Glamour

GLAMOUR

Stealing the life she’s always wanted

is as easy as casting a spell.

GLAMOUR:

Townie. That’s what eighteen-year-old Christina Sundy is. All year round she lives in a one-stoplight town on Cape Cod and when summer comes she spends her days scooping ice cream for rich tourists, who she hates. So when one of them takes a job in the ice cream shop alongside her, she’s pissed. Why does a blonde and perky Harvard-bound rich girl like Reese Manning want to scoop ice cream anyway?

Something else weird is happening to Christina: tiny blue sparks seem to be shooting off her fingers. It isn’t long before she realizes the truth about herself—she’s actually a powerful hereditary witch. But her newfound powers are too intense for her to handle and, in a moment of rage, she accidentally zaps Reese into another dimension.

So that no one will notice that the rich girl has disappeared, Christina casts a disguising spell, or “glamour,” and lives Reese’s life while she tries to find a retrieval spell. But as the retrieval spell proves harder than anticipated, and as she goes about living Reese’s life without anyone on the outside noticing the switch, Christina realizes that there’s nothing to stop her from making the glamour permanent... except, of course, her fellow witches, a 16th century demon, and, just maybe, her own conscience.

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Excerpt:

An absolutely stunning woman answered our knock. She was tall with dark, wild hair, and razor-thin. When she spoke, her voice was a whiskey-and-cigarettes rasp with a vague, untraceable accent.
“Well, if it isn’t the radiant Bridget Bishop,” the woman said. “Shouldn’t you be making ice cream or something?”
Bridget laughed. “Nadia, I miss you.”
They hugged like old friends. Not that I was jealous, but I was confused. How come I’d never heard of this person? I knew most of Bridget’s friends. It seemed she’d been keeping all the witchy aspects of her life secret from me lo these many years.
“So this is the kid.” Nadia looked at me. I caught a glimpse of her house behind her as she opened the door a little wider. Chelsea Lately played on her television.
“Nadia, this is Christina,” Bridget interjected. “She’s the most powerful natural witch I’ve ever seen.”
“Mazel tov. Another teenager who thinks she’s special and different.”
Bridget mock-whispered, “But this one really is.”
“Oh yeah?”
“She performed a quantum banishment. Accidentally.”
“Holy shit. Really?”
I was getting used to being talked about like I wasn’t even there.
“Christina’s powers have been firing off all summer,” Bridget continued. “She’s been casting these very classical spells, real old-school stuff, without even knowing it.”
Nadia took a second to absorb this. “I guess you should come inside then, huh?”

Interview:

1. How did you get started writing? 

I started reading at four and wanted to be a writer since I was six, so basically I can’t remember why or remember a time when there was ever any other idea in my mind.

2. What are your favorite kinds of characters to write about?

I love writing flawed characters, who make mistakes and screw up constantly and are so far from perfect it would be sad if they weren't so god damn delightful in their own entertaining, sometimes regrettable ways. 

3. Heels or flats?

Oh dear god, flats. I'm a walking tour guide by trade, so without arch support I am literally ruined. 

4. Burgers or sushi?

Burgers.

5. Plotter or pantster?

Pantser these days. I find writing a fast rough draft takes less time than laboriously plotting and outlining, is less boring, and essentially amounts to the same thing. 

6. What helps you develop your characters-do you start with them or develop them as the story goes on?

Definitely develop them as the story goes on. I'll start with a certain quality, or event, or even just a name, and work from there: an ambidextrous scooper, a woman living with a ghost, a failed artist, a name I saw on a gravestone that sounded like a lady detective. Then I build out. 

7. Name three things on your desk.

A can of dust destroyer, business cards, and a pen. 

8. Do you write to music?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I have no set routines. 

9. What was your favorite scene in Glamour?

I love the scene where they visit Nadia!

10. What are you working on now?

A ghost story about a woman living in a haunted condo in Rockaway Beach (that's in Queens).

About the author:

Andrea Janes writes horror, dark comedy, thrillers, and historical slapstick. She is the author of Boroughs of the Dead: New York City Ghost Stories. She is also a licensed NYC tour guide, and offers a variety of ghostly tours around the city.

Her many obsessions include New York City history, old photographs, Mabel Normand, all things nautical, and beer. She maintains a personal blog over at Spinster Aunt, where she discusses these obsessions in more detail than is probably healthy.