Update on the winner: Elienora of Elienora’s Kindle was selected by the random number generator to win an ecopy of Treasures (Etc), but she was sneaky and found the book up on Amazon late last week so she’d already read it – LOL! She requested a copy Spirit Binder instead.

Thanks to everyone who entered!!

The following is a (approx) 390 word excerpt from my upcoming release, Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic. This is not the final proof. Release date: June 19, 2014

Comment on this post to win a prerelease ebook (eARC) of Treasures (Etc). An excerpt and chance to win will be posted every Friday  leading up to the release date. A new winner will be selected by random number generator after 12noon PST on the following Friday. 

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR DOWSER  #1 & #2**

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The portal snapped shut behind me, leaving me alone for the first time in a very long time. Maybe as alone as I’d ever been. That was an odd thought.

Anyway, to the point. The shores of Loch More looked like any other lake surrounded by rolling green hills in the late afternoon light of a sunny, crisp day. So pretty. A really, really vibrant green, and seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Actually, this was the middle of nowhere. It was my second visit. I was seriously glad to see the empty pickup truck parked about a dozen feet away at the edge of the single-lane dirt road. I really hoped it wasn’t a standard shift. I might have forgotten to include that specification in my request. Yeah, look at me, Miss Plan-And-All-That.

I took a step toward the truck, my supple leather knee-high boots crunching the grass. It was obviously colder than I thought it would be. I could have put a jacket on over my leather getup, if only for show. Though to get my hands on a jacket, I’d have to seek out humans, and that was contrary to the objective of this brief excursion. I wasn’t interested in getting into a situation where Chi Wen’s horrific vision of the future had a chance to manifest. I was dodging destiny today … and caves … and loved ones for that matter.

So yeah, a jacket would have been a good idea. The dragons believed in training — and fighting, actually — in laced leathers. If I’d tried to change before leaving, I would have tipped my hand. Thankfully, I still had my trusty Matt & Nat satchel. My katana — a gift from my father — nestled between my shoulder blades where I wore it slung across my back. The two-handed, single-edged sword was easily accessible over my right shoulder. Its twenty-eight-inch blade was deadly sharp. The sword had been commissioned specifically for me — well, the alchemist part of me — and created as an empty vessel into which I could channel and store magic. The responsibility that came with such a gift weighed on me heavily, and I’d put my current plan into action only two days after Yazi had presented the sword to me.

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Comment below to win an exclusive prerelease copy of Treasures, Demons and Other Black Magic!

Wait! You haven’t read Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic or Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic yet? You can win that ebook instead, just let me know in your comment.

Bonus entries?? Do the above and add any or all of the following:

1. Sign up for my new release mailing list
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet giveaway info … such as:  Excerpt & Giveaway for the #DowserSeries via @mcdoidge – #win a pre-release eARC#ebook http://wp.me/pP9tA-HM
3. Like me on Facebook. I cannot ask you to post a link on your Facebook page because that is against FB’s code of conduct, but if you felt so inclined that would be lovely.
4. WordPress user? Like this post.
5. Blogger? Post a link to this post via your blog.
6. Subscribe to this blog (link on side bar).

Are you already following me on any or all of the above platforms or mailing lists? Thank you!! Just remind me in your comment so I remember to give you the extra entries!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED – THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED

The following is a (approx) 450 word excerpt from my upcoming release, Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic. This is not the final proof. Release date: June 19, 2014

Comment on this post to win a prerelease ebook (eARC) of Treasures (Etc). An excerpt and chance to win will be posted every Friday  leading up to the release date. A new winner will be selected by random number generator after 12noon PST on the following Friday. 

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR DOWSER  #1 & #2**

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With one hand on the invisible knife at my hip and one hand twined through the wedding ring charms on my necklace, I stepped out from the golden magic of the portal onto the shores of Loch More. Yeah, Loch More, as in Scotland.

The ground underneath my feet thrummed with wild magic and untapped power. Supposedly, all the grid points around the globe — where natural magic reigned — teemed this way. Too many thousands of years ago for me to comprehend the guardian dragons had set up a network of portals anchored at these points. I gathered the portals were rather helpful when it came to saving the world, which the guardians did constantly.

Thankfully such responsibility wasn’t my duty. No, my focus was much more personal.

I drew a little more of the shielding magic from my necklace, and the hair on the back of my neck settled. I unclenched my teeth. The land around me glowed — I could see for miles in all directions — but not with any specific color of magic. Rather, all the natural hues of the earth were intensified. I could actually see magic in the air I breathed.

I’d expected snow, seeing as it was the first week of November, but there wasn’t any. I wondered if that was like people who didn’t know Vancouver expecting it to snow there all the time, which it hardly ever did. Unlike the rest of Canada.

The sun was low in the sky. I’d misjudged the time, which reminded me I also wasn’t sure of the exact date though I’d tried to keep a rough calendar based on my infrequent calls home. My sleep schedule was erratic, now dictated by exhaustion rather than the rotation of the earth.

Time moved oddly in the dragon nexus. At least three and a half months had passed while I’d trained, studied, and pretty much did anything to avoid the fate waiting for me in the Sea Lion Caves, but it felt like more and less all at the same time. I supposed that was what destiny felt like … or was that inevitability?

Memories of the terror my sister Sienna had created in the caves along the Oregon coast — which, ironically, were a tourist attraction for some people — had melded over the past months with the bloody vision that Chi Wen, the far seer, had shared with me. A vision that showed my loved ones slaughtered on an altar. A vision that had stopped me from following Desmond and Kett back through the portal and kept me training like a woman fueled by vengeance. A vision, mixed with a memory, that had me formulating a plan.

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Comment below to win an exclusive prerelease copy of Treasures, Demons and Other Black Magic!

Wait! You haven’t read Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic or Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic yet? You can win that ebook instead, just let me know in your comment.

Bonus entries?? Do the above and add any or all of the following:

1. Sign up for my new release mailing list
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet giveaway info … such as:  Excerpt & Giveaway for the #DowserSeries via @mcdoidge – #win a pre-release eARC#ebook http://wp.me/pP9tA-HM
3. Like me on Facebook. I cannot ask you to post a link on your Facebook page because that is against FB’s code of conduct, but if you felt so inclined that would be lovely.
4. WordPress user? Like this post.
5. Blogger? Post a link to this post via your blog.
6. Subscribe to this blog (link on side bar).

Are you already following me on any or all of the above platforms or mailing lists? Thank you!! Just remind me in your comment so I remember to give you the extra entries!