Come Back to the Swamp by Laura Morrison

Author: Laura Morrison

Narrator: Chelsea Stephens

Length: 3 hours 37 minutes

Publisher: Black Spot Books

Released: Mar. 26, 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Working on completing her ecology graduate degree, Bernice is doing invasive species research in Cleary Swamp when she is confronted by a mysterious hag who says she is the swamp’s caretaker. When Bernice discovers that the hag is actually a woman named Rebecca Hallett who disappeared in the swamp decades before she attempts to remove the strange old woman from Cleary Swamp, but little does Bernice know that Rebecca has a mystical bond to the area - one that possesses a human host and bonds them to it. One magical hallucinogenic powder cocktail and a space opera spirit journey later, Bernice’s life has changed forever. The swamp wants her for its new caretaker, and it won’t take no for an answer.

Laura Morrison lives in the Metro Detroit area. She has a B.S. in applied ecology and environmental science from Michigan Technological University. Before she was a writer and stay-at-home mom, she battled invasive species and researched turtles.

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Chelsea Stephens has a long time love and appreciation for the performing arts, with experience in on-stage acting, singing and voice over. Her love for reading books and the pursuit of the story led her to narration. She enjoys unfolding characters and bringing listeners into new worlds. Chelsea is an award-winning voice actor with a talent for mystery, sci-fi, romance and YA novels. She’s a mom to a gaggle of young ones living in the Midwest.

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Author Laura Morrison's TOP TEN LITERARY INSPIRATIONS

1. Margaret Atwood: Everything she writes is magic. I want to be her. Except, I’d miss writing humor after a while.
2. Terry Pratchett: I adore how he created Discworld, this endlessly complex and layered universe with so many fun and distinct characters, and he was fortunate enough to be able to just keep writing and writing within that world. That is my dream for my fantasy series I’m working on--for it to be successful enough that I can stay with that world and those characters for my whole writing career.
3. William Goldman: When I read Princess Bride as a kid, it basically changed my life. I had had no idea that you could do that with a book, have a story within a story in the way that he did it. It opened up my mind to all sorts of possibilities, since even back in middle school I was already thinking in terms of being a writer.
4. Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket): A adore dark humor, and the way Daniel Handler does it (both in the Lemony Snicket books and in the stuff he’s written under his real name) connects so perfectly with me.
5. Barbara Kingsolver: Generally, I gravitate toward speculative fiction and/or things with a surreal tone, but whenever I feel like reading fiction that is about people in a real life, Earth setting doing real life, regular things, I gravitate to Barbara Kingsolver. She creates such deep characters, and her stories are amazing.
6. Douglas Adams: His books are perfect. It’s one of my biggest regrets that I didn’t go to see him when did a talk at my university. It was one of the last public appearances (possibly the last?) he ever did.
7. Paulo Coelho: I love him for the philosophical and spiritual undertones in his books. They have a very mystical vibe, and I can’t pin down how exactly he manages it how he does.
8. Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials is one of my favorite series of all time. He’s so thoughtful and creative, and the worlds he creates are so vibrant. I love the way he approaches the concept of evil, and how his good characters deal with the evils. My husband and I randomly walked into a bookstore in London on our honeymoon, and he was there doing a signing. Total coincidence. I was so shocked by it that I didn’t fully realize it had happened until it was over.
9. Gideon Defoe: He’s one of the funniest writers I have ever come across, and when I read his books, I get the distinct feeling that he does not care one iota about the stuffy “rules of writing” and is just having fun. It’s very freeing to see an approach like that, and always reminds me to stop worrying too much about perceptions of book snobs.
10. Ann Patchett: Her books are dead serious, which is not usually my thing. But she does it so beautifully. Her books destroy me. State of Wonder, specifically, ripped my heart out and stomped on it, and I can never, ever read it again, but I loved it. If a writer can make me feel like that, that writer is amazing.

Compiled by Author Laura Morrison

This is my playlist for Come Back to the Swamp. All these songs are either about swamps or have a very “swampy” feel to them.

1. All the songs on the album Locked Down – Dr. John. Probably any Dr. John album would be good for a Come Back to the Swamp soundtrack. He’s got a very swampy vibe.
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Swamp Music
3. Charlie Daniels – The Legend of Wooley Swamp
4. Josephine of the Swamps – Grant Lee Phillips
5. Out in the Woods – Leon Russell
6. Swamp Witch – Jim Stafford
7. Hungry Planet – The Byrds
8. Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth – Sparks

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