Teaser Tuesday 5/5/15: “The Line (Witching Savannah #1)”

So I did ultimately end up binning the book from last week’s Teaser Tuesday, and a couple of subsequent books as well that were pretty ho-hum from the start, but we finally have a winner: The Line (Witching Savannah #1), by J.D. Horn.

Although I don’t think this book was categorized as YA by the author or publisher, it does have a YA feel to it, with a certain degree of the love-triangle angst one has come to expect from female-protagonist young-adult novels. Unlike in some books of this nature, it’s actually more important to the plot beyond just a breathless “which boy do I like better?” question. And anyway, who cares about YA angst when you have Savannah atmosphere^*, supporting characters who are at least as interesting as the main ones, and lots of clever dialogue, such as this little tidbit:

“She might go around acting like some backwoods Hoodoo priestess who can’t use a personal pronoun or conjugate a verb, but it’s all an act. It’s good for business.”

Sample quote from said Hoodoo priestess:

“And Grace just the beginning of what yo’ family done to Jilo’s. Our families got history, my girl. Real history. Jilo shouldn’t even waste her time on you. But you different from the rest of ’em, that why Jilo willing to help you.”

Besides, the main character is named Mercy, so clearly I had to read it.

Meanwhile, Television Man continues to progress — I’m almost to the end of the first pass of what is probably the third round of editing this one. I’ve kind of lost track.  I still expect to hit my self-imposed target of releasing this one early next year.  Even if I miss that, it’ll certainly take less than the five years it took to wrap up “Strings” …

When she got close enough to see what the thing in the middle of the room was, she stopped short and gasped, which prompted a coughing fit. She hacked up another gob of mucous and spit it off to the side. She thought there was maybe less blood in it this time. Was that good? She wasn’t sure.

There we go with the mucous again! But at least this time it’s not someone else’s.

^* All I know about Savannah atmosphere, I learned from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a book which The Line references. So clearly its Savannah atmosphere must be authentic.