I asked fellow Curses 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 Curses (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?).
And now, Kaye Lynne Booth’s The Death Clock:
Crystal stepped over the threshold of their new home as Caleb held the door for her. She gazed around the old-fashioned parlor, just off the vast entryway, in amazement.
“Look at all these beautiful antiques, Caleb,” she said, moving into the room and taking it in. She began pulling the sheets off the furniture to reveal the furnishings beneath. “They’re beautiful. There’s even a fainting couch. This is all worth a pretty penny. This house is like a museum.”
“I hope so,” Caleb replied. “I sold almost everything we owned in order to buy this place. All but my electronics, which I’ll need for work and my books. I’m hoping to recoup some of it when we send all this stuff to auction.
She moved back onto the checkered, tiled floor of the entryway. “Oooh! Look at this beautiful crystal chandelier!” she exclaimed, referring to the immense chandelier which hung two stories above them. “This is amazing! We can’t auction all of this off. It belongs in the house. It’s a freaking mansion. You’re not the only one who sacrificed for this house. What about my crystal collection?” Crystal turned in a slow spin, taking in the arched entry to the dining room, and the enormous staircase rising up to the second floor, and the railed balcony that looked down upon them. “Who sells a house with all these valuable antiques included?”
“Someone who doesn’t want to go to the bother of holding an estate sale, I guess,” he replied. “I don’t think the family wanted much to do with the old geezer. From what I gather, he was off the deep end, carrying on about curses and such forth.”
“Do you think the house is cursed?” she asked, moving back into the parlor to see what lay beneath the rest of those sheets. Anything to do with the occult piqued her curiosity, but more importantly, without her crystals, she would have nothing to ward off evil energies.
“No. Of course, not,” he said. “The geezer was nuts. Even his own family thought so.”
“You shouldn’t speak of the dead like that, Caleb,” she said, scolding him. But his infraction was soon forgotten as she pulled the sheet off a gorgeous, gilded mantel clock, which sat above the fireplace. “Oooh! Look at this,” she said, running her hands over the ornate golden clock. “I bet this is real gold. It just looks like it belongs here, with the house. We cannot sell this piece.”
“I thought you’d like that fireplace,” he said, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. “We can sit in here on cold evenings and be nice and cozy by the fire.”
“Well, that sounds nice,” she said, “but I was talking about this beautiful clock.”
How the story came about:
My story, “The Death Clock”, is about a curse placed on an Ormulu clock in the sixteenth century, placed on it by its maker. I got the inspiration for this story, after the call for submissions for Curses went out, from an episode of Pawn Stars, where Rick explains why they call these clocks death clocks. After watching this, I thought Boy, if anything would be cursed, one of those clocks would be.
Ormulu clocks are gilded gold clocks which were commissioned with the most skilled clockmakers by members of the aristocracy as symbols of prestige. (In my story, the clock was commissioned by Napolean, himself.) During the gilding process, the gold is gilded to the bronze clock housing, by covering the housing with mercury and then, pressing the gold into it by hand. Then, the piece was fired to burn the mercury off, leaving the gilded gold. Many of these clock makers then suffered from insanity or death as a result of their labors. Hence the name “Death Clock”.
“The Death Clock” takes place in present day and is about one woman’s efforts to break the curse when she accidentally inherits an Ormulu clock with the house she and her husband just purchased.
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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 Curses stories here.
And for our finale, a teaser to the anthology on YouTube.
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