Selkie’s Song
by Clare Austin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
They call her Selkie. Muireann O'Malley often felt she was
born of the sea but refuses to let sentimentality stand in the way of her
crusade to protect the shore she has wandered since a small child. A patch of
West Clare, Ireland, and a derelict building are all that stand between the
cliffs she loves and the callous grip of progress.
Tynan Sloane should be content with success, but a dream
beckons. O'Fallon's Pub in historic downtown Boston is for sale and Tynan wants
to make it his. An unexpected inheritance of land in the west of Ireland could
provide the financing he needs. He doesn't expect his quick trip to sell the
land to rekindle youthful passion.
Fifteen years
ago, they had an adolescent crush. Now disparate ambition and a legend as old
as Ireland herself stand between them. Will love and myth collide to bring them
together or tear them apart?
EXCERPT
Someone pounded a glass on the bar and called for
silence. Others tapped spoons on their pint glasses until
the talking ceased and the room was quiet as a church
on Monday night.
It started so softly, Tynan thought he was once
again in a dream by the sea. The singer had her back to
him, head bowed. She wore a knitted cap, but dark hair
escaped its boundaries and streamed over her shoulders.
He knew by tradition her eyes would be closed.
Her sound was clear as a ringing bell, and he found
himself wondering if she had a face to match the beauty
of her vocal offering.
The fiddler joined her with the lightest touch of his
bow, and the resonance pulled gently at Tynan’s heart.
Her voice was evocative of other times and places.
He’d heard the song before, but not with this
gentleness…a mother’s hand on a wounded child, a
land and it’s people caressed and healed by lyric and
melody. It spoke of friends, of fish, and of the summer
sunsets.
Was she muse or prophet? Every cell in Tynan’s
body sang along with her, as though she reached out
and touched the most intimate threads of his soul. He
couldn’t swallow and could barely breathe.
“I stood by your Atlantic shore and sang a song for
Ireland,” she sang in tones meant to transcend the
physical and pierce the core of an Irishman’s spirit.
The strains ceased. A benediction of silence
hovered. Ty closed his eyes, picked up his glass, and let
the smooth whiskey glide over his tongue and down his
throat. The band picked up with a jig and the spell was
broken.
When he looked again, the singer was gone.
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
A word about the author...
Clare Austin submitted her first manuscript to a publisher at the age of
eight years. She wishes she still had that rejection letter.
Many years and not a few stories later, with characters knocking at the
inside of her cranium and begging to be released, Clare’s romantic comedy, Butterfly,
was published. There followed a suspenseful sequel, Angel’s Share, and Hot
Flash, a women’s fiction/romance for mature women and the men who love them.
Clare lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and enjoys her horses,
playing her violin, and traveling to Ireland every summer.
Website: www.clareaustin.com
Twitter: clareaustin@authorclare
Buy link for Kindle:
http://amzn.com/B00DNDK3MG
Clare will be awarding a print (US only) or digital
copies (international) of the first two books in the series, Butterfly
and Angel's Share to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteThank you for featuring my novel, Selkie's Song, on your blog today. I hope your readers enjoy my excerpt.
ReplyDeleteLove the excerpt!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and for the chance to win!
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