Last
of a long line of agrarian witches, Selene Pertunda thinks she will never meet
the right man...until with the help of a little magic, she finds Beck McNeal.
Named for the Goddess of Desire,
can she dream of lasting happiness with only one man?
Selene Pertunda has no
trouble attracting a man. She just can’t seem to find the right one. From
abusive husband Robert to tattooed bad boy lover Kevin, Selene draws men to her
like bears to her honeypot. The problem is that none of them proves to be a
good fit.
Sure she will never
find a shared happiness, Selene has no way to suspect she’s drawn the attention
of a powerful goddess. So she scoffs at the idea that the handsome man who
begins to play a large part in her life could be her destiny. After
all, what could worldly, educated Beck McNeal want with a small-town girl like
Selene?
Selene and Beck try to
their best to resist the inexplicable mutual magnetism flaring between them.
But can two ordinary people avoid the decree of the Goddess of Desire?
Excerpt:
Powell County Library
Magickal! Mystical!
Metaphysical Fair
Selene rolled her eyes after scanning the posterboard sign
propped next to the door of the library’s meeting room. In this era of online
information, the local library must really be hurting for walk-in patrons if
they had to resort to this sort of entertainment. She herself had almost had to
be dragged here. The last thing she wanted right now was to have her palm or
her aura read. In fact she refused to even consider it. Deep inside, where the
truths she was afraid to examine resided, she knew all the indications for the
unhappy ending she predicted for herself could be revealed today if she let her
guard down.
Inside the meeting room, Selene
and her long-time friend Sarah stood in front of a plastic folding table draped
with a blue silk shawl and printed with silver stars and white crescent moons. Really, could it get any more phony?
Selene thought. But Sarah giggled and nudged Selene, wanting to continue. A
woman with shoulder length dark hair and piercing dark eyes watched them from
the other side of the table, her hands toying with an oversized deck of cards.
“You first,” Sarah said.
“I only came here today because you wanted to, Sarah,”
Selene answered. The woman seated behind the table continued to watch them
closely. Sarah’s fidgeting and giggling made Selene feel like a teenager,
definitely not a good thing in her estimation. “I worked late last night. I’m
tired. Let’s just get this over with so I can go home to bed.”
.jpg)
“Sit down,” the woman seated behind the table invited,
gesturing to the chairs placed in front of the table.
Selene glanced at the woman, certain she would see it was
Sarah being addressed. But instead the tarot card reader looked directly at
Selene. A shiver ran down Selene’s back at the woman’s unblinking dark-eyed
scrutiny.
Selene shook her head. “I don’t want my fortune told.”
“Maybe you should allow me to take just a peek at the cards
for you,” the woman insisted in a soft voice. “There might be interesting
things in store for you. Things that you’ve never dreamed possible.”
“Right. Like what? Tall, dark, and handsome?” It sounded to
Selene’s own ears like she was sneering at the woman’s talent, so she probably
was. No, she definitely was. But the woman didn’t seem to take offense. “You
never know,” the card reader answered softly.
Selene shrugged, turning her back
and walking away, beginning a slow circuit of the other offerings lining the
meeting room’s walls while she waited. Sarah took the proffered seat across
from the tarot card reader and immediately became engrossed in whatever the
woman proceeded to tell her.
Selene kept moving, afraid if she sat while she waited for
Sarah she would fall asleep. Reiki she
read on one card atop a blanket-draped bench. Life force healing through the laying on of hands.
Reflexology was
printed on another sign taped to the door of a smaller adjacent room. Reflexes in the hands and ears and
especially the feet correspond to every part, gland and organ of the body!
There were tables for Hypnosis.
ForCrystals and Meditation, and one for a devotee of
something called Spirit Guides. That
particular woman came prepared with large fold-out displays that explained how
to identify and understand the messages sent by spirit animals to humans.
Part of her bored, a small part fascinated, and a large part
amused, Selene wondered how these practitioners of alternative therapies
managed to survive in southwest Wyoming. They must constitute a veritable
underground belief system in a place populated by rough oilfield workers and
their giant pickup trucks.
Only one of the many exhibitions caused Selene to stop long
enough to actually read any of the literature scattered across the table top. Ghosts explained how the belief in
spirits was ancient. Practices of spiritualism and ritual magic
were not just intended to return restless spirits of the dead to their repose,
but for the living to interact with them.
The explanation caught her attention because it jibed with
her own beliefs. Animism one page of
a brochure read: the belief that spirits existed in all things, animate or
inanimate. The universe itself possessed a spirit, and the spirit of everything
combined was universal. Selene knew this to be correct because her nona had told her so.
Selene was the last of a long line of streghe or nature witches. With a history stretching back before
the time of the Etruscans, the old knowledge was now almost buried by the
avalanche of Christian doctrine blanketing thefertile valleys of the Dolomites.
By the time the belief filtered down through the years and distance from Europe
to reach Selene the flame burned so low it had almost guttered out.
But not quite. She still believed in the ancient agrarian
spirits, the gods and goddesses of Nature and fertility, agriculture and
fecundity. Even though she lived in the dry high desert and had for her whole
life. Even though her last true link with the old religion, her nona, had been
dead for twenty years.
And that’s why, when she completed the circuit of the room
and stood once more before the dark-haired psychic, almost against her will
Selene extended her hand to receive the business card the woman held out to her:
Tarot * ) Divination ( * Clairvoyant
* ) Spells ( *
* ) Spiritual Healing
( *
20 years’ experience
Madame Fortunata
“Call me,” Madame murmured, her finger tapping the card
where her phone number was printed. “Make an appointment. Please. I can help
you.”
In spite of the pull of modern rationality and the tendency
to disbelieve, the inner voice strongly urging her to run before she made a
choice whose consequences she couldn’t control, Selene stared helplessly into
the deep pools of the woman’s hypnotic eyes. “All right” she was aghast to hear
herself agreeing.
) * (
Getting It Right is
the first novel-length work in the Wyoming Series of
contemporary romances by Christi Williams.
Amazon link for
Getting
It Right
Other books by Christi Williams:
"To the One I
Never Forgot" is a short story that launched the Wyoming
Series. Gianna and Zack were too young for love when they were separated.
Now, all grown up, can Gianna be reunited with the one she never forgot?
Christi Williams is
also the author of two novels and a novella in the Hawk Point Romances series. Take
a Chance on Love is the story of the chance encounter of
widowChancie de Leur and hot Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper Micah Taylor. Perilous
Promises is Perris and Noah Dalton's story of recovery from breast
cancer and the effort to revive their formerly wonderful marriage. The
novella Clay's Quest is the tale of a hot Wyoming cop
who comes up with a wacky plan to save his marriage when he just won't accept
that his beautiful wife wants to find someone else to father her baby.
Christi writes sensual, entertaining
love stories of unforgettable modern Western men and women. Readers
say...Sensual: "Taken a touchy subject and made it heartfelt and humorous,
but she's made it H.O.T.!!" Humorous: "Cracked me up!" Love:
"To be loved like that!" Stories: "Character driven
fiction."
Links to Take a
Chance on Love:
Links to Perilous
Promises:
Links to Clay's Quest:
Link to “To the One I Never
Forgot”:
Enjoyed the excerpt from Christi Williams! Her character Selene's life prior to finding true love-- drawing men to her like bears to her honeypot-- so cute!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Suz, for featuring Getting It Right on your blog. And thank you, Kathleen Rowland, for the nice comment!
ReplyDelete