DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Donna Schlachter - One Free Ebook

Welcome back, Donna. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

I’m hoping this book will be a stepping-stone to writing and publishing full-length historical mysteries. I love the genre, and so many readers have told me they also enjoy the combination of history and mystery.

Tell us a little about your family.

I am married to a wonderful man who was a grandfather when we wed, so I am also “mom” to two beautiful daughters and 11 grands. I am the oldest of 5, daughter of a nurse and an engineer, who somehow managed to get everything backwards. I finished college at 36, learned to swim at 37, married at 40, first published at 48, learned to paint at 60, ate s’mores for the first time at 61, and now celebrating a book launch at 61½ .

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

Writing changed my reading habits in an irritating way: if I see a typo anywhere, even on a billboard, it grates on me like fingernails on a blackboard.

What are you working on right now?

My next book will be part of a collection featuring damsels and covered wagons.

What outside interests do you have?

I love to paint using oil. My studio is my “happy place.”

How do you choose your settings for each book?

I choose places where I’ve been. And then I look around for mysteries or unanswered questions in those areas.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

Dame Agatha Christie. I’d pick her brain and find out what stories she never got the chance to write.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

That it doesn’t end with one completed novel. The stories still scream to come out, even after almost 30 novels and novellas.

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

Patience. With myself. With Him. And anger management. Too often I let my frustration control me.

What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

Read. Write. Go to conferences.

Tell us about the featured book. 

In May of 1880, Becky Campbell leaves her wealthy New York lifestyle in search of her father, only to learn he was murdered in the small town of Silver Valley, Colorado. Unable to return to her mother in humiliation and defeat, she determines to fulfill her father’s dream—to make the Double Jeopardy profitable. Zeke Graumann, a local rancher, is faced with a hard decision regarding his land and his dream. After several years of poor weather and low cattle prices, he will either have to take on a job to help pay his overhead expenses, or sell his land. He hires on with this Easterner for two reasons: he can’t turn his back on a damsel in distress. And he needs the money. Becky isn’t certain Zeke is all he claims to be, and after a series of accidents at her mine, wonders if he isn’t behind it, trying to get her to sell out so he can take over. Zeke finds many of Becky’s qualities admirable and fears he’s losing his heart to her charms, but also recognizes she was never cut out to be a rancher’s wife. Can Becky overcome her mistrust of Zeke, find her father’s killer, and turn her mine into a profitable venture—before her mother arrives in town, thinking she’s coming for her daughter’s wedding? And will Zeke be forced to give up his dream and lose his land in order to win Becky’s heart?

Please give us the first page of the book.

1880 Silver Valley, Colorado

Dead. Dead as her dreams and her hopes.

Dead as a doornail, as her mother would say.

Just thinking about the woman drove a steel rod through Becky Campbell’s slumping back.

Perched on a chair in the sheriff’s office, she drew a deep breath, lifted her shoulders, and raised her chin a notch. She would not be like the woman who birthed her. Pretty and pampered. A silly socialite finding nothing better to do with her days than tea with the mayor’s spinster daughter or bridge with the banker’s wife.

No, she’d much rather be like her father. Adventuresome. Charismatic. Always on the lookout for the next big thing.

Now her breath came in a shudder, and down went her shoulders again. She tied her fingers into knots before looking up at the grizzled lawman across the desk from her. “There’s no chance there’s been a mistake in identification, is there?”

He slid open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a pocket watch, a lapel pin, and a fountain pen, which he pushed across the desk to her. “He was pretty well-known around here. I’m really

sorry, miss.”

Becky picked up the timepiece and flicked open the cover. Inside was a photograph of her family, taken about ten years earlier when she was a mere child of eight and Father stayed around long enough to sit still for the portrait. Her mother, petite and somber, and she, all ringlets and ribbons. She rubbed a finger across the engraving. To R. Love M. Always.

Yes, this was his.

I love history and mysteries. How can readers find you on the Internet?

www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com

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Thank you, Donna, for sharing this book for my blog readers and me. I'm eager to read it.

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