Fiction Friday: Meet Harmony From No River Too Wide

No River Too Wide from Blackstone AudioRecognize this cover?

No?  It’s the new audio version of No River Too Wide. I’m absolutely delighted to say that all three books in the series are being recorded and published by Blackstone Audio, and they’ll be available as CDs and as MP3s on Audible. In fact (don’t tell anybody) it looks as if No River Too Wide  is being sold now at Amazon, a few days early.

Karen White, the narrator, is a delightful woman, and she has consulted me several times about pronunciation. That’s what we call “thorough” in this business. Thank you, Karen.

Karen has already recorded One Mountain Away, the first book in the series, and here’s what she told me:

I just finished recording ONE MOUNTAIN AWAY and I kept having to stop and blow my nose and compose myself to get through it!  I really fell in love with Charlotte over the course of the book. 

Believe it or not, we authors are perfectly capable of melting into a gooey puddle after words like those. And I certainly did relate since I had to stop and blow my nose a few times when I was writing it.

I’ll post that cover once I have it. Now Karen is recording Somewhere Between Luck and Trust.  I look forward to listening to each book.

Last week at Fiction Friday I introduced Taylor Martin, and this week I promised an introduction to Harmony Stoddard, number two of the three important women in the novel.  So here we go.

In this scene Harmony is checking the internet, as she does regularly, to see if there is any information about the mother she left behind in Topeka, Kansas. This is something she forces herself to do, but she hopes she won’t find anything. She knows if she does, the news will not be good.

From previous books we know that Harmony’s mother is a victim of domestic violence.

Without further explanation. . .

***

           Harmony knew what she had to do.

          In the months since she had last spoken to her mother, she had fallen into something of a ritual.  Every three or four weeks she checked the Topeka Capital-Journal online to see if there was any mention of her parents.  She didn’t expect to find them in descriptions of Topeka’s most coveted social events, or as participants in a 5K for charity.  This was not casual surfing.  She was fairly certain that if she discovered anything it would be in the obituaries or the headlines. 

          Murdered Wife Wasn’t Missed for Months.

          With those expectations it was always difficult to make herself go to the website.  Harmony had considered closing the door to her past and locking it tight.  But she still loved her mother, and despite Janine’s plea that Harmony never call again, she believed that her mother still loved her, at least whatever part of Janine Stoddard’s heart and soul were still alive and functioning. Trying to forget her was a betrayal, and Harmony’s mother had been betrayed much too often. 

          She wished Lottie would wake up to stop her, or the front door would slam and Rilla and her sons would entice her into the kitchen to chat while Rilla made dinner.  But the house remained silent, and with a sigh she typed in the URL for the newspaper online and once the right page was on the screen in front of her, she typed “Stoddard” into the search box and waited.

          No matter how pessimistic or realistic she was about her mother’s future, the headline that came up in response stole the breath from her lungs.

          “House Fire Still Smoldering After Devastating Propane Tank Explosion.”

          For a moment she simply stared at the screen as the words she had read out loud blurred.  Was this a mistake?  There must be other Stoddards in Topeka. Was one of them mentioned elsewhere on the page and that’s why Harmony had been led here?  There were headlines in the sidebar, advertisements at the top, and at the bottom a site menu.  Surely that had to be the explanation.

          But even while she tried to avoid reading the article, she knew.

Copyright © 2014 by Emilie Richards McGee
Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A

***

Don’t forget. I promised you three major women, so next week? Come back and meet number three. 

FYI: I am an Amazon Associate, which means I get a small royalty when you click and buy from one of my Amazon links. I am delighted when you buy my book anywhere. You’ll find links to all major bookstores on each of my website book pages.

4 Comments

  1. Kathryn@Book Date on June 20, 2014 at 4:11 am

    I see I can pre order No River Too Wide at Audible, I hope that I’ll be able to get the other two as well. Even though I have read all three, listening on audio adds to the experience of a book. Sometimes though Audible offers only some books to we people down under in New Zealand because of world rights so will have to wait and see.

    • Emilie Richards on June 20, 2014 at 10:18 am

      Kathryn, I hope it will be available in NZ. Fingers crossed. And thank you for the great review at your blog.

  2. Marna on June 20, 2014 at 7:55 am

    You really know how to leave us hanging with that excerpt! Looking forward to the book.

  3. Debbie Haupt on June 20, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Oh Emilie, I have loved Harmony from the moment I first met her. And she just keeps getting better in my opinion. I hope we get to learn her story as well as all the Goddesses that are left in the series.
    I’m not a bit surprised that the narrator had to stop and compose herself for Charlotte’s story that was such an emotional read and even though I knew the outcome and could read the writing on the wall I still had hope.
    Thanks for showcasing all your Goddesses for us
    xoxo
    deb
    ps I love the audio cover 🙂

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