Shelli Rosewarne

Hi all,

So, another busy week on the writing front 🙂 Final looks and promo material have been sent back for the ‘My Bloody Valentine’ anthology and this is the finalised cover artwork. What do you think? 🙂

I have two flash fiction pieces in it.

Tempting Sin

Sin is designed to be tempting, and sometimes not even an angel can resist.

Siren’s Call

When Ciaran meets the mysterious Rae, he is convinced she is his dream woman. But what will he have to do to keep her?

As you can see there’s also a lot of other very talented authors in there. I’m really excited to read their stories as well! As you may have guessed by the title it releases on Valentine’s Day, so stay tuned for more updates 🙂

Now, I did promise a part two to my Valentine’s themed free read. Hope you’re enjoying, comments and feedback always welcome 🙂

Jess surprised herself by reaching out and taking the parcel. It was small, wrapped in thick tissue and she unwrapped it to reveal a small jewelled bottle, much like an old-fashioned perfume bottle. She held it up to the light. It was slightly dusty but the colours were beautiful, and there was definitely some kind of liquid inside it. She shook it gently.

A wrinkled hand covered her own quickly.

“Not here,” the woman told her. “At the stroke of midnight on Valentine’s Day, you must open this bottle, and you will get the thing you want most.”

Jess felt her lips curve into a cynical smile. “Is that meant to be love?”

The woman smiled back, and her brown eyes were hard and sharp. “Only dreamers and idealists wish for love. We know better, don’t we, my dear? We know that love cannot be trusted and so we wish for something better.”

Jess felt her throat dry up, her gaze held hypnotically by the tiny old woman. “What do we wish for?” she whispered.

The woman cackled and released her hand. “Revenge.”

She turned back to the counter, and rummaging beneath it fished out two bottles of wine and a bottle of premium vodka, that she pushed into Jess’s surprised hands. Stammering her thanks, she dug out her purse, giving the woman a note for the beer. She tried to hand the small bottle back but the woman shook her head, packed all of them into a brown bag and ushered Jess to the door.

“The stroke of midnight,” she told her firmly. “Don’t forget.”

Before Jess could reply, she found herself pushed back onto the street, the door closing behind her and the tinkling of the bell ringing in her ears.

***

Jess downed the last of the wine in the glass as the last of the flesh-eating zombies disappeared from the screen. Okay, so it had been better than the corny romances on cable, but it hadn’t helped as much as she’d hoped. Now, if it had been Scott being attacked by the zombies that might have been a little more like it. She sighed, and now she was thinking about him again.

“Dickhead!” She cursed him out loud.

A single tear escaped though and she brushed it away furiously. He so didn’t deserve any more of her tears. She had given him everything, had thrown away job opportunities, better offers, stuck up for him to all her friends and family, and what did she get for it? Thrown aside and completely humiliated. She’d been picturing marriage and kids and the white picket fence. He’d been abusing her money and contacts and planning her replacement. She sighed, okay the wine wasn’t doing it tonight — she needed the vodka!

Rising up from the couch she picked up the brown paper bag on the table, and her fingers brushed against the smaller bottle. Drawing it out she examined it again, the liquid inside seemed to swirl in strange patterns, almost changing colour as she tilted and turned it. Jess glanced at her watch. Five minutes to midnight – okay, that was a slightly weird co-incidence. She took the vodka out, poured herself a glass, topped up with some coke, but all the time her eyes were on the jewelled bottle.

Slowly she picked up her glass and the bottle and walked back to the couch. She took a long draught from the glass and eyed her watch again. One minute. Was she really going to be this silly, go along with the word of a crazy old woman? She took another drink. It was Valentine’s Day, she was alone, no one was actually going to know if she did something silly like this were they? The digits clicked over and she put her glass down, took the small bottle in both hands – odd it actually felt warm now – and carefully pulled out the glass stopper.