For reasons slightly convoluted and primarily related to how my brain works (1 world at a time, 1 novel at a time, etc), I have two (2!) Vegan Vamp Christmas stories for you guys this year. (Also, yes, that does mean that I’m working on a Vegan Vamp novel now…)
Story 1…One will be included in Spells and Jinglebells, and that was last week’s excerpt: My, What Big Teeth You Have. If you can’t tell from the title and excerpt that it has a humorous bent, well, then shame on me. (And, oops.) It’s still a feel good story, which I like in a Christmas tale, but it’s written from Mallory’s mom’s perspective. (That poor lady…)
Story 2…The excerpt below is from the second, less humorous story, Makin’ the List. It’s not super funny, unless you just generally think I’m funny, but I did think it was Christmas-y in its way. I hope you agree. (Tentative cover shown…)
If you want to receive Makin’ the List in it’s entirety, be sure to sign up for my newsletter. When possible, I like to give newsletter folks my shorts for free.
***Raw and unedited, just for you! Snip Begins***
With a twinkle in his eye and a cookie in his belly, he gathered up his velvet sack and disappeared up the chimney. But before he left, he pointed at me, and said, “Ho-ho-ho, and a very merry Christmas to you, Mallory.”
I woke up drenched in sweat. That couldn’t be right. I was a vampire, and vampires didn’t sweat.
Granted, I wasn’t like most vampires. Blood made my stomach turn, my fangs were embarrassingly small and probably incapable of penetrating flesh (not that I’d know), and I might have some suspiciously non-vampire-like powers. Maybe witchy. Maybe wizardy. Hard to say at this point. Point being, I wasn’t your garden variety sociopathic vampire.
Bonus, when I was turned, I lost all (most?) of my at-that-point-undiagnosed anxiety disorders. Most vamps lost their humanity—hence the sociopath title—but not all did. And some even made their way back to the land of empathy. My roommate fell in that camp. Jefferson Wembley was good people, uh, vampire.
But as atypical a vamp as I was, in one regard I was quite typical: I didn’t sweat.
At that’s about when I felt the hot, heavy breath of a beastly creature on my cheek. I cracked an eye.
“Boone!”
My bloodhound grinned at me with his tongue lolling out to the side.
***Snip Ends***
Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter if you want to receive a free e-copy when it’s ready to drop (anticipated mid-November.) Or, if you prefer to buy because 1) you like your email inbox tidy or 2) just ’cause, then it will also be available to purchase for $0.99. Note that new subscribers don’t receive my short story backlog, I just send copies as they release.
And if you haven’t yet had a chance to check out book 1 in my Vegan Vamp Mysteries series, here’s the first book in the series…
