Martha Goode – The Old Mill

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Martha Goode, and that is the First Martha, was the very first resident of the brand new, ultra-modern Goode Mansion.  Her mother, Abigail, was rushed out of the heavily damaged farm house while in labor (“no child of mien will be born in this house of fire and death”) and gave birth to Martha less than an hour after being moved.

Martha grew up to be a very intelligent woman.  At 18 she gained control of the Goode Mill, the old mill, and took the burnt-out hulk and created the most efficient, most profitable mill in the region, all the while paying the workers at her mill a third more than anyone else paid their labor.

She later lost the mill, a victim of a highly patriarchal society, but kept the mansion, the mansion defined by her; the mansion that defined her.

As she aged, she grew stranger and stranger. Who could blame her after all she had seen, experienced and dealt with, from an extremely violent and abusive “father” to the death threats as her legal battles got stretched across many years. Towards the end, few remembered the remarkable woman who had saved the town, only the eccentric who lived up the hill in the ancient house.  Legends grew around her, even while she was still alive.

Martha Goode, and again, that is the First Martha, was the last resident of the aging, old-fashioned Goode Mansion.  On April 20, 1900, the dawn of a new century, Martha Goode passed away while up in the mansion’s third floor decades-out-of-style ballroom.  She had lived alone for the last two decades of her life and so her dead body was not discovered until some servants came to check on her several days later. Those days had been unseasonable warm, more like August than April.

Not only was Martha the first and last occupant of the house, living her entire 95 years in the mansion, she had continued to occupy the house even after her body was dead and buried.

One of the big rites of passage for kids in Avebury, New Hampshire was always that late night visit to the creepy Goode Mansion to see Martha’s ghost.

***

Martha is a very important character in the book The Old Mill. A few of the other characters you will meet in the book are:

Gill Baxter – 2/3/2021
Lyndsey Wallace – 2/4/2021
Jessica Franks – 2/5/2021
Galvin – 2/11/2021

The page for The Old Mill is here.

**

The Old Mill is now released!

Kindle
US
UK
France
Canada
Australia
India

Paperback

US
UK
Canada
France
Germany
Italy

If you don’t see your country’s Amazon listed, you can try a search. It might be available in other online books stores as well – search on your favorite book site.

If you pick it up, I hope you enjoy!

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A stench lies on Avebury, New Hampshire. It isn’t something that one can smell, it is more of a psychic soot polluting everybody’s mood. No one recalls when it arrived, but there does seem to be a connection with the Old Mill and its mysterious new owners.

*

Following the trail of the local legend, the ghost of Martha Goode, Gill Baxter is driven to discover the truth behind the events of 1821 and, hopefully, prevent another “time of dying.” That trail, though, leads directly to The Old Mill.

**

24 thoughts on “Martha Goode – The Old Mill”

  1. Pingback: Trent McDonald Interview and his book, The Old Mill – priorhouse blog

  6. workinacresnothours

    I am only a couple of pages in, I found kindle, yay. My memory being what it is takes me ages to read any novel, I have to read pages a few times for things to connect. I am loving, The Old Mill, its intrigue already has me hooked, you are so talented. Congrates again.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Resa. I found the drawing on newsprint, which would normally mean it came from a class I took, but I think I copied this from drawing or painting by Leonardo or other old Master and not from life.

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  8. Pingback: Galvin – The Old Mill | Trent's World (the Blog)

  9. Pingback: Jessica Franks – The Old Mill | Trent's World (the Blog)

  10. Pingback: Lyndsey Wallace – The Old Mill | Trent's World (the Blog)

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Perhaps it came across as too lighthearted… There are some lighter sections in the book, and even a little bit of humor and romance, but over all, this is the closest that I have written to “horror”. That is Stephen King style horror, not some of the new ultra-violent horror. Maybe I should emphasis her physical condition after being in a hot third floor room for several days… and so how her ghosts sometimes appears.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
        1. trentpmcd Post author

          I did edit it a little, but I think I think it was the tone and some of the word choices (that I can’t change because they are part of the book…) that made it slightly lighthearted. I am into the more subtle side of horror, and my WIP is very mild. Sometimes I think I don;t scare myself enough, so I’m not sure if it will scare anyone else ;)

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  12. Pingback: Gill Baxter – The Old Mill | Trent's World (the Blog)

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