STUART BRANNON'S FINAL SHOT - STEPHEN BLY with Janet Chester Bly, Russell Bly, Michael Bly, and Aaron Bly - Free Book

Why did you become an author?

After my husband, Stephen Bly, graduated from seminary and began to pastor his first church, he settled into his God-given task. I wondered about mine. When I asked him what he thought, he said, “That’s easy. Do stuff for me and stuff for the church.”

I wanted a more specific job description. So, I began a search into all sorts of avenues. This led to attendance at several Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conferences in California. I entered the pub fellowship for the first time and figured out how to communicate in a way that would get an editor’s and reader’s attention. I felt I came home to what God created me to be.

If you weren’t an author, what would be your dream job?

A counselor. . .if I had plenty of training and experience and biblical insight.

If you could have lived at another time in history, what would it be and why?

I have often thought I would want to re-live my own history. . .to know what I understand now and do some things different. Otherwise, I have no inclination to want to live in another era. They all have their discomforts.

What place in the United States have you not visited that you would like to?

I have traveled to all fifty states, but not every corner of them. For instance, I’ve never been to Niagara Falls. I love waterfalls and that’s one of the grandest.

How about a foreign country you hope to visit?

Steve and I loved Paris and hoped to return together. That didn’t happen. I’d like to see Australia or New Zealand sometime. All those strange animals. The land of The Lord Of The Rings and Quigley Down Under, a couple of my fav movies.

I’ve always loved Australia, too. I’ve read at least 300 books, fiction and nonfiction, about it, and Quigley Down Under is one of my favorite movies, too. What lesson has the Lord taught you recently?

When I lost my husband last June, there seemed to be many things left undone, unsaid and unanswered. No perfect, satisfying end to his story or to our journey together. Threads left hanging still stretched beyond my sight. I’ve realized since then they we are all in the middle of our personal tales and that it may take epochs in eternity to see the full plot, to get the right point of view for specific scenes that puzzle us here. I know I must trust God about that. Most times I do. I often consider this verse: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8,9 NKJV)

Tell us about the featured book.

Background: Steve had a contract and deadline for Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot. He left us with 7,000 words, a one-page synopsis and a long list of character names. My three sons and I determined to finish the novel for him. We had four months to do it. We took on the challenge and counted it a privilege. This family affair also proved to be a healing process for each of us. We laughed. We cried. We worked hard. We tried to do it like Dad would do it.

Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot  released this month in hardback and e-book. Paperback edition releases in August. The original six book Stuart Brannon series will also be re-released later this year in paperback.

Blurb:  It's 1905. Two orphans flee Oregon's Tillamook Head. One of them is branded a hero. Do they tell what really happened and risk a dangerous man's wrath?
Meanwhile, Brannon searches for his missing U.S. Marshal friend and grapples with the game of golf on behalf of a charity celebrity tournament.

Please give us the first page of the book.

PROLOGUE

Early Monday morning, June 5, 1905, near Seaside, Oregon

At twilight, twelve-year-old Hack Howard lined his cot with a couple lumpy pillows and covered them with the thin blanket that was his orphan farm issue. He picked up his worn leather shoes with only one gap in the right sole so he could slink quietly through the room.

None of the dozen of his male roommates stirred or stopped snoring.

He slid the door open, then closed it to a slit as his face warmed, his breath quickened. Miss Penelope Tagg left her station, slipped down the hallway in her sleek nightgown and pink, silky boudoir cap over long strands of brunette locks for her early morning coffee break. Hack sidled past the opening with his lanky frame, then stole to the front door. He unlocked it with the key he’d made out of a spoon in the blacksmith’s shop.

“Hack, you’re slow in some ways. Some call you a simpleton,” Mr. Smythe, the orphan farm director had told him on several occasions, “but you’re not dumb.”

He slinked down the steps, threw off the branches from a bicycle he had hidden in the woods, then rode hard and fast to the dock at the beach. Like he’d done many times before.

CHAPTER ONE

Sunday afternoon, June 11, 1905,

south of Portland

“I thought you was dead.” The words rumbled out of some deep, dark pit of tales told at late night campfires and smoky saloons. Thick drops of dirty sweat careened down the bearded man’s face. A ripped-in-shreds shirt sleeve exposed a long, jagged old scar on his left arm. Bloodshot brown eyes glared into the future as if forecasting bad news. Very bad news.

“A common mistake.”

A faded, red bandana brushed the man’s bulging neck. His bronzed face held to the tight expression of a man looking for an advantage. “No foolin’. Argentiferous Jones said he shot you dead over a poker hand in Bisbee. I believe you was packin’ three queens.”

“He was wrong.” Every eye in the dining car watched the trigger of Stuart Brannon’s drawn Colt .44 revolver, ready to witness a sudden blast.

“I can see that now and would like to be given a chance to atone for my erroneous assumption.”

“I’m sure you would. You stopped this train on a tall trestle in the middle of a river, cold-cocked the conductor, stole the possessions of all the passengers and whatever else of cargo you found on board, and in the mix scared the women, children, and most of the men near to death. Out West a man can hang for such offenses.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: www.BlyBooks.com   

Blog: www.BlyBooks.blogspot.com

Readers, here are links to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.
Stuart Brannon's Final Shot (Western Standard) - Hardback
Stuart Brannon's Final Shot (The Stuart Brannon Novels) - Kindle


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