it out, as well as getting this one, too.

It’s been a bit stressful the last couple of weeks, so I apologize for the hiccups. Life happens, right?

I’m still working on Remington and Rowan, with the hope of finishing them in the next couple of weeks. I’ll post a link for Marked by the Wolf - the anthology that Remington will be in - as soon as I get one.

How many of you have checked out Ream? There are some free stories there if you just follow - and more to come.

Just click on the follow button on Ream!

Click on this button and help me keep writing. Just $5 a month would make a huge difference - and get you a lot of great stories. Thank you!

For those of you who didn’t like the serialization - there’s good news. I’ve moved my paid subscribers over to a second Substack - Graffridge Publishing - where they can get just the serialized stories in one place.
If you do a paid subscription here, you get credited one over there - and vice-versa. So you only have to pay once to get both. Pretty cool, huh?

This is the last serialized piece for the regular newsletter. You’re welcome.

And So It Begins - Epilogue - One Week Later

Ash stared in horror at the devastation before him. He stood on the roof of the local fire station and looked across at what had been the town of Stonewall Gap, Virginia. The explosion had taken out most of the downtown area that had once consisted of several shops with residences above, and a few smaller homes the next street over to the west. To the east, a river separated Stonewall Gap from Miller’s Landing – and the buildings that backed up to the river had suffered damage from the blast wave. Broken windows glittered above cars that had been rolled with the force of the explosion. A few of those cars found themselves tossed into the river from the Gap side and now caused swirls and rapids where the water flowed over and through them.

“And you say this was only one bomb?” Ash asked the fire chief that stood beside him.

“One big-assed motherfucker of a bomb,” Chief Ridley replied. “We’re still working the area, from the outside in, but all we’re finding now are pieces of what might have been bodies. Bone fragments and ash of what were once my neighbors and friends.” Ridley sighed and turned to Ashton. “I don’t much care which agency you’re with. There have been more three-letter busybodies in my town in the last two days than I knew ever existed. But if you and yours can help find out who did this? And make them pay? I’d be forever in your debt.”

Ashton put a hand on the Chief’s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. “I’m going to do my best.” He paused and met the chief’s eyes. “Was there an event in town when the bomb went off? Or was it just an ordinary day?”

The chief’s eyes grew wet and he turned away from Ash. “It was the Founder’s Day parade. My granddaughter was marching in it with her dance troupe.” He paused, took a breath, then let it out slow. “She’s in critical condition, lost both of her legs, but they say she’ll make it. They’d already turned the corner and were at the far edge of the blast radius.”

Ash opened his mouth to speak, but the chief answered his question before he could ask it.

“Those bastards,” the chief said. “They waited until the Pride float was across from the viewing stands before they set off the bomb. This was a hate crime, pure and simple. Love is love and there’s no reason to hate someone because they find it somewhere you don’t. Find these fuckers, because they don’t want me to find them first.”

Ash watched the chief head back to the door that led down off of the roof, then turned to face the destruction as he pulled out his phone.

“Jo, who do you have near Stonewall Gap, Virginia? I’m going to need some help with this one.”

THE END

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