When the river’s bubbling echoes off the poplar trees, she chooses to breathe so she can fill the woods with a descant. When the river cracks and melts, she gasps with joy. Her dark hair is a wet crown she weaves with rotting birch leaves. Wool weighs her down, so she sheds it like a frog’s skin and eats it. Art commissioned from Beelz.
Last year, there was a call for an erotic horror anthology. As I mulled over what to write, I remembered listening to Kitka's Rusalka Cycle in college, and feeling hypnotized by ever piece on the album. Easy enough to decide I wanted to write about a Rusalka luring someone to his death.
Stories about Rusalki come from all over Eastern Europe; I chose to set this one in Ukraine. While I wouldn't begin to call myself Ukranian, my Ashkenazi family lived in Ukraine before coming to America. Ukraine has never felt like it's mine, but it is home to a part of my family's history.
"A Rotting Crown of Birch" is available today as a part of the Twisted Trysts erotic horror anthology, and can be purchased in ebook, paperback, and a gold sprayed-edge hardback edition. You can order it through whatever platform you'd prefer, but it's a little bit cheaper if you order directly through the Publisher's website. I'm so grateful to the Dead Fox Publishing team for providing such a beautiful home.
If you're looking for a darker story to read on this fine Valentine's day, I hope you'll give this story and its peers a gander!
In my last newsletter, I provided some links to preorder the anthologies that will be publishing my two upcoming Romantic Fantasy stories. The links went to the publisher's page, but it seems their preorder function isn't there just yet. You should be able to preorder digitally through your preferred vendor for ebooks, but if you have a hankering for a hard copy and want to support a business I adore, please check out these preorder links from the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT. It's the bookstore of my childhood, and remains to this day one of my favorite places in the world.
