Resident of Bowmore House, the keeper of the fires

I have always been drawn to fires. I lose myself watching flames dance around crackling, spitting wood, while wisps of smoke curl and disappear into the sky. Even when we had servants, I took pleasure in stirring the fire with the steel poker, positioning glowing embers so they might release warmth, heat, flames. The servants scolded me lest I burn my fine dresses, or stain my hands with ash. But I never cared.

I have always been drawn to fires. Indeed, without these blazes in each room, no person could endure this stately Bowmore House, which freezes in the winds off the North Sea. Before my father died, servants kept the fires going at all hours. After, Mother Rhona – who is not my mother, you understand – realized he had used all his savings to fund his final ship voyage. Bowmore House was the only asset he left us. We had to let the servants go.

After that, the job of maintaining the house belonged to the inhabitants: myself, Mother Rhona, and her two daughters. Mother Rhona, in her widow’s black, immediately tasked herself with managing domestic business matters, portioning out funds and paying bills and taxes. My sisters, though, offered little support. Orla wished she could help, and on good days she can perform a few tasks. But Orla has good reason for not contributing: she is dying.

But truly, Orla’s younger sister, Liisi, has no excuse. She is strong of body and stronger of will, and she has convinced her mother that performing housework is beneath her station and could blemish her perfect skin. She plans to one day marry a gentleman of the nobility. Liisi is very pretty, so I doubt not that she could woo a nobleman, though I do not know where she would find one. She’s charming, when she wants to be, but this is her only skill. I hope her husband can afford servants.

Liisi started calling me Cinder. She sought to mock me for spending so much time amid ashes and coals. Mother Rhona and Orla followed her lead, and in time, the trio forgot that I have another name, a real name. The name my own mother gave me. In truth, I enjoy having a secret name. It means there is a part of me they cannot reach.

A fire burns within me, too, but I do not know for what purpose. I long for the world beyond. Someday, I will explore it. The problem is, my father built this house. I cannot leave my family home to these people who would live within, enjoying the shelter while letting the house go to ruin.

And there is another reason I don’t want to leave: a young man I meet sometimes out on the cliffs. He speaks lately of inviting me to a ball in the king’s castle. I laugh and tell him I cannot dance. He says that matters not. But what else, I ask, does one do at a ball?

THE BLAZEKEEPER OF BOWMORE HOUSE
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling/Literary Fiction
Release: March 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org

A legacy revealed. A shoe lost at midnight. A future rewritten.

Cinder has always longed for a life beyond her small world, preferring cliffs to ballrooms, and hen houses to throne rooms. Orphaned at eleven, she is raised by her stepmother, a woman weighed down by grief and secrets. But everything changes when Cinder discovers a hidden letter from her late mother—revealing royal blood, a legacy of betrayal, and a shocking truth: her stepmother may have once saved her mother’s life.

Summoned by a lifelong friend who works in the king’s stables, Cinder dares to defy her stepmother and attend the king’s ball. Yet as she uncovers her true lineage, she must face a destiny far more dangerous and powerful than she ever imagined.

Set against a rugged, windswept coast, THE BLAZEKEEPER OF BOWMORE HOUSE is a lyrical reimagining of Cinderella’s journey—exploring identity, the enduring love between mother and daughter, and an unbreakable bond of friendship.

Meet the author
Elizabeth de Veer is the author of the novel The Ocean in Winter. She has a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and has been admitted to writing residencies at the Jentel Artist Residency, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of several writing groups, including Grub Street Writers’ Collective of Boston, the Newburyport Writers’ Group, Sisters in Crime New England, Boston Author’s Club, and the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. She lives in Georgetown, Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and labradoodle.