The Accidental Guardian

Releasing Tomorrow

http://a.co/frtZOeJ
We agreed with the Continued Journey of Seekerville to do things a little different. If we wanted.
To be a little more laid back.
So, today I'm doing that.
This is just me talking about my book releasing tomorrow, The Accidental Guardian.
The nugget of this book was the boy, abandoned alone, in the wilderness. How would he survive? What would he do? And in my research for many books, I've gotten just an inkling of the vastness of the American frontier.
In this day of GPS and Smart Phones with mapping and Google Maps, not to mention PAVED ROADS WITH SIGNS!!! I was enticed by the question of what one man (a half-grown boy really) would do in that situation.
His wagon train had taken off from the main trail, a small group. While he's away hunting the wagon train is attacked and everyone killed.
There he is alone. 15 years old. Can he survive? What does he have to do? And, in keeping with the vastness of the Rocky Mountains, could he get so hopelessly lost that he just plain can't find anyone. Can he just settle in and live in the mountains and get so settled in that when he does find a way out, he doesn't take it.

So that's the background, the fundamental question of the book. Can Trace survive.
Well, yes. He survives. In fact, he's not been living in the wilderness for ten years. He didn't speak to another human being for four or five years....he sort of lost count of the number of winters he lived though so he'd not sure.

And now another wagon is attacked. This time the survivors are two young women and the children they'd taken out into the tall grass when the three year old girl....needed to...ahem...step away into the tall grass for a minute.

I guess if this is a post that could be interesting to a writer, I'd ask you to think about the very most fundamental nugget of your story. The kernel that caught your attention, then grew and caught fire. (I might be mixing metaphors, if your growing kernel catches fire, then your cornfield is on fire and now you need to stop writing and call 911 for the fire department, but let's ignore that.....)

So Trace survives and man is he tough, and he's bad at talking to woman...when he says she's almost the first one he is NOT kidding.

A quote from The Accidental Guardian.

Deb survives the massacre and when a man comes riding from the direction opposite where the killers had gone, she risks everything in this dangerous land and runs out to beg him for help. He seems nice but why does Trace keep talking to his horse and dog instead of her?

I'm excited about this book. I really ended up loving these characters and all the trouble I put them through.

To celebrate I'm giving away a signed copy of The Accidental Guardian. And I'd like to talk about the nugget of YOUR work in progress. Or, if you're a reader, think about this, the most fundamental part of a book and tell me about one you loved.

The Accidental Guardian

When Trace Riley finds the smoldering ruins of a small wagon train, he recognizes the hand behind the attack as the same group who left him as sole survivor years ago. Living off the wilderness since then, he'd finally carved out a home and started a herd--while serving as a self-appointed guardian of the trail, driving off dangerous men. He'd
hoped those days were over, but the latest attack shows he was wrong.

Deborah Harkness saved her younger sister and two toddlers during the attack, and now finds herself at the mercy of her rescuer. Trace offers the only shelter for miles around, and agrees to take them in until she can safely continue. His simple bachelor existence never anticipated kids and women in the picture and their arrival is unsettling--yet enticing.

Working to survive the winter and finally bring justice to the trail, Trace and Deborah find themselves drawn together--yet every day approaches the moment she'll leave forever.