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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Oct 10, 2020  
Stop by my blog, and read an emotionally charged deleted scene from the literary fiction novel LOW WATER CROSSING by Dana Glossbrenner. Enter the GIVEAWAY to win a signed copy of the book or signed copies of both books in the Sulfur Gap Series - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-low-water.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Low Water Crossing is a tribute to those who endure heartache and nevertheless celebrate, to those who wait—and live full lives while waiting.

A backhoe unearths a human skeleton buried on Wayne Cheadham’s West Texas ranch. The investigation points a grisly finger at Wayne’s first wife. And so begins the wild ride through twenty-five years of love and heartbreak.

Wayne’s a highly eligible bachelor who runs into trouble, first because he’s naïve, and next because, well, life is unpredictable. He’s a loveable guy with a peaceful outlook. Just about anyone wants the best for him, dang it. To cope with sadness, he arranges for an old steel-girded bridge to be placed in the dry pasture in front of his house. Says it helps him adjust his perspective. Others say it’s the world’s largest yard ornament. He takes in stray emus and abandoned horses and becomes a mentor to a loveable little boy without much family. He sits and ponders his plight at a low-water crossing over the creek.

A cast of characters from the fictional small West Texas town of Sulfur Gap—the staff of a high school burger shop hangout on the Interstate, coffee groups at the Navaho Café, hair stylists from the Wild Hare, a local sheriff and his deputies, and the band at the local honky-tonk—knits together the community surrounding Wayne, and all bring their own quirks. People you’d find anywhere, some with thicker Texas twangs than others.

The town, the ranch, and familiar Texas cities such as San Angelo, Abilene, and Austin provide a backdrop for universal themes of love, grief, and loyalty.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Jun 10, 2021  
Today's special guest on my blog is James Wade, Writer sharing his top 5 novels set in East Texas. There's also a spotlight on his new crime fiction novel RIVER, SING OUT. Check it out, and enter the giveaway to win an autographed first-edition hardcover the book plus an autographed paperback of his multiple award-winning coming of age novel All Things Left Wild - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/06/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-river-sing.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
“And through these ages untold, the river did act as the lifeblood of all those things alongside it.”

Jonah Hargrove is celebrating his thirteenth birthday by avoiding his abusive father, when a girl named River stumbles into his yard, injured and alone. The teenager has stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of meth from her murderous, drug-dealing boyfriend, but lost it somewhere in the Neches River bottoms during her escape. Jonah agrees to help her find and sell the drugs so she can flee East Texas.

Chasing after them is John Curtis, a local drug kingpin and dog fighter, as well as River’s boyfriend, the dangerous Dakota Cade.

Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in violent fashion as all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God.

With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into the sinister world of the East Texas river bottoms, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Dec 15, 2021  
The special guest author today on my blog is Florence Byham Weinberg with a fascinating interview. Learn more about her historical fiction novel BEFORE THE ALAMO: A TEJANA'S STORY, and enter the giveaway to win signed copies of that book and her other historical fiction novel APACE LANCE, FRANCISCAN CROSS.

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-before.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS FOR BEFORE THE ALAMO**
Emilia Altamirano, half Otomí Indian, half pure Spanish, is born in 1814, the year after the Battle of the Medina River, where her father fought as an officer in the Mexican Royalist Army. She grows up in Bexar de San Antonio unacknowledged by her father, raised by her Otomí Indian mother, and “adopted” as an unofficial ward by José Antonio Navarro, hero of the Texas fight for independence from Mexico. She learns to read, write, and acts as a page for the Ayuntamiento (City Council). She learns nursing during a cholera epidemic and later tends the wounded on both sides during and after the Battle of the Alamo. She survives, but as a Tejana, Spanish-speaking, and a loyal citizen of Mexico, she faces an uncertain future.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Mar 27, 2021  
Visit my blog to read a great excerpt from the literary fiction/short stories book A WALL OF BRIGHT DEAD FLOWERS by Babette Fraser Hale. Enter the giveaway to win a bookplate signed by Babette Fraser Hale as well as a $20 gift card to Brazos Bookstore - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-wall-of.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Most are newcomers to the scenic, rolling countryside of central Texas whose charms they romanticize, even as the troubles they hoped to leave behind persist. Twelve stories highlight “the book’s recurring theme of desire—for freedom, for clarity, for autonomy, and for personal fulfillment … When women are alone, unencumbered and unbeholden to anyone, they engage in intense internal reflection and show reverence for nature—and during these scenes, Hale’s language is luminescent” (Kirkus Reviews).
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 30, 2020  
Today's special guest on my blog is Teddy Jones, author of the literary fiction novel SLANTED LIGHT! Read her fantastic guest post about her writing journey, and enter the giveaway to win these fantastic prizes:

Grand Prize: $25 Amazon gift card and signed copies of both books in the Jackson's Pond, Texas Series by Teddy Jones
Two Winners: Signed copy of Slanted Light by Teddy Jones

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-slanted.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Teddy Jones’s earlier novel, Jackson’s Pond, Texas, began the saga of the Jackson family. Now, Slanted Light continues their tale.

Claire Havlicek’s late night call brings her brother Chris Banks from his home in New Mexico back to the town that bears their family name, Jackson’s Pond. She’s collapsed under the weight of threats to her thirteen-year marriage that have undermined her confidence and her will. Her husband, J. D., responds to seduction by a woman in need; theft and the threat of a forced buyout jeopardize Claire’s two medical clinics; drought imperils their ranch and cattle business; a teenage daughter turns to bulimia.

When Claire admits her limits, her grandmother, Willa Jackson, and the other members of her family help her learn that being human, weaknesses and all, can be a source of strength and joy.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Nov 14, 2020  
Today on my blog, I have an interview with author Rob Witherspoon. Check out his satirical humor fiction novel THE SQUARE ROOT OF TEXAS: THE FIRST CALAMITY OF QED MORNINGWOOD, and enter the GIVEAWAY to win a signed copy of this book as well as the second book in the series - three winners total.

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/11/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-square-root.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
QED Morningwood is a liar, braggart and teller of tall tales. When he shows up at the domino parlor with a mysterious Russian crate in the back of his pick-up truck, he confides to the players he is a ‘Shadow’ member of the NRA, not on their official membership roll, and has a load of rocket propelled grenades – all lies. The news spreads to the real Shadow NRA, the FBI and Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Cultural Preservation sends an agent to retrieve the crate, the actual contents known only to the Russians.

The Russian agent, an FBI team, a DHS undercover agent and a Shadow NRA hit team arrive in Heelstring, Texas looking for QED and his crate. Their convergence is followed by interrogations, seduction, lies, arrests, jailbreak, kidnapping and rescue – along with car chases and explosions. If not for Cotton Widdershins, an ancient black man with secrets of his own, who acts as QED’s mentor and savior, the Morningwood line would be doomed to end, or at best spend life in a federal penitentiary.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Dec 17, 2020  
Sneak a peek at the literary fiction novel RIVER, SING OUT by James Wade on my blog! This book sounds so good! (Check out that gorgeous cover too!)

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/12/book-blitz-river-sing-out-by-james-wade.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
“And through these ages untold, the river did act as the lifeblood of all those things alongside it.”
Jonah Hargrove is celebrating his thirteenth birthday by avoiding his abusive father, when a girl named River stumbles into his yard, injured and alone. The teenager has stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of meth from her murderous, drug-dealing boyfriend, but lost it somewhere in the Neches River bottoms during her escape. Jonah agrees to help her find and sell the drugs so she can flee East Texas.
Chasing after them is John Curtis, a local drug kingpin and dog fighter, as well as River’s boyfriend, the dangerous Dakota Cade.
Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in violent fashion as all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God.
With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into the sinister world of the East Texas river bottoms, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.
      
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Lindsay (1706 KP) rated The Black Midnight (True Crime #7) in Books

Aug 4, 2020  
The Black Midnight (True Crime #7)
The Black Midnight (True Crime #7)
Kathleen Y'Barbo | 2020 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
If you are a history lover and enjoy England, you will enjoy this book. Well, you will get a bit of a tour of London. Though we start in Austin, Texas. We are introduced to every strong Pinkerton detective and her partner. We seem to have unsolved murders in Texas. But our detectives seem to be quite busy otherwise while chasing down a killer.

Will Annie and her partner Isaiah solve the murders in Austin and London? Will they find the killer that is killing women in their beds in Austin and the connection with the killing in London? The queen seems to want her great-granddaughter to look into them with her friend from Texas.

The pages will make you want to read until the last page. You will be on your toes and turning or sliding your pages up reading until the end. Is the killer Jack the Ripper, or is it someone else? You will be trying to guess and figure out along with the Pinkerton detectives in their investigations.

I felt like I was investigating along with them trying to find the killer of the mysterious deaths. You do get pulled into experience the London along the way. Who or What is the Black Midnight? Is the Midnight Assassin the same person as The Black Midnight or Jack the Ripper?

All fans of historical fiction and crime will love this book and the series. It had me wanting more. It is in does go into details about investigations but not a lot into the deaths of killings. This is good in that way. What does the Prince want with his daughter? Why is he trying to bring his daughter home? Who is Annie Walters? Will she give herself away? What up with Cameron Blake and his reporting. Some entertaining story plots are going on. We go on as adventure with this one.
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Aug 15, 2020 (Updated Aug 15, 2020)  
Sneak a peek at THE BLACK MIDNIGHT, a historical mystery, by Kathleen Y'Barbo on my blog. Enter the giveaway to win a $20 Amazon gift card and/or a signed copy of the book!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-black.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Two killers, two detectives, and a menace called The Black Midnight may be the death of both of them.

Three years before Jack the Ripper began his murderous spree on the streets of London, a killer struck fear into the hearts of the citizens of Austin, Texas. Some believe one man is responsible for both, while others lay the blame at the feet of someone close to the queen herself. With suspicion falling on Her Majesty’s family and Scotland Yard at a loss as to who the Ripper might be, Queen Victoria summons her great-granddaughter, Alice Anne von Wettin, a former Pinkerton agent who worked the unsolved Austin murders case, and orders her to discreetly form a team to look into the London matter. One man is essential to her team, and she doesn’t want to consider taking on this challenge without his expertise. Unfortunately, he’s back in Texas, with a bad attitude and a new profession.

The prospect of a second chance at catching the man who terrorized Austin three years ago just might entice Isaiah Joplin out of his comfortable life as an Austin lawyer, even if it does mean working with the Queen’s great-granddaughter again. If his theories are right, they’ll find the Midnight Assassin and, by default, the Ripper. If they’re wrong, he and Annie are in a bigger mess than the one the lady detective left behind when she departed Austin under cover of darkness three years ago.

Can the unlikely pair find the truth of who is behind the murders before they are drawn into the killer’s deadly game? From Texas to London, the story navigates the fine line between truth and fiction as Annie and Isaiah ultimately find the hunters have become the hunted.
      
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Oct 3, 2021  
Sneak a peek at the middle grade historical fiction book ONCE UPON A CAMEL by Kathi Appelt on my blog, and watch an interesting short documentary about the US Army’s camel experiment which is referenced in the book. Enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of the book - three winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-once-upon.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Zada is a camel with a treasure trove of stories to tell. She’s won camel races for the royal Pasha of Smyrna, crossed treacherous oceans to new land, led army missions with her best camel friend by her side, and outsmarted a far too pompous mountain lion.

But those stories were from before. Now, Zada wanders the desert as the last camel in Texas. But she’s not alone. Two tiny kestrel chicks are nestled in the fluff of fur between her ears—kee-killy-keeing for their missing parents—and a dust storm the size of a mountain is taking Zada on one more grand adventure. And it could lead to this achy old camel’s most brilliant story yet.