Honeysuckle and Roses

Cypress Groves, Mississippi, 1980s. Benevolence Pumpkin, now a young Black woman in her thirties, has lived in a farmhouse on the sprawling farmland deep in the Mississippi Delta. Since childhood, she and her mother, Miss Beauty Pumpkin, have shared the home and land with Ezekiel Beals, a white man. Beauty Pumpkin, now long since passed, left Benevolence to become the overseer of the home and the carer of Ezekiel Beals.

One morning, Benevolence finds Ezekiel lying dead on the living room floor. Benevolence calls the local Sheriff, Louis Frances Roulette, to inform him that ol' Ezekiel is dead. What unfolds is a tale of mystery, mysticism, and heavenly murder-or at least that is what Benevolence is professing to Sheriff Louie. Benevolence will tell you herself what took place that morning.

In this tale, more will be revealed through the voice of distinct and colorful characters, and how they all became intertwined with the life of Benevolence Mae Pumpkin of Cypress Grove, Mississippi.

Jody Anne Iodice grew up on a rural country farm wandering the pastures for hours-dotted with its cows and baby calves, horses and their fillies and colts, dogs and their puppies, and her pet pig-all the while creating imaginative stories in her mind with a host of colorful characters. Since childhood, the author has always been akeen observer of the most intricate aspects of people and their surroundings; this set the stage for her fiction writing.When "Dr. Jody," is not working in her clinical private practice of thirty-two years, teaching master and PhD candidates in clinical and forensic science courses, or developing and facilitating integrative complementary oncology medicine programs at Piedmont hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, she spends her spare time doing one ofthe most enjoyable things she has done since childhood: engrossing herself in contemplation weaving tales full of robust characters, different eras in time, and beguiling locations setting the stage for her next novella or short story.