Another successful Summer Series has come to completion. This year, I featured seventeen talented Tirgearr Publishing authors and their fascinating characters... There was so much interest in My Character's Favorite Quote that I scheduled guests into the end of September! Missed a post or two? Check out the links below.
“To proclaim the two dumber than dirt would insult dirt. Each entered this world with a tail and back legs shy of a whole cow.”
—Red Farlow describes two wayward characters in my latest novel, Blue Magnolia. Their names are Swansy Elliott and Bugger Nelms. They are sad men with a tendency to violence—accidental and otherwise—and offer no redeeming qualities to stir pity for them. The two thugs cause no end of trouble for Blue Magnolia’s country singer, Hank “Cowboy” Tillman, a gentle soul who’s suffered his share of bullying.
A county song becomes one killer of a hit.
PI Red Farlow dives headfirst into a hornets' nest of extremists. His new client, Hank Tillman, only wants to get a shot at country music stardom. While playing in a Georgia bar, Hank—known as Cowboy to his fans—stumbles into trouble. The kind that kills. PI Red Farlow steps in to help him.
Hank’s song, Redneck Devil, attracts the attention of a violent group called the Blue Magnolia. Its leaders want him to perform at their next hate rally. There's another, darker reason the Blue Magnolia wants Hank in its fold.
An elderly patient in a Florida insane asylum reveals a decades-long secret that devastates Hank. It’s the worst kind of fake news.
Can Farlow root out the truth? The PI has his own problems as he confronts a hired killer face-to-face.
Welcome back to 'My Character's Favorite Quote.' This week's guests are featured from Leading the Pack by David J. O'Brien.
“Say the word, Boss,” Justin said, almost panting. “I’ll rip his throat out.”
Patrick smiled. Justin showed exactly how much he wanted to spill blood by calling Patrick Boss.
“No, Justin. You will say the word.” The word would be the last this man heard.
The word was werewolf.
In the Silver Nights Trilogy, a pack of werewolves live among us, hidden in plain sight. Their identity must remain a secret – unless exceptional circumstances occur.
Once the secret is revealed, the word Werewolf spoken aloud, death is usually imminent.
In the second book of the trilogy, Leading the Pack, new Alpha Patrick must control his pack and ensure they keep the word werewolf unsaid, but it’s not always possible.
Leading the Pack, Silver Nights Trilogy, Book Two by David J. O'Brien
Alphas aren't elected; they're self-selected.
Life has been good since Paul McHew left his werewolf pack twenty years ago and married Susan. Patrick is the eldest of their four children and feels the pull of the full moon earlier than his father had.
Patrick itches for the city, but things have changed since his father's time. The economy is booming and everyone has a smart phone. But in a post 9-11 world, where security cameras abound, everyone is being watched.
Patrick must make the city streets his own as the eldest of a new generation. To do that, he must learn to control his own impulses, and those of his pack mates, if he hopes to become their leader.
Encountering a potential mate and facing a definite rival, can Patrick be the alpha everyone expects him to be?
Buy Links:
http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/OBrien_David/index.htm
Amazon US
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753HPR5H
Excerpt from Unleashing the Pack:
Patrick McHew strolled along a quiet street at sunset. A spring shower had cleared the air and left small puddles on the uneven pavement. Strings of horse chestnut petals lay along the gutters. The old trees standing up out of the concrete and asphalt shed no perfume into the coming night, but Patrick yet smelled the fallen flowers among the other scents emanating from the street.
He passed a kid of ten or twelve cycling around in circles on a BMX. A block away a young man in his twenties lingered on a corner. He watched Patrick approach, then turned away. An unspoken agreement had been reached. Patrick strolled past as if the man was as much a part of the street furniture as a lamppost or traffic sign.
Further on, a small group of teenagers leaned against the railings of a small park. Two of them pushed themselves from the railings and stood in the middle of the sidewalk. The other three stayed where they were, but stared fixedly at Patrick as he neared. Patrick instantly saw they were different. They dressed in the same kind of clothes—pants hanging down just as far—but these teens were from the suburbs. While the drug dealers and local street kids let Patrick and his friends pass through their territory the same way they let the trains and buses pass, these kids wanted to interact negatively.
Released to the city on the pretence of going to the cinema or some such legitimate pursuit, he surmised, their parents never discovered they found violence more diverting than the movies. These thugs always picked on weaker people and those in smaller groups, so they never went home with bruises.
Tonight they would.
The farthest one shifted his stance and took out his cell phone. Still leaning against the railings, he started to film the proceedings. Another annoying trend among the youth; posting their exploits on the Internet, even when those exploits were beating up other kids or stealing hats from strangers.
"What's goin' on?" one of the two blocking his way asked.
Patrick kept walking. He was now ten feet away and quickened his pace.
"You walkin' on my street?"
"You got to pay the toll," the other added.
Patrick shook his head, wondering where they'd got that line. It sounded like a bad eighties movie. The nearest two thugs let him pass without speaking; they wanted to surround him.
"You talkin' to me?" Patrick asked the nearest teen, imitating DeNiro. Before waiting for a reply, he lashed out. The heel of his palm slammed sideways against the teen's nose, shattering it in a spray of blood. The thug doubled over, holding his gushing face and cursing.
Patrick kept walking, lengthening his stride.
The others stared at their injured companion for a second, too shocked to react. The thug with the phone spun on his heel to follow Patrick as he passed by, his mouth agape.
When Patrick was already five yards away, they began to run after him.
"You'll fuckin' pay for that," one shouted.
Patrick began to jog, then broke into a run.
As he skirted around the block, he yipped loudly. The pursuing teens took this as a cry of fear. They started yelling, breaking into sprints after him.
Patrick looked behind and laughed. He ran fifty yards down the next street and then cut into an alleyway, the gang of youths at his heels.
As he passed by a dumpster, Patrick saw two men standing behind it. He pulled up short. Above him, on a fire escape, another five men stood.
One of these dropped to the ground behind Patrick.
Patrick turned around. The figures at the dumpster stepped out of the shadows. They smiled at Patrick.
He grinned back. "Say hello to my new friends."
The teens thundered into the alley and came to a halt when they saw Patrick had stopped.
When they saw the men step out from behind the dumpster they spread out, ready for a fight.
Then the other four figures dropped from the fire escape, landed light as cats on the asphalt.
It was five against eight, now.
The youths looked at one another and in unspoken agreement began to back out of the alley. Behind them, however, two more shadows materialised into the shapes of men, and slowly approached.
Patrick glanced right and left at the men now standing beside him; his own gang, his pack.
Welcome back to 'My Character's Favorite Quote.' This week's guest is Tavish MacLean of The Sins of the Sire by Emily Royal.
“Please, Elyssia, I beg you. I cannot continue on this path of vengeance. You’re not my enemy. Did you not once tell me that were I to embark on the path to vengeance I would have to dig many graves, including my own? For myself, I care not, but I must stop now before it’s too late, for there is one grave I have no wish to dig. Yours.”
Tavish, the hero of the novel, is motivated by vengeance. He pledged before the whole of his clan, to avenge the death of his beloved sister at the hands of an English nobleman, by abducting Elyssia, the nobleman’s daughter. But faced with Elyssia’s fortitude and courage, despite her captivity, he realises he can no longer deny his feelings for her, and begins to question his motives and his duty to his clan. This quote comes from a scene where he asks Elyssia to stay with him—as his lover, not his prisoner.
Two years ago, English noblewoman, Elyssia De Montford, risked her life to free the Highlander held prisoner by her sadistic fiancé. She cannot forget the man who first stirred her heart–a memory that burns anew when she finds herself once more on the road to Scotland.
Tavish MacLean has sworn vengeance. It’s been six years since his beloved sister was raped and murdered by an English lord, a tragedy which almost destroyed his family. On his deathbed, his father demanded retribution and Tavish pledged before his clan to enslave the lord’s daughter then send her back to her father, pregnant with a Scottish bastard. When he learns that she is travelling north, he seizes his opportunity and orders her abduction.
But when his men fling the prisoner before him, Tavish recognises Elyssia, the woman who once saved his life. Loyalty to his clan trumps the debt he owes her and he claims Elyssia as his captive. Though she’s one of the hated English, her willing body ignites passion in him at night, though she fights him at every turn during the day. As time passes, he questions his loyalty, finding himself increasingly enthralled by his fiery captive.
Treachery surrounds Clan MacLean. When long-buried secrets come to light, Tavish must risk his life and his clan, or all that he holds dear will be destroyed.
Buy Links:
Amazon: mybook.to/SinsOfTheSire
Other: http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Royal_Emily/the-sins-of-the-sire.htm
Welcome back to 'My Character's Favorite Quote.' This week's guest is Skylar Landis of One Night in Minneapolis by Margie Church.
The familiar voice from behind Skylar rekindled her anger. Marcie. You do wear the balls in your family. Eight months pregnant and still fighting your lame husband’s battles for him. What a woman.
Ally Reynolds is a veterinarian specializing in raptor rehabilitation in New Hampshire. Other than one horrific incident in her childhood and a little extra “spark” for healing in her hands, both of which she has kept secret from even her best friend, her life has been singularly boring. It has also been extremely lonely. Ally longs for someone to share her life with, but how can she trust someone with her secret?
Matthew Blake, an ornithologist at Cornell University, calls Ally, asking for her help with an injured raptor. Matthew grew up in New Zealand and has lived around the world. He has read about Ally’s high success rates in raptor rehabilitation and suspects there is more to it than is generally known.
Matthew has some secrets of his own; he is a demon hunter. He suspects Ally’s healing powers could benefit him. He wants her to join him and thinks they’d make a great team.
Can Ally trust him or is he just using her? Matthew definitely has more secrets, and some of them are about her.
