Dew on the Morning Grass and Other Precious Things

When I was a little girl we weren’t to go barefoot until the summer sun had dried the morning dew on the grass. In those days lawns were “yards” and could’ve just as easily been called “fields” or “meadows”.  Lush, long, green and growing, topped by wildflowers we collected to make chains or “tea” served in dainty plastic cups, far too bitter to actually drink. 

Why the dew was forbidden to our toes I’ll never know. My mother professes not to remember such a rule. Perhaps she didn’t want wet petals tracked into the house. He loves me. He loves me not. Perhaps she didn’t want to worry about us sneaking to the creek to look for the spotted newts we called “water lizards” before the sun was even up. Most likely it was rooted in some Appalachian superstition about luck and loss as so many of the rules we followed were.

Of course I broke them. For science! I suspect I crept out now and then to prove I could. 

To dance with the fairies. 

To tempt the sprites.
            To sneak to the creek and tell all my secrets to the slick newts that had secrets—of double lives and transformation—all their own.

To this day, it’s still my favorite time to wake and walk and write. (Sometimes even barefoot in the too-tall, petal-spotted grass.)

A creative life is one of constantly needing to take a deep breath and pull your shoes off in spite of all the warnings against that childish nonsense. A green birch switch to the legs is a small price to pay for dancing with the fey or meeting a friend or divining whether or not your crush will love you in return. The wet grass is waiting for your feet. All you need is some courage.

To dive in.

To embrace the mess.

To face your fears.

Forbidden dew has long since been a magical elixir that helps creatives do all the things.

—

Wildwood Whispers is Willa Reece’s debut women’s fiction with fantasy elements and it’s a love letter to the wild mountain where she grew as well as the Appalachian women who raised her—many a morning dew-walker among them. At 50, she’s one of Orbit Publishing’s New Voices of 2021. Willa has published more than a dozen books with top publishers as Barbara J. Hancock, most recently the Brimstone and Legendary Warriors series of paranormal romances for Harlequin and her gothic YA AFTER ALWAYS for Entangled Teen.

Her novella “Ghost in the Machine” was a Dear Author Recommended Read. Besides writing, Willa is devoted to animal rescue and her three scientist sons—a biologist, and an aspiring chemist and physicist. Willa still lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where stories are often told on a dark side porch by the flicker of firefly light.

Find out more about her on her website https://www.willareece.com/

WILDWOOD WHISPERS, Willa Reece

A heartwarming tale of hope, fate, and folk magic unfolds when a young woman travels to a sleepy southern town in the Appalachian Mountains to bury her best friend.

“A feast for the senses. Willa Reece has written a magical, romantic tale about our essential connections to nature and to each other.” —Sarah Addison Allen, New York Times bestselling author

At the age of eleven, Mel Smith’s life found its purpose when she met Sarah Ross. Ten years later, Sarah’s sudden death threatens to break her. To fulfill a final promise to her best friend, Mel travels to an idyllic small town nestled in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains. Yet Morgan’s Gap is more than a land of morning mists and deep forest shadows.

There are secrets that call to Mel, in the gaze of the gnarled and knowing woman everyone calls Granny, in a salvaged remedy book filled with the magic of simple mountain traditions, and in the connection, she feels to the Ross homestead and the wilderness around it.

With every taste of sweet honey and tart blackberries, the wildwood twines further into Mel’s broken heart. But a threat lingers in the woods—one that may have something to do with Sarah’s untimely death and that has now set its sight on Mel.

The wildwood is whispering. It has secrets to reveal—if you’re willing to listen . . .

Praise for Wildwood Whispers:

“Willa Reece has perfectly infused magic, suspense, and a love of nature deep into the pages of this novel. Ultimately filled with hope, love, and the power of growth and resilience, Wildwood Whispers is a thought-provoking, memorable debut.” —Heather Webber, USA Today bestselling author of Midnight at the Blackbird Café

“I loved everything about Wildwood Whispers. Readers craving a witchy story full of found family, lush nature, and small-town secrets will find it utterly enchanting.” —Hester Fox, author of The Witch of Willow Hall
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Category: On Writing