Hello Snippetteers! The weather is getting cooler & the days shorter–at least where I live! As we inch toward the shortest day of the year, I’ve been doing a lot more reading and writing. My NaNo WIP is nearing the halfway point, and it’s a contemporary. I already can’t wait to share it with you. 🙂
This week I’m snipping from my last release, The Devil’s in the Details & other stories. This is from the last story, which takes place on winter solstice. It’s a Paranormal Dark Romance, which means it’s creepy and dark but also has a happy ending (depending on how you define “happy ending”). The Haunting of Elkins House definitely isn’t fluffy, but it’s my winter holiday story this year so I hope you enjoy it.
The shortest day of the year was no time to run past a haunted house, especially as shadows lengthened in the late afternoon sunlight. Dave shuddered when he passed the sprawling Gothic Revival by the lake. Even the lovely Christmas lights twinkling on the houses and reflected in the calm water couldn’t dispel the eerie feeling. As his mother would have said, he felt as though a goose had walked over his grave.
By purely aesthetic standards, the house was beautiful—from the wraparound porch with its turned railing to the decorative cornices and elaborate chimney.
But the stretch of path around the lake that wound closest to Elkins House was always colder than the rest of his route. Even on the brightest days the sun never seemed to penetrate the mature trees and the shadow of the imposing house itself.
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The Devil’s in the Details & Other Stories
by Charley Descoteaux
Read three Paranormal Dark Romances featuring characters with shaky moral compasses as they get their Happily Ever Afters!
Here’s what you get inside:
The Devil’s in the Details
James is on the run from the Key West Coven and the job he never wanted: enforcer. Portland, Oregon, is as far away as he could get and still be in the US, and since he doesn’t have a passport or a way to get one, that’s where he stopped. James knows his freedom is anything but secure, so he’s not surprised when his proximity alarm alerts him that he’s being followed. He’s jumped under the Burnside Bridge and wakes in iron shackles that prevent him from using magic.
Marshall knows too much about his father’s business dealings with the supernatural underworld. He never would have guessed that knowledge could get him kidnapped. When a witch in iron shackles is tossed into his cell, his life changes forever.
The pair will have to work together if they’re to escape with their lives.
Warnings / Temptations: violence, inappropriate flirting, tattoos of dead languages, and sexy spellwork.
Upwardly Mobile
Riley MacIntyre can’t write, and it’s driving him mad. A serious head injury silenced the voices of characters in his head, and nothing he’s done has helped. After 440 days of silence and insomnia, Riley receives an invitation from the proprietor of a local business, whose pitch is that he can fix anything. Riley needs to resume his career writing mystery novels, but having a man on a late-night commercial set an appointment is, to say the least, unexpected.
Don Cross is a fixer. He’s also a lonely crossroads demon. When Riley visits him hoping to have his writer’s block fixed, Don makes him an unusual deal.
Warnings / Temptations: off-page murders and violence, depictions of descent into both figurative and literal Hell, a dapper crossroads demon, and an asexual man who expresses his romantic feelings using baked goods.
The Haunting of Elkins House
Dave Lehman lost his partner to cancer seven years ago and is still grieving. He’s jogging with a neighbor’s dog on the winter solstice when he receives a life-changing invitation.
Elkins House has been abandoned for over a century. So who is inviting Dave inside?
Warnings / Temptations: suicidal ideation, a disobedient dog, and a few drops of blood.
Amazon Universal Link Amazon US
Charley Descoteaux 