Against the Grain

Front Cover
Melanie Harding-Shaw, Jun 7, 2021 - Fiction - 154 pages

It's bad enough when your own body tries to attack you, but when dark powers want to as well, running is the only option. Until you can't.

After another casual fling goes horribly wrong, coeliac witch Trinity moves down New Zealand to start over, yet again, in the bush-clad suburb of Karori. On the surface, it seems like the perfect place: from the local bistro below her flat with its gluten-free baking (and its handsome owner) to the mountain bike trails she can escape to.

But her fresh start takes a dark turn when she discovers something is trapping her familiar, Saifa, in the suburb. He might take the shape of a pūriri moth as a passive-aggressive joke, but whatever power can hold the ancient demon captive is no laughing matter. If Trinity can't find and break the anchors of his invisible cage, she could lose everything-her power, her freedom, and her only friend in the world.

About the author (2021)

Melanie Harding-Shaw is a speculative fiction writer, policy geek, and mother-of-three from Wellington, New Zealand. Her house is nestled near the Mākara Peak Mountain Bike Park, and she can often be found jogging up the Salvation trail at Wrights Hill Reserve. Her short fiction has appeared in a range of local and international publications and her debut short story collection Alternate: A Collection of 37 Stories is available from online retailers now. Melanie is part of the 40 percent of her household who has coeliac disease and she's been known to drive 30 minutes just for gluten-free dumplings and donuts. She'd prefer a cure to living gluten-freely ever after, but you take what you can get. Contaminate her toaster at your peril. You can find Mel at https: //www.melaniehardingshaw.com/ or on Twitter as @MelHardingShaw.

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