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George returned back to where he grew up still seeking that one place where he fits in. Never did he expect to find himself in a messy tangle of dark magics, ancient promises, and a power hungry hoodoo doctor. Just maybe if his crazed luck can just stay with him long enough, he'll finally find his place under the sun.
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This DopplerPress Kindle eBook also includes the bonus story "The Glade" by Grover
This DopplerPress Kindle eBook also includes the bonus story "The Glade" by Grover
Originally published 2013-03-24 here on BigCloset.
Comments
Excellent story
I probably should have checked the story length before starting to read this but it was worth reading it in one sitting. :-) I love the weaving of celtic and hoodoo faiths together and the whole feel of the rural south that you convey.
Just as importantly, no dogs spirit was permanently harmed in the making of this story!
Thank you for a very enjoyable tale Grover.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Story lenght
This is part of what has held up the closing chapter of Wild Side. At some 30K words it's pretty long. :) I suppose you are right. Instead of Urban Fantasy, it is more like Rural Fantasy. As for Cooter, well, you can't keep a good dawg down!
Thanks so much for your comment.
Big hugs
Grover
fun story
really liked it.
Thanks Dorothy!
I'm happy you liked it. I rather enjoyed writing it. It was nice to revisit my memories of the old place and incorporate them into this yarn.
Hugs
Grover
Wow
What a wonderful, enchanting love story. Goddess be praised. I wondered whatever happened to ol' cousin George.
Joani McBride
Cousin George
is living in interesting times, but I do believe he's happy. :)
Thanks for your kind words.
Hugs
Grover
Great story
I really enjoyed this. Being of Celtic ancestry myself I was really happy with how you developed the story and the characters. The mix of Celtic and Hoodoo gave it a nice interesting flavor. :)
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
Melting pot
I've always found the melting process of America's melting pot of America fascinating. The mixture of European, Native Americans, and the usually unwilling immigrants from Africa made Colonial America a very nitty-gitty place. You can still see those influences in the Mid-Lands and Low Country of South Carolina. From the old dialects/accents to the old graveyards that history can be heard and seen.
Thanks for the comment!
Hugs
Grover
Wow... this story was great.
Wow... this story was great. The beginning was more than a bit cruel, but it got better and worked out in the end.
That Vodoo magic seemed seriously dark, but then there were those Loa. I wonder what they were about. It would have been kind of nice to learn more about them. Or was this sort of preparation for a sequel?
I wonder what Foxxy replaced the male part of her soul with. I mean she seemed seriously crippled spiritually in the beginning and it wasn't all that much better in the end. It would have been interesting to read more from her POV.
Thank you for writing this captivating story,
Beyogi
Oh Wow!
Thanks Beyogi. I perhaps should've spelled it out better. Subscribing to that theory that we're both male and female, Vivian had all the male removed leaving only the female parts. Given time it slowly will grow stronger. That's what the Loa was implying when she said if in time Vivian wanted to partake of their rituals, then she would be welcome. Wendy was much more protected and again I implied that she didn't have all that much maleness to her soul to start with making the removal far less traumatic.
Vodun has its light and darkness. In general terms it is positive, but there are dark sorcerers, bokor, and it was one of those I was writing about.
If I made any mistakes about the religious portions, it was not intentional. Like most things, it can be misused, and if anything I showed how the Loa and others balance the sheets at the end. He had his chance to reform and threw then away.
Sorry for the ramble. :)
Thanks for the comment
hugs
Grover
I loved it!!!
I loved this story! A great romp through a place that's as much in my blood as it is in George's. I love what you did with the Loas!
Thank you
Abby
Thanks Abby!
You being a Low Country girl, I'm sure you got it. That mixture of the modern world, but beneath at its roots it's the same South that gave rise to both good and bad. Maybe I've listened to Charley Daniel's Wooly Swamp once too often. :)
Thanks for your kind words.
hugs
Grover
Really Excellent Grover! A must read here:)
I seriously got into this and couldn't stop reading it until it was done. I gotta admit I'm a bit jealous that I never went there into the voodoo stories. Loved the Loas and that deep south feeling.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Thanks Bailey
I did the best I could with the research and from my own very limited experiences. My real inspiration for the Vodun parts were from one of my most favorite books and series. "Chase the Morning" by Michael Scott Rohan, and the rest of that series. I thought he did a great job at showing the relationships between worshipers and Loas in those stories. Plus its a wonderful fantasy universe mixing so many different genre's together.
I simply took the recipe and applied my own ingredients. :)
Thanks for your very enthusiastic comment.
hugs
Grover
Wow. Another enjoyable read.
It's hard to find enough superlatives to describe some of the tales on BCTS. This one has a spine-chilling protagonist, loveable heroines, dialog that never stumbles and a happy, even gooey-sweet ending. All my favourite ingredients. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with us. Cheers, Kiwi
Thank Kiwi
I'm rather fond of those gooey-sweet endings too! There's too much bad stuff going around in real life to write about it, although I will admit some stories do demand it. Happily this needed the Disney ending it got. ;)
Thanks for your comment!
Hugs
Grover
Very nice!
It's rare to see a story that captures so well the feel of my families' homelands.
Thanks for a job well done!
Janice - Child of Tennessee hollers, with roots throughout these hills and woods
You're very welcome
They say write what you know, but I'll go just a step further and say write what you feel. To stand on land your father and his father had tilled with their own hands watching the sunrise ... There's a connection.
The land does get into your blood. :)
Thanks for your kind words.
hugs
Grover
Awesome Setting...
...a powerful plot, and everything really well thought out, including (as others have noted) the intersection of the two occult systems.
The were four categories at the top that I tend to avoid, but your byline made me go for it anyway, and I'm very glad I did.
Gratefully, Eric
Awesome comment!
Category selection is always tough for me. Yes, they do apply to the story, but they could also trigger bad things in unwary readers. Like Poet-Heather says, to really let the happiness shine your characters have got to work for it.
I admit I'm terrible at writing the intro blurb. That's why I usually rely on my tropic sentence to do the job. It is after all the intro to the story. But this time I had to overcome possible adverse reaction to those categories. I'm happy to see that it at least partially worked. :)
Thanks for your comment!
hugs
Grover
a bit confusing
for me at the start up, but it quickly became very good. Thanks
Confusing?
Might I ask what part? It's hard for me to pick up on stuff like that since after all I already KNOW what's going to happen. Setting the scene, in a fantasy story, even a rural one, is tough. Many people aren't very familiar with that sort of background.
I'm still learning how to do this writing thing.
It is good to know it picked up quickly.
Thanks for letting me know!
hugs
Grover
Could practically see James Bond lurkring on the edges
Reminded me a bit, and in a good way, of parts of Live and Let Die...
We were something like 40 percent in when the bad guy went to prison so I KNEW he would strike back somehow.
But KNOWING that, you still held things nicely in suspense.
VERY good work.
Um, babies? As in plural? Um twins or more than one pregnancy? IE prophesy?
Nice bit with the woman compelled to come and train her.
That and Clifford the Big Dead Dog...
-- grin --
Faithful unto eternity. Damned fine dog. Maybe they could find him a fine dead lady dog and...
Spectral puppies would be something to behold. Would you paper train them using the obits?
NO hitting!
I suspect our evil voodoo man will not have a happy afterlife. You NEVER fail a spirit/god you made a bargain with and a spirit associated with death?! Yikes.
Initially the bits about her old family near the end came out of left field but you did set it up waaay in the beginning so I should not have been surprised. Plus his/her estrangement from the family was a key factor in the story.
As to the cursed body mold used on them... Did you ever see a certain video by Lil' Kim? That or you had a Mattel Creepy Critter Maker back in the day.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Geoffrey Holder
I'll have to come clean that the laughter I heard at our dear Hoodoo Doctor's end was Geoffrey Holder's as Baron Samedi. No one, and I do mean no one escapes or welches on a deal with the Baron. :) Strange how images and sounds from our childhoods forever influences us hey?
As for that Mattel Creepy Critter Maker I can neither confirm nor deny that such a toy was a part of my childhood. So maybe I did have my share of play-dough and plastic clay. You ever notice how when you mixed the colors they always turned this kinda gray color? :)
As for that Lil Kim video which one are you talking about, John?
Grover
Excellent story.
Someone caught up in magic who hadn't really believed in it before, A doom hanging over two good people, and their interactions. Good stuff. I also liked that the start of Papa's downfall was a simple nine millimeter.
Maggie
9mm downfall
Never threaten a mama and her baby! :) It's just that baby is going to have to mama's which is not that unusual in todays world although I dare say the details are a lot more complicated than the normal.
Papa was also my attempt at giving my bad guy more character and to explain why he did the things he did to the girls. I guess it worked out pretty well.
As always Maggie, it's the comments from my writing peers that are gold. :)
Thanks!
hugs
Grover
What a great story, Grover.
What a great story, Grover.
And thank you for escorting Papa Baga out of it.
Blush
I think I'm blushing. :) Papa needed comeuppance and he got it.
Thanks again!
hugs
Grover
How Many Licks? is the title of the song she did with Sisqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhCD9qxlczo
This video is NOT work safe!!! Oh my, NO WAAAY!!
But the idea of a factory molded living womnan, like some magiced-alive African American Barbie Doll IS part of the video.
Now to see if I can fix my YouTube down loader, Several new Epic Rap Battles of History are our. One with Gahndi vs M.L. King.
LOVE to see how two proponents of non-violence *battle*.
But then the idea of Gahndi as a Rambo type avenger has been spoofed before.
BTW NICE story.
Sure will make for FUN familiy reunions.... Just how WHITE BREAD is her old family? Or his for that matter?
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. How about a Mattel Vacu-Form toy?
Plaster casts in rubber molds in the *Y*?
John in Wauwatosa
Really good!
Even though I had other things to do, I couldn't stop reading this until I finished it. Thank you! Such a rich tale, with the blending of different traditions. I envy your creativity!
Suzij
Who does listen to the hoodoo?
I have to wonder just what the spirits were that hovered around your writing desk those long hours while you crafted this story, but I hope they were dismissed upon its completion. Now I can go to bed and let the dreams carry me away....
No evil spirits-
Just one ADHD afflicted muse who loves her caffeine way too much! As for dreams my latest story began as a dream. It was a little disturbing because it broke the fourth wall. You know I dreamed I was in the dream, dreaming. Hopefully it'll be ready for review next week.
Thanks for your so kind words and concern. And of course may your own dreams lead you to your heart's reward.
hugs
Grover
I've Been Meaning To Read This Story
For ages. I just never seemed to get the time, And now I have and of course I'm not disappointed, because it's a GROVER
story and and as well written and interesting as all the other Grover stories, even Papa Baga was believably evil. There are assholes like that in the world,with or without magic.
Thank you for the lovely ride,
Joanne
I hope you see this.
It has been a little time since you posted this but I always leave a little
thank you for when ever something is written.
The tension that you held throughout the story was spooky good. And the quality of your writing pulled together a story that even Samual Clemens would find very enjoyable.
As usual your instincts of what to say and what to subtlety imply was spot on. Great story Thankyou.
Misha Nova
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Great story Grover! Love all
of the magic and spells. But ish that you'd chosen to post it in chapters. Then I could have given you many kudos.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Fine work
That was a fine piece of work, with a strong sense of place and vivid characterization. There were a few minor problems -- a couple of verbs that don't agree in number with their subject, for instance -- but nothing serious enough to throw me out of the story.
---
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
Thanks!
It seems no matter how carefully me and others go over these tales of mine something always sneaks though. I blame my Southern upbringing and dyslexia. :) No excuses for bad grammar of course since it has to be readable by others, but like so much in my life it's a up hill battle.
I am glad you enjoyed it and thanks again for your kind words.
hugs
Grover
Just bought
and started to read, looks like more Grover goodness.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."