Hello everyone! It’s the third week of First Sentences, and I feel it’s necessary to make a clarification. The books I’m giving away are not THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER. The book doesn’t exist yet – not technically. It won’t be long though, as I’m currently working on page proofs!
This week’s giveaway is THE ROAD TO BITTERSWEET! Here’s what the flap copy says about the book. This title was a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) OKRA Pick, a TRIO 2018 selection, and I was awarded the Southeastern Library Association’s (SELA) Author of the Year in fiction, 2018. As part of the Trio 2018 collaboration, the singer/songwriter was Pam Tillis, and the artist was Cyndi Hoelzle. You can see both the artwork, and listen to the song HERE.
Now on to this week’s sentences!
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What’s the worst injury you can remember from your childhood? In the first grade I gripped the back of my chair, leaning all my weight there, and it slid right out from under me. I fell hard, landing on my arm, and subsequently wore a cast for six weeks. Then, I sprained the other one a bit later on, catapulting myself over the rail of our front porch. It hurt worse than the broken one. I purposefully stepped on a bee to prove to my mother I wouldn’t get stung. Wrong. I had a bad reaction to that, and when the red streak started crawling up my leg and reached mid-thigh, my parents decided I should go to the doctor. That little ole bee sting had turned into blood poisoning. Yikes.
All my injuries, were my own fault, something I did that was dumb, or an accident. I can’t recall ever getting hurt because of someone else’s carelessness.
Merritt, Jessie’s younger brother by two years, sustains a serious injury one night while they’re riding as deterrents as their father hauls a load of ‘shine down the mountain and is forced off the road. Jessie’s of a mind it’s his fault. In her eyes, it’s one more justification, another reason they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing.
Chapter 5
Merritt was in a lot of pain.
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Jessie’s father has a younger brother, Virgil. Theirs is a contentious relationship for many reasons. A big one is Uncle Virgil has a tendency to drink a lot of the “product,” they make, but he also feels a bit cheated with regard to the divvying up of what he sees as part of his inheritance. He believes Jessie’s Daddy got more than him. There are arguments between the two men, but when it comes to dealing with a longtime rival of theirs, his loyalties are not misplaced, like other matters.
Chapter 6
On the way home, Uncle Virgil and Daddy talked about retaliation.
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The winner of THE ROAD TO BITTERSWEET will be announced Monday morning!
Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER here!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to add THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER to your Goodreads To Be Read list!
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This looks good. On my TBR
Thank you, Stella!
My childhood was pretty injury free- my kids however seem to be making up for it! I don’t think we’ve made it thru a school year without an X-ray of something ????.. can’t wait to read the moonshiner’s daughter!!! Be Well Donna????
Mine was NOT. And I didn’t even go into the sicknesses I had – makes me think sometimes about now. Thank you, Stephanie. <3
Pretty uneventful childhood. Bike wrecks, skinned knees. Only child growing up in early 60s. Played with cousins or next door neighbors. Loved reading and so did my mom. We went to library a lot.
My mother and I are both avid readers and the library was a must. Same here, definitely skinned knees and bike wrecks. Lordy.
The worst thing that happened to me was always tearing up my knees roller skating down the hill in front of our house. They would not even be healed up and I would do it all over again. Must be why I had to have both of my knees replaced two years ago? Hehehe
Oh my gosh – that could be, Marta. Things that make you go hmmm. 😉
I never had any major injuries, however anytime I wouId get a slight pain from falling or something I passed out every time so I scared my mother to death! Lol
Really? I bet that did scare her! Does it compare to say my ex-husband passed out while getting blood work for our marriage license? (showing my age admitting that) 🙂
The Moonshiners Daughter sounds like another great story. Once while playing pretend, I had to be a giant,so I tried walking from bed to a plastic hamper to a chair. Needless to say the hamper wobbled and I fell striking the chair very hard with my wrist. I broke it and the hamper. Thank you the chance.
I hope MOONSHINER’S will resonate with readers. That sounds just like something I’d do – like the bike wrecks mentioned above – those usually came about because I thought I could somehow defy gravity. 🙂
Love this, Donna! I got my lip stuck on the door of our elementary school. Pretty sure it was below freezing temps and also that it was on a dare. No broken bones like you but if anyone ever needs my DNA you can probably still find it on that steel handle. Ouch. :/
🙂 OMG – you and I should’ve grown up together.
The Road to Bittersweet looks like a wonderful summer read! Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy!
Hi Annette! This was last week’s post and I announced the winner on Monday (June 24th) This week’s post is a copy of THE FORGIVING KIND! Thank you for following along as I feed tidbits of the new book out!