A NEW YORK YANKEE ON STINKING CREEK - Carol McClain - One Free Book or Ebook

Welcome back, Carol. What are some of the spiritual themes you like to write about?

Virtually all my books deal with redemption of some sort. They don’t necessarily deal with salvation, but with misconstrued/misunderstood concepts of faith the characters must work out.

A New York Yankee on Stinking Creek deals with two characters. On the surface they seem diametrically different. The protagonist must find a softening from her liberal, atheistic views. The antagonist must find her freedom from religion’s rules. Neither character will do so without each other.

What other books of yours are coming out soon?

Chantel and Charlie AKA The Honeymoon’s Over may or may not make it out—but here’s where readers on this blog can weigh in. It’s a rom/com with 50-year-old newlyweds dealing with grown children who don’t act too grown-up. Neither character sees his or her children as an issue. It’s funny and lighthearted.

When it releases, I’d love to feature it on this blog. If you could spend an evening with one contemporary person (not a family member of yours), who would it be and why?

Katherine, Duchess of Windsor. For one, I love little children and I’d love to romp with her kids. Second, it would be glorious to see how royalty live, to get a first-hand tour of the castles from someone intimately connected to them. Finally, I’d love to understand the role the royalty actually do.

What historical person would you like to meet (besides Jesus) and why?

This is always a tie between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa. I know these humans are flawed. Our society especially loves to point out King’s sins. Nevertheless, the change in the world these two made awe me.

First, I was a child during the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. I longed to be a Freedom Rider and to attend his rallies. That he willingly went to jail for his convictions amazes me.

Also, I taught AP English Language and Composition. We always studied King’s speeches. To pick his oratorical brain would be divine.

With Mother Teresa, her work among the poor blows me away. I’m a germaphobe. So I’d love to do her work, but under the extreme poverty she worked with, I know I’d be too crazy to be much help. Her humility and dedication floor me.

Since there’s no way I could ever physically or emotionally do their work, I’ll fantasize about it in my novels.

How can you encourage authors who have been receiving only rejections from publishers?

I’ve been there, and am still there. My latest release A New York Yankee on Stinking Creek is my first self-published book. Increasingly, this is becoming a viable option. HOWEVER, do not self-publish if you haven’t taken to heart what publishers have said and haven’t incorporated their critiques. Hone your craft. Study it. Get a professional editor after having a good critique group tear the work apart. Get beta readers.

Once assured you have a good work, consider self-publishing.

Yet, if you’ve done the above, re-submit. I don’t remember how many times the Harry Potter series had been rejected.

Could you change genres? I write women’s fiction, and the market seems to be small with this one. One friend changed from writing spec to writing romance. Her career has exploded. Thomas Nelson took her on and gave her a three-book contract (on any idea she had), and her agent is working through several potential movie offers.

Mostly, God will use your writing to teach you humility—even if you become a best-seller. Read the one-star reviews popular author’s get.

If God is telling you to write, if you cannot quit, if the writing bug keeps biting, keep writing. (Do you see a parallel to Dr. King’s periodic sentence in his “I Have a Dream” speech? I had mercy and made it shorter.)

Tell us about the featured book.

The extremes of anything are always in error. This concept is a tenet of my belief system. Extreme conservatives are as closed minded as extreme liberals. Our preconceived notions always deceive us. Thus was born my liberal, atheistic protagonist—the famous artist Kiara.

Her only hope when she finds herself on Stinking Creek, Tennessee, is an extremely rule-ridden Christian, Delia Mae “Lia” McGuffrey. Neither can find freedom without the other.

NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM STINKING CREEK

Alone, again, after the death of her fiancé, abstract artist Kiara Rafferty finds herself on Stinking Creek, Tennessee. She wants out of this hillbilly backwater, where hicks speak an unknown language masquerading as English. Isolated, if she doesn’t count the snakes and termites infesting her cabin, only a one-way ticket home to Manhattan would solve her problems.

Alone in a demanding crowd, Delia Mae McGuffrey lives for God, her husband, her family, and the congregation of her husband’s church. Stifled by rules, this pastor’s wife walks a fine line of perfection, trying to please them all. Now an atheist Yankee, who moved in across the road, needs her, too.

Two women. Two problems. Each holds the key to the other’s freedom.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Like a bomb, Kiara’s world detonated and dumped her back in time to a stinking cabin on Stinking Creek. It might as well have been an explosion rather than a long cab ride that rattled her brain like mortar fire—or a ride on the A train.

Kiara’s eyes strained through the darkness, illuminated only from the taxi’s headlights. A log cabin looking like it was chinked with mud rose before her. Bryce, why did you call this place a haven?

“The far’s one-hundred-twenty.” The cabbie’s gravelly voice jarred her. “We’ll skip the cents seein’ as I ain’t gonna fuss with change at midnight.”

Kiara twisted the ring on her left index finger. One-twenty? I thought Manhattan cabbies gouged.

The driver jumped out of the taxi, popped the trunk, and grabbed her luggage. He plopped her bags on the front porch. The simple wooden structure stood no more than a foot off the ground. The rough planks disappeared into the gloom around the far side of the cabin.

“The far don’t include the tip.” The driver grinned. His face, lit by the taxi’s headlights looked like a kid holding a flashlight to his face to scare his friends around a campfire. Creepy.

She fished through her handbag and pulled out her wallet. Hopefully, the local taxis would be cheaper. A chirruping filled the air interspersed with a loud croaking. Manhattan was noisy, but this?

“What’s making the racket?” She waved her hand—the one grasping the fare.

The cabbie slanted his head and listened. “What? Them insects?”

“They’re bugs?” Visions of cockroaches scurrying across her floor in her Manhattan condo scuttled through her imagination. She wouldn’t survive these hills.

“They’re katydids. ‘Bout ready to die off for the season. The loud croakin’—them’s tree frogs.”

Katydids? Frogs living in trees? Kiara shuddered and handed the cabbie a hundred-dollar bill and a fifty. “Keep the change.” She turned her eyes back to the cabin, and her heart wrung out more misery. “Thank you.”

She fumbled for her key—the one Bryce had made a year ago when they bought this place. The key, splashed in different colors like a Kandinsky painting created while on LSD, swirled in a wild mix of pink and turquoise and yellow creating an abstract design. She had laughed out loud when he presented it to her as though he were giving her the keys to Windsor Castle.

“The cabin’s in your name, alone, my cherry-haired leprechaun.” He bent and kissed the whorls of hair she’d just begun training into dreadlocks. “Amanda won’t be able to lay her hands on it.” His eyes had danced with joy. “When we marry, we’ll have a retreat like Yaddo. A place for all artists—writers and photographers and sculptors—”

Interesting! How can readers find you on the Internet?

I’d love to connect via my website and a sign-up for my weekly blog and occasional newsletter. You can find this at http://www.CarolMcClain.com

I’m active on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/carol.d.mcclain

https://www.facebook.com/author.Carol.McClain/

On twitter: @carol_mcclain

On Instagram: carol_mcclain

If readers live overseas, I will send out an ebook. Those in the States will get a paperback.

Thank you, Carol, for sharing this boo with my blog readers and me. I’m eager to read it. I’m sure they are, too.

Readers, here are links to the book.

A New York Yankee on Stinking Creek - Paperback
A New York Yankee on Stinking Creek - Kindle

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