Promo: Elizabeth Coldwell, Guest Author

Casting A Love Spell

by Elizabeth Coldwell

 

At the heart of Careful What You Wish For, my story in the Myths, Moons and Mayhem anthology, is a love spell. I don’t remember how the idea first came to me (it’s been a while since I wrote the original version of the story) but it arrived pretty much fully formed, and I knew that I had to create a convincing-sounding spell for Josh, the narrator of the story, to recite.

Josh is trying to conjure up his ideal man, and while the kind of online site offering to provide a love spell that will work immediately wouldn’t stand up to the scrutiny of those who are serious about paganism and wicca, their examples worked for my purposes. As well as the right words, Josh needs certain items to make the spell work – two red roses and a lock of his own hair, tied with red ribbon. Most importantly, he has to perform the ritual “skyclad”, or naked. This isn’t a prerequisite for all magical rituals, but when you’re writing an erotic story, it’s always good to find an excuse for your characters to strip off.

The spell I came up with for Josh is:

A perfect man I summon here
Bringing love to hold so dear
Make our brother see the light
Bring to him his Mr. Right

To his surprise, and that of his roommate Aaron, who’s suggested casting the spell, it brings his dream lover to life. Of course, something like that wouldn’t work in the real world – unless you know better…

Excerpt from “Careful What You Wish For” by Elizabeth Coldwell in Myths, Moons, and Mayhem

About “Careful What You Wish For”: Josh dreams of meeting Mr. Right, so his roommate offers help with a love spell. Neither man is prepared for what happens when the spell begins to work.

“Okay, now we’re going to need a lock of your hair,” Aaron said.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked, thinking back to stories I’d read about zombie curses and voodoo dolls. Didn’t you need the hair of the victim for making something like that? Suddenly everything was getting a little too serious for my liking.

“It’s just a bit of harmless fun. Nothing’s going to go wrong, I promise, Josh.”

He’d told me to trust him, and I knew I had to, if we were going to have any success at all. Aaron handed me the scissors and I snipped off a little of my dirty-blond hair, taking it from a spot close to the nape of my neck where it wouldn’t be noticed. Aaron produced a length of red ribbon and tied it round the lock of hair, then placed it in the circle, next to the roses.

“Is that it?” I said.

He shook his head. “One last thing before we start. You have to undress.”

 

About Elizabeth Coldwell

Elizabeth Coldwell is a multi-published author and the former editor of the UK edition of Forum magazine. She was the launch editor of Erotic Stories magazine and one of the co-founders of the Guild of Erotic Authors. She is now an editor at Xcite Books. Find her online at The (Really) Naughty Corner.