"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 the author:
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:
