BLURB
Twelve-year
old Jo Harper thought 1910 would be another boring year in the Wyoming range
town of Willowby, Wyoming. Then tough-talkin' pistol-shootin' Abby Drake came
to town and made Jo a deputy law and order woman...
Collecting
four exciting Jo Harper novellas, Finding the Sky pits Jo and her friends
against cattle rustlers, outlaws, a bank robber and a tinhorn gambler. With
explosions of fire, flaming arrows, and a wild ride in a Model-T, Jo's introspective,
early 20th Century life will never again be the same.
EXCERPT
Laughing and squealing, squinting into the sun, Jo didn’t
see where she was going until it was too late. She hit the stranger full on,
and bounced down, hard, on the boardwalk.
Pain shot through Jo’s arm, and she cussed out loud, rolled
onto her back, and kept her eyes squeezed shut against the tears.
Funny bone!
“Land sakes! Ain’t you a fireball,” said a woman’s voice.
Holding her elbow tight, Jo opened her eyes.
Scuffed leather boots, denim pants, a belt cinched tight
around a thick middle, and a worn holster stuffed with iron. The woman’s gnarly
bronze hand snatched up a big hat from where it had landed on the boardwalk and
plopped it back onto a braided gray scalp.
The face was impossibly old, a wind-burned landscape of
chasms and puckered buttes with one eye, focused and alive, blazing over all,
and the second one unmoving and made of glass. At her collar, a red neckerchief
flapped in the wind “Name’s Abigail Drake,” said the woman. “And I wouldn’t
take unkindly to an apology.”
The breath caught in Jo’s throat.
BUY LINKS B&N Nook Smashwords
Rich, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed all these Jo Harper stories. You have such a great imagination. And all these characters of yours are so realistic. You do a fantastic job with these stories--I can't wait for more!
ReplyDeleteCheryl
Thanks Cheryl! The next digital short novella will have a Christmas theme!
DeleteWhat a great concept! My granddaughter loves The American Girl dolls and stories, which I think are an ingenious way to make children aware of other periods in our American history. (Okay, those dollies are way overpriced but they do have such wonderful accessories!) I'll have to tuck one of these books into her Christmas stocking this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Vonn! You're right about the American Girls stuff. Good history! I've worked hard to make Jo Harper's "voice" authentic to the time she lives in ---but as contemporary as I can so readers 100 years later can relate to her.
DeleteI like the idea of books for this age group, and yours sounds wonderful. Jo Harper is a great character, and the excerpt was very entertaining.
ReplyDeleteThank you Celia!
DeleteLove this series
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim!
DeleteJo sounds like my kind of girl. Loved the excerpt and the colorful dialogue. It's a wonderful idea to have a collection of stories brought together in one volume.
ReplyDeleteI wish you every success and happiness, Richard.
Thank you, Sarah!
ReplyDelete