AGAINST ALL ODDS by Irene Hannon

Book 1—Heroes of Quantico series

Prologue

“Sir? I think you need to hear this.”

With a preoccupied frown, David Callahan looked up from the security briefing in his hand. His aide, Salam Farah, stood on the threshold of his small office deep inside the fortified U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul, Afghanistan. The man was holding a tape recorder and a single sheet of paper.

“A new message from the terrorists?” David lowered the briefing to his desk.

“Yes. And another personal threat.”

“I’m not interested in threats directed at me.” David waved the comment aside. “Let our security people worry about them.”

“This one is different, sir.”

After forty years in the diplomatic service, most of them spent dealing with volatile situations in the world’s hot spots, David had learned to trust his instincts about people. And in the two months he’d been back in Afghanistan trying to help stabilize the local government, he’d come to respect Salam’s judgment. His aide wouldn’t raise a red flag unless there was good cause.

“All right.” David adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and held out his hand. “Let’s see what they have to say.”

In silence, Salam set the recorder on the desk, pressed the play button and passed the sheet of paper to David.

As the spoken message was relayed in Pashto, the language favored by the Taliban, David scanned the translation. The warning was similar to those that had come before: Convince the country’s struggling fledgling government to release a dozen incarcerated terrorists and pay a twenty-million-dollar ransom, or the three U.S. hostages that had been kidnapped a week ago would die.

But as he read the last line, he understood Salam’s concern. The nature of the personal threat had, indeed, changed.

If you do not convince the government to meet our demands, your daughter will be our next target.

www.irenehannon.com

Today’s book is Cowboy for a Rainy Afternoon by Award-winning Author Stephen Bly.

“A 10-year-old boy with red straw cowboy hat, cap gun, and silver-painted wooden bullets. Six story-telling, cribbage playing old cowboys. A ’49 Plymouth with open trunk. A damsel in distress. All the fixings for a summer’s day adventure at the Matador Hotel in 1954 Albuquerque. Maybe you weren’t born 100 years too late!

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon is a twist on the traditional Western story. In 1954, six men who spent their youth as cowboys in the Southwest, now gather at the Matador Hotel lobby in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, for weekly games of cribbage. One rainy afternoon, one of the men brings his grandson. They’re delighted with this captive audience. They all play cribbage and the men tell stories of their exploits in the old days. The eldest was born during the Civil War. All of them cowboyed from the late 1880s until the 1940s. They tell first-hand stories of what the West was truly like.

Many years later, the boy looks back and remembers the day he heard of a way of life and western tradition that’s quickly becoming extinct. He also recalls the lessons he learned and the excitement of a drama that unfolded before them that provoked the cowboys’ last stand. This reminiscent account of real cowboy lives resonates like Andy Adams’ book, The Log of a Cowboy, written in the early 1900s.

Author’s suggestion: this book is best read aloud, as though around a campfire, by someone who gets the hang of the rhythm of the language.

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE: http://snipurl.com/z5n0g

REVIEW QUOTES from previous Stephen Bly novels: “I have always been a fan of Louis L’Amour but I must say your book is as good if not better than anything of his. I shall remain a fan of Stephen Bly.” — Jimmy Dickens, Grand Ole Opry
“Bly offers a kinder, gentler Western that should appeal to fans of Louis L’Amour.” – Library Journal
BIO:
Stephen Bly has published 103 books of historical and contemporary fiction (37 classic westerns) and Christian life and family nonfiction for adults, teens, and kids (9-14 yrs.). Eighteen books were co-authored with wife, Janet. Four of his novels were finalists for the Christy Award. His historical western, The Long Trail Home, won a Christy. The Blys have 3 married sons and 3 grandchildren and live in north-central Idaho at 4,000 ft. elev. on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Learn more about the Blys at their website www.BlyBooks.com or “On A Western Trail” blog www.BlyBooks.blogspot.com or follow then on twitter www.twitter.com/BlyBooks or friend them on Facebook (Stephen Bly or Janet Chester Bly). Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon (hardback, Center Point) is available by order through your local bookstore (Ingram Distributors) or online www.Amazon.com or www.BlyBooks.com . You may also check it out at your local library.

My guest today, Author Cara Putman, is so young and perky that sometimes I have to blink to be sure she’s real. But she is. We just saw each other at a Christian booksellers Convention, the ICRS in St Louis and had a great time reconnecting. I even got to meet her cute dh! When I visited Cara’s website, her first sentence let me know that she and I are on the same wavelength. Her first sentence?

Do you know how strong you are?

Here’s Cara’s touching story:

“Stronger than I knew…

I’ve always thought of myself as fairly strong…easy to do when I was homeschooled at a time when it was considered very odd. Then there’s starting college at 16 and taking junior classes as an 18-year-old holding my own against grad students. Or moving to D.C. as a twenty-year-old who didn’t know anyone.

All my life I’ve lived in a way that requires strength, but it’s stemmed from a deep sense of who I am and who God is.

I got married, had a career, went to law school, started a family, moved to a new community, and on and on. I’m sure y’all can relate, too.

Then my life got tipped on its head.

For some of you this wouldn’t be a big deal. But for me, it rocked my world. Made me question everything I’d built my life on. Question what I believed and why. You see, after a period of struggling to get pregnant with our third child, I got pregnant then went in for my first appointment at eleven weeks, and something was wrong.

Everybody has a what-if. That deep seated fear that they can’t even whisper to anyone else for fear it will come true. For me, it’s always been the fear that something would happen to one of my children. What if they got sick? What if God-forbid they died?

Then in January 2007 I had a miscarriage. It was horrific. The reality of my deepest fears. A child I’d never meet this side of heaven yet dearly loved had died. In my case, I had to have surgery and then explain to my two small children that Mommy was okay but the baby they’d been so excited about was in heaven.

And my world rocked on its axis. You see, neither of our families had much experience with miscarriage. So I felt incredibly, utterly alone. How do you explain to others what is happening and why you are such a wreck when you have no framework for the pain?

Oh, the struggles. The pain. The questions.

You see, I tend to wrestle with God. Where others except and move on, I question, beg, and scream.

But you know what? Through it all God was there. He understands what it’s like to lose a child. He understands the questions. And even when it felt like He was silent, I still knew He collected everyone of my tears.

And through the struggle I learned through some important truths. My faith is as strong as I thought – probably stronger thanks to my questions. I do believe everything I’ve claimed. But I’ve also learned that in my weakness He can be strong. Much stronger in me. And that as I question, my faith grows stronger.

My challenge to you: Don’t run from the crises in your life. Instead fall against God, and let Him build your strength in Him. And watch Him turn your tragedies into good – as only He can.”–Cara C. Putman

Here’s her latest book, Stars in the Night. Isn’t the cover gorgeous?

During WWII, attorney Audra Shaeffer travels with the second Hollywood
Victory Caravan ­ but she’s more interested in solving her sisters murder
than selling war bonds. When two people on the train are found dead,
including the ex-wife of handsome star Robert Garfield, Audra starts to
wonder if Robert’s affectionate overtures are setting her up to be his next
victim.

Stars in the Night is Cara Putman’s ninth novel and eleventh book. An
attorney and sometimes lecturer at a Big Ten university, Cara lives in
Indiana with her husband and three children. She can be found online at her
website (http://www.caraputman.com), facebook, twitter, and shoutlife.
Also visit her blog http://carasmusings.blogspot.com/

Watermelon Cowboy by Lyn Cote-Part 2

The first part of this story was posted on Friday July 2nd-

“The county’s Sweet Corn Festival was the last big summer celebration. Sarah just wasn’t in the mood for festivities, but Grandma wouldn’t dream of missing the fair. In the evening breeze, Sarah walked slowly beside her grandmother who leaned on her cane. Grandma struggled over the uneven grass to the shady area where the older generation sat on lawn chairs and fanned themselves. Grandmother was greeted cheerfully. With Danny beside her, Sarah snapped open a lawn chair and helped her grandmother settle into it.

“Mom! It’s the Watermelon Cowboy!” Danny waved. “Hi!”

“Hello.” Tate greeted Danny, then the assembled grandparents.

Sarah noted their warm response to Tate. Obviously, he was a favorite with them.

“Thanks for helping my granddaughter pick out that corn and those melons.” Martha held onto his hand. “Nobody can out-do Quint melons.”

“They were great!” Danny bounced up and down.

Tate offered Danny his hand. Danny took it, but didn’t let go. Tate grinned down at the boy. “In the mood to eat some more?”

“No, I want cotton candy!”

Tate chuckled along with the grandparents. “Well, Sarah Jane, I guess we better get this boy some cotton candy.”

“That’s all right,” Sarah stammered. “You don’t need to bother.”

“No, bother.” He began walking away. Since Danny still happily gripped Tate’s big hand, Sarah hurried to keep up.

Soon Danny was pulling at a pink wand of cotton candy. Tate lounged beside her. Sarah decided to speak to Tate now. Danny, busy watching the nearby musical merry-go-round, wouldn’t overhear them.

She might make a fool of herself, but she didn’t want to mislead Tate. She’d been burned too bad…. “Tate, this has nothing to do with you, but I’m not looking for….” She couldn’t think of how to say she wasn’t interested in romance or more importantly, didn’t want people to presume she might be interested in Tate.

“I heard,” Tate said softly, “that your marriage didn’t turn out the way you wanted.”

She frowned. “I’d hoped to avoid small-town gossip.”

“This isn’t gossip, just sharing.”

Feeling hurt, she folded her arms in front of her. “How would you like it if people were talking about you?”

“If the people talking are just concerned, what’s wrong with that?”

She looked up into his eyes.

Tate gazed at her searchingly. “Why did you come to my stand to buy your corn and melons?”

“What?”

“You came to my produce stand because everyone knows Quints only sell the best. If people didn’t talk to each other, how would everyone know that?”

She shrugged. “I suppose they just have to find out for themselves.”

He smiled sadly. “Finding things out by yourself can be the hardest way to learn something .”

The truth of what he said made her wince. She’d found out the hard way about her husband. Maybe if she’d met him here, where people had shared about him, she might have saved herself all the pain. Embarrassed, she avoided Tate’s gaze.

Danny took Tate’s hand and looked up. “They’re dancing! My mom likes to dance!”

“Does she?”

Before she could protest, she found herself in Tate’s arms dancing to the “Tennessee Waltz” on the fair’s nearby open-air, dance floor. She felt breathless, held so close against him. Finally she murmured, “So the Quints have the best melons? What would people share about the Quints themselves?”

“I think you already know the answer to that.”

Sarah didn’t know how to reply. “Oh?” was all she could manage.

“Quints aren’t afraid to ‘plug’ our melons. We are honest….” Tate’s face crinkled into a killer smile. “About melons and everything else.”

The way he said the words made her blush like a teen-aged girl.

They danced over to where Danny watched. “A bunch of us always go to the fall rodeo up in Fort Madison. Maybe Danny and you would like to go along?” She read honest interest in Tate’s eyes.

Something hard and hurting deep inside Sarah suddenly relaxed. She was among friends now.

“A rodeo!” Danny whooped, “Wow!”

Sarah gazed into Tate’s clear, direct eyes. “Is it a genuine rodeo?”

He brushed back her bangs. “Why, ma’am, even a Watermelon Cowboy knows the real thing when he sees it.”

Hope you all enjoyed this summer read. Invite your friends to drop by and read it. Can anyone guess what my favorite food is? GRIN

2010 Copyright Lyn Cote

I met my Grandmother Roberts only a few times in my life, but I always felt close to her. She lived in Alaska and I lived in Washington State. Although we lived far from one another, she made sure to stay in touch. She wrote regularly and always answered my letters. Although she had little means, she never missed birthdays or Christmas.

My grandmother knew a lot about living without and about surviving in the challenging environment of Alaska. From an early age, she understood the power of nature to destroy. As a young woman, she stood on a bluff and watched a tsunami hit the shoreline. The story of that day was handed down and told many times throughout the years. It is where I discovered my first book, The Journey of Eleven Moons.

Although my grandmother was Aleut and lived in Alaska, she was one of the fortunate natives who received an education. She attended the Chemawa Native School in Oregon. While she was a student there, her mother died and my grandmother was needed at home to care for her younger brothers. She returned to Alaska. She didn’t question the sacrifice; she just did what was necessary.

When a Welshman approached her father and asked to marry her, it was decided that marrying a white man was the best opportunity for a native girl. And so even though my grandmother was in love with a native man, she married Thomas Roberts. Her marriage began without love, but my grandmother’s tender and devoted nature and her belief that if she made the best out of what life had offered that love would grow. She was right. She and my grandfather shared a lifetime together and had eight children.

Much of their married life was spent on a homestead. Each day’s tasks were about survival. There were few days for rest. My grandmother worked hard and she learned to depend upon herself and God. One day while cleaning a fish, she cut herself so badly she nearly severed her thumb. There were no doctors to help. She sewed up the injury and went back to work.

She lived a life of subsistence, but her home was filled with music and storytelling. My grandfather had a rich voice, which he passed down to his family along with a love for stories. My grandparents created an atmosphere where hope and love grew. My mother’s life was filled with delightful moments and adventure-filled days.

Grandma was strong because she had to be, but she was also tender and full of love. She made her way in Alaska and so did my most recent heroine, Kate, in my new book Touching the Clouds. Kate lived an adventure. She did what she had to and faced each day with courage. Just as my grandmother did, Kate lived life with grace and anticipation. When all looked lost, she refused to give up, and determined to do more than just survive she made a difference in the lives that touched hers.

Bio
Bonnie Leon dabbled in writing for many years but never set it in a place of priority until an accident in 1991 left her unable to work at her job. She is now the author of several historical fiction series, including the Sydney Cove series, Queensland Chronicles, the Matanuska series, the Sowers Trilogy, and the Northern Lights series. She also stays busy teaching women’s Bible studies, speaking, and teaching at writing seminars and women’s gatherings. Bonnie and her husband, Greg, live in Southern Oregon. They have three grown children and four grandchildren. www.BonnieLeon.com

Here’s Bonnie’s Latest book-out today!