Michelle L. Levigne's Blog

  

"She's got magic,"Harry whispered. He studied Bethany through the curtains while the emcee warmedup the audience for Alexi and Megan's last show of the night.

"You might be right."Megan adjusted her top hat. "There is something about her that makes my fingertipstingle. I just can't figure out what. If there's Fae blood, it's mixed withsomething that muddies the waters." She patted his back. "You're startingto fade."

"Oh? Sorry."Harry concentrated on his anti-invisibility spell and turned back to watching BethanyMiller in her shadowy corner table. That big, floppy hat and garish muumuu couldn'thide her, yet dressing in loud, obnoxious clothes did trick people into ignoringher. Somewhat.

Harry turned his visionsideways, looking into the 'tweening spaces, those half-step areas between dimensions.His long-term invisibility made it easy to slip halfway into the next dimension.

A soft, rainbow-streakedcorona shimmered around Bethany, marking her as someone who had been touched bymagic for so long, it had become embedded in her essence. The colors didn't quiteclash with her outfit, but it was enough to make his eyes ache after a while. Still,he kept watching. She fascinated him. He loved puzzles, and Bethany had just presentedhim with one.

"So, she wants tobe invisible?"

"She wants to spendthe holidays with her father without being mobbed every time she steps outside,"Megan said. "She's a nice girl who doesn't enjoy the rat-race of stardom. Sherefuses to change and act like a star, and that makes her even more popular. Kindof like a girl who isn't in Need is a whole lot more attractive."

Harry blushed, and his concentration slipped so he felthimself fading out. Which was actually a good thing. He wasn't about to admit toanyone he wished he knew the terror of being the target of a woman in Need. Noneof the girls he had grown up with had targeted him. It was humiliating. Hera-Janemaintained that if he socialized more, so people realized he had grown up into somethingof a stud, he would be hunted. Harry was too busy with his experiments to find out.Although, this adventure would be an experiment, wouldn't it?

 "How's that non-magicalbetting system working out for you?" Harry snapped his fingers to bring a towelover and got out of the hot tub. He tapped the communications sphere, activatingit so it shimmered into transparency. Alexi and Megan's faces appeared before him.He was glad he had opted for the towel.

Harry wasn't a skinnygeek by any means, but Alexi had inherited the family build and good looks, alongwith the family curse. Harry was white-blond and buff, but Alexi had it cubed. Still,despite all the advantages Alexi had in looks and freedom and a real job in theHuman world, along with a smart, fun wife who hadn't needed to trap him by goinginto Need, Harry preferred his smaller troubles. Alexi had nearly been doomed tospending eternity without magic. Megan had rescued him from that. While Harry wouldn'thave minded being rescued by someone like her, he knew it would still ranklefrom time to time. He had a ridiculous longing to be the White Knight, rescuingdamsels in distress.

"What's up, Cuz?"He gave an extra yank to his towel.

"We have a job foryou," Megan said.

"You and your invisibilityspell," Alexi added with that grin that had always meant really cool, reallyloud, really messy adventures when they were boys.

"I'm there." Harry snapped clothes onto himself."Just tell me where and when."

 

ALLERGIC TOMISTLETOE QUIZ 

How do youplay?

Listen to Chapter 1 of ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE either on the Ye Olde Dragon’s Library storytelling podcast page on YeOldeDragonBooks.com, or on your favorite podcast app.

Answer the questions.

Send the answers to 2OldeDragons@gmail.com

Points add upto get a free ebook or audiobook or print book in the Neighborlee series.

All month, thefeatured book is at a discounted price, if you need to fill in the holes inyour collection. I mean, there are 13 books altogether. If you have all 13already, THANK YOU!! But chances are good you don’t have all of them.

Yet.

This is yourchance to get more and catch up on the weirdness that is Neighborlee, Ohio.

 

What swarmed the ceiling of the main room of Divine's Emporium?

What was Maurice wearing for the party?

What did Maurice enjoy doing with Lanie's parents?

What came into the party with Dawn and Stanzer that didn't like being in the same room with Maurice?

What did Ken give Jo instead of the traditional wishing ball ornament?

Who promised to help Maurice figure out how to get around the barriers in his relationship with Holly?

 

 

 

"I'd much ratheryou concentrated on doing new things," his sister said, "rather than fiddlingwith spells that are nearly as old as time itself. Less chance of something semi-sentientdeciding to punish you. The really old spells have a life of their own. They don'tlike being tweaked." She reached out with her unerring sisterly sense, caughtthe sides of his face in her hands, and bent down to kiss his forehead. "Pleasewash up and come to breakfast visible." As she got to her feet, she made aface. "Bleah. Gunpowder. It tastes even worse than it smells."

"Well, you've learnedsomething new before breakfast, just like me." Harry grinned when Hera-Janestrolled out of the laboratory, muffling giggles that sounded like nightingales.

The communications sphereshimmered into being while Harry relaxed in the hot tub -- another wonderful inventionof Humans. Fortunately for him, and whoever might be calling at this time of themorning, the sphere remained opaque.

"I gave at the office,"Harry said.

Alexi's rich, rollinglaughter made him grin. Nothing like a call from his favorite rebellious cousinto take a morning from interesting and frustrating to fun.

 

Uncle Mortimer pattedhis cheek. "I wish gunpowder had been around when I was your age. It's quitethe thing to make messes when you're only 100 years old. When you're pushing ninecenturies, well, you have to pretend to have some dignity."

"Especially whenyour cloaking spells aren't what they used to be and you can't hide the evidence,"Hera-Jane added. "Uncle Morty...the Chinese had gunpowder back when you werea child."

"Hmm, yes, but theAsian Fae Enclaves were quite isolationist back then. They wouldn't share anything,least of all such clever Human toys." Their wild-haired uncle nodded once morefor punctuation. "Quite all right now, lad? Back to normal?"

"Close enough. Howmuch can you see me?" Harry asked.

"Not a speck. Wecan smell you, though." His sister sat back and wrinkled up her nose. "Well,are you any closer to success?"

"I think so. Notmuch, but at least I didn't trip any of the fire suppression and reconstructionspells." Harry allowed himself a few flickers of triumph over that, beforediving into the new puzzle. "You say I was visible when I was unconscious?"

"Something disruptedthe invisibility spell for a little while. It just proves my theory that the malfunctionlies in the Ether connection that powers this particular invisibility spell. Youneed more research, lad." Uncle Mortimer slapped in the general direction ofHarry's invisible shoulder and heaved himself to his feet. Chuckling, he totteredout of the laboratory. Standard housecleaning spells had cleared the damage whilethey talked.

 

"Hargrove? Hargrove!Wake up, boy!"

The admonishment, in thetired, worried voice of Uncle Mortimer, was punctuated with a slap that served quiteadequately to bring Harry back to consciousness.

He lay still, trying toremember what had knocked him unconscious. A few cautious sniffs answered him. Thestink of Human gunpowder and several sophisticated Fae explosives filled his sinuses.Memory streamed back into his head. He had been playing with a new kind of controlledexplosive device, to help in archaeological excavations. Obviously, the charm controllingthe direction of the explosion had malfunctioned.

Why were people hittinghim?

"He must be consciousnow. He's fading out," said his sister, Hera-Jane.

That yanked his attentionoff trying to figure out what he did wrong. "Fading out?"

"You were visible,the entire time you were unconscious." She fumbled across his chest until shefound his shoulders, then shook him. "Come on, Harry, rise and shine."

"I'm always invisiblewhen I sleep. I have to concentrate to be seen." He opened his eyes, relievedhe could still see. That explosion had felt uncomfortably close to his face.

 

The next Book & Mug Mystery, SKELETONS IN THE CELLAR, comes out October 15.

But you can get the paperback in an Amazon exclusive NOW and SAVE $$$ by following this Amazon Affiliate link.

https://amzn.to/4nR7HGY

Cadburn Township has stories about the Cadburn daughter who ran off to the Civil War disguised as a boy. Or did she? Maybe she ran away from home with her true love, to escape a forced marriage. Either way, legends say her ghost haunts the township.

Then there are the rumors of Underground Railroad tunnels leading from several houses to Cadburn Creek. And three years ago, there was a big fuss over some historical reenactors and historic researchers and academic rivalry -- with the couple at the center of the shenanigans vanishing suddenly, without warning.

Until a rainy fall starts flooding in Cadburn Creek, and suddenly, the truth of quite a few rumors and legends are brought to soggy light ....

 Iknew the place Pete was talking about. The lot held a ramshackle building thathad once been a convenience store and then went through at least a dozentransformations all the years I was growing up. It was in a bad location forbusinesses. The chunk of land set aside for Neighborlee schools sat right onthe southern border of town. The building had started out as a gas station, justacross the street and over the border in Allenby, nearly hidden by huge clumpsof trees on three sides. Over the years, all those businesses that had moved inand moved out had neglected the building and the parking lot. It was generally abad location for businesses that depended on visibility and traffic driving byto survive. 

Thinking about it, Isupposed a business that just used the building for a headquarters and sent itsworkers out would probably last longer than anything that had tried to set upthere in the past. At the very least, Pete would have work for the summer. Icouldn't imagine him keeping the job when school started again in the fall.

 

The feature book for October in the Neighborlee Visitors Guide is ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE, the first of the three Maurice stories.

Check out the books on the Neighborlee page and in the storefront at YeOldeDragonBooks.com

Maurice is a Fae who violated a few rules and went a little too far, dealing with bullies and bad guys. To teach him compassion and restraint, the powers-that-be exiled him to Earth. His parole officer: Angela, of Divine's Emporium. His sentence: 2 years shrunk down to 5 inches tall, with shrunken magic to match, and wings slapped on his back that even Tinkerbell wouldn't be caught dead in.

Wednesday, October 1, you can listen to chapter 1 of ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library storytelling podcast, on your favorite podcast app or at the podcast page on YeOldeDragonBooks.com, to get a taste for what's happening, and prepare for the quiz to be posted later in the month. Answer the questions, and you can earn points toward free Neighborlee novels. If you're intrigued enough to read the whole story, ALLERGIC will be on sale in all formats on the website. Get it while you can!

And be sure to come back here every few days to read an excerpt from ALLERGIC TO MISTLETOE.

 "Ican take my bike or the moped to the office and then ride with the truckcarrying the signs and stakes and all that stuff. No problem."

"Howclose are they?" I tried to remember seeing a sign for Pi Surprise. Theyhadn't come into the Tattler to buy advertising yet. Which suddenlystruck me as a little strange. All their advertising was either in the PlainDealer, or stuffed into mailboxes. Nothing in the local paper. So how faraway was their office?

"They'rein that little flower market on the corner down past the schools."

"Onthe Neighborlee side of the border, or the Allenby side?"

Petethought a moment, while I held my breath and told myself it was all right,nothing dangerous ever came into Neighborlee from Allenby. Darbyville, yes, butnot Allenby.

"Acrossthe street, so I guess Allenby. I saw the help wanted sign just about the timethey were putting it up in the window. It's a new office. They moved here fromEuclid. So I'll spend the first couple weeks just helping with renovating theoffice." 

"Okay. Soundsgood." I told myself I was hungry, it had been a long day at work, andPete would make a good spy, to figure out if there was somethingnot-quite-ordinary going on with Pi Surprise. Maybe someone was just out tomake things difficult for an expanding business, moving those gnomes around.