For generations, the Blanchard family have lived in Daihmler, Alabama. The people of Daihmler adore the Blanchards, even if some whisper about them in private. People say they are witches.
Olympia Blanchard has lived here all her life and has always been a friend to anyone in need. Her daughters, Artemis and Demitra, have helped more than a few Daihmlerians through ailments and turmoil with special potions they brew. Dr. Beryl Blanchard is a renowned physician who almost never loses a patient. Fable Blanchard is the town's most trusted Veterinarian. Some say the animals even speak to her. And if you notice how the weather is always pleasant around Blanchard House, that may be because Seth Blanchard can control the skies.
But not everything runs smoothly for this tightly knit southern family. There are things in the world normal people do not know about and the Blanchards are doing their best to protect the natural order of the world, anyway they can. As if that weren't enough, they also have to live their own regular lives with all of its victories and losses.
It's not easy being a Blanchard.
The Blanchards Won More Awards!
I am so excited to announce that the 3rd novel in The Blanchard Witches series,
Stitches in Time won TWO 2023 BookFest Awards! It won 1st Place for Supernatural Fantasy and 3rd Place for Overall Best Cover!
Total Awards for the Blanchard series
The Blanchard Witches of Daihmler County
The Blanchard Witches:
Stitches in Time
You envy the line
but know not the shame.
You know not what lurks
in the House of Duquesne.
You covet the wealth,
ancestry, and pride.
But shun far from the house
with the evil inside.
Forged in greed and
a price paid too high,
Stands the house in the marsh,
where all good things die.
Souls there are lost
and sins there reside,
In the house on the marsh
where all skeletons hide.
Truth is best left
farthest from light,
And answers, are reasons
you can’t sleep at night.
Old family wealth
laced with old family name,
Mixed with Too Many Secrets
in The House of Duquesne.
NEW RELEASE
The Blanchard Witches:
The House of Duquesne
Book Four
As The Blanchard Witches saga continues, the family is acclimating to the revelations come to light in the last book. As the family acclimates to their new normal and some new faces around the house, old foes are resurfacing with old scores to settle.
Everything has been building to this moment when the Blanchard witches of Daihmler must wage war on the sinister D'Angelo's of Charleston and uncover all their wicked secrets.
Join your favorite witches for the deadliest battle they've ever fought. But be warned, not everyone will survive The House of Duquesne.
Excerpt from The House of Duquesne
Once dinner was over, Arielle followed Cassandra back upstairs to her room for a last goodbye before she and Echo returned to Oleander. Arielle was taken aback by the confusing twists and turns of the house but quite impressed to see that her sister seemed to have memorized them. “Just down this hallway and to the left,” guided Cassandra around a corner. Suddenly she slapped directly into a wall. “Ouch!”
Arielle laughed out loud. “So much for your knowing the way.”
Cassandra seemed perplexed, almost bothered. “Seriously, Ari, this wall was not here earlier. And do you smell that? It smells chemical.”
“It does actually,” Arielle noticed. “It smells a little like glue.”
Cassandra reached down and touched the baseboard trim. “This board is lighter than the ones on the other wall. It’s wet paint, see.” She took her fingernails and dug into the corner of the board where the wallpaper ended. With little effort she managed to pull the corner of paper upward.
“Freshly glued,” Arielle observed. “This wall is new.”
“Like two hours ago new,” Cassandra said. “Why?”
Arielle made a funny face and shrugged, “Mara said the house changes itself sometimes.”
Cassandra grimaced, “Houses do not change themselves little sister. We’ve been witches all our lives, and I have never found a house with a mind of its own.”
“Well, something blocked this hallway.”
“Yes, something did. But I know another route to my room. I really need to check on Alexandrea. This has me concerned.” Eventually, using a route through more complicated passages, Cassandra opened the door to her own bedroom. Arielle was busy admiring the room until her eyes stopped on the disconcerting portrait of Atheidrelle. Cassandra was already rushing through the connecting door to Alexandrea’s chamber. Arielle followed her sister. Alexandrea was not sitting in the chair where Cassandra left her and the housemaid, Betty, was nowhere in sight. The room was empty. “Where is she?” Cassandra said to herself mostly, looking around the room frantically. “Betty wouldn’t take her out of here.” She opened the bathroom door and found it empty as well. A sudden breeze swept the room.
Arielle followed the path of the breeze, “Cassandra, the door to the balcony is open.” Cassandra dashed to the balcony where she found her patient standing at the rail, staring out into the night. “What is she looking at?” Arielle asked.
“I have no idea,” Cassandra said. “But she’s always looking out here. I don’t know what goes through her mind. Does she remember her life before? But what I want to know is where is the maid, Betty?”
“It doesn’t matter as long as your patient is all right, I guess,” Arielle said, helping her sister bring the catatonic woman indoors. “She’s bleeding,” Arielle observed, lifting her arm up.
“That’s an injection site,” Cassandra explained. “Taub must have come up to give her nightly sedation. It keeps her from wandering.”
“Why would she wander?” Arielle replied. “Ever see where she’s trying to wander to?” Cassandra could not believe the thought had not occurred to her before. Where was Alexandrea attempting to run off to when she wandered away? Perhaps it was worth finding out. Cassandra now pondered if discovering Alexandrea’s agenda might unlock a clue as to get her mind back on track. “Taub always gives her the injections. I don’t know how I’d stop it.”
“I do,” Arielle smiled. “How fresh do you think this injection is?”
“Minutes probably,” Cassandra considered. “He was with us through dinner, and we just left the dining room. We were only lost for about fifteen minutes.”
“Good,” Arielle said, taking Alexandrea’s arm and turning it upright to expose the bloody pin prick. Arielle closed her eyes and focused her powers to move objects. Manipulating the air around her to operate as a sort of vacuum, she pressed the suctioning air above the tiny hole in the woman’s flesh. Within seconds a small stream of blood, no larger than a thread, began to lift out and into the air. Cassandra captured it with a water glass.
“Oh my God, Arielle!” Cassandra cried. “You are a genius! You just took the medicine out of her.”
“Watch her tonight, and see where she tries to go,” Arielle suggested. “Let me know in the morning what happens. I really need to get back. I love you, sis.”
“I love you, too.” The Obreiggon girls hugged, and Arielle started for the door. “Can you find your way back?”
“We will see,” Arielle chuckled. Arielle left her sister’s bedroom the way they originally entered. Tracing their previous footsteps proved to be no use at all as Arielle found herself confused by the many sharp turns along the way. She reached a small, narrow set of stairs that led down to a mezzanine which overlooked an interior greenhouse. She definitely had not ventured this way before. Well, it is not like I can get too lost. It is a house after all. Eventually I will find an exit. She continued for a while past the greenhouse and discovered a narrow hallway with a circular staircase wedged between stone walls. She followed it down to the next level but paused halfway because she heard distinct voices coming from within the walls. Pressing her ear to the cold stone, she could make out a little of whatever was being said but the words were broken by the thick barrier.
“…visitors were here.”
“anyone…importance…could use.”
“God Strain.”
Arielle popped her head back. The God Strain? Did they mean Beryl? Was Beryl here? Then it occurred to her that whoever was speaking was referring to Echo. They must have been referring to Echo. He was the direct descendant of Beryl. The only person with the God Strain blood in Duquesne House. Then she heard something else which startled her again. Something she could not quite understand. Her name. Someone was whispering her name. It seemed to float on the air. Arielle. Arielle. Arielle come to me.
“You hear the voices, don’t you?” Ashby said from the turn of the stairs above. “I was on my way to my room when I saw you paused here. You hear them too, don’t you?”
Arielle whirled around to face her young cousin. “Yes. It is coming from the walls. Is it Uncle Thaddeuss and Aunt Constance?”
“No. It isn’t anyone in the house that we know.” Ashby said matter-of-factly. “I have heard the voices all my life. They are not from anyone in the family. My grandparents are still downstairs. Father went to bed.”
"It could be Mara, or Echo or Thorne?”
Ashby shook her head. “No. It isn’t them either. I think it is the voices of ghosts.” The girl was not afraid in any way. It seemed strange to Arielle how unaffected Ashby seemed to be by something rather unnerving.
“I heard my name called.”
“Interesting,” Ashby whispered. “If you are lost, I can lead you back to the entrance hall.”
“Thank you so much. I did get lost. Earlier Cassandra and I found a wall where she claims a hallway was yesterday.”
As the child guided Arielle down the stairs onto the floor below, she replied, “The house does like to change itself. I think the ghosts get bored.”
“Being a witch, I thought nothing could ever surprise me,” Arielle replied, making whatever conversation she could to fill the echoing silence—or perhaps to muffle the sounds of the voices if they were to begin again.
Ashby slanted her eyes Arielle’s way as they continued and said, “Just one of the many secrets of the House of Duquesne. You know the poem, right?”
“I do. Somewhat.”
“I find it fascinating…” Ashby whispered as she began to recite a portion of the rhyme:
“Truth is best left farthest from light
And answers are reasons you can’t sleep at night
Old family wealth laced with old family name
Mixed with too many secrets in The House of Duquesne.”
COMING SOON
Helvetica Light is an easy-to-read font, with tall and narrow letters, that works well on almost every site.
The Blanchard Witches:
Half Sick of Shadows
Book Five
The Blanchard Witches:
Becoming
Olympia
Prequel to Book One
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Who I am as a writer
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I grew up in a large southern family full of loving grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. In fact, many characteristics of my relative’s eclectic personalities are fondly reflected in members of the Blanchard family. I now live in Birmingham, Alabama with my husband, our son, five dogs and one cat. It is a noisy household to write in, but I manage.
My favorite authors are Richard Matheson, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Jeffrey Deaver. From Matheson I learned how to create a setting readers can understand even if it is out of the normal realm of experience. When the story takes a surprising twist towards the impossible, you never feel lost because you comprehend the world you've been placed within. With Alice Walker's ability to pull her characters off the written page and make them tangible human beings to us, she taught me how to create relatable figures in my stories by shaping them into people who either resemble our own selves or people we know in life. From Toni Morrison I saw how even the most deeply flawed characters can still pull you to their side because we understand what life did to them to make them that way. Lastly, Jeffrey Deaver showed me how to build adequate tension, but retain a slight sense of humor, however warped, to hold readers to a steady escalation until you smack them with an edge of your seat climax.
I do not pretend to claim my writing matches those great writers, but I do embrace my own personal style of storytelling because it is a reflection of me. I write the way i think. I am impatient and I prefer authors who get to the point. I do not need extraneous paragraphs to describe the tapestry in the hallway. It's a tapestry! We get it. We've seen them before. What I want to know is what happens to the character after they walk past that tapestry. Don't misunderstand, I do like to create a sense of familiarity with my setting, but my focus is well fleshed out characters my readers connect to on emotional levels. I see every chapter as a scene on film. Very rarely does a film pause to explore the piece of furniture the main character walks by. I lose interest quickly when I read if the writer isn't focused on holding me to the page. So, as I said before, I write the way I think. I write for people who love a good, fast paced, but deeply engaging story. I rarely run out of storyline to tell so I'm not going to waste your time taking too long to tell something that could have been wrapped up 30 pages ago. If my book runs long, it is only because there is A LOT to tell. Because I do see my stories as a movie in my head, my books tend to have many chapters (scenes). My chapters can range from 10 pages to 1 1/2, depending on what the scene required. Sometimes the best chapters come at you fast and stop suddenly, leaving you catching your breath.
THE BLANCHARD WITCHES is a perfect vehicle for my writing style. I keep the story moving forward, yet I give you time to fall in love with this family. I love this family. I find myself laughing out loud sometimes at what I just typed out on the computer screen, or I find myself crying my eyes out because i just did something terrible to a character I love like a family member. There will be a day soon when I have told all I have to tell regarding the fictional Blanchards and I will move on to a new story. But I don't think I will ever shed them from my thoughts. The Blanchards and I have gone through a lot together and many aspects of the tragedies and triumphs of my own life play out on the page.
Midwest Book Review for
BLANCHARD WITCHES OF DAIHMLER COUNTY
Readers who choose The Blanchard Witches of Daihmler County will find its evolving story of loss, acceptance, change, and conflict features many insights and engrossing moments.
From potions to intriguing shifts in events that affect the entire family. It's rare to find a satisfying intersection between supernatural fantasy, intergenerational relationships, and small town special interests woven into a mystery that grips all characters on different levels… Readers will find much to enjoy and will look forward to more.
California Bookwatch Review for
PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS
Micah House crafts an excellent story that juxtaposes magic, mystery, and new dangers with evolving family relationships that continue to transform all involved. It's a delicate dance to move between these elements in such a way as to keep the action fast-paced and unpredictable rather than mired in formula genre approaches, but it's a creative impulse that House cultivates to give the story a fresh, original feel.
Characters are believable and engaging; situations pull on not just the heart but moral and ethical developments against supernatural backdrops; and the saga moves between family members and outsiders with a strong attention to detail, description, and twists which address issues of prejudice and family connections alike.
The result is another highly recommended story that blends occult fiction and fantasy with a special Southern flavor.
Like a mint julep, it lingers on the tongue and in the mind. For the reader of Southern fiction and occult suspense stories, you only need a porch rocking chair to complete the atmosphere.
Donovan Literary Review
Stitches In Time
The Blanchard Witches: Stitches in Time continues the story introduced in Prodigal Daughters, starting where the last story left off—with the disappearance of family member Beryl. This third book in the series expands family relationships and realizations as the witches go on a journey that tests both their paranormal abilities and their survival.
The current leader of the coven, Artemis, finds her edict to guide the family greatly challenged by forces both within and outside its circle as more members vanish before their eyes and the entire family structure is threatened. Everything is about to change.
Micah House cultivates an undertone of discovery which traverses generational differences and individual abilities alike. Readers may not expect the time travel component which intersects with family lives and experiences, but this adds to the paranormal fantasy to create a vivid timeline of unexpected connections, family secrets, and intrigue solidly rooted in Southern traditions and culture.
These revelations, in turn, encourage thought-provoking assessments of powers and their underlying influences: "How could she be expected to police thought. A person couldn’t help what thoughts crossed their mind. But she’d been thinking about it lately and had come to the conclusion that the thought itself wasn’t the catalyst, it was her speaking the thought which turned it into a spell."
As further details about the Blanchard family unfold, prior series readers will especially appreciate the time taken to evolve further inter-generational connection. An attempted rescue via time travel creates a deadly repetitive cycle that traps a would-be savior in a fatal loop of past and present conundrums. The Blanchard family's incarnation through various timelines evolves a delightful foray into possibilities that are affected by choice, motive, and unexpected revelations.
Readers of paranormal fiction will find this latest addition to the Blanchard family saga a riveting story that's hard to put down and impossible to predict.
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
The House of Duquesne
Micah House's The Blanchard Witches paranormal fantasy continues with the fourth book in the series, The House Of Duquesne. Newcomers to the series will find it a stand-alone attraction that focuses on the Blanchard family's legacies passed down through the generations in this family of witches. In this installment, the Blanchards are still processing the secrets that were revealed in the last book which continue to impact them all.
As in his previous books, Micah House presents a gripping saga of family connections, uncommon powers, and strong adversity when they move from their Alabama roots to Charleston to confront the D'Angelo family's wicked secrets. “If I were to tell you everything and I am wrong about what I fear, you can never unknow. The secrets dwelling in the House of Duquesne should remain unknown until there is no other choice.”
Unlike many paranormal fantasies, House unfolds psychological inspection, paired with riveting action. As the witches, werewolves, and vampires wage war over life and death, revelations come to light that change everything.
Excited to announce
THE BLANCHARD WITCHES OF DAIHMLER COUNTY
won the Distinguished Favorite Award for Supernatural Thriller!
And also thrilled to announce
THE BLANCHARD WITCHES OF DAIHMLER COUNTY
also won a National Indie Excellence Award for Cross Genre!
reader reviews
If you enjoy witches and werewolves, Micah House has created a world of fun for you. These are not the witches of Macbeth, although at one point they do stir up a pot of magic brew. Rather, they are cosmopolitan witches—a loving, tight-knit family struggling with everyday problems and occasional life crises. Some of them also face the struggle of when to use supernatural powers and when using them is inappropriate. The Blanchard family is helpful to their community in Daihmler County. One is a doctor and has the power of healing via touch. Another, a veterinarian who talks to her animal patients and is therefore better able to help them. One of the witches can use her powers to see the events at crime scenes and is on-call for difficult cases. This family includes some non-witches, as well. The love that binds them is strong and wholesome, and they join together frequently to help solve one another’s problems. Even a witch who has been punished by the witches’ council and must spend her life as a shadow gliding around the Blanchard-home’s walls, is accepted and loved. But, when it seems a werewolf or two have appeared in town, the Blanchards must use all their knowledge, instincts, courage, supernatural powers and skills to right the world and save the community from at least one savage serial killer. There are a large number of characters in this novel, but don’t let this intimidate you. The author does a good job of reminding the reader of relationships between his characters, even as the book progresses. This is a sweet, playful book. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.