An Excerpt from The Turncoat's Temptress

I only managed one post last week. I had a bit of difficulty getting my head in the right places. There were shoulder demons and doubtful thoughts and it was all-around ugly. Today I'm back with my head on my shoulders where it ought to be. Nothing restores faith in oneself like edits. I hear you laughing, but sitting down with The Turncoat's Temptress really put some sparkle back in my eyes. To celebrate that, from the book, an excerpt. Which is fitting, because Basil was doubting himself before Nora got a hold of him.


Basil took his hand away from her face and reached inside his coat. He pulled out the tintype, bent, worn, a little faded, and set it on the table.
A younger Nora smiled up at them. Her mind pulled her back to the day the image was taken. When she thought she'd known what the world was about and love was the only thing that mattered. Basil had stood behind the photographer, making silly faces, trying to get her to laugh. She'd mastered her emotions and arranged her face in what she'd hoped was a seductive pose. After the flash of powder, she'd blinked away the light and found Basil looking at her with unmasked passion.
The heat of that look stayed with her. She still felt it, curling at her like flames over paper. It was different than the look he gave her now, but the old spark was there.
“You kept it because it reminded you that there's still some good in the world. And I wonder if you hoped that someday you might come back to it.” She stared at him daring him to deny it.
“I tried a dozen times that summer to tell you why I was at Brighton Manor. What I was. Who I was. Christopher and your grandmother both warned me not to. That it would only frighten you. So in the end I kept the secret.” He gazed down at the photograph then ran his finger along the edge. “Why haven't you run away yet? All this talk of fairytale creatures and the supernatural. Most women wouldn't stay.”
“I'm something of an oddity, Tinwhistle. I think you'd have learned that by now.” She touched the image. “We're magnets. Stuck together in this. Sometimes we might get flipped over, might push away from each other, but we'll always come back.”

Deep breath. 49 days til Basil and Nora meet the e-reader world. It's fine. It's all good. After all, they're the ones facing ancient monsters. Promoting is a piece of cake compared to slaying wanna-be dragons.