It seems that the very many brewers of bathtub gin would identify their product for sale by a black cat, as a universal sign of ‘Get very cheap drink here!’, in the same way that a red and white pole indicated a barber, or three golden balls indicated a pawnbroker. And Simon, who works in the drinks trade, asked, did I know about the black cat signs they used for bootleg gin? I went for a drink with Caro and her bloke Simon, and ventured a quiet murmur of mild complaint (which I may have phrased as ‘your bloody story is doing my head in, you utter moose, now buy me a drink’). So coming up with a story that fitted into a series arc that I wasn’t sure about…whimper. I was hopelessly stuck on Magpie 3 at this point, so stuck that I’d actually written an entire and totally different novel that came into my head while I was fretting ( Think of England, the world’s longest example of ‘oh look, a squirrel’). They went for it, to be released electronically at the same time as the print book (hence its appearance out of series order), and even said it would have its own cover by Lou Harper. So I suggested to Samhain that I could write a bonus story to bring the book up to print length. I have been friends with Caro for thirty years. Because print is fun to have, but also because it’s dedicated to my friend Caroline, and she informed me that if she didn’t get a print copy to show people, I’d be in serious trouble.

They have a minimum length at which a book can go into print, and A Case of Possession, Charm of Magpies #2, squeaked in a little under that. Samhain, my publisher, at that time published print a year after the electronic version.

So there is another free Charm of Magpies short story available right now.

A Queer Trade by K.J. Charles