The following is an excerpt from one of the books in our CROW’S LAKE series which I recently discussed on this site. If you enjoy reading, we think you’ll find this seven-book series very entertaining.
Not to give away too much of the plot, but the first two books in reality are the ending of the series. We’ll be presenting them here in Chronological order, not in the order in which they were written.
The saga begins with the BROTHER’S ADAMS (book 7 yet to be published) and PAPPY’S GOLD (book 6) in the Civil War days, when the three Adam’s brothers decide to join the Confederacy in the fight against the Yankee’s. It will pick up after they have discharged, as two of the brothers, (Luke the oldest and Darvin the middle one) in their search for gold, will join a wagon train heading for California. Meanwhile the youngest brother Thomas (a/k/a Pappy) heads back to the old, burned to the ground, family homestead to attempt to resurrect it.
There will eventually be wives for each of the three brothers and the stories detailing how that all comes about are detailed in that portion of the series. There will be some murder mystery, but all in all its mostly about getting along in life during the trying times our country endured between the Civil War and our eventual landing on the moon.
Probably the lead character of the entire series is Vern Johnson, who enters the series midway through book 6 when he comes to the aid of Pappy (the youngest Adams brother) who has broken his leg on an icy mountain trail and has been abandoned by his mules. Pappy and Vern will then form a partnership in their search for gold and will both eventually become wealthy men.
Vern’s life and times are covered in books 3, 4 and 5 as he purchases the ranch of his boyhood dreams and brings Pappy along for the ride, eventually marrying Pappy’s daughter. Their short-lived marriage, however will end in tragedy, much the same as did his first encounter with love several years earlier. Life goes on however and he has a lot of living yet to do as his ranch prospers until his murder in the mid 1970’s when his niece Lindsey Johnson Hanks inherits his ranch in books 1 and 2.
Lindsey will join with Vern’s protégé, Timothy (Bo) Hasbrook in an attempt to bring to justice the culprit who murdered the man who had taken him in as a 15-year-old orphan boy in the mid 1960’s.
The entire seven book series consists of over 381,000 words and is a little over 2100 pages in length. The books are available, or in the case of the last one, soon will be, here on our blog or on Amazon.com. Here we offer discounts for autographed copies of the paperback versions, however on Amazon you can purchase the books in the Kindle format. Eventually, we hope to have the Kindle version of the entire seven book series available to purchase for only 99 cents.
This excerpt is from Book 7, release pending, in the Crow’s Lake series, titled BROTHERS ADAMS.
PROLOGUE – August 1861
The big, strapping Sergeant bellowed NEXT!!! an since I’s the next man in line, I figured that meant me. I stepped up to him and offered him my hand saying, “hi, I’m Luke Adams.”
“Well, Luke Adams the first thing you need to learn is that you don’t speak, unless you’ve been spoken to. Got it?”
“Yes sir, I think I got it.”
“Well, then, the next thing you need to learn is that I’m not Sir, I’m Sergeant, got it?”
“Yes sir, I think I got it.”
“Are you trying to be a smart ass with me, Luke Adams?”
“No sir, I ain’t. I jist come here to enlist in the confederacy, Sir.”
“Didn’t I just tell you that I’m not Sir, I’m Sergeant?
“Yes Sir, you did.
“Then why do you keep calling me Sir?” Are you a dunce?”
“I’m sorry Sergeant, Pops always insisted that we say Sir and Ma’am an I’m afraid it’s going to take some time to break the habit.”
“Well, time is one thing you ain’t got a lot of right now. Tamarra morning ya’ll be drilling with yer Drill Sergeant and the first time ya call him Sir; he’ll reward ya with extra work. Might be push-ups or maybe ya’ll have to run extra-long. More’n likely, ya’ll be digging holes for privies, but ya’ll get extra duty of some kind, count on it.
I’m gonna let this one slide, cause ya didn’t know no better, but you better straighten up and pay attention or it’s going to be a rough couple of months a training fer ya.”
*********
Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #526
About: Success
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The more you’ll appreciate it.”
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