Weekend Writing Warriors December 16 & 17

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their work-in-progress. You can find out more and read other writers' snippets by clicking here. All genres represented; commenting is encouraged. Spread the word, share the love, warriors. Twitter hashtag #8sunday.

Welcome! This is my debut entry with #wewriwa and my genre is magical cozy mystery. My WIP excerpt is from book two of a series featuring Mack the Magical Cat, titled, Ma Tutt's Secret Spice. Here's the opening:

~*~

The mountain air had a slight chill to it when Dolly and Martía met at the back door of the bakery at just after four in the morning. It was the Fourth of July and Ma Tutt’s Donut Hut opened at five o’clock sharp.

“Good morning, Ma,” Martía said, yawning and giving her matronly friend a hug. “I’m glad we decided to do most of our kitchen work before leaving for the day, those three-thirty baking sessions were starting to wear mighty thin.”

Dolores Tutt chuckled and said, “Don’t you know, the older we get, the less sleep we need! At your age, you should be able to function on a three hour nap.” Ma winked at her ‘younger’ friend, sharing an inside joke.

Martía Cooper was one hundred years old but didn’t look a day past twenty-four. That’s the age she and her husband Rohan stopped growing old, for some mysterious reason.

~*~

Wow, that was short! (Truth be told, that was probably twelve sentences edited down to eight for this post! ;) Feel free to comment below. Obviously, Martía and Rohan's mysterious background will be explained next (and was revealed in book one) - but not as an info dump!

If you want to get in on the mystery and like gentle bakery stories - and with a magical cat! - then book one, Ma Tutt's Donut Hut, might be of interest. Available at Amazon. Here's the blurb:

Dolly Tutt has just opened her own bakery in the small mountain community of Sugar Pine Station. But the Creamy Pie franchise across the street is giving her fits. Her business is dying. She needs a miracle or she'll be forced to close. 

Fortunately, Mack, a mysterious tabby that came with the doughnut shop, lends a paw by pointing Dolly to a magical ingredient that definitely puts the spice back in her life and rejuvenates the Donut Hut. Unfortunately, it also unleashes as series of catastrophes that may end up destroying her business once and for all. 

- "A very gentle mystery with a cast of wonderfully quirky characters and a light moral touch make this short novel an endearing and satisfying read." 

To read all the installments, click #WIPSnippet.

~*~

Thanks for reading. If you want semi-regular updates about my writing (my publishing side is Tule Fog Press), you can subscribe to my newsletter here. (You'll get a free ebook! :)

And as a special Advent/Christmas gift for "hopping by" during this blog hop, please accept my speculative SF short story, An Astral Advent, available for one week. (Update: This story is no longer available as a stand alone, but is part of Tule Fog Tales, Issue One if you wish to read it.

Well, I'm off to read and comment on the other participants' stories at the Weekend Writing Warriors website. Feel free to follow along.

Until next time, thanks for taking a look around my blog. Any questions or comments, drop me a line or interact below. - Happy Reading, Lyn Perry