Please enjoy a snippet from my novel Velvet, available here from Amazon.

Sam sat in my lap and watched me take sips from my glass. The wine made my mind fuzzy.

I liked fuzz.

The bottle of Merlot I’d purchased this morning was not quite three-fourths empty. I didn’t feel any pain. Since my mind was in freefall, I decided to take a look at the book Jane had given me.

I reached for the paper sack on my nightstand.

“Take it,” Electra had said. “Maybe you will find something that will work for you.”

She and Jane felt that I needed to be paired up with a new man and tonight, for some reason beyond my comprehension, I did, too.

Eyes closed, I took a long last drink from the glass and set it down next to the bottle.

The memory of yesterday’s lunch at Pep-O-Roni’s flooded back into my mind. I remembered Jane’s excitement.

A man was looking at me. I couldn’t help but smile at that.

The spell book begged me to pick it up and peruse it. My head didn’t think this was a smart move, but my heart forced me to grab it. Curiosity ate at me.

The book was published in 1970 and wore a cracked spine with yellowed pages. Its title, “Love Spells for Today’s Woman,” shouted at me in neon green against a pink background. I turned the cover back to look at the table of contents.

Why a full book of love spells? Wasn’t there just one spell that would work? Why a whole book? That’s kind of like a psychic who gets lost on her way to a reading. It just didn’t make much sense to me.

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