A Spontaneous Kind of Mystery: A Marnie and Zane Story

By Shannon Muir

Marnie's newfound cousin Blake encourages her and Sophia to meet his childhood friend Suzette, who runs a coffee shop and now stages poetry readings. They meet for a poetry reading, where Blake comes with Sophia and Marnie reluctantly gets Zane to come along. They also meet Kara Inverness, owner of a new independent bookstore next door. Sophia agrees to come, and Marnie reluctantly gets Zane to come along to an event. The next morning, they hear an employee is found dead and they are called in as witnesses... and the outcome may affect their relationships forever. This story kicks off the INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS SPONTANEOUS CHOICES SHORTS series, featuring stories originally done in serial form on the website.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shannon Muir
• Release date: Jan 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463079065

Shannon Muir

SHANNON MUIR's short stories include suspense and mystery elements such as those found in her first full-length story from Pro Se Press, CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS DOC AND SALLY IN "THE DEATH OF BUDDY TURNER". Additionally, she's written short stories for Pro Se Press such as “Tragic Like a Torch Song” in THE DAME DID IT from Pro Se Press, "Pretty as a Picture" in the anthology NEWSHOUNDS, “Tropical Terror” in CRIME DOWN ISLAND and “Hidden History” in EXPLORER PULP. She’s also written the Single Shot New Pulp tale “Ghost of the Airwaves,” a short story offered in electronic format only from Pro Se Press.From her personal self-published projects, her best known titles in this area include the rural crime series THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA.In other genres, Shannon's published short stories include “Meeting the Monster” in the Emby Press anthology SUPERHERO MONSTER HUNTER: THE GOOD FIGHT and "Cover Story" in ARIA KALSAN: MYSTERIES OF THE FUTURE.Shannon holds a BA in Radio-TV and English from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, which she considers to be her hometown. She also holds an MA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton, along with additional education in screenwriting, project management, library technician studies, and most recently a certificate earned with distinction in General Business with Emphasis in Marketing from UCLA Extension. Currently, she is working on a Masters of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.She is married to FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY collaborator and fellow author Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. They live in California in the United States.She is a member of Sisters in Crime (national, Guppies, and Los Angeles, where she also served on the Los Angeles board for a two terms beginning in 2018), as well as the Toastmasters4Writers Chapter of Toastmasters International (where she serves as chapter Secretary), Women in Animation, and a Professional member of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Book preview

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COPYRIGHT

A SPONTANEOUS KIND OF MYSTERY - A MARNIE AND ZANE STORY

An INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS SPONTANEOUS CHOICES SHORTS Web Serial Compilation

By Shannon Muir

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 Shannon Muir.

First Smashwords publication January 2019

This ebook is for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be given away or resold to others. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy from Smashwords or a vendor partner. If you want to share this work with others please purchase a copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of artists and creators.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

I first encountered Marnie and Zane writing A SPONTANEOUS KIND OF HOLIDAY, a novella I wrote as a challenge to myself for completing a National Novel Writing Month. The challenge involved several items I’d encountered one day on a walk, and building a story around them. Marnie and Zane, and people they met, proved interesting characters – but I certainly never thought about doing anything with them more than a one-shot appearance. Then I found over time I wanted to tell more stories with them.

However, the original story had an epilogue that skipped from Christmas to the end of February. I began to realize that in order to go forward with these characters, I would need to first fill in the gaps to make it clear how they got from A SPONTANEOUS KIND OF HOLIDAY’s main story to its epilogue. That is the genesis behind the short story collection A SPONTANEOUS KIND OF ROMANCE, as well as this compilation.

This particular story originally ran as a web serial, and this e-book collects it in chapters defined by days of appearance, as well as a prologue and epilogue exclusive to this compilation.

Shannon Muir

Glendale, California

January 2019

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PROLOGUE

Marnie Hawklin’s life moved at something like lightspeed since right before Christmas. She’d gone from volunteering for the first time ever to feed the homeless, and being present when the daughter of a medical