Hi, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Charlotte
Whitney and her new book, “Threads”!
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 $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also, come back daily to interact with Charlotte
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Threads
by Charlotte Whitney
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GENRE: Historical Fiction, Women's Lit, Book Club Lit
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BLURB:
It's
a boring, hardscrabble life for three sisters growing up on a Michigan farm
during the throes of the Great Depression.
But when young Nellie, digging for pirate treasure, discovers the tiny
hand of a dead baby, rumors begin to fly.
Narrated by Nellie and her two older sisters, the story follows the
girls as they encounter a patchwork of threatening circumstances and decide to
solve the mystery.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT TWO:
When
I got home from high school today, Jeepers, I knew immediately that something
wasn’t right. Aunt Hazel and Ma were sitting out by the milk house on a couple
of turned-over pails, and Irene and Nellie were sitting on the ground close by.
All of them were looking towards the lane that goes down to the two meadows and
onto the woods and crick. The county sheriff’s car sat empty near the silo. No
one was talking.
Worried,
I raced across the yard. Could Pa have gotten hurt? As I ran toward Ma I looked
over at the west field and saw Ace and King hitched up to the wagon piled with
brush. Rover was sleeping near the wagon.
It
looked like Pa had finished about half of the field, but he was nowhere in
sight. Pa never leaves the horses hitched up when he isn’t working. When he
comes up for noontime dinner he al- ways puts them in the barnyard so they can
rest, too. Naturally, I panicked.
When
Ma saw me running over she jumped up and walked over to me, a strange look on her
face.
“Is
Pa all right?” I blurted out.
“Yes,
yes,” Ma answered. “He and Elmer are down in the woods with Sheriff Devlon.”
Nellie pushed me aside and threw her arms around Ma’s legs.
“Nellie
thinks there’s a dead baby in the woods,” Irene piped up, all knowingly. “The
Sheriff’s gone with them to look at it. Who in their right mind would bury a
baby in that woods? Nellie musta gotten it all mixed up.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
THE VILLAIN OF THREADS: A
Depression Era Tale
Everyone loves to
hate the villain. The loathsome Brother
Johnson
Spoiler Alert: You May Want to Read the Book First
The reader first meets
Brother Johnson when he is conducting a Sunday service at the little Parson
Creek Church while the regular preacher is traveling to Canada for a family
funeral. Eleven-year-old Irene describes him:
“Brother
Johnson preached at our church this morning.
He’s from the Camp Meeting down near Fonsha and is what you call a
revivalist. He preaches hellfire and brimstone and all the bad things awaiting
sinners in hell.”
Revivalist
preachers were not uncommon during the Great Depression so his presence is not
enough to cause alarm. He regularly
conducts revival meetings in an outside venue, the Camp Meeting, yelling out
for sinners to come to God, encouraging people to speak in tongues, and handle
rattlesnakes to profess their faith. However, intuitive little Nellie who is
seven, instinctively knows that the Brother is evil. In the church service she hides behind fat
Mrs. Vandenberg, moving every time the she does so the evil preacher can’t see
her.
When
Brother Johnson passes the collection plate for the third time during the
service, people uncomfortably pass it on without adding any more coins. It’s becoming clear Brother Johnson’s
motivations are more worldly than godly.
During
the course of day-to-day events the reader finds out that two little girls from
a neighboring community have disappeared.
Later we find out that May, a thirteen-year-old neighbor girl, from has
been raped and left for dead. These
horrible events remain, until the end, unsolved.
Nellie’s
first solitary encounter with Brother Johnson occurs early in the book, after
she’s on her way to creek to play.
“There
he stood, a large ugly man wearing a dirty brown hunting jacket. He held a knife and slid it from hand to
hand. ‘You say anything ‘bout seeing me,
little girl, and you’ll be disappearing,’ he growled. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay
outa the woods. There’s lots of bad
stuff back there. Bad things for little
kids. Otherwise you choose your
torture.” He laughed out loud, an ugly
low-pitched chuckle.”
Finally,
at the climax of the book, Brother Johnson again appears after Irene and Nellie
have gone down to the woods to play.
Nellie has climbed one of her favorite trees.
“Well,
I was kinda enjoying the view from the top of the oak. . . . Then I heard somethin’ on the ground. I looked down at Irene and saw a large man
leaning over her. He put his hand over
her mouth, but I could see her struggling to git away. From behind it looked like the evil preacher,
Brother Johnson. I wanted to run up to
the barn to find Pa, but he’d made it very clear that Irene and I were to stay
together. Besides what if the evil
Brother killed Irene before Pa could come back with his shotgun?”
“Now
the Brother was carrying Irene into the bus as she was kicking and flailing her
arms. He never looked up my way. I don’t think he knew I was up in the
tree. Still, he might be pretending so
he could come back and git me.”
So we have not only a
villain who is claiming to be a religious man, but one that is a child
molester, and perhaps, a murderer. Brother Johnson is not a nice person. Read
THREADS to find out what happens to the evil preacher.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Charlotte Whitney grew
up in Michigan and spent much of her career at the University of Michigan
directing internship and living-learning programs. She started out writing
non-fiction while at the University and switched to romance with I DREAM IN
WHITE. A passion for history inspired her to write THREADS A
Depression Era Tale chronicling the stories of three sisters on a farm during
the throes of the Great Depression. She lives in Arizona, where she loves
hiking, bicycling, swimming, and practicing yoga.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH CHARLOTTE:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
cwhitney@umich.edu
Facebook:
Twitter:
Pinterest:
Instagram:
YouTube:
LinkedIn:
BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
The Book Depository Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:
Kobo eBook:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
Charlotte will be awarding a $50 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 is 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.
Charlotte ~ Good morning! Welcome to FAB! It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday - thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGood weekend to you.
DeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it and fingers crossed for the giveaway.
Deletethis sounds really good
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it.
DeleteKeep your fingers crossed for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt and the guest post, can't wait to meet this villain, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteCharlotte is a new author for me. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really good thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete