UPDATE: Tamika has won the Cupcakes (etc) eARC from last week – YAY!!
The following is a (approx.) 450 word excerpt from my upcoming release, Cupcakes, Trinkets & Other Deadly Magic. Want to read more? Comment on this post to win a prerelease ebook (eARC) with your email address (e.g. name AT gmail DOT com). A new winner will be randomly selected every Wednesday throughout June. An excerpt and chance to win will be posted every Wednesday in June.
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The vampire stood at the door to my bakery.
My heart skipped a beat. The sun hadn’t even fully set — damn daylight saving time — and the vampire wasn’t even wearing sunglasses or a hat. He was old, then. Or maybe young? I never could remember whether their skin got more or less sensitive with age. But then, I’d never seen a vampire before, so there’d been no reason to remember my vampire lore lessons.
I was a magical dowser of sorts. I found and attracted magical things, so it wasn’t completely weird that a vampire wound up at my door — except the wards protecting my bakery should have safeguarded me from magical detection. If vampires were even capable of detecting magic on that level. Again I had no idea. I lowered my eyes to nestle a sixth cupcake into the box I was currently packing. Maybe if I ignored him, he’d go away. Because that always worked, right?
The bakery’s seating area was standing room only. The line of customers at the counter stretched almost to the door, as it always did in the hours after work and before dinner. Three of us always worked the counter for the final two hours of any week day. I moved along behind the display case parallel with my very human customer, dodged my employees Bryn and Todd, and added another cupcake to the box. Dark chocolate cake with strawberry butter icing — one of my favorites. I called it Love in a Cup. I made up cute names for all my cupcakes, and the occasional cookie I decided to bake. My bakery was aptly, though perhaps unimaginatively, named “Cake in a Cup”. I certainly never pretended to be a wordsmith or anything. Not all my customers were fully human, but even the magically lacking seemed to believe there was something extra special about my baking. A magical ingredient. There wasn’t.
I glanced up to check on the vampire. He was still on the sidewalk but had moved farther along the window to peer through the paned-glass. He seemed to be watching a little blond girl, who was maybe four and dressed in the prettiest pink ballerina outfit. The child had climbed off her stool and was straining her cake-crusted chubby fingers to reach for one of the trinkets hanging in the storefront window.
I placed an eighth cupcake in the box — a peanut butter-iced fudge cake I called Bliss in a Cup — without taking my attention off the vampire. He narrowed his ice-blue eyes at the child. With his short-cropped, almost-white hair, broad forehead, and lanky frame, all he needed was an uber chic ski jacket to look even more Scandinavian. He was probably sexy — in that angular, chiseled way — to anyone who didn’t know his love bites were deadly. I bristled, and reassuringly brushed my fingers over the invisible knife I wore underneath my apron. No one was going to be snacking on any children in my bakery.
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Comment below to win an exclusive prerelease copy of Cupcakes, Trinkets & Other Deadly Magic!! New winner every Wednesday in June!!
Awesome!!! Even if I don’t win, I’m going to read this book!!! Love the hot vampire, the invisible knife is amazing, I adore cupcakes, and the protagonist sounds like a real gem!!! going on my GR TBR shelf NOW!!
Cindi
Mommasez…blog
ccclubbs.com
Ha! Fantastic, Cindi! More excerpts every Wednesday through June. Good luck!!
Cupcakes and vampires? Mmmmm!!! AAAANNDDD it’s set in Canada! (I love when books take place in Canada!). Lkdj93 AT hotmail DOT com
Laura – most of my books are set in the Vancouver area… just some aren’t so obvious (yah know, apocalypse and all that – ha!) Good luck!!
That excerpt hooked me already! Moving to the top of my GR TBR pile now. Can’t wait!
Dana
dabluebell AT gmail Dot com
Fantastic!!
sounds like a awesome book. vampires. cupcakes, what more can a girl ask for..lol
I just want to know did he want to snack on the girl or was he just old and hasn’t been out for a few centuries and was just watching her, I can’t see a vampire biting a child. as for the cupcakes he might have been interested in those too..something new and different. he might however snack on the girl packing the cupcakes or was she just mesmerizing? I want to read this book and will win it or not but thanks for the chance to win a copy.
What more can you ask for?? There is more!! HA! The vampire is indeed a mystery … at the very least he is definitely ‘socially inept’.
Sounds like my kind of book. Really enjoyed the excerpt and look forward to reading the full story.
Thanks for posting on Good reads and the giveaway!
Melinda
MouseDOTminnieATgmailDOTcom
Melinda – good luck!! There will be a chance every Wednesday in June to win!! Thanks for coming over from Goodreads.
It’s seems to me from this sample this book will be an interesting reading. Tasty cupcakes, magic and vampires,need we more then this?:)
I know it works for me! Good luck!
Okay, this is awesome!!! Your words are beautiful and intriguing and even if I don’t win, I will be reading this 🙂 Thank you for the chance to win as always you are very generous with us 🙂
Oops forgot my email closkot at hotmail dot com 🙂
I love my giveaways!! Good luck!
This book sounds like great fun! (And exactly the sort of book I love to read, too!) I found your blog and mailing list thanks to your posts in a group we both belong to on Goodreads (Paranormal Addicts & Newbies – Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy). I would love to win a copy of Cupcakes…! My e-mail is jgrnlees AT gocougs DOT wsu DOT edu. Thanks for the opportunity to win this book!
Hi Jen! Thanks for coming over from Goodreads. Urban Fantasy’s are totally my favourite read right now as well. I wrote something I would want to read. Hopefully I pulled it off!! Good luck!
It was amazing, cupcaker lover check, vampire lover check, got this little slice of heaven from my goodreads group thanks can’t wait for me… tamikamclaurin AT hotmail dot com.
Thanks for reading and commenting (and therefore entering to win an eARC), Tamika!! I been putting the finishing touches on the manuscript all morning – YAY!
The random number generator picked you – YAY!! Emailing you now.
You hooked me – now I HAVE to know what happens just from reading your excerpt!
soireadthisbooktoday@earthlink.net
Fantastic!!