Sorchia's Universe

Novel Magic features New Orleans Voodoo this week–and you know how we love Voodoo–in Author Debby Grahl’s fantasy romance– His Magic Touch . Read all about it and get a little excerpt below. Don’t miss the chance to win a FREE copy of His Magic Touch PLUS another great read by none other than–ME!  About His Magic Touch by Debby Grahl New Orleans is also known as the Crescent City or the Big Easy. My husband David and I first visited the city in 1989 and fell in love with it. I’m a history buff by heart so I found the old Spanish architecture with its wrought iron balconies enchanting. All you have to do is walk the streets of the French Quarter to feel the magic. There’s a saying, “Only in New Orleans.” And this is so true. As I sat on our hotel balcony sipping a glass of wine and munching on a bag of voodoo chips, I could  see a musician setting up on the corner. Soon the clear sounds of his saxophone filled the night. The smell of spicy gumbo from the restaurant across the street waf

Looking for previous episodes of “A Cold Spring?” Start HERE with a pdf of episodes 1-8 and a post of episodes 9 and 10. Episode 11: Kinship Will Out In the ensuing years, Aunt Clarissa and I discovered many of our kin whose wits had not been so muddled with wine or so shocked with disbelief that they could not escape the carnage of Old Highmoor Castle. Still and all, better than two thirds of both the Darkmores and the La Croixs perished that night. The survivors scattered to the four winds, animosities forgotten in the struggle to stay alive without the strength of numbers in a hostile, witch-hating world. Slowly but surely, Aunt Clarissa gathered the Darkmore survivors together in an organized but widely-scattered family once again.  Lucia’s curse spun a web of fear and mistrust. We did not meet in large numbers; we did not seek out the La Croix survivors who, like the Darkmores, gradually reconnected; we concealed our true natures; and we did not returned to Highmoor Province, th

Witches and curses and magic–OH, MY! “A Cold Spring” is a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimy story of tragedy and survival.  If you’ve just discovered it and don’t want to wander all over the Interwebs to read previous episodes–scroll to the bottom for a pdf of Episodes 1-8. Episode 7: Goblets of Fine, Old Wine Goblets of very fine and very old wine delivered by a young and slightly inebriated La Croix cousin put an end to any thoughts of a clandestine rendezvous upstairs. Our duties as host and hostess called. At last, the long road leading from the forest to the castle lay empty and it was time to toast and mingle among our disparate relations. Copious amounts of wine and Scotch flowed from crystal carafes, and the murmur of voices grew to a cheerful din. The moon peeped in the western windows of New Castle Highmoor before our respective circuits brought us back together on the veranda. “I’ve spent the better part the evening either tracing my lineage back to satisfy your relatives or tracing