Witch's Tail by Melanie Snow - Book Tour + Giveaway
Witch’s Tail
The Spellwood Witches
Book One
Melanie Snow
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Spirit Paw Press, LLC
Date of Publication: September 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7324375-6-2
Number of pages: 220
Word Count: 46,311
Cover Artist: Molly Burton
Tagline: Her mentor died fighting to save an enchanted forest. Can she
solve his murder before she’s bewitched?
Book Description:
Can she awaken her dormant powers and stop a desperate killer destroying
the forest?
Sarah Spellwood feels she’s hit bottom. Divorced and jobless, she
relocates to the enchanting village of Witchland intent on solving the
murder of her late mentor. But as she pursues clues buried in the man’s
fight to save the endangered forest-dwelling lynx, she makes an enemy of a
ruthless land developer.
Encountering fairies in the woods, Sarah discovers she’s been repressing
unique gifts passed down from her ancestor and founding witch, Lativia
Spellwood. But though she can now hear her deceased friend’s dog speak,
she isn’t sure her abilities are enough to expose the greed and corruption
covering a killer’s lies.
Can Sarah work with the magical beings to bring a murderer to justice?
Witch’s Tail is the charming first book in the light-hearted The Spellwood
Witches cozy mystery series. If you like paranormal puzzles, delightful
canine companions, and environmental enlightenment, then you’ll love
Melaine Snow’s wagging-ly fun whodunit.
Prologue
Lativia Spellwood sat on her ghostly throne of branches on the summit
of Mount Katribus, with many other ghosts swarming around her
reminiscing about life and drinking wine.
The ghosts of Witchland residents always came to this clearing after
they died to stay near Lativia for guidance and to wait until they
were ready to pass on to the afterlife. Lativia had been dead for
hundreds of years but had still not passed on, for her work
overlooking Witchland and its forest was not yet done. One day, it
would be, and she was beginning to welcome that time, for she was
growing very tired.
A tiny troop of Leekin faeries moved about the arms and legs of
Lativia’s throne, placing flowers into the holes between the woven
boughs. They did that every day, as a way to honor her as Queen of the
Forest.
Lativia sipped from a goblet of ghost wine, enjoying the blue fire as
it spread down her throat, engulfing her in tingly warmth. Being a
ghost was always cold; the magic wine was one of the few momentary
sources of warmth that she could cherish.
“What else do you need, my queen?” chirped one of the Leekins,
buzzing on tiny brown wings before her nose.
Lativia smiled. “I think it’s time I checked on Sarah, don’t you
agree?”
The Leekin nodded excitedly and flew off into the woods. A huge bunch
of Leekins soon returned, flying in formation to carry the weight of a
glowing crystal ball. They lowered it to Lativia’s lap, where it sank
through the spectral outlines of her legs. Lativia could pass through
things, and things could pass through her, for her physical body was
long gone and all that remained was her powerful soul
Lativia smiled even more broadly and began to draw her transparent
ghostly hands over the ball, summoning the blood bond she shared with
her descendent, Sarah Spellwood.
Gradually, the fog inside the ball began to clear and an image of
Sarah’s frizzy explosion of red curls filled it. Lativia drew back a
few feet with her mind and saw Sarah was at a coffee shop ordering a
vegan sandwich. Sarah’s love and respect for animals always made
Lativia proud. She noticed there was a conspicuous pale and indented
band of skin on Sarah’s ring finger where her huge diamond wedding
ring had once been. “That no-good husband of hers is finally gone!”
Lativia crowed with delight. But then she noticed that there were bags
under Sarah’s eyes, the bags of someone who had been up all night
crying. Sarah must be heartbroken, Lativia thought with a heavy heart.
The barista serving Sarah froze when she saw Sarah’s last name on the
credit card receipt. “Um, are you related to . . . ?”
Sarah drearily raised her hand. “Yep, I’m descended from Lativa
Spellwood.”
“That’s amazing! I mean, have you ever been to Witchland and looked
at the Lativia memorabilia?” The barista’s pigtails wiggled with her
excited body language, and Lativia felt a swell of pride that people
still remembered and even revered her. It had been four centuries and
she was still honored as the greatest witch of New England, the one
who had turned into a wolf and fought her way free of her captors at
the Salem Witch Trials!
“Yep,” Sarah said, her voice full of annoyance. It was clear she was
ready to dash out of the coffee shop.
As good of a lawyer as Sarah was, Lativia noticed how awkward she was
around most people, and how little she liked to disclose personal
details, especially of her magical ancestry.
Sarah was a woman of facts and logic, which is why she fought the
magical powers pulsing through her like a current, trying to pull her
back to her destiny. Her resistance to her true self and her stubborn
adherence to logical facts made her unpopular with many people.
Lativia yearned to watch Sarah blossom into her beautiful potential.
“Don’t you see?” Lativia cried. “You are not meant to be in New York!
You should be here, following your calling, completing my work as a
witch! You’re not happy there!” But Sarah couldn’t hear these
words.
“Yes, yes,” several Leekins agreed. A ghost who was standing near
Lativia also nodded his head.
Sarah trudged out of the coffee shop, carrying her drink and the
sandwich in a paper bag. A man in a trench coat bumped into her, and
she hastily checked her pockets to ensure he had not pickpocketed
anything. Then she continued on to her office, a massive steel gray
prison with spikes in the window ledges to repel pigeons. There was no
sign of life anywhere but for the scraggly maple planted out front of
the building and a few waxy tropical plants blooming inside the lobby.
Lativia groaned, feeling the despair and coldness of the place.
“It’s time for you to come here, to your destined home,” Lativia
declared. “My Leekins have told me about the Hunter tracking lynx and
the land surveyors, and I sense that there is about to be trouble in
the forest.”
At the mention of the Hunter, the Leekins gathered around her throne
began to turn blue and tremble in terror.
“I am not strong enough to fight these battles much longer, so I need
you to come home, to come into your true self. Your marriage fell
apart of its own accord, and I sense your job is about to unravel on
its own, too. You can’t fight destiny,” Lativia said, giving the group
of hovering Leekins their crystal ball back and shutting her eyes. “I
could use magic to bring you to your destiny sooner, but it is evil to
interfere with one’s life that way. I can only hope you don’t take
much longer.”
She opened her eyes as the Leekins cried, “We need her!”
About the Author:
Melanie Snow is the pen name for Wendy Van de Poll, a bestselling author,
pet loss grief coach, and animal medium. She is the author of The
Spellwood Witches, a paranormal cozy mystery series.
Her books weave together positive magic, snarky forest faeries, and
insightful animals with fun and eclectic humor. True life adventures and
intuition are woven into her stories laced with unbridled imagination.
She has been followed by wild wolves in minus 60 degrees, hissed at by a
mama bobcat, and played ball with a wild owl—among other animal
encounters.
Find out more about her work:
3 Comments
Thanks Jazzy Book Reviews for the shout-out. This was such a fun book to write as the "tail" is very near to my heart! Love, Melanie P.S. and yes Addie the doggo is a real dog!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! :)
DeleteHow long did it take you to write your book?
ReplyDeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.