Hello Story Cauldron family! At long last, I am pleased to announce the start of my new novel, The Boy Who Can Taste Color, which I will be serializing here in its entirety.

I’m sharing Chapter One (below) and Chapter Two (next week) with all of my subscribers. After that, if you’d like to read more, you can become a paying subscriber at just $5/month (which costs less than one pumpkin spice latte!).

Paying members also have access to the entire prequel novel, The Girl Behind the Camera, both as a series of posts and as a single, downloadable ebook, as well as ‘behind the scenes’ content. As I will be writing Book 3 (The Boy Who Dances with Faeries) in November, there may even be opportunities for subscribers to help name characters or offer other suggestions along the way.

Eventually, all of these books will be available on Amazon, but if you want early access, subscribe today! And if you know anyone who would enjoy these stories (perhaps a teenager in your life?) consider giving a gift subscription.

The Boy Who Can Taste Color

To deal with his annoying older brother Travis, Holden seeks the help of the Favor Faeries, magical beings rumored to grant wishes in exchange for trinkets and snacks. But when Travis disappears off the face of the earth, the evidence points to foul play—and to Holden. While searching for Travis, Holden and his friends discover that not only are there faeries in the city, there are also a number of witches. Can they find Travis before the witches—and the cops—close in?

Chapter One

Beware of the Faeries.

Holden swept the flashlight high over the bridge, the graffiti becoming visible in a puddle of light. 

He wondered how someone had reached the spot. The century-old bridge was built of steel trusses that overlapped like the lacing of an old-fashioned corset, and the message was painted high overhead on a stretch of flat steel that connected the two sides. Someone must have climbed the metal armature—a mighty feat for such a doleful message. 

Chagrined by the sentiment, but not discouraged, he swung the beam of light toward the road he had come from. Despite his ears and nose stinging from the frosty winter winds, under all of his layers he was sweaty and uncomfortable. Hoping to avoid being caught, he had parked in the Waffle House parking lot and hiked over a mile alone, crossing the canal bridge and climbing over two traffic gates. If anything went wrong, he realized it would take him a while to get back to the car. 

His boot crunched in the snow as he stepped closer to the bridge itself. The whiteness had an intense sweetness like cake icing, soft and fluffy and so sugary it almost made his teeth hurt. Clouds hung in the hazy gray sky, the moon all but invisible, and snow continued to float down. It was so gentle and harmless as it fell, but Holden sensed the new danger. The roads were already sketchy when he left the house—if he stayed here too long, they could become impassable before the snowplows laid down a new layer of salt. 

“I’ll need to make this quick,” he said aloud. “Faeries, please don’t keep me waiting.” 

He approached the hulking bridge with his flashlight in one hand and a plastic grocery bag in the other, with his sleeping bag under one arm. He kicked away the snow and placed the quilted sleeping bag on the ground at the start of the bridge, in front of the gate that barred further access. He’d expected it to be locked, and hoped that just being on the bridge itself was good enough. Then he reached through the railings to place his offerings on the other side. Tonight he brought three mince tarts along with a letter his father had sent him years ago, right after Holden had moved to Missouri with his mom. It was in a plastic sleeve and was something Holden had read, and re-read, hundreds of times. It pained him to let it go, but he had a photo of it, and anyway, he was desperate. 

Frowning, he examined the graffiti once again. Beware of the faeries. What was there to fear? He hadn’t ever heard of anyone being harmed by the faeries—assuming that they were faeries at all. There could be a person behind it all, of course. That was the rational explanation for the phenomenon. 

But Holden didn’t like the rational explanation. He wanted to believe the faeries were real. He needed to believe that magic was possible. There had to be some sort of beautiful, harmless goodness in the world. Something to offset the hell back home. 

He sat in the cold in silence, his eyes pinned to the road in front of him. If he saw headlights, he’d need to be ready to run. 

As he waited, an unusual scent caught his attention. Licorice? Slowly, he turned his head and spied a shadow moving behind him. Unable to stop himself, he twisted himself around. It was slight, and he was almost thinking his mind was playing tricks on him, but there was something moving.

“Who’s there?” he blurted, his nerves getting the best of him.

“Wisssssh?” 

Was that the wind? He had done this once before, but had been so absurdly tired that he thought he had imagined the whole thing. “Is someone there? Are you talking to me?”

Again. “Wissssssh.”

“Um…” It had to be the wind, but just in case… “I wish my stepbrother Travis would just go away and find somewhere else to live.”

There was a buzzing, like the sound of something electrical, and then a pop, followed by the smell of ozone after a rain shower.

“Is that it?” he asked, and shone his flashlight through the gate, where he had left his gifts. They were gone. 

He heard laughter. It wasn’t very loud, and he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. When he felt someone tugging at his hood, he hollered out in surprise, but there was no one around. 

Spooked, he grabbed his sleeping bag and ran back to the car.

P.S. For the past month and a half I’ve been trying to teach myself how to draw by sketching all manner of things. I thought it would be fun to try my hand at the incredibly intricate Chain of Rocks Bridge. It’s messy and imperfect, but I think it turned out pretty cool, especially since I took the photo it’s based on in July when all the trees were lush and green. Since that was a lot of fun, I’m going to try to draw original art for each week’s installments, time permitting.

Here’s the original image: