I’ve got a massive backlist out there, but I’m focusing mostly on my indie releases now, which a lot of my readers haven’t heard of yet. So we’re going to be putting up excerpts of the indie work I’ve done—both full length and short collections, each Wednesday, to encourage you to give my new work a try.
Today’s excerpt comes from Legend of the Jade Dragon.
Series Page: Chintz ‘n China series
Book Page to find buy links: Legend of the Jade Dragon
Finally, I picked up my deck and rapped it on the edge of the table to align the edges. As I slid the deck into its velvet pouch, I pondered Daniel’s accident. Was there anything I could have done to prevent his death? Any chance I could have read the signs clearer? But then, a thought hit me. Maybe I hadn’t been able to read his future because maybe Daniel didn’t have a future. Maybe he’d been doomed before he walked into my shop. Shaking, I stashed the cards in my office, hiding them in my bottom desk drawer. As I forced myself to return to the front counter, Cinnamon asked if I wanted to leave early, but I told her no, I’d probably just brood if I sat around the house. At least here I could keep busy.
Busy. That was an understatement for the pace we’d been running lately. Ever since Susan Mitchell’s ghost showed up, begging me to prove she’d been murdered, my shop turned into a shrine for those wonderful old ladies like Mrs. Halcyon Maxwell, president of the Psychic Occult Society of Rachel in The Ghost & Mr. Chicken. All they wanted was a little taste of adventure, a chance to contact the “other side,” and tarot readings now appeared on the menu next to the daily tea selections. I’d been able to hire Cinnamon full-time and Lana part-time and relegate myself to the background, managing, organizing, helping customers with special orders and—of course—reading the cards.
The shop bells jingled as Kip wandered in, carrying a backpack full of books. He’d become very studious the past few months. Back in December, Kip had managed to set loose a tidal wave of trouble with a nasty ghost right before Christmas. During the three months he was grounded, he somehow got the idea that the more he studied, the better my mood. I wasn’t about to break the spell.
