Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

  • Mood:
  • Music:

"The Atlantic Highway isn't a safe place for the dead..."

Rose Marshall has come a long, long way since she died in Buckley Township, Michigan, and now, with the stakes getting higher every time she turns around, she's finally doing what she's needed to do for a while. She's finally looking for help. Of course, on the ghostroads, even the help can harm you...

Issue 52 of The Edge of Propinquity is live, and with it, the fourth of the Sparrow Hill Road stories is available. "Building a Mystery" takes us deep into the ghostroads, and all the way along the back of the Old Atlantic Highway, where the routewitches may hold the key to Rose's past—and to her future. All she has to do is survive...and for the dead, that can prove to be surprisingly hard.

There are a lot of stories trapped and tangled in the twilight. This is only one of them. But it's the one I have to tell.

Give a girl a ride?

Tags: short fiction, sparrow hill road
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 22 comments
Hmmm... Florida's one of the five states I haven't been in yet. Am I feeling that crazy?
I don't know! But they have good lizards there.
Spider Robinson tells us that Jake Stonebender moved Callahan's Bar to Key West. Maybe Rose would like to smash a glass in the old fireplace after a cheeseburger?
Highly unlikely. She tries not to drink in the daylight when there are people around who might know how to bind her.
I've no doubt there would be people in Callahan's who'd know how, but I'm also absolutely certain none of them would. Not there. (Of course I realize she may not know this, and she's lasted as long as she has by being careful.)

platypuslord

April 15 2010, 17:48:18 UTC 7 years ago Edited:  April 15 2010, 17:49:54 UTC

I'm stumped. What is "a town whose name means 'Apple Orchard,' a place where the whole damn country fed ghosts into the darkness"?

I tried looking up Salem but that doesn't seem to fit.
A web search suggests "Glastonbury" or "Avallon", but neither of those are in America or are (afaik) associated with death.
Manzanar, California.
*thumbs up*

I love the way this series of stories is being told - it shares the plotting path most of my favorite anime series took. You introduce your characters, you tell nice stories about the things they do/have done, and then you actually start telling the REAL story. Which is a whole lot nicer, not having to constantly take steps back to explain WHY this or WHY that, you got all that act II stuff up front.

(If the old, closed Husky Truck stop in Barstow could make a guest appearance, you will make this old larker very happy. They used to make deep dish apple pie in ramen bowls, and served it with hand-scooped vanilla ice cream you had to ask for a saucer to put it in or you made a helluva mess trying to eat it all together. Long gone now. *sigh*)

Go get 'em, Rose.
"...my favorite anime series..."

Ah! That's why these announcements feel familiar.

The "Give a girl a ride?" closing is similar to the closing line in the "coming in the next episode" part of some dubs.
Well, thank you. :)
It keeps getting better.

'Since I said the same thing last month
I'm really excited about the one I just turned in, "Last Dance With Mary Jane," which will run in June.
Are these going to be published as dead tree versions at some point? If not, do you have any problem with me printing them off for my own personal use only? I would really like to read them as a book (which I could then take to bed).
I'm hopeful that we may be able to do something like that, once the story is done (at the end of the year). In the meanwhile, I don't mind your doing print-outs.
Brrr.

(That was a compliment.)
Thank you!
Finally had a chance to read the last two stories as well as this one and I am still delighted with your style of writing. I would venture to guess that there were even ghosts like Rose on the Silk Road way back when.

I can't help but wonder about ghosts who haunt the rails, though. What would they do with a place like the Tehachaoi Loop?

Yes, my mind does wander along mysterious roads.
They'd probably be delighted. Interesting things are good for ghosts.
Is "drooling under the influence of insensible happiness" a valid offering of appreciation?

I'm starting to live for the 15th of every month, so I can see what Rose is up to!
Awww, yay!
I thought you might appreciate this:
Over the Hedge
I so, so do.