As of Friday I’m six chapters into the 2nd draft of Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic – aka Dowser #2 – which means the novel is approximately a third done. I wanted to treat you to a bit of Jade by sharing my favourite bits so far. Warning, while these might be deemed as gems by myself, they have not been vetted by the editor, or betas, or proofed at all.
Chapter One:
“I’d known him for three months now and it still freaked me out when he looked at me too closely. Usually I pretended he was wearing some human expression when he did this stare, no talk thing. This time I imagined him frowning — I doodled it in my mind with a black marker over his —”
Chapter Two:
“Great, now with the running. The running always led places I really didn’t want to go. Like into blood and mayhem. Well, I guess I had just walked into the last batch of those …”
“Then I got hit by a bear.”
Chapter Three:
“Still, no trace of Kandy or Kett. No other magical glimmers, either. I was utterly useless. And utterly lost. Thank God my chocolate bar hadn’t completely washed away. Yes, I checked. I’m aware that reflects badly on me.”
“Desmond was absolutely gorgeous and dangerous in cat form. But, as a man, he was hard – almost overly muscled – and exceedingly difficult.
And completely naked.
Okay, Jesus. Of course, he was naked.
And now I was staring.”
Chapter Four:
“I put the SUV in park and loosened my seat belt thinking Desmond would want to drive, but after scowling at me for a beat, he simply crossed around to the door behind me. I checked out his backside in my side view mirror. What? I hadn’t seen him naked from behind.”
Chapter Five:
“I was haunted from within — from everything my sister did, and everything I didn’t stop her from doing.”
“You have remained silent for three minutes, Dowser,” Kett said. “I believe that may be a record of some sort.” Great, the vampire was attempting a joke. I was fairly certain that was one of the signs of the apocalypse.
“I was so going to run out of chocolate before Britannia Beach. No wonder Kandy stayed in wolf form. This way she had a major excuse for not participating in what masqueraded as a conversation, but was really just a sausage swing and measure.”
Chapter Six:
“A necromancer was sitting on my front stoop. Okay, I didn’t have a front stoop. A necromancer was sitting on the front steps of my apartment. A fledgling necromancer to be more exact.”
“Mort sided up to me, placing me between her and Kandy. The werewolf noticed and offered another spine-tingling grin. “Don’t let the blondness fool you, fledgling. The witch stabbed a 900-pound grizzly in the ass today. She just keeps her claws better hidden and painted pink.”
“My cat Lester loved marshmallows, even untoasted,” I said to Mort as I reached out to the magic surrounding the door, walls, and windows of my home. “If you accidentally left the bag out he’d totally molest it.”
“What?”
“Your magic tastes like toasted marshmallows.”
“And, so? Your cat is going to molest me?”
P.S. You can still win a Cupcakes (Etc) signed paperback through Goodreads this week. 800 people have signed up so far.
