The Unordinary Path: Ash & Earth
Some choices lead us down a path we never knew existed.
The Unordinary Path: Ash & Earth is the first book in a haunting gothic fiction series about instinct, defiance, and the enigmatic beauty of female transformation.
Author & Artist:
Hi, I'm Josephine Brandt
A classically trained artist turned writer with a love for eerie folklore and stories that blur the line between the sacred and the strange. She loves to read, write, and play with paint in the studio. Check out her upcoming book release, The Unordinary Path: Ash & Earth, available 10/8/2025.
The Unordinary Path: Ash & Earth
Hallie Braam, the daughter of a well-to-do innkeeper in old Austin, was living a soft, ordinary life
... until the air shifted, mirrors moved, and things within her began to build.
The unsolved murder of a servant woman in Austin has left the streets brimming with suspicions in recent weeks. Then, a traveling apothecary arrives in the midst of the escalating unrest in town. He speaks in riddles, watches everything, and carries an unsettling calm that draws Hallie in with a pull she's never known before. But when strange occurrences begin unfolding around her, and the Hickory Street Inn no longer feels safe, Hallie starts to question the line between fear and truth—between what she's seeing and what's real.
As tensions in town rise, Hallie makes a series of unconventional and dangerous choices that push her beyond the bounds of what a well-mannered daughter should be. Cast out of her ordinary life, she's forced to reckon with the choices she's made. And what seems like the end may only be the beginning of something stranger. Hallie must decide: stay and be what the world expects, or set fire to the life that tried to shape her.
