Hi everyone,
I'm happy to share with you a sneak peek of my upcoming novella, Witch Wood! Witch Wood is a Harvesting Series tie-in, much like Midway. But a shashka-toting someone may turn up in this novella. I'm excited for everyone to meet the newest characters in the series and my heroine, Amelia.
Harm
none, and be ready for zombies.
In
the little town of Brighton, Amelia’s practice of Wicca marks her as a
curiosity both at home and at school. But Amelia can’t change what she is.
Knowing how to see auras, heal, and cast spells comes naturally to her. Only
Madame Knightly, the ancient matriarch and owner of Witch Wood Estate, to whom
Amelia plays caretaker, doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, the crumbling old
mansion is full of oddities.
However, when modern treatments fail to make a dent in
the flu outbreak sweeping the globe, those who once ridiculed her white
witchcraft turn to Amelia for help. While her eucalyptus tinctures prove no
more effective than western medicine, her spell-casting is another matter. The
residents of Brighton soon depend on the very magic they once ridiculed to save
their lives
.
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Character Preview:
Sneak Peek:
The
aura around Mrs. Delaney
had faded from vibrant green to dull, sludge-colored green-brown as the last
class of the day wore down to its end. Despite the fact she was still standing
at the blackboard lecturing, a patient smile on her face, her energy told another
tale: she was about to drop. She turned and jotted some notes on the board. I
noticed that the chalk tray had left a white line of chalk across the back of
her black skirt in a none-too-flattering spot. I hoped the boys wouldn’t
notice.
“Witch,” a whisper came
from behind me. “Amelia…hey, witchy woman.”
Nate must have gotten bored.
Instead of just texting like everyone else, he was about to launch into his
tired barrage. I ignored him, hoping it would dissuade him, but pretending he
didn’t exist rarely phased him. He was the glowing center of his own universe.
Other people’s perceptions didn’t matter to him.
“Ah-meel-ya,” he chanted.
“Witch, why don’t you let me put some sex in your hex.”
I looked at Zoey who was
sitting beside me in the next row and rolled my eyes.
I was so over with this
day. With half the class out sick, Nate—hipster extraordinaire and total
douche—was running low on girls to hit on. Jenna and Sam, who sat behind Zoey
and me, usually acted as a buffer. For some reason I never understood, they
both liked Nate’s attention. But they were both absent. If I didn’t know it
would come back on me tenfold, I’d cast a spell to silence his disgusting mouth.
But I was a good witch, Glinda without the bubble, and I had no business
casting hexes.
“Rhyming? I didn’t know you
were that smart, Nate,” Zoey, who was less patient than me, shot back.
“Logan, you smell fish?”
Nate whispered to Logan who sat beside him. “Zoey, close your legs.”
Out of the corner of my
eye, I glanced at Logan. A newcomer, Logan had moved to Brighton at the
beginning of the year. I could see him and the soft purple and indigo glow that
always surrounded him.
Logan shifted uncomfortably
then frowned at Nate. “Don’t be a dick. Sorry, Zoey. Nate doesn’t have any
manners.”
Nate laughed. “Whatever. Oh,
Edward Cullen, you’re such a gentleman,” Nate teased him. “Like Zoey and Amelia
even matter.”
Since he first started
school, Logan had always lingered on the outskirts of Nate’s tribe. It seemed
that he wasn’t actually a jerk like Nate and his friends. And then there was
the other thing about him that set him apart. He was an A student, too busy
actually paying attention to what Mrs. Delaney had to say in class to be a
jerk. And today, Mrs. Delaney’s lecture focused on Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
I scanned around the
classroom. Of the less than a dozen students in class, half of them were on
their phones. Mrs. Delaney was explaining—mainly to the board at this point—the
meaning of the witches’ chant in the play.
“Hey, Amelia, can you brew
me a love potion to get Jenna to suck me off?” Nate whispered.
“Could you be any more
disrespectful?” Logan chided just as Mrs. Delaney, who’d finally had enough,
turned and faced the class.
“In the back…shush. Now,
someone tell me, which goddess is said to have been insulted by this play? Anyone
actually paying attention? Which goddess cursed Shakespeare’s work?”
I glanced back at Logan
through my long, wheat-colored hair. Most days we would race to be the first to
answer but not today. The last thing I wanted to do was draw more attention to
the fact that I knew about witchcraft. While I’d been practicing Wicca since I
was thirteen, the year I stumbled across a used copy of Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham in
a used bookstore, I’d always been different. Being Wiccan meant promoting
peace, protecting my environment, and feeling at one with the Great Mother. The
idiot behind me, however, didn’t know the difference between a devil worshipper—which
I was not—and Samantha from Bewitched.
And I wasn’t in the mood to explain to him that I only performed good magic, earth
and healing magic.
“Zoey?” Mrs. Delaney
called.
“Sorry, Mrs. D. I zoned.”
“Nate?”
“Pass.”
“Of course. Amelia?”
“I…” I began, then glanced
up at her. Mrs. Delaney was, by far, my favorite teacher. In the ninth grade,
she’d introduced me to Madame Knightly, the owner of Witch Wood Estate, whom I
took care of three nights a week and on weekends. I was eternally grateful for
the job. I’d already stashed away enough cash to pay for my first year of
college. Just the week before, I’d gotten my invite to Claddagh-Basel College
for an admission interview. It was really happening. I was going to study
Psychology at one of the best schools in the country. And all that had happened
because Mrs. Delaney, who kept crystals on her desk and wore a medicine bag
around her neck, had seen something in me that the others had ignored.
“Hecate,” I said then. “Hecate is the dark goddess named in the play. The
editor’s notes said that Shakespeare got the Weird Sisters’ chant from a real
witch and that Hecate cursed the play because of it. Some productions remove
Hecate just to get rid of the jinx.”
“Exactly. Well done,” she
said with a smile then glanced up at the clock. My eyes followed hers.
Thank the Goddess, the day
was done.
“All right, class. Please
review King’s essay on the use of symbolism in the play and compose a two-page
summary.”
“You’re kidding, right? School’s
gonna be closed next week,” Brant, a football player, grumbled from the front
row—where his coach had mandated he sit.
“Are you really asking me
that?” Mrs. Delaney replied, frowning at him. I could see her aura growing even
darker, sadder. She really needed to get out of here. “Thus far, they haven’t announced
a closure for Monday. Yes, we’re the last school in the county still open. But
still, read, write. It won’t hurt
you.”
A moment later, the bell
rang.
“Whatever,” Brant grumbled
under his breath then headed out the door.
“Let’s get out of here,”
Zoey said. Rising, she stuffed her book into her backpack.
Nate pushed past. “Sorry,”
he said as he pretended to trip, banging his crotch against Zoey’s butt.
“Screw you, Nate. Do that
again, and I’ll have Amelia cast a spell to rot it off,” Zoey warned him.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Freaks,” Nate said,
glaring from Zoey to me, but I couldn’t help but see the look of fear cross his
eyes. He wasn’t sure if I could really do something like that. In the end, it was
better that he didn’t know I would never, ever practice dark magic. Harm none
and do as you will, that is the motto of Wiccans. I wasn’t looking for trouble
to come back to me.
I dug into my bag. “Almost
forgot,” I said, handing Zoey as small, amber-colored vial.
“What’s this?” she asked,
looking at the bottle.
“Eucalyptus and rosemary oil,”
I replied. “Put it in your bath or on a cloth to inhale it. It helps keep your
respiratory system clear. Should help ward off the cold going around.”
“Thanks,” she said, opening
the bottle to take a sniff. “Ooh, my nose is burning.” She giggled.
Logan walked up behind Zoey
and me. “Hey, Amelia…you’re organizing the Halloween dance?” he asked.
His dark hair fell over his
black-rimmed glasses. He pushed it back then paused to arrange his scarf inside
his heavy winter pea coat. For autumn, it was terribly cold and the reports of
flu were already out of control. No wonder he was bundled up. His honey-colored
eyes crinkled in the corners when he smiled at me. My knees went soft.
“Uh, yeah. We’ve just
started planning. We’re still working on a theme.”
“Ms. Flynn says I need
another extracurricular. Mind if I help?”
“If you want,” I replied,
trying to play it cool when inside I was screaming like a tween at a Justin Bieber
concert. “The next meeting is Tuesday at six. We meet down at Studio,” I said,
referring to the local coffee bar where Zoey worked. When I wasn’t at Witch
Wood, I spent all my time there, especially when Mom was at work. The last
thing I wanted was to be penned up at home with my stepdad, Larry.
“Great. I’ll be there,” he
replied then looked at the vial Zoey was holding. “So, a white witch? For real?”
he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I know,
it’s weird, but, it’s just, you know…” I said, trailing off. It’s just what, Amelia? You’re a witch. Own
it.
Logan raised an eyebrow at
me.
“Yes, I’m a white witch. I
do healing and stuff. All-natural lifestyle. That kind of thing.”
“Dude?” Nate called to
Logan from the door.
Logan grinned at me. “You
do protection spells? I need one. My sister got that flu. She was puking all
night, and I hate being sick.”
“I do,” I said then arched
an eyebrow at him. “You really want me to—“
“Go for it. Please.”
“Okay then. This will just
take a minute.” I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and then tried to envision
the energy field, the aura, surrounding him. I envisioned white light passing
from me to him, surrounding him with a glowing white energy that would protect
him. With my mind’s eye, I inscribed this light with a protection rune that
glowed with glimmering blue light. In my mind, I chanted:
“Goddess Mother, may this light protect him from all
harm.
May this light keep away all illness.
May this light keep him safe from darkness.
May this light bring him peace.
So mote it be.
With thanks, I pray thee.”
I exhaled then opened my
eyes. I could still see the white light shimmering all around him. “Done,” I
said then smiled.
Logan grinned. “That easy?
Cool. I feel much safer now. Thanks, Amelia. See you next week,” he said then headed
toward the door.
“What were you doing?” Nate
asked Logan.
Logan shrugged off the
question, not answering, and they headed down the hall.
“God, I’m crushing on him
so hard right now. That was awesome. You should have seen how he was looking at
you. Lu-st!” she said, emphasizing
the last word in sing-song. “But I don’t get it. Why in the hell does he hang
around with Nate?” Zoey asked as she pulled her long black and mermaid blue
tresses out of the back of her jacket. They tumbled down her back to her waist.
“Their parents are
connected or something,” I replied. “Brianna and Brian said their dads work
together. And he’s new. He doesn’t know better yet. You heard him call Nate
out. He’s not like them.”
“Well, he’s definitely into
you,” Zoey said as we moved toward the door.
“Na. I’m just a curiosity.”
“Did you even register what
just happened? All guys secretly dig the weird girls, but I think Logan
actually likes you.”
“You think?” My heart
slammed in my chest.
“Guess you’ll find out Tuesday.”
“So mote it be,” I said
with a wink.
Ready for Witch Wood? The novella is part of another one of our multi-author collections. A group of gifted authors and I have got together to bring you The Witching Hour Collection!
Witch Wood releases October 1st but it's available for pre-order now!
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I just love your books and the covers are amazing! Good job!
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