Cover Presentation - The Heart´s Darkness

Here it is. The first cover presentation of THE HEART´S DARKNESS.

The ebook version will be publishes at the end of this week on amazon.com, amazon.uk, amazon.co and amazon.au.

And now have the first exklusive look to the book cover.

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THE HEART´S DARKNESS - The Look Inside (2)

Extracts from chapter 2

I opened the door to the largest room in the house, the sitting room. In the fireplace a fire was burning and crackling and filled the room with pleasant warmth and the scent of wood and resin. As so often, my father, Alastair MacDonnell, was sitting at his desk, a secretary that stood close to one of the tall windows, and was busy with notes or accounting of some kind.

I remained standing at the threshold and knocked softly on the door frame.

“Good evening, Father,” I greeted him. “May I come in?”

My father raised his head, took the pince-nez from his nose and smiled briefly, before he drew his silver watch from his jacket pocket. He threw a shrewd look at its face.

“It is almost six o’clock, my dear young daughter. Where have you been all this time?” he asked sternly, but happily not really cross.

“Please forgive me, Father. I was in the woods and...” Through the open door to the kitchen, I pointed to my basket, which I had placed on the kitchen table in a readily visible position beforehand. “I made good use of the nice weather and went to collect blackberry leaves again for the tea that you like to drink so much.”

My father’s expression lost its severity, while he ran his hand through his short grey hair. He always made this gesture when he was considering whether he should reprimand me, or show himself to be merciful. I hoped for the latter.

“Well, if that’s the case, for once I’ll do without a tongue lashing,” he grumbled with a soft chuckle.

“Can I speak with you, Father? It’s really important.”

“Go on, my child, what’s on your mind?” He settled himself in his armchair and folded his hands over his stomach.

“Eibhlin told me that we have guests?”

“Yes, a Mr. Benjamin Preston from Lone Oak. He was looking for a place to stay for the night. I offered him the attic, and his people are staying in the barn.”

My father looked me over, from head to foot. “What’s wrong, Gwen? You are so pale, that you might have seen a ghost.”

“It wasn’t a ghost, but I saw Preston and his men while I was gathering blackberry leaves in the woods.”

“Then you sent him to me? He didn’t mention anything to me about it.”

“I didn’t speak to Mr. Preston. With a dozen strange men prowling through the forest, I thought it was more sensible to hide...the men come from Lone Oak, you said?”

“Yes.”

“The Lone Oak that I know lies at the bottom end of Pleasant Lake, that is, north of Glensemais.”

Thoughts were running swiftly through my mind, and the picture that they created made me truly uneasy and gave me a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

My father frowned in thought. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, Gwen.”

I heard footsteps on the stairs.

“Father, please listen carefully to me,” I began hastily, “this Preston didn’t come from the direction of Pleasant Lake, but from the south.”

I had hardly ended my sentence when there was a knock at the door and, without waiting for an answer, a tall, elegantly-dressed, middle-aged man entered the room. I recognized him immediately. He had ridden the dark stallion, and thus confirmed my assumption that he was the head of the company.

The man looked around the room with arrogant curiosity, before his eyes came to rest on me.

My father had stood up when the guest entered. Now he came out from behind the massive oaken desk and stretched his arm out to the newcomer in welcome.

“Gwenyth, I would like to introduce you to our guest,” he said in a friendly tone.

I knew that my information had not left him untouched, but throughout all the years during which we had had to be constantly on guard, he had become accustomed to concealing his feelings carefully from his surroundings.

The stranger came towards me with a determined step. He was almost half a head taller than my father and was of lean stature. Nevertheless, he made a tough and determined impression and reminded me of a hunting dog who was just about to take up a scent. With a thin smile on his lips, he gave me his hand, while he inspected me, half out of curiosity and half furtively, with his pale grey eyes.

“My pleasure, miss, my name is Benjamin Preston,” he said, introducing himself.

“Gwenyth Mary MacDonnell. Alastair MacDonnell...” I began and shook his hand hesitantly.

“...is your father,” our guest finished my sentence. “I am informed. And I can assure you, that your father gave a proud report of his daughter.”

He relinquished my hand. For some unknown reason I was glad, as deep within me a feeling advised me to avoid every kind of familiarity between Preston and me.

“I’ll leave you and my father alone now,” I said with an apologetic gesture in the direction of the kitchen. “With so many guests there is a lot of preparation.”

“I think Macey and Eibhlin can manage quite well. Come, sit here with us and keep me and Mr. Preston company for a while,” my father replied.

I felt his hand on my back, and it directed me gently but firmly to the sofa and to the two inviting upholstered chairs in front of the fire.

Enjoy your read. In the next few days you will find more excerpts on this blog. 
If you want to leave a comment your are wellcome, too.

THE HEART´S DARKNESS - The Look Inside (1)

Extracts from Chapter 1

Glensemais, Massachusetts, September 29, 1722

A smile spread across my face when I discovered Padraig among the trees. I had waited for him for what had seemed like an eternity and had doubted somewhere deep inside me whether he would even still come. Yet, he was finally here, and my worry changed suddenly to anticipation.

Almost silently, he stalked through the sun-flooded brush to our hiding place, a small clearing surrounded by blackberry and blueberry bushes in the middle of the forest. And Padraig had noticed me, too. He gave a quick wave, before he prepared to make a spirited leap over a tree stump that blocked his way.

I put my basket with rosehips and blackberry leaves aside and ran towards him, smiling with joy. Padraig opened his arms to catch me.

“I was afraid you had forgotten me,” I scolded him, feigning severity.

Padraig set me down carefully, as though a careless movement might cause me to break. His reddish-blond hair fluttered in the warm breeze which blew around the trees with their autumn leaves. He merely looked at me tenderly for a while, and then he shook his head.

“No, love, you’re wrong there. No matter what happens, I could never forget you...”

His declaration of love embarrassed me, as it came unexpectedly and was not at all like Padraig’s generally unromantic nature. I sensed that my cheeks were getting hot, and probably also turning red.

“Why do you come so late?” I asked, a little out of curiosity as to why he had been tardy, but primarily as his forthright confession of love had surprised me somewhat, and I wanted to change the subject.

“We were in the fields. We couldn’t have waited much longer with the tilling.” Padraig looked up at the cloudless blue autumn sky. “It is still warm, but in a few days we could have the first frost, and then it gets harder and harder to work the soil.”

I nodded in agreement, as we had also just prepared our fields for the winter.

Padraig took hold of my hands. He carried them to his lips and gently kissed the backs of my hands.

“Now it’s not even four weeks until our wedding,” he said thoughtfully. “Have you thought about what our lives will be like afterward?”

I caressed Padraig’s unshaven cheek with its stubble tenderly.

“Very often, my dear,” I responded softly. “But how else should it be? I will move in with you and your grumpy father, keep house for you, and help you in the field and with the animals and...”

“...and what?”

“And one day have our children, who we will bring up together,” I answered, laughing.

“Does this thought make you happy? I mean, do you really want to live with my bad-tempered father under one roof in the coming years?” Padraig asked seriously.

I looked at him enquiringly, as his behavior had now surprised me for the second time within a short period of time. What did he mean by his question? It was actually the most normal thing in the world that the wife moved in with her husband, and that Padraig’s father lived there too didn’t change anything. Just as little as the fact that he was a grumpy chap whom one could almost never please.

“Do you have perhaps a better plan?” I enquired in irritated tone.

Padraig’s grin was as wide as the Kennebec River after the snow melt in spring.

“And do I ever,” he said in a conspiratorial undertone, while he began to fumble at his shirt. Seconds later he drew a scroll wrapped in leather from out of his breast slit.

“Here.” He pressed the roll into my hand.

“What is that?” I asked, curious.

 “Open it. See for yourself.”

 With feverish fingers, I opened the slender ribbon that held the roll closed and unrolled the leather with a solemn gesture. In disbelief I marveled at the document that appeared from under the cover.

 “That...that is a deed,” I murmured in surprise. “And our names are on it...Padraig, does this mean...?”

 Clearly, I was being too slow-witted for Padraig’s liking, in that moment. He took the deed from me, together with its leather cover.

 “Yes, Gwen, that’s exactly what it means,” he exclaimed in a voice hoarse with excitement. “I have bought some land for us. We will have our own little farm. A home just for us...and our children,” he added hastily.

Enjoy your read. In the next few days you will find more excerpts on this blog. 
If you want to leave a comment your are wellcome, too.

Im Mai wird es Englisch - THE DARK HAWK SERIES are coming!!!

Ja, meine Lieben, jetzt wird es ernst!

Sowohl für DUNKELHEIT DER HERZEN als auch für PFADE DER HOFFNUNG liegen die Amerikanischen Übersetzungen vor. Beide Romane sollen annähernd zeitgleich im Laufe dieses Monats an den Start gehen zuerst als eBook und bei Erfolg auch als Print.

DUNKELHEIT DER HERZEN wird unter dem Titel THE HEART´S DARKNESS erscheinen.
PFADE DER HOFFNUNG wird ganz getreu dem Originaltitel unter PATHS OF HOPE erhältlich sein. Die komplette Buchreihe wird unter THE DARK HAWK SERIES laufen.

Im Moment bin ich dabei, die Cover für die englische Version zu gestalten und die ebooks herzustellen. Das Cover zu THE HEART´S DARKNESS wird wohl zu DUNKELHEIT DER HERZEN unverändert bleiben, PATHS OF HOPE wird ein bisschen "piratiger" als PFADE DER HOFFNUNG daherkommen. In den nächsten Tagen werdet ihr es auf diesem Blog erfahren, denn ich habe noch eine ganze Menge zu tun. ganz abgesehen davon wollt ihr ja bestimmt auch wissen, wie es mit Jaque und Gwen weitergeht ...

Drückt mir die Daumen!!!

Gratis-Aktion 28.04. + 29.04.

Hallo meine Lieben,

wer die Lächeln-des-Falken-Saga noch nicht kennt, hat heute und morgen die Chance dazu das 300 Seiten starke Spin-Off DUNKELHEIT DER HERZEN gratis als Kindle-eBook herunterzuladen. Lest die Geschichte von Anfang an. Jetzt!


Leserstimmen:

Die Geschichte hat ein unglaubliches Tempo und man kommt beim Lesen kaum zum Luftholen (Manus Tintenkleckse)

Ein packendes Buch voll Emotionen. (yvonne.g)

Diese Geschichte ist nichts für schwache Nerven. (UMD)

Gwen ist eine ganz außergewöhnliche und starke Frau ... (Buchplaudereien by Beate)

Frohe Ostern

Wer noch Lesefutter für den Kindle sucht:

Bis einschließlich 6. April gibt es DUNKELHEIT DER HERZEN noch zum Einführungspreis zu 0,99 €.

In diesem Sinne wünsche ich meinen Leserinnen und Lesern gute Unterhaltung und