Written by Love is Pop’s Michael McCarthy under the pen name Michael Beaulieu, Book of Shadows Volume One: Casting is the story of three sixteen-year-old girls who find the Book of Shadows (spellbook and journal) of one of their late great grandmothers. Upon trying a simple candle lighting spell, our narrator, Emma, discovers that magick is real and that she’s a natural born witch. Soon, she’s recruiting best friends Lia and Shar into forming a coven, giving them each a third of her power in a coven binding ceremony. It would all be quite nice if not for the fact that many of the girls’ spells have unintended consequences, often doing exactly what they’re hoping to avoid. Like making the school’s guidance counselor come onto Emma when she just wanted the attention of her dream boy. Meanwhile, a handful of zealot bullies at their new Catholic school pick on them because Lia and Shar are a happy, out, lesbian couple. The resulting war between the bullies and the witches proves disastrous for both sides. To prepare people for Book of Shadows 2, I have made Book of Shadows 1 FREE for a limited time: http://amzn.to/2fbnRen
Book of Shadows 2 has been out since 8/10 and has been impressing fans of the first book since its release. The story this time picks up right where Book One leaves off with the girls nursing their wounds following the climactic ending of the previous book. Their biggest adversaries in Book Two aren’t their injuries but the police, who keep threatening to charge the girls with manslaughter if they don’t tell them how two of the bullies caught on fire. That’s not a secret they’re prepared to divulge, however, since it has everything to do with magick and that’s not an answer the detectives are inclined to accept. Unless, of course, you give them a scapegoat and hypnotize them into believing you. But even if the girls manage to pull that much off, Emma’s great-grandmother Ruth appears to her again and warns that witch hunters have been hired to kill them. Before this installment is over, Emma will receive a mysterious package from the hunters, a box that contains something truly horrifying and toxic, so much so that it could cost her her sanity. If you’re looking for a standalone novel, read Book of Shadows One. Book Two would be lost on you if you haven’t already read the first. If you have Kindle Unlimited you can read Book of Shadows 2 for free: http://amzn.to/2eX72Ho You can also buy it at the limited time sale price of $2.99 (for the e-book) if you’re not in Kindle Unlimited or would simply like to own it. Either way, I’d be happy just knowing that you’re reading it.
Michael Beaulieu is my pen name for my novels. I’m going by Beaulieu because it’s a name that was in the family for years before dying off because everyone kept having daughters, eventually leaving no men to carry on the name. Its origin is French and it literally means beautiful (beau) place (lieu).
When I wrote Book of Shadows, I’d planned to just go by Michael McCarthy, my legal name, as I do here on Love is Pop and have in so many magazines and sites before, but MichaelMcCarthy.com was taken and the bastards holding it hostage wanted a minimum bid of $2000 dollars so I checked to see if MichaelBeaulieu.com was free and it was so my pen name was born. (I’d already had Beaulieu tattooed on my left forearm, so it was a natural choice when MichaelMcCarthy.com was occupied.) That’s why Emma, the main character in Book of Shadows, is named Emma McGlinchey-Beaulieu and I’m named Michael Beaulieu. I wasn’t giving her my last name to seem like some megalomaniac or something. I named her that before I knew I’d be going by Beaulieu. By the time I realized we had the same last name, well, the book was already published and it didn’t make much sense to go changing it at that point.
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