Mid Week Tease - The Bone Flute - Science vs. Magic

Welcome to the Weird, the Wild, & the Wicked for a new year of Mid Week Tease hosted by Sandra Bunino.

Authors: this is a great opportunity to spotlight a few lines or even a paragraph or two from a new release or backlisted title. Readers: you get to sample some delicious snippets! We’ll do our best to tease, titillate and tantalize you into the weekend.

I'm working on a new paranormal romantic suspense set in Las Vegas, entitled The Bone Flute. In this unedited snippet, Rain is trying to understand why Jozsef (pronounced Yo-zheff) is really in her home and gets a lesson in symmetry.

“You’re going to have to explain this to me. I don’t really understand the whole curse thing. I didn’t know anything about the bone flute until yesterday afternoon when a lawyer brought it to the office as a piece of my inheritance from my grandmother.”

“You inherited it from your grandmother, but you know nothing about it?” He raised an eyebrow.

“We weren’t close.” Rain shrugged. “My dad wanted nothing to do with his family. I never really knew my grandmother or the rest of his relatives.”

“How could you learn to hone your magic skills if you never knew your grandmother?” Then his expression cleared. “Ah, you learned it from your mother’s people.”

“What? No, no, I’m not a magic user of any kind.” She gave him an understanding smile. “I’m a paleontologist.”

His frown returned, with a heavy dose of confusion. “A ‘studier’ of…what?”

“Studier of ancient life.” Her smile widened. “I study fossil animals and their ancient environments to give me clues about environmental changes that may happen to our world in the future.”

“So you use ancient life magic to predict the future.” Jozsef nodded slowly.

“No, I don’t use magic at all. I use science. And I can’t predict the future, only make educated guesses about where the environmental patterns are leading based on what we’ve seen in the past.”

“What is science?”

“It’s the knowledge or study of the physical or material world through systematic observation and the collection of facts.”

He snorted. “Is that not the same as magic?”

“No, not at all. In science, we observe the interactions of things, note patterns or discrepancies, and find the truth based on systematic data collection over time.”

“How is this different from the practice of magic? Doesn’t a witch use the same sort practice and observation to understand how to control the magical forces that make up the patterns you’ve seen?”

“Magic isn’t real.” Rain set her coffee down before she spilled it. “It’s just the term we use for illusionists and charlatans on the Strip, or a plot point on a fantasy story. It doesn’t exist.”

“Like ghosts?” His lips curled and she snapped her mouth shut, her teeth clacking with the force.

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading. If you want to read more from other authors, click the link and enjoy...
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