“Love Pixies” by Carol Maloney Scott
Blurb: For three lifelong best friends, a college graduation trip to Ireland is supposed to be their last hurrah before starting their jobs, and taking on the stresses and responsibilities of adult life. Heather, Tiffany, and Amanda are on a mission to turn the Emerald Isle upside down…or at least wreak a little havoc, drink a wee bit too much, and kiss hunky Irish boys…before returning to their hometown of Chicago.
When Rhiannon, a powerful fairy, pays a surprise visit to their adorable, thatched-roof rental cottage in County Clare, and persuades them to sign one-year Love Pixie contracts, their lives are drastically altered. Newly armed with fantastical superpowers, charmed necklaces, and the ability to turn ordinary substances into enchanted pixie dust, the girls join together to fight ‘love crime’ and help assigned couples on the brink of disaster build bridges back to happiness. It all sounds quite exciting, until they realize that learning how to use powerful magic is not only time consuming, overwhelming, and confusing – it’s not easy to hide from their family, co-workers, and most importantly – potential love interests.
To complicate matters even more, the trio is repeatedly tempted by the fairy’s rebellious sister, Aideen, who challenges them to break the rules. Perhaps if they listen to the ‘bad fairy’ they can finish their assignment quicker…and get back to work…and play…before anyone is the wiser.
However, the girls were raised to know that there are consequences to bad behavior – at least in the non-magical world. Afraid to ask if there is such a thing as magical jail, the two more sensible Pixies hope to rein in their most wayward partner – before their contracts are terminated…and their couple’s relationship implodes into a pile of ordinary dust.
EXCERPT
The Pixies followed Layla back to the office, where she presented David with his new cup of coffee.
Only all he did was thank her. He still wasn’t drinking it!
“Thanks a lot. That was very nice of you.”
His face brightened, but he still looked awful. His shirt was wrinkled—frankly it looked like he had picked it out of the dirty laundry basket. Maybe Carrie was refusing to do his wash in her current condition, or because of his recent attitude.
Instead of drinking his coffee, David stood up and began pacing the room.
“I shouldn’t drink any more coffee. I’m jittery enough. Maybe we should order lunch. It’s going to take hours to work through these figures.”
Tiffany smacked her forehead and reached for the red dust in her bra.
Now it was Amanda’s turn to take charge. She grabbed Tiffany’s hand and said, “No, you are not throwing red dust on him. What will that do? Just give him some terrible problem that Layla can help him with? Or she’ll just leave him here, and he’ll never get to the party with Carrie.”
Tiffany raked her hands through her hair, ignoring her normal concern for a perfectly styled ‘do.’
“Okay fine. But he needs to drink the fucking coffee.”
Amanda reminded a frantic Tiffany that this cup hadn’t been enchanted yet.
“And he doesn’t seem to want the coffee, anyway. Maybe we’ll have to wait until they order lunch. They’ll have to consume something eventually.”
Amanda was trying to be the voice of reason, but Tiffany was getting past the point of fed up with David Newman.
“No, I’m not waiting for that. This moron is going to get his rumpled, red-eyed ass over to that party with his wife. If I have to…that’s it!”
Amanda blinked hard as Tiffany approached David, but she wasn’t reaching into her bra for the red dust.
Hopefully she wouldn’t accidentally touch him! Layla would think he was ready for the psych ward when he started flinching for no reason, after being grazed by an invisible fairy.
Amanda held her breath as Tiffany sneaked up on him…wait, why was no one moving? The air felt funny…
Holy crap, Amanda thought. Did Tiffany just stop time?!!
Tiffany lunged at David, positioning herself within centimeters of his face, and dropped a few granules of sugar directly into his frozen mouth!
The atmosphere in the room changed again, and all the noises and movements of the office sprang back to life…including the human inhabitants.
David instantly leapt to his feet, and began spitting and swatting at the air.
“What’s wrong?” Layla’s eyes widened.
She had secretly hoped that David was close to a meltdown, but she hadn’t expected him to completely lose his entire…was he having a seizure?
“David! What are you doing?”
Layla shrieked as David danced around the office with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, like a dog on a hot day.
“Do you see it? Is it gone?”
“See what?”
“The bug that crawled in my mouth!”
With that, Tiffany and Amanda fell over laughing.
Amanda was holding her sides and screeching. “I can’t believe you just did that! Holy crap, that was hilarious. His eyes are bugging out!”
Tiffany grabbed Amanda and roared, “Bugs! You said bugs! He thought a bug flew into his mouth…ha, ha, ha…”
Layla wrinkled her nose in disgust. “A bug flew into your mouth?” She hoped there were no bugs in his office. It was more likely that sleep-deprived David was losing his marbles…and going buggy in the brain.
“Yes, and it was a sweet bug!”
As the Pixies laughed and struggled to regain their composure, Amanda said, “I’m dying! But let’s see if this pixie dust is going to do the trick. And holy crap—you stopped time!”
David stopped jumping around and paused, looked at the laptop, his coffee cup, and Layla—as if he was not sure what to make of them. “That’s odd. How long have we been here?”
Layla was relieved that he had calmed down, but didn’t quite understand his bewilderment. “We’ve been here since about ten. Why do you ask?”
“Ten!? What time is it now?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead his mind flooded with visions of Carrie.
Carrie on their wedding day.
When Elyse was born.
Making his breakfast in their first apartment.
On the beach in her bikini on their honeymoon.
And finally, at the party…without him.
“I have to go! My wife needs me.” He gestured to the desk and said, “This needs to wait.”
He walked to the office door, grabbed his jacket off the hook, and ran out.
Tiffany folded her arms across her chest, and Amanda patted her fellow Pixie on the back. “Wow. That was amazing. Now you have another unique and awesome power! This is so great—it’s early in the day and he has about twelve hours of enchantment ahead of him.”
Tiffany smiled and said, “I know. It’s fantastic. Hopefully Heather is shoving enchanted brownies into Carrie’s face.”
“Somehow I think she’s administering her pixie dust a little more subtly. People can actually see her.”
Amanda giggled again, but then noticed Layla. What was she doing now?
Luckily for the Pixies, Layla liked to talk to herself while plotting evil.
“That sonofabitch! How dare he just run out of here? Did he not see my shoulders? And I wasn’t lying—the spreadsheet actually is fucked up. It’s going to take me all fucking weekend to fix it!”
She rubbed her temples and smiled. “No, on second thought…I’m going to make it even worse, and send it to Alfred and the client. Then I’ll step in and fix it…and be the hero.”
She sat down at David’s desk with a smug look on her face.
Tiffany’s mouth fell open as she realized that she hadn’t thought this through. Now Layla was even angrier, while David was off to bond with his wife. The latter was great, but his career was going to be destroyed by this crazy bitch, and how were the Pixies going to prevent it?
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**About the author: Carol Maloney Scott, author of the Rom-Com on the Edge series, is a frazzled new bride and wiener dog fanatic. She is a lover of donuts, and a hater of mornings. Recently unearthing a childhood passion for writing, she can once again be seen carrying around a notebook and staring into space. Her stories are witty, fresh and real, just like life.
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW with CAROL MALONEY SCOTT
- Describe your writing style in five words: Funny. Fast-paced. Sarcastic. Quirky. Original.
- Salty or sweet? Depends on my mood – sometimes both combined!
- What song(s) and/or TV show(s) set the theme for your books? I don’t usually get inspired by songs or TV shows. However, the song Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac, is used to conjure the fairy in Love Pixies. And I do have a lot of musical references in my other books.
- Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? Ebooks all the way now! I was a resistor at first!
- In what environment do you think you work the best? Quiet with no one around
- What are you reading right now? I just finished a novel called Not Working. I enjoyed the dark humor and the struggle the main character faced in finding her calling.
- Do you see yourself in any of your characters? If so, what are the similarities? The women I write about face a lot of challenges that I have dealt with, including divorce and dating a widower. Claire in There Are No Men, and Rebecca in Afraid of Her Shadow could be combined to form me. They deal with things my way – they fall apart and then they rise up!
- When you’re writing, what must you have with you at all times? Something to drink
- Do you have any writing rituals? I just need quiet, and I prefer there to be no chance of interruptions. This is hard when you don’t live alone.
- What do you want your readers to take away from your books? I think the main thing is that women should value themselves and persevere to get what they want. Also, being alone is much better than being in a bad relationship. And don’t give up – on any of your goals.
- In five years, where do you want to be in your writing career? I would love to be writing full time, and branch out into a few more fiction genres, as well as non-fiction.
- What are you working on right now? I am taking a tiny break, but I have started my 7th novel, Meet the Neighbors. It’s about a young woman who inherits an apartment complex from her grandmother, along with a huge set of requirements she must fulfill to receive the rest of her inheritance. It’s chick lit with lots of quirky characters, multiple love interests, and a message about going after what you want, even if it means giving up what/who you thought you wanted.
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**About the author: Carol Maloney Scott, author of the Rom-Com on the Edge series, is a frazzled new bride and wiener dog fanatic. She is a lover of donuts, and a hater of mornings. Recently unearthing a childhood passion for writing, she can once again be seen carrying around a notebook and staring into space. Her stories are witty, fresh and real, just like life.
**Find “Afraid of Her Shadow” now! 