A single gold coin shines on the pavement, but no one except me seems to have noticed it. I watch it, hoping someone will take it and claim it as their own. Needing someone to take it. Please take it.
Nettlefold Princess is available as part of AnAnthology of Worlds, and also as a stand-alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.
First Page: Nettlefold Princess
Nettlefold Hollow took its name from the
myriad nettles that grew there. Stinging nettles mingled with greater and
lesser nettles as well as wood and hedge nettles. Clambering amongst the rocks
and mingling with clumps of grass or peeking from beneath the blackberries, the
nettles dominated the hollow. With emerald leaves, highlighted in silver and
dripping diamonds from the morning dew, the nettles were beautiful… until some
unwelcome visitor brushed against them. Rumors of fairies were rife.
At first, no one lived in Nettlefold
Hollow. No one even lived near it. No one visited it or traveled through it. No
one. Even when settlers came and built farms, people left Nettlefold Hollow
alone. When the farms grew into a small town, people stayed well away. It was
only when the small town grew into a large town that the developers moved in.
Nettles can’t hurt bulldozers, and
fairies fare poorly against cold iron and steel. Within a few short months, the
suburb of Nettlefold Hollow was born.
New houses with green roofs sparkling in
the morning dew lined the streets. Roses bloomed where white nettle flowers
once ruled. Neatly trimmed lawns replaced the jostling tangle of blackberries.
Not one fairy was seen welcoming the brightly painted garden gnomes.
People came to the Hollow and shattered
the quiet with the sound of cars, buses and children. Moving vans brought whole
families to settle there. Dogs and cats took over from squirrels and raccoons
as the dominant animals in the valley. The Hardangers with their pet cocker
spaniel were the first family to arrive.
They said nothing of fairies, or
nettles, but their garden was wilder than most. This was more because they were
too busy doing other things to care for it, than any other reason. On the
weekends, Mr. Hardanger made pottery, and Mrs. Hardanger brewed herbal
remedies. During the week they worked in the office towers in the center of
town.
Their daughter, Amity, had the darkest hair and
bluest eyes of all the girls on her street. She went to school on the bus, and rode
the internet at night. She did not roam the Hollow once the sun had set. When
asked why, she said the shadows freaked her out, that something moved within
them.
END EXTRACT
If you would like to read more, Nettlefold Princess is available as part of AnAnthology of Worlds, and also as a stand-alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.
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