Writing With a Texas Twang

Monday, May 30, 2016

Redneck P.I. - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

I'm only partway into Redneck P.I. but I'm already loving the main character. Twila Taunton is an amber-haired, curvaceous redneck from Quisby, Alabama, currently trying to earn a living in Boston. So far, someone has shot at her at a company picnic, she's been fired from her job (gee, all she did was show a co-worker her boobs!) and she has talked her way into a new job as assistant to a good-lookin' private investigator. I can't imagine what the rest of the book will bring, but I know it will be fun!

Redneck P.I. is the first book in the Redneck P.I. mystery series:
Book 2 Link: Kiss Assitude
Book 3 Link: Backwoods Boogie

Genre: Mystery / Humor
Book Length: 314 Pages
Amazon Link: Redneck P.I.
Author Website: Trish Jackson

Opening:
The words of a co-worker bitch started the whole thing.
She hadn't done a very good job of tracking my whereabouts that morning, and obviously didn't know I was in one of the restroom stalls, with my pants on the ground.

Teaser (from 31% on my Kindle):
Having any sort of gun pointed at you makes you feel pretty helpless, but somehow if you're butt naked when it happens, you feel even more helpless, as if clothes would protect you from a bullet in some way.
"Holy crap, Velda," I had shouted, "What the fu... What are you doing?"

Synopsis from Amazon:
Twila Taunton hates living in Yankee territory and has vowed never to allow a man into her life again. Everything is turned upside down when she invites hunky P.I. Harland O'Connor to the company picnic and she looks into his bedroomy eyes. Even worse, his equally as hunky twin brother makes her overlook her cop allergy.
Twila finds herself ducking bullets, and when Harland is wounded, she steps in to pinch-hit for him. Her lack of city-sophistication and disregard for political correctness help her solve some tough cases. And then someone tries to blow her up. She and Harland are soon caught in a dizzy, dangerous tangle that could cost them more than their lives.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Vandalism - Saturday Snapshots

I try to have a positive attitude, and most of the time I succeed, but vandalism fills me with dismay. Here are some photos I took at a local park a couple of days ago. We've been taking our granddaughter to the "Discovery Playground" for several years. It has lots of fun things for her to do, and the surface beneath the swings and other equipment is cushioned. The barrier-free playground (built to be accessible to disabled children) opened in 2010.
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Left: 2016 - The one remaining mallet is taped to a cord. Also, the seesaw (silver arch) is missing and only its supports remain.
Right: 2014 - Two mallets once made lots of music.

Left: My granddaughter playing on the fitness equipment. There were three like this. Now only one is still intact.

Right: Damaged equipment with most of it missing.
Duct tape? Are you kidding me?

Left: The last time we came to this park, there were two swings - one plastic, made for infants and toddlers; the other for bigger kids. Now there's only one.

Right: Obviously, the "river" is choked with sand. I'll admit this was an ill-conceived idea from the get-go. Not all kids who come to the park are supervised, and kids are surely going to get sand in the water if it's only steps away!

Chunks of the playground's surface were also missing here and there.

I plan to contact our town's parks department to see if there are plans to address this problem. I just can't understand why some people feel the need to destroy things.

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

To enjoy a variety of beautiful pictures from around the world,

click HERE or on the box below.

To participate in Saturday Snapshots: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member)

have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite.

Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Hangtown Creek - A Tale of the #California Gold Rush - First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros and #TeaserTuesday

In this epic saga, John Rose Putnam paints a real and gritty picture of life in the Gold Rush era through the stories of each of his characters. A red-haired woman, her husband and son dead from cholera; two army veterans; a widowed man and three sons; three ruthless killers - all of them heading for California. Their quests make for a gripping tale.
My reading tastes are eclectic, and a good book will keep me up late at night, reading when I should be asleep. That was definitely the case with Hangtown Creek. Putnam drew me into the world of gold panning, saloons, traveling by horseback, and much more with his excellent storytelling, filled with memorable characters, vivid description, and historical detail. I'll be reading more books by this talented author.

Genre: Historical Fiction / Western
Length: 288 Pages
Amazon Link: Hangtown Creek
Author Website: John Rose Putnam

First Paragraph:
Fall 1846
The earth, rutted deep from hundreds of wheels, churned raw by thousands of hooves, bore witness to the recent passing of a large immigrant party - all save one battered wagon that sat alone and untended, a loose pot clanking in the cold north wind. Here the trail followed the Truckee River, strangled by a long, dry summer into a trickle of shallow pools, and looking as pitiable as the forlorn wagon.
[Read the rest of Chapter One on John Putnam's website: HERE]

Teaser from 13% on my Kindle:
All week she had watched them as they mined along the creek. The older one, gray showing in his hair and beard, reminded her of her father, but it was the other one, the tall one with the broad shoulders, who had brought her hope, the same slim hope she carried week after week.

Synopsis:
The majestic landscapes of Brett Harte's California unite with Larry McMurtry's epic old west realism in an explosion of love, lust, murder and betrayal that comes to a powerful climax along a beautiful stream, home to the largest strike in the mines, where a burning barn ignites the passion of a gold rush boomtown and, in one dark night of revenge, earns that stream the name it bears to this day—HANGTOWN CREEK.