Project Reveal: A Grim Reaper Sapphic Short Story

What do raccoons and grim reapers have in common?

The answer may surprise you! Hear all about it in this early project reveal, just for my blog and newsletter readers!

A new short story is coming to the Lily Hills Creatures world, staring the town’s grim reaper, Olive, and her pet raccoon Belmont the Second.

Yes, a grim reaper with a pet raccoon!

While working on A Lovely Haunt, the little whispers of world building grabbed my arm and tugged me in another direction, and I had to pause and explain to myself how grim reapers function in Lily Hills, when everyone knows there are other beings already. Do they work in secret? How do they engage with guardian angels? Do they know where they are sending the souls they capture?

As my mind whirled, so did the character Olive. I’ve known Olive would exist in the re-imagined Lily Hills for some time, but this wasn’t when I planned on telling it. But once her love interest Danica entered the picture, I knew I had to pause and work on it now, so that she could get an extra scene later in A Lovely Haunt.

Introducing Olive, a loner goth girl and grim reaper. She’s immortal and has been in town for decades, running the antique shop at the edge of town that no one visits, because she intentionally built her cover story far away from the locals. When wearing her “uniform” cloak, no one can see her, but without it she seems like a normal person, coming in to get her groceries a few times a month.

Then enters Danica, the witch that Olive can’t look away from after witnessing her comfort a dying student at Whispering Willow Academy.

Title and Cover Reveal: A Bright Spot Under a Dark Cloud

I created the cover myself, as well as the cover for A Peculiar Day at Warm Welcome Café. I’m definitely not an expert cover designer, but this has been a fun challenge for me.

Today on Instagram, followers are getting a trope reveal, but you get the full details, with the title, cover, tropes, and the blurb.

About A Bright Spot Under a Dark Cloud:

What do grim reapers and raccoons have in common?

As Lily Hills’s only grim reaper, Olive sets souls on their path, keeping the in-between from getting clogged with weary travelers (no one wants a repeat of that). It’s not a pleasant task, but it’s a needed one, and Olive is glad to do it.

Belmont the Second, on the other hand, scavenges trash and steals cookies despite getting home-cooked meals.

That commonality is called balance—something that matters very much to Olive and her pet raccoon.

But nothing in her life feels balanced anymore, not after the mysterious witch Danica moves to Lily Hills.

If only Danica knew she existed.

A Bright Spot Under a Dark Cloud is a paranormal short story with death, sapphic yearning, and a pet raccoon set during chapter eight of A Lovely Haunt.

It will be available to purchase late July for $0.99 on Amazon, or available to request in your library. If you have a library card, I would greatly appreciate you request one from your library app like Libby or Overdrive.

See you soon with more top secret updates!

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