Saturday, February 13, 2016

Mary J. Schiller - HomeTown Heartache #EggcerptExchange



Today, I'm happy to be hosting Mary J. Schiller.








Blurb ~



Nash is trying to make a name for himself in the art world…


But when he meets a realtor to buy a gallery, he is stunned to find Chloe sitting at the table with the man. He has never stopped thinking about her since she disappeared from his life without a trace. Is it too late to win back her love?


Chloe has finally found a way to leave her past behind her…


But her heart leaps out of her chest when she sees Nash. How can he be here? Now…after all this time? On the surface, she pulls herself back together. But underneath she feels she is about to shatter. After remaking herself, how can she deal with being faced with Nash and the life she knew before?


If this chance meeting doesn’t rip Chloe and Nash apart, he will.


Little do they know, someone has been lurking in the shadows, manipulating them all along. If he has his way, the two will never be reunited. Even if he has to take one of them out to ensure it.




Character  Interview

Nash Nabry


 Job- I’m an artist and I just finished building my own studio.
Level of schooling, or self-taught- I attended the New York School of Art.
Birthplace- I was born in New York City, but was raised in Cold Springs, New York.
 Currently residing in a tiny apartment in New York, but planning to move into roomier quarters over my gallery.
 Favorite type of pet- I always wanted a dog. A retriever, to be specific. But my mom is allergic to them.





Excerpt ~



 


I watched from my bedroom window, peering through the branches of the huge oak tree growing at the corner of the front of the house. A large moving van backed slowly up the long, rambling gravel driveway. I held my breath, and repeated in a low whisper, “Please have a boy my age. Please have a boy my age.”


 


When the truck finally came to a stop, and the door of the cab opened, a cowboy hat appeared on someone about my size and I whooped with glee, pounding down the stairs and out the back door, slamming the screen door as I hollered over my shoulder, “They have a boy! They have a boy!”


 


My mom called after me as she iced a chocolate cake. “Nash Steven Nabry, you get back here this instant. The last thing they need is you underfoot.”


 


But I ignored her, running pell-mell to the truck, kicking up rock behind me. Even now I can recall the scratch of my tennis shoes as I made a sliding stop in front of her, scattering gravel left and right, and the way the rock dust filled my throat and nostrils as much as my indignation. “You’re a girl,” I spat.


 


“Nash!” my mother’s appalled voice yelled from several yards behind me. I still don’t understand how she could always hear every impolite word I spoke, yet not hear me when I called up the stairs asking her where the cereal was. Then Chloe’s father came around the back end of the truck, and the grownups introduced themselves while I stared at Chloe and Chloe stared at me like this was a showdown at the O.K. Corral, which was fitting considering her outfit. Looking back, my mind automatically added the dramatic, high-pitched, whistling notes from the theme song to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a Clint Eastwood movie my brother, Ed, liked to watch. Chloe rubbed a fist in her eye, which probably was irritated by the chalky, drifting dust I raised from the gravel, squinting the other eye in the bright sunshine as she glared at me.


 


Links ~





 


Author Bio ~



MJ is a lunch lady in the heart of Central Illinois. My gosh! Can you get more folksy than that? She met her husband at the University of Missouri-Columbia and now she has a nineteen-year-old (how did that happen?) and seventeen year old triplets! She loves to read, karaoke (where she can pretend she is a rock star) and spends WAY too much time on Facebook. She grew up in St. Louis and still has family there.












 


Thanks MJ for stopping by,
Tina








6 comments:

MJ Schiller said...

Thank you for hosting me, Tina! And for coming up with the whole Eggcerpt Exchange idea. It's been fun!

Leah St. James said...

I love this excerpt. :-) Sorry to be so late!

Nightingale said...

Great excerpt! Sounds like a TBR. What a fun bio and very clever.

MJ Schiller said...

Thank you, Linda and Leah! I appreciate you stopping in today!

Susan Coryell said...

I love home town childhood romances--there's soooo much room for conflict of homegrown variety. Good luck with this one.

Diane Garner said...

This sounds sooo good! Must add to TBR pile. Best of luck with it.