Melanie Robertson-King is sitting round my pool for a few minutes to reveal her latest book, The
Consequences Collection.
"If
you could see the consequences - would you?"
Special
thank you to Madliz Coles whose kind permission made it possible to use her
evocative photograph as the cover image for my anthology.
Blurb:
The
Consequences Collection is an eclectic compilation of twelve stories ranging from
non-fiction through creative non-fiction to pure fiction, in prose and poetry.
The
story of a Scottish Home Child is based on fact and told from the child's point
of view; The Mystery Woman of Kinettles is a non-fiction article on the
appearance and subsequent disappearance of a woman's body near the Wellington
County House of Industry (Poor House) in 1879 Southwestern Ontario.
Some
of these stories are lighter than others, and some might even beg you to leave
the lights on.
Excerpt from the cover story
Consequences:
Splat! The mail landed on the ceramic tile floor of the
foyer. Usually, the noise was followed by the snap of the mail slot door
closing. Today it wasn’t.
Something must have stuck in it.
Sylvia put her coffee down on the counter and walked to the front door. A large
white envelope remained suspended in the door. She pulled it the rest of the
way through. The flap snapped shut and even though she was used to hearing the
metallic sound, it startled her.
She’d expected a letter from her
solicitor regarding her divorce from Bill but it wasn’t there. However, that
one in particular had piqued her curiosity. Emblazoned on the top left corner
was an official-looking crest. The addressee’s name and address were correct.
It was her. Why would this person or agency be sending her a letter? She’d never
heard of them before.
Sylvia turned the envelope over and
worked her thumb under the flap. Those self-sticking envelopes are a bugger,
she thought as she tried to rip it open. Finally, she gave up and tore down the
side and yanked the contents out.
She skimmed over the letter but it
didn’t make any sense so placed it on the small table by the door. It could be
dealt with later. In the meantime, she looked at the rest of her mail. Nothing
else untoward – just the electric bill, gas bill, and the usual assortment of
junk – mail. She dropped them on top of the letter and returned to the kitchen.
The coffee she’d poured earlier had
gone cold. She dumped it down the sink and turned the water on to rinse it away
before getting a fresh one.
Drawn by some inexplicable force,
Sylvia went back to the foyer and collected the letter and the mangled
envelope. She returned to the kitchen, flipped on the radio and sat down at her
small table. Why had she opened it in the first place? She should have just
binned it. That’s what she usually did with unsolicited mail. But there was
something strangely familiar about it. The addressee information was on a
computer printed label so there was no clue there. The sororities from
University had crests or emblems to differentiate one from another. She wracked
her brain trying to remember what they looked like. It had been over thirty
years since she’d attended. Sylvia never belonged to a sorority because she
thought the girls who did were snooty and stuck-up.
She’d call her friend, Laurie and
tell her about the letter. They’d been friends since childhood, attended the
same elementary and secondary schools and even the same University. She could
tell her anything, couldn’t she?
About Melanie
Melanie
Robertson-King has always been a fan of the written word. Growing up as an only
child, her face was almost always buried in a book from the time she could
read. Her father was one of the thousands of Home Children sent to Canada
through the auspices of The Orphan Homes of Scotland, and she has been
fortunate to be able to visit her father’s homeland many times and even met the
Princess Royal at the orphanage where he was raised.
She lives in
Brockville, Ontario, Canada a few short city blocks north of the St Lawrence
River with her husband of thirty-eight years and is 'housekeeping staff' to a
big, goofy, but loveable, dog (cross between lab, shepherd and black and tan
hound).
A Shadow in the Past, published
in 2012 by 4RV Publishing, was Melanie's debut novel.
Where to buy The Consequences
Collection:
Paperback:
Epub:
Kindle:
Coming
soon to amazon in paperback and to Barnes and Noble for the nook and the iBookstore.
Melanie's links:
2 comments:
Thanks for hosting me here today, Pauline! I'm thoroughly enjoying the warmth and sunshine here sitting by your pool.
I hope your followers enjoy reading about my anthology.
Great having you here Melanie and god luck with your fabulous new collection.
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