Hello, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host January
Bain and her new book, “Movies, Moonlight & Magic”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with January
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Movies, Moonlight &
Magic
by January Bain
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GENRE: Psychic Cozy Mystery
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BLURB:
Book two in Manitoba Tea & Tarot Mysteries Series
Charm
McCall can solve a small-town murder, but can she figure out how to stop a
man-stealing interloper?
A
movie production company has come to town…and so has an old family friend of
the town’s sexy new Mountie, Ace Collins. His “old pal” turns out to be a
scheming long-legged blonde who throws Charm right off her game. Even Auntie
T.J. playing the bagpipes down Main Street to drive the trespasser away doesn’t
work.
Between
catering for the world’s hungriest film crew, trying to solve the murder of the
unit accountant who hired her and dealing with her new magical gifts, Charm’s a
tad busy. But too bad, because she’s soon facing off against a bigger threat
when more people become ill with suspected poisoning—and her own sister’s in
the crosshairs. Charm’s left wondering if even Agatha Christie could have seen
this one coming.
But
with so much working against them—including the whole town being dead set
against them consummating their relationship—do Charm and Ace stand a chance?
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EXCERPT TWO:
“Aren’t
you listening to me? I said a serial killer uses arsenic to kill off characters.
Where’s your mind this morning?”
Star
interrupted her spiel to make a spinning twirl, her usual performance piece
when she was over-the-moon excited. The phone rang and I hurried to answer it,
hoping it was who I thought it was. Yes.
“Auntie
T.J. What’s the scoop?” I normally had the common sense not to ask, but today
was different. I needed intel.
Her
voice came over the house phone, all wheezy and breathy. Land lines were the
only reliable mode of communication in Snowy Lake, where cell phones were a
crap shoot. “Jennifer Morgan. She’s a geologist with Altima Explorations. A
graduate student from the University of Manitoba. Good grades, though not
brilliant. She’s here with a small team looking for precious minerals. Mark my
word, a big gold strike is imminent. She lives close to his parents’ duplex in
Winnipeg—did you know they live side by side? Families are old friends. I’m
waiting on more information that I should have shortly. I think her father and
Ace’s mother both work at that virology lab in Winnipeg. Will have verification
soon.” With that my aunt stopped to take a breath.
I
kept a sharp lookout across the street. Fortunately, the telephone rested on
the counter near the entrance where we sold all sorts of cookies and bakery
goods alongside my favorite magical items, including the new Gilded Tarot by
Ciro with its black and gold borders framing lyrical illustrations that
whispered to me whenever I ventured nearby. The location was perfect, offering
up a proper surveillance position. A stranger came into focus, drawing my full attention—he
was so stiff-looking with his pressed beige chino pants, white shirt and black
tie and an old-fashioned pocket protector lining up a series of identical pens.
He was coming right towards the Tea & Tarot with a determined look on his
pasty-white face. His short ginger hair was pressed into service with one
section at the crown that wouldn’t commit to the status quo sticking up with
military defiance.
“I
gotta go. Call me later when you know more.”
“Roger
that. Over and out.”
I
slipped off the sunglasses just as the angels tinkled a discordant note,
announcing the visitor. He gave a harried look around, as though he had no idea
how to go about what he needed, but needed it done—and done yesterday.
“Can
I help you?” I got to him first. Easy enough, when no one else looked remotely
interested.
“Yes,
I’m here to check on catering. Do you do that?”
“Catering?
Sometimes. What for?”
“I’m
with Blue Vest Studios, the company producing the movie Witches and Wolves, and
we need reliable catering six days a week at the movie set. You know,
sandwiches, soups, salads, vegetable trays, desserts, that kind of thing. And
especially anything chocolate. Can you do that?” He hurried his words, looking
about with eyes that shifted so much I was concerned for his well-being.
“Well,
possibly. And we specialize in chocolate, so you’re in luck. You must try our
death-by-chocolate slice. It’s worth dying for with its hooey-gooey center of
chocolate ganache and liquid caramel.” I caught the gleam in his eye at my
description. While I relished the idea of a catering job, I knew most of it
would fall to Tulip and me as Star had a role and, no doubt, she’d play that
up. Add her bi-weekly singing at the Boots & Lace Tavern and she’d work
both excuses for the foreseeable future.
“Would
you like to try a sample?” I asked.
“Yes,
definitely.” The gleam in his eye was blinding now.
I
laid a square of the slice on a small plate, added a fork and handed it to him.
He
demolished it in two spectacular bites.
“You
do love chocolate.” I smiled at his satiated expression. Illicit drugs couldn’t
have given him more of a sense of being in Blissville. “How many people are we
talking about?”
“About
a hundred and fifty.”
“A
hundred and fifty meals a day?” My horror must have shown on my face, because
he twitched and his eyes spun around like cartwheels.
“Yes,
but just simple meals. Nothing fancy. And we’d pay ten dollars a head. One meal
will suffice, delivered around noon. Send enough and we can eat off the buffet
for the rest of the day. We have refrigerators in most of the trailers. What do
you say?”
Hmm.
Ten dollars a head times one hundred and fifty meals. Sweet. But I would need
to hire an extra hand or two. No way could we manage all that on top of our
usual workload. I made some swift calculations.
“Make
that eleven dollars a meal and we have a deal.”
“Ten
dollars and twenty-five cents. Then we have a deal. I’m Howard Smith, by the
way, the resident accountant.”
“Charm
McCall. Ten-fifty. And I’ll even throw in our gluten-free dessert, Cake of a
Thousand Faces.” The yummy cake was called by that quirky name because it could
be dolled up any number of ways—its vanilla flavor went with just about
everything else in existence. That, and we loved weird names that made people
stand up and take notice. “A house speciality that substitutes almond meal for
pastry flour. So, as long as the customer is not allergic to nuts, it works
really well. Low-carb, high protein.”
“Nice.
Okay, that’ll work,” he agreed with a curt nod.
I
sucked up losing the extra fifty cents and nodded my acceptance. An accountant
would be concerned about costs. I got that, being the one and only bookkeeper
for our small business. Cutting costs was essential to survival. Still, it
rankled. We’d do the town proud with our catering—I’d make sure of that—even if
it ate into profits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
January Bain has
wished on every falling star, every blown-out birthday candle, and every coin
thrown in a fountain to be a storyteller. To share the tales of high adventure,
mysteries, and full blown thrillers she has dreamed of all her life. The story
you now have in your hands is the compilation of a lot of things manifesting
itself for this special series. Hundreds of hours spent researching the unusual
and the mundane have come together to create books that features strong women
who live life to the fullest, wild adventures full of twists and unforeseen
turns, and hot complicated men who aren’t afraid to take risks. She can only
hope her stories will capture your imagination.
If
you are looking for January Bain, you can find her hard at work every morning
without fail in her office with her furry baby, Ling Ling. And, of course,
she’s married to the most romantic man! Who once famously remarked to her inquiry
about buying fresh flowers for their home every week, “Give me one good reason
why not?” Leaving her speechless and knocking her head against the proverbial
wall for being so darn foolish. She loves flowers.
If
you wish to connect in the virtual world she is easily found on Facebook. Oh,
and she loves to talk books…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH JANUARY:
Blog:
Email:
januarybain@xplornet.com
Facebook:
Twitter:
Totally Bound Author Page:
BookBub Author Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
Kobo eBook:
Apple iBooks eBook:
Google Play eBook:
Totally Bound eBook:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
January will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC
to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
January ~ Good morning! Welcome back! It is so great to have you here again! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Ally! Lovely to be back and thanks for the good wishes and hosting my book tour! The post looks awesome! Hugs, January
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteDo you hear from your readers much?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the question, Tennyluvkins! No, actually, not nearly as much as I had hoped! Maybe they are busy reading, eh! I love talking books, so if anyone has a question, fire away! Hugs, January
DeleteThis does sound fun and good for the whole family to enjoy!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI love this cover.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover, it's so cute
ReplyDeleteLove the cover thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete