On the fifth day of Christmas my Kindle gave to me...
A book from Hank Edwards!
Jenny and I are excited to welcome Hank to our little cave!
Intro: Hank Edwards has been called
"silly" and "irreverent" and "a dirty old man,"
and all of these descriptions are true. He was born and still lives in a
northwest suburb of Detroit, MI, and has been fortunate enough to see seven
novels published, including the Charlie Heggensford series of adventures
available from Lethe Press: "Fluffers, Inc.," "Carnal
Cruise," and "Vancouver Nights." Another four books are
available from Loose Id, LLC, including the suspense novella "Holed
Up," and sequel "Shacked Up," the medieval time-travel romance
"Destiny's Bastard," and the contemporary romantic comedy "Plus
Ones."
He is also a member of the Story Orgy group
(www.facebook.com/SOGroup), a clan of writers who started posting
prompt-inspired stories every week on their blogs. "And the Prompt Is...
Volume One," "And the Prompt Is... Holiday Edition," “And the
Prompt Is… Road Trip,” and "Word Play," are the available
anthologies, and all are available in Kindle format.
Here is today's question!
Do you have a favorite Christmas story?
Hank says: I love Rudolph. Not just the animated special (which
still totally rocks, decades later, by the way), but the story itself. As a
child growing up feeling different from every one else, it helped me feel
better about being such an individual.
Our giveaway today is a copy of book one in the Venom Valley Series - Bounty. To enter to win a copy leave a comment telling us your favorite Christmas story!
Blurb:
In the small frontier town of
Belkin’s Pass, Josh Stanton’s past has kept him from being accepted by everyone
else. Raised by the local school teacher after his mother vanished one dark
night, Josh has made only one true friend the fifteen years he’s lived there:
Dexter Wells. When a tragedy teaches Josh he has the ability to raise the dead,
he becomes a wanted man and flees on horseback into the arid plains of Venom
Valley. Pursued by Dex, now a town deputy, the two realize their friendship has
deepened into love and they struggle to move forward without destroying their
bond of friendship. But a dark stranger pursues them, a man who stalks the
night, feeding on the blood of the living and leaving his victims changed. Josh
and Dex join forces with Glory, a half white, half Indian saloon girl protected
by a Native American spirit, and struggle to defeat this powerful vampire
before the entire town is lost.
Excerpt:
“Josh!” Dex knelt in front of him
and grabbed his shoulders. He gave Josh a rough shake, but Josh could not
focus. All he knew, all he could feel, was the heated rush of his blood.
Dex pulled Josh against him,
hugging him against his chest. As if through a wall of rushing sound, Josh
heard the crack of Dex’s Colt and felt the jump of the man’s shoulder as Dex
held off the wolves. Then Dex had his hands under Josh’s arms and was dragging
him across the hard packed sand and dirt to the mine entrance. Josh tried to
speak, tried to warn Dex not to get any closer, but his tongue was hot and
swollen behind his teeth.
Josh felt himself spin around, and
then Dex sat him up against the weathered and rotting boards that covered the
old mine entrance. Cool, dank air washed over him, bringing with it a hint of
things left too long in the damp. The cool air chilled his fevered, sweaty skin
and Josh shivered. His senses returned a little, and he watched Dex kneeling
before him, protecting him, waving the burning branch at the advancing wolves
as he shouted. Dex was saving his bullets, Josh knew, for when the wolves were
close enough for them to feel their breath.
Soft, skittering sounds whispered
out of the mine. Shuffling, crackling sounds that sent a familiar chill through
him. Someone, something, was moving behind the rotting boards that
covered the mine entrance. Josh slowly turned his head, the rugged, splintered
surface of the board beneath catching in his sweat-damp hair.
A face with skin dry as parchment
hovered just on the other side of a gap in the boards. Rotted teeth stuck up
from brown gums and a milky white eye rolled to meet Josh’s gaze. The thing let
out a rank gasp of air as it moaned and stuck skeletal fingers through the
narrow gap, the tips brushing along Josh’s cheek.
He gave a start, the touch of the
thing snapping him from his daze even as the heat in his body burned hotter.
More fingers from other walking corpses reached out for him. Josh pushed away
from the boards that covered the mine, letting out a shout of fear. As he
watched, a number of bone thin hands gripped the edges of the boards and pulled
them apart, making a path for the walking dead miners to shuffle out toward
them.
Check out what the previous authors have to say about if they have a favorite Christmas Story:
Lissa: No. Though one of the ones I read last year was pretty
memorable. I Heard Him Exclaim by ZA Maxfield. I liked the skinny Santa thing.
Daniel: I think this year will be the best one yet for us. It
is the first year we will celebrate the holidays as a family of 4.
Havan: The Gift of the Magi is always a fave of mine...but there are a lot out
there that I just have to read this time of year...every year *big smiles*
Kimber: Wow. That kinda caught me off-guard. I haven't thought of a Christmas story in years. I think The Cajun Night Before Christmas would be my favorite or what I think of in terms of a Christmas story, I guess.
