#Bold&BlatantSelfPromo – #Excerpt – #ABoyNamedRabbit -#WakeRobinRidgeBook2

February 20, 2023February 21, 2023 / Marcia Meara / 36 Comments

Good Morning, Everyone. Thought maybe I’d do another Bold and Blatant Self Promotion post today, featuring A Boy Named Rabbit, the book which introduces the little boy who seems to have become a big favorite with most of my readers. Maybe some of you who haven’t yet met this young man will be intrigued by the small peek into his story, and will decide to check out for yourselves just what makes him so special. Hope you enjoy today’s excerpt!

Once You Let Rabbit Into Your Heart,
You’ll Never Forget Him!

BLURB

“Evil’s comin’, boy…comin’ fast. Look for the man with eyes like winter skies, and hair like a crow’s wing. He’s the one you gotta find.”

The remote mountain wilderness of North Carolina swallowed up the ten-year-old boy as he made his way down from the primitive camp where his grandparents had kept him hidden all his life. His dying grandmother, gifted with the Sight, set him on a quest to find the Good People, and though he is filled with fear and wary of civilization, Rabbit is determined to keep his promise to her. When he crosses paths with Sarah and MacKenzie Cole, neither their lives nor his, are ever the same again.

The extraordinary little boy called Rabbit has the power to light up the darkness, and the resourcefulness to save himself from the one person his grandparents had hoped would never find him. His dangerous and bittersweet journey will touch you in unexpected ways, and once you’ve let Rabbit into your heart, you’ll never forget him.

EXCERPT

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Deep in the North Carolina Mountains

The morning birdsong woke Rabbit just before daylight. He had cried himself to sleep on the tent floor, and when he sat up to check, his gran was lying still and pale, her shallow breath the faintest whisper. Not gone yet.

“Gran?” He kept his voice low, wanting to know she was still with him, but sorry to disturb her rest. When she didn’t move, he tried again, louder. “Gran? Are you okay? Please be okay…”

Her hand shot out and caught his in an iron grip, pulling him close. “Boy? Is that you?”

“Yes. I’m here, Gran.” Her voice was so faint, he had to strain to hear.

“Evil’s comin’, Boy…comin’ fast. Remember, find the man with…winter blue eyes. He’ll keep you safe… from…bad people. You have to…find him…” The last words slid out of her on a long, rattling sigh, and she went still as stone.

Rabbit had seen death many times, but never the death of a person. And never the death of someone he loved, one of only two faces he’d ever known. He was stricken speechless, too shocked even to cry. Instead, he sat beside the cot, holding her hand until it grew cool, then he roused himself and walked outside.

My gran is gone. She’s gone. And my grampa isn’t coming back, neither. I’m alone now. I gotta be strong. That’s what she said. I gotta be strong, and leave the mountain. I gotta find the good people. Grampa says there ain’t any, but maybe I should believe what Gran said. We can’t be the only ones who ain’t bad. I gotta find the rest. And I gotta hunt for the man with eyes like winter skies and hair like a crow’s wing.

He repeated those words to himself over and over as he gathered up his scant belongings and put them in a battered backpack his grampa had given him years ago. He had fishing line, a simple snare, and an old canteen he filled at the stream. His grampa made fire with a piece of flint and tinder, but his gran had a small metal tin with matches in it. He tucked the tin into his backpack, too, and strapped on his hunting knife.

For an hour or so, he was too busy preparing to leave to think about the enormity of what might lie ahead. He cooked the last of yesterday’s fish for breakfast, washed the small pan, and tied it on top of his backpack. Last, he tied his little bedroll on the bottom of the backpack, and he was done. There was nothing else he could think of to take. With his extra pair of jeans and a flannel shirt squeezed into his pack, he tied the sleeves of his heavy jacket around his waist, and decided he was as ready as he would ever be, to do something he didn’t want to do at all.

After tending to the fire, making sure every ember was doused and cold, he went back into the tent and said goodbye to his gran. “I know you shouldn’t oughta be left like this, but I don’t know what to do with you, Gran. You told me once before, a body goes empty when a person dies, and isn’t much important, but if you’re lookin’ down at me, I promise I’ll try to come back with help, so I don’t have to leave you here forever. You was always good to me, and I know you loved me. I loved you, too, Gran, and I’ll miss you every single day, and even though I don’t know how I can find one man outta a whole world full of them, I promise I’ll try. Thank you for all you done for me.” He tucked the old army blanket around her, and kissed her forehead, blinking back tears.

No time for tears now. I gotta get as far as I can today, before dark. Maybe I’ll cry then.

The little boy called Rabbit walked out of the tent where he’d been raised, picked a direction at random, and headed downhill to the west, hoping he’d find the Good People instead of the Bad, and wondering where he should look for the man with the winter eyes. The rugged wilderness of the North Carolina Mountains swallowed him up in minutes, as though he had never been there at all.

On his own for the first time in his life, Rabbit was only ten years old.

************************

Download on Kindle for Just $3.99
Available in Print for $13.99

Author Marcia Meara

Marcia Meara lives in central Florida, just north of Orlando, with her husband of over thirty years and four big cats.

When not writing or blogging, she spends her time gardening, and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard. She enjoys nature. Really, really enjoys it. All of it! Well, almost all of it, anyway. From birds, to furry critters, to her very favorites, snakes. The exception would be spiders, which she truly loathes, convinced that anything with eight hairy legs is surely up to no good. She does not, however, kill spiders anymore, since she knows they have their place in the world. Besides, her husband now handles her Arachnid Catch and Release Program, and she’s good with that.

Spiders aside, the one thing Marcia would like to tell each of her readers is that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. If, at the age of 69, she could write and publish a book (and thus fulfill 64 years of longing to do that very thing), you can make your own dreams a reality, too. Go for it! What have you got to lose?

Buy Marcia’s Books Here

Novels
Wake-Robin Ridge: Book 1
A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2
Harbinger: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 3
The Light: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 4

Swamp Ghosts: Riverbend Book 1
Finding Hunter: Riverbend Book 2
That Darkest Place: Riverbend Book 3

Riverbend Spinoff Novellas
The Emissary 1
The Emissary 2 – To Love Somebody
The Emissary 3 – Love Hurts

Poetry
Summer Magic: Poems of Life and Love

Reach Marcia on Social Media Here:

Blog: The Write Stuff
Facebook
Email: marciameara16@gmail.com

#Excerpt – #ABoyNamedRabbit – #MegaSale – #AlertTheMedia

February 14, 2022February 13, 2022 / Marcia Meara / 21 Comments

Back again with one last excerpt in connection with this Valentine’s Day Sale, which ends today. This one was a little bit harder to choose, as I couldn’t find a good scene that wasn’t way too long. But maybe the one I decided on will work to give you a feel for who Rabbit is. Hope you enjoy meeting the little boy who took over an entire series. Happy Reading!

The extraordinary little boy called Rabbit has the power light up the darkness, and the resourcefulness to save himself from the one person his grandparents had hoped would never find him.

EXCERPT from Sarah’s POV, during their first breakfast with a goggle-eyed Rabbit, following his long journey through the wilderness:

If there was one thing this little boy was more interested in than the wonders of electricity and running water, it was my husband. He could barely keep his eyes off Mac, sneaking peeks every time he thought he could get away with it. It was time to find out why.

Last night, he had been so overwhelmed with the experience of being inside “Angel House,” we hadn’t spent much time asking him more about his life before reaching Wake-Robin Ridge. I thought maybe we’d sprinkle our questions in among other topics, so he wouldn’t feel like he was being interrogated. He was pretty talkative, if you approached it right.

“Rabbit, when you saw Mac yesterday, you said something about your gran, and about Mac having hair like a crow, is that right?”

He glanced at Mac, who was studying his own breakfast as though he’d never seen eggs and toast before, then he looked back at me and nodded.

“Can you tell me what you meant?”

His voice was sad and soft when he talked about his gran. I could tell he missed her very much. “My gran told me I had to find him. She said she seen me with a man with eyes like winter skies an’ hair like a crow’s wing. She said it was important for me to find him, because that’s where I belonged.”

Mac stopped eating, fork midway to his mouth, and eyes still glued to his plate.

“What do you mean, she saw him? Where would she have seen you with him?”

Rabbit’s face was solemn, indigo eyes round and serious. “My gran … she had dreams sometimes. Seein’ Dreams, she called ‘em. I never did have no dreams that came true, an’ my grampa said he never did, neither. But my gran did. She dreamed ‘bout the weather gettin’ cold when there wasn’t no reason to think it was gonna. An’ where to find ripe blackberries, when we thought they was all gone for the year. An’ ‘bout stuff that was gonna happen to Grampa when he went to get supplies. They always come true, her Seein’ Dreams.”

“And your gran dreamed about you with Mac?”

Rabbit aimed those adoring eyes at Mac, but Mac stuck to his pretense of eating his breakfast, as though he couldn’t hear this little boy telling his remarkable tale.

Turning back to me, Rabbit continued. “She was dyin’, you see. She was tellin’ me stuff I needed to know so’s I’d be okay by myself. She couldn’t hardly talk, her breathin’ was so bad, an’ Grampa hadn’t come back with medicine for her cough.”

His eyes filled with tears, and he was silent for a minute, but I stayed where I was, and let him tell me at his own pace. With a little shuddery gulp, he tried again. “My grampa, he’d never left us alone at night. No matter what, he was always back before dark. Only this time, he didn’t come all day, nor all night. And Gran and I, we knew somethin’ bad had happened. Maybe if he had gotten back to us, the medicine would have helped. I been thinkin’ ‘bout that for a long time. But she were bad sick. Never seen her coughin’ so much before.”

His voice dropped to a faint whisper. “There was blood.”

He stared down at the countertop, swinging his foot back and forth as he gathered his thoughts. “Gran, she held my hand real tight, an’ she told me what I had to do. She said I had to find my new people. I didn’t never know I’d have to do somethin’ like that someday. Grampa, he never would take me where there was other folks, ‘cause he said people was bad. He said they lied, an’ cheated, an’ couldn’t be trusted, an’ we was better off by ourselves. But my gran told me that some people was like what he said, an’ some people wasn’t. She said there was Good People in the world, too, an’ I had to leave the mountain an’ find them. An’ then she told me she seen me with a man with eyes like winter skies an’ hair like a crow’s wing, an’ that was where I belonged. The last thing she said to me was to find that man.”

He paused and looked straight at Mac, a profound longing shining from his eyes. “I promised her. An’ I found him.” His voice was so soft, I could barely hear him.

From the way Mac’s mouth tightened, though, I knew that he had heard, loud and clear. Without a word, he pushed his stool back from the island, put his plate in the sink, and walked out the back door.

Rabbit looked at me with a sad little smile. “He don’t like me much yet. But Gran weren’t never wrong. I can wait.”

Sale ends today, so don’t miss out!
Download A Boy Named Rabbit for just $.99 HERE

Hope you enjoyed this excerpt from the second Wake-Robin Ridge novel!
And my heartfelt thanks goes out to each of you for reading along, and for helping me get the word out about this Valentine’s Day Sale!
You guys are the BEST!

#OnSale #Promo – Entire Wake-Robin Ridge Series – $1.99 each

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 22 Comments

Merry Christmas, Everybody! As of today through Christmas Eve, each of my Wake-Robin Ridge novels will be on sale for the low, low, LOW price of $1.99. This is your chance to check out all four books at a rock bottom bargain price! Hope you’ll take advantage of this holiday special! Happy Reading!

BTW, the wake-robin, for which this series is named, is the beautiful wine-red trillium that blooms in the forests of North Carolina every spring. You’ll see it pictured on the cover of all books in this series.

WAKE-ROBIN RIDGE

BLURB:

“A PHONE RINGING AT 2:00 A.M. never means anything good. Calls at 2:00 A.M. are bad news. Someone has died. Someone is hurt. Or someone needs help.”

On a bitter cold January night in 1965, death came calling at an isolated little cabin on Wake-Robin Ridge. Now, nearly 50 years later, librarian Sarah Gray has quit her job and moved into the same cabin, hoping the peace and quiet of her woodland retreat will allow her to concentrate on writing her first novel. Instead she finds herself distracted by her only neighbor, the enigmatic and reclusive MacKenzie Cole, who lives on top of the mountain with his Irish wolfhound as his sole companion.

As their tentative friendship grows, Sarah learns the truth about the heartbreaking secret causing Mac to hide from the world. But before the two can sort out their feelings for each other, they find themselves plunged into a night of terror neither could have anticipated. Now they must unravel the horrifying events of a murder committed decades earlier. In doing so, they discover that the only thing stronger than a hatred that will not die is a heart willing to sacrifice everything for another.

A BOY NAMED RABBIT: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2

BLURB:

“Evil’s comin’, boy…comin’ fast. Look for the man with eyes like winter skies, and hair like a crow’s wing. He’s the one you gotta find.”

The extraordinary little boy called Rabbit has the power light up the darkness, and the resourcefulness to save himself from the one person his grandparents had hoped would never find him. His dangerous and bittersweet journey will touch you in unexpected ways, and once you’ve let Rabbit into your heart, you’ll never forget him.

HARBINGER: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 3

BLURB:

“. . . he felt the wet slide of the dog’s burning hot tongue on his face, and the scrape of its razor sharp teeth against the top of his head. A white-hot agony of crushing pain followed, as the jaws began to close.”

The wine-red trillium that carpets the forests of the North Carolina Mountains is considered a welcome harbinger of spring—but not all such omens are happy ones. An Appalachian legend claims the Black Dog, or Ol’ Shuck, as he’s often called, is a harbinger of death. If you see him, you or someone you know is going to die.

But what happens when Ol’ Shuck starts coming for you in your dreams? Nightmares of epic proportions haunt the deacon of the Light of Grace Baptist Church, and bring terror into the lives of everyone around him. Even MacKenzie Cole and his adopted son, Rabbit, find themselves pulled into danger.

When Sheriff Raleigh Wardell asks Mac and Rabbit to help him solve a twenty-year-old cold case, Rabbit’s visions of a little girl lost set them on a path that soon collides with that of a desperate man being slowly driven mad by guilt.

As Rabbit’s gift of the Sight grows ever more powerful, his commitment to those who seek justice grows as well, even when their pleas come from beyond the grave.

THE LIGHT: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 4

BLURB:

For Robert MacKenzie Cole—or Rabbit, as he’s known to all—the chance to accompany his family to see North Carolina’s infamous Brown Mountain Lights has him nearly dizzy with excitement. And what better night to watch this unexplained phenomenon unfold than Halloween?

But when the entrancing, unpredictable lights show up, Rabbit gets far more than he bargained for. He’s gifted with what folks in the Appalachians call “the Sight,” and it’s this extrasensory perception that enables him to spot the one light different from all the rest.

In his biggest challenge to date, Rabbit—aided by his daddy and his newest friend, Austin Dupree— begins a quest to learn more about the mysterious light. Their investigation unveils a web of cons and corruption none of them expected and exposes a brutal murder along the way.

Throughout all, Rabbit is unfaltering in his commitment to do whatever it takes to understand the truth behind the glowing orb and to determine how he can help it. After all, it followed him home.

Hope you’ll check these out while the sale lasts. There’s nothing like a new book (or four) for Christmas, and it will probably be some time before these books will be available at this price again. Hope you’ll enjoy them (and might even consider leaving a review or two.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

#ABoyNamedRabbit – Kindle Countdown Continues

October 22, 2016October 22, 2016 / Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

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Day 2 of my A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 Kindle countdown. You can still download Rabbit’s story for $.99 until 11:00 AM, EDT, after which it goes up $1.00. (Still a great price, since it’s regularly $4.99). Bottom line, grab it today, before 11:00 AM, if possible, to get the best savings.

While you’re there, grab Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1, the first book in the series, for the permanent $.99 price. Such a deal! 😀

Happy Reading!

A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 – Kindle Countdown Special
Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1 – Permanently $.99

#ABoyNamedRabbit Kindle Countdown is LIVE, Finally!

October 21, 2016 / Marcia Meara / 17 Comments

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I guess when they say 8:00am, they mean their time, not mine, so I apologize to anyone who tried to buy the book earlier and found it at the regular price of $4.99. I promise, it’s $.99 now, honest, so head right on over and grab your copy. Another $.99 will get you Book 1 in the series, and you can then read them back to back. I’m just sayin’ . . . . 😀

Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1
A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2

#ABoyNamedRabbit – Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 – $.99 Sale Starts Tomorrow!

October 20, 2016October 20, 2016 / Marcia Meara / 5 Comments

ABNRSmall
*Amazon Average Rating – 5.0 Stars*

Because Wake-Robin Ridge is already permanently priced at $.99, my first Kindle Countdown of the fall will feature the second book in the series, A Boy Named Rabbit. If you haven’t yet read the story of this very special little boy, this is your chance to download it for a mere $.99 all day tomorrow, after which it will slowly increase in price each day until Tuesday, at which time, it will revert to the normal price of $4.99. (Don’t forget to share, thanks!)

Amazon Blurb

In Book 2 of the Wake-Robin Ridge series, Marcia Meara, author of Swamp Ghosts and Finding Hunter, returns to the rugged beauty of the North Carolina mountains, introducing a little boy whose remarkable gift will change the world for everyone he meets.

“Evil’s comin’, boy . . . comin’ fast. Look for the man with eyes like winter skies, and hair like a crow’s wing. He’s the one you gotta find.”

KINDLE COUNTDOWN STARTS TOMORROW, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21.
JUST $.99! GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
A Boy Named Rabbit

#ExcerptWeek – #Harbinger, A Work in Progress

January 4, 2016January 6, 2016 / Marcia Meara / 11 Comments

Starting #ExcerptWeek with the opening pages of my current WIP, Harbinger, book three of my #WakeRobinRidge series. This is a totally unrevised or edited draft, and will probably be shorter and tighter by the time it makes the book, but I thought it might be fun to share something no one else has seen (except my wonderful beta readers). Enjoy!

Early June, 1994
North Carolina Mountains
~~~

With a loud whoosh, the doors on the big, yellow bus pulled closed, and it rumbled away down the graveled, two-lane highway, leaving the shrieks and laughter of the last few kids hanging on the air behind it. Sissy Birdwell stood on the dusty berm, waving goodbye to friends she wouldn’t see again until the fall, and watched the bus disappear around the curve.

Reluctant to start the mile-long trudge up the narrow, red dirt road toward her home, she kicked aimlessly at a few pebbles and twigs. Part of her was happy her mother had finally agreed she was old enough to walk home alone. After all, she was eight years old now, and certainly able to find her way to their house, which sat at the very end of the uphill track. But part of her shivered at the thought of the lonely, winding road ahead, which curved up and up through the thick woods until it reached their clearing near the top of the ridge.

She would never tell her mama this, but in her heart, the dark beneath the trees scared her. She was afraid of bears. And coyotes. And snakes. And lots of other things that might decide they wanted to share the road with her on an early June afternoon. But nobody in the whole Birdwell family would understand that. Not even the women. They’d been part of these mountains forever, and she was sure nothing scared them at all.

Squaring her shoulders, she scolded herself soundly. You’re the one who said she was a big girl. Mama woulda been here to meet you, if you hadn’t begged. Standin’ here bein’ scairt, is dumb. Dark’ll catch up with you, if you poke along too much, an’ that wouldn’t be no fun at all. Even for a big girl.

With that thought in mind, she trudged up the drive toward home, refusing to look at the dusty trees and bushes that crowded close on either side. Instead, she pictured the litter of sweet, new pups their hound had presented them with last week, and tried to guess if any might have opened their eyes today. Continue reading →

Aaaahhhhh…that’s better!

September 12, 2015 / Marcia Meara / 8 Comments

Thankfully, last week’s problems seem to be sorting themselves out satisfactorily, which is nice, because it frees me up to deal with THIS week’s problems, as they arise. And they are sure to arise. 😉

Swamp Ghosts, it all its forms, seems to be looking correct once again. Finding Hunter has been corrected on Kindle, so that the formatting is prettier, and I have just ordered a new proof of the print version from CreateSpace. So Hunter Painter’s distressing tale seems resolved, at the present time.

I can breathe again. And possibly even sneak in some reading this weekend. (I’m close to the halfway point in Lee Child’s latest Reacher book, Make Me. OH, how I love watching Jack Reacher tug on threads one at a time, as he slowly unravels the latest mystery he’s uncovered.) And I can even catch up on my Bookin’ It reviews, perhaps.

However, I can’t dawdle for long. Rabbit has a story to tell, and when that boy gets to talking, there’s no stopping him. So, I plan to start Harbinger in the next day or two. I’m already putting together my inspiration board, filled with gorgeous images of the North Carolina mountains. *sigh* Makes me want to load up my car and go!

But…here’s the biggest news of all. Starting on Monday, here at The Write Stuff…we’re going to have an EVENT! Nothing earth-shattering or difficult, but it should be fun. Stay tuned for details shortly.

And that’s it for me today. What wonderful things are you guys up to this weekend?