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Instagram Short Stories: A Little Magic

Magical things happen to me. And often friends are around to witness it. Take my latest trip to the mountains for a Holiday Festival. Small town. Lots of people. No parking. None. We drove around twice, when I stopped for Saint Nicholas to cross the street – no really, Saint Nicholas, complete with vestments, miter and crozier.  He strode across the street, and when he came to the front of my car, he turned to us and blessed us with his staff.

I thought it was a sweet gesture, until I drove through the crosswalk and down the hill, only to find a parking space just waiting for us. And not just any spot, it was on the street that began the festival.  My friend and I joked that clearly St. Nick blessed us with good parking.

We enjoyed tasty food, carol singers, Victorian costumed actors walking about town and roaring fire as we walked the small town square. I didn’t give St. Nick another thought.

Until I had dropped my friend off and was driving home. It was then I realized that although we saw many costumed actors, we never saw Saint Nicholas again.

My friend’s response, “Of course we didn’t see him. He was another one of your angels who just popped in to remind you. You knew that.” I guess I did.

#annieshortstories

Reviews and Prizes

Underway – expected June 2019
TJ arrives in Boston and is quickly involved in a missing persons/art theft mystery

A writer friend of mine shared some good information today and I wanted to share it here:

… if you read something and enjoy it, you give the author a big gift by reviewing the book on Amazon and/or Goodreads. The review can be very short (I enjoyed this book). It doesn’t have to 5 star. The issue is that Amazon uses the sheer number of reviews as part of its algorithm for which books to promote. Also some sites…require that a book have a certain number of reviews before you can promote on there.

I could use a few more reviews. Because, while I’ve heard from many of you (and even signed your books!) there are not many reviews on Amazon right now. And I know it can be a pain and you don’t know what to say, etc. I get it.

So, I’m going to offer a little incentive! Between now and January 31, 2019, anyone who leaves a review will be entered into a contest for the newest volume in the TJ Wilde Mysteries Trilogy – Underway. I will pick two winners at random (regardless of stars!). The winners will receive a signed copy of Underway.

And just to make things fair and equal – if you leave a comment here or on my Facebook page, under this post, between now and January 31, 2019 – you’ll be entered, too. And I’ll award a signed copy of your choice, Run Aground or Underway. Heck, you can even choose the first book in my Jennifer McCaffrey mystery series. More on that to come…

Now I have to get back to writing, or there won’t be any new books. I will try to post a new Instagram Short Story this weekend. It may be a little (real life) mystery, itself.

Oh, and that author, Dorothy A. Winsor, you can find her terrific YA books here.

Instagram Short Stories: Halloween

Spookiest Halloween. I was in 6th or 7th grade, and my choir did an exchange with a choir in Lexington, MA. Choir families put us up in their homes.

After the big Halloween party, my housemate/choir friend and I walked back to her house with a few other kids. It was pitch black out.

The town kids said, let’s go to the old cemetery – the oldest in town, dating back to the 1600’s and the resting place of many Revolutionary War soldiers. Scary old cemetery on a dark Halloween night. Check.

People I didn’t know well. Check.

Old tomb with stones shifted by time that we just HAD to shine a flashlight into. Check.

Crisp fall leaves crunching under our every step. Check.

Smell of trees filled with ripe apples. Check and check.

Really, no other Halloween has come as close to perfect as that one.

If the Headless Horseman had come riding through, I would not have been surprised. Terrified, but not surprised.

#annieshortstories

photo credit: Stephanie Mitchell