QSFer Kim Fielding has a new MM paranormal mystery out, the Bureau book 12: Connected.
Long-time Bureau agent Owen Clark has an assignment in Copper Springs, Wyoming. Although once he was excited about what he could offer the Bureau, Owen has become hardened over the years by his experiences, and he feels no joy in being sent to the town where he grew up—and then fled as a teen.
Keaton Gale was a promising child star who later crashed and burned due to addiction and a supernatural talent he never asked for. He has rebuilt his adult life in near solitude, rehabilitating an old house and occasionally renting a room to travelers.
The two men find an immediate connection. But something disturbing has been happening at the abandoned coal tipple outside of town—something that promises disaster for Owen and Keaton… and the world at large.
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Excerpt
Keaton Gale stood at the highest point in Copper Springs Cemetery and watched a wall of black clouds fill the western sky. He couldn’t smell the storm yet, but his skin prickled with the expectation of electricity and his head pounded with a sinus headache. The birds that usually fluttered around in the nearby ash trees were nowhere to be seen or heard. One of those ash trees had been struck by lightning in a storm last year; if Keaton remained where he was, he might end up struck as well.
Still, he didn’t move.
The headstones around him bore names from all over the world. People had immigrated here for over a hundred years as Copper Springs fed the nation’s endless appetite for power: first coal, then oil, finally natural gas. All of those industries had died out, and now the town was dying too.
Maybe it wasn’t healthy to think so much about death. But Keaton was, after all, standing in a cemetery. Lightning flashed in the distance, the echoes of thunder reaching him several moments later. He shivered despite the warm air.
When his phone pinged in his pocket, it startled him so much that he nearly cried out. The text was from an unknown number with a 310 area code.
Is your rental available tonight and tomorrow night?
Keaton stared at the screen, considering. He hadn’t had a guest in weeks and didn’t particularly want one now, but his bank account was looking thin. Besides, the storm was going to be a bad one, and he’d feel slightly guilty subjecting the unknown traveler to the Copper Motel under those conditions. And it would be for only two nights—he could handle that.
Yes. $300/night for up to two people, plus $50 cleaning fee.
The rate was too high, but it was his place and if he wanted to gouge customers, he could.
The answer came immediately.
Ok. Can I check in now?
Great—another $600 in Keaton’s pocket. That would cover expenses for a while.
Sure. 1024 Marchant. Little yellow house next to a big white one. You can park in driveway.
Be there in 15.
The guesthouse was at the other end of the city cemetery, just a five minute walk away, but by the time Keaton got there, the temperature had plummeted and the wind whipped his hair. He ducked inside to get things ready. He cleaned it often, even without guests, so all he had to do was put on fresh bedding. He was just tucking in the blanket when he heard a car engine approach and then turn off. The doorbell rang a few seconds later.
He opened the door, and even though he’d shielded himself as fully as possible, an emotional wave hit him so hard that he gasped and fell back a step. The big man in front of him was stone-faced, but his insides seethed with anger, regret, sorrow, loneliness, and uncertainty.
“Are you okay?” the man asked, brow drawn into a frown.
Keaton tried to get his shit together fast. “Yeah, I…. Sorry. I didn’t realize the storm had hit already. It’s nasty out there. Come in.”
Author Bio
Kim Fielding is very pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. Winner of the 2021 BookLife Prize for Fiction, a Lambda Award finalist and three-time Foreword INDIE finalist, she has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in Oregon, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space.
She’s a university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full time. She also dreams of having two daughters who fully appreciate her, a husband who isn’t obsessed with football, a cat who doesn’t tromp over her keyboard, and a house that cleans itself. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.