#YouAgain #ContemporaryRomance

 

Title: You Again

Author: Sherry Derr-Wille

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Book Heat Level: 1

 

Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, Google Play

 

TAGLINE

 

Carole Martinson is excited to attend her granddaughter’s wedding cruise, until she finds out the groom’s grandfather is the man she married in college.

 

BLURB: You Again

 

While attending college at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s, Carole Martinson fell in love and eloped with Phillip Vanderlin. When his parents realized she was a farmer’s daughter and below them socially, they insisted they divorce.

 

Fast forward to 2019 and Carole is invited to a wedding cruise financed by her granddaughter’s fiancé’s grandfather. With no knowledge about the groom’s family, Carole flies to Florida for the cruise she and her second husband never got to take. Upon her arrival, she immediately recognizes Phillip.

 

Phillip never forgot his first love. He is thrilled when he realizes the grandmother is the girl he was forced to leave behind so many years ago.

 

EXCERPT: You Again

 

Phillip was ready and anxious to meet Emily’s family. It was evident she made his grandson very happy.

Once again, Phillip remembered his first wedding to Carole Howard. It had been hard to watch his parents put Carole down, just because her father wasn’t as rich or socially acceptable as they were. To him, it never mattered if she was rich, or poor. He’d loved her, but was too young, and didn’t have the balls to stand up to his parents about who he’d chosen to marry.

Checking his watch, Philip realized he’d taken more time than he thought he would. It was time for him to go down to the bar and meet his family, to go to the restaurant.

He saw Mark and Jeremy sitting at the bar. Mark was looking at his watch, indicating they were ready to leave for the restaurant.

“It looks like I took a little too long getting dressed,” Phillip commented.

“Not to worry, Grandpa,” Jeremy said. “They have a bar at the restaurant, and you can get your first drink there.”

Phillip’s daughter, Nina, got off the bar stool and gave him a kiss on the cheek, while Mark paid the tab. 

“I think you’re going to love this restaurant, Dad,” she said. “Mark and I ate there the last time we were in town. Thankfully, it’s close enough to the hotel that we can walk. We didn’t see a point in getting a cab when we’re so close. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind? Not me. I may be old, but I still walk at least a mile every day. Lead the way. I just hope you can keep up with me.”

His challenge was met with laughter from his family.

 

~ * ~

 

Carole was nervous about meeting the family of Emily’s fiancé. If his grandfather had enough money to finance a destination wedding on a cruise ship, she’d definitely look like a country bumpkin in comparison, most likely. She hoped she didn’t come off like that. 

Thankfully, they’d arrived from the airport with only enough time for her to have a shower. Looking in the mirror, she again silently thanked Tyson for the shopping trip he’d treated her to when she was in California. She’d been able to spend the money wisely, and still look fashionable.

A light rap at the door indicated Robbie and Janice were ready to leave for the restaurant. She’d seen the restaurant’s sign when they pulled up to the hotel. Since it was close enough to walk, she was glad she no longer wore the high heels that seemed so mandatory when she was younger. She knew she would never have been able to walk the distance if she wore pumps rather than fashionable sandals.

“You look absolutely beautiful, Grandma,” Emily said, as soon as she opened the door.

“Thank you, dear.”

“I think that shopping trip you went on was well worth it,” Robbie added.

“I couldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for Tyson. I was stunned when he gave me all that money to shop. Thank goodness Ellen knew where to go to make the most of it. The majority of these clothes are either knockoffs, or came from one of the high-end thrift shops she likes to go to.”

“I don’t care where they came from. They make you look like a million bucks,” Janice added. 

It didn’t take long for them to walk the short distance to the restaurant. As soon as they entered the bar, Emily hurried over to give Jeremy a hug and a kiss.

Rather than focusing on her granddaughter and her soon to be new grandson, Carole looked at his parents and grandfather who were coming to meet her party. She felt herself becoming faint when she realized Jeremy’s grandfather was Phillip Vanderlin. She would have known him anywhere. Rather than the old man she expected, Phillip was as slim as he’d been in college. The only differences were that he now wore glasses and his dark hair had now turned to a beautiful silver white. While she expected to see the lines of aging on his face, they weren’t there. Of course, with the amount of money he supposedly had, he could have opted for any type of plastic surgery.

Thank goodness I’ve changed since college, Carole thought to herself.I’ve put on a few pounds and my hair is grey, not the beautiful white I always wanted it to be. Of course, my last name is Martinson, so there’s no way he could ever equate me with the Carole Howard he married in college. At least, I certainly hope he doesn’t recognize me. It would be awkward and perhaps spoil the wedding cruise Emily and Jeremy have been planning. I’ll just play it cool and hope no one guesses what’s going on in my mind.

“Ah, Mrs. Martinson. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Phillip said, as he lifted her hand to his lips.

Always the gentleman,she thought. 

She also enjoyed the French accent he carried. As she recalled, Emily did tell them they flew to Paris in order for her to meet Jeremy’s grandfather. She wondered why he was living in France when she knew his parents were from New York.

“The pleasure is all mine,” she replied.

“Can I get you a drink?”

She thought of her answer. It was tempting to ask for a Sex on the Beach, but instead she opted for a Long Island Iced Tea. She thought it sounded appropriate, considering Phillip’s background. When they were married, she had been too young to drink, even on the night of their wedding.

The bartender served her the drink, just before they were called into the dining room for dinner. 

If she thought she would be the odd man out, she was mistaken. Phillip took her arm as they followed the other three couples out of the bar. Once they were seated at the table, she found herself sitting to Phillip’s left at the round table, set for eight.

“Do you mind if I order for you, Mrs. Martinson?” he asked. “I’m told they have some of the best seafood in Miami, here. I checked the menu on the internet before I left home, and I see they have a lobster-for-two-meal. I decided since we were going to be the oldest members of this little adventure, we might want to stick together.”

“Of course, I don’t mind. But please, call me Carole. Mrs. Martinson makes me sound like a retired school teacher.” Oh my God, how am I going to keep up this façade when Phillip wants us to stick together for the entire cruise? Just being close to him makes my heart beat faster than it has in years.

While Phillip laughed, Carole remembered their wedding night, when they’d stopped at a restaurant. She had thought it was way too overpriced, but they had paid over twenty dollars for their lobster-for-two dinner. Of course, she knew he wouldn’t remember such a trivial thing. Tonight, she would enjoy his company.

She was surprised how soon she became comfortable in his presence. He was just as charming as he had been, all those years ago.

The lobster he ordered was far superior to the meal they’d shared in Iowa on their wedding night. Over the years, she often thought about ordering lobster, but couldn’t bring herself to spend so much money. The closest she ever came to it was when she discovered deep fried lobster bits at The Stagecoach, a small dinner club just outside of town. It was one of her and Rod’s favorite places to go out to eat. 

Rather than allowing their conversation to revolve around her, she asked questions about Phillip’s life. By the time they finished eating, she knew more about her first husband than she ever expected to know.

“I’m afraid I’ve monopolized our dinner conversation,” said Phillip. “I’ve told you a lot about my life, yet I know nothing of yours. Of course, we have a week long cruise to get to know you better.”

They all walked back to the hotel together, and everyone wanted to stop at the bar for a nightcap.

“You’ll have to count me out on this one,” Carole said. “It was a long flight, and if I want to be ready to leave on the cruise tomorrow, I need my beauty sleep.”

After he escorted her to the elevator, Phillip kissed Carole’s hand. “Until tomorrow, when our adventure begins.”

She watched him as the door closed, and the elevator took her away from the man she once loved, and back to the reality of her room.

 

 

 

Website URL:

 

Blog URL:  

 

Facebook page:  

 

Twitter handle: 

 

Triberr:

 

 

LINKS

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085HNJWK5

 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/you-again-sherry-derr-wille/1136602217?ean=2940162830542

 

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/you-again/id1501745542?mt=11&app=itunes

 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/you-again-17

 

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Sherry_Derr_Wille_You_Again?id=n1XUDwAAQBAJ

#UnwantedInANewWorld #ParanormalRomance

 

Title: Unwanted in a New World

            The New World Book Two

Author: Sherry Derr-Wille

Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

Book Heat Level: 1

 

Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, Google Play

 

Read first chapter

 

TAGLINE

 

Shortest blurb/tag line (approximately 25 words about the manuscript):

Orphaned at birth, Christopher is twenty years old when he finds people who accept him and help him find his place in the twenty-second century.

 

BLURB Unwanted in a New World

 

Orphaned at birth, Christopher is sent to a ranch for unwanted children. When he ages out, he is embraced by a militant group of skinheads who are unaware of his Native American heritage. A protest at an Alien Complex outside of Denver, opens a new path for his life. While he is receiving his education, his new friends and mentors are working behind the scene to find his birth family.

 

Melian has come to the complex from the Alien base under the Antarctician ice cap. She takes an immediate interest in Christopher, who now wants to be called Chris, and looks forward to see what their future holds.

 

EXCERPT Unwanted in a New World

 

“Did you see these headlines?” Patrick asked when he came into the barracks.

“What headlines?”

“It seems like the Aliens have finally done it. They’ve brought a woman back to life from Suspended Animation. They think she’s going to be the next National Treasure. They’ve got to be stopped. She’s telling lies about what happened in the past. She has to be exposed as a hoax. Tomorrow we leave for Colorado and the headquarters of the Aliens. With luck we can get into their complex and kick a lot of ass. Hopefully we can kill us a bunch of Aliens. I wonder if they bleed red like us or if they bleed green. I heard my old man call them little green men.”

“I don’t know nothing about Aliens but this could be interesting,” Christopher agreed.

Inside, his stomach was in knots. So far, he’d enjoyed the training and the friends he’d made within the organization. Training was one thing, putting what he’d learned into practice was something else. 

Early the next morning, they loaded their hover crafts with weapons, provisions, and a hundred of the highest trained soldiers in their ranks and left for Colorado.

Having spent his entire life living in a country setting, Christopher was unprepared for the congestion of the city where the Alien’s complex was located.

“Do we have a chance of penetrating that?” Christopher asked.

“Our weapons can penetrate anything,” Patrick assured him. “We have to stop this bitch from talking about history. It’s all a bunch of fuckin’ shit as far as I’m concerned. A lot of things they’re talking about are nothing but crap. What I learned in school is enough for me. I don’t give a rat’s ass about ancient history, and that’s just what they’re preaching.”

As they approached the complex, they watched as a protective shield came down around the entire area.

Patrick was the first to aim his weapon at the shield. To Christopher’s horror, the laser beam bounded off the shield. For the first time, he wished he hadn’t aligned himself with this group. It was entirely possible he could be killed in the battle that was to come. If he wasn’t killed, he could be captured and executed for treason. Even without a formal education, he’d heard enough about treason from some of the recruits who left the group to be fearful.

They camped for the night, ready for the assault that would take place early the next morning.

Drones equipped with cameras flew over the next morning. “Let’s have some fun,” Patrick said, jabbing Christopher in his ribs. “Watch this.”

Patrick looked directly at the camera, pumped his fist into the air and yelled, “History doesn’t matter!”

He no more than spoke the words when well-armed military troops infiltrated the area where they camped.

“Put down your arms,” someone called through a blowhorn. “You’re surrounded, there’s no way for you to escape.”

To Christopher’s horror, two of the younger recruits fired their weapons. The military returned fire, killing both of the young men instantly. It took only a moment for Christopher to realize the two men who were killed were two of his friends. They’d been in the last training class Christopher led while they were still in Idaho.

Not wanting to look unmanly, he choked back the tears that threatened to fall at any minute. Reluctantly, they laid down their arms.

“What’s going to happen to us?” Christopher whispered to Patrick.

“How the fuck should I know? It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

“Who are the leaders of this group?” the man on the blowhorn shouted.

Following Patrick’s lead, Christopher stepped forward. “We are,” Christopher said when Patrick stood mute.

“We’re from the National Guard. It’s too bad about the two men you lost. We wanted this to be peaceful. The governor and the president have asked for a meeting between you and them in the morning. Do you agree to this?”

“We do,” Christopher said as Patrick seemed to tremble with fear.

“For tonight you are to stand down and shelter in place. In the morning, you will be taken into the complex by one of our guards.”

Christopher could feel Patrick’s fear. It was the same fear he’d felt upon leaving Henderson Ranch, the fear of the unknown. He’d heard all the rumors about what went on within the Alien complex. Would they become lab rats? If not, would they be murdered and eaten? Whatever happened, he would accept it. He was fighting for what was right and if it cost him his life, so be it.

“I feel downright naked without my weapon,” one of the men complained. “It’s wrong for us to be left out here defenseless.”

“You saw what happened to Tim and Joe. Do you want the troops to shoot you down like a dog?” The reply came from another of the nameless recruits that made up their number.

Christopher made no comment. It was beginning to look like theirs was a lost cause. With the National Guard and threats of federal troops coming to subdue them, they were completely outnumbered both in personnel and fire power. 

 

~ * ~

 

Early the next morning, armed guards from the complex came out to their camp. Amid their preparations for departure, there were comments both pro and con regarding this meeting.

Christopher felt the bile of uncertainty raising in his throat. Swallowing it down, he held his head high. If this was going to be his last day on Earth, he wanted no one to think he was a coward.

The room where they were taken was filled with cameras, as well as people in all modes of dress. Among them were two older men dressed in suits, an older woman who was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and several people he decided were Aliens. They were much taller than all the others and had an exotic look about them.

“I’m President Brian Addison. I’d like to welcome you to this meeting.”

The man held out his hand, but Patrick ignored it. “We are here at the request of the government and the Aliens,” Patrick said, a sneer in his voice. “We are against all of this ancient history crap. We are also against the Aliens coming to take over our country. We recognize only the superior race.”

“Hogwash,” the older woman shouted. “This superior race you’re talking about was a product of the mind of a sick individual named Adolph Hitler.”

Patrick’s expression changed from one of hatred to one of bewilderment. “Who are you talking about?”

Christopher shared in Patrick’s bewilderment, whilst the woman continued.

“I’m talking about the man who first decided people who weren’t white, blonde and blue eyed weren’t worth living. I have a feeling, by looking at your beards, you aren’t blondes and neither of you have blue eyes. Had you lived in Hitler’s Germany, you might have been sent to a concentration camp, starved and possibly sent to the gas chamber. You are blessed to be able to live in a country where you are free to voice your opinion. The problem, as I see it, is with history and the monuments depicting it being eradicated, you have no idea what happened before you or even your parents were born. I suggest you, as well as your associates, take the time to read the bits and pieces of history that I have been able to fill in. I realize it’s not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but once you know what price was paid for your freedom, you might understand what we are hoping to bring back to the people of Earth.”

“Are you certain about this?” Patrick questioned.

The woman seemed to relax as she answered Patrick’s question. “I’m positive. Violence cures nothing whatsoever. How many of your people have you lost because of the violence you are perpetuating?”

Christopher could no longer hold back his tears. “I lost my two of my friends. I thought it was because of the government and I wanted to fight them. Now I can see that I was wrong. Can you teach me about this history I haven’t learned?”

The woman held out her hand to him. “I feel so sorry for the people of this generation who know nothing of history. I can fill in some of the gaps, but until a program of teaching what has been lost is instituted, it won’t be complete. What you do need to know is that the Aliens have come here to advise, rather than to rule. I have toured their home base under the ice cap of Antarctica and was extremely impressed. We have much to learn from these people, but first and foremost we much learn from the past.”

“I heard you talk of race riots,” Patrick said. “What were they?”

“Let me answer this one,” the older man replied. “Since I’ve met my wife, I’ve done extensive research. In the early days of our country, black people were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and brought here as slaves. Even when they were freed, they were still looked upon as second class citizens. For many years it was white versus black. Over history other people have been discriminated against. Be they Irish, German, Oriental, Hispanic, black, white, red or yellow, we are all created equal. Even the Native Americans who were here before any of the other settlers arrived were persecuted and many of them were wiped out. There is no superior race, just narrow-minded prejudice.”

The words Native American resonated within the confines of Christopher’s mind. For all of his life, he had been told because he had Native American blood, even though his skin was pale, was the reason he’d been sent to the Henderson Ranch. No one wanted to adopt a child with mixed blood. He was an abomination whom no one wanted. Only Pops, Ma and Patrick accepted him for what he was rather than who he was.

The noon meal was served, and Christopher found himself seated next to the older woman who told him her name was Caroline. 

“How do you know so much about this ancient history stuff?” he asked, once their meal was served.

Caroline broke into a wide grin. “Over a hundred years ago there was a terrible disease taking over the world. My husband was away on a business trip when he contracted it and died. I didn’t want to go on without him, so I decided to put my body into a state of suspended animation. I was planning to be awakened in fifty years, but there were many disasters that delayed the process for another fifty years. I know much of what I speak because it happened either in my lifetime or the lifetimes of my parents and grandparents. I also studied world history in college. My memory never dimmed during the time I was asleep.”

Christopher had no idea about some of the things she was saying. He’d never had parents or grandparents in his life. As for college, he had no idea what it was, but something within him wanted to know.

“Do you think we could meet privately, away from all the others? I want to know more, but I don’t want Patrick to…”

“To what?”

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling in my gut there are things you can tell me that Patrick wouldn’t understand.”

“If that’s the case, of course I’ll meet with you privately. I would enjoy hearing about your life.”

 

 

KEYWORDS New World, Aliens, Native Americans, Romance, Futuristic

 

 

Website URL:

 

Blog URL:  

 

Facebook page:  

 

Twitter handle: 

 

 

LINKS

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092P52LSH

 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unwanted-in-a-new-world-sherry-derr-wille/1139270893?ean=2940162454984

 

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/unwanted-in-a-a-new-world/id1564389088?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ct=books_unwanted_in_a_a_new_world&ls=1

 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=Unwanted+in+a+New+World

 

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=r4EpEAAAQBAJ

 

 

If Darkness Takes Us by Brenda Marie Smith

Please welcome Brenda Marie Smith author of  If Darkness Takes Us

Brenda Marie Smithwill be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

If Darkness Takes Us

byBrenda Marie Smith

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GENRE:   post-apocalyptic science-fiction

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

INTERVIEW

1.    What or who inspired you to start writing?

 

I’ve wanted to write ever since I was a little girl. I’ve always had a big imagination burning inside me. In grade school, I wrote stories and poems. Then in high school, one of my short stories was runner-up in a national competition and my poem won second place in a statewide contest. I thought I was destined for a writing career. But an early marriage, kids, and jobs forced me to put the dream on hold, although I did a lot of business and newsletter writing in my work. It wasn’t until my mid-forties when my kids were grown that I finally got to study fiction at UCLA online and start my first novel. 

 

 

2.    What elements are necessary components for this genre?

 

For any fiction, you need well-developed characters who grow through their interactions, and you need to put them through a series of conflicts or hardships. For an apocalypse, you need a world-changing event and a whole lot of hurdles for characters to jump through in order to stay alive. The greater world of the story is deteriorating, and character survival has to always be in question. Stakes have to be high, and each pivotal character needs to have his or her own personal reasons to continue the struggle.

 

I wanted to bring something new to the apocalyptic genre, so I made my protagonist for If Darkness Takes Us a grandmother with failing health—Bea Crenshaw—and her grandchildren are also critical characters. I made the story highly realistic in terms of their ongoing needs and daily hardships, where the struggle is as much with nature as it is with human threats. And I kept the focus tight on people within one small neighborhood so that the characters matter more than the apocalypse itself.

 

 

3.    How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

 

As seeds for a novel, I usually think of a character or group of characters in a particular situation first, and If Darkness Takes Us was no exception. I’d wanted to write about a grandmother taking care of grandkids in an apocalyptic situation for a while, but it took me months and months to find the right disaster to suit the story. I was listening to a podcast when they started discussing solar electromagnetic pulses, and voila! I had the disaster I needed. It wouldn’t kill my characters outright, but it would take away their electricity, cars, phones, running water—basically everything modern—and it left them unequipped to deal with what was the equivalent of being thrust back in time. Luckily, Grandma Bea has secrets and lots of savvy to help them survive.

 

4.    What expertise did you bring to your writing?

In terms of training in the craft, I’ve studied fiction at UCLA, I hired an experienced editor to tutor me, and I’ve had many editors and critique partners along the way. It’s a matter of practice, listen, learn, and revise, over and over again. And I’m an avid reader and binge-watcher of good drama. Plus, I have decades of business writing experience.

 

As far as story content, I’ve lived a long and busy life that gives me expertise, or at least experience, in so many things that I can draw from for my fiction: child-rearing; love, marriage, and divorce; vegetarian catering; concert promotion; peace and justice activism; eldercare; non-profit start-up and management; real estate; insurance; bookkeeping; income taxes; food manufacturing; waitressing; journalism; proofreading; and, most important for If Darkness Takes Us and its sequel, If the Light Escapes, I lived off the grid with no running water or cars or phones in the 1970s in a hippie community where my sons were delivered by midwives.

 

 

5.    What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

 

I’m 68-years-old and proud of it, lol. I’m partly disabled and mostly homebound, and I have a big, fun family plus dozens and dozens of excellent friends. I’ve been married three times, but the third time was the charm, and we’ve now been together for twenty-six years. We are all about the love, the gratitude, and the fun.

 

6.    As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

 

The standalone sequel to If Darknesscomes out August 24^thfrom SFK Press. If the Light Escapes is told from the point of view of Bea’s 18-year-old grandson, Keno, so it’s a very different voice. I’m plotting a third book in the series, as yet untitled, and I’m developing a completely different kind of novel, Guru of the Ozarks, that I hope to complete in the next year or two.

 

7.    If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

 

I think Grandma Bea is already very much like me in the way she thinks, although she’s more strait-laced and polite than I am. If I were in her situation, I would cuss a lot more, lol. But I admire her courage so much. I could only hope to be like her one day.

 

8.    Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

 

It’s not a spoiler to tell you that Bea has been worried about environmental disaster for years, and when she inherited two million dollars, she didn’t tell her cranky husband about it. She used the money to buy the house behind hers and fill it full of food, seeds, and survival gear. She’s the most prepared person for an apocalypse anywhere around, and it’s a darned good thing that she is. Her big dilemma is whether or not she should share any of her food and supplies with her starving neighbors or save it all for her family.

 

9.    Do you belong to a critique group? If so, how does this help or hinder your writing?

 

I’ve had the same critique group for eight or nine years plus a couple of critiquers on the side. They are a tremendous help in so many ways. They catch my mistakes, make me stick to the narrative through-line, help me think of ideas to fill plot holes, and so much more. They encourage me and give me emotional support, and that is invaluable. I had a critique group in the past that wasn’t helpful, especially when one member started yelling at us in all caps that things we had written were stupid. 

 

 

10.Do you outline your books or just start writing?

 

So far, I’ve just started writing. I have a situation and a general ending in mind, as well as a few things I want to see happen along the way, and then I feel my way through it. I’m going to try to make myself outline more from now on because I think it will save me some wrong turns and revision time, but I do love to just dive in and let the characters take me on an adventure.

 

 

11.Anything else you might want to add?

 

Yes. Thank you so much for having me. The service you provide to readers and writers is really important, and I appreciate your work.

BLURB:

 

In suburban Austin, Texas, Bea Crenshaw secretly prepares for apocalypse, but when a solar pulse destroys modern life, she’s left alone with four grandkids whose parents don’t return home. She must teach these kids to survive without power, cars, phones, running water, or doctors in a world fraught with increasing danger. And deciding whether or not to share food with her starving neighbors puts her morality to the test.

If Darkness Takes Us is realistic post-apocalyptic science-fiction that focuses on a family in peril, led by a no-nonsense grandmother who is at once funny, controlling, and heroic in her struggle to hold her family together with civility and heart.

The book is available now. It’s sequel, If the Light Escapes, is told in the voice of Bea’s eighteen-year-old grandson, Keno Simms, and will be released by SFK Press on August 24, 2021.


“Bea Crenshaw is one of the most unique characters in modern literature—a kick-ass Grandma who is at once tough and vulnerable, and well-prepared to shepherd her extended family through an EMP disaster, or so she thinks."

—Laura Creedle, Award-winning Author of The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily


"There is real, identifiable humanity, subtle and sweet and sad, and events utterly shattering in their intensity."

—Pinckney Benedict, Author of Dogs of God, Miracle Boy, and more

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EXCERPT:

 

No matter how desperately a mother loves you, she can only put up with so much. And so, the day came when Mother Nature lashed out against us. 

 

I understood where Nature was coming from. My family never listened to me either, which is why I didn’t tell them about the guns I’d bought.

 

The whole thing started with the train wreck.

 

On a Friday in early October, the young adults in my family went to the Oklahoma-Texas game up in Dallas—a big football rivalry around here. They dragged my husband, Hank the Crank, along with them, leaving me in South Austin with my grandchildren.

 

At the time, I was glad to see Hank go. He’d been making me crazy since he retired: hovering like a gnat; micromanaging my coffee-making; griping at me for reading instead of waiting attentively for him to spout something terse. Lord, I needed a break from that man. The three-day trip to Dallas seemed perfect.

 

I wasn’t a built-in-babysitter type of grandma, and I only saw my four grandkids together as a group on birthdays and holidays. For weeks I’d been excited about spending a long weekend alone with them.

 

A cruel trick sometimes, getting what you ask for.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Brenda Marie Smith lived off the grid for many years in a farming collective where her sons were delivered by midwives. She’s been a community activist, managed student housing co-ops, produced concerts to raise money for causes, done massive quantities of bookkeeping, and raised a small herd of teenage boys.

 

Brenda is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their own limitations to find their inner heroism. She and her husband reside in a grid-connected, solar-powered home in South Austin, Texas. They have more grown kids and grandkids than they can count.

 

Her first novel, Something Radiates,is a paranormal romantic thriller; If Darkness Takes Us and its sequel, If the Light Escapes, are post-apocalyptic science fiction.

 

Social Media:

Website: https://brendamariesmith.com/

Twitter: @bsmithnovelist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaMarieSmithAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brenda_marie_smith/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJlLSnORIyoaygvZ1j49ZKw

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52206957-if-darkness-takes-us

 

Buy links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Takes-Brenda-Marie-Smith-ebook/dp/B07WK9BQHN/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-darkness-takes-us-brenda-marie-smith/1133374442?ean=9781970137835

BookPeople Austin: https://www.bookpeople.com/book/9781970137835

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

 

Brenda Marie Smithwill be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3785