Just a Smidgen of Magic

By Charlotte Henley Babb

Five flash fiction stories are told from the edge of the realm of magic--enchanted moments, realizations, answering the call, and returning. Even in the mundane world, magic is only a moment away from manifestation, as each of these characters learns.

Artifacts: Pay attention to the Mothers when they give you a warning.

The Croning: In every woman's life, if she lives long enough, her time will come to take on the role.

Not Even One Wish: No only should you be careful what you wish for, but who you wish to.

Taffy's Tale: It's a high price to pay if you are fed by the Fae.

Zen of Cool: A full moon, a fiddle, a dark night in the hills of Appalachia

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charlotte Henley Babb
• Release date: Jul 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463445617

Charlotte Henley Babb

Charlotte Henley Babb has been writing since she was four, making up stories about fairies in the back yard and aliens in the forest. She has studied the folk stories of many cultures and wonders what happened to ours.She asks where the stories are for people over 20 who have survived marriage, divorce, child-raising, education, bankruptcy, and widowhood. She believes that the initiation of adolescence is only the first cut, not the deepest, and she continues to explore the second half of life for wisdom, thrills and the heck of it.She has taught writing for Greenville Technical College and the University of Phoenix. She's exploring the realm of steampunk and creative artificing.Apart from that, she hangs out in the Twilight Lounge, a nexus between the four dimensions of Faery, Mundane, Cyberspace and the HyperDrome.Charlotte is the author of an adult fantasy novel, Maven Fairy Godmother, released March 2012, which won a Sharp Write Book award for Fantasy in 2014, and Best Novel for Adults in the South Carolina Media Women Communications Contest in 2014. She has several fantasy short stories collected in Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales and PumpkinEater, as well as southern fiction in Walking Off Heaven's Shore, Just a Smidgen of Magic, and In the Still Midwinter. She wrote several stories in Port Nowhere, a shared world science fiction anthology, and random stories and articles. She presented "Fairy Tales and the Industrial Revolution" at Upstate Steampunk Con 2011, and has appeared on panel discussions at Dragon*Con 2011, ConCarolinas 2012 and 2015, Fairie Escape Atlanta 2012, and LibertyCon 2012. She presented at ConJuration in Atlanta in 2015. She has also presented at the Southeastern Writers Association annual conference.She loves fractured fairy tales for grownups and writes them for your enjoyment. Never miss a new release. Sign up for her mailing list at http://bit.ly/RedStilletos

Book preview

Just a Smidgen of Magic

By

Charlotte Henley Babb

Other books by Charlotte Henley Babb

Set in the Real World

Walking Off Heaven's Shore

In the Still Midwinter

Maven Fairy Godmother Series

Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil

Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales

PumpkinEater

Adventures of Silicon Jones (mature audiences only)

Coming Soon

20 Hours to Charles Town – A Steampunk Adventure

Copyright © 2014 by Charlotte Henley Babb

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from Author except for brief passages cited in a review.

ISBN-13: 9780463445617

Edition: July 2018

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

Thanks for Listening Again and Again

Bruce Cannon

Donna Hammett

Misty Massey

Jeff Mullen

Holly McClure

Roger Stevens

Patti Lee Thomas

Rachel White

Christopher Wilkerson

Table of Contents

Spider's Thread

Artifacts

The Croning

Not Even One Wish

Taffy's Tale

Zen of Cool

* * *

About the Author

Other Work by Charlotte Henley Babb

Excerpt of Maven Fairy Godmother

Free Short Story: Red Stilettos

Spider's Thread

She hangs, head down, trusting her spinnerets to make her thread and support her to the ledge of the window for her web.

She trusts head to go where butt takes her. Following gravity, then defying it; that’s Ariadne’s magic. She knows when to make it sticky and