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It is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional bombast. Life is good for widower Rundell Ingram and his hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton. Between the two of them, they take care of Moccasin Hollow, their sprawling ancestral plantation home in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east Georgia. Adjoining Ingram lands is Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer, their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin. Both families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates are no longer children. The rangy, even-tempered Norman-Scottish young Hamilton is smitten with Sarah, who has become an enticing capricious beauty—the young lovers more in love with each passing day, and only pleasant times ahead of them.
…but a blood tide of war is sweeping across the South, a tide that will forever change everyone and everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:
Corinthia Greer was an exception to the social pretentiousness that plantation wives never worked. Red satin libertines of Savannah or Memphis bought ready-made, but Queensborough country folk made do. Buxom Corinthia used every trick of the latest fashions to keep her dumpy, hard-to-fit high-waisted figure from being too obvious. She religiously copied styles from pictures she'd seen from Paris and London or Richmond, always to compliment the curves of her ample bosom and hide what she most decidedly did not wish to draw attention to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO & LINK:
With postgraduate degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.
In addition, Hawk has authored several works of fiction including a historical romance Moccasin Trace which was nominated for both the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series and his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have received national and international attention. He is currently working on a series of horror/suspense novels.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner's Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
When marine buddy, Gulfport, Mississippi Sheriff asks Craige Ingram for help, Ingram and Buckingham Parish patrolman ‘Badger’ Thomas Boback find themselves in the summertime dogdays of the humid Gulf Coast. With crowded beaches and an undermanned staff, a routine investigation soon becomes anything but routine when indescribable body parts start showing up along the surf, in beachfront cabins, half-buried in bayou wetlands, stashed under freeway bridges, and across county lines. Craige’s search for answers to identifying victims and killer among the crowds of tourists and skin-and-sun partygoers soon makes it obvious the victims have no connection with one another—until conflicting DNA results and haunting premonitions resembling the warnings Craige’s grannie often had become part of the investigation. The jigsaw of abandoned cross-kin offspring begin a horrifying Gordian Knot tangle that threatens anyone who approaches the shadowy ancient wreck of an old mansion - an asylum from a lost time.
EXCERPT TWO:
Romona Cowan stepped back and looked at her handiwork. Black goop, flaxseed, and smelly oil-based paint dripped from the brush in her hand. With two fingers she gingerly propped the framed sign against the rusty decorative iron corner post. The sign canted off-center on the post, a singular reminder of the elegance of the iron fence that once stood around the small postage-stamp of a front yard. She took another look. Fingers, hands, one sleeve of her work shirt, and yard jeans were paint-smeared. Days ago, when she brushed the leaf litter off the fallen sign, the lettering was hardly visible, and she thought she might have to buy wood for a new sign. Penny-wise Ramona decided on a can of paint instead. The paint had peeled, left the frame bare in spots, but it hadn’t rotted. For someone who’d always been told she could never do nothing right, her Gran’mère Nana’s fixed-up sign come out looking nice and bright. The letters came out wobbly in a couple of places, but from the street no one would notice. She gave it a last here and-there touch-up.
Madame Nana Rowena
PALMISTRY READINGS by appointment
She said to herself, “Nana doesn’t want to do readings anymore. I’ll tell anyone that comes in I’m her granddaughter, Mademoiselle Ra mona.” With a soft mumble, “No point changing what ever’body expects.” She’d put the sign out in the sun and take it inside at night. Let it dry a couple or three days, then stick it out in the front yard where Gran’mère Nana first put it up. Right out there where folks driving along the beach in their fancy cars could see it real clear. The sign looked almost brand new. It would make those prissy rich kids that snobbed her in school because she was different jealous all over again. Besides, school was boring; a good enough reason to drop out.
AUTHOR BIO & LINK:
Hawk MacKinney has authored several award-winning works of fiction that include THE MOCCASIN HOLLOW MYSTERY SERIES and THE CAIRNS OF SAINCTUARIE SCIENCE FICTION SERIES. His historical romance MOCCASIN TRACE was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award.
Cross-genre character-driven plots reflect Hawk MacKinney’s southwest upbringing along the Texas and Oklahoma borders. With postgraduate faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A randomly drawn winner will receive a $20 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble (Winner's Choice!!!) Gift Card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The bank’s newest Trust Officer Terri Stanley prepares the requested department’s internal audit. Finding puzzling inconsistencies and a jumble of misappropriations and unexplained offshore accounts, she follows protocol and immediately punches in the listed number for the Executor-Trustee, Craige Ingram.
Wealthy land owner/parttime PI Craige Ingram reaches the file back to homicide Lt. Grayson MacGerald after finishing a quick read-through of the preliminary forensic report from Coroner Fred Dinkins on the unexpected death of bank President Royce Sedgewicke. Dinkins’ meticulous autopsy findings verify that a massive apparent heart attack was not from natural causes, confirming what these longtime SEAL buddies suspected.
When Ingram gets a call from Terri Stanley, the bank’s attractive, newly-hired Trust Officer, wanting to discuss in confidence possible account irregularities discovered during her audit, he never imagines the twisted world of money and greed that would involve a psychopath’s trail of bloody body parts strewn along Ingram's river property, or that Terri and her son would disappear.
Confronted by a race against time, Ingram fears that Terri might become one more on the list of dead who crossed a twisted mind bent on thrill-kills and retribution.
EXCERPT THREE:
Terri had no trouble with Craige’s directions. A half hour later, she turned into Ardochy’s meandering white-graveled drive and spotted Craige waiting on the steps of Ardochy’s columned porte-cochère carriage porch. Terri thought of her father and his brushy-browed scowl at her for breaking his business rule. Once her father learned of her infatuation with a teller at his Napa Valley Bank. “Never mix business with anything else, and never on your own doorstep,” he told her. He never mentioned it again.
As her car pulled up and stopped, Craige hurried down the steps to open her door. “I see you made it.” As she stepped out, his eyes followed every turn of the shapely ankles.
“It was no problem.” Her thoughts cluttered. Feelings surfaced she’d had since that first time they’d met. Now they surged, somehow stronger, with his nearness. Terri would never have believed her good sense could be so altogether rattled, and she tried not to think about what Irene had said. In the private sanctions of her heart, Terri tried to keep her mind on why she came—it wasn’t working.
“Come on in the kitchen.” Craige held open one of the double-carriage porch doors. “I iced a fresh pitcher of tea.” He led her through the butler’s pantry into the sedate library.
“Oh my, all these marvelous books…” Terri murmured.
“It’s my favorite room in Ardochy,” Craige smiled. “All for the enjoyment of reading. Theosia left me several first editions. Sit down, make yourself comfortable.”
The soft leather chairs, Tiffany lamps, and comfy reading niches made the high ceiling expanse of shelves somehow cozy. She looked around the library with its frescos in delicate pastel blushes, intricate friezes and matching tiered chandeliers heavy with Austrian crystal drops. Without seeming out of place or time, she thought he seemed to belong to this refined, patinaed ambience of high ceilings and ornate carvings. He filled the Chippendale chair as though he belonged—male supremacy without being rawboned. Terri sat, recalling private times with her mother, of parlor rites and playing dress up that wasn’t all play-act—learning to sit, stand and walk properly; how to set an afternoon high tea, finger cakes and scones. Terri wished she hadn’t hurried her makeup that morning. Had she used too much perfume? Did he find it pleasant? She’d refreshed her lipstick before she left to come here—what if it was on her front teeth? She found herself acting like a high-school subdeb.
“If you prefer, there’s unsweetened tea.” Craige iced his glass with the tongs from the silver and crystal ice bucket.
“No,” she said. “It’s fine.” His devil-may-care rakish smile, the dark auburn reflections from his hair and the fiery golden flecks in his green eyes kept getting in the way of why she came. “With so little to go on, I’m not sure where to start,” Terri began. She tried to soothe her jitters.
“About what?” Craige asked, picking up on her nervousness.
Terri knew she was taking a risk. He could be part of it, yet some inherent trust told her different. She handed him several folders.
“Perhaps I’m overreacting.” She looked straight at Craige without wavering. “Several of the portfolios don’t quite add up. There're stocks, mutual funds, international oil, precious metals, grain futures, money markets. Some of it’s over my head.”
He jigsawed any number of reasons she might have for coming out here. Her eyes seemed to swallow the room. At least he was lost in them. He wanted her visit to be more than just business. “An audit should take care of that.”
“On that matter there’s been some foot dragging,” she replied. “Enough to leave me somewhat uncomfortable.”
It struck Craige as an odd remark for a bank officer, even more so about her own bank. He studied the bottomless eyes of this wholly female creature, and his gut feeling told him this visit wasn’t a concoction.
AUTHOR BIO:
Internationally acclaimed author and public speaker, Hawk MacKinney began writing mysteries for his school newspapers. Following graduation, he served in the US Navy for over 20 years. While serving as a Navy Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in languages and history and has taught postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel.
In addition to professional articles and texts on fetal and adult anatomy, Hawk has authored several novels that have received national and international recognition. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel, was nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award.
Known for his terrifying suspense and unique “Southron” dialog, Hawk has published five novels in the Moccasin Hollow Mysteries: Hidden Chamber of Death, Westobou Gold, Curse of the Ancients, Dead Gold, and Blood of the Dragonfly.
In a change of direction, Hawk has also published three books in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series: The Bleikovat Event, Volume I; The Missing Planets, Volume II; and The Inanna Phantom, Volume III.
His latest work is a series called the Moccasin Trace Mysteries. Dungeon of Horrors is the first book in the series, and the second book – Blood in the Shadows – is in development.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner's Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
It is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional bombast. Life is good for widower Rundell Ingram and his hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton. Between the two of them, they take care of Moccasin Hollow, their rustic dogtrot ancestral home, a sprawling non-slave plantation in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east Georgia. Adjoining Ingram lands is Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer, their daughter Sarah and son Benjamin.
Both families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates are no longer children. Against this rustic idyll of hard work and gracious living comes inflexible discord and divided loyalties that mutilate ties of blood and bond, tearing at their lives as smoke and battle no longer so faraway crashes and maims ever closer. Ahead of the on-coming ranks of Blue, foragers and bumlers burn, loot, scavenge and kill. Hamilton faces agonizing sacrifices with dreadful consequences. With little else than his wits, he tries anything to protect Sarah, their unborn child, his sickly father, and Sarah's family.
EXCERPT TWO:
Like the proper exemplary young lady, a bored Sarah quietly sat in the drawing room, daintily sipped her tea, thinking how they'd be here for hours with this meaningless chitchat, and wishing she was out riding, wishing she was anywhere but here. .
Bessie stood to one side, tryin' not to think of Sam. 'Membered Mistress Corinth'a calling these folks merchants. Mistress was right, these were uppity folk with no manners. .
"It's understandable you're being so busy," Abigail sighed. "There's simply not enough time to do all the things a body must do to get ready for the Saint Catherine's Christmas Ball." She placed her Wedgwood cup and saucer just so on the marble-top tea table. .
"Of course," Corinthia fastened on a charming smile. "Charlestown is all the talk." .
Abigail leaned close, intimate, "I spoke with Jonathan. He wouldn't hear of taking time off, spending the season in Charlestown. Heaven knows it would've done him a world of good. I told him if the Greers and Ingrams are going, the very least we could certainly do is be in Charlestown to welcome our Queensborough friends." Her immaculate French maid hurried in with more tea and an array of sweets. .
Corinthia sipped with her smile fixed in place...showy hanger-on. Being invited to Charlestown's Saint Catherine's Ball the week of Christmas was all the talk, not only of Georgia and South Carolina, but considerably beyond. Invitations had come through Andrew's cotton and tobacco friends. Corinthia wasn't about to countenance having anyone think the Whiteheads were their associates. It was strain enough remaining gracious with such interlopers. .
"I surely understand why you're so very excited. Everyone will be there," Corinthia said. .
"I was so relieved they arrived yesterday." Abigail Bothwell Whitehead fairly beamed. "When your man dropped off your note telling me you would call, I was all in a twitter. At the time our invitations hadn't arrived. I immediately sent Jonathan straight to the post office." She rolled her eyes in mock relief. With an insipid smile through a pinched mouth and puckered lips, she gloated, "I was so reassured when he came back with them." She could hardly contain herself, enjoying herself immensely -- the perfect dig at uppity Corinthia Greer. "It will be so grand. Anyone who's anybody will be there." .
Sarah's expression matched her mother's composure; Corinthia's attention never left Abigail. Sarah knew Abigail and how venomous this artless woman could be.
AUTHOR BIO:
In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk MacKinney has authored several works of fiction—historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his protagonist in the Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series: Hidden Chamber of Death, Westobou Gold, Dead Gold, Curse of the Ancients, and Blood of the Dragonfly.
Hawk’s science fiction novels include The Bleikovat Event, Vol I in The Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series, followed by Vol II, The Missing Planets, and Vol III, Inanna Phantom.
Hawk MacKinney served in the US Navy for over 20 years. While serving as a Navy Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in languages and history. He has taught postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel. He now makes his home in Augusta, Georgia, where he writes full-time.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The Cairns of Sainctuarie Volume I - The Bleikovat Event
Volume II – The Missing Planets
Volume III – Inanna Phantom
From a rocky outcrop a battle-widowed Etkaa, gazed down at the death and upheaval. Rancid green Murian blood stanched the dusklit breezes from the haze-dimmed river marshlands. Nothing has been spared by the Green Dragon forces of Bleikovia. In skirmishes along the Feldon River, Etkaaâ's mate is fatally wounded with deadly selvon poison. Through a gruesome mountain trek of icy blizzards, they elude the Green Dragon. The battered starving Feldovats reach the coast at Eedov City only to be confronted by their implacable enemy determined to destroy the remaining Klarvkon rabble. Taking passage on crowded Maalon freighters, the refugees escape toward a new life among their Maalon hosts. Enraged Bleikovats move against the Klarvkons, bringing indiscriminate bloodshed. War once again surfaces, as it did in the muddy filth along the Feldon River of Malfesov, and becomes a different kind of war.
Generations after the great Murian upheaval of the Malfesian War against the Bleikovats, the Accords between planets Terato and Myr are signed.
Provisional Outpost Terato is under construction near a farm where Teratoan orphan Eklam a'Qoc lives with his uncle and cousin. Inquisitive strong-minded Eklam, Ek to everyone in the village, is captivated by the off-worlders technology, and becomes an apprentice to the Outpost Terato's Murian commander, Grand Duke Korvo. Uncle a'Qoc disapproves; wants nothing to do with these outlanders, wants their shimmering doorway portals-of-travel banned from Terato. As Outpost Terato becomes operational it seems to become a harbinger stirring ageless secrets of The Old Ones and their frightful weapons, of ancient Teratoan ruins, mysterious glowing lights, unexplained killings, a sacred book in a language no Teratoan can read, a moon that doesn't behave like a moon in its wobbly orbit.
From cosmic reaches beyond space and time the ominous secrets of Terato's ancient ruins become more threatening. Ek and Korvo realize both their worlds face extinction with any hope buried somewhere in unknown galaxies far beyond a pastoral Terato or the sophisticated star-empire of the Murians; of missing planets in a star system with its single star in a galaxy far-removed unknown to Terato or Myr. They travel across the universe to a place long forgotten to fight this unknown foe with weapons only dreamed of. Together they face the beast that wishes to consume the entire universe.
The threat of rift invasions seems long passed. Plentiful harvests abound. The Murian first-contact Terato Outpost has grown into the sprawling Terato-Murian Terminus Terato with a hub of relay portals reaching across the vast uncharted galactic expanses and connecting with its eon-extinct Lantaraan prehistory. An exploratory Terato-Murian Jupiterr outpost is established on the gas giant seventh planet, and its quantum and gravitational energies are used to power outpost portals for an archeological survey of the fourth planet, Eorthe. The Lantaraan database aboard Terato’s ancient Downday moon shows that one or more planets of the Solaris planets have apparently been lost. Expanded archeological records on other Lantaraan orbital bodies in the Solaris system show the fourth planet from the star—Eorthe—to be a sterile wasteland. Except it is not. Eorthe’s civilization is not to the level of the Murian Empire, but it is far advanced to those of a pastoral Terato. Terato and Eorthe form the confederated United Terran League under the nominal figurehead leader of League High Judikarr Eklam a’Qoc. Jupiterr outpost expands into a major League stronghold, Jupiterr Base, when civil unrest erupts in the League, the unexpected return of rift intrusions threatens, and the Murian Emperor Klarvko Celo is assassinated. As they prepare for confrontations with an unknown ancient enemy, the internal tensions on Myr and Eorthe push Murians and Teratoans to dangerous discords.
EXCERPT THREE:
From The Missing Planets - Book Two:
Ek never forgot the time Klara peeked over his shoulder; clutched his arm, “It was promised The Old Ones would return.”
“They don’t look like what I thought the Old Ones would look like,” he’d whispered to her. “Suppose they’re not the Old Ones. Where’d they come from? What are they?” Questions Ek had, with no idea there would be other times he’d ask the same kinds of questions—but with far more serious inferences.
The word spread. Many believed these off-worlders were the promised return of their ancients. As time passed, between chores and extra homework for his special classes there hadn’t been much chance to slip away; take the curved path to his overlook spot. Yet, when he did, boundless questions grew as Ek watched in the dusklit the off-worlders create what would become Outpost Terato.
His uncle was unbending, “Neither you nor Klara are to go anywhere near that abomination these off-worlders build out of the air,” his disapproval more severe with each passing dawnlit.
AUTHOR BIO:
With postgraduate degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.
In addition, Hawk has authored several works of fiction including a historical romance Moccasin Trace which was nominated for both the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series and his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have received national and international attention.
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Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Hello, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Hawk
MacKinney and his new book, “Inanna Phantom”! For other stops on his 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 Hawk
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Inanna Phantom
by Hawk MacKinney
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GENRE: Science Fiction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The
threat of rift invasions seem long passed. Plentiful harvests abound. The
Murian first-contact Terato Outpost has grown into the sprawling Terato-Murian
Terminus Terato with a hub of relay portals reaching across the vast uncharted
galactic expanses and connecting with its eon-extinct Lantaraan prehistory.
An
exploratory Terato-Murian Jupiterr outpost is established on the gas giant
seventh planet, and its quantum and gravitational energies are used to power
outpost portals for an archeological survey of the fourth planet, Eorthe.
The
Lantaraan database aboard Terato’s ancient Downday moon shows that one or more
planets of the Solaris planets have apparently been lost. Expanded
archeological records on other Lantaraan orbital bodies in the Solaris system
show the fourth planet from the star—Eorthe—to be a sterile wasteland. Except
it is not. Eorthe’s civilization is not to the level of the Murian Empire, but
it is far advanced to those of a pastoral Terato. Terato and Eorthe form the
confederated United Terran League under the nominal figurehead leader of League
High Judikarr Eklam a’Qoc.
Jupiterr
outpost expands into a major League stronghold, Jupiterr Base, when civil
unrest erupts in the League, the unexpected return of rift intrusions
threatens, and the Murian Emperor Klarvko Celo is assassinated.
As
they prepare for confrontations with an unknown ancient enemy, the internal
tensions on Myr and Eorthe push Murians and Teratoans to dangerous discords.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT TWO:
The
following morning Eklam had a Terminus skimmer shuttle standing by, as he told
David. “I want you to see the mining complexes with the new designs in
operation.”
As
the skimmer sped away, it was the last time David saw Charlotte alive. It was a
last time and a first time for more than either of them could imagine. The
marauders struck swift and brutal.
Eklam
and David returned late as evening daylit paled into eventide twilit. As the
skimmer shuttle slowed; eased to stop and powered down to a faint-hum idle,
David said, “Very impressive.”
Eklam
barely heard him, as he stepped out of the skimmer and in that moment sensed
something amiss. His premonition was quickly shattered by a child’s brittle
scream in the deadly stillness.
Stavris
burst from the tumble of boulders up the hill where he'd hidden, “Fæder!”
The
fear in Stavris’ voice told Eklam something was bad wrong. Eklam’s short summer
tunic whipped his thighs, the small replica of the Judikarr’s crux ansata
thumping his chest, as he ran toward his terrified son. Stavris slammed into
his father’s arms clutching tight as tears streamed down his face. A frantic
Eklam held his son close and whispered, “What’s the matter?”
With
short choked breaths and arms tight around Eklam’s neck, Stavris pointed toward
the house, “Blood all over—”
Eklam
flung a look beyond the outer wall, and flinched at the crumpled wreckage of
the scarred servmo and the fused jagged blast scars and gouges of debris along
the entryway. More blast scars on the lopsided double doors of the main
entrance with one door crumpled askew. Nozzles of the bug-scrim emitters on two
side windows were twisted, the curls of smoke backlit in the afternoon sunlit.
Marleen hated bugs in the house. She never left the bug-scrim deactivated. He
took in the blood-splashed scene so different from what he and David had left
earlier that morning.
“My
god,” a fearful David gasped, as he rushed toward a horror getting worse
everywhere they looked.
Stavris
buried his face in the crook of Eklam’s shoulder and neck, “I don't want to go
in there.” He pulled tighter into Eklam. “Aunt Charlotte's got blood all over
her. She’s not moving and she won’t answer when I call her name.”
Eklam
held Stavris tight, trying to reassure him even when he wasn’t sure of anything
himself. His eyes fastened toward the sprawling rooms facing the canyons, not
wanting to think of what the blood spatters on the front doorways and along the
foyer could mean.
Eklam
met a stunned gaunt unseeing David staggering out of the house and stopping at
the crumpled entrance. A gray shroud on David’s face, “They blew Charlotte
apart. Pieces are everywhere.” Blood-smeared hands propped against the
doorframe, steading himself against what he couldn’t make real. Vessels in his
neck throbbed, his heartbeat hammered thumps in his ears. “She doesn't have a
face.” As he tried to distance himself from the unspeakable, he wheezed more
words from a strangling throat, “I can’t find Jeffry.”
Stavris
pointed up the hill toward Jeffry stumbling around boulders toward them. “Me’n
Jeffry hid in the rocks.”
How?”
Eklam grasping for any kind of meaning into the unacceptable, “Why in the name
of Terato’s two suns would anyone do something like this?” His fear choked at
him, “Marleen?” Afraid to ask, “The boys?” Not wanting Stavris to see more of
the slaughter, Eklam said, “Stay here with Uncle David.”
Eklam
ran across the slab-stone patio and around the fountain with its pink-tinged
splashes. He called out, “Marleen? Ek? Korve?” A harsh crack deepened his voice
as he called each name again and again and got no response. When he got to an
inside doorway, he stopped. The grisly scene of bloody smeared clots splotched
across the walls, ceilings and floors hit him full force. Sprawled in front of
him was what was left of Charlotte Martin. Beyond Charlotte were three barely
recognizable bodies of the house staff. He searched the rooms and the verandas.
There was no sign of Marleen or his other two boys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK TRAILER:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
The Allure of a Strong Female Character:
To
paraphrase cartoon lothario Pepè Le Pew, “…there is very little difference
between men & women, but--vive la difference!” Animal kingdoms are rife
with la difference, from the downside-up role of seahorses,
transitioning Osteichthyes to assorted segmented annelids.
Lead
characters, supporting characters, major characters, shadow characters, dead
characters…we corrupt the adjectives in a word-game that belittles the whole
viewpoint…male-female becomes meaningless and sterile. No character stands
alone. I love my female characters. The more feminine and the more alluring
makes for more powerful.
My early
years through the teens were spent around the strong capable feminine that
could handle anything that coalmine fires and nitroglycerin explosions brought.
There weren’t loud types of any gender, but especially the females. There was
no loud to get attention, flinging emotional abuse, accomplishing nothing but
chaos. Rather, women exhibited strength and accomplishment all the while
exhibiting the softness of femininity. I was reared to appreciate that.
I
prefer writing from a feminine point of view – but not just the one point of
view. That so limits the tale being told. Whether heroine, rogue, stalwart,
dependable, steel determination, comfortable with self & ego, such a woman
can engender unconditional love with a sweet and relentless power to lift a wrecked
car off a loved one. The Old Norse chooser of the slain Valkyrja is such a
waste.
The
smart, creative, feminine, confident, supportive, independent lady is an
awesome cuddly warm creature that presents a sensuous breathtaking enticement
or refuge for any testosterone creature/gentleman/lover, no matter the setting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Hawkhas authored several works of fiction
including a historical romance Moccasin Tracewhich was nominated for both the prestigious
Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes
Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science
Fiction Seriesand his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have
received national and international attention.
With postgraduate
degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney
has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His
professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and
aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.
**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.
Hey lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Hawk
MacKinney and his new book, “Dead Gold”!
For other stops on his 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 Hawk
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Dead Gold
by
Hawk MacKinney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Mystery/Suspense
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The dazzling lure of Olympic gold fame is a
spotlight glare hotter than any fifteen minutes of fame.
During
plans for a cross-country ski vacation, Aspen Police Department Criminal
Investigation Division Detective David “Spinner” Krespinak and SEAL-bud Craige
Ingram are ensnared by glamour, upmarket glitz and bling, and greed in the
deadly champagne powder world of a money-gets-you-anything high-country
ski-mecca. Body parts start turning up in the most unlikely places. As the two
friends start their investigation, A hornets nest of the local elite do not
want the publicity. For good reason it seems, they may be part of the mystery
of bodies and body parts piling up at the morgue.
The
closer they get to the killer the more confused they become. Who is behind the
murders and mutilation? The list of suspects grows as they close the net on the
killer.
The tender underbelly of Aspen is not what
it seems. It is a raw open sore that oozes blood, drugs, and murder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT TWO:
A
heavy burgundy turtleneck turned up against the frosty bite, Spinner was
waiting at the foot of the steps. A big angular grin spread all over his rugged
face, “Hard to believe you finally hauled your butt out here.”
“Time
gets away for both of us and our twenty-eight hour days. Been a while since
you’ve kicked back at Moccasin Bend.”
With
a hearty guffaw Spinner retorted, “You haven’t changed one damn bit, Peadinger.
You’ll always be the same compulsive CO, churning full blast 'till you’re sure
all bases have been covered.” The two bear-hugged like long-lost brothers.
Craige
said, “It's good to be here and even better seein’ your bronco-bustin’
backside.”
Spinner
was a quiet-spoken Kentucky transplant to west Texas, and then Aspen, and his
easy throaty laugh always made Craige feel everything was okay. He brightened
Craige’s world as much as the other way round. No matter how long they’d been
apart, the two exSEALs remained closer than close.
Spinner
said, “Been too long since our last runs on that Big Sky Montana ski trip.”
With
a touch of the pensive for times that called back some good memories—and some
not so good, Craige said, “How could Big Sky have been that long ago? Seems
like it was only a year or so. That was right before we deployed for Operation
Nightfire off Lastovo Island.”
'Nightfire’
was hardly out of Craige’s mouth before dark shades moved across both their
faces. The snarling double deals fiasco and compromises bordering on sheer
stupid came with a nasty stench of treachery, and it left keepsake scars on
both their handpicked teams selected for an in-out HALO recon with orders to
avoid contact. On-the-ground objectives targeted and acquired. Heavy camoed,
they rechecked their gear, and prepared to re-stage. Kicked in a
get-the-hell-out-of-Dodge and regrouped. Established a secure base and reconned
their perimeters during the moonless night. Recon went off without a
hitch—except for the before-dawn ambush hit. Darrell and two navy corpsmen
weren’t where they were supposed to be. Their deaths an obscene memory no one
forgot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK TRAILER:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Fierce Female Characters:
The Role They Play in
My Books
I
love my female characters. No pushovers, heroine or vixen, being fierce
clutters the finer qualities that drive/lead/spin a yarn or hold the interest
of an alpha male…Mother Nature rules! She’s fierce if necessary…cuddly and
sensuous when appropriate. Good examples of this are the women in my historical
romance novel, Moccasin Trace. This
book takes place during the Civil War and introduces the bloodlines of my main
character, Craige Ingram, in the MOCCASIN HOLLOW MYSTERY SERIES that follows.
It is through the eyes of these strong female characters that the reader
experiences the hardships that were endured, and how it was the women who kept
families and societies functioning.
These
same characteristics of strength and self-confidence carry through in the
MOCCASIN HOLLOW MYSTERY SERIES. Good or evil, they can whirlwind/drive/twist a
plot where flouncing in the spotlight is a definite disadvantage and NOT the
subtle mark of the dependable/soft/alluring adventurous promises that a good
woman brings. It can’t be faked. And it takes a man who isn’t lacking in
confidence to be able to appreciate the fierceness in a woman who knows her own
mind, understands what she wants, and isn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to
get it. This is brought out in my latest book in the MOCCASIN HOLLOW MYSTERY
SERIES, Dead Gold, where protagonist
Craige Ingram’s former SEAL buddy is caught up in a web of evil created by the
woman he loves.
That
being said, the strong female character also provides a valuable backdrop to
the weaknesses and strengths of others. This backdrop enables plot twists and
elements of surprise that entertain and keep the reader turning the page.
Much
of what I write is inspired from personal experiences and places where I have
lived and worked. My “Hat” photo on my website illustrates this. I have learned
that everything is a learning opportunity; it is something that can be turned
into an unusual storyline, an interesting plot, or developed into a fierce and
strong female character.
Hawk MacKinneyserved in the US Navy for over
20 years. While serving as a Navy
Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major
state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in
languages and history. He has taught postgraduate courses in both the United
States and Jerusalem, Israel.
In
addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk
has authored several works of fiction—historical love stories, science fiction
and mystery-thrillers. His titles are not genre-centered, but plot-character
driven. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious
Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes
Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Moccasin
Hollow Mystery Series—murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Hidden Chamber
of Death, the first book in the mystery series, was followed by Book 2,
Westobou Gold and his latest, Book 3, Curse of the Ancients. All have received
national attention. The Bleikovat Event was Vol I in The Cairns of Sainctuarie
Science Fiction Series followed by Vol II, The Missing Planets. Vol III, Inanna
Phantom is in final galleys.
**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.
