Thursday, June 8, 2017

A Peek at The Lovely Pines


Artist: Maria Fanning
I’m pretty sure I told my readers that The City of Rocks, the third in the BJ Vinson Mystery Series, is scheduled for release by DSP Publications on July 18. Hard to believe that is just a little over a month from now. I’ve shared some of the scenes from that book a few times on this blog, but now let’s give well-deserved kudos to the cover artist for Pines—in fact all my DSPP books—Maria Fanning. Thanks for working with me, Maria.

In addition, let me say a word or two about Dreamspinner Press and its imprint DSPP. I have never worked with a publishing staff (and this is my third publisher) more professional and competent than Dreamspinner's. When an author is accepted by this outfit, he or she is totally supported by any number of individuals and departments: administrative, art, editing, promotion, formatting, and some I'm certain I omitted. Forgive me for that, Dreamspinner. 

*****

But now, I’d like to turn to the fourth book in my series, The Lovely Pines. DSPP has given me a target date for publication of March 2018. Maria hasn’t come up with a cover for this one yet, so I’ll have to settle for giving you a short scene that comes in Chapter 17. BJ and his lawyer friend Del Dahlman are at the Lovely Pines Winery to oversee the surrender of a fugitive to BJ’s old Albuquerque Police Department partner, Lt. Gene Enriquez. They are aware that the fugitive is being pursued by someone with deadly intent, so security is tight. Read on.

THE LOVELY PINES

          Two couples, as well as some singles, joined Del and me at the six o’clock wine tasting at the Lovely Pines. Two of the singles were my old APD partner, Gene Enriquez, and his last riding partner before he made lieutenant, a tall blond detective named Don Carson. They drove up to be on hand in case of trouble. Del argued that made our presence superfluous, but I knew the deadly accuracy of a military sniper better than he did and shut him down.
           Gene, however, voiced his own ideas when time came to depart the winery and insisted we make a change in plans. Carson would ride with us in Del’s Volvo while Diego, wearing Carson’s hat sat beside Gene in his departmental Ford as we pulled out the front gates of the winery. I made the detective lie on the floorboard of the back seat so an observer wouldn’t see more people leaving than arrived. I was pretty sure he knew who I was and would be keeping a close eye on me. The fact that two of the couples who’d been at the wine tasting left the property at the same time we did made me feel a bit easier.
          Ninety seconds after turning out onto the main road, Carson popped up and slid onto the seat. “I’m too damned tall to crouch down on the floorboard. This is better.”
          “Get back down,” I warned. “We’re too close to the—”
          Just as Del touched the brakes to avoid hitting a squirrel running across the road, both rear passenger windows shattered. Del almost lost control of the Volvo, slowing even more.
          “Don’t stop!” I yelled. “Get us the hell out of here!”
          Del stomped on the accelerator and the powerful automobile shot forward. Then the rear window exploded.
*****
Total disaster, or does the intrepid BJ figure the way out of an ambush by a trained sniper? We’ll see.

That’s it for this week. Let me know if you enjoyed this snipped from the novel. By the way, the fifth in the series, Abaddon’s Locusts, is taking shape beneath my pen (well, my keypad, anyway).

The following are some links to me and my writing and to DSP Publications (my publisher):

Blog: dontravis.com
Facebook: dontravis
Twitter: @dontravis3

As always, thank for being a reader.

Don


New blogs are posted at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

11 comments:

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