Fantasy (various sub-genres)
Publication Date: March 31, 2025
The maypole has been adorned with ribbons and blossoms, the bonfire has
been lit, and the music is calling you to dance the night away. Join 25
AuthorTubers as they explore the stories of Beltane in the second AuthorTube
Anthology.
The magic of SPRING is in full bloom.
Including works by:
Rose Adam, Rachel D. Adams, Aisling Black, Sarah C. Brody, Michael Dawn
Brooks, Brandy Bullock, Cassandra Byrnes, Jodee Jean Daniels, S.C.
Dickinson, Robert Dorris, C.L. Hart, Katy Manz, Nil ∅, J. Noble, Jenna O’Malley, Kay Parquet, Melissa Power, Alice Reads, Megan
Ryan, E.L. Summers, Kyle Thomas, Nicole Ford Thomas, M.M. Ward, Christina
Whisler, Sam Wicker
The Beltane Laundress
Contemporary Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Small Town
Ernst Veselá is so mired in memories of his lost wife and daughter
that he strolls onto a dark, rain-slick county road without looking. He is
nearly run down by Annie Ainsworth, a young woman driving erratically in her
hurry to escape her abusive relationship with her child’s
father.
Ernst and his son Jozef offer shelter to Annie and her daughter Lizzie.
Will the magic of Beltane spark healing in these four broken-hearted
souls?
Excerpt
The Beltane Laundress
by C. L. Hart
The rain pounded down on a father and son walking through the tiny town of
Honeycomb Grove, Colorado.
“It will be a good Mayday celebration this year, Pop,” said the
lanky teenage boy. Tufts of gamboge-golden hair stuck out from his dark
orchid baseball cap.
The boy’s similarly built father had graying oxide-red hair and wore
a faded red baseball cap. The weary expression on his face and the look of
hopelessness in sad eyes the color of a John Deere tractor matched glum
words spoken with a thick German accent.
“I don’t want to dim the light in those hopeful hazel eyes. I
wish I still saw life with the eyes of a tiger conquering his jungle, but
today, I view the world through the eyes of an undertaker.”
The teenager was horrified to see a car barrel out of the fog as his father
started across the county road.
“Pop, look out!”
The pair lost their balance on the slippery grass as the son pulled his
father out of the path of the speeding vehicle. The battered cherry-red
mini-SUV that pulled into the parking lot of the abandoned Honey Wash
Laundromat had seen better days. A young woman no older than eighteen
stepped out, regarding the pair with eyes like blue marbles peering from
behind a curtain of unkempt mouse-brown hair haphazardly pulled back into a
ponytail.
About the Author
C. L. Hart, the owner and sole employee of Naughty Netherworld Press and
Ornery Owl Ventures, is spoken of in hushed tones. She is an editor who
writes or a writer who edits. She is also described as The Mad Scribe of the
Northeastern Colorado Plains, The Terrible Old Woman, and The Author That
Should Not Be. She is a member of ACES Editing Society, the Denver Horror
Collective, First Coast Romance Writers, the H. P. Lovecraft Historical
Society, Passionate Ink (writing as Lil DeVille), Regency Romance Writers,
and Rocky Mountain Romance Writers.
Ms. Hart shares a home in a remote rural town of 134 souls with her adult
son and three cats. Her sense of fashion is best described as Early
Twenty-First Century Unmade Bed. This disabled former nurse can usually be
found arguing with herself about subplots or rehabilitating eldritch
horrors.
When not penning sanity-destroying works of dystopian fiction, Lovecraftian
fantasy, or old-school horror with the occasional sweet romance thrown in to
upset the cosmic apple cart, Ms. Hart enjoys creating baked goods she hopes
will be considered palatable by someone besides eldritch horrors.
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