END OF THE TRAIL - Vickie McDonough - One Free Book

I'm thrilled to feature this last book in the Texas Trail series. I read the manuscript for endorsement and loved it. I know you will, too. Welcome, Vickie. Why did you become an author?

When my four sons were young, I prayed for years for God to help me find a job where I could work from home. It took a while, but God answered my prayer by surprising me with a career in writing. I’d never once considered becoming a writer, but then stories started coming to me, and I had to write them down to get them out of my head just so I could sleep. I studied the craft, joined writers’ groups, and attended conferences. What I love about writing is that I can write at home in my pajamas, I’m free to care for my elderly mom, I get to do something that’s fun, and I have made a lot of good friends in the writing world. But the thing that I like most is that I can write an entertaining story with a faith message and touch people’s hearts and encourage them in their faith journey.

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

When I was growing up, I dreamed of marrying a rancher and living on his ranch, but now I’d have to say that it would be cool to be a graphic artist or an animator.

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

I like living in this day and age. We have so many cool technological inventions and new things are being created each year, but if I could go back in time, I’d like to go to the late 1800s and experience life then. I’m so used to modern comforts though, that I think I’d have a hard time of it—and I shudder to think of having to wear a corset.

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

There are several: Alaska, Hawaii, the Northwest, and the Northeast. If things work out, my husband and I will be going on a cruise to Alaska next year.

How about a foreign country you hope to visit?

Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Scotland are the countries I’d like to visit the most.

What lesson has the Lord taught you recently?

I’ve fallen down several times in the past few years, which resulted in my having a full knee replacement this spring. I fell down again the last week of May and asked God why that keeps happening. I’m not normally a klutz. I think He’s telling me that I need to slow down and pay closer attention to things around me and to Him.

Tell us about the featured book.

End of the Trail is the 6^th book in the Texas Trails series. It’s the story of Brooks Morgan, who is the son of Annie and Riley Morgan from Long Trail Home. Brooks has a falling out with his father and leaves home when he is just sixteen. For years he drifts around, but then he meets a dying man who hires him to be his caretaker. In a card game one night, Brooks wins a ranch. But when he goes to claim his new home, he finds a pretty woman packing a rifle who claims the ranch is her inheritance. Raven Creek Ranch is Brooks’ one chance to make something of himself and prove to his father that he’s become a responsible man. He’s not leaving, but neither will the woman. When the ranch is threatened by a vile man, they must some how find a way to unite together to save Raven Creek.

Please give us the first page of the book.
Prologue

Waco, Texas

1886

  “You’re a good son, Brooks, but your father is right.”

  Brooks stared at his mother, halfway stunned that she’d sided with his pa against him. “You don’t feel I do my share of the work around here either?”

  Annie Morgan winced and gazed out the parlor window, not looking at him. She might not admit in words that she agreed, but that tiny grimace told Brooks she did. He ducked his head, hating the feeling of disappointing his mother. He’d always been her favorite—her first son. He craved her warm smile, but that was hard to be found just now. Still, he pushed aside disturbing feelings and retrieved his charming smile—the one his ma said could make a die-hard Texas cattle rancher invest all his money in a herd of sheep—and squeezed between his ma and the window.

She flicked a glance up at him then it swerved away. “Don’t try to charm me. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have coddled you so much.”

His grin faltered. Now she sounded like his father. “You didn’t coddle me.”

“Yes, she did. She still does.” Melissa’s voice sounded from upstairs, followed by quick footsteps on the stairs.

He spun around, glaring at his bossy older sister. “Nobody asked you.”

“I’m getting married soon. That means you’ll be the oldest of us kids at home.” She reached the bottom of the stairs and shifted the basket of dirty clothes to her other hip, cocking her mouth up on one side. “It’s time you start acting like you’re sixteen instead of six.”

Brooks clenched his fist. As much as he might like knocking that know-it-all look off Melissa’s face, he would never hit a female.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is www.vickiemcdonough.com .

I’m also on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/VickieMcDonough and

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/vickiemcdonough 

           

Moody Publishing, the publisher of the Texas Trails series, has created a fabulous website with some cool info about the series I’ve written along with two other authors: www.texastrailsfiction.com

Thank you, Vickie, for sharing your book with us.


Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
End of the Trail (The Texas Trail Series) - paperback
End of the Trail (The Texas Trail Series) - Kindle


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