It began almost four years ago when my daughter, Tara, suggested we write a book together. She was still in school then and was on something of a young adult reading binge. But she was tired of books that featured kids with no ‘visible’ parents and thought it would be fun to create something about a mother and daughter who actually LIKED each other.

So out of our mutual love for fantasy, humor and literature in general, the first ideas for Mixing Magic were born. In the beginning, Tara wrote the daughter’s (Skye’s) point of view and I wrote the mother’s (Gentian’s). But during consecutive drafts things started melding together. At this point I don’t think either of us knows who wrote what.

But here’s a little taste of what we ended up with:

Although Gentian Baker has no memory of the first twenty years of her life, she’s content to raise her daughter, Skye, and manage the funky little restaurant she runs out of her Minnesota farmhouse. So what if she feels the need to use river water in her tea and pine cones in her lasagna? It just makes everyone love her cooking more. But when Skye awakens with considerably more canine features than are generally accepted in a teenage girl, the details of Gen’s past become increasingly important. In the days that follow, it becomes apparent that the simple, normal life Gen has tried to build for them is falling apart. Now, to protect everything she holds dear, she must accept her true nature and the nagging memories that haunt her.

Growing up with Gen as her mother, Skye Baker never had a chance at normalcy, even by Black River’s freaky standards. Normal girls don’t have an uncanny ability with barnyard animals. They don’t have a crazy keen sense of smell, and they always always remain human. But as her hormones gear up to deliver her first…um…monthly gift…other changes make her feel even more beastly. And if growing a bushy new tail isn’t bad enough, she gets shot by Ryan Ramsey, the hot new boy in town. At least he might have shot her, or maybe he just thinks he did, which suggests that Ryan isn’t all that normal either. In fact, maybe no one in their sleepy little town is exactly what she seems.

To celebrate the release of our first collaboration, we’re giving away an Amazon gift card. If you’d like to enter our drawing just leave a comment and we’ll throw your name in the hat.