A frog, a cat, and a hobgoblin walk into a bar...in the Jurassic period. Nope...not kidding. Okay, maybe it wasn't really a bar. But it was definitely the local drinking establishment. For dinosaurs...

My old mentor, Alice Parker is back, and she's brought a problem with her. A big one. One that's already testing the sprite's ability to keep it in lettuce and strawberries.

It turns out that Alice has been on the run for a minute, trying to protect a magical tortoise from a dangerous sorceress who wants it for herself. You might be wondering why anybody would want to steal a tortoise. Well, if you had the chance to travel through time at the push of a button, or rather the press of a turtle's shell, would you take it?

Yeah, me neither. I have enough trouble dealing with this time and world... But clearly, we aren't all diabolical magic users bent on our own empowerment. I mean, the possibilities for evil are unending if one can time-hop at...]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2020 10:25:29 +0300 https://library.land/sam-cheever/548117-milk_and_croakies.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/548117-milk_and_croakies.html

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but wrinkles can actually kill me!

Just when I think I understand life, the Universe flings a magic booger at me.

It just doesn’t pay to think you’ve got a handle on things.

For example, my favorite customer, Mrs. Foxladle, got into a simple disagreement with her book club friends over their obsession with youth and beauty. The next thing you know, they’re all dead.

Did Mrs. Foxladle kill them?

It certainly seems like a possibility. But I’m still holding on to the hope that I’m dealing with a rogue magical artifact in the hands of someone with diabolical intent.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out what it is and who’s wielding it with deadly results.

I was counting on Detective Grym, a real rock of a guy, to help me find the culprits. But Grym’s lifespan just turned unpredictable. (You could say things are a bit rocky for him right now.) Which leaves solving the mystery up to me and my friends.

It's just a really good thing I have a cat and a frog and… Yeah, about that… I’m really no closer to figuring out how to use them either.

Holy goblin phlegm!

This magic wrangling stuff is hard!

**

I'm Glynn Forester and I'm Magis. More. I enhance and strengthen magical energy. My power augments rather than creates. But sometimes More is not enough.

My world is fractured between magic and non-magic. The magical elite rule. And they are ruthless and corrupt. They want what I protect. But protecting it has been my family's job for time before time. So I hide. I hide from those who would attempt to use my abilities for unscrupulous purposes. I hide to save innocents from their venom.

But something's changing. The world around me is pulsing with malevolent magic, I realize I no longer have the luxury of anonymity. It's hard to give up my old ways. But I may not have a choice. Others will need my help. And if I deny them I'll be no better than those who threaten my world.

Will my magic make a difference in this new reality? I can offer Magis. More. But will it be enough? And will there be anything left of me when it's done?

'Tis the season for great folly...walawalawalawalala...ribbit.

It's Christmas time at Croakies. The tree is up. The stockings are hung. And Christmas tunes are turning the atmosphere jolly. After a tumultuous Samhain, I've found my chi again and I'm starting to enjoy the season of love and giving.

Yeah. You probably know how this is going to end.

When Sebille suggests I open the bookstore up to a small holiday party, I foolishly agree. How was I supposed to know that the hobgoblin would decide it would be fun to hide everybody's stuff? Or that we'd be hit with a freak winter storm that confined everybody inside for the duration. Or that a "You're me but who am I?" spell would be released inside the shop, switching everybody's identities and creating general chaos and hysteria?

I could probably deal with all that if it weren't for the fact that my friend, Lea...the one person who could possibly reverse the spell...was ensconced in SB...]]> Sat, 09 Mar 2019 18:14:49 +0200 https://library.land/sam-cheever/476466-nothing_familiar.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/476466-nothing_familiar.html
A powerful magic user has gone rogue, endangering everything in his path. When it's all said and done, LA no longer recognizes her once Familiar world.LeeAnn's life is taking a nasty turn. There are forces at work which are determined to expose the magic community to humans. One of LA's closest allies hovers on the edge of death. Grandmama Celeste has disappeared and, for the first time since LA's known her, isn't responding to her pleas for help. To make things worse, LA's best friend, Deg, is attacked by Wraiths and the healers aren't sure they can cure him.LA soon finds herself on a journey to Underworld…traveling to Hades in search of a rare flower that's closely guarded by Wraiths. The journey is long…fraught with danger…and LA must trust someone who hasn't always been trustworthy for its success.But her challenges haven't yet begun. Her world continues to burn.And, in the end, she'll find herself alone and...]]> Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:22:40 +0200 https://library.land/sam-cheever/470714-a_familiar_problem.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/470714-a_familiar_problem.html
Loyalties questioned...worlds shaken...nothing is what it seems. LA will have to look beyond her own perceptions to see what's before her very eyes. Or risk losing everything. When the barriers between worlds is threatened, LA and her friends are sent into the terrifying realm of Underworld on a super-secret mission to discover who's behind the breaches. LA believes she going to battle against one of her own...an aunt who's rumored to want multi-dimensional domination. What she finds once she gets there is nothing like what she expects. Intrigues swirl. Loyalties change in the blink of an eye. And loss beyond anything she can imagine waits just over the next horizon. Someone is pulling the strings of it all and LA is fighting against the clock to discover who it is. Can LA get to the bottom of the mystery and save the worlds? Or will she lose what she loves...one friend or family member at a time...and face the crushing end of all...]]> Thu, 15 Nov 2018 07:08:54 +0200 https://library.land/sam-cheever/669090-mature_magic_06-what_treachery_is_this_.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/669090-mature_magic_06-what_treachery_is_this_.html
]]> Tue, 12 Dec 2023 08:55:24 +0200 https://library.land/sam-cheever/652034-a_bounce_before_i_die.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/652034-a_bounce_before_i_die.html

Villains, Annoying Assistants, and Monsters...Oh My!

My best friend had nothing to do with bouncing or monsters until something went terribly wrong in my new job. Suddenly she's missing, and the rumor is that a nest of monsters might have her. Those monsters are about to meet their match. I'm going to go medieval on their furry butts. If only I can figure out how to control my bouncing magic for five solid minutes.

I just hope Molly will forgive me for bringing her assistant Rog along on the rescue mission. The man has taken annoying to levels heretofore unknown. Believe me. I've tried to shake him. But he's like a giant octopus with a thousand tentacles. He insists he needs to go with me on the rescue. Unfortunately, the man has even less sense than he has magic. And he has zero magic.

Something tells me this is going to go badly.

I'd really been looking forward to a night on the town, showing the sexy Justice why Fort Walton, Indiana was known as the Paris of the Midwest. Okay, not really, but he doesn't know that. Wink, wink. Unfortunately, instead of my sexy new over-the-knee boots, I'm wearing clunky work boots, and slogging through mud in search of patient zero for a new contagion. Good times.

My name is Raelene Kitt. My friends call me Rae. Not Kit Kat or Kitten, despite what my ex-husband told the local newspaper. Bless his heart. I'm a traveler. Not the suitcase-bearing, sunscreen-wearing, snotty-hotel-clerk-glaring kind of traveler. I chase interdimensional boundary breakers and bring them to justice. I've been told I'm competent at my job.

Competent.

I'm going to need to raise that bar a bit if I'm going to survive a rogue virus, crazy aliens, my daughter's sudden interest in my work, a hostile mayor, a randy governor, and a goofy Hellhound who's...]]> Tue, 13 Aug 2024 09:45:20 +0300 https://library.land/sam-cheever/556286-black_and_white_croakies.html https://library.land/sam-cheever/556286-black_and_white_croakies.html

Good parenting advice: Only allow your small frog, cat, and hobgoblin limited and supervised television time, or risk stunting their mental and physical growth.

Yeah, it might already be too late for that...

It seemed like good, innocent fun. A trip back to a simpler time, a fun jaunt to the "good old days". It turned out to be anything but harmless. The "kids" loved the old, black and white shows. But, per usual at Croakies, things devolved quickly, transforming "quiet" time into a heart-pounding adventure.

And of course, as you'd expect, the frog, the cat, and the hobgoblin are right in the middle of it all.

I'm a total derf at this whole parenting thing. And my "children" are brats.

Holy flippin' frog flatulence. So much for the good old days...

This is no boring librarian shushing people from behind a desk. This librarian corrals rogue magic. But more importantly, she has a frog and a cat, and she’s not afraid to use them!

I knew when I woke up with a migraine that things were going to get interesting. As a magical artifact wrangler, it’s not an unusual way to start my day. But I had no idea how bad it was going to get.

Until I found a frog sitting in my teacup.

Even that, I could explain to myself if I had to. After all, I have a creative mind. But when the frog started talking to me, yeah, I was pretty sure I’d taken the wrong kind of pill that morning for my headache.

If only I’d realized then what I know now. The talking frog was just the beginning of my problems. And quite a beginning it was!

**

One of the great things about midlife is having the experience and knowledge that comes from decades of navigating jerks and mansplainers. Unfortunately, I had nothing in my repertoire to help me deal with a true Trickster.

Amid magical mushrooms, ghosts popping up in unexpected places, dangerous predators, strange pregnancies, barking cats, meowing dogs, and an endless array of other weirdness, I'm facing a foe unlike any I've encountered before as Lares of Rome. My new enemy is determined to destroy my dominion, and he doesn't care who he takes out in the effort.

He probably doesn't realize it yet, but he's in for a shipload of a battle. It's going to take the combined effort of an entire town and all of my council and allies, but I have no intention of giving my people over to the type of madness the Trickster generates.

Where Miss Chance finds Cal Amity

Miss Felicity Chance's father is missing, and her delectable PI Calford Amity thinks he's found him. Together, they follow a trail of gold coins and secrets to Bent, Alabama, where a homeless guy named Bayou Bubba has turned up dead with an alligator tooth in his hand and a gold coin between his teeth. Unfortunately, the fish have been at poor Bubba, and it's really hard to figure out if he's Felonius Chance III or just a random stranger.

Is poor dead Bubba Miss Chance's misplaced father? Or will she be disappointed yet again? More importantly, will the mystery of his disappearance suck her down into the bogs of the Bayou, and ruin her favorite purse?