This Friday's Read: MOUNTAIN LAUREL CHRISTMAS by Jan Sikes

 

Thank you, Sandra, for inviting me to your blog site to talk about my newest release, Mountain Laurel Christmas. I appreciate your generosity.

Entirely my pleasure, Jan. I’m happy to have you and feature this special story for the holiday season.

 

1.    My main character was born Norbert Angus Anderson. His father was a coal miner who perished in a mine collapse when Norbert was only twelve. Living in a shack on the side of the Cumberland Mountains with his mother, sister, and little brother, poverty was a constant way of life.Music was this little family’s salvation.Norbert’s father had the gift of music and passed it down to his sons. 

2.  2.     After the death of both parents, Norbert was utterly alone. He went to Ohio to stay with his sister for a while, but he had a powerful dream that pushed him to Nashville. He was determined to break into the music business. It was then he changed his name for the first time. He introduced himself as Andy Roberts, ditching the Norbert Angus for good.

3.    When superstar, Corinna South, hired Andy as an opening act for her shows, she again changed his name. Norbert Angus Anderson, aka Andy Roberts, became Cole Knight. With Corinna’s influence, he made it big in the music world. He was living the dream.

Yet, he was dying inside. Haunted by grief, guilt, and loneliness, he turned to alcohol to numb the pain.

 When the story begins, Cole is deep into a bottle of whiskey when a reporter’s insistent questions raise old memories and spur Cole into action. He cannot continue to live under this dark cloud. 

 

 EXCERPT:

 A single strand of blinking Christmas lights reflects off newly fallen snow through the lone front window of my favorite downtown pub. A metallic cutout hangs over the bar, proclaiming it’s a Merry Christmas.

I snort. Merry, my ass. I haven’t felt the meaning of that word for a long time. But this year, even less than the ones before.

“Tell me, Mr. Knight. What’s it like bein’ a big singin’ star?”

I turn my attention from the shot glass nestled comfortably in my hand to the watery blue eyes of an overweight fellow in a cheap leisure suit and overcoat. “I reckon it’s okay. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to drink in peace.”

The heavyset man eases his rear up on the barstool next to me and motions to the bartender. “I understand, and I hate to intrude, but I’m tryin’ real hard to get established as a reporter. I need a story bad. What was it like for you growing up?”

Shifting away from the intrusive interviewer, I stare past him at a memory as vivid as if it were yesterday. 

 

 BOOK BLURB:

 Orphaned, his family torn apart by tragedy, Cole Knight has come a long way from a ramshackle miner’s cabin on the side of the Cumberland Mountain.

Daring to follow an impossible dream, he’s made it big in the music business. Now, he’s a country music sensation with a huge house, fancy cars, plenty of willing women, money, and adoring fans. He should be on top of the world. Instead, he’s drowning in a swirling pool of self-contempt and relentless guilt.

It’s easier to lose himself in a bottle than face the hard truth...he hasn’t delivered on a promise he made to his father.

It’s almost Christmas, and the sting of failure drives him back to that tiny cabin in the mountains. But has he waited too late to put the shattered pieces back together—to find himself and restore a lost family?  

 

PURCHASE LINK:

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Laurel-Christmas-Jan-Sikes-ebook/dp/B09KJYMVT9/

 

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