KOKOPELLI'S SONG - Suzanne Bratcher - One Free Book

Welcome, Suzanne. Why do you write the kind of books you do?    

I’ve been a passionate reader since first grade. I read all sorts of books, but I write adventures with a thread of mystery because those are the books I re-read, often more than once. My stories all have strong settings because places stick in my head. I moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, in my late twenties and stayed for thirty years, so the Southwest is the part of the country I know best. I write from a Christian worldview because that’s the way I think about the world. I didn’t find my fiction voice until I discovered inspirational/clean fiction.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?   

The day my daughter was born. I wanted children from the time I was old enough to babysit, but I was thirty-three before I had a child. Jorie is my only child, so her birth was a unique day in my life. I am blessed that my adult daughter is now a wonderful friend.

How has being published changed your life?   

Perhaps the most important change is working with professional editors. I was a decent writer when Mantle Rock Publishing offered me a contract for The Copper Box. But I had gone as far as I could by reading craft books, attending workshops, and working with critique partners. I needed a professional editor to help me continue to grow. I learn more with each book, thanks to excellent editors. Being published has also added stress in the form of deadlines! I spent three years writing The Copper Box. I had a year to write my second book, The Silver Lode. Though I had a complete draft of Kokopelli’s Song long before I got the chance to have it published, I had less than three months to get it into shape. The third big change has been the way I look at writing. This craft has a business side I didn’t know anything about. That learning curve continues to be a challenge.

What are you reading right now?   

I usually have two or three books going at the same time. At the moment I’m reading The God Who Sees by Karen Gonzalez, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott, and Silenced (Book 5 in the Alaskan Courage series) by Dani Pettrey.

What is your current work in progress?   

I’m drafting The Gold Doubloons, the third book in my Jerome Mysteries series. I’m also doing background research for the next book in my Four Corners Folklore Fantasies series (Colorado).

What would be your dream vacation?  

I would love to spend a month on the “big island” of Hawaii. About ten years ago, I spent a long weekend there, just enough time to give me a taste of the variety of that island. I’d like to have enough time to explore it at a leisurely pace.

How do you choose your settings for each book?  

I have to turn that question around because my settings find me. When I become fascinated with a place I’ve visited, I do research and then choose conflicts and characters that fit the setting. Because I’ve had the opportunity to travel extensively in the Southwest, my settings (so far) are all in that part of the country. Jerome, Arizona—the setting for my first series—is a little town I’ve visited twenty or thirty times. Each of the books in my new Four Corners Folklore Fantasies series are set in places in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah that I’ve visited multiple times. With Kokopelli’s Song, for example, Chaco Canyon grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. After I did lots of research (which I love doing), I discovered there’s an archaeological mystery around why the ancestors of present-day pueblo peoples abandoned their vast ceremonial center the way they did. At that point I knew I needed a main character who was half Hopi and half Anglo. The conflict between what happened a thousand years ago in Chaco and our present-day had to be fantasy. Hopi folklore gave me the ideas I needed to keep going.

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

I’d love to have an evening with Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Dean of the Duke University Chapel. I watch the services at Duke Chapel on YouTube practically every week, and his sermons never fail to challenge or teach. I keep a simple prayer he taught incoming students last fall next to my computer to remind me how to pray when I don’t know what to say. “Dear God, I can’t. You must. I’m Yours. Show me the way. Amen.” Anyone who can capture the essence of prayer in those few words is someone I’d like to talk to in  depth.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?  

Bird watching is my favorite hobby. I live in central Arkansas in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. We have an amazing number of species who live here year-round and many others that migrate through. I’ve created a sort of open-air aviary on my back deck. First, I fenced off the stairs with chicken wire and put in a screen door at the bottom to keep any stray cats away. Next I hung feeders containing suet, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and sugar water to attract as many different species as I could. This morning I saw chickadees, titmice, Carolina wrens, three different species of woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, and hummingbirds at my feeders. I love watching the birds splash in the birdbath and a recirculating fountain in the afternoons when the temperatures are in the nineties. At the moment, I’m learning the songs and calls of the birds that come to my feeders. That way I’ll be able to recognize them even when I don’t see them. I also love to piece colorful quilts, but that’s a hobby I primarily work on in the winter.

I was born and reared in Arkansas, and I went to Ouachita Baptist College back in the ’60s. What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Multiple Sclerosis is by far my most daunting obstacle. I’m in the Secondary Progressive stage of the disease, so I live with unexpected bouts of crippling fatigue. Setting a standard word goal for every day simply doesn’t work for me. I’ve learned that I can’t overcome my MS. I must negotiate with it. If I’m facing a deadline, I can’t do much of anything else. I’m blessed with a dear friend who has moved in with me to help me with cooking and housekeeping chores. I couldn’t write without Rhonda’s help. Like so many other writers, I feel called to write the stories I have to tell, so I depend on God to show me the way. God is faithful.  

Yes, He is. What advice would you give to a beginning author? 

Just keep writing. Even if you’re not getting published, God can use your writing to work in your own soul. Don’t set a goal date to be published by. I was sixty-eight when my first book was published and seventy when the second one came out. My third book has just come out, and I’m seventy-one. I don’t know how many books I’ll be able to write, but I don’t think writing is a numbers game. I think writing is about connecting first with yourself and God and next about connecting with other people. I’ve seen a friend who’s read drafts of my unpublished work for years become more open to the gospel. If you feel led to write, trust God with the results.

It is all about His timing. Tell us about the featured book. 

Kokopelli’s Song is the first book in a new series called the Four Corners Folklore Fantasies. Each of the books is set in one of the states of the Four Corners region of the U.S.: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. The stories are a mixture of folklore, history, and contemporary conflicts sprinkled with a bit of magic and life-threatening danger.

Kokopelli’s Song is the story of a young woman’s search for her identity.

When Amy Adams discovers she’s half Native American instead of half Japanese as her grandmother raised her to believe, she travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Finding her father’s family and a lost twin brother on the Hopi Reservation catapults her into a struggle between shamans and witches that spans a thousand years. After her twin is attacked and a Conquistador’s journal stolen, Amy and her new friend Diego set out on a dangerous quest to find and perform the ceremony that can stop ancient evil from entering our world.

But Amy and Diego are not alone as they race against time measured by a waxing moon. Kokopelli’s song, the haunting notes of a red cedar flute, guides them along the migration route sacred to pueblo peoples: West to Old Oraibi, South to El Morro, East to Cochiti Pueblo, North to Chimney Rock, and last to the Center—and the final confrontation—in Chaco Canyon.

Please give us the first page of the book.

In her tiny room above the Delgado Gallery, Amy Adams punched her pillow for the third time. She flipped to her side and stared at the digital clock. Green numbers blinked three a.m. She needed sleep, but her mind trudged around the endless loop again. Grandmother Adams lied. Mahu was her twin brother. Taáta was her Hopi father. Grandmother Adams lied. Mahu was her twin brother. Taáta—

Pottery smashed on the ceramic tile downstairs. Not a small pot, one of the decorative water jars that reached her shoulder. Amy lay still, held her breath, waited for the next sound. Mahu was down there, asleep, or maybe awake, on the long leather couch reserved for customers who wanted to consider an outrageously expensive purchase.

Amy listened for the next sound. Silence.

Heart pounding, she threw off the scratchy wool blanket and sat up. Fear like glacial runoff pumped through her veins. Not because she believed Mahu had broken a pot, but because she knew her twin was in danger. She felt it as surely as if the two of them had never been separated to grow up in different worlds.

Just like she knew Mahu was in danger, she knew whoever was with him meant evil. Her bare feet hit the cold floor. She ran out of the room, down the dim hallway. She shivered in the sleep shirt that came to her knees, but she didn’t have time to care. In that moment, Amy was Kaya again, the older sister, the firstborn twin. The need to protect snapped at her heels, urging her to go faster, faster.

The narrow staircase cut straight down into inky darkness. Kaya Amy didn’t pause to grope for the light. Instead, she threw herself down the steps, racing to get to Mahu before someone hurt him. Before she reached the bottom, she knew she was too late.

Wow! How can readers find you on the Internet?

Readers can find me on my website: https://suzannebratcher.com

On Facebook: https://facebook.com/authorsuzannebratcher

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorbratcher

On Instagram: https://intagram.com/suzanne.bratcher.5

Thank you, Suzanne, for sharing this book with us. I loved The Copper Box, and I’m eager to read Kokopelli’s Song. The book was on Amazon Best Seller List in Christian fantasy paperbacks on release day (8/18)! It stayed there for several days.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Kokopelli's Song (Four Corners Fantasy Folklore) - Paperback
Kokopelli's Song (Four Corners Fantasy Folklore Book 1) - Kindle

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