Alvin's Farm

As of 5.09 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, this book is live (and free)!  Amid NaNoWriMo, Bob's goiter woes, and American football, one of my all-time favourite novels was published today, the first in a series of six, a story originally planned to be a little 60K tale.  Sometimes the muse goes off on a tangent.  Alvin's Farm is one of those times.

What can I say about this book that would fully explain all it took out of me to write it, what I learned, felt, discovered, at times endured; if you're into family sagas, most certainly give it a go.  If you like love stories, definitely get your copy.  If the 1970s holds a spot in your heart, this novel is set smack-dab in that decade, February of 1975 finding Jenny Cope stepping from a Greyhound Bus into a cool, green world.  She's led there by a wily OAP (senior citizen), who teaches her to crochet, also opening Jenny's heart.  Small stitches start the process, then a challenged man takes over.  When Jenny Cope meets Alvin Harris, her life will never be the same.

If tangled webs are your preference, hold onto your hat; Jenny has been on the run since she was seventeen, living all over America's southeast, sleeping with any man who will have her.  Jenny's past rests in the shadows, of which rainy Oregon has plenty, rooting her feet to Alvin's farm.  She wants to run, all she's done for ages, but Alvin's compassionate, sunny nature lifts the clouds, his ocean blue eyes easing Jenny's paralyzing fears.  And if that wasn't enough, Alvin's not the only man falling in love with her.  Sam Cassel finds Jenny an intriguing mystery, reminding him of his late wife, brutally murdered when Sam was twenty-one years old.

What if farming or ranching is your speed?  Alvin tends Granny Smith apples, while his best friend down the road raises beef cattle.  Tommie Smith wanted to play baseball, but a car accident wrecked his dreams.  Now he's a philosopher, taking Jenny under his wing, what he's done with Sam after his wife was killed.  Sam's older brother Jacob knows the truth of that turmoil, why he drinks so much.  Tommie downs a few cold ones too, but as he balances visible and silent hurts, it takes a few beers to maintain his sanity.

I never planned this tale to unwind as it did, I really only wanted to write a little yarn.  Yarn figures prominently, Jenny's pastime when she's not cooking for Alvin.  She was only looking for a job, a new start, but in Oregon, has she finally found stability?  Or will Jenny's heart once again go through the wringer.  With two men in love with her, Jenny aches to forget her wretched past.  But even a decade after running from her family, memories linger under her skin, thunderstorms stirring pain not even Alvin can relieve.

Alvin's Farm is available on Smashwords for free, like all my ebooks.  The second in this series, The Thorn And The Rose, will be released in January 2012.  There's nothing so thrilling as publishing a novel, and Alvin's Farm warms me all through, perfect reading as days grow short, evenings turn chilly.  All I can say is enjoy!