BADSPELLING (Book 1) - FREE October 7th - 11th

A klutzy witch, ashaman's curse, a quest to save her family. Can Kat find her magic intime?

The entire Witches ofGaldorheim series has a few characters featured in all the books. Ithought introducing the stars of the series a good setup for theWitch Extravaganza month of October. Oh, yeah, it's BIG!

Trolls in the Witches of Galdorheim

Trolls. What do you imagine? Maybesomething like the big ugly pictured here. In my Witches ofGaldorheim series, I wanted a cave-dwelling bunch of uglies, butdwarves didn’t seem right for my book. Then I started hearing musicinside my head. You know how that goes, right? It builds and buildsuntil it has you screaming in frustration, willing to even listen tosome other music to at least swamp the tormenting sound.

But before I could find a MP3 file of"Henry the VIIIth" by Herman’s Hermits, I stopped andlistened. My muse was whacking me in the head via earworm. The musicwas Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite.Duh. Trolls.

Despite the canards on trolls from thelikes of Artemis Fowl or Pratchett’s Discworld, I thought theycould be heroic if given sufficient ale.

From the Free Dictionary/Encyclopedia:

A troll is a fearsome member of amythical race from Norse mythology. Originally more or less theNordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, thedifferent depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants –similar to the ogres of England – to a devious, more human-likefolk of the wilderness, living underground in hills, caves or mounds.

Hey! They’re not all flesh-eatinggiants who turn to stone in the sunlight. Some are devious littleguys who live in wilderness areas (no doubt protecting endangeredmagical species).

In Bad Spelling, Katand her smart-aleck half-brother, Rune, (also happens to be avampire, but has absolutely no resemblance to the Twilight guy exceptthey’re both cute as hell) are directed by Kat’s flash-frozen dad(Rune calls him a pop-sicle) to visit the Troll King. At the Hall,she requests assistance from King Ole, the Norwegian Troll King. Hearranges for her and Rune to ride the Trollercoaster, which starts inNorway and ends up in the Ural Mountains. From there Kat, Rune, and achangeling troll named Andy travel to Siberia to find Kat's family.

Clearly, trolls are good. They arenice, helpful, cheerful, and sing fairly well too. Yet aspersionscontinue to be cast upon these misunderstood creatures. Shame on allof you for making them the bad guys all these years!

Excerpt from Bad Spelling -  Chapter Fifteen - Three Trolls on aBridge

Kat ran to where her brother and thethree trolls faced each other. The trolls stood shoulder to shoulder,their big, splayed feet firmly planted in front of the footbridge.They bared their chunky yellow teeth and growled at Rune. Althoughhardly reaching Rune’s shoulder, they each outweighed him. Clearly,the trolls did not intend to let him cross. Looking up and down thestreamlet, Kat wondered at their careful guarding of the bridge. Kindof silly, she thought, since anyone could easily step across therivulet without even getting wet feet. She wondered if these werechildren, given their short stature. However, their long kniveslooked very grown-up.

Enunciating each word, Rune held hishands out to show they were empty. Kat had no idea what her brotherwas saying since Rune was speaking Old Runish. Except for a fewspell words, Kat didn’t understand the ancient tongue.

Evidently, neither did the trolls. Runespoke again, louder this time, and took one slow step forward. Atthis move, the troll on the left lunged at them, jabbing at Rune withhis knife. Rune sidestepped the rush, and the troll, taken offbalance, stumbled and fell flat on his face. Kat stepped over thetroll and grasped his arm but only caught hold of his sleeve. Hescreamed and pushed her away. The other two trolls ran at her withtheir knives raised, yelling as they advanced.

Rune stuck out his foot and tripped themiddle troll. The last troll standing went after Rune. The youngwarlock threw up his hands, arms crossed to fend off the attack. Abright red light arced from his hands to hit the charging troll inthe face. The troll dropped his knife and fell to the ground,screaming and rolling around with his hands pressed over his eyes.Rune snatched up the knife and held it to the middle troll’s neck.Kat sat on the one she grabbed, pulling the knife from his flailinghand. The recipient of Rune’s flash attack kept his hands over hiseyes.

Rune spoke again in Old Runish,shouting to make himself heard. It didn’t do any good; the trollsall continued screaming and squealing at the top of their lungs.

Kat jumped up from the troll’s backand grabbed Rune’s hand, pulling the knife away from the troll’sneck. “Rune,” she yelled, “tell them we won’t hurt them!”

The thrashing troll froze then turnedhis cumbersome head toward her.

“You can speak our language!” Heslapped the troll nearest to him, who abruptly stopped screaming. Theone whose neck Rune held the knife to spread his fingers to peek atRune and Kat.

Rune released the troll and stood up,looking a little sheepish. “I just assumed—” He stopped thenshook his head.

Kat crouched on her knees next to oneof the trolls lying on the ground and patted him on the shoulder. “Wemean you no harm. We’re Wiccans from Galdorheim. Maybe you’veheard of it?”

Slowly, the trolls climbed to theirfeet, looked at Kat, then at each other. The three trolls huddled,conferring together. Kat heard a murmur but couldn’t make out whatthey said.

Kat continued, searching for something to say. “My AuntThordis…” Three pairs of troll eyes turned to her and openedwide. They stared at Kat. The middle troll elbowed the one on hisleft, who giggled. The troll on the right gave a great whoop oflaughter then slapped the middle troll on the back. All three trollsbroke into huge guffaws and ended up leaning on each other, wipingtears from their eyes. Rune and Kat stared open-mouthed.

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BADSPELLING- Book 1 of The Witches of Galdorheim Series

A klutzy witch, a shaman's curse, aquest to save her family. Can Kat find her magic in time?

Can Kat find her magic in time? Ifyou’re a witch living on a remote arctic island, and the entireisland runs on magic, lacking magical skills is not just aninconvenience, it can be a matter of life and death–or, at least, adarn good reason to run away from home. Katrina’s spells don’tjust fizzle; they backfire with spectacular results, oftentimesinvolving green goo. A failure as a witch, Kat decides to run awayand find her dead father’s non-magical family. But before she can,she stumbles onto why her magic is out of whack: a curse from aSiberian shaman. The young witch, accompanied by her half-vampirebrother, must travel to the Hall of the Mountain King and thefarthest reaches of Siberia to regain her magic, dodging attacks bythe shaman along the way.

The Cellophane Queen