UPDATE: Cindi 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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“Sex in a Cup,” the customer across the display counter requested. His voice was laced with as much innuendo as he could muster.
I reached for and automatically boxed this ninth cupcake — more chocolate butter icing with a wallop of cinnamon and cocoa in the batter. I ignored the come-on — with a smile that indicated my delight over his exuberance for my cupcakes, but which thwarted his attempt to start something other than buying them. The customer looked familiar, like maybe he’d been in the bakery a few times before. The vampire, however, was new. What the hell was a full-blood vampire doing in Vancouver anyway?
The vampire wasn’t interested in the child, whose mother had lifted her back onto her stool and directed her attention to the remainder of her cupcake. No one else seemed to notice the striking bloodsucker at the window, but then again, most people couldn’t see magic as well as I could. That was my little bit of talent. Well, that and the trinkets I made from magical bits I happened upon, but they weren’t powerful or useful. Just pretty bits to hang in a window and chime in the breeze.
One Rapture in a Cup, a yellow/chocolate swirl cake with cream cheese chocolate icing; a Buzz in a Cup, a mocha fudge cake with mocha butter icing; and an Ecstasy in a Cup, a double chocolate cake with lemon butter icing, rounded out the customer’s order. He liked chocolate almost as much as I did. Or he had a thing for anything provocatively named.
I crossed to the till, weaving for a second time around Bryn and Todd, who were moving a hell of a lot faster than me to fulfill customer orders. But then, being human, they weren’t distracted by the vampire examining my trinkets through the window.
I didn’t know vampires were attracted by shiny things, or I wouldn’t have hung so many in the front window. I really should pay more attention to Gran’s lessons. Too bad my grandmother was currently surfing in Tofino — yes, at sixty. The vampire might not be so bold confronted by a full-blood witch. I was only half, through my mother. I also had my mother’s eyes, medium blue or indigo, depending on whether a part-time guitar-playing poet was immortalizing them or not. I didn’t know any guitar players. I also didn’t inherit the Godfrey petite stature, pert nose, or magical prowess.
My father was some Australian backpacker, who my mother left — at sixteen — before she even knew she was pregnant. So all I’d inherited from him was my golden locks and sun-kissed skin. It didn’t bother me much, not even knowing my father’s last name or whereabouts. But then, I had Gran, and Gran was better than any other family in the world.
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Comment below to win an exclusive prerelease copy of Cupcakes, Trinkets & Other Deadly Magic!! New winner every Wednesday in June!!
I want, I need this book!!!! I’m getting excited just reading bits and pieces of this scene!!!
Nice!! I am just about to pick a winner for last week’s giveaway… just assigning numbers and putting them into a random generator. You might have won already!!
The random # generator just picked you, Cindi!! Emailing you now!!
Sounds very good!!! can’t wait to read more of this book!! it so far has given me a wider view of cupcakes that’s for sure!! 🙂 crossing my fingers in hope I win!!
LOL!! There are indeed a lot of cupcake mentions in this particular excerpt! Good luck!!
Reading this did not make it easy to stick to my diet yet I still want more! I hope I win!
Julia – the beta readers sent (almost) hate mail over the same issue – LOL!! I understand that having popcorn nearby to get you through the first chapter is paramount.
Does she have Love in a Cup? I’d like a dozen, please. I can’t wait to read this! This book is going on my must-have list. I can’t wait to read more and meet Gran! 🙂
Ah, Jen! Love in a Cup is one of Jade’s favourites … but not her absolute fav. You have to wait until the final pages of Cupcakes (Etc) to find out which cupcake she likes the best!
You know, of course, that I REALLY love the whole idea of this book. I will cross my fingers, cause I gotta have it . . .
Fingers crossed!!
I can’t wait for this book!! I have all her books and this one is going to be awesome. Of course, the more I read the more I crave CUPCAKES! I’m going to have to have a tub of chocolate icing near by when I read it, yikes…
Oooo, chocolate icing!! Good idea.
My roomie and I used to lay in our beds in the dorm and eat chocolate icing out of the can when we were feeling PMS’eee……
One of the funniest moments between my husband and I, early on in our ‘living together’ arrangement, was him coming home to find me eating a bowl of what he thought was butter. It was icing. I hadn’t bothered making cake to go with it.
LOL!!! Nah, only Paula Dean might indulge in a bowl full of butter . . . Grin
I finally got the time to read the second tidbit, and I can hardly wait for the book to come out! Besides the fact that it sounds fabulous on it’s own, are you putting in cupcake recipes? These sound incredible. Cakes and brownies are about the only thing I can cook. . . lol!
Actually, I was all geared up to make a separate recipe book for the cupcakes. I spent hours baking and taking pictures. Then, I decided it was taking too much time and readers would prefer I just write the next book instead!!
ROFL!!! Shoot all your notes and photos to me and I will Ghost it for you! 😉
Again … I feel like there might be an ulterior motive to this generous offer … hee hee!
Heeeee Heeeeee!!!! Just doin’ business, just doin’ business! (*grin*)