Hello lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Barbara
Frances and her new book, “Shadow’s Way”!
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 $25 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!
Shadow's Way
by Barbara Frances
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GENRE: Suspense
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BLURB:
Prepare
to be spellbound. Barbara Frances' long-awaited third novel, “Shadow's Way,”
takes you to the coastal, deep South, where the past and the present mingle in
a gothic tale of insanity, murder, and sexual intrigue.
You'll
meet the beautiful Elaine Chauvier, former actress and proprietor of Shadow's
Way, her family's antebellum home; the esteemed Archbishop Andre Figurant and
his fallen identical twin, Bastien; newly arrived Ophelia and Rudy, here to
explore their Chauvier roots and their ties to Shadow's Way; and the mysterious
Madame Claudine. Under a veneer of piety and graciousness, i.e., the questions:
What is good? What is evil? What is reality?
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EXCERPT TWO:
Archbishop
Figurant gazed down the extended maple table, luminous from layer upon layer of
bee’s wax. Soon they would be arriving. It was going to be a hard hitting but
necessary meeting, long overdue. Abandoning protocol, he would be going against
the Church’s hierarchy to expose a long-lived charade of denial and hypocrisy.
No longer was he going to ram his head up his self-righteous ass. He was going
to act.
Lanita
entered the room with a large tray of chicken sandwiches and fruit pastries.
“Oh, ‘cuse me, your Excellency. I didn’t know you were already here. I’ll be
out of your way in no time.” Her words hummed with the rhythmic cadence of a
Caribbean island. Neat as a pin in a freshly starched uniform and hair tucked
away in a plain white turban, she slipped from point to point, smooth and
efficient.
“You’re
fine, Lanita. I’m trying to get my thoughts in order. You’d best put out some
ashtrays. I anticipate Monsignors Flannigan and Murphy will burn up a field of
tobacco when they hear what I’ve got to say.” She laughed out loud. “Maybe I
should put out the whiskey, too, yes?
“No,
they’ll have to survive on coffee or water today.” He smiled at her. “Be good
for them.”
He
and Lanita had a comfortable relationship. She had been his housekeeper for six
years. He knew some of her secrets and she knew some of his. Late afternoons he
often watched her from the upstairs window as she rode her bicycle home, hair
fanning out in an Afro halo and a colorful skirt billowing in the wind.
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FREE CHAPTERS:
Want to
read more???
First TWO chapters are FREE at:
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BOOK PRAISE:
“A
spell weaver, Shadow's Way, kept me in suspense, which, as a lover of good
mysteries is not easy for an author to do. I often guess an ending before I hit
the middle. As in her last book, Like I Used to Dance, Ms. Frances' characters
are delicious portrayals, richly textured, gradually revealing their good and
evil humanity, as her hauntingly realistic settings and surprising story
unfolds. To say more might give away the
best of her new book. I have thoroughly enjoyed both of her novels and highly
recommend them.”
~ Sherry Haskin
~ Sherry Haskin
“Two
of the historic forces that still shape American culture, ante-bellum southern
ideology and the catholic church, are brought into fascinating and disturbing
juxtaposition in this novel. Barbara Frances lays bare traditions that while
often enough exposed as decadent in some measure, still retain strong elements
of venerability through the usual telling of their stories. Not here. Nothing
is embellished or disguised. At its core, like a Russell Lee camera lens, this
work shows us marginalized people seeking growth and redemption without filters
or touch-up. With all their blemishes, in their stumbling nakedness they emerge
as utterly noble.”
~ David Wiener
~ David Wiener
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AUTHOR BIO:
Barbara Frances has
plenty of stories and a life spent acquiring them. Growing up Catholic on a
small Texas farm, her childhood ambition was to become a nun. In ninth grade
she entered a boarding school in Our Lady of the Lake Convent as an aspirant,
the first of several steps before taking vows. On graduation, however, she
passed up the nun’s habit for a college degree in English and Theatre Arts. Her
professors were aghast when she declined a PhD program in order to become a
stewardess, but Barbara never looked back. “In the Sixties, a stewardess was a
glamorous occupation.” Her career highlights include dating a very gentlemanly
Chuck Berry and “opening the bar” for a planeload of underage privates on their
way to Vietnam.
Marriage,
children, school teaching and divorce distracted her from storytelling, but one
summer she and a friend coauthored a screenplay. “I never had such fun! I come
from a family of storytellers. Relatives would come over and after dinner
everyone would tell tales. Sometimes they were even true.” The next summer
Barbara wrote a screenplay solo. Contest recognition, an agent and three
optioned scripts followed but, weary of fickle producers and endless rewrites,
she turned to novels. Shadow’s Way is her third book. Her first, Lottie’s
Adventure, is aimed at young readers. Her second, Like I Used To Dance, is a
family saga set in 1950’s rural Texas. Barbara’s fans can be thankful she
passed up convent life for one of stories and storytelling. She and her husband
Bill live in Austin, Texas.
Barbara
welcomes questions or comments about Shadow’s Way at barb@barbarafrances.com.
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CONNECT WITH BARBARA:
Blog:
Website:
Email:
barb@barbarafrances.com
Goodreads Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble:
The Book Depository:
BAM! Books-A-Million:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Barbara will be awarding a $25 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.
Barbara ~ It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting today!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting Shadow's Way. Your site looks great.
ReplyDeleteBeing a fellow Austinite, I too possess a strong sense of adventure. I love your writing and am looking forward to more reads in the future!
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete