The Rose-Covered Cabin: Inkling Explorations for June, 2016

The prompt for this month's Inkling Explorations link-up is "Roses in book or film."  And I'm going to do something very different this month.  I'm going to share an excerpt of my own writing, namely, a passage from "The Man on the Buckskin Horse."  Actually, my original title for my western retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story was "The Rose-Covered Cabin," but it got changed to something more distinctly western-y when it won a spot in the Five Magic Spindles anthology.

Anyway!!!  Here's the excerpt:

I have long considered the Owenses' little place the prettiest this side of the Platte River. The cabin rests at the bottom of a small depression in the land, right along a reliable stream bordered by cottonwoods and such. I remember how poor Juliet brought roses with her from back East, bundle after bundle of dead-looking sticks so far as I could see. But somehow she coaxed them to grow around her new little home. I'm grateful she lived long enough to see the way they flourished, how they climbed up the walls clear to the roof and on over it. When those roses are in bloom, you couldn't paint a nicer picture, and their scent more than masks what you'll smell if the sheep are pastured nearby. I suspect that might be one reason Juliet planted so many of them.

(Source)

I am so excited about this book getting released!  Only a month to wait now -- July 22 is the official date, though you can preorder it (paperback and Kindle editions) from Amazon now.  This is my first time winning a major contest, and the first time my fiction will be for sale in a real book, which makes it all even more thrilling.  The Kindle version was in the top 100 for fantasy anthologies a couple of days ago, and it hasn't even been released yet!

Don't forget to visit Heidi's blog, Sharing the Journey, to find links to all the others who participated this month, and to join in yourself if you so desire!