Wednesday Writers–The Chronicles of the Red Silk Dress by Yasmine Phoenix

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book excerpt, fantasty, Magic, romance, The Chronicles of the Red Silk Dress, Wednesday Writers, Yasmin Phoenix

Welcome to Wednesday Writers! Author Yasmine Phoenix is our guest today sharing her magical fantasy stand-alone novel The Chronicles of the Red Silk Dress. The novel is Book Two in the Witches Brew Here’s a peek at the book. And welcome to you, Yasmine!

When love stalls, who are you going to call? Red a mystical and magical red dress created to help women discover love and recognize their self-worth.

Delphine Richards is the founder and CEO of Plum Events a successful party planning company in Chicago. The holidays are the busiest and Valentine’s Day is the last one of the season. Her employees work hard to create spectacular parties and stay out of Delphine’s way. She hates this day for lovers.

Kevin Poe, her fiancé, broke up with her a year ago on Valentine’s Day. Since then she’s dedicated her life to growing her business. Love won’t destroy her again.

Kevin Poe loves Delphine but her constant interference in his teaching career drove a wedge between them. When one of Kevin’s students needed him, Delphine neglected to tell him. That was the final straw. If Delphine couldn’t stop trying to change him, then they shouldn’t be together.

Enter Red, a mystical and magical red dress sent to help Delphine rediscover love and realize she can’t control everyone and everything – including herself.

EXCERPT

The laughter and chatter in the reception area stopped. The only sounds were feet beating retreat as employees scattered to their offices or found something to do not requiring being on the front line, hard, steady heeled steps came their way.
“Good morning, Delphine,” the receptionist said brightly.
“Yeah,” was the snarky response.
Gigi stood in the doorway. Patti rolled her eyes. This perky young thing was going to lose their money.
“Good morning, Delphine. Or should I call you Ms. Richards?” Gigi asked. Her voice switched from preppy to professional.
Delphine stopped and zeroed her sights on Gigi. Gigi stood her ground. Delphine moved toward her looked her up and down.
“Uh-huh. You’re Gigi. Welcome aboard.”
Delphine walked around her new employee, examining her.
“Your today’s agenda is on your desk,” Patti said.
“I’ve got a meeting at St. Valentine’s Church this evening. I told Father Leak we’d handle their holiday party, the silent auction, and dinner.”
“What? Delphine we’re overbooked as it is,” Janice protested.
One look from Delphine and Janice opened up her Outlook calendar and added the event.
“I’ve planned the perfect event for the parish. I want the parishioners to have a great time. I’ve already lined up sponsors, made a preliminary list of activities, and floor plan.” Delphine’s voice was the complete opposite of the festive event. She sounded like she was drawing up military plans for an invasion.
I’d love to work on the St. Valentine’s event, Delphine,” Gigi spoke up.
Janice’s mouth dropped open. She offered herself as a virgin sacrifice. She jumped into the volcano, willingly.
“I think St. Valentine’s Day is a great romantic holiday,” Gigi said not knowing how close she came to being struck through the heart by an arrow shot by Janice or Patti.
“Yes, it’s very romantic.” Delphine’s eyes closed. She took a deep breath. She exhaled, opened her sharp brown eyes and stalked out of the office.
Gigi watched her boss leave and turned her attention to her co-workers.
“I mean St. Valentine’s Day is so…so…romantic. Candy.”
“Diabetes,” Patti answered.
“Weight gain,” Janice added.
“Romantic dinners,” Gigi said.
“Expensive bill,” Patti answered.
“Worth a month’s groceries,” Janice said.
‘Sexy lingerie,” Gigi countered.
“Doesn’t fit after the dinner and candy,” Janice said.
“Jewelry?” Gigi asked.
“Expectations never match reality or the payments,” Janice said.
“What about flowers?” Gigi asked.
“Allergies,” Patti said.
“Dead in a week,” Janice snapped.
Gigi placed her hand on her hip. “Are you two anti-romance?”
“Oh no, child. I have dinner reservations for my husband and me. I booked a babysitter Christmas. Although we have to pay double,” Janice said.
“I’m working our party at the Peninsula.” Patti winked. “I made sure the odds are five males to one woman.”
Janice laughed. “I thought I was the accountant.”
“Does Delphine hate St. Valentine’s Day?” Gigi finally asked.
“Let’s just say she’d shoot Cupid with one of his arrows if she could,” Patti counseled.
“Why?”
“Long story. Long heartbreaking story, pun intended. And if you like your job, never, never, ever mention why you love Valentine’s Day around her,” Janice warned.

BUY LINK

Yasmine ‘Yas’ Phoenix was born and raised in Virginia but calls Chicago home. She loves tennis, professional and amateur and plays in local leagues. Her writing block is the four major Grand Slams, Indian Wells, and other tournaments. No, she can’t tape then watch. Yas loves to read, especially murder mysteries. She is a Terry Pratchett, Discworld fan, and scans the news for potential plot ideas. Melding romance and paranormal in her stories is her goal. Yas always asks the question, “What if?” She is a sucker for old black and white movies like Casablanca on one hand, and Deadpool on the other. She believes her family is her greatest gift and support.

Learn more about Yasmine Phoenix on her website. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Spooky Mommy Magic by Catherine Castle

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A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, esp, essay, Magic, Musings from a Writer's Brain

I got a text message from my daughter the other day.

“I need your Mommy magic,” she said. “Help me find my missing items. Text me and let me know where they are.”

She was looking for: a pill cutter, a monkey necklace, and a pair of orange-handled scissors she travels with.

Her Dad told me to text her that they would be in the last place she would look. I did, but then I sent her the locations of the items.

“The pill cutter will be on a shelf, possibly with some bottles. The necklace is hanging from something, and the scissors are in your kit bag, train case, or a suitcase pocket,” I said.

A few minutes later mu daughter’s text came back. “The pill cutter was with other bottles of hubby’s medicine, in a ziplock bag. I told him, ‘Dang, she’s good!!!’when I read your description.”

Hah! Mama’s still got the Mommy Magic!

A few days later she told me she found the scissors in a travel bag.

Then she called and said she’d lost her pill case. I saw the hallway bookshelves. So she went on a house-wide search looking on all the book shelves.

When she couldn’t find the item, she called back and said, “Nope. What else did you see? What colors?”

“Blue,” I said. “Like a blue carpet.”

“I said the pill case was blue, Mom,” she said.

“I don’t remember that,” I replied. “I just know I saw blue when you asked me where it was.”

“But the hall carpet’s not blue,” she replied.

“Well, I saw blue. Look for it around something blue.”

And they were off on another search. A few minutes later, she texts me a photo of a popcorn box with the message, “Ur all wrong about the carpet.”

But I was right about the blue!

They found her pill box, in front of the popcorn box, which is mostly blue. I missed the carpet, but, Hey, I got the color right!

At the writing of this post, I don’t know if she found the necklace where I predicted, but 99-percent of the time when she sends me on a long-distance hunt for lost items, I can see the general location of the lost items.

I have no idea why I can do this. When she asks me to find a lost item, a picture pops up in my brain. I go with it. I have to say the first picture I see, even if it makes no sense—like it’s in a small, dark place. That was a real response once, and she found the item in a black, velvet bag after asking me what color I saw in the vision. Or if I envision something that is in my own house, like where my own pill cutter resides—on a shelf—possibly with other bottles—I still go with that first image. That was the first thing I saw that day. If I don’t go with the first thing I see, the magic doesn’t work quite as well.

Sometimes, even though she swears she’d looked in a location I’ve seen, a second search in the place I said to look will turn up the item. Other times she says she would never put it there, but that’s right where she finds the missing object. Occasionally, I get accused of sneaking into her house and placing the lost article where I predict just so she’ll find it there.

Trust me, I don’t.

I’ve even found things long-distance for my daughter’s neighbor.

Funny thing about this Mama-lost-item-finding power…it doesn’t work for me. I can lose things for weeks on end, searching unsuccessfully in every corner I can think of. Once I lost my Kindle and went into a panic. I found it weeks later at the bottom of a pile of papers on my desk. Every time I do a sweep to clean the house quickly and dump every loose item I can get my hands on into a box, I’ll lose something. Sometimes for months on end, because I forget what I swept up in the frantic cleanup and where I put the box. Which begs the question: If I forgot what I lost, is it really lost or just forgotten?

Next time I lose something, I should call my daughter and ask her where it is. If I have this power, shouldn’t she? After all, she is my daughter.

What about you? Can you find lost items? Magically or otherwise.

If you’ve lost something and can’t find it, take a break after searching and pick up a copy of Catherine’s award-winning romantic comedy with a touch of drama, A Groom for Mama. You’ll laugh as you watch Mama search for a husband for her daughter.

 

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.

The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.

A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.

 

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. She also lays claim to over 300 internet articles written on a variety of subjects and several hundred poems. In addition to writing she loves reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog.

 

Wednesday Writers Welcomes Denise Gwen

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Catherine Castle Wednesday Writers series, Clean Reads Books, Covenkeepers, Denise Gwen, Magic, YA FAntasy, YA Paranormal Adventure

Today Wednesday Writers welcomes Denise Gwen who will be sharing a bit about the back story of her YA Paranormal Adventure book Covenkeepers. I hopped over to Amazon and read the first few pages of the book. For those who like fiction stories about magic, spells, and paranormal creatures, Covenkeepers promises to be an enchanted adventure. So, welcome, Denise. Please tell us about the story behind your book.

 

 

 

Covenkeepers is the only story I have ever written and shared with my son. He was a little boy when I first wrote it, and every evening, over a period of weeks, he and I sat down together on the sofa in our family room so that I could read aloud to Nathaniel a chapter from my novel.

It gave me such joy to share with him my story of little Maddie, an apprentice witch from Salem, Massachusetts, who alights in a small town in Ohio, with her familiar, Malamar, a lazy, ginger cat, and the hijinks that happen as she and her family fight off the evil warlock who has pursued them from the coven in Salem, Massachusetts.

Nathaniel listened raptly as I read the story aloud to him, laughing with every one of Maddie’s hijinks and thrilling to every cliff-hanger.

 

Thanks for sharing with us, Gwen. And now, here’s the blurb for Covenkeepers.

Covenkeepers

By Denise Gwen

 

Maddie wants to get her father out of the deep carbonite freeze that Ezekiel, the warlock of Salem Castle, has imprisoned him into. Maddie, her mother, her nana, and her sister, flee in the dark of night and find a temporary home in an abandoned nursing home in the sleepy burg of Batavia, Ohio.

As Maddie works on ways to rescue her father, she is besieged with problems of her own. The abandoned nursing home they’re living in is haunted, and Maddie is attacked, first by a horde of mice, then by poisonous spiders. What in the world is going on?

And what will it take to get Maddie’s family back together?

You can find Covenkeeper at these locations:

Amazon: Barnes and Noble: Kobobooks: Smashwords: itunes:

 

About the Author:

Denise Gwen has been writing for years, and CovenKeepers was one of her favorite stories to write.