Meet Harriet. But don’t be surprised if she isn’t interested in meeting you.

Harriet has life all figured out, and she doesn’t hesitate to inform others of their shortcomings. Though her attempts to become president of the homeowner’s association failed, that doesn’t stop her from berating “off-leash-dog-man” or reporting the neighbor who had the audacity to leave their easter decorations up an entire week past the holiday. The problem is, unbeknownst to her, Harriet’s rigid rules and judgmental opinions are not her own.

Her ordered life plunges into chaos when a twelve-year-old neighbor knocks on Harriet's door seeking help because the girl’s father is physically abusing her mother. Reluctantly, Harriet comes to her neighbor’s aid and, in the process, recognizes her own insidious abuse which has unwittingly shaped her isolated, rigid existence. To escape her crushing loneliness, she must learn to break free from the patterns of control and isolation that have defined her life and learn to connect with people she previously viewed as heathens.

Excerpt

One such day, years ago, she’d donned her favorite sundress, the light blue one with the small daisies, and set out hoping to make a good first impression. Her mother told her about never having a second chance.

Harriet started with her closest neighbor, right next door. Watching discreetly from the dining room window, she’d learned they had two little girls, around two and four. On the pie delivery day, Harriet waited until they’d been home a half an hour to let them settle in a bit and then made her way to their front porch and rang the bell.

From behind the door Harriet heard, “Elizabeth, how dare you! Get over here!” The smile she’d readied for the encounter slid from her face. Figuring this wasn’t a good time, Harriet turned to leave. The door swung open. From her dining room window, this woman had appeared around thirty, and attractive, despite her rather frumpy clothing, but up close, she appeared to be closer to fifty. The creases on her forehead were so deep they didn’t disappear even when she relaxed her scowl.

“Can I help you?” the neighbor asked.

“Well, you see,” Harriet said, “I’ve baked you a pie. I hope you like apple.”

“Thanks,” the woman said, taking the pie.

They stood staring awkwardly for a moment. Harriet assumed she’d be invited in, that they would have a cup of coffee or tea. Harriet thought this happened when you spent a day baking pies for your neighbors in a perfect neighborhood like theirs was.

“I live next door. Just there,” Harriet said, pointing.

“Okay,” the woman said, running her hand through her messy hair. Then nothing. A child yelled, “Mo-om, Katie pulled my hair again!”

The woman sighed. “Well, I’ve got to go. Thanks again!”

The door shut. Harriet stood staring at it. She hadn’t even learned the woman’s name.

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About the Author

Kim McCollum graduated from Barnard College with a major in Japanese and was soon navigating the hustle and bustle of Wall Street. When her first child was born, she stayed home to raise her children. Once they headed off to school, Kim finally found time to pursue her passion for writing. Her award-winning debut novel, WHAT HAPPENS IN MONTANA, was published in January 2024, and her short stories have appeared in several publications. She lived in Bozeman, Montana, with her supportive husband, Brian, and their blended menagerie of five kids and three spoiled pets.

You can find her online at:

Her website: https://kim-mccollum.com/

Twitter: https://x.com/KFMcCollum

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimmccollumauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author.kimmccollum/

A ghost’s antics, a harrowing moose chase, a hypnosis session, and smuggled booze lead to spilled secrets and betrayal, but do they also lead to murder?

At a hot springs retreat in Montana, whiskey-swigging Maude, the nearly eighty-year-old chef, longs for the glory days when the retreat hosted martini-sipping celebrities instead of long-haired hippies who refuse to wear deodorant. Brooke, feisty, adventurous, and a bit reckless, proposes a reunion at the retreat with her best friends to get away from the chaos of her life with teenagers and the emotional aftermath of her postponed wedding. One of those friends, Tracy, has devoted her life to her children and her husband despite her excruciating boredom. But a long-held secret could cost her the most important friendships in her life. Haunting the place is a ghost who, in life, dealt with tragedy by turning to prostitution which led to her murder over 100 years ago at the very place they all are staying.

What Happens in Montana explores friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness with blunt truth and witty insights. Together, these friends learn to navigate empty nests, infidelity, deception, and poltergeists. Most importantly, they learn their friendship is strong enough to get them through it all.

Excerpt

I glanced at the bird-like woman who sat across from him and wondered how she kissed him with that facial hair. Didn’t it smell like whatever he ate? Or scratch her face? Didn’t errant hair ever tickle her nose and make her sneeze? Maybe they had been together so long that they didn’t really kiss much anymore. Just a peck hello and goodbye. I supposed I could handle facial hair if that was my only interaction with it.

“Hello, I’m Maude, and I’ll be taking care of you tonight. Can I get you anything to drink besides water?”

“Water is fine for me. Dear, what would you like?”

“Oh, I’d like sparkling water. One of those flavored ones, if you have it. Not one that has calories or sugar or anything. Just the essence of lime or tangerine or whatever. Do you know what I mean?” She looked at me with big, pleading eyes. I saw such hunger in those eyes. Lord, this woman needed a huge steak and a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Then she needed a good bottle of wine to go with it and a German chocolate cake to finish it all. This woman didn’t look as though she had been properly nourished and decades. But what I saw most in her eyes was that she had not allowed herself to live. She imposed such restrictions on her life – what to eat, what to wear, what friends to have, what church to attend, what car to drive, what words to say – that she forgot what she wanted. She forgot how to live. She was just going through the motions. She might as well already be dead.

I wanted to tell her to forget calories, forget working out at least five days a week, forget always needing to be a size zero, forget what others think, forget keeping her house perfectly in order, for surely this woman’s house was always in order, and throw all caution to the wind. Eat an entire gallon of ice cream while binge watching Grace and Frankie. Stay in your pajamas till noon and dance to Uptown Funk with the volume so loud the neighbors will call the police. Hike to the top of Boulder peak at dawn to watch the sunrise regardless of the animals you might encounter. Tell your husband to shave that nasty dead rat on his face and kiss him like you did when you were a teen teenager. Just don’t live like life will last forever.

Instead, I said, “Sure. We have lime, grapefruit, and coconut sparkling water.”

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About Author Kim McCollum

Kim McCollum graduated from Barnard College as a Japanese major and headed to work on Wall Street. Many miserable all-nighters and the birth of her first child led her to stay home to raise her children. Eventually, she pursued her passion for writing. An excerpt from this novel appeared in The Copperfield Review Quarterly and her short stories have appeared in The Dillydoun Review, Beyond Solace, and Fiction on the Web. She lives in Bozeman, MT with her husband, Brian, and their blended menagerie of five kids, two dogs, and seven spoiled chickens. What Happens in Montana is her first novel.

Find Kim on her website: Kim-mccollum.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.w.gunderson

Twitter/X: @KFMcCollum