Author Spotlight - Excerpt from Arrow That Flies

Enjoy this excerpt from "Arrow That Flies." Sadie & Sophie are giving away a basket full of Maine goodies. Items include a jar of blueberry jam, some maple drop candy (yum!), a sachet that smells like Christmas trees, and other promotional goodie. All you have to do is read the excerpt and leave a comment between now, Sat & Sun. I'll pull a name out of the hat on Monday 12 SEP and announce the winner here on the blog in this thread and on the Connections Yahoo Group. Don't forget to leave a good email so we can get in contact with you.

Smiles
Moderator Steph

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Jackie closed the door of Brad's office and let the roar of the rain on her helmet swallow up his angry voice. She looked over the hazy mass of charred boards and blackened equipment to where RJ leaned on a tall twisted spruce at the periphery of the lumberyard.

As she watched, a sheet of smoke and rain blew across and obscured the man. "Not this time," she muttered. She flung herself down the stairs, nearly falling as one heel of the big boots fetched on the bottom step. She slewed in the mud and sawdust but kept her head down and fought forward toward her objective. She thought she heard someone shout her name, but she kept moving.

She squinted ahead at the now-empty space underneath the trees. "Jackie!" a familiar voice called through the downpour as a hand touched her shoulder. She spun around to face RJ Adams. Hunched under a hooded poncho, his face and eyes looked out at her, graver than a tombstone. His cold finger stroked the curve of her cheekbone. His feather light touch lingered at the corner of her eye. "I thought you weren't going to get into the thick of things," he said. "Your face tells me you got too close."

Jackie backed away from the tender voice. She swallowed hard before she launched into her confession. "Look at you," she began. Her voice trembled, whether from emotional or physical stress, she didn't have the strength to examine the cause. "You don't have a bit of soot on you."

He held up his finger, the tip as black as sin from where it traced its way across her grimy cheek. "They used to call me the Teflon man," he said. He stepped close, put his arm around her shoulders and propelled them back toward the emergency vehicles with his purposeful stride.

Teflon man -- nothing sticks. But that was yesterday. Today was a different story. She stopped short and he immediately looked down into her eyes. "I saw you this morning," she said, in a voice husky from too much smoke and unshed tears. "Here, near the planer's shed. There'll be an investigation. I have to tell the Fire Marshal what I saw, but I--"

"It's okay," he murmured.

The words tumbled out faster. "I wanted to give you a chance to tell me what happened first," she continued.

RJ gave her a somber smile. "I've already talked to the cops. It'll be okay. Trust me."

How she wanted to do just that, but...

Author Spotlight - Character interview by S Cuffe, featuring Jackie Duncan & RJ Adams

SC: What brought you to the town of Stellar 's Ford?

RJA: Ladies first, I insist.

JD: Thanks so much. I volunteered to be the forester on this logging project because I have connections to this place. When I was a kid, my dad and I came every fall and helped shut down Grania Mountain State Park for the winter.

RJA: That's funny, I don't remember you. My family always vacationed in our mountain cabin. The word is you're here to take my family's land and cabin to clinch this "lumber deal". I'm here to see that doesn't happen.

JD: That's not true, I have other priorities.

RJA: That's an interesting phrase.

SC: Excuse me, Guys. Let's keep this about information, not about your feelings for each other. You both love these mountains, but you're obviously on opposite sides. There was an incident by East Pond. Can you tell us about it?

JD: I was marking trees with the mill boss when we found someone had spiked a pine.

RJA: Hey, you ought to warn your victim -- you could start a bonfire with that look. Yes, I was there, but I had nothing to do with the tree spiking. It was amateurish sabotage. I'm more concerned about the arrow that nearly hit you.

JD: It was just a hunter with poor aim.

RJA: You can try to brush it off, but that wound on your cheek is real enough. These woods aren't safe anymore.

JD: You'd know more about that than I would. I hear you're organizing an environmental protest. I won't allow anyone to hurt this community.

RJA: Neither will I.

SC: Unfortunately, we're out of time, but we'll open it up to your readers. Is there anything you'd like to ask our hero and heroine?

Author Spotlight - On Writing & Sisterhood by Sophie Cuffe

On being a sister. I was six years old, smack in the middle of two brothers, when Sadie was born. She immediately became my best friend and, lo these many years later, she still is. She's such a cheerleader! She actually started writing before I did (professionally, that is. Technically I could write before she was born, LOL), and encouraged me to give it a try. We both wrote for God's World Publications for a few years in the 90's before they closed their doors to freelancers. And we've had separate newspaper columns, so it was a natural to put our heads together when we decided to write fiction. It's great having a writing partner who shares your brain, so when she says, "give me a word that means all the same color," and I say, "monochromatic," it's actually the right word. And when I need a slam-bang finish for my column, she's got the perfect ending. She tells me if I have something stuck in my teeth; I tell her when her hair's standing up straight. That's what teamwork and sisterhood is all about. And she lets me have the blue flash drive. It's that good.

Author Spotlight -Writing Inspirational Fiction by Sadie Cuffe

An editor once told us in no uncertain terms (wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley), we don't write romance. So we hedge a little bit on our genre ID and usually call it Inspirational Women's Fiction. We like to write what we know and, hopefully, give our characters an authentic voice. We also like to write about women who aren't drop-dead gorgeous, or a size 2, or who can dismantle a car and fix it in the morning and put on an LBD and host an intimate dinner party with homemade French cuisine that night. (We wouldn't know about that!) We like to create ordinary places, characters, and storylines that not only reflect our roots but give voice to all the other rural gals out there who are living their own stories. Most real women don't wilt and swoon when a guy takes our hand. We can think for ourselves in a crisis and pack a verbal punch when necessary. Real life is stranger than fiction, if you can only capture it on paper.

We also like the freedom that comes with creating Christian characters who struggle to do the right thing and who don't have a pat, saccharine answer to all of life's challenges, but never give up their faith and never give up period. What do you think makes a great story? Check out our website at www.cuffesisters.com, or drop us a line at cuffesisters@myfairpoint.net. We'd love to hear from you!

Author Spotlight - Q&A with Sadie & Sophie Cuffe

The Cuffe Sisters

STEPH: I don't much about "Arrow That Flies." What's it about?

SOPHIE & SADIE: "Arrow That Flies" is an inspirational romantic suspense novel. The heroine, Jackie Duncan, is a forester and an undercover officer in the state environmental task force. Her mission: to take down environmental eco-terrorist, Rand Adams. The hero, Robbie Adams, thwarts her investigation at every turn because he's also looking for his brother, Rand, who's been kidnapped. Forced to think quick, Robbie assumes the identity of his identical twin brother and sparks fly when his type-A personality collides with Jackie's type-Z ride-by-the-seat-of-her-pants nature. Robbie and Jackie get into some scrapes and tight spots, including protests, fire, and an unknown predator archer who stalks them both.

STEPH: Where did you find the inspiration for it?

SOPHIE & SADIE: We've always lived in rural areas in a blue collar world and our writing reflects that background. Some of our manuscripts have been rejected by editors for being non-authentic in terms of small town culture and happenings. Our inspiration came from wanting to portray rural people as the smart, funny, hard working, strong individualist, and believers they are, true to themselves, regardless of the current fashions and fads of NYC or Paris. We also wanted to create a heroine who could be both feminine and rural woods-smart, and that inspiration came from generations of rural women across the country.

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?



SOPHIE & SADIE: The initial manuscript was written in probably a three month period. It's hard to pinpoint the exact timeline as we both sandwich our novel writing time in between other tasks. Also, "Arrow That Flies" wasn't an instant darling with publishers, so the rewrites took years! (Years to whittle and hone, and years off our life doing it!)

STEPH: How important is setting to the novel?

SOPHIE & SADIE: The setting of the northern woods is essential to the novel because it takes place in a small community dependent on logging for its survival. That way of life is quickly disappearing from our national landscape, so we hope we've captured this fragile moment in time.

5. Did you have to do a lot of research for the novel?
For many years we lived in a county with more trees than people. There were wood turning mills, shingle mills, and small lumber mills around every corner and at the foot of every hill. When we got the idea for the story, we researched the changing face of wood harvesting, collected local and state newspaper articles on the subject, and witnessed firsthand in our community the passing of an era as the wood turning mills shut down and workers with chainsaws and peaveys were replaced with big harvesting machinery.

STEPH: Hollywood just told you they want to make a movie of your novel. Cast the leads!

SOPHIE & SADIE: We're going to show our age here because we don't know that many younger stars, but if we suspend the Hollywood age stigma, we'd pick Lorraine Bracco for our heroine and Jack Scalia as our hero.

STEPH: What do you want people to take away from the novel?

SOPHIE & SADIE: We'd like them to take away a satisfied feeling from a compelling story with a good ending. And we hope we've passed on the knowledge that faith makes a difference -- in giving you the confidence to live life to the fullest and succeed at being the unique, gifted individual God designed you to be.

STEPH: Are you a plotter or a panster?

SOPHIE & SADIE: Sophie's a plotter. Sadie's a panster. Because we come from opposite ends of the personality spectrum, we work well together. Occasionally we try to shift roles and it's never pretty!

STEPH: What's your writing space like?

SADIE: Chaos, I'm ashamed to admit, not even organized chaos. I have stacks of research, snippets of paper with ideas and bits of dialog on every flat surface and in every cubbyhole. Notes are crammed onto old envelopes and there's a computer here somewhere on a tiny oasis in the middle. I also have a photo collage of Sophie and me through the years -- the wrinkles have set in but some things never change. Our office is compact and Sophie's desk backs mine so we can pass off flash drives in seconds, confer about anything and everything, wheel over the sleeping dog, and occasionally whack each other.

SOPHIE: Organized chaos. My files are alphabetized (and yes, even the subfiles). My pencils are all sharp and handy in a "No.1 Mom" mug on my desk. I have a messy stack of papers I'm working my way through, but they're in a semblance of order, too. My wall is peppered with photos of my kids and grandkids, and a motivational Garfield poster that reads "My office, my rules." Kinda true, at least on my half. LOL. We're surrounded with beautifully hand-crafted wooden bookshelves and desks, compliments of our father and grandfather. We have a way-cool office.

STEPH: Tell us a little about the state you live in.

SOPHIE & SADIE: Other than our perpetual state of confusion? LOL Maine is unique. We have impenetrable forests, rugged mountains, blueberry barrens, family farms, black bears, moose, loons, bald eagles, whales, seals, thundering surf, and secluded coves. The end (or the beginning) of the Appalachian Trail is located here on Katahdin, a rocky peak just shy of a mile high. It's a great place to hike. We have a million lakes and rivers, some very remote and pristine. We also have over 3,000 miles of coastline with small fishing villages, lighthouses, and rugged cliffs. There are islands and island communities off the coast, accessible by ferry and they're fun places to bike. Acadia National Park is located on the Downeast coast and brings together mountains, coastal terrain, and islands in one place. The southern part of the state is more populated and mainstream. The rest of the state is rural with vast stretches of uninhabited territory, but you won't find a more caring people anywhere on earth.