OVER THE EDGE - Mary Connealy - One Free Book, Plus Blog Tour

I know you speak at various conferences and meetings. What do you have coming up in 2012?

I’m doing a lesson for my local authors group in October about Dr. Stanley William’s Moral Premise. I’m hoping I can make sense of it.

If you were planning a women’s retreat, what would be the theme for it?

My first reaction is to gather with other writers. That’s what I’d love. We’d talk, then write, then talk some more. I met with an author friend, Erica Vetsch at a bed and breakfast in Iowa called The Blue Belle Inn, owned by Sherrie Hanson, an author of Christian fiction. She owns the most beautiful Victorian home and it was a wonderful weekend.  Sherrie had invited Erica and me back to a larger writer’s retreat she holds every other year, no date set yet. I want to go so badly, just to stay in that beautiful inn.

Who would you want as speakers and why?

I don’t know if I’d want speakers necessarily. My writer’s retreat would be for writing. Quiet time for extended forward progress in my book, broken up by the kinds of conversations only authors can have. (because everyone else in the world ends up bored out of their minds) I just love talking with other authors, with time for devotion and lots of food.

Where would you hold the retreat and why?

The location wouldn’t matter. It would be the company that made the retreat wonderful. I guess I’ll go back to the Blue Belle Inn, in St. Ansgar, Iowa.

Do you read print books or ebooks? Or a combination of the two?

I’ve just recently purchased an ereader and I’m still mostly reading regular books. When it comes to books I love I like to reread them, thumb through them to scenes that I find really well written. That’s hard to do with an ereader. But I love the instant delivery of ebooks. Talk about Instant Gratification! I’ll click on that buy link and BAM I’ve got the book, and I LOVE THAT!

That’s an interesting title. How did you come up with it?

My publisher, Bethany House, came up with these titles for the Kincaid Brides Series. I had some idea and we tweaked them until all three matched and gave just the impression I was hoping for. Book #1 Out of Control about the controlling oldest brother Rafe, Book #2 In Too Deep about the shallow charmer middle brother Ethan and Book #3 Over the Edge about the reckless-or-maybe-crazy youngest brother Seth.

So what is the book about?

Seth Kincaid survived a fire in a cave, but he's never been the same. He was always a reckless youth, but now he's gone over the edge. He ran off to the Civil War and came back crazier than ever.

After the war, nearly dead from his injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he's got a lot of excuses, but his wife isn't happy to find out Seth doesn't remember her. Callie has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she's come to the Kincaid family's ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.

Callie isn't a long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to kill him. She's not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.

Then more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth's pa kept for years. The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can't sort things out. It's enough to drive a man insane--but somehow it's all making Seth see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one better stand in his way.

I’ve read all three of these books, and they’re awesome. Please give us the first page of the book.

Over the Edge

October 30, 1866

Chapter One

A bullet slammed through the door of the stagecoach, threading a needle to miss all four passengers.

“It’s a hold-up!” Callie grabbed her rifle. “Get down!”

The stage driver yelled and cracked his whip. More flying lead hit, higher on the stagecoach. The man riding shotgun got his rifle into action.

“Get on the floor.” The woman sitting across from Callie was frozen with fear. That endangered Connor and it made Callie furious.

The bullets came fast. They were going slow on a long uphill slope. With the driver's shout the stage picked up speed. From the roof came a steady volley of deafening return fire.

Reaching across, Callie grabbed the woman by the ruffled front of her pink gingham dress and dragged her off the seat. The woman shrieked but didn’t put up a fight, which was smart of her. Callie would’ve won that fight.

Somewhat more gently, Callie picked Connor up from the seat beside her and set him on the woman’s lap. Eight-month-old Connor yelped, more a shout of anger than a cry. But crying would come soon enough. Her little wild man didn’t do anything quietly.

“Can you shoot?” She shouted at the young man, hoping he’d snap out of whatever panic had seized him. He shook his head frantically. “Get on the floor.”

Callie used her whiplash voice and hoped it got the man moving. She threw herself across to the woman’s seat to face backward. With her Colt in her left hand and her Winchester in her right, she shoved the curtain aside. The flare of the orange and yellow aspen lining the road blocked any sign of the gunmen.

Callie didn’t bother to push the man to the floor. Let the idiot figure that out himself. She got a glimpse of the robbers riding around a curve. Bullets hailed on the coach. Callie held back, waiting for a clear shot.

Connor’s yelling turned to a cry. Callie was enraged that her son was in such terrible danger when he should have been safe on her father’s ranch in Texas.

The noise overhead said the driver’d slid off his high seat to use the stage as cover. She heard the man riding shotgun land flat on his belly on the roof. The driver's shouting and the gunfire slashed like a sharp knife through the cool October morning.

“Try and calm Connor down.” Not much chance of that. Connor had been a whirlwind since birth. And the two caring for him were more upset than he was.

She counted four outlaws. The varmints had picked this uphill slope a few miles outside of Colorado City because the stage slowed to a crawl.

Callie had plenty of bullets but she was a conservative woman, and she didn’t intend to fire blind and waste lead. She was mighty low on money and she needed ammunition for when she finally tracked down that worthless Seth Kincaid.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/ Seekerville-for aspiring writers
http://petticoatsandpistols.com/ Petticoats and Pistols-for western romance lovers

http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/ My Blog

http://www.maryconnealy.com/  My Website
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There will be a Blog Tour Party for Mary's new release on Facebook on August 29. I will get the information for that put on this interview, so check back later for the info. 

Thank you, Mary, for the wonderful books you write for us readers.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Over the Edge (The Kincaid Brides) - paperback
Over the Edge (The Kincaid Brides Book #3) - Kindle

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