Death and Relaxation (Ordinary Magic #1)(109)

Then she was gone, leaving the faint scent of pomegranate perfume behind.

My heart was pounding too fast, the echo of her touch on my hand tingled with heat. There was no doubting that she had been here, in my car, warning me.

War.

“Great. As if the last week wasn’t crazy enough.” I lowered my head onto the steering wheel and just sat there for a minute, the warm afternoon sunlight pooling heat on my shoulders.

It reminded me of my dad’s wide, warm palm, comforting, steady.

I could do this. No, we could do this. My carefully chosen allies and I. All I had to do was figure out who those allies might be.

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and straightened. “I got this. Whatever is coming toward Ordinary, will have to get through me first.”

And then I put the car in gear and followed the road home to face the storm.





READY FOR MORE ORDINARY MAGIC?

Police Chief Delaney Reed loves the busy days of summer, even though the small town of Ordinary Oregon is overrun with mortal, and not-quite-so mortal tourists. Staying busy keeps her mind off Ryder Bailey, the man she is desperately trying to fall out of love with.

But when a god power goes missing, and the creatures in town gear up for war, she finds herself forced into a difficult decision: trust the devil with a dark past, or trust the man with an even darker future that might kill them all.

DEVILS AND DETAILS

Ordinary Magic - Book Two

Coming July 2016





Acknowledgment



I first stumbled upon the idea of Ordinary, Oregon in a short story I never published. As often happens with my short stories, this world grew bigger than I could easily squeeze into a few words. So I finally sat down and gave Delaney, Ryder, Myra, Jean, Than, Crow and the rest of the town a novel.

Is there a real Ordinary, Oregon? Well, yes and no. Ordinary Oregon is sort of a happy mishmash of Lincoln City, Depot Bay, and Newport, Oregon. When I needed a place for vacationing gods and unusual creatures, my mind instantly went back to my childhood visits to Lincoln City, Oregon. I’d always expected magic to be hidden in the sandy nooks and crannies of that sleepy little beach town.

There is, however, a real city of Boring, Oregon. I think if Ordinary were real, Boring and Ordinary might have quite the friendly little rivalry.

I want to thank my beta readers, Dejsha Knight, for listening to my wild ideas and being willing to read all of the really rough drafts and Dean Woods, who stuck with me and always had great and patient advice. Thank you to Sharon Thompson, who not only has heard about this story for years, but also agreed to read the book when it was still full of errors. Crazy and brave, all of you.

Thank you, Deanne Hicks, for telling me to stop messing around and bake the cakes, Eileen Hicks, for loaning me her sharp eyes, and Arran at 720 Editing for a quick and thorough read through. That beautiful cover is all Lou Harper who didn’t give up on the project when we were trying to nail down the tone. Thank you Lou for being awesome!

Thanks to the Deadline Dames for being supportive and amazing–your friendship means the world to me. Thanks and love to my biggest fan, husband Russ Monk who is shamelessly proud of this writing thing I do. I’m shamelessly proud of you too. Thanks and love to my sons, Kameron and Konner for that ridiculous weekend where you tried to name my characters by combining street signs we drove past, for helping me pick decent titles, and for so much more. You Monk men are the very best part of my life.

But the biggest thank you goes to you, dear reader. I am so happy that you gave this story a whirl. I hope you enjoyed the people and world of Ordinary, Oregon and that you’ll come back soon to see the not-so-ordinary surprises Ordinary has in store for us all.