Sarah Smith Writer
Fiction & Creative Writing
The Green Door
In the 70's a student challenges the Dean of Psychology to look in the lab adjoining his office where he is faced with horrifying revelations about the student, himself and his own conduct.
Can he redeem himself or is he doomed to repeat his actions as a new professor comes to replace him?
A FREE short ghost story by Sarah Smith - download as PDF.
Submitted for NYC Midnight Short story competition 2024. Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash
Montonbury Marsh
Working title of my work-in-progress. Cover is indicative placeholder. Publishers! I hope to talk to you soon!
Book 1: Serpentine Coast
Tagline
When dead have come for the living, which side do you join?
Alternate Taglines
The Twelve skulls rule from deathly shadows. Who will bring light?
The land is under a dark spell, but can heroes emerge to challenge it?
Logline
When Kiaya’s sister is taken by the Twelve Skulls gang she must find allies and win over the town that spurned her in order to save them all from a fate worse than death.
Alternate Logline
A young female apprentice mage, a jaded soldier, and a woman priest must team up to root out a deathly conspiracy that threatens all who live on the Serpentine Coast.
Placeholder cover
Blurb
Nineteen year old Kiaya can see magic. Apprentice to the Magus of Carywyre, she hides her gift. A Magister judging Kiaya for breaking the Magus Code offers an out. She must go to her home town of Montonbury and use her gift to help unmask the Twelve Skulls, a gang ruled by a necromancer.
When her sister Missy is taken by the Skulls, Kiaya agrees despite her fears. She joins the Magister’s mission along with Ellila, a relicologist, Donagh a jaded soldier and Maerwyn a lapsed priest. They uncover the necromancer’s ghastly plot, one that will enslave the Serpentine Coast.
Kiaya must embrace her gifts to save Missy and the rest of the town from a fate that is truly worse than death. As Kiaya falls for Ellila she must deal with her secrets. A chilling tie between Kiaya and the necromancer makes her question herself: as she goes deeper with magic does she risk losing her humanity?
They face corrupt officials, ruthless gangs, and deathly magic. They meet a fickle paladin and a roughneck from the slums, but who is friend and who is foe?
The undead are closing in and time is up. How can Kiaya save Missy and the townsfolk if she cannot trust herself?