#BlackFriday: The Holidays Come To Magical Brews by Irene Radford

It’s that time…Black Friday is here and we’re discussing the season with Irene Radford’s Daphne from A Spoonful of Magic.

Daphne “Daffy” Rose Wallace Deschants has an ideal suburban life—three wonderful and talented children; a coffee shop and bakery, owned and run with her best friend; a nearly perfect husband, Gabriel, or “G” to his friends and family. Life could hardly be better.

But G’s perfection hides dangerous secrets. When Daffy uncovers evidence of his infidelity, her perfect life seems to be in ruins. On their wedding anniversary, Daffy prepares to confront him, only to be stopped in her tracks when he foils a mugging attempt using wizard-level magic.

Suddenly, Daphne is part of a world she never imagined–where her husband is not a traveling troubleshooter for a software company, but the sheriff of the International Guild of Wizards, and her brilliant children are also budding magicians. Even she herself is not just a great baker and barista—she’s actually a kitchen witch. And her discovery of her powers is only just beginnning.

But even the midst of her chaotic new life, another problem is brewing. G’s ex-wife, a dangerous witch, has escaped from her magical prison. Revenge-bent and blind, she needs the eyes of her son to restore her sight—the son Daffy has raised as her own since he was a year old. Now Daphne must find a way to harness her new powers and protect her family—or risk losing everything she holds dear.

If The Holidays Come To Magical Brews gets your interest, make sure you check out the first book in the SERIES, A Spoonful of Magic.
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The Holidays Come To Magical Brews


How does a kitchen witch face the chaos of the mall at Christmas? The same way she looks at a complicated recipe or a messy kitchen after her three children ranging from 10-15 have been in there: One little bit at a time.

Daphne Rose Wallace Deschants (Daffy to everyone but the banker who holds the mortgage on her bakery/coffee shop) has only recently discovered her true magic. (Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford, DAW Books November 2017) Her wand is actually a spurtle—a wooden kitchen tool designed for stirring oatmeal or thick porridge, and a gift from her beloved grandmother. She does more than bake magic into desserts. She transforms things. Give her sugar, butter, eggs, and flour and she turns them into something delicious. Give her chaos and she transforms it into order.

And while fighting with her ex, she bobbed him upside the head and turned him into a goat—his true personality.

She approaches the narrow streets of Old Town Eugene, Oregon that is closed to vehicle traffic the last weekend before Christmas. Unique boutiques, delis and small markets near her coffee shop line the street. She opens her magical senses and loosens her wand from her back pocket in order to listen to what the universe needs her to do and what she should buy. A touch of nutmeg, a dab of sour cream, or a dash of cinnamon?

She encounters a homeless man who needs hope more than a few coins. She offers him a part time job and the promise of a reference if he does it well.

Then she bumps into a panicky young woman who can’t find her three-year-old, any mother’s worst nightmare. Daffy transforms him from Little-Boy-Lost into Little-Boy-Found.

What can she do for the teenage siblings wanting to give their dying mother the up-scale, single cup coffee maker she longs for. But none are to be found. Everyone in town has decided the over-priced gadget is the must-have of the season. Daffy can give them something better. Free coffee and pastry for Mom every day—to go if she’s not up to coming into “Magical Brews.”

In between she has to find special gifts for her children, things they truly want rather than what they need. In each case after helping someone else, she finds precisely what will delight and warm the heart of each child.

The annoying and tinny music coming through inadequate speakers on the street corners jangles Daffy’s ears until she listens more closely to how the chaos swirls around her. She has one last gift to buy, something that will begin the long process of mending the breech between herself and her estranged parents.

And when she buys the perfect gift that will remind her and her parents that her entire childhood was not always distasteful, that they had happy and special times too… Only then does the tired old song mellow and become a hymn.

This is a brief thumbnail sketch of a short story that will be a free exclusive to my newsletter subscribers later in December. You can sign up at www.ireneradford.net.

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Meet Irene Radford!

Irene Radford, author of the Dragon Nimbus (The Glass Dragon, The Perfect Princess, The Loneliest Magician, The Wizard’s Treasure) and the Dragon Nimbus History (The Dragon’s Touchstone, The Last Battlemage, The Renegade Dragon) series, often appears at conventions in the Oregon-California area. She is the author of the Stargods and Merlin’s Descendants series as well, and is also one of the founders of the Book View Cafe.

Contact Info: Website | GoodReads | Amazon

Want to purchase Irene’s novels?
A Spoonful of Magic
Nevertheless, She Persisted: A Book View Café Anthology
Committing Novel: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Novel
Den of Iniquity
Museum Hauntings
Pirate Tea
The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume I
The Silent Dragon (Children of the Dragon Nimbus #1)
Guardian of the Balance (Merlin’s Descendents #1)
The Stargods Trilogy
Thistle Down (Pixie Chronicles #1)
Lacing Up For Murder Whistling River Lodge Mystery #1)
The Lost Enforcer

Please help spread the word: Tweet: Celebrate the chaos of #BlackFriday with holiday stories & contests by 20+ authors. Missed one? Here they all are: http://www.literaryescapism.com/50121/blackfriday-2017-master-list

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.