Happy December 3rd! The Kindle contest is underway. In case this is your first time hearing about it, here's how it works: you nominate a friend/family member/coworker/etc. who you think needs a Kindle (tell us why they need/deserve one!) I'll be collecting entries until December 21st and then a winner will be chosen and the person nominated and the one who nominated them will both receive a Kindle! All you have to do to enter is comment on one of the Advent Calendar posts between now and then. But there are also daily giveaways of cool stuff too! Daily winners will be selected from that day's comments.

Yesterday's winner of a free book is Yun-A. Congratulations! To enter today's giveaway, just comment below. Today's goodie is an excerpt from my superhero short story called A Touch of Glamour which can be found in the Chicks in Capes anthology. Today's winning comment will receive an autographed copy of the anthology! Good luck, everyone, and here's your goodie:

A Touch of Glamour

By Debbie Viguié

"Matthews! Make sure you get a good close up on the face," Luke called, turning briefly from interviewing a man wearing a priest's collar.

"Sure thing, Detective," Miranda said, squatting down low to get a good angle with her camera. The blood splattered on the pavement stood out sharply against the sea of gray buildings and people dressed in dark, dull colors.

"What have we got here?" she heard a familiar voice ask. Detective David Vaughn was standing nearby talking to two of the firefighters who had been first responders.

The firefighters were twins and Miranda swore they made it to every murder, suicide, and heart attack faster than ambulance and police. Before they could answer David, Luke called over, "Suicide. Maybe."

"There's no way it was suicide," the priest Luke had been talking to insisted. "Not Stan, no way."

"Who are you?" David asked.

"Father Gary. Stan was my friend and my neighbor. His daughter took my Religious Studies classes at the university."

Miranda listened as she took photos of the body and the scene. Finally she was finished and nodded to the coroner as she began to pack up her gear. Luke and David were standing nearby.

"We got another Glamour spotting last night," Luke said. "Apparently she swooped in and saved a family from a mugging, you know, real superhero stuff," he added admiringly.

David shook his head. "Chicks in capes are such a pain."

"What? Are you crazy? Chicks in capes are totally hot," Luke countered. "Mugger swears she had magic powers."

"Great," David snorted. "Just what we need."

"She is! Someone who fights for life, liberty, and…"

"And what?" David prompted him.

Luke smiled. "Style."

"Guys, I'm done here," Miranda interrupted, putting her camera back in its case.

"I'll walk you to your car," David said.

They walked down the street and stopped in front of her car. She put her equipment in the trunk and closed it. David spun her around and she was in his arms with his lips inches away. A devil danced in his eyes and for just a moment she wanted to give in. Instead she pushed him away.

"David, you know it's against the rules. If anyone caught us kissing we'd be in big trouble. We could both get fired."

"No office romances, I know, I got the memo. But, I'm a detective and you're a crime scene photographer, I mean, it's not like we're partners."

"David-"

"I know, Miranda, but why do you always have to color inside the lines?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

She bit her lip. "I'm dating you, aren't I? That's outside the lines. I just don't care to advertise," she said.

"Okay, but we're still on for dinner Friday, right?"

"Yes."

"And you're actually going to cook this time?"

"Just you wait," she teased.

"I guess I'll have to. Now I get to go on the Glamour hunt with Luke and watch him drool on himself."

"What about you?" she asked, watching his eyes.

"Are you kidding? You're steak and she'd just be the inadequate tofu substitute."

She could have kissed him, rules be hanged, but Luke came jogging up. "Let's go," he said.

Miranda breathed a sigh of relief and got into her car. She drove to work where she found herself distracted the rest of the day thinking about the crime scene. Something about it didn't feel right to her. She studied the pictures she had taken, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

It had supposedly been a suicide, guy jumped from a fifth story balcony. She had heard the police interviewing neighbors, though, and they all agreed he had been a cheerful guy, always eager to help others out. No one believed he could have jumped. In fact, it was originally called in as a homicide, guy pushed off a balcony, which was why she, David, and Luke had ended up there.

By the time three o'clock rolled around she realized there was no help for it. She was just going to have to take another look at the scene. She left work distracted and made her way to an alley not far from her home. She parked her car a block away and walked. Once there she slipped into a doorway to watch and wait.

Slowly cars arrived, driving down the alley and parking until they lined both sides. At precisely four twenty a handful of people emerged from them. They glanced around anxiously and then scurried to their trunks, threw them open and began pulling out boxes heaped high with food.

Contraband food. Within five minutes the shoppers arrived, moving quickly and quietly, barely speaking, not looking each other in the eyes. Miranda stepped from the doorway and walked up to an old woman whose hands shook as she pulled trays of beef out of a large cooler in her trunk. Her grandson, a giant of a man with the gentlest eyes Miranda had ever seen sporting a university sweatshirt, quickly joined her and began shifting the heavier trays, allowing the woman to deal with her customers.

Miranda laid hold of a package with two sirloins in it. The woman looked up at her and smiled. "Glad to see our good luck charm is here," she said. "Since you began showing up we haven't been raided once. I found something special for you," the woman confided. Out of the ample pocket of her apron she pulled out a small cube wrapped in wax paper.

"Real butter," she confided with a smile. "No charge."

"You're an angel," Miranda said. "Thank you."

Miranda turned away quickly to allow the other shoppers a chance to grab the things they needed. She walked down the alleyway. Cartons of eggs, caffeinated beverages imported from China, packages of bacon, mayonnaise, and tubs of homemade ice cream disappeared into shopper's purses, pockets, and clothes as soon as they were pulled out of the vehicles. One woman wearing a long black trench coat with pockets sewn into it was stuffing them with loaves of white bread.

At four fifty the customers went scurrying in all directions and the drivers hopped into their vehicles and cleared the alley. Miranda was left standing alone. She heaved a sigh and headed home. Same time next week, place to be determined, she thought.

She often wondered where things had gone so wrong. She felt the packet of butter in her coat. She remembered the day the government had made it illegal. They had given stores twenty-four hours to destroy their stock and then the police had started making arrests under the guise of safeguarding the health of the public. Protestors had twisted an old slogan to the occasion. This time, though, my body my choice had carried little weight and within a few weeks it had become a dead issue.

It hadn't ended there. The government soon declared many foods that were viewed as unhealthy illegal. It was a short step from there to regulating what each person was allowed to eat through the health system. It made grocery shopping a lot simpler, something they proudly touted even as they stripped people of their freedoms. And just like alcohol during Prohibition, the illegal food distribution went underground.

Mad with power the government had continued unchecked until little was left of the color and variety of her childhood. Clothing could only be made out of natural fibers in colors that didn't require excessive use of dyes that were considered dangerous. Reds and greens were lost and other colors soon followed.

And one day we woke up and all the world was gray, she thought grimly. Told what to eat, what to wear, what to drive, how to think. She sighed and thought of David and his impish smile. Even who we can't date.

The story continues… check out A Touch of Glamour in the Chicks in Capes anthology or buy it here.