Ellis Elliott, author of A Witch Awakens, a Fire Circle mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to introduce us to her character, Cece Chagall.

Welcome, Ellis. I’ll turn the floor over to you and Cece –

“Thank you for your time, Ms. Chagall. That will be all for today.”

As I carefully slid the tweezers to place the miniature books on the bookshelf of my newly built dollhouse, I couldn’t help but hear the phrase repeated after almost every dance audition I went to in New York play in my head. I wondered if it would ever go away.

Almost 30, I had recently moved back home to East Tennessee to teach dance in my grandmother’s dance studio and to figure out my “Plan B”, after finally having to let go of my dream of dancing in New York City. Having to dance in a giant M & M candy costume will do that to you.

The ring of my phone broke through my dark thoughts.

“Hi, Nana,” I answered, “Did you miss me?” I asked, semi-sarcastically, since I lived in the guesthouse behind her big Victorian, and we worked together at the dance studio. 

Nana chuckled, “Of course I did, Cece, darling. That, and I was going to see if you wanted to ride up with me to see Aunt Granny Hazel later this afternoon? I made her up a wild yam tincture for her arthritis and want to get it up to her. She’s been having a time lately,” Nana paused, and I could hear her shushing her cat, Blisters, off some tabletop. “But I know she’d love to see you.”

Aunt Granny Hazel is my grandmother’s sister, and she lives about 10 miles outside our valley town of Eureka Grove, up in the mountains. She and my Nana are as different as night and day, but devoted to one another. My grandmother had been a Radio City Rockette before she married my late grandfather, came back home, and started her dance studio here. Nana has traveled the world, raised a son, and is a savvy businesswoman. Aunt Granny Hazel has never married, had children, or strayed far from the house she was born in. Everyone calls her “Granny Hazel” and she stays busy tending to the sick in her community with her homegrown herbal remedies. Both she and my grandmother have uncanny intuition, whether it relates to when rain is coming or an ailment you hadn’t even told anyone about.

“I’d love to!” I answered. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you two about these recent peculiars I’ve been having, anyway.”

If you don’t know what a “peculiar” is, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

And, if you’ve ever had to switch gears unexpectedly in life, or have a relative/friend/partner that couldn’t be more different than you, but is your bestie, I’d love to hear your story. Please feel free to email me at ellis@bewildernesswriting.com. Thanks for reading!

Thank you for sharing this with us, Ellis, and good luck with A Witch Awakens, the first book in the Fire Circle mystery series. Readers can learn more about Ellis Elliott by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

The book is available online at  AMAZON

About Ellis Elliott: Ellis is a facilitator of the online writing group Bewilderness Writing. She also teaches writing and ballet in an after-school arts education program. Ellis holds an MFA from Queens University. She is a contributing writer for the Southern Review of Books, and serves as an editor/workshop instructor for The Dewdrop contemplative journal.

She is the author of the 2023 poetry chapbook, Break in the Field (Old Scratch Press), which KIRKUS calls “A deeply felt collection of candid verse.” Her work can also be found in numerous publications, including Signal Mountain Review, Plainsongs Poetry Magazine/Award Poem, Euphony Journal, and the Women of Appalachia Project Anthology. Ellis has a blended family consisting of six grown sons. She resides in West Palm Beach, Florida, with her husband, Tim, and a feisty dog named Mabel.