Yesterday I wrote about libraries and books and so I awoke this morning with books and writing on my mind. Rain is falling again on northwest Arkansas and I like to think of a lovely rainy day as a good reason to stay inside my house and write. My goal in life is to add to those already burgeoning library shelves with more books by Blanche Day Manos.
Tomorrow the wonderful group of Cozy Critiquers will come with their creative minds and thoughtful words shining new light upon our writings. I can hardly wait. And I’m thinking when I finish the third Darcy/Flora (it’s nearly there) of sharing the first few chapters or a few of the most exciting chapters with you readers in this blog. It’s a thought that I’m working on.
However, Grave Shift, written with Barbara Burgess and published by Cozy Cat Press, is finished and is available as an ebook or paper back from a number of websites including Amazon.
A writer brings her life’s experiences into her books. The panther episode in Grave Shift stemmed from a real life happening which I’ve described in an earlier blog. In the 1940s, my three older brothers and their horses had a very close encounter with a mountain lion which sprang down on them from a tree as they rode through a thickly wooded part of Cherokee County, Oklahoma. Many people did not believe that these wild cats still prowled those woods but they did and I’m convinced they still do. That long ago panther appeared many years later to frighten an investigative reporter named Darcy Campbell. I’d like to share an excerpt from Grave Shift, an eerie episode that happened on a day like today when rain fell on the woods of Ventris County and Darcy was alone in her red Ford Escape, driving through those woods after a rare Oklahoma earthquake.
“The clouds had gathered forces and a light rain fell as my car crept through the shadowy woods. The headlights beamed a tunnel through the crowding trees. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed something–a long, tawny brown something. It glided directly into my path then stopped and turned its head toward me. The lights of the Escape glinted on yellow eyes.
My heart turned over and my breath caught in my throat. I was looking at the biggest cat I’d ever seen. A snatch of remembered conversation with Amy came to my mind: ‘animal legends…panthers in the thickest part of the woods.’
In front of me crouched one of those legends. My hands shook as I checked my doors to be sure they were locked. For a few seconds, the cat stared at the car then with the infinite grace of the wild, he sprang into a thicket and vanished. An unearthly scream rose and fell from a hidden spot among the trees.”
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