Excerpt From Daughter Am I by Pat Bertram

Daughter Am I: When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead. Along the way she accumulates a crew of feisty octogenarians -- former gangsters and friends of her grandfather. She meets and falls in love Tim Olson, whose grandfather shared a deadly secret with her great-grandfather. Now Mary and Tim need to stay one step ahead of the killer who is desperate to dig up that secret.

Excerpt:

Mary blinked in the sudden brightness, then blinked again when she saw Iron Sam. He seemed to be the personification of the inorganic being, as Happy called it. His skin looked ashen. Charcoal bags hung below slate eyes. His hair, still thick, still with the deep widow’s peak, had faded to pewter. The only hint of color in his face was the gold tooth visible between slightly parted gunmetal-gray lips.

He glanced up as they entered, but no other part of his body moved. Nor did he speak.

“Hi, Sam,” Lila Lorraine said.

The slate eyes shifted toward her.

“It’s me. Lila Lorraine.”

Iron Sam nodded, the merest inclination of his head.

Happy stepped forward. “Remember me? Happy?”

Again the tiny nod.

Mary wondered if he were paralyzed, but if so, wouldn’t he be in a wheelchair instead of an ordinary wooden chair?

Any compassion she might have felt withered when his eyes met hers. Feeling like a bug impaled on a pin, she gazed at him, unable to look away, unable to move a single muscle. After what seemed like a long time, but must have been only seconds, he turned his attention to Kid Rags, leaving her feeling limp and very thirsty, as if her vital fluids had been sucked right out of her.

With nonchalance Mary could only marvel at, Kid Rags pulled out his flask and offered it to Iron Sam. When Iron Sam nodded toward the plastic cup sitting on the bedside table, Kid Rags poured two fingers of bourbon and handed the cup to him. He sniffed it, inhaling deeply with closed eyes, then took a mouthful and held it a moment before swallowing it. His lips twitched — a smile perhaps? — then he took another sip.

The alcohol fumes mingling with the hospital odors and the stench of decay emanating from Iron Sam’s pores turned Mary’s stomach. She swallowed hard, then swallowed again, knowing she shouldn’t show weakness in front of Iron Sam, and somehow she managed to get her queasiness under control.

He flicked a look in her direction, as if sensing her struggle, then concentrated on his drink once more.

“My name is Mary Stuart,” she said when she could no longer stand the heavy silence. She introduced Kid Rags, Crunchy, and Teach, then explained about her grandparents’ deaths.

“What can you tell me about my grandparents? You might have known them as Jimmy Boots and Gina Dale.”

*

Available as Kindle at: Amazon

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Introducing Debra Purdy Kong

Actually, I don't have to introduce Debra. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know her very well. She writes phenomenal articles about the state of the book business, decoding new industry advances, showing us where we are today, and helping us find our way through the blizzard of information.

She and I have been blog mates (along with Cheryl Tardif, who started the blog, and Marian Allen) for almost three years now, but Debra posts regularly every Saturday, and I post . . . whenever. In my defense, I have other blogs to take care of, one an excerpt blog where I post . . . you guessed it!! . . . book excerpts that authors send me to post, and I also have an interview blog.

Today, I am delighted to announce that Debra agreed to be a guest on both blogs!!

So, please stop by Pat Bertram Introduces . . . for an interview with Debra Purdy Kong, Author of “The Opposite of Dark” where we're talking about Debra's new book and her writing processes. Then stop by Dragon My Feet to read an Excerpt From “The Opposite of Dark” by Debra Purdy Kong.

Lancelot's Lady excerpt #3

If you haven't read the previous two excerpts, you can read them at The Cajun Book Lady (excerpt 1) and Gem Sivad (excerpt 2)

Excerpt #3...

The butler glanced toward the door. “Nurse Simpson, why don’t you take a break for an hour or two?”

JT nodded. “Anna will take good care of me.”

As the door slammed shut behind the nurse, Rhianna took a step closer. “Mr. Lance, my name is Rhianna McLeod.”

“Rhianna?” JT sighed. “Well, yes. I guess you are.”

Confused, she turned to Higginson. “I don’t think he remembers writing me about the nursing position. He even contacted the hospital I used to work in and―”

“I hate it when people talk as if I’m not in the room,” JT fumed. “Of course I remember you, uh…Rhianna. And I do want you to be my nurse. Higginson! Make up the Rose-Mist Room for Ms. McLeod. She’ll be staying with us indefinitely.”

“Are you sure?” Rhianna asked, surprised. “You may want someone more experienced. I’ve only worked in one hospital and one nursing home before coming here.”

Higginson cleared his throat. “Have you checked her references, sir?”

“References are for untrusting fools. It’s my blasted memory that’s disintegrating, not my eyes.” JT eyed the door. “And references sure didn’t make a difference with Nurse Dracula. Which reminds me…see that the old bat gets a nice severance package.”

As the butler’s footsteps faded, Rhianna was at a loss for words. “I…uh…thank you.”

“You can thank me by getting my pills over there.” JT pointed to the nightstand. “The ones in the red bottle.”

She fetched his medication and quickly scanned the bottle. The prescription was for Vicodin, a narcotic pain reliever. She shook out two pills and poured a glass of water before approaching his bedside.

“Thank you, Ann―Rhianna.” His breathing was strained.

“Are you feeling all right, Mr. Lance?”

“JT, my dear. When you call me Mr. Lance, I feel so damned ancient, like some old geezer waiting to croak.” He chuckled at his own joke.

After he was resting comfortably, she sat down in the chair and studied him. His thinning gray hair and handsome face suggested the rather dashing young man he must once have been. A once-strong jaw line, now softened by age and illness, still held traces of stubbornness. But it was his eyes, bright and kind, that held her attention. They seemed sad. Tired and sad.

“Now, Rhianna, tell me a bit about yourself.”

“Well, I grew up in Bangor, Maine, and graduated―”

“Not the technical interview stuff, dear. I want to know about you. What are your goals, your dreams?”

Nobody had ever asked her about her dreams. For nearly two years, she had hidden herself in the nursing home in Portland, afraid to let anyone too close. Afraid to dream.

In that bedroom, sitting beside a dying man, she found more than an employer―she found a friend. Tentatively, she told him bits and pieces about her life. It started slowly, like a gurgle of water bubbling up from the center of the earth.

Within an hour, Rhianna had told him all about her childhood, about the terror she had endured, and the fear and abuse that had drained her soul of all self-worth.

***

A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.

***

Lancelot's Lady is available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help me celebrate by picking up a copy today and "Cherish the romance..."

You can learn more about Lancelot's Lady and Cherish D'Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherishdangelo.com and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com. Follow Cherish from September 27 to October 10 on her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour and win prizes.

What do you think about JT Lance? What do you learn about him in this scene? Do you like him?

Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.

Sample Chapters Are Up and Let the Selling Begin

Well, Fatal Encryption is at the printer and, to a large extent, the creative process is over. Or is it? Now my main focus is selling this puppy, and let me tell you, when it comes to selling, creativity takes on a whole new meaning. Because I'm still pretty much a rookie at this, I'm in learning and exploring mode.

There's the standard must-do stuff, like posting sample chapters on my website, which is now done, by the way. If you're interested in reading the first four chapters, (the first three are short) then simply go to http://www.debrapurdykong.com/ and click on Fatal Encryption excerpts.

And then there's the not-so-common things like, posting a "What I've Been Doing" article to my old high school. This isn't something I would have thought of, normally, but I needed to look up the full and correct name of the school for my bio (it's been a long time since I went there) and, as it turns out, they're having a big reunion this May to celebrate the school's fiftieth year. So, they've invited class graduates to post an update of what they've been doing. It's on my to-do list.

Today, I experimented with something new, at my kids' suggestion. I've offered autographed, new, first edition copies of my first Alex Bellamy novel, Taxed to Death, on Ebay. The selling period is one week, and it was fairly simple to navigate my way through the instructions. So, we'll see what happens. It's another great way to reach the whole world, but whether the whole world will be interested is another matter.

Meanwhile, I have to sign up with all the online bookstores, also on this week's to-do list. Did I mention that I have a really long promotion to-do list? I guess most writers do. Let's see how far I can plough through it in a week.

http://www.debrapurdykong.com/
Debra_Kong@telus.net

You have 10 seconds to make a life or death decision...

Let a madman take your child, or watch your son die.
Choose!

This is the premise for bestselling author Cheryl Kaye Tardif's new UNPUBLISHED novel, Children of the Fog.

A mother's descent into alcoholism and madness leads to strange apparitions and a face-to-face encounter with the monster who abducted her son--a man known only as...
The Fog.

Read an excerpt from Children of the Fog