New This Week - The Sin Eater's Redemption
From the desk of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Maybe, like me, you first heard about sin eaters
from grandparents or other family elders with some Welsh heritage. Perhaps you read about the tradition because
you’re into folklore and old customs, again like me. Or you might’ve seen the 1972 episode of Rod
Serling’s program, Night Gallery, where Richard Thomas (who later played John
Boy Walton and who has some Welsh ancestry) played a sin eater. There’s also a newer movie out in the past
few years although I’ll admit – I haven’t seen it.
To quote a little Shakespeare, there are more things
in heaven and earth than dreamt of so I keep an open mind. My son, age twelve, watches a lot of programs
about Bigfoot. Is it real? I don’t know
but I’ll concede it’s possible. I do
believe in ghosts because I’ve had too many personal experiences not to do
so. Before experts determined a
particular variety of woodpecker thought extinct was alive and well in the wilds
of Arkansas, I’d seen them in my own woods.
I once saw an egg tree, not the decorative kind but the kind designed to
prevent witches in the Ozarks. I like to
believe some things can and do survive into the 21st century – like a
sin eater.
Such possibilities intrigue me. I’ve long been fascinated with the ancient
custom found in parts of the British Isles, especially Wales, of the sin
eater. Although the last known sin eater
was supposed to have died back in the 19th century, who knows about
the ones who continued the practice? Since a number of old folkways survive in
the Ozarks – after all, I once saw a genuine witch tree, the kind meant to keep
witches away – I decided a sin eater might exist today, especially if the
custom had been handed down over the generations. And the story built from there….
The cover and blurb:
Death brings singer Tessa Owens home
from Nashville to her native Ozarks. But
she’s not planning to stay. Tessa turned
her back on the old ways of life for the modern world long ago. She didn’t
expect to meet her first love, Lucas Rowlands, at the visitation. Seven years wasn’t long enough to forget him
and sparks ignite when they meet again. Even worse, Tessa learns Lucas isn’t
the simple country farmer she left behind but the sin eater, an ancient
position handed down to him from his grandfather. As she struggles to
understand Lucas’ life and role as a sin eater Tessa admits she loves him and
there’s no doubt what he feels for her.
The devil wants Lucas’ sin-heavy soul and if they don’t come up with
something, Lucas is hell bound on an express ticket. If there’s any chance at a future, it’s up to
Tessa.
Buy and other links:
Book trailer:
News release:
Here’s not one but two excerpts to tempt your fancy:
They ended up
out in the antique porch swing, side by side.
As dusk gathered shadows into darkness, Lucas put his arm around her
shoulders so she scooted closer. The
sweet, rich smell of honeysuckle floated on the wind. Far off in the distance Tessa heard the whine
of tires as they sped over pavement and down the road somewhere coon hounds
barked. Tiny brilliant lightning bugs
flickered across the pasture and she marveled at their quiet beauty. She hadn’t seen a single firefly since she
left home but her nights were spent beneath city lights. Peace settled around her like a shawl and she
sighed with contentment.
“It’s so
beautiful here. Quiet and so tranquil.”
“I like it,”
Lucas said. “Always have, always will.”
They rocked and
the gentle sway soothed something in Tessa’s soul Silence stretched between them, comfortable
as well worn shoes. He smiled and turned
to her, “I don’t remember any place else but here, you know.”
His early life
history was still almost as familiar as hers.
Tessa nodded. “I do.”
“I’ve been a few
places but I can’t imagine living away like you have. Was it hard to adjust?”
Was it? Tessa
struggled to remember her first days in Nashville. By the time she left Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge
to come back to bury Uncle Cal, she’d adapted, learned to thrive and survive. But it wasn’t always so. After a long pause to
collect her thoughts, Tessa answered. “Oh, yeah, it was. Everything was so different when I got to
Nashville. The traffic, the way the city
goes on for miles and miles, the tall buildings, all of it felt so strange,”
she told him. “At first I stayed with Karla, my cousin, in her apartment but it
wasn’t very far from a large medical center and it wasn’t in the best part of
town, either. Sirens ran all the time, ambulances, fire trucks, police cars. I got homesick and almost came home.” Tessa
stopped and then added, “And I missed you.”
“Why didn’t you
come back?”
She offered him
a small smile but it hurt to remember. “I planned on it and even packed my
suitcases. Then I got my first gig, so I
thought I was on my way to the big time. I decided to stay a little longer to
see what happened.”
Above the tree
line the night sky stretched out, dark as black velvet. More stars than she
could count brightened it like tiny diamonds.
The big-bellied moon rose, not quite waxed full and coated everything in
soft silver. Tessa found it magical and
said so.
Lucas left the
swing to offer her his hand and she took it.
“Come dance with me,” he said, the last thing she expected to hear from
his lips. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about a thousand times.”
Enchanted, Tessa
took his hand and he led her out into the yard.
They slow danced together in the moonlight. At first there was no music but the crickets
and the other night insects but Lucas began singing an old Jim Croce song from
long before their time. She remembered the name of it, Time In A Bottle. They’d
heard it on an oldies radio station in their teens and both liked the poignant
tune. Lucas bought a Croce CD the next
day and for a long time, Tessa recalled, it’d been their song. Maybe it still was, she thought, with hope.
“If I could save time in a bottle,” Lucas
crooned, his voice true on the notes, “that
I’d like to do is to save every day until eternity passes away just to spend
them with you.”
How could he
sing the words, she wondered, and yet insist their time together had to be fleeting.
Short term wouldn’t work and she knew it. For them, it had to be all or nothing,
everything or heartbreak. Tessa said
nothing, unwilling to break the spell Lucas wove. When he finished the song, he
looked into her face.
“Now come love
me. It’s the rest of the dream.”
Moved beyond
words, Tessa nodded. Inside the house, he made love to her, unhurried and slow.
He cherished her. His sweet tenderness
spoke more than words ever could and when she fell asleep, afterward in his
arms, moonlight shone through the window and over the bed with benediction.
Here’s the second sneak peek from the story. I always have a
hard time deciding what excerpts to share but this one, the moment of truth when
Tessa learns Lucas is the sin eater, seemed perfect.
“Hello, Lucas.” Her voice came out hushed, like
school kids whispering in a library. “It’s been a long time.”
Lucas Rowlands grinned with a naughty smile she
remembered very well. He looked the
same, overlong brown hair lit with blonde highlights, dark blue eyes and a lean
build. “I hear you’ve been living up to Nashville all this time,” he said.
“I have,” Tessa replied. “I live there now.”
His eyes locked on her face and she couldn’t look
away, mesmerized by his steady gaze.
“Guess you ain’t famous just yet.”
Face to face, toe to toe, she remembered more than
she wanted. His presence, his physical proximity exuded power, so much so the
fine hairs on her arms came to attention. “No,” she said, her voice husky. “I’m
not. What are you doing these days,
Lucas?”
“I do as little as possible,” he said with a sassy
grin. “I raise cattle and more than a
little hell at my granddad’s old place.
I live in the old house and mostly do what I want.”
That sounded like Lucas, she thought. “Are you
married?”
“Nope and I
don’t plan to get that way. What about
you, darlin’? Do you have a husband and kiddies in a little house over there on
the Cumberland River?”
He stood close, heat radiating from his skin as it
moved over her in waves. Tessa grew too
hot, overheating so much she thought she might faint. His questions irked her,
though she couldn’t say why.
“No,” Tessa said. If she didn’t get some fresh air
now, she would pass out. She stepped
forward, prepared to head for the back door. Luke took her hand instead and
kept her in place.
“Where are you going? We haven’t had time to catch
up or talk about old times.”
His voice affected her like cheap strawberry wine
with a giddy rush powerful enough to tilt her off balance.
“I need some air,” she whispered. “I’ve got to go
outside.”
Lucas put his
arm around her. “Let’s go then.”
He pressed
through the crowd with a fake grin plastered on his face, exchanging a few nods
and howdys. She allowed him to take her through her aunt’s kitchen, aware the
women putting out food stared as they passed.
In the backyard, Tessa staggered over to a plastic lawn chair and
sat. Cool breezes flowed down the hills
behind and she inhaled deeply. After a few minutes, she sighed.
“Better?” Lucas sprawled in a chair across from hers
and watched with a frown she might’ve once believed came out of concern.
“Yes, thanks.”
“What the hell happened in there? You didn’t use to
be such a wimp.”
“No.” Funny
she could sing on any stage, hobnob with some of the remaining greats of
country music, talk with today’s chart toppers, handle the meanest drunk in any
bar and attend any event and never lose her cool. But come back to the hills and she lost it in
her aunt’s house, among her own folks, thanks to Lucas Rowlands. “I’m okay now, though.”
He offered a hand so she could rise and Tessa
accepted it. Before she had time to
think, Lucas drew her into his arms like a spider catching a fly and put his
mouth down over hers. She struggled,
protested until his heat fired her and ignited all her old passions. Tessa
kissed him back with the same unholy fire.
Sweet little charges of electricity ran over her sensitive skin and when
his tongue entered her mouth, she would’ve squealed aloud except she couldn’t,
there wasn’t space to make a sound.
Pleasure from his mouth expanded lower and spread
heat through her in waves. A dim sense
Tessa should protest, should push him away hovered at the edge of her
consciousness but everything felt too damn good to stop. His lips evoked the past, stolen kisses and
heady delights she recalled much too well.
If someone, she never could be sure who it was, had not thrust their
head out of the back door and called, “Lucas, it’s time.”
Tessa might’ve let him do more than kiss her there,
in the backyard, with her kinfolk and most of the rural community steps
away. The reality check jarred her back
to consciousness as he released her.
“I’ll see you later,” he said with a playful swat at
her rear as he vanished into the house.
Tessa watched him go, divided between longing for
more kisses and anger that she’d let her guard down so easily. Lucas was the last person she expected to see
and before she could ponder why he’d come to Uncle Cal’s private family
visitation, the back door swung open.
“There you are! You need to come in now, we’re about
to get started.”
“Start what, Aunt Vernie?”
Her aunt ducked her head. “I had the sin eater
come. You know what a wicked man Calvin
could be, how mean he was. I just hated to think he might spend all eternity in
hell so I decided to do it the way folks did back a few years. Truth is they do it more now than you’d think
now that we got us a sin eater again.”
“You’re joking,” Tess said. This sounded
insane. Clearly she’d left the real
world behind in Tennessee and ended up here on the set of The Twilight Zone.
Aunt
Verna folded her arms across her chest like fresh laundry. “I’m not,
Tessa. You’ve been away too long. That’s
why I had them bring Cal back out here from the funeral home. Today’s for the sin eater, the family, and
close friends. It’s visitation, too, but
this is the most important.”
Here are some places where you can find me!
MY LINKS
Twitter:
leeannwriter
From
Sweet to Heat: The Romance of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphyhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/From-Sweet-To-Heat-The-Romance-of-Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/287540748010934?ref=hl
Amazon
author page: http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/e/B004JPBM6I
Blog:
Rebel Writer: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Author In The House blog:
Amazon
author page: http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/e/B004JPBM6I
Μy bгothеr recommendеd I might like this web site.
ReplyDeleteHe was tоtally rіght. This рοst truly mаde my daу.
Yοu can nοt imagine ѕimply how much tіme I had
spent foг this infoгmation! Thankѕ!
My blοg pоst :: Same Day Payday Loans