Beautiful Ghost, Snippet by Milana Marsenich

During the fall of 1918, the influenza pandemic crosses the nation and reaches the mining town of Butte, Montana.

Marika Jovich, who wants to go to school to become a physician, works menial tasks for Dr. Fletcher. She feels useless as she tries to save friends and neighbors from the ravages of the flu. In the midst of the pandemic, she watches the town shut down, young and old perish, and her medical dreams all but evaporate.

Kaly Monroe used to be a half-good woman of the night. She left that life to raise her daughter, Annie, and live and work with her long-lost mother, Tara McClane. Kaly waits for her husband, Tommy, to return from the war. Word from the east is that soldiers are dying of influenza and she prays that Tommy is not one of them.

When an out-of-town woman named Amelia suddenly dies in Dr. Fletcher’s office, both women try to learn more about the mysterious woman and the circumstances regarding her death. Is she another casualty of the pandemic, or the victim of manmade foul play? Who is this stranger, and is her demise a portent of the fate that awaits the residents of Butte?

Snippet

Marika Jovich looked around Dr. Fletcher’s office at the folded laundry and the clean desk, savoring the quiet satisfaction of a job well done. The late afternoon cooled. Smoke wafted out across the street. She had wanted to be a doctor, but her father had promised her in marriage to Michael Jovich and marrying him had interfered with her medical dreams. Instead, she ran trivial errands for the doctor, and cleaned up the rooms at the end of the day. This day was over, and she was glad of it. Pushing her long black hair back into its fallen bun, she turned to go. As she grabbed her coat, someone knocked on the door.

This knock shifted the air in the room. Smooth and quiet as silk, the joyful moment fluttered away, taking the breath of it and leaving not a trace to recall later. A soft pulse, deep in Marika’s stomach, twitched. At first, she ignored the knock, hoping the person on the other side of the door could wait until morning. She wanted to get home to her family and Mama’s good cooking.

Fighting the urge to sneak out the back, she opened the front door. A pale young woman, about her own age, dressed in a gray dress, pulled a brown wool coat tightly around her shoulders and shivered. Thick strands of blond hair straggled around her face. Her heavy lids shielded milky green eyes. She was lithe and thin, a wisp of wind, blown to the open door without direction or purpose. A crow sat on the porch railing and cawed. Pink clouds stretched out toward the Highlands, dusk barely forming a thought in the sky.

“May I help you?” Marika asked. A pure wave of urgency flashed at the back of her brain. This woman needs a doctor, a real doctor.

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Meet Milana Marsenich

Award winning author, Milana Marsenich lives in Northwest Montana near Flathead Lake at the base of the beautiful Mission Mountains. She enjoys quick access to the mountains and has spent many hours hiking the wilderness trails with friends and dogs. For the past 20 years she has worked as a mental health therapist in a variety of settings. As a natural listener and a therapist, she has witnessed amazing generosity and courage in others. She first witnessed this in her hometown of Butte, Montana, a mining town with a rich history and the setting for Copper Sky, her first novel.

Copper Sky was chosen as a Spur Award finalist for Best Western Historical Novel in 2018. Her second novel, The Swan Keeper, was a Willa Award finalist in 2019. Her short story, Wild Dogs, won the Laura Award for short fiction in 2020.

She has an M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling from Montana State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. She has previously published in Montana Quarterly, Big Sky Journal, The Polishing Stone, The Moronic Ox, BookGlow, and Feminist Studies.

She has three published novels, Copper Sky, The Swan Keeper, and Beautiful Ghost, and one popular history book, Idaho Madams. Her upcoming novel, Shed Girl: A Juliet French Novel, will be released January 2024. Her popular history book, Mary MacLane: Butte’s Wild Woman and her Wooden Heart, will be out sometime in 2025.