April in the Back of Beyond

April in the Back of Beyond

by p.m.terrell

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GENRE: Romantic Suspense/Ghost Story

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BOOK TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TpMk4StYI

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BLURB:

Writer Hayley Hunter has arrived in Ireland to complete a book on Irish history. When she discovers the old carriage house she is renting is haunted, she is determined to uncover the truth behind the burned ruins of a nearby manor house and the abandoned British barracks it overlooks. With the assistance of Shay Macgregor, an Irish historian, her quest will take her to 1919 and the Irish War for Independence, exposing the murders of two young men and why their mother, April Crutchley, refuses to leave the back of beyond even in death. With a budding romance and the opportunity to begin life anew, Hayley finds her own life is now in jeopardy as she gets closer to a truth the villagers have long sought to bury.

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EXCERPT:

When I heard the soft sobs, I realized I had drifted off once more and in my half-awakened state, I thought the cries were connected to my discordant dreams. I lay there with a groan on my lips not quite ready to spill out and wishing I could simply sleep peacefully before it was too late and I would be forced to arise for the long day ahead. I felt the bedcovers slip away from my bare shoulders and I fought to open my eyes.

When they finally did open, I discovered that I was completely uncovered. The bedcovers had been pulled to the foot of the bed and were shivering inches from my feet as they lay heaped into an unkempt triangle about three feet in height. I blinked once and then twice, my mind not grasping what my eyes were witnessing, for surely it must be a trick of the eyes to think the covers were still moving.

It was then that I realized the soft sobs had continued even after I had fully awakened and they were not part and parcel of my overactive dream state but they were real and they were coming from the direction of the blanket.

“You don’t understand,” came the sound of a woman’s voice, wracked with anguished sobs. “They are still here.”

“No, sweet darling,” returned a weary man’s voice that sounded so close I nearly jumped out of my skin. “They are with God now.”

“I’m telling you they are not,” the woman answered, her weeping growing more tormented. “They’ve never left. They’re still here.”

Within the space of a single heartbeat, I saw myself just a few nights ago, convinced the voices came from outside my window. Then I was pulled into the present to fight the horrifying realization that I was sharing my bed with two apparitions.

I slid my feet away from the covers in excruciatingly slow progress, afraid at any moment my movements would alert the phantoms of my presence. I tucked my feet and knees close to my torso as I came to an uneasy seated position, almost fetal in an attempt to occupy as little space as possible. 

The room had become an icebox despite the radiators and I found myself shivering almost in tandem with the blanket. I had no idea how long I sat there, curled against the headboard and pillows, watching the foot of the bed and listening to the disembodied voices that filled the air. But then something seemed to snap inside me, fully awakening me to the present time and despite my fear, despite my trepidation, I grew impatient with myself. I reached a trembling hand toward the bedcovers, intent on pulling them over me to fight the chill as well as reassure me that they were not wet.

But at the precise moment I felt the dampness under my fingers, the sobbing stopped, replaced by a gasp that was not my own. I yanked the covers to the side, determined to discover what mechanical device lay beneath. The material jerked away from me as though I was engaged in a tug-of-war and the gasp was replaced with a woman’s blood-curdling scream and a man’s shouts.

Author Interview

1.Did you always want to be an author?

I’ve wanted to be an author ever since I was in the 4^thgrade and I won a poetry contest. As I walked across the stage to accept my prize—a book—I knew that I wanted to write. I wanted to impact readers with the words I wrote. I began writing short stories that same year, but it would be almost twenty years before my first book was published—a computer textbook—and almost twenty years after that before my first fiction was published.

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

The publication of my first fiction took much longer than writing and editing it. I gave myself two years to find a mainstream publisher. I began with purchasing Writer’s Market, which is now available online with lots of great features to track queries. I started with the largest publishers and worked my way down the list, carefully selecting each editor and tailoring the query.

At one point, my book was accepted but only if I changed the main character’s love interest to another female and had a lesbian relationship between them. I carefully considered their offer and then declined it. The reason: I knew nothing about lesbian relationships, and I’d always been taught to ‘write what you know’. Another publisher accepted it only if I worked with their editors, for which I’d have to pay. I declined them as well. A short time later I was accepted by a boutique publisher. The book did well enough to justify a career, and I’ve been writing ever since. April in the Back of Beyondis my 24^thpublished work.

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

I will read absolutely anything written by Kathleen McGurl. Her books are dual timelines and set in Ireland, Scotland, England or Wales, all places I have always been very interested in reading about. Her writing reminds me how I fell in love with reading as a young girl, when I devoured books by Daphne du Maurier.

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part of being an author is having the ability to create entire worlds; choosing the people, the backdrop, the historical events, the settings and the situations where I will live in my head for months at a time. I love creativity.

The worst part is the marketing. It requires a completely different set of skills and requires an introvert to become an extravert. I went back to college to study digital marketing and have a complete plan now for marketing each book, but I would much prefer it if someone else took on that job and left me free to write.

5.What are you working on now?

The working title of my next book is The Struggle for Independence, about a woman named Independence Mather who comes to the realization that she has created the perfect life with the wrong man. It is 1916 Ireland and the country is on the eve of a revolution, which will pit her between her British loyalist husband and the Irish rebel she truly loves. It will be released in the spring of 2020.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 23 books in multiple genres, including contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer instructional, non-fiction and children’s books.

Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area: McClelland Enterprises, Inc. and Continental Software Development Corporation. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in the detection of white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence.

A full-time author since 2002, Black Swamp Mysteries was her first series, inspired by the success of Exit 22, released in 2008. Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee, and The Pendulum Files was a national finalist for the Best Cover of the Year in 2014. Her second series, Ryan O’Clery Suspense, is also award-winning. The Tempest Murders (Book 1) was one of four finalists in the 2013 International Book Awards, cross-genre category. Her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee. Songbirds are Free is her bestselling book to date; it is inspired by the true story of Mary Neely, who was captured in 1780 by Shawnee warriors near Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN).

She was the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She was the founder of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in the town of Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime and served as its chairperson and organizer for its first four years. She also served on the boards of the Friends of the Robeson County (NC) Public Library, the Robeson County (NC) Arts Council, Virginia Crime Stoppers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.

For more information, book trailers, excerpts and more, visit the author’s website at www.pmterrell.com.

Website: https://pmterrell.com/

Twitter: @pmterrell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pmterrell.author/

Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/pmterrell/

https://www.amazon.com/April-Back-Beyond-p-m-terrell/dp/1935970461

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

p.m.terrell will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway