Facing your greatest fear can be one of the most difficult things you ever do. But courage is often found when you have to face a fear in order to save someone else. The recent storms in our country provide proof of this.
Consider the father in Indiana who lay atop his son to protect him during the recent tornado outbreak. He truly feared he would die, but his love for his child gave him the courage to do what he needed to do. Another parent, a Kentucky mother, lost her legs protecting her children from the tornado there. Sacrificing for others makes these people true American heroes.
My latest novel, Onslaught, features a heroine who must face her fear of storms in order to protect someone else. Ronnie Clarke would rather wrestle with a difficult spreadsheet all night than walk the floor at 3 a.m. with a fussy baby. But she doesn’t have much choice when her unreliable mother drops a surprise bundle into her arms and then vanishes through the bathroom window of a cheap motel room. And Ronnie's mother left one other thing—a life or death warning. She kidnapped Baby Danny to save him from the religious cult leader who wants to sell him to the murderous leader of an illegal drug cartel. Oh, and Danny is Ronnie’s nephew, the son of a sister that she never knew she had.
If all that isn’t trouble enough, the only safe place to hide is in a small town on the Texas Gulf Coast, within easy striking distance of any devastating hurricane that might crop up. Since Ronnie has a phobia about thunderstorms, she’s practically set up for failure.
Onslaught is a full-length novel of romantic suspense, available in ebook format at:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Onslaught-ebook/dp/B007J5ZJBO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331558704&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/onslaught-teri-thackston/1109464560?ean=2940014303620&itm=1&usri=onslaught+thackston
Smashwords (for PDF or other formats): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/140723
Showing posts with label romantic suspense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romantic suspense. Show all posts
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, June 23, 2008
Ghostly Adventures - The Duck Man
When I was about 5 years old we lived for a short time in an old house in a small town. Strange things happened in this house to more than just myself. We blamed those strange things on the Duck Man.
No, he wasn't half-man, half-duck. He was a man who lived in the attic (unbeknownst to the adults in the household). I never saw him, but one of my young aunts claimed that he watched over the house and everything that "belonged to it". That included a black baby duck that my sister and I found wandering in the side yard one hot afternoon.
We were playing outside and saw this small black bird wandering in a sunny spot near the side of the house. It was small and cute and so of course we thought we should play with it. My aunt, just a few years older but much more in-the-know than the two of us came upon us before we could lay hands on the duck (as if we actually could have), and warned us to leave it alone. She said it belonged to the man who lived in the attic.
My sister and I looked up at the house and to this day I remember seeing the curtains over the attic window fall back into place, as if someone had been peering out at us.From that day on I could swear I heard footsteps in the attic of that old house although no one else would admit to hearing them. The baby duck, of course, vanished without a trace. So did other things now and then. For the rest of our time living there, we blamed the Duck Man for such disappearances
Ghostly Adventures - The Duck Man
When I was about 5 years old we lived for a short time in an old house in a small town. Strange things happened in this house to more than just myself. We blamed those strange things on the Duck Man.
No, he wasn't half-man, half-duck. He was a man who lived in the attic (unbeknownst to the adults in the household). I never saw him, but one of my young aunts claimed that he watched over the house and everything that "belonged to it". That included a black baby duck that my sister and I found wandering in the side yard one hot afternoon.
We were playing outside and saw this small black bird wandering in a sunny spot near the side of the house. It was small and cute and so of course we thought we should play with it. My aunt, just a few years older but much more in-the-know than the two of us came upon us before we could lay hands on the duck (as if we actually could have), and warned us to leave it alone. She said it belonged to the man who lived in the attic.
My sister and I looked up at the house and to this day I remember seeing the curtains over the attic window fall back into place, as if someone had been peering out at us.From that day on I could swear I heard footsteps in the attic of that old house although no one else would admit to hearing them. The baby duck, of course, vanished without a trace. So did other things now and then. For the rest of our time living there, we blamed the Duck Man for such disappearances
No, he wasn't half-man, half-duck. He was a man who lived in the attic (unbeknownst to the adults in the household). I never saw him, but one of my young aunts claimed that he watched over the house and everything that "belonged to it". That included a black baby duck that my sister and I found wandering in the side yard one hot afternoon.
We were playing outside and saw this small black bird wandering in a sunny spot near the side of the house. It was small and cute and so of course we thought we should play with it. My aunt, just a few years older but much more in-the-know than the two of us came upon us before we could lay hands on the duck (as if we actually could have), and warned us to leave it alone. She said it belonged to the man who lived in the attic.
My sister and I looked up at the house and to this day I remember seeing the curtains over the attic window fall back into place, as if someone had been peering out at us.From that day on I could swear I heard footsteps in the attic of that old house although no one else would admit to hearing them. The baby duck, of course, vanished without a trace. So did other things now and then. For the rest of our time living there, we blamed the Duck Man for such disappearances
Monday, June 16, 2008
Ghostly Adventures - The Glaring Ghost
You know that sensation that occasionally occurs, convincing you that someone is watching you? You look over your shoulder but no one is there and a shiver tickles up your spine. Imagine waking in the middle of the night with that sensation. It happened to me at my sister’s house once.
I woke from where I’d gone to sleep on the couch but I didn’t open my eyes. I had the distinct feeling that someone was standing over me, glaring at me. I felt that it was a woman and I just knew that I’d see her if I opened my eyes. But I was terrified at the prospect and could not bring myself to open my eyes. I wanted to call out to my husband who slept nearby with the kids on a mattress on the floor. But my throat locked up as an unpleasant chill gripped me. Anger flowed from the unseen entity, frightening me more and more. Finally, I was able to shout out my husband’s name. Instantly, the sensation vanished. I opened my eyes and saw. . .no one. Believe me when I say that I had trouble sleeping for the rest of the night.
When I asked my sister the next morning if she’d ever experienced any supernatural events in her house, she looked at me with guilty surprise for a moment before admitting that the house was indeed haunted. The husband and wife who’d lived there most of their married life had both died in the house. My sister and her husband occasionally saw the spirits of both, leaning over their beds at night or passing across the far end of the hallway from one bedroom to another. She said that the woman especially seemed angry and would glare at my sister or her husband as if she didn’t want them in her house.
My sister did some research on the family that had lived in the house and discovered that the woman had hated cats. This explained why my sister’s cat lived in an almost constant state of skittishness, often leaping into the air and bolting from a room for no obvious reason. It was almost as if someone malicious had yanked on the poor pet’s tail or ear. The cat settled into a much calmer state after my sister’s family moved from that house and continues to be a calm pet today.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Feel free to share it here. And if you send me an email at t_thackston@yahoo.com that contains the name of any of the reviewers in the links below, I’ll enter your name into a drawing that I will hold July 5 for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card. Review site links: http://www.theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/finalwordsthackston.htm “I was on the edge of my seat for much of the story…” http://www.paranormalromance.org/reviews/review.php?id=27963 “This is a great mystery with a spooky twist.”
http://www.theromancereadersconnection.com/reviews2/thackstonteri1508.html “The story is guaranteed to keep you engrossed from the very first page.” For a spooky, sensuous read, I hope you’ll check out FINAL WORDS at http://www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419915246
Cheers and shivers,
Teri
www.terithackston.com
I woke from where I’d gone to sleep on the couch but I didn’t open my eyes. I had the distinct feeling that someone was standing over me, glaring at me. I felt that it was a woman and I just knew that I’d see her if I opened my eyes. But I was terrified at the prospect and could not bring myself to open my eyes. I wanted to call out to my husband who slept nearby with the kids on a mattress on the floor. But my throat locked up as an unpleasant chill gripped me. Anger flowed from the unseen entity, frightening me more and more. Finally, I was able to shout out my husband’s name. Instantly, the sensation vanished. I opened my eyes and saw. . .no one. Believe me when I say that I had trouble sleeping for the rest of the night.
When I asked my sister the next morning if she’d ever experienced any supernatural events in her house, she looked at me with guilty surprise for a moment before admitting that the house was indeed haunted. The husband and wife who’d lived there most of their married life had both died in the house. My sister and her husband occasionally saw the spirits of both, leaning over their beds at night or passing across the far end of the hallway from one bedroom to another. She said that the woman especially seemed angry and would glare at my sister or her husband as if she didn’t want them in her house.
My sister did some research on the family that had lived in the house and discovered that the woman had hated cats. This explained why my sister’s cat lived in an almost constant state of skittishness, often leaping into the air and bolting from a room for no obvious reason. It was almost as if someone malicious had yanked on the poor pet’s tail or ear. The cat settled into a much calmer state after my sister’s family moved from that house and continues to be a calm pet today.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Feel free to share it here. And if you send me an email at t_thackston@yahoo.com that contains the name of any of the reviewers in the links below, I’ll enter your name into a drawing that I will hold July 5 for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card. Review site links: http://www.theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/finalwordsthackston.htm “I was on the edge of my seat for much of the story…” http://www.paranormalromance.org/reviews/review.php?id=27963 “This is a great mystery with a spooky twist.”
http://www.theromancereadersconnection.com/reviews2/thackstonteri1508.html “The story is guaranteed to keep you engrossed from the very first page.” For a spooky, sensuous read, I hope you’ll check out FINAL WORDS at http://www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419915246
Cheers and shivers,
Teri
www.terithackston.com
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