After a car accident claims his older brother's life, Mark Murphy's world is turned upside down. The silence of their shared bedroom, the memories of Mitch's guidance, and his mother's drunken spiral are constant reminders of the cost of his absence. But Mark isn't ready to grieve. He isn't ready to accept that his brother is truly gone. Despite the insistence of the adults in his life that he accept Mitch's death, Mark is undeterred. They don't know what he knows. They don't know the story of the Witch on Spook Hill. Aided by his loyal band of misfit friends, Mark's plan to carry Mitch's ashes to the witch is complicated by the pursuit of the town sheriff and the cousin responsible for his brother's death. With no time to regroup, Mark and his friends must navigate the dangerous path to Spook Hill before the sun sets, so that Mitch can be resurrected in exchange for the life of the one who took it.
Broadleaf Writers Association Founder & Executive Director Zachary Steele is the author of Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ, CEO and Flutter: An Epic of Mass Distraction. He has been featured by NPR, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Publishers Weekly, Baby Got Books, Shelf Awareness, and was nominated for the Sidewise Award for Alternate Fiction. You can follow his ramblings on writing and life at http: //zacharysteele.com/
"A boy does not accept the death of his beloved older brother. To him, love is every bit as strong as death. The adventure in The Weight of Ashes is a rollercoaster, a descent into a child's almost mad heart even as the novel climbs on wheels of insight and loving prose. It's an unlikely, yet all so human, journey between grief and faith."--David L. Robbins, New York Times bestselling author of Isaac's Beacon and War of the Rats "Filtered through a phantasmal lens of lost innocence, Zachary Steele roots his stunning novel in a childhood mythology of grief and healing akin to Stephen King's haunting novella, The Body."--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking and Whisper Down the Lane "The Weight of Ashes is such a wild ride! When it finally takes a break from all that page-turning action, it's to remind us of the inevitability of that moment of shared experience - the feeling we haven't grown up quite yet, but we're not kids anymore, either. It's a visceral, pulse-pounding look at our desperation to keep things the same even as real life is letting us know that's impossible. You won't be able to avoid being dragged back to your childhood in the best way possible."--Chris Negron, author of Dan, Unmasked and The Last Super Chef "With a pinch of Stand by Me and dash of delicious nostalgia for childhood before smartphones, The Weight of Ashes is a page-turning coming-of-age story about one boy's quest to end his grief after the death of his brother. Steele immerses you in dense settings as he takes you on Mark's journey through the woods to find the witch who can bring Mitch back. With a compelling cast of characters painted across a canvas that blends urban legend and reality, it's a gripping story from beginning to end."--Ricki Cardenas, author of Switch & Bait
