Dying for a Vacation – Ruff Drafts

My two short stories were just released as 99 cent eBooks. They are also both free on Kindle Unlimited. Below are excerpts to the stories:

myBook.to/savingsnowwhite

There was a moment of strained silence between us. It was strange how nine months had made a difference in how we regarded one another. I glanced at the clock to check the time and then an idea occurred to me. “Hey, after we’re through here, what do you say we take in a movie tonight?” Tom and I often went to shows at the cinema in the mall with Tina and occasionally by ourselves.

Tom paused, as he poured some kibble into one of the cat bowls and secured the cage. “Sorry, Ames. I’m going out with Sam tonight.”

Sam? As far as I knew, Tom didn’t have many male friends. His best pal, Dennis, had gone upstate to school at the same time I left Mount Filmore.

“Sam is short for Samantha. She’s my girlfriend,” Tom explained, his back still to me as he opened the next cage.

“Oh.” When did that happen? “I guess I should go to check Leprechaun now.” I still had seven minutes.

“No, wait.” Tom turned back to me. “Even though I have a date tonight, the animal hospital closes at 4 today. I’d like to treat you to an ice cream, and we can catch up.”

I thought of those days after school when Tom, Tina, and I headed to the ice cream shop on the corner across from our high school. It was still an old-fashioned parlor. I wondered if Maggie, the owner, still worked there.

“That would be nice,” I said as I turned toward the exam room.

myBook.to/dyingvacation

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here, Detective Jackson,” a voice said from behind my left shoulder. I spun around to see Irma Carlton, the library’s director. She was dressed in her usual stylish manner in a navy suit with a red handkerchief peeking out of her left breast pocket. For a woman in the same age bracket as the deceased, early fifties, she was nothing to sneeze at even if you had allergies.

“Hello, Ms. Carlton,” I replied. “I’m sorry I’m late. I was admiring your pretty garden on the west end of the library.”

“Thank you, Detective. I’ve tried to keep the flower in Flower Hill Library, so to speak. I make sure the library’s gardener plants flowers that bloom each season. Of course, summer is the loveliest. I’m especially proud of the roses.”

“And you should be. But, as you know, I’m here for less pleasant matters. Have you gathered together the persons I requested to see?”

Don’t miss my free offer for my historical paranormal romance, The Seashell and the Stone. Free only on Friday, August 18. myBook.to/Seashell

After breakfast, Virginia changed into a sundress, donned her wide-brimmed straw hat, and chose one of her prettiest parasols for the stroll on the Boardwalk with Mr. Granger. When he met her downstairs, he still wore the same clothes but had added a beige cap that Virginia found quite stylish.

“Miss Vance, that outfit certainly becomes you. I hope you do not mind that I tend to some business matters during our visit to the beach.”
Virginia decided to play the role of a coy young woman as she batted her eyelashes and replied, “Not at all, Mr. Granger, as long as you spend a little time with me.”

He smiled, obviously happy with her comment. “Shall we, then?” He stopped as he reached the inn’s doors. “Does your father allow you to walk down to the beach alone with gentlemen?
”
Virginia’s laugh was not part of her act. She genuinely thought the statement funny. “Of course, Mr. Granger. I’m nineteen, an old maid by some standards.”

“If you’re an old maid, I must be an ancient relic at twenty-three.” He held the door open for her to pass.

On Tuesday, August 22nd, my romance, Saving Snow White, and my mystery, Dying for a Vacation, will be released for only 99 cents each.

When Amy comes home from veterinary school for the summer, she is reunited with her best friend, Tom. When she learns he has a girlfriend who is totally unsuited to him, she wonders if she has let her chance go by.

Detective Donald Jackson is preparing for a long-awaited vacation, but first, he must solve the case of a murdered librarian at the Flower Hill Public Library.

Here’s an excerpt from Dying for a Vacation:

The FHPL was one of the last holdouts of the New Hampshire library system to retain an un-automated system of checking library holdings. I didn’t care much for the OPAC’s of the larger libraries, anyway, with their computer databases that always seemed to freeze when I was looking for the next book in Lilian Jackson Braun’s “Cat Who” series. Braun is my favorite mystery author. Like her character, Jim Qwilleran, I have a handlebar mustache that’s pretty sensitive, although it doesn’t help me solve crimes. I love cats, too, but I only have one and it isn’t Siamese. Tinky is just a stray Emily brought to my house one day about five years ago. One of her daughters from her second marriage was allergic to it, so she thought I might like it to keep me company. She knew I liked cats, although we didn’t have any when we were married. No kids either. All the time I spent on cases back in Boston probably made a girl her age pretty lonely.

Last, but not least, please join me and my fellow Solstice authors at Solstice Publishing’s Eclipse Facebook Party for giveaways, prizes, Q & A’s, and a scavenger hunt. This will take place on Friday, August 18 at https://www.facebook.com/events/453215681732436/.