Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Barbara
Casey and her new book, “The Clock Flower”!
For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click
on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end
of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Barbara
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!
The Clock Flower
by Barbara Casey
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GENRE: Mystery/Suspense
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BLURB:
Mackenzie
Yarborough, one of the three FIGs—Females of Intellectual Genius—finds herself
facing a terrifying death of an ancient evil dragon while in China working on a
secret research project and trying to discover the truth of her birth parents.
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EXCERPT TWO:
Carolina
Lovel tearfully watched the plane carrying her girls away as it nosed into
take-off position. She slowly lowered the sign she had made for the
occasion—SEE YOU IN 108 DAYS.
Her
girls—
Dara
Roux, abandoned when she was seven years old by her mother. Exceptionally gifted in foreign languages.
Orphan.
Mackenzie
Yarborough, no record of her parents or where she was born. Exceptionally
gifted in math and problem-solving. Orphan.
Jennifer
Torres, both parents killed in an automobile accident when she was sixteen.
Exceptionally gifted in music and art.
Orphan.
The
three FIGs—Females of Intellectual Genius—as they were called at Wood Rose
Orphanage and Academy for Young Women, probably couldn’t even see the sign, but
holding it made Carolina feel slightly better about everything. It kept them
connected just a little while longer.
As
the plane began picking up speed down the runway, Larry squeezed her hand,
sensing how she must be feeling. “They will be fine,” he reassured her for the
umpteenth time since early that morning. Even though it meant getting one of
his teacher’s aides to take over his morning classes at the university in
Chapel Hill, he had volunteered to take Carolina and her three students to the
Raleigh-Durham airport and be with Carolina to see them off. She had been
completely stressed out for days thinking about the FIGs leaving Wood Rose and
each going her separate way—to different universities, in different states, and
beyond her protective eye. He knew the FIGs were just as stressed out for the
same reason.
Carolina
watched the plane lift off the ground and point toward the sky. On an impulse,
she waved and once again held up her sign until the plane disappeared from
view. Then she burst into sobs. Larry knew it was coming. He wrapped his strong
arms around this woman he loved, his soul mate that destiny had brought into
his life, and held her, realizing that was all he could do. As the son of a
Gypsy King, he knew that words simply wouldn’t help.
The
past year had been an unbelievably strange journey for them beginning when
Carolina was hired to be totally responsible for three “incorrigible,” as the
headmaster described them, teenage girls their final year at Wood Rose, all
three orphans with intelligence quotients in the genius range. FIGs they called
themselves, along with everyone else at Wood Rose—Females of Intellectual
Genius. Being only a few years older, however, Carolina immediately filled the
role that was more than a mentor and teacher; she became a big sister and
friend to the incorrigibles, not finding them that way at all, even if they did
occasionally need to express themselves creatively in the middle of the night.
As
far as the FIGs were concerned, she was their Carolina; she was one of them—a
kindred spirit. And with everything that they had experienced in that brief
time they had been together, a permanent bond of love had been forged between
them that would intertwine their lives forever.
It
all started with Carolina learning that she had been adopted, and then later
discovering her birth mother in Italy—a gypsy. Then there was the deadly curse
that was placed on Carolina, which eventually led to the connection between a
letter she had inherited from her biological father and the most mysterious
document in the world—the Voynich Manuscript.
And
then, only a few weeks later, they located Dara’s mother in New York City,
hiding underground beneath Grand Central Terminal where she lived in some sort
of secret subculture with three homeless men. It was remarkable, really, and
something that only the FIGs, with their genius and special talents, and
Carolina, with the blood of a choovihni—a wise woman who possessed the
knowledge of all things through all times running through her veins, could have
accomplished. Through it all, Larry had been there for them, offering his
support and using his innate instincts as the Gypsy King’s son to gather
information that would help them.
Larry
held Carolina tighter as her sobs quieted. He would tell her later what
Mackenzie had asked him to do just before boarding the plane. After he had a
chance to see what he could find out. Meanwhile, Carolina pulled out her phone,
thinking about the pact she and the FIGs had made the night before. If any one
of them got into serious trouble, they would text the word “Thurgood”—the given
name of Wood Rose’s headmaster—to all of the others. That meant no matter what,
they would all return to Carolina at Wood Rose, because whatever was going on,
Carolina and the FIGs would be able to straighten it out. Together.
Leaving
the protective walls of Wood Rose and uncertain about how they could function
in any other environment had created a tremendous amount of anxiety for
Carolina and the FIGs. So much so that even their creative expressions in the
middle of the night had brought little relief to the FIGs in spite of the fact
they had caused serious havoc by completely upsetting the natural rhythm of the
entire orphanage, not to mention the order of things.
The
whole idea of having a pact before leaving Wood Rose and going their separate
ways had started out as a silly game to help relieve some of that anxiety—at
first. Deciding on the so-called secret code word they would use, however,
became a challenge. Dara suggested using a word from Sanskrit, which Mackenzie
simply could not pronounce. Mackenzie wanted to use a mathematical term, which
Jennifer said she would never remember. And Jennifer wanted to use an obscure
musical notation which Dara said sounded more than a little vulgar. It was
Carolina who came up with the idea of using the headmaster’s given name
“Thurgood.” After all, it was a name none of them could ever forget. With the
secret word chosen, the seriousness of what the pact actually meant became more
evident and more real; a desperate attempt to keep them connected even when
they were apart. And when the three FIGs left Carolina’s bungalow and returned
to their dormitory suite that night, knowing what was facing them the next day
when they left
Wood
Rose and would no longer be considered student-residents there, they were glad
Carolina had come up with the idea.
As
the plane reached cruising altitude, shoulder bags placed under the seats in
front of them within easy reach, Dara, seated between Mackenzie and Jennifer,
as usual was the first to say out loud what each of them was thinking.
“OK,
this is what I think we ought to do.”
Arching her right eyebrow, she glanced at her two best friends to make
sure she had their attention. “We will give this so-called pursuit of advanced
studies a try, even though it means being separated. “But if things don’t work
out by winter break—for any one of us—then I say we come up with another plan.
A plan where we can be together. Deal?”
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AUTHOR BIO:
Originally
from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the University of
North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she
received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and
history. In 1978 she left her position
as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North
Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript
evaluation and editorial service. In
1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has
represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.
In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books where she is involved
in acquisitions and day-to-day operations and oversees book production.
Ms.
Casey's two middle-grade/young adult novels, Leilani Zan and Grandma Jock and
Christabelle (James C. Winston Publishing Co., Trade Division) were both
nominated for awards of excellence by the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the National
Association of University Women Literary Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh
Literary Award. Shyla's Initiative
(Crossquarter Publishing Group), a contemporary adult novel (occult
romance/mystery), received a 2003 Independent Publisher Book Award and also an
award of special literary recognition by the Palm Beach County Cultural
Council. The Coach's Wife (ArcheBooks
Publishing), also a novel for adults (contemporary/mystery), was semi-finalist
for the 2005 Dana Award for Outstanding Novel and listed on the Publisher’s
Best Seller List. The House of Kane
(ArcheBooks Publishing), released in 2007, was considered for a Pulitzer
nomination. Another contemporary novel
for adults, Just Like Family, was released at Christmas 2009 when it received
“Special Recognition from the 7-Eleven Corporation,” and The Gospel According
to Prissy, also a contemporary novel written for adults, received a 2013
Independent Publishers Book Award for Best Book in Regional Fiction.
The
Cadence of Gypsies, a novel written for young/new adults, was released in 2011
and was reviewed by the Smithsonian Institute for its List of Most Notable
Books. In 2012, The Cadence of Gypsies
was expanded into a four-book mystery series called THE FIG MYSTERIES: The Wish
Rider (2016), The Clock Flower (2018), and The Nightjar’s Promise (to be
released in 2019).
Ms.
Casey also writes book-length nonfiction for adults. Kathryn Kelly: The Moll
behind Machine Gun Kelly was released in 2016 and has been optioned for a major
movie. In 2018 her book Assata Shakur: A 20th Century Escaped Slave was
released and it has been signed for a major movie.
Ms.
Casey's award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in
The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in
The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg
Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus
Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation). Other award-winning
articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in both national
and international publications including the North Carolina Christian Advocate
Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the
Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record,
Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A
thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and coordinated was
broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also received special recognition for her
editorial work on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories.
Ms.
Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she
served as guest author and panelist. She
has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin
Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of
Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. She is a frequent guest lecturer at
universities and writers’ conferences around the country including the SCBWI
Regional Conference, the Harriett Austin Writers Conference in Athens, SIBA
(Southeastern Independent Book Sellers Association), Florida Writers
Association, and the University of Auburn, Montgomery.
In
2018, Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime
Achievement Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in
the field of publishing and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a
mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and Benton, a hound mix who
adopted her.
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CONNECT WITH BARBARA:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
barbara@barbaracaseyagency.com
LinkedIn:
BookBub:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Barbara will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC
to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Ally, it is so nice to visit with you again. Thank you for hosting me and sharing THE CLOCK FLOWER with your bloggers. It is Book 3 in the F.I.G. Mystery series, and it recently won the Book Excellence Award.
ReplyDeleteMy best to you and your bloggers,
Barbara
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Victoria. I appreciate you following my tour.
ReplyDeleteDid you have input into the cover of your book? Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteThe cover is drawing a lot of attention - all positive. The publisher worked up three cover designs for me to consider, and this is the one I chose. I loved its simplicity, but, also, it really spoke of the importance of the dandelion theme in THE CLOCK FLOWER. I really appreciate your comment, and thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Danielle. And thanks for stopping by.
DeleteI loved your excerpt and I would love to read your book.
ReplyDeleteBridgett, this is Book 3 in the FIG Mystery Series. I hope get a chance to read all three books. Thank you for your comment.
Delete