Moccasin Trace by Hawk MacKinney

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on he 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.

Read an Excerpt

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.

About the Author:

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.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/698008.Hawk_MacKinney
Website: https://www.hawkmackinneyauthor.com/
Buy Links: https://www.amazon.com/Moccasin-Trace-Hawk-MacKinney-ebook/dp/B0CB24VY52
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moccasin-trace-hawk-mackinney/1008084042

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Theo and Sprout: A Journey of Growth by Joseph Gergen

 Theo and Sprout: A Journey of Growth

by Joseph Gergen

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GENRE: Literary Fiction (YA)

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BLURB:

While Theo longs for some guidance through the perils of adolescence, the guidance he knew his family wouldn’t give him, he isn’t prepared for Sprout, his inner Divine Feminine, to present herself and offer it to him. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have a choice since Sprout, sassy and confident about her presence, won’t go away.

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Excerpt:

SPROUT. My brother had no idea the impact the nickname he derisively gave me would have. Neither of us knew how unwittingly appropriate it would become. Was it destiny or self-fulfilling prophecy? I don’t know. Memories and dreams and possibilities like to mix together. As far as my past is concerned and the makeup of who I am and what shaped me, I can make no distinction between memory and reality and dream. I usually don’t try.

While I certainly don’t remember all of my childhood, and many aspects are densely foggy, I remember with clarity the day my life changed. I was preparing for school in the basement bathroom—the small, cramped bathroom that seemed more like a large porta-potty with a shower than an actual bathroom. Wet towels covered the floor and almost all available surfaces. Countless toiletries jumbled themselves wherever space allowed them to balance or stack. Most of these did not belong to me. They belonged to my collection of brothers and sisters. I had a toothbrush. I knew that. Usually, I found toothpaste. If I absolutely needed a less common toiletry, I picked through a baffling array of products, many of which I had no understanding, until I found something useful.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Author of “Theo and Sprout”. Born and raised on the plains of North Dakota. Moved to Twin Cities because it’s actually warmer. Enjoy creating in whatever form it takes, including writing, painting, and furniture making. The enjoyment is in the doing. Looking to add a little magic to the world through art. 

Other books include “Without a Pang” and “Methane Wars.”

Social Media:

Website: https://josephgergen.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeGergen  or @joegergen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joegergen/ or @joegergen

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079140443073

Book Reviews:

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/theo-and-sprout-a-journey-of-growth-joe-gergen#review

https://chicklitcafe.com/?s=theo+and+sprout

https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/2022/08/theo-and-sprout-a-journey-of-growth-dedicated-review

Books Available at:

“Theo and Sprout” available as eBook, paperback and audiobook Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SMSHF61

And Barnes and Noble as ebook and paperback:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/theo-and-sprout-joseph-gergen/1141648672

“Without a Pang”

Available at Amazon as ebook and paperback:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085H7Q3ZN

“Methane Wars”

Available at Amazon as ebook and paperback:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C0EVC8S

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

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Rise of Dresca by Tim McKay

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $40 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

From the pits of an ancient darkness, a new power is rising.

******

Ceremai has fallen.

After a decade of struggle for independence, a fledgling nation collapses under the unrelenting force of invasion.

Join an unlikely band of allies on a journey beset by shadow and intrigue, pulled by the strings of fate to the source of a new evil.

A lord’s daughter turns assassin. An orphan girl discovers her power. A captain plots in vain.

And the last soldier of Ceremai finds his destiny.

Witness the dawn of a new age, and learn if what evil intended for harm…

… can become something far more terrible.

Read an Excerpt

Elaryn pressed her back against the sharp cliff rocks, panting as she sucked in the stale, toxic air. Her team, huddled together around the corner, felt the fumes scraping their lungs as much as she did. They wouldn’t have thought much of her forced, frantic breathing. They didn’t know.

They had to die.

She’d been planning these murders for months, but her resolve was untested. She knew there’d be no going back, and once it started, she’d have to be quick.

A crashing force shook the cliffside. Elaryn heard a few stifled screams as she fell onto her hands and knees. Her ears were ringing and her vision blurred, but she turned to take in the chaos. Four members of the team were bloodied masses scattered around the small crater where her pack had been. Good. There needed to be blood. Her heart raced, but the cold edge to her inner voice was unnerving.

Vorsha, the Selvan envoy leading the mission, began to stir and whimper a few paces away. Elaryn charged, covering the distance in seconds and driving her knee into the woman’s face. Vorsha’s head snapped back and cracked loudly against a rock. Shrapnel wounds peppered her abdomen and stained her scarlet dress a deeper crimson. She wouldn’t be trouble. Five down.

One last kill. Elaryn knew this one would be the hardest. She stepped over the corpse by her feet, boots dripping blood that pooled in charcoal sand. She left the woman’s eyes open, her face already pale with death. Evil like this didn’t deserve peace.

But Paltess was different. The boy was seventeen, just five years her junior. And she couldn’t be sure he was compromised. Unlike the others.

About the Author

Tim McKay is a writer, editor, and marketer from Ottawa, Canada. He used to be a pastor, still cares about good and evil, and still strives to create meaningful experiences for others. He has degrees in history, theology, and public policy, along with a diploma in professional writing, but likes nothing more than hiking in the woods, running along the Rideau Canal, and connecting with the people he loves. Oh, and reading a good book.

Author Site: https://www.timmckay.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/timmckay52
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timmckay52/

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And Then I Met You by Mackenzie Lee

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Have you ever wondered whether your beloved watches over you from their heavenly post? Have you often had the feeling that your loved one has remained right by your side, even after the final goodbyes? And Then I Met You is the true story of a love so enduring and eternal, it transcends the barriers of time, space, and life itself.

In these pages, you will meet two people whose love is challenged at every turn. The countless barriers that stand between them and true togetherness seem endless. And then the unthinkable happens--and all the barriers vanish in the most unexpected and miraculous of ways.

This epic love story will linger in your thoughts long after the last page, and remain as a twinkle in the sky and a smile in your heart. Who knows? You may even look at life, love, and death in a whole new light.

Read an Excerpt

In the weeks and months after finding out that he had passed, I could hardly function. I had so many hopes and dreams for us. When they went out the window, so did all my motivation.

I curled up in a ball and cried, day and night. I wailed aloud, overwhelmed by the vastness of the grief and the endless stream of tears. I shook all over, wrapped in a blanket, staring blankly at the T.V. I was adrift in an abyss, completely unmoored. I had a huge hole in my gut.

That was the first time in my life that I had experienced the physical side of grief. The weight of it made it hard to breathe. I was grateful that I didn’t have to go to work at the time. I don’t think I could have pulled it off. It was everything I could do to get out of bed in the mornings.

I let my grief over Mike impact my health for a while. I overate and stopped taking optimal care of myself. Now, I’m trying to bring myself back to life, and get out from under all the damage I did to my body. Little by little, in baby steps, I’m fighting my way back to my best self.

Mike had been my anchor, my rock, my heart, my right hand—my everything. I didn’t know what to hold onto anymore. Whether I was physically near him or not, I had always felt a physical pull in my heart whenever I thought of him. What was going to happen to me now that my rock was gone? How was I going to talk to him?

About the Author: Mackenzie Lee is an aspiring author known for her ability to weave heartwarming tales that touch the soul. Her book, "And Then I Met You," is a poignant and uplifting true story that explores the depths of enduring love and its ability to transcend the boundaries of time and space.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Then-Met-You-Unbelievable-Story/dp/0228887739

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The Shoebox Baby by Sharon Bruce

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Shoebox Baby is a creative non-fiction story based on the life of Susan Fenton and her family. Sue was born in Nova Scotia on a blustery winter night in a crude weather-worn shack with dirt floors. Although the doctor told Sue's mother that her baby would be dead before the morning, she made every attempt to keep her infant alive.

Sue and her siblings were born into poverty, survived the Depression and the fall-out of World War II, and contended with tuberculosis, unemployment and polio. This book is filled with family antics, joy, sorrow, laughter, and mystery, covering the trials, triumphs and hilarious exploits of the large and colourful cast of characters that is the Fenton family.

Sue's courageous determination to live a full life, regardless of the limitations others imposed on her and the circumstances that came her way, made her a remarkably resilient woman.

Read an Excerpt

The winter of nineteen hundred and thirty-six and thirty-seven dragged on. The freezing temperatures and relentless snowstorms seemed endless. These were especially difficult times for a family who had so little. Since the birth of Suzie, the family was kept busy trying to feed themselves, keep the home warm and attend to the wee life in the shoe box whose nursery was the warming oven.

Fran and Marg were kept home from school to help attend to the baby. The supply of driftwood had to be kept stocked, so Critch also stayed home.

In preparation for his wood gathering he put on his patched, oversized, thin winter coat, his newspaper-soled gum rubber boots, a scarf that once belonged to his father, and mittens given to the family by the Salvation Army.

Just before he left the house, Grace would wrap Critch’s scarf snug around his head and neck and say, “Don’t doddle. Ifin you get cold, light a small fire but mind you don’t burn all the wood. Be back afore sundown. You know me and your fadder are glad fer a child like you. Be careful me boy!”

Then she would hand him the pork lard sandwich she had made him and wrapped in newspaper. Grace knew he should have more to eat but a whole pork lard sandwich was a double portion in their home during these difficult times.

About the Author:

Writing has been Sharon's passion since childhood. At seven years old she won first prize at a local fall fair for her story about a stuffed pink elephant. Since then, she was hooked. Articles, poems and the book Beyond the Forests of Yesteryears are part of her publishing portfolio. Curiosity mixed with a love of hearing and writing unique stories about others is the subject of her work. Some call it being darn right nosey, others call it vivid creativity. During her career she worked in the social services field with individuals, families, groups and organizations to address social and cultural issues. A significant part of her job included inspirational speaking and sharing stories. Sharon was raised in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, where she resides with her husband. Together they enjoy retirement and organizing activities for seniors, which includes writing and acting out comical skits for small audiences.

Website: https://sharonbruceauthor.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15068763.Sharon_Bruce
Buy Link: https://a.co/d/4jBrAbW

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Mama Dida - My Road to Canada, by Leo Teohari

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

After experiencing the second world war tragedies and living through the socio political changes in Romania, grand-pa Aurel and grand-ma Dida for the love of their beloved grandchildren Darius and Anna, decided to leave family, friends and everything they built in Romania and start a new life in Canada. Nadia Comaneci incredible gymnastic success at the Olympic games in Montreal was what they knew at the time about Canada. Grand-pa Aurel and grand-ma Dida’s courage and personal sacrifices were the foundation for the education Darius and Anna accessed in Toronto and the life they enjoyed in Canada. The book presents real events and is based on a true story.

Read an Excerpt

After we came back to Constanta, Mother Voica was introduced to Mr. George whom we the children use to call Uncle George.

Uncle George was a good man who loved my mother and loved us. Uncle George was from Suditi village in Ialomita County. His family was financially well established so they sent George to a theological seminary to become a priest. After studying for two years, Uncle George decided that becoming a priest was not his vocation; his dream was to see the world.

Uncle George left the seminary and got a job on a commercial ship as a simple sailor. Now he was a free man able to travel and read without religious restrictions. Uncle George was an incredible reader – books, newspapers, anything that he was able to get his hands on. Mother Voica used to call it the reading virus. Unfortunately, while reading, he was smoking nonstop. Most importantly, when he married Mother Voica, Uncle George saved our lives.

  About the Author: Leo Teohari was born in Constanta, Romania. Leo holds both a law degree and a degree in international economics. Leo defected from Communist Romania in 1980, and settled with his family in Toronto, Canada, where he became a businessman. Today he writes about his experiences and runs an international food trade business. In 2004 he published his first book, Hawala, based on a true story about a government cover-up and diversion related to the Romanian revolution in 1989.

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mama-dida-teohari/1143605702
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mama-dida
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mama-Dida-My-Road-Canada-ebook/dp/B0C6T383P2/ref=sr_1_1 $0.99 on Amazon

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