Kirjahaku

NOVELLA. New Edition. Maggie Harrison always dreamed of owning her own place and now those twelve acres of rich Texas soil located just outside the picture-perfect town of Bradbury were hers. Along with her husband Travis, and daughter Maisy, Maggie begins to realise her dream of self-sufficiency, putting the land immediately to work, growing enough to eat and selling the excess at farmers' markets. Under the watchful eye of Silas Crutch, a farmer whose land shares a boundary with Harrison's Patch, Maggie learns the secrets to successful pumpkin growing, and as their first harvest approaches, the Harrison's must take on extra help. But when a professor from the local university uncovers evidence of a horrific crime - a crime he believes was perpetrated on their land during the Civil War - the Harrison's disregard his pleas and ignore his warnings of a terrible curse. As Halloween approaches; as the pumpkins ripen, and a large oak tree in the centre of the patch begins to spread its boughs, the professor becomes more convinced the curse is about to be unleashed. Will the residents of Bradbury be forced to atone for the sins of their ancestors? Is there any truth to a condemned man's curse? And why are the pumpkins out at Harrison's Patch - their seeds and their flesh - turning blood red?

As Chairman of Dilber's Supermarkets, Thaddeus Pike knows all too well the importance of Christmas. To him it's customer manipulation, gratuitous profits, increased shareholder confidence and seven-figure executive bonuses. But for the staff who populate his six hundred supermarkets and convenience stores, the story is quite a different one. What is Christmastime to them? Ending their shifts late on Christmas Eve and returning back to work early Boxing Day morning, it's as though there's no time for Christmas at all. As one member of the Dilber's family says, "Christmas is for other people, not for those who work in retail." But was it always this way? What about the founder of the company? Did he share Pike's narrow vision of Christmas, or did he do things differently? And if so, how would he feel now, seeing what Thaddeus Pike had done to his company, his name and his reputation? The Reckoning of Thaddeus Pike is not your typical retelling of the Charles Dickens masterpiece. Gone are the separate ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, replaced by the simple truth that everyone deserves a special Christmas...especially those who, in the weeks and months leading up to the blessed event, must suffer us - the customer - with all our attendant greed, selfishness, avarice, hostility to others, and pompous self-importance. Note: This story was originally published by the author under the pen name, Cropwell Bishop.