Enjoy a snippet of Finding Spell

Tori Perrell closed her eyes against the bright sun and hot breeze already wafting across the water this early in the day. She reached up and sliced her arm through the cool, refreshing water in her best imitation of a backstroke. Soothing water flowed over her body as she tried to settle the gusting currents of thoughts swirling around in her head. She raced through the water trying to outdistance several demons storming through her mind. Unfortunately, they surged along with her.

Last night, at her best friend’s bachelorette party, they’d all had a few too many drinks. Knowing no one would be going farther than up a flight of stairs after drinking had probably contributed to the whipped-up frenzy of alcohol and the blast of ancient embarrassing storytelling. One of the hazards of having a group of friends since childhood and why she was using the pool to soothe her headache.

The hurricane of long-buried memories released demon number two. Tori dropped her head, flipped over, and pushed off the wall in a smooth motion. She was happy Lucy found someone to share her life. And she was happy for Ashley with her husband and toddler. And the list went on. Tori was happy for all her friends, she truly was. An image blasted across her mind of her and Craig whirling their way along the lamp-lit path of the college Quad practicing the moves they’d learned in fencing class that morning. Tori lost her rhythm and swallowed bitter, chlorinated pool water instead of air.

Coughing and sputtering, she stood up. Tori pushed her straight shoulder-length brown hair back from her face as she crawled doubled over and coughing out of the water. She grabbed one of the nearby fluffy Egyptian-cotton towels with the hotel’s crest of the sandpiper embroidered on it in teal silk thread. She wrung the water out of her hair and tried to breathe normally. Her throat was already sore from gut-wrenching coughs, and her headache was worse.

Tori heard the staccato rapping of high-heels and looked up at the back terrace of The Resort at Pipers Beach, the boutique hotel she managed. Her best friend, Lucy swooped down on Tori like a visiting angel with her halo of long golden curls and happy smile on her face. Only because tomorrow was Lucy’s wedding day did Tori give her best friend a pass for being too cheerful instead of battling a hangover like Tori was. Luckily, all the other women headed home before Tori went for her swim, so no one else saw her embarrassing moment.

“Here,” Lucy held out a tall glass of water. “We heard you coughing all the way inside.”

Tori gratefully took the glass and drank greedily.

“You know you’re not supposed to drink the pool water,” Lucy giggled nervously as her own joke.

Tori walked around to the back side of the outdoor bar and set her glass in the sink. “You know, if this were any other weekend, you’d have paid for that remark. But I promised I’d be nice to you on your special days.” Tori made a face at her friend, then wrapped the large towel around her waist in a sarong. Tori moved her hand in a swirling motion around her head, her hair billowed out as a heated gust surged around her. A moment later, the air was once again calm and Tori’s hair dried. She raked her fingers through the few wind-induced tangles.

Tori saw a look of envy cross her friend’s face, but then, Lucy broke into that annoying, self-satisfied smile that happy brides-to-be get when they want to set their single friends up on a blind date. “Since I have Carte Blanche, I’ll have to see what I can get away with this weekend.”

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*This snippet is straight out of my work in progress. It hasn’t been edited and may not look like this in the final book. But I thought it would be fun to share.

Something dark streaked out at her from between two homes. A large dog headed right for her. Rachel was already running at top speed and the dog was gaining on her.  Speeding up to lose it was not an option.
She reached for her pistol and remembered she hadn’t wanted to bring it on her run. She cursed herself for a fool. Rachel slowed down so she could maneuver better to avoid the dog’s teeth.
But…
The dog slowed down too.
The dog was young, maybe a year old. The black and brown markings of a German Shepard had been what increased her breathing above its already heaving level. But this dog didn’t act like a military-train shepherd in attack mode. The oversized puppy keeping pace with Rachel had its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth, both ears flopped as it loped alongside her.
Rachel slowed to a stop. The dog stopped a few feet away and sat staring at Rachel. The thin, gangly pup had the most beautiful and un-nerving, bright blue eyes. Did pure-bred shepherd have blue eyes, she wondered.
The pup sat there with her tongue still hanging out of the side of her mouth and her tail kicking up the gravel from the road. One ear hung partially over her eye and the other ear lay across the top of her head. But it was those blue eyes that felt like they could look into her soul that had Rachel squatting down and holding her hand out.
“Hi, sweetie.”
The dog started forward then sat back down. She whined and shifted in place.
“What are you doing about at this hour, huh?” This time when Rachel spoke, the dog crept toward her in a slightly hunched stance.
She let Rachel scratch behind her floppy ears.
“You are a cutie. Yes, you are.”
The dog almost knocked Rachel over as it tried to crawl into Rachel’s lap.
After a few moments of staring into those beautiful blue eyes and rubbing behind the dog’s ears, Rachel stood up and scanned the nearby houses. None had lights on or any indication anyone was awake. In fact, most of the homes around her looked vacant. Like the homes of snowbirds who had already moved north.

*This snippet is straight out of my work in progress. It hasn’t been edited and may not look like this in the final book. But I thought it would be fun to share.

Rachel inhaled and tasted the salt in the air. The sound of waves crashing on the shore reached her ears. She wasn’t in Chicago, anymore. There, the air would have tasted of car fumes and her ears would have been accosted by the latest gang favored music so loud it vibrated her sternum. Here, in this small coastal town, major gangs didn’t run rampant.
Rachel walked through the opening between two long buildings, past the unopened shops leading to the main boardwalk. The early morning sun bounced a golden light off the carved wooden signs above the shop windows on one side of the pedestrian walkway.
She followed the sidewalk to the break in the wall of shops. On the corner of the ally and main thoroughfare, Rachel walked past the old-fashioned candy shop with the taffy pulling equipment in the window, Crand’s Confection Emporium. In a few hours, when the shop opened, there would be brightly colored strings of candy looped and stretched on that machine beaconing kids of all ages to enter the shop. That same machine had beaconed her on a vacation or two as a child.
The main boardwalk was a wide expanse of concrete running a mile in either direction. As she stepped out from between the buildings, the sun came fully out from behind a cloud. Even her Oakleys had trouble filtering out that bright of a light. Rachel put her hand up to her forehead to shade her eyes and surveyed the beach.

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I’m working on a number of writing projects. One of them is set in the present in the small town of Pipers Beach.

The town of Pipers Beach is a small, community of people who care about each other. The town and the people in it aren’t perfect. If they were, what fun would that be?

Pipers Beach is a place I want to escape to. Until I can find it on a map, I’ll keep writing about the town. I hope you enjoy stopping by for a visit sometime soon.

I’m lucky to be part of a wonderful, supportive group of writers call Phoenix Prime. We gathered together to increase the quality and quantity of our writing in a collaborative atmosphere.

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