The Blue Bottle Tree

The Blue Bottle Tree is my second novel and fourth book. The title springs from the once ubiquitous bottle trees that dotted the Southern landscape meant to ward off malicious haints, those folkloric ghosts that bring harm, sometimes death, to people.

Historically, the blue bottles, were placed on the ends of dead limbs because people believed the evil spirits or haints were drawn to the color. Once in the bottles, the captured spirits were subsequently disintegrated by the sun. Murder, racial tension, and the unwed motherhood of a teenage girl fuel this mainstream fiction, set in 1970 Georgia against the backdrop of quail hunting.

The cast of characters includes:

• Joshua “Major” Butler, town patriarch, who returned from World War II not quite right. He controls the Butler inheritance and unmercifully welds power over those lives surrounding the family legacy.
• Susan Pea Butler, Major’s sister, banished to New York for her lesbian lifestyle, returns to Georgia to support
• Eve, her sister-in-law who makes the devil’s own bargain when she says “I do” to Major.
• Letta Davis, the Butler family’s Black housekeeper, also stands against Major while silently tolerating racial prejudice.
• Wes Smith, a womanizing dog trainer, and
• Janie Butler, the pregnant 16-year-old stepdaughter align for their own purposes.
• Andy Butler struggles to claim his birthright despite his father’s premeditated efforts.
• John Davis, Letta’s son, flees north to escape racial angst while,
• A crone with the gift of second sight subtly guides unseen forces toward a Faustian end.

The wheels of retribution may be slow to move, but once shoved into motion, are inescapable. Bargains proliferate and blood spills across the humid landscape.

            As a daughter of the South, I have seen and experienced firsthand the racism, oppression, and hardscrabble times of folks on both sides of the color line. I am acquainted with the duality of thought about our social system, law enforcement community, and sexual mores of the 1960s-70s.

            My publisher is Ozark Hollow Press, a small new press out of Joplin, Missouri. Fellow writers and colleagues tell me good things about their editing team, cover artist, and book layout designer.  As the Marines say, “No guts, no glory.” Therefore, I threw my lot in with this Missouri Ozark tribe. First round of publisher edits should be back soon as The Blue Bottle Tree winds its way to library and store bookshelves.

            I’ll be offering posts on Southern customs, traditions, lifestyles, and language. Look for more in the coming months. In the meantime, have you ever seen a bottle tree? Where was it located and what was your reaction?