Strange Is A Hazard Here

By Jim Hughes

Publisher: Precocity Press

I was very fortunate to have Susan Shankin as the publisher of my novel. She and her associates at Precocity Press were knowledgeable, experienced, and talented as well as available and supportive. They included me in the development, refinement, design, and marketing of the book. They also were attentive to the fact that the novel was mine, not theirs. I was the final decision-maker, my choices benefiting immensely from their thoughtful, discerning questions and suggestions. We almost always came to see eye to eye, owing to our mutual commitment to the integrity of the story.

Deborah Steinberg, my developmental editor, was vital in giving birth to this book after years of labor. Crucial was her recognition that humor was foremost in this dark, satiric tale. My copyeditor, Brenda Lange, put me at ease by sharing her warm feelings about the book after her first read-through. I appreciated, too, her careful reading of the book, questioning a few inconsistencies that I had missed. Tim Kummerow created a book cover that was dazzling and evocative of major elements in the story. Darcy Hughes developed a distinctive marketing plan that greatly increased my book’s visibility and appeal. Finally, Susan Shankin, who assembled this team, pulled everything together. Brilliant and kind, she cultivated a congenial and productive environment in which we all strove to create as fine a book as possible.

Some mothers don’t raise daughters—they remake them.

“What if this time I die?”—Jocelyn dreads her birthdays.

Each odd-numbered year, on the eve of her birthday, she struggles to breathe—as if something inside her is being taken away. Her mother, Idris, insists it’s a flaw in Jocelyn herself.

But Idris has a secret.

A self-taught sorceress obsessed with perfection, she uses magic to remove Jocelyn’s “undesirable” moods —anger, sadness, defiance—essential parts of her very spirit—and traps them in balloons, determined to raise a flawless child.

Over time, as Jocelyn’s essential spirits are removed—those qualities that make her who she really is—she becomes a pale shadow of her true self.

Inside a house ruled by rigid expectations, strange rules, and a mother who calls control “love,” Jocelyn must navigate fear, isolation, and the growing sense that something is deeply wrong.

And, as Jocelyn approaches her thirteenth birthday, she must decide:

Will she surrender to her mother’s control—or reclaim the parts of herself that were taken?

Strange Is a Hazard Here is a haunting coming-of-age fantasy about identity, emotional control, family expectations, and the courage to become your authentic self. Blending dark fairy tale, magical realism, and psychological suspense, it explores how love can become possession, how conformity can masquerade as virtue, and why every emotion—even the difficult ones—is essential to becoming whole.