Sheri Yutzy - Speculative Fiction Author

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HAUNTED – #flashfictionmagic

November 18, 2021 by Sheri

I knew the music box was a menace the moment its silver handle caught a ray of sunlight and bounced it around the parlor. I shut the curtains tightly, of course, but that ridiculous box still gleamed.
As ridiculous as the nephew who left it on my mantle.
I didn’t touch it for the first week, didn’t even look its way while I read Frankenstein on the armchair. Of course I turned my favorite chair to face the other way. I finished my favorite horror novels, read all the Poe I owned twice, and scowled into my fiendishly bitter coffee in between. The music box was like a tickle at the nape of my neck, and while I love giving my victims chills, I didn’t like it one bit myself.
All Hallows’ Eve was coming. I could go out again, the Crone of of Sable Manor roaming free to terrorize the neighborhood. The horror I’d soak up would be enough to let me grab the blasted box and throw it out. But I had to survive until then.
The wind howled the night before the Eve, bare branches screeching along the windows. Just how I liked it. I let the fire grow cold and shivered in my chair, my wasted lips twisted in a smile.
Soon. Soon I would be free.
At the stroke of midnight, the box opened. My claws sank into my black gown as a tinkling tune began to play. Bright and disgustingly sweet. My scream rattled in my throat as a silver mist wrapped around me, sucking away the darkness I loved. The curtains whisked open and moonlight brightened the parlor, leaving me bare and wrinkled.
I should have known the box was haunted.

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About Sheri

Here Goes Something New!

Hi, I'm Sheri Yutzy. I love forests under the night sky, trying new foods, and drinking Irish tea. I've been to 17 countries, and once spent the night in a hotel lobby in Florence, Italy, because the entire city was fully booked for a festival.
I'm married to a musician who looks good in black, mama to three curious kids, and happy resident of a Cape Cod cottage in Ohio.
I write YA fantasy and am acquisitions editor at sparkflashfiction.com.
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sheriyutzyauthor

I am still alive here, just living the garden life I am still alive here, just living the garden life.🌿
I came down with social fatigue last weekend (that’s what I’m calling it) and the remedy seems to be gardening.
It was lovely to come home from my trip and find a raised bed full of spinach and radishes (and some other things I don’t recognize). Today I planted tomatoes.
I’ll return to my regular posting when my well is full. 
🌿I hope you all have a lovely week!🌿

#raisedbedgarden #socialfatigue #sheriyutzy #smallspacegardening #slowlife #theslowlife #slowliving #intentionallife #livingoutdoors #gardeningtherapy
Recommend a book! When I first read this little b Recommend a book!

When I first read this little book soon after I was married, I was thoroughly startled.
It’s that kind of book.
I’ve never read a book that made me more thrilled about getting older. More hopeful about finding simplicity.
I reread it every time I go through a life change or feel off kilter and out of harmony with myself.
Each chapter holds deep insight about finding focus, relaxing into relationships, resting in the ebb and flow of life.
She shows so clearly that it’s not necessary to leave everything behind to find simplicity. It is possible to let simplicity come and go and let its effects remain, even with households to run, children to care for, or jobs to manage.
Hopeful possibility is the phrase that lingers in my mind.

Now it’s your turn. What inspiring book do you recommend I read next?

#giftsfromthesea #annemorrowlindbergh #findingsimplicity #findingthesimplelife #sheriyutzy #classicbooks #smallinspiringbooks #slowlife #theslowlife #thesimplelife #findingfocus #lovingmiddleage
Thinking back on the beautiful white daffodils of Thinking back on the beautiful white daffodils of early spring…
The colors of the earth deepen and grow more vibrant as time goes on, until they rest again beneath the stark white and black of winter.

What’s your favorite season? I really can’t choose.🌿

#springdaffodils #changingseasons #slowliving #slowingdown #cottagegardens #intentionallifestyle #homemakerlife #sheriyutzy #moodycottage #slowlifestyle #ordinarymagic #everydaymagic
🌿 I’ve been told many times To be afraid for 🌿
I’ve been told many times
To be afraid for my children
That I will regret not holding them tighter.
It’s as if fear is a currency, and if I don’t have enough, I haven’t earned motherhood.
I will never accept this,
for Jesus has taken my fear.
He is enough.
🌿

“Fear not.”
-Jesus.
I spent the evening following these two along the river bank, finding all the ant hills and burrows and mushrooms. No wonder Jesus cares for these, I thought. They are the best at finding all the magical good in the world.

#fearnot #courageousparenting #saynotofear #sheriyutzy #intentionalmotherhood #intentionalliving #slowliving #fearlessliving #fearlessparenting #kidsoutside #riverbank #twentywordtuesday #shortpoem #poetsofinstagram
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