Moccasin Trace
by Hawk
MacKinney
BLURB
…
it was about the land…a tale of love and loss and hope…
“The
most engaging and brilliantly crafted historical work since Margaret Mitchell’s
great classic.”
Barbara
Casey
Author,
The Gospel According to Prissy
Hamilton
Ingram looked out across the fertile Georgia bottomlands that were Moccasin
Hollows, seeing holdings it had taken generations of Ingrams to build. No drop of slave sweat ever shed in its
creation. It was about the land…his trust,
his duty to preserve it for the generation of Ingrams to come…
It
is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional
bombast. Life is good for widower
Rundell Ingram and his Hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton. Between the two of them, they take care of
Moccasin Hollows, their rustic dogtrot ancestral home, a sprawling non-slave
plantation in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east
Georgia. Adjoining Ingram lands is
Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer,
their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin.
Both
families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates
are no longer children. The rangy,
even-tempered Norman-Scottish young Hamilton is smitten with Sarah, who has
become an enticing capricious beauty—the young lovers more in love with each
passing day, and only pleasant times ahead of them.
But
a blood tide of war is sweeping across the South, a tide that might be
impossible to stand before.
Excerpt
He took
special care to have quiet times for Sarah, 'specially since night before last.
He got real excited when she told him she might be with child again. She hadn't been sleeping well, often wanted
him to rub her aching back. Now he knew
why.
Threadbare
clothes and unshorn hair gave Hamilton Bothington Graeme Ingram the look of a
run-down, unkempt derelict instead of heir to one of the largest non-slave
plantations in Saint George Parish. He
ducked under what was left of the split-rail fence with its crooked corner
post. Rails and most posts had long gone
up in the smoke of hoards of campfires.
"Step
wide." He reached back to help her
through. "I don't want the mother
of our children to step on a canebrake rattler catchin' sun on this fine
day."
"Lord
have mercy." Sarah clutched her
bonnet in her hand so as not to get it snagged in the coiled tangle of
wire. "I suppose it's up to me to
get used to your hoverin' over me again."
"Yep,"
he grinned. "Reckon my favorite
sweetheart will have to do just that."
"Your
favorite sweetheart?" She giggled,
wrinkled her nose at him. "Just
listen to you and your Ingram fiddle-faddled talk."
He grinned as
she brushed back strands of the golden hair Hamilton loved to run his fingers
through. She gathered her mended skirt,
slipped her hand into his, and quickly stepped wide over the fallen post.
"C'mon..." Her voice lilted soft, and she squeezed her
grip on his hand. "Let's
hurry."
Her singular
tenderness refused to let the devastation around them blight their few
alone-times. In the spoliation around
them, such times when they managed to make it just the two of them held a
more-than-special meaning.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
With
postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities,
Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and
Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate
neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_h_Kri8ZTI/UxfGei-3BBI/AAAAAAAAFEk/Fd6PNa6dXAo/s1600/MEDIA+KIT+Hawk-DSC3024_jpg.jpg)
"Without
question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the
pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward
to in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series. Intrigue, murder, deception and
conspiracy--these are the things that take Hawk's main character, Navy
ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina
ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation's
capital and across Europe and the Middle East."
Barbara
Casey, President
Barbara
Casey Literary Agency
Giveaway
Hawk will be awarding
a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Just leave a comment and you are entered to win!!
What is one genre that you love to read, but could never write?
ReplyDeleteandralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
Genres are a puzzle to me - I think they're for bookstores to pick what shelves to put a bk on - mystery, thriller, sci-fi, romance - there can be a touch of all of that in any cover - I don't pay much attention to lables - if I want to write it...I put what drives the characters/tales -
DeleteHawk MacK
I love stories that take place during this particular time in our history. The blurb and the excerpts all point to what appears to be a very satisfying read. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteilookfamous(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thanx again - I appreciate your following/commenting -
DeleteHawk MacK
Interesting time period
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Thanx for following/commenting -
DeleteHawk MacK
Thanks for the chance!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome -
DeleteHawk MacK
Thanks for the giveaway and the chance to read a new author!! Sounds amazing!!
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy the read -
DeleteHawk MacK
Thank you for hosting my historical romance Moccasin Trace. For the readers who follow the Craige Ingram Mystery Series, Moccasin Trace, set during the Civil War, provides the Scottish-Normandr bloodlines and background of protagonist SEAL/PI Craige Ingram in that contemporary thriller/mystery series, and is available in hardback, trade paperback and Kindle.
ReplyDeleteHawk MacKinney
www.hawkmackinney.net
Thanks for the excerpt and the book description and the giveaway.
ReplyDelete