Green Fuse Burning - by Tiffany Morris (Paperback)

About the Book

A Mi'kmaw artist struggles with grief after the death of her father and finds answers in the transformative powers of the swamp. Contains art from 3 Indigenous artists in exterior and interior covers and chapter decorations.

Book Synopsis

After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him - about his childhood, their family, and the Mi'kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita's girlfriend Molly forges an artist's residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up.

On the first night at the cabin, Rita wakes to strange sounds. Was that a body being dragged through the woods? When she questions the locals about the cabin's history, they are suspicious and unhelpful. Ignoring her unease, Rita gives in to dark visions that emanate from the forest's lake and the surrounding swamp. She feels its pull, channelling that energy into art like she's never painted before. But the uncanny visions become more insistent, more intrusive, and Rita discovers that in the swamp's decay the end of one life is sometimes the beginning of another.

Review Quotes

"Green Fuse Burning is an impressively vigorous fiction debut from a truly dynamic storyteller. Tiffany Morris has laid out a concise and creepy tale that mesmerizes as it weaves through several realms, from the tangible to the spiritual. I was captivated by the looming mystery and the striking imagery that carried me like a current to the story's monumental resolution. This book is a must-read in new speculative fiction!" - Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Turning Leaves

"Morris quietly dazzles and disquiets in this weird horror novella ... Poetic and grotesque imagery drives the novella's horror, with fluid narration fostering a sense of disconnect and dread ... This is a subtle and refreshing twist on the cabin in the woods trope." - Publishers Weekly starred review

"A verdant alienation seeps through every page as Morris reimagines the possibilities of decay, a desperate isolation scouring the mind to reveal a torrid, seething strangeness beneath, the inevitable reckoning gathering its strength below the calm surface of the pond." - Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold and The Handyman Method

About the Author

Tiffany Morris is a Mi'kmaw/settler writer of speculative fiction and poetry from Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. She is the author of the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books 2022) which won the Elgin Award in 2023.