The Gospel According to Prissy
by Barbara
Casey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Three Army veteran misfits, a college dropout, an unmotivated high
school graduate accused of murder, a controversial warden of a women's prison,
and a little girl with the gift of prophesy – these are the people 31-year-old
Lara Kruger invites into her life after suffering a miscarriage, a divorce from
an abusive husband, and unemployment.
Excerpt:
Laramie Larkins Kruger drove up to
the hospital emergency door. It was the
second time in twice as many weeks. The
hand that had been holding a bloody towel against the left side of her face
somehow managed to push the car door open.
Her other hand rested in her lap, limp and useless. A hospital orderly standing outside by the
front entrance saw her. He crushed his
half-smoked cigarette into the concrete container of sand provided and quickly
located a wheelchair for her.
“Jesus, Ms. Kruger, what have you
gone done to yourself now? You been
working on that old house again, haven’t ya?”
Lara closed her eyes and let the
strong hands of the orderly gently position her into the wheelchair. “Thanks, Ben.”
“I told you to call me next time you
needed something done and Mr. Kruger wasn’t around to take care of it. Didn’t I?
Didn’t I say that?” He pushed her
through the emergency entrance and over to the sign-in window where an elderly
woman smiled and handed her a form.
“Back so soon, Mrs. Kruger?”
Lara stared at the piece of paper
that had been secured to a clipboard, but her eyes wouldn’t read the
print. She couldn’t pick up the pen
anyway. Ben took the clipboard from her
and began filling in the information next to her name: Age, 31; Time, 1:15 p.m.; Insurance, on file;
Nature of Visit, cuts and bruises caused by accident. It was always the same.
Lara and Jake had been remodeling
the old Victorian home they bought when they moved to Rocky Mount six months
earlier. Everyone knew they were doing
it. In a town the size of Rocky Mount,
nothing went by unnoticed. Since they
were doing a lot of the work themselves, it was easy just to say she slipped
off a ladder, a rotten floorboard gave way, something had fallen on her –
whatever. No one questioned her answers.
“My, my. Looks like you got scraped up pretty good,
Mrs. Kruger.” The elderly volunteer
worker smiled sympathetically and took the form Ben had just filled out. “What happened this time?”
Lara tried not to grimace from the
pain. It felt like one of her ribs was
broken. “I yanked too hard on the door
of that old shed in back we’re trying to convert into a garage and it gave
way.” The lie came easily.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Barbara
Casey is president of the Barbara Casey Agency, representing adult fiction and
nonfiction for authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, and
Japan. She is also the author of
numerous articles, poems, and short stories.
Her award-winning novels have received national recognition, including
the Independent Publishers Book Award, the Dana Award for Best Novel, and the
Publisher’s Best Seller Award. Her
novel, The House of Kane, released in 2008, was considered for a Pulitzer
nomination, and her novel Just Like Family received special recognition by the
7-Eleven Corporation. Two other novels,
The Gospel According to Prissy (released in the spring of 2013) and Shyla’s
Initiative, both received an IPPY Award for Best Book in Regional Fiction. Her
most recent young/new adult book, The Cadence of Gypsies, has been selected as
an Amazon Best Read and received the 2013 IPPY Living Now Award.
In
addition to being a frequent guest lecturer at universities and writers’
conferences, Ms. Casey served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in
Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor
for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through
2003.
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.goodreads.com
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Thank you for hosting me today, Firetulip. I look forward to spending time with you.
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ReplyDeleteGreat story, I can't wait to read it.
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