Liv Rancourt's Blog, page 43

The Year of the Short Story Continues: Two New Covers

  In January, 2011, my New Year's resolution was to submit something somewhere every month. I hoped that if I could get a few short story credits, I could parlay that into an agent and hopefully a book deal. Fast-forward 18 months, and here I am celebrating not one, but TWO releases in the month of June. 
First out is my short story "The Loft", which appears in the anthology Scared - Ten Tales of Horror. It's available NOW from Amazon and Smashwords. I learned a lot while working on "The Loft". My most important lesson was that, since I don't like reading horror - I think I made it through The Shining only because it was for college credit - I didn't know what I was doing when I tried to write in the genre. I didn't know the tropes, the touchstones, and while "The Loft" is a fun story, it might fall more into the suspense category than true horror. That's alright. I love working with the editor, Rayne Hall, and have learned a ton from each of the projects I've done with her.
Later this month, Still Moments Publishing will release Something Borrowed, Something Blue, an anthology of wedding-themed stories. My piece is called "The Ring Toss", and it's a sequel to "The Santa Drag", which appeared last December in Christmas Treats: Santa's Nice List . LOVE the story, LOVE the characters. It's a shamelessly chick-lit romance, and I hope you keep an eye out for it's release date. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the cover art:

Ain't it purty? I think every good Rancourtesan should have a pair of fancy blue pumps. Don't you?
;)
Peace,
Liv

Team Sophia: CANCER FREE!

Good morning WORLD! Isn't it a great day? Yeah, it's Monday, and yeah I keep shouting at you, but you know, it's worth it. Check out the email I got from my friend Stacey over the weekend:

So we are all x-rayed and proclaimed cancer free! Blood work has returned to normal, and hair is coming in at a nice rate! We will have to watch her remaining kidney carefully, and will visit the heme-onc clinic every three months to make sure all is well. Here are a few things I have learned:1. Like the bumper sticker says, cancer really does suck.2. Kids are stronger than adults ever could be.3. Seattle Children's LOVES their kids!
Sophia and I will never be able to cut a check worthy of Seattle Children's care and cure. Out of gratitude for what they have done for us, and all they continue to do for many kids, please consider making a donation through this great blog to Team Sophia, and on June 19th, Sophia, Liv & I will proudly walk into that hospital and deliver that donation. GO TEAM! 
 **********
Stacey's a pretty awesome Mom, and you guys, since March of this year, we've raised over $2000 to help send her and her daughter Sophia to visit Grandma & Grandpa in Hawaii. And when I say "we", I mean

YOU
the readers of this blog. YOU came together and made a community of caring, and I cannot thank you enough for that. You guys ROCK!

In my last Team Sophia post, I promised that half of every dollar donated would to to Seattle Children's Hospital, where Sophia received care. In the days that followed, YOU raised $300, so right now we have $150 to take to SCH. And right now, Stacey and Sophia have their tickets to Hawaii (along with several nurses who will help care for Sophe while she's there), so any money you donate between today and 6/19/12 will go to the Children's Hospital Foundation. Let's see if we can double that $150 check, okay? If everyone who reads this kicks in the cost of a latte, we'll blow them away.

Sophia has had so many challenges in her life - most recently thistango with the big CA (that would be cancer) - but through it allshe's been a tough and resilient little warrior. She's a SUPER GIRL! And you, my dear Rancourtesans, are simply awesome!
(Keep an eye on this blog for some HAWAII PHOTOS! And if you're new here, the "DONATE" button up in the top right corner goes to a PayPal account that's been set up to benefit Sophia and her Mom. 100% goes to them, and you can use your PayPal account or credit card. Thank you!)

Friday Possibilities

So this week has been crappy. Sorry, kids, but that's just how I feel. Seattle has a gun problem and I have a middle school girl problem and the poor people are STILL starving.

Damn

But you know. pouring the contents of my navel into this blog wouldn't be entertaining. You'll have to trust me on that one, my dear Rancourtesans. Not attractive. Instead of dwelling on the bad (which, more often than not, has jumped up and grabbed me by the tonsils), I've been meditating on possibilities. Like, what can I learn from all of this?

And more importantly, can I change up the way I'm looking at things to find a different place to hang out? Perhaps a prettier place, where the people are nicer and the kids smile more? Oh, and as long as I'm at it, where everyone's thin and athletic and beautiful?

Oh, wait. That's LA.

Nah, I'm kidding. I looked at a couple of comedy videos, but they weren't quite the lotion I needed. Instead, as I've done for most of my life, I started listening.

To Ella.

Because, it doesn't get much better than that. 

Trolling the Ella Fitzgerald videos on YouTube, I came across this one for One Note Samba  which actually captures what I was after. She uses her voice as an instrument, and while most serious vocalists will tell you that their voice IS an instrument, the addition of words, of text, of poetry, usually forces the voice into a different category than, say, a trombone or clarinet. Listen to Ella, and hear the possibilities. She demands that you rethink your expectations for vocal and instrumental music.

I was talking about this stuff with Noni, and she came up with another piece that's headed in the same direction. This video of the Miles Davis song Freddie Freeloader is performed Bobby McFerrin, Jon Hendricks, Al Jarreau, and Geogre Benson. They use their voices for what are typically instrumental parts, and while they do use lyrics, the words are incidental. The important thing is the sound, the music.

And I suppose it's appropriate to turn to this style of music right now, since one of the shootings in Seattle happened in a cafe that has regular live jazz performances. It's going to take a while to see the possibilities in that situation, so for now holding onto the memories will have to do.

So hug your babies even when those babies are caught up in the throes of adolescent angst, cuz life is short and unpredictable. Remember that the only thing you can control is your own response to the random things that happen. And enjoy a little more Ella as she sings about the Stairway To The Stars.
Peace,
Liv

 

Writing for the YA Crowd by Christine Hughes

  And so, my dear Rancourtesans, I'm taking a break from my blog vacation (blogcation?) to introduce you to another of the fabulous writers whom I've met through Black Opal Books. Christine Hughes is gearing up for the big release of her first novel, TORN, and I'm pleased to have her here to talk about writing for young adults. Keep reading, cuz you'll see there's a sneak peek at TORN down below, and it looks awesome. Thanks so much, Christine, and all the best with your release.Peace,Liv
Thank you for having me on your blog! I am very happy to be here.When I was writing TORN, I had to remember my protagonist, Samantha, was not an adult. Sure, she was experiencing adult situations and adult emotions but she was 17. The reactions and mannerisms of a 17 year-old, no matter how mature, are going to be very different from the reactions and mannerisms of someone five, ten or fifteen years older. As much as I wanted her to be able to hold a conversation with the vocabulary of the kids from Dawson's Creek, I wanted her to be real. Don't get me wrong, I've met students with high level vocabulary but there is something jaded about using words for the sake of using them. And I wanted Samantha to be regular teenage girl with regular teenage girl issues and doubts. It was bad enough I was dropping fate on her shoulders, I did the best I could to make her as real as possible. I was an English major in college and was a middle school English teacher for some time so I’m no stranger to the phenomenon that is Young Adult Literature. YA is like this thing, this creature that infiltrates the minds of young men and women, occasionally crosses over into grown-up land and opens up worlds.When I decided to write, no question – my first book was going to be YA. I loved crafting my characters to fit the idiosyncrasies of the intended audience. I knew the message in the pages would need to rise to the level of a thought provoking, conversation starter and I truly hope I’ve been able to do just that. Only time will tell, of course. With that said, writing YA is not easy. It’s hard to forget sometimes that teens aren’t snarky for the sake of being snarky. It’s hard to remember that Mean Girls is just a movie. It’s hard to process that these kids discuss adult issues, deal with adult problems and unfortunately have to grow up faster than I remember having to. The point is, my two cents on writing YA is this – remember these kids are so much different than when many of us grew up. They know more, they see more and they expect more from a book that “happily ever after”. They want variety. If you can give them something to think about, something to talk about and something to share, they’ll read your book and pass it along to their friends. 
TORN will be released June 9, 2012 and is currently available for pre-order at Black Opal Books.
Bio: A former Army brat, Christine Hughes moved quite often. She spent much of her time losing herself in books and creating stories about many of the people she'd met. Falling in love with literature was easy for her and she majored in English while attending college in New Jersey.Not sure where her love of reading and writing fit, she became a middle school English teacher. After nine years of teaching others to appreciate literature, she decided to take the plunge and write her first novel. Now at home focusing on making writing her new career, she spends her time creating characters and plot points instead of grading papers.Music has become an integral part of her writing process and without the proper play list, Hughes finds the words don't flow. At least a few times a week she can be found at the local Barnes & Noble with her Mac and headphones working on her next novel.
Torn Blurb: With the sudden, mysterious death of her father, Samantha discovers her life isn’t what it seems. Not only isn’t she the normal teenage girl she thought she was, Sam must now take her father’s place in the fight between two groups of fallen angels—the Faithful and the Exiled—in a race to save humanity. In addition to dealing with the devastating betrayal of her friend and her feelings for someone she is forbidden to love, Sam must also fight the growing darkness within her as she struggles to make a choice between fighting alongside the Faithful or succumbing to the temptation of the Exiled. Both sides require sacrifices Sam isn’t sure she can make.
 Chapter 1
SeptemberThe Cabin
Run, Samantha. Don’t look back. Just run.I repeated this mantra over and over again as I sprinted through the trees. Focused, like my life depended on it and knowing that one day it would, I ran. Through the damp woods, past branches that tore at my skin, and hurdling over logs, I ran. My breath mingled with the crisp fall air but I didn’t feel the cold. I felt nothing but the pure and relentless adrenaline that pumped through my veins. As the sun rose and cast its broken beams through the trees, I ran. With only a single thought: I have to get there.I knew he was following me. He was close. So close. I couldn’t let him catch me.My legs carried me over slick moss and rotting bark. I flew over downed trees, grabbing for branches to help me over. I was fast. Faster than before. Faster than yesterday. My focus was singular. The task at hand was all I could think about. Get through, Sam. Faster, Sam. Jump, Sam.I swore I could navigate those woods with my eyes closed. I could see the next obstacle that lay ahead of me yards before it came into view. And when I concentrated hard enough, those obstacles began to disappear.I burst into the clearing and could faintly make out his barely labored breathing behind me. He was so close I could smell him. I dug in and pumped my legs faster. Always faster. I knew I was going to beat him this time. I had to. I closed in on my destination. All I had to do was jump. I had to make it over the water. Over the creek on the other side of the clearing. Samannnnnnthaaaa…. Run!The intrusive voice pulsed through me and drowned out the mantra in my head, breaking my rhythm and I stumbled over a rock I was sure hadn’t been there yesterday.Damn it!The eerily familiar voice that had settled comfortably in my head like a squatter, had the worst timing It teased like a schoolyard bully and I wanted to scream. But I couldn’t. I had to run. I was almost there. Come on, Sam. Fifty feet. Forty feet. Thirty feet. Almost there. As I braced my body for the jump over the swollen creek, he caught my ankles in mid-air and dropped me to the ground with a bone jarring tackle onto the muddy bank.“Son of a bitch,” I growled.I fought back, jumping up the way I was taught, fists at the ready. I caught him off guard, for the first time, with a jab to the chin and a roundhouse to the stomach. Then I did a back spring, landing well out of his reach and quickly regrouped. The grin on his face as he rubbed his chin told me I surprised him with that one. And now I was in trouble.“Lucky shot, Sam. Nice kick. Too bad this one’s on me.” His cocky bravado triggered an extra jolt of adrenaline inside me. He’s not gonna take this round. Not this time.For a few seconds we circled each other, anticipating the other’s next move. He crouched and lunged at my knees. I jumped to grab the branch above me and he missed, sprawling out in the dirt. But not for long. He was on his feet again before I’d even let go of the tree, his eyes merely blue slits of predatory focus. I had a total of three seconds to figure out my next move before he lunged again, targeting me mid-waist.Instinctively, I dropped to the ground, and sprung forward, drilling him into the trunk of the nearest tree. Rain had started to fall, shrouding the sound of my movements as I quickly disappeared behind the brush. I needed to work out how to nail him with an element of surprise.He growled in frustration but his annoyance didn’t matter. I was winning. I could feel it.My hands and knees were scraped and dirty. My hair was a tangled mess and the sudden rise in humidity brought on by the rain wasn’t helping. The scent of decaying vegetation around me did nothing to mask the stench of my sweat.His voice taunted me. “Come out, come out wherever you are. You can’t hide from me forever. You think you can camouflage yourself from me? I can smell you.”Think, Samantha.He was right. I couldn’t sit there all day getting soaked in the rain waiting for him to find me. Through a small gap between the leaves, I could see him looking, scanning the trees and underbrush. Then his eyes focused where I crouched. I needed to act, now.The forces of nature seemed to heed my need for action and the sky erupted, complete with booming thunder and darting strikes of lightning. I belly crawled behind bushes until I was on his right. His eyes still boring into the spot I’d just vacated, he took a step forward.I slowly stood and crept up next to him. He turned around and I caught his cheek with a right hook but he grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. I yelled, in surprise and  pain. The look on his face made him almost unrecognizable and for a moment I was paralyzed as the maniacal voice stole through me once again.Samannnnnnthaaaa… Run!He took advantage of my shock and swept my legs out, dropping me face first into a vat of mud.So not how I had envisioned this ending.

Preconceptions and Misconceptions with Mona Karel

Well, it's Saturday, and here in the States, it's the start of a holiday weekend. And here in Seattle, it's uncharacteristically sunny. I can't think of a better way to wrap up a crazy busy week than by welcoming a guest to the blog. I'd like you to meet Mona Karel, one of my fellow Black Opal Books authors. Mona is celebrating the recent release of Teach Me To Forget, her second book with Black Opal. She's got an interesting spin on how a books jacket blurb can give you the wrong impression....;)


The Blurb for Teach Me To Forget reads like this:
Her past was behind her...or so she’d thought. Bethany Acton has come a long way from the day she was an abused child-bride of a dissolute jet setter. Now divorced and single, she writes for a lifestyles magazine, lives out of her motor home, and answers only to her boss—when he can find her. She has overcome her horrendous past and taken control of her own life. But when Jonathan Merritt, a rising star in wildlife photography, enters her world, she learns control is a tenuous thing. His past was despicable, but it hasn’t affected his future...until now. Jonathan knows he has met the woman with whom he wants to spend his future, but first he must admit his role in her past. Afraid the truth will turn her against him, he tries to gain her trust and affection before confessing. But the longer he hesitates, the harder it becomes to tell her. Can Jonathan gain enough of her love and trust for her to forgive what he did—or will his past indiscretions destroy his only chance for happiness?
***            I feel so fortunate to have Black Opal Books to help with the blurbs!  I can come up with the basic information but Lauri has a way of polishing the words until they sparkle and grab attention.  My late husband’s cousin was putting out the word on Teach Me To Forget, and shared this comment from a friend of hers (reproduced here with permission)

“So there are lots of steamy scenes, and then Jonathan tells her his secret, and she's shocked and hates him and throws him... and then discovers, when he's gone, that she loves him and needs him? (Is that close? lol)”
            To which the cousin said “No, not in the least,” and left all of us laughing.  But also set me to thinking.  The cousin’s (male) friend had formed an opinion based on his knowledge of romance books and for a lot of books he got pretty close to the truth.  Romance books all too often do (at least loosely)  follow a set pattern.  Is this lazy writing, or is it writing the book people want to read?  We often praise a book for being “different, outside the norm.”  But too often the success goes to the book that is “the same, but different.”             And people wonder why writers are strange?
Nah, we're not strange, Mona. Are we?Heh.I think Teach Me To Forget sounds awesome. Thanks for telling us about it.Peace,Liv
Teach Me To Forget is available from Amazon and Black Opal Books.

Monday Morning Post: Mash-up Edition

Now today, my happy Rancourtesans, I've put together a few fabulous writing-related blog links that I hope you'll enjoy as much as I did. There's some really good stuff here, and starting a Monday off with a little learning is bound to make the rest of the week go well. Besides, it's raining like crazy here in Seattle, so we may as well stay inside and do some reading...
First up, I tripped over this one in my Twitter stream this morning, and it resonated for me because I've been reading Save The Cat, Blake Snyder's book on screenwriting. Check out Meg McNulty's Writing Blog From Darcy to Dionysus and her post, A Plea for Character Development. It's a great reminder of what's REALLY important.
Then I found this post from the blog The Other Side of the Story with Janice Hardy. This is my fave writing blog, and last Friday's post was particularly good: The Best Advice On Plotting I've Ever Heard.
I recently joined a new Triberr tribe, and one of the members, Veronica Sicoe, blogs about writing at Vero/Building Character. Her post The Key Element of Powerful Fiction is something you can live by.
This post from Nikki McCormack's blog Dancing on the Treetops in the Forest of my Mind is interesting all by itself, but the comments it generated are just as good. It's a look at the whole ebook vs tree-book conundrum (& thanks, Ellen G - I think that's the first time I've ever seen the phrase tree-book). What's missing in ebooks, or, Pizza without black olives
Finally (and somewhat shamelessly) I'm including a link to Laird Sapir's blog Shabby Chic Sarcasm. Her Sunday post, In The Coop, was kind of funny, if I do say so myself.;)
Hope you enjoy all these posts, and that you each have a fabulous week.Peace,Liv
Photo credit: http://www.dreamstime.com/window-curt...

Steampunk Primer

Hello my dear Rancourtesans...

Did you see Noni gave my blog readers that name in yesterday's post? How cool is that?!
She also promised we'd come up with something funny for today's post. 

Well, we didn't.

Oops.

Sleep deprivation is a bad thing. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. Anywhoodle, back to my original plan, which was to jump on the Steampunk bandwagon. Because there's more to life than vampires. (Was that my out-loud voice? Shhh...)

Now, I'm not one of those people who dress up like pseudo-Victorian fantasies. I have no problem with it, if that's what you're into. I'm just not sure I could manage the long skirts. And the corsets. All the women seem to wear corsets.

I do love books that have a Steampunk vibe, though. The genre can cover a lot of ground, from books that rework English history, like the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger, to those that rethink the American West, like Dead Iron by Devon Monk. Check them out if you haven't already.

Steampunk can travel in a post-apocalyptic direction, like The Iron Seas books by Meljean Brooks. Her book The Iron Duke might be one of my all-time favorite books ever. EVER. And then we can't leave out vampires entirely. Steampunk can definitely go paranormal, like the book I'm reading now, Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson (which is a rockin' good read so far).

The key to making something Steampunk is to include modern-ish technology and give it a Victorian spin, like fancy airships that run on steam, or little clockwork gizmos like the bird in the picture to the right. A lot of the mechanical stuff is inspired by the stories of HG Wells and Jules Verne, and you can find Steampunk in movies and music, too, as well as the art that's featured in the video above.


So if vampires let us play with ideas about life, death and aging and werewolves help us work through man vs animal dilemmas, what does Steampunk do? Give us the chance to work out the implications of the Industrial Revolution? Remember fondly when the British Empire was all that? Or, just put girls in corsets?
Give it some thought, and let me know what you come up with.
Peace,
Liv

 Wikipedia: Steampunk is a genre which originated during the 1980s and early 1990s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history,horror, and speculative fiction. It involves a setting where steam power is widely used—whether in an alternate history such as Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United States, or in a post-apocalyptic time —that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion,culture, architectural style, and art. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or the contemporary authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld and China Mieville.

Photo credits
Steampunk models: http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/13987565
Steampunk bird:  http://mullaniumbyjimandtori.com/catalog/songbirds

Friday update...Noni saves the day!

Hey, y’all. Noni here.
I’m just checking in to tell you that Friday Fun will be moving to Saturday this week. Liv’s alter ego has worked approximately eleventy-hundred hours at her real-world job this week, and she is, as she put it, “somewhere beyond tired.” So now she’s going seepy night night for a while.
But never fear, Rancourtesans. Tonight she and I will sit down over (wait for it) a cocktail or two, and craft a razor-sharp, painfully witty blog post for your Saturday morning amusement.
Failing that, we’ll sit around and eat chips and giggle like fools at stuff the 12-year old says and find something to throw onto the blog at the eleventh hour.
But there’ll be something for you to see. Pinky swear.
Have a lovely Friday, dear ones, and thank you for your continued support of my darling Liv.
Kisses,
NONI

Irish Fairy Tales & Enchanted Roses....by Sophie Moss

So I was trolling Twitter a couple months ago and saw a tweet that caught my eye. It was a link to a new romance, The Selkie Spell. "Hmm," I thought. "I like Selkies." And while I confess that I was referring to Nicole Peeler's character Jane True at the time (but that's another freaky fan-girl post), I followed the link, read the blurb, and hit the buy button.
And despite the height of my TBR pile, I read the thing. And loved it!
After that, every time I saw a tweet about The Selkie Spell, I forwarded it, and after a while, I started chatting with the author, Sophie Moss. I invited her to do a guest post on my blog, and today, I'm very excited to say she is here! 
I'm going to shut up now and let Sophie tell you about what inspired The Selkie Spell and it's sequel, The Selkie Enchantress.
What is it about fairytales that draw us to them? Is it because they awaken that long lost dreamer inside us? That hidden part of us that still yearns to believe in magic, true love, and the power of good over evil? I write Irish fairy tale romances so I can go back to that place every day. My stories are magical and mysterious and filled with enchantments that usually come in the unsuspecting form of a beautiful rose.

Each story in the Seal Island Trilogyincludes a different colored rose with a unique, magical power. In The Selkie Spell, American doctor Tara Moore is in hiding and cannot reveal her true identity, but she uses the mysterious, fast-growing red rose petals as an herbal remedy to heal ailing islanders. But the magical power of Tara’s roses goes far beyond medicine when they begin to play a part in unraveling the mystery of a centuries-old Irish curse.
In The Selkie Enchantress, coming out this summer, the magical roses are white and hold secrets to unlocking a mysterious Irish fairy tale that has remained hidden for hundreds of years, overlooked even by seasoned professor of Irish folklore, Liam O’Sullivan. When the petals of a white rose grown in winter start to fall, the legend is set in motion. And only one woman holds the power to change the ending before the last petal falls.
  When I started writing, I knew I wanted to weave magic into my stories. But I wasn’t sure how until discovering the selkie legends of Ireland, and I was drawn to them as naturally as the selkies were drawn to the sea. As a writer, or reader, have you ever stumbled across a fairy tale that pulled to you? That you went back to re-read again and again? What is it about that story that spoke to you?      
Sophie Moss writes contemporary Irish fairy tale romances. Her stories are full of magic, mystery, and small-town Irish charm. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Vermont. When she's not writing, she's tending to her garden. She has a strange knack for finding four-leaf clovers and writes best while sipping a Guinness. http://sophiemosswrites.com/
   The Selkie Spell is available from Amazon. The Selkie Enchantress will be available soon, and Sophie's sharing a sneak peek at the cover art with us today. Isn't it pretty? Thanks, Sophie, for  stopping by!Peace,Liv

Monday Morning Post: Release Day Edition

So the other day my buddy Jillian Chantal's Facebook update said something like, "Yikes! They've moved my release day from June to May 14!".

That's what happens when you're organized and get your edits in on time.

Of course, I shot her an email to see if she wanted to post something here. She was game, and so here's a spicy little excerpt from Season of the Witch for you to check out. Haven't read it yet myself, but will be adding it to the TBR pile soon.
Peace,
Liv



~ Excerpt ~

He turned to her and she had to force herself from gasping at his beauty. He was most certainly not old. He looked at her with eyes the color of a glacier. She was immediately transported in her mind to Glacier Bay in Alaska, where she’d seen the calving of the ice into the ocean. His eyes pierced her soul. They seemed to see into the depths of her mind.

“Are you all right?” He peered at her. He spoke with what sounded like a Russian accent.

She shook her head as if to clear it. “I’m fine. Sorry, I was just gazing into my crystal ball. I’m still in a sort of trance. She hoped the lie wasn’t obvious.

“So, you are a seer then?”

“Do you need some help?”

He walked toward her. “I do. Have you heard about the recent cat killings?”

Again, she had to stop herself from gasping. This was exactly what she was trying to investigate on her own. “Yes. As a matter of fact, I have heard of these horrible ritualistic killings. In fact, when you came in, I was looking into my ball to see if I could see anything at all related to who may be behind it.”

He stepped closer until he was in her personal space. “What did you find?”

She took a step back, flustered by his masculinity and something that seemed vaguely feline. She tossed her head for clarity. “Nothing. I got nothing.”

“Hell. I need to get a lead on this. I was hoping you could help me.”

“I wish I could. I’m also trying to figure out who’s behind it. If it’s one person or an organization.”

“Why? Why are you involved?” He looked around the shop, “Do you think it’s witchcraft?”

“Uh-uh. Not necessarily. Just because my shop is called The Season of the Witch and I sell herbs and New Age items, doesn’t make me think everything is related to witchcraft.” She went behind the counter to get more distance from the man who was decidedly too disturbing to her senses. “And besides, wouldn’t it be a cliché for ritualistic killings of cats to be related to satanic worship?”

“No. I mean, why do you care? Why are you investigating?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” She leaned on the wooden top of the counter.

“I asked you first.” He winked and leaned in from his side of the counter until his nose was almost touching hers.

Wanna read more?  Season of the Witch is available from Secret Cravings Publishing.