Wednesday, June 13, 2018

HOME FOR THE HEART by Sarah J. McNeal—June #blogabookscene #PrairieRosePub@PrairieRosePub


Blog-a-Book-Scene is a monthly themed blogging endeavor from a group of authors who love to share excerpts from their stories. Find us on Twitter with the hashtag #blogabookscene and #PrairieRosePub.
June Theme: On the Road Again
Here is my desperate fight or flight scene:


Blurb:

Lucy Thoroughgood has gone and done it now—fallen in love with Hank Wilding, a man she’s known all her life. He’s content with friendship, but Lucy’s heart has flown the coop and she knows she’s in love with the determined bachelor. When she visits him with a proposition—to let the orphans she cares for learn to ride his horses during the summer—he surprises her with one of his own. She must accompany him to the dancing lessons he’s signed up for.

Secretly pleased, she hopes that perhaps this arrangement might lead to more than friendship. But Hank’s loved hard and lost, with his engagement to one of the popular town girls going south two years earlier. He’s sworn to never lose his heart to another—including Miss Lucy Thoroughgood.

A teenage orphan, Chayton, could be the key to thawing Hank’s heart—but danger follows the embittered boy. Will Hank be able to give Chayton the home he yearns for—or will the boy’s past bring only sorrow to those he cares for? When a Lakota premonition becomes reality, Lucy’s life hangs in the balance. Will Hank have the chance to let Lucy know how wrong he was?

Excerpt:

The crowd grew silent. Tension filled the air with nervous energy. Hank stepped forward with his hands raised. “Now listen to some sense, mister. I don’t care what you took from the house. You’re welcome to whatever you stole as long as you let go of the boy. He hasn’t done anything to hurt you. You let me have the old man and the boy, and I won’t try to stop you from leaving.”
A hollow laugh bellowed from the man. “Like you could stop me anyway. I’m the one with the gun. This boy belongs to me. He’s my son and he’s going with me just in case anybody gets any ideas of comin’ after me…sorta like an insurance policy you might say.” He squeezed Chayton’s neck with his arm so tight Hank thought the boy might pass out from lack of air. “He better learn to mind me though.”
So this is Stephen Grier. Hank glanced at Chayton. The kid is scared out of his mind. He forced himself to remain calm and to speak with quiet authority. “Turn him loose, Grier, or I swear to God I will hunt you down and end your miserable life.”
“You best back off Mister High and Mighty. Now I’m taking this boy, and these here goods what I found, and I might even take this broken down old man with me if you don’t shut your trap.” He pointed the gun at Hank just as Merrilee pulled up in Hank’s blue pick-up truck. The crowd gasped in unison.
There was no time to lose. Hank knew he had to do something or Grier was going to get Chayton. No matter what happened, Hank couldn’t allow him to do that. When Grier’s attention slipped from him to the truck, Hank knew it might be the only moment he had to act. He rushed forward toward Grier. A scream rang out from somewhere behind him. Grier turned Chayton lose and set the sights of the gun on Hank. Just as he pulled the trigger and a shot rang out, a blur of yellow flew across Hank’s vision between him and Grier. Oh God, Lucy!


July’s Theme: Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer

Diverse stories filled with heart


Friday, June 01, 2018

THE VIOLIN #blogabookscene June


Blog-a-Book-Scene is a monthly themed blogging endeavor from a group of authors who love to share excerpts from their stories. Find us on Twitter with the hashtag #blogabookscene and #PrairieRosePub.
June's Theme: On The Road Again (Travel/Time Travel)
Step back in time to 1927 when life was simpler and love was sweet.




THE VIOLIN (time travel/paranormal novel)
by Sarah J. McNeal

Can the heart live inside a violin case? Can a message reach across time?

Genevieve Beaumont is haunted by dreams of a drowning man she is helpless to save. When she buys a violin and discovers news clippings and pictures of its owner who died from downing inside the case, she realizes he is the man in her dreams.
She travels to the little town where he died 90 years before to investigate who he was and how he came to drown that day. Little does she know how her own life will be tangled in the mystery…until she steps through the threshold of time to 1927.
Excerpt:
She heard him take in a slow breath before he spoke to her in a more relaxed, quiet tone. "I beg your pardon, miss, I didn't mean to curse. What's your name?" The younger man’s voice soothed her as he knelt beside the couch where she lay. He wrung out a cloth in the bowl of water beside his knee, folded it, and applied it to Genevieve's brow.
"My name is Genevieve Beaumont. I was just standing at the window and now…I'm here." She lifted a shaky hand to her brow. "My head is pounding."
"You bumped your head when you fainted. Is that a French name?"  He lifted a quizzical brow and smiled.
She lifted her eyes and got a good, close-up look at him then. Her heart almost stopped beating in her chest. She sucked in a deep breath. What was happening to her? How could any of this be possible? The man holding the cool cloth to her head was the man in the pictures she found in the violin case!
She would not have guessed he had auburn hair, or that his eyes were such a vivid, bottle green. He wore a collarless, khaki shirt with the sleeves rolled up and suspenders instead of a belt held up his tan, canvas trousers. Oh, but he was handsome—so much more than his pictures ever allowed. She didn't have time to admire the young man's good looks because her mind swirled round and round with the unfathomable implications of her situation.
Excerpt 2:
The music began again and the carousel began to move.  Slowly, Genevieve’s horse began its first ascent.  Her dress rose above her knees in the breeze created by the movement but she didn’t care.  She felt free and filled with golden happiness.
John stood watching her with his hand clasped gently, sensuously around her ankle.  When her horse descended, John let his hand slide up to her knee.  He gazed at her in that way he had earlier that day when she met him on the road.  His eyes were dark green and filled with mystery and something that looked like longing.  He bent his head and kissed her knee tenderly just as he had in her dream.  The electrifying feel of his full mouth on her sensitive flesh sent heat to her very core.  She shook her head as the moment of déjà vu passed over her.
With his hand still resting on her knee, John lifted his head and kept his eyes pinned to hers as she ascended once again.  As her horse began to lower her toward him, John reached up and clasped the back of her head to pull her toward him.  She leaned forward and met his kiss with a racing heart.  His kiss told her more than his words ever could that he was falling in love with her.  It was bittersweet knowledge to know it, to feel it.  They had so little time left.
“This was my dream,” she said barely audible over the music.
“I know.”  He ran his hand back down her leg to her ankle and kissed her on the lips once again…
Buy Link:

July's Theme will be: The Lazy Hazy Days of Summer
Until then, 

Diverse stories filled with heart