The Reminisce
by
H.L. Cherryholmes
Date of Publication:
June 7th 2017
Cover Artist: Keri
Knutson
Genre: Paranormal
Tagline:
A detour down memory lane wakes up the
ghosts.
The
Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with H.L. Cherryholmes
What
are some of your writing/publishing goals for this year?
To finish the first draft of the current book
I’m working on, which is a “bridge” between my fantasy series called “The
Lizard Queen” and what comes next.
Do you
feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows
naturally for you?
Hmm. I guess I would have to say flows
naturally. I’ve always considered myself a storyteller and have been doing it
for a long time in various forms. I’m always making up stories in my head, even
mundane ones like, Why is that guy driving with his windows down when it’s 98
degrees outside?
Do you
have a character that you have been working on for a long time that still isn't
quite ready, but fills you with excitement to work on the story?
No, but I do have trouble with letting
characters go. After I finished my nine-part fantasy series I swear I went into
mourning for a month before I remembered that I had set up a way to revisit
them, if I wanted to. And I wanted to.
BLURB
Curtis Aisling has literally dodged a bullet.
At least he thinks he has. But he wonders whether that bullet still has it out
for him when he leaves his ex-fiancé and Los Angeles behind for Coronado, New
Mexico to borrow some much-needed money from his sister.
The small dilapidated desert town of Coronado
has exactly one mansion, belonging to 92-year-old Veronica Meeks. Curtis’s
sister, Dia, and her partner, Araceli, are Veronica’s live-in caretakers and
while they are delighted to have a visitor, Veronica doesn’t even know he’s
there.
In the final stages of what the locals call
“the reminisce,” she is no longer aware of her surroundings. But when Curtis
starts seeing things that no one else does, he’s not convinced that the old,
unresponsive woman is as disconnected as everyone thinks. At times what should
be empty rooms within the huge house appear filled with furniture, and music
emanates from a dusty radio that has been packed away for ages. Tales of
Veronica’s associations and connections with the occult lead Curtis to believe
she is causing the ghostly occurrences.
But when people begin to appear in those
phantom rooms—people from her past including Veronica herself—he’s no longer
certain it is her doing. Each vision pulls Curtis further and further back,
each one detailing a consequential moment in Veronica’s long life, until he
begins to fear he could become lost in her past. And then there’s that bullet…
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Excerpt:
Dia
returned her attention to the old woman and took her bony, veiny hand.
“Veronica, honey, this is my brother Curtis. You’ve seen his picture in our
bedroom, remember? He came for a visit.” She looked up at Curtis. “Veronica was
quite smitten with you the first time she saw your picture. Couldn’t take her
eyes off it and she would just smile and smile.”
Curtis
knelt next to his sister. Greeting the old woman seemed pointless, since it was
obvious by her vacant stare that she wasn’t aware of her surroundings. But his
sister was right; introducing himself was the proper way to behave regardless
of her condition. “Hello, Miss Meeks. I’m Curtis Aisling.”
The old
woman’s wispy gray hair was short and pulled back by small butterfly barrettes.
Her thin face was pinkish-white, wrinkled, and haloed with brown age spots. The
eyes that seemed to be looking at something no one else could see were a cloudy
gray-blue. Her small frame was covered in a clean pink nightgown and she wore
blue slippers.
“How old
is she?” Curtis asked.
Dia stood
up to help Araceli gather the tray with Veronica’s barely touched lunch on it.
“Ninety-two.”
Remaining
crouched before her, Curtis continued to look at the old woman. He found it
difficult to imagine that the slack face in front of him had once been young,
but he searched for signs of it anyhow. If there was life in her dull gaze,
Curtis was sure he would find it there. A strong hot breeze rattling the palm
fronds behind the gazebo hit him in the back. That’s when Veronica blinked and
looked right at him.
“Finally,”
she whispered.
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Author Info
H.L. Cherryholmes, author of The
Lizard Queen Series, The Reminisce, Come Back for Me, and A Slight Touch was
born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico but has spent most of his adult life
in California. He has a BFA from University of New Mexico and a Master's degree
in Playwriting from the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, he
lives in SoCal with his husband, Ron Cogan.
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