Hi, Kate. Or should I call you, Amy? We had a big discussion about pen names awhile back and since you go by both names, today, since you use this name in your book, I will call you Kate.:) Sorry that Melissa couldn't be here, but I am anxiously awaiting more about this new book that is not yet released.
Kate, you are taking over, so I am going to step aside for a bit.:)
My message is short and really has nothing to do with the book. It has to do with writing and the publishing in general. And it’s a lesson I learned in film school. Success comes to those willing to work for it. Sometimes success looks different to different people. What looks like success to some doesn’t look like it to others and in the end the publishing world doesn’t look like it did even ten years ago so listen and listen.
Wow, Kate!! I certainly agree with this!!! My break came way later than yours so I am a big advocate for this word!!!
How about something about the book?
Blurb:
Daniel Walker left home twice. Once as a teen to serve in a second civil war, the second to get away from a murderous and violent father. He returns eighteen year later to bury the the woman who forced him to flee the second time, his mother. He runs into Abagail Brice who saved his life all those years ago the night his father shot him, but now she's all grown up and offering him shelter in her preacher father's home for the night. It seems the connection a young girl shared with him all those years ago remains even now and when her mother inflicts violence upon her he is compelled to intercede.
Abagail Brice is a tough girl. A hunter, a fisher, and a protector of her younger siblings she is content to remain with her family until Daniel Walker returns. And when he offers her shelter from her family with the proximity to her siblings she takes him up on it. He has a reputation as the doctor with an appetite for liquor and women. But when he brings a married woman home and her husband comes looking for her intent on killing Daniel Abagail is forced to grow up when she is forced to kill in self defense. Their feelings for one another exposed they consumate their love.
But they come with a past. Their lives are entangled with those of their parents who hide behind a wall of silence about a night of horrible violence inflicted upon the mother of a third family, Sophia Hamilton. Can they over this and rush to their happily ever after, or will the darkness engulf them and their budding relationship? Gunpowder & Lead is Hatfields and McCoys meets Mad Max and is a 5 book series encompassing the lives of the children of three families, the Walkers, the Brices, and Hamiltons and what happened the night Sophia Hamilton died.
Okay, you have me hooked. Here is an excerpt:
Excerpt:
Daniel Walker hadn’t been back in Craft’s Colley since the war had ended. The United States, once the most powerful country on the planet, had degenerated into a second Civil War, this time between the East and the West. Eighteen years later, the nation still had factions that believed the War wasn’t over yet.
At fifteen Daniel had run off to fight for democracy. At first they put him on the front lines. But after two years of service they made him a medical apprentice. It was bloody, it was messy, and it was harrowing. Now he spent his mornings in Louisville, running a clinic for those caught in the crossfire of those zealots who still couldn’t let go of the past. He spent his nights drinking, smoking, and gambling for medical supplies. He traded on the black market to help civilians get what they needed. He slept with women who had money to give, or who were lonely and wanting to forget the horrors of the war.
Part of the reason he’d left home was to get away from his drunkard, violent father. Vance Walker was a ruthless moonshiner who had a nasty reputation for getting pleasure out of inflicting pain on others, especially those closest to him.
Daniel had spent many nights locked in battle with him, defending himself, his sister Vanessa and their mother from Vance’s drunken rages. And then the War broke out. He believed in the fight. But after a while, all he saw was death. When the end of the War came and he returned home, all he found were more kids to defend and a feckless mother who was willing to let them take the heat for her. He’d begged her to leave with him and come to the City.
Not only had she refused, but she’d tipped Vance off to his plans. He’d sustained a gunshot wound that night, and had it not been for a little girl dragging her preacher father out of bed that night, he may not have survived.
The Brice girl. Sometimes when he was drunk enough, he thought of the courage it must’ve taken for her to run out into the mountain night. Most women he knew now didn’t have that kind of courage. As he rode toward his childhood home he couldn’t help but think she would be an adult now, and that her father was probably overseeing his mother’s burial.
He wasn’t sure why he was going home at all, other than to see his siblings. He’d heard Vanessa had been wild as a buck in his absence. But then, what chance had she had? With Vance for a father and Lillith for a mother, the dice were loaded against them.
As Daniel arrived at the Small Frontier Church of God he heard the cocking of a double barrel shotgun behind him. He held both his hands up and said, “I mean no one any harm. I’m just here for my mother’s funeral.”
“Daniel Walker?”
It was a woman’s voice asking the question. It was clear, it was strong, but it was soft at its edges. He looked over his shoulder and answered, “Yes.”
He heard the safety catch click into place. “I’m sorry. You can’t be too careful around here.” She walked around to the front of his mare and stroked her nose.
“She’s beautiful,” the young woman looked up at him.
He made eye contact with the girl and her bright brown eyes caught him off guard.
“Yes, she is,” he said, his eyes locked on the long-haired brunette.
She smiled and chuckled. He noticed she was carrying a knapsack. He hopped down off his horse and tied the bridle to the post in front of the church.
“What’s that you got there?”
“Food supply for the next week. I’m sorry about your Mama.”
“Don’t be.” The snow crunched under his feet as he walked around to feed his mare. “What’s your name?”
“Abagail Brice.” He felt the wind go out of him. “And I remember you. Daddy says your daddy does the devil’s work.”
“All men do the devil’s work eventually. It’s why you’re doing it that sets you apart.”
Daniel noticed her gaze dim a little bit. “C’mon, I’ll see if Momma will feed you and give you a place to stay for the night.”
“I can make my bed beneath the stars. It wouldn’t be the first time I slept outside.”
“I remember the last time you stayed beneath the stars in Craft’s Colley, your Daddy shot you. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen someone shot, but it was the first time I’d seen someone shot by someone they loved.”
“Your Daddy made it clear he never wanted to hear from me again.”
Her gaze softened, and if it was possible she looked even more like an angel to him. “Your momma’s just passed. I’m sure he’ll make an allowance.”
“I don’t know Abagail, your father didn’t much care for the fact his seven-year-old daughter was harboring a Walker in her room the night my Daddy shot me.”
“Let me work on him a little bit. I’m his favorite.” She placed her shotgun in the same hand as her knapsack and held out her hand.
The kindness in her eyes was something he didn’t see very often. Compassion was in short supply in his current life. He dealt with people who either needed or wanted something from him. He forgot that sometimes people just did good things because they wanted to. It just wasn’t something he’d learned from his family.
As they walked into the sanctuary and the parquet creaked beneath their feet, he was struck by how quiet it was. “You know, I’ve always wondered what happened to you,” she said shyly.
“You wouldn’t like the answer to that.”
“I hear from your sister Mariah that you run a medical clinic for civilians. If that’s true, it’s much better than anything I do around here.”
“And what do you do?” he asked as they stepped into the Pastor’s quarters.
“I hunt. So the family doesn’t starve.”
Kate/Amy's Links
More Books by the Same Author:
Gunpowder and Lead is due to be released this month by Hydra Publications. Kate/Amy will be on my Blog Talk Radio Show, RRWL Tales from the Pages on February 28 at 3PM Central and 4PM EST. Melissa Goodman, her co-author might be stopping by too.
Hope any of you who live in the northeast escaped the horrors of power outages and any other storm related occurrences. We were lucky and
Finally, thank you to all my new followers. I am very lucky to have such loyal followers and I apologize for not posting as much as I could in January. This will all be changed now.:)
Tomorrow my husband is undergoing cataract surgery so we have to get up early and go there. I had it twice, but you know men. He doesn't remember how I reacted at all!! Keep your fingers crossed and a few prayers for a successful operation, please. I'll keep you all posted about it.
Nice opinion.Thanks for sharing.childcare hills area
ReplyDeleteThanks Harry!
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