In addition to being available as an ebook, Pretty Witches All in a Row is now available in print through Amazon.com! As usual, here is another sample from the book between Detective Nick Gibson and his teenage daughter Veronica.

It was later than he would have liked when Nick pulled into the driveway of his home. The modest, three bedroom house was all ablaze with light, and he could hear the music all the way out in the car before he even opened the garage door. “Sounds like V’s home,” he murmured, leaving the car. The music swelled as he opened the door into the hallway, the music dark and throbbing.

Nick ventured deeper into the house, finding his teenaged daughter at the kitchen table, head bobbing to the music, bent over a textbook. How she could study with all that racket was beyond him, but he had to smile at the way her little spiky ponytails bounced, oblivious to his presence.

Not for the first time, he fretted over her appearance, thinking she looked more like a college co-ed than a high school girl in that get up. Her naturally wavy, medium brown hair was dyed a vibrant red color that didn’t occur in nature; straightened within an inch of its life so that the ends of her ponytails stuck out at odd angles making him think of a burst of fireworks. A black velvet choker wrapped around her pale throat, and her ears boasted three sets of piercings apiece. Nick flat out put his foot down on piercing any other part of her body until she was eighteen, and he had two years left to hope she grew out of that phase. As per usual, she wore a short skirt, not indecently so, but shorter than he would have liked on principle.

Her outfit du jour consisted of a black denim miniskirt, frayed at the bottom and no fewer than three visible shirts of varying lengths in shades of alternating black and red. Brown eyes that mirrored his own were heavily lined with dark gunk, and lips stained a vibrant shade of red. Veronica looked as if she was dressed to go to a club instead of sitting at home doing her homework. Though Nick had to consider; better to have her dressed for clubbing and home doing her homework than dressed like a librarian and out all hours of the night doing God knows what.

“Hi Daddy,” she called out without turning around.

Surprised, he set his briefcase down on the table opposite her. “I didn’t think you knew I was there,” he yelled over the music.

“Please, I could feel you standing there watching me.”

“What if it hadn’t been me? What if I was a robber or worse? Then it wouldn’t make much sense to leave me standing there with your back turned,” he taunted her, but in a way he was serious. A girl at home alone, he hoped he’d raised her to have a little more self preservation than that.

“Then turning around and freaking out wouldn’t have changed a whole lot by the time he’s right behind me, would it?” she pointed out, her head tilting to one side. “Besides, I saw your reflection in the window when you came in, I knew it was you the whole time.”

“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

“I didn’t want to miss out on lecture number twelve, it’s been overdue,” she grinned cheekily.

Somehow or other, casting this one in my mind turned into “how can I fit the cast of Firefly into one book?”. Once I got started, it was easy to fit most of them in. So here you go, how I would cast this book as a movie or tv show:










Sgt. Nick Gibson – Nathan Fillion, because he can handle that glib, charming, borderline obnoxious sense of humor that Nick has so well, and you can still believe that he’s very capable of catching a killer at the same time.



Anneliese Cross – In my mind she’s actually been a blend between Evangeline Lily and Kate Beckinsale, if that makes any sense. Because I see her as down to earth and vulnerable sometimes, but with an inner strength when things get tough.



Seraphine Ryan – Morena Baccharin – with hair, thank you! While I see a lot of her attitude and mode of dress like Anna from V, she’s got the innate sensuality of Inara wrapped up in one package.




Rose Spencer – Melanie Lynskey. I’ve been a fan of hers since Ever After, and I think she’s capable of playing someone who you dismiss as one thing to begin with, but then reveals hidden depths.




Skye Mackenzie – an early Drew Barrymore because she’s so full of light and laughter, you can’t imagine why anyone would possibly want to kill her.





Noah Cahill – Sean Maher. A good looking man, but he could pull off that smug, self-righteous quality that makes you want to punch him in the face.





Veronica Gibson – Scarlett Johanssen from “The Perfect Score”. She’s a good girl in a bad girl’s body. I love the style she embodies in that movie, I think it suits Veronica to a T.




Detective Kip Brady – Seamus Dever. Love him in Castle, and he makes a great cop.





Detective Michelle Park – Grace Park. I think it’s funny that she’s actually on a cop show now, because when I wrote this, I only knew her from Battlestar Galactica.




Sgt. Michael Troyer – Adam Baldwin, because he has that gruff authority and I can see him being a little difficult to work with.





Libby Fielding, M. E. – Jewel Staite. Though more like she was on Stargate Atlantis than on Firefly.