Kaye Lynne Booth’s ‘The Legend of Cottonwood Hollow’ in WordCrafter Press’ Tales from The Hanging Tree Anthology

I asked fellow Tales from The Hanging Tree anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Tales from The Hanging Tree (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

Kaye has two pieces in Tales from The Hanging Tree and we’ll explore The Legend of Cottonwood Hollow first. Here’s a taste:

1865
Long Feather is walking along the tree line near the riverbank upon return from his vision quest to seek spiritual guidance. Tonight, White Cloud will initiate him, in a ceremony that will mark his passage from boyhood and acknowledge him as a man. Soon, he will become a fierce brave, like his brothers.
He hears yelling voices from the direction of the white man’s stage stop, up ahead, but he pays it no mind. Today is an important day for him and he doesn’t have time to worry about what the white man’s troubles are. He lets his thoughts return to the approaching initiation.

How the story came about:
The Legend of Cottonwood Hollow tells a tale of a Cottonwood tree and the house which were cursed, resulting in several deaths through the years. The story was inspired by a real house with a large Cottonwood growing right outside, and a history of murder suicides with reported mysterious ghostly activity, which a friend of mine lived in. When I researched this house, many years ago, I remember thinking that the Cottonwood looked like a hanging tree.
There is no such a place as Cottonwood Hollow, but I used that house and the surrounding woods for a setting and added a fictitious name. There were actually several hangings which took place in the house, but that wasn’t the only method of death there. I changed a few of the details and even added a set of occupants to the story, since it takes place over almost a hundred year span of time.
The true death toll was three murder suicides, and a suspected poisoning. At the time I was researching all this, I remembered being baffled as to what could have made these murderers kill the people that they loved, and that thought stayed with me through the years. In the telling of this tale, I was able to provide a possible explanation for the occurrences in that place. Could they have happened in the way which I imagined? Well, you’ll have to read the story for yourself and see what you think.

About Kaye Lynne Booth:
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and her Time-Travel Adventure novel, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
You can find and follow Kaye on Writing to be Read, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services, Facebook: Kaye Lynne Booth Author & Screenwriter, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services, and Women of the West Adventure Series.

See all Tales from The Hanging Tree stories here.