Sins of the Father
by Lisa Beth Darling
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GENRE: Family centered drama
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BLURB:
As
Hannah recovers from emergency brain and heart surgery, memories of the past
overtake her dreams with such clarity they cannot be denied. As the last of the
painful family secrets come to light it's up to her brother, Doctor Richard
Mason, and his unconventional methods to help her confront the ugliness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
"If this doesn't work, she should sue you."
Spaulding intoned as he turned on the hall light and advised Mason of the
room's layout. "Ok, look, the room
is sort of 'U' shaped, the bed is in the middle of the room, Sister Cynthia
built a fire in the hearth at the foot of the bed and there's a chair in a
corner that's out of the way."
"Good. You wait until I start to walk in. You come in
right behind me and get to the chair. Try not to let her see you."
"Oh, of course," Spaulding said in a mocking tone,
"we wouldn't want her to think there was someone there to actually help
her."
"Exactly." Mason returned in a deadpan voice.
"There never was so why should there be now?" He fiddled with the tie at his neck, smoothed
his hair back one more time before putting the pipe to his lips and lighting
it. He stoked it hard filling the area
with thick sweet smoke. "Show time."
Hannah was in a light doze on the bed when the door opened.
The room was glowing a soft red/orange and she could only
see the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway with the hall light
behind them. It looked like a man, he
had a cane in one hand and…
A swirl of sweet smoke came from his mouth and drifted
toward the ceiling as it wafted into the room.
"D-d-…Daddy?"
"What'r you doin', girl?"
Part of her told her that he was dead….buried….long fuckin'
gone. The other part told her she
couldn't deny her own eyes and ears. It
reminded her that she hadn't gone to his funeral, hadn't seen his dead body,
and watched it lowered into the cold, cold, ground. Maybe they lied to her. Maybe he was alive
and coming into her room.
"Tttt…tired, Daddy." Hannah
pulled the covers all the way up to her chin as she watched him make his way
into the room. "I---I—I, don't…feel…well. Sick."
"Lazy's more like it, ain't that right, girl?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
It was in the
4th grade when Lisa Beth Darling discovered she was a naturally gifted writer.
For her very first creative writing assignment, the teacher asked the class to
pen a story about a baby bird's first flight and read them to the class.
Putting pencil to paper, Lisa was instantly whisked away by a force she
couldn't explain. When they were finished, all of the children read their happy
stories to the class. Not Lisa. She got up and told of how the baby bird flew
too high, hit a plane, crashed to the ground and died. She told of how the mama
bird and daddy bird cried of how even God was upset sending the rains pouring
from the sky. The class was speechless when she finished all they could do was
stare at her. The teacher kept her after class told her the story was very good
but it was different from the others. She asked Lisa if she'd ever heard of
Icarus and had she based her story on him. Lisa had yet to encounter Greek
Mythology or hear a whisper of Icarus. As Lisa left the classroom the teacher
again told her how good the story was but suggested she might want to write
something happier next time. Perplexed,
Lisa turned and asked her teacher: "Why?" The teacher had no
answer. Luckily for us, Lisa never took that teacher's advice.
Today she
brings us complex multi-layered stories rich with the trials and tribulations
that make up the world in which we live. Not one to be pigeonholed into any
single genre, Lisa's stories revolve around the intricacies of couples from
range the intimacy of lovers, to mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters.
Lisa Beth
Darling is 49 years-old, lives in her hometown of New London, CT with her
husband of nearly 30 years, Roy. She is
the author of more than fifteen novels along with several short stories and
non-fiction books.
Author
web links: (web, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads, etc)
Purchase
Links:
Kindle/Amazon
(paperbacks available on Amazon)
Nook
iBooks
Smashwords
Interview with Lisa Beth Darling
As
a kid did you write or make up stories?
Yes,
in fact I wrote my first novel in 7th grade. My friends loved it,
they mimeographed it and gave it to other people. It was rather hot and adult
for a 7th grader, it got me in trouble with my Guidance Counselor
but I didn't back down. I just said I wouldn't pass any further pages around on
school grounds. She agreed because, in large part, although I was only 12, she
really liked what I was writing.
Where does most of your Character inspiration come from?
The
Muse, there is no other creative source. All characters, stories, songs, poems,
works of art, and ideas of great inspiration come from The Muse. In the case of a writer, we get to pair what
The Muse wants of us with bits and pieces of things we already know. Then we
take The Muse's hand and jump into the abyss to see where it takes us. It's
much fun.
Do some qualities of your characters come from real people?
Yes,
they do. Writers draw on all types of things to keep a story evolving and
moving forward after The Muse has drafted them into writing it. We're great
observers of human behavior, in fact, I think we observe others quietly from
the shadows almost as much as we write. Then we squash it all together to make
putty that fills in some of the gaps of a given character's personality or
motivation.
What was the inspiration for your book?
I
started writing the Sister Christian series a few years after I made contact
with my birth family and discovered I had three brothers. I was raised an only
child so the idea that I had siblings was rather new to me, growing up I often
wished I had a sibling but then I'd go to my friend's houses and see how they
interacted with their siblings and went home happy I was an only child. The
idea of the brother/sister dynamic always interested me even when my friends
were shouting at each other over nothing. This series and a lot of its
contents, planted deeply in the fertile ground of a writer's imagination, grew
out of those two situations.
Sins of the Father is the second
installment in the series, in it Doctor Richard Mason and his newly discovered
sister, Hannah Rice are still getting to know each other. Except now, as we
open, Hannah is debilitated having suffered a massive stroke at the end of
Genesis, the first book in the series. She's on her way to recovery but the
process is slow and as her body heals her mind begins to remember the details
of her horrific car accident thirty years before. Dark family secrets are
uncovered and in Mason's own reckless way he forces Hannah to face them.
What is your favorite spot to write?
At
home, at my desk, where everything I could want or need is within easy reach.
My office is filled with all types of kitchy objects from the 60s through the
80s; KISS dolls, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Star Trek dolls, a Spock cup
from when I was 5, Twinkie the Kid, all kinds of things like that. It's very
comfortable and, you know, just so 'me'.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Don't
give up. Write your story freely from the heart, don't edit as you go along and
even if you think something sounds utterly stupid write it anyway—you may find
it plays well at some later point. Refine your story. Read your story from
beginning to end, that's important if it doesn't make you laugh, cry, get
excited, chances are it won't do it for anyone else. When you're ready, try the
Traditional Publishing Route. I think everyone should try it just to see what
it's really like. Don't submit to every publisher out there, do your Due
Diligence, do your research before hitting 'submit'. If that doesn't work out
for you don't get discouraged just go and learn about self-publishing, it isn't
that hard, the publishing part that is. The getting it out there so people see
it and maybe buy it part, that's a bear. But stick with it. Eventually you'll
find your audience.
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER
CODE
Lisa
Beth Darling will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via
rafflecopter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn host.
