M.L. Rowland's Blog, page 12

MURDER OFF THE BEATEN PATH releases October 7, 2014

A Day in the Life of Gracie Kinkaid

Gracie sank down into the tiny pink bathtub, draped her feet up over the ledge, and laid her head back on the daisy foam pillow she’d snagged for a nickel at a garage sale—a steal deal for which she’d secretly congratulated herself for days, clucking contentedly to herself like a hen who’d laid two dozen eggs.

Steam from the scalding water writhed upwards, fogging up the mirror and one small window. A glass of chilled Pinot grigio sat on the bathtub ledge.

Gracie studied her mottled legs. “Cover up those dirty knees, Gracie Louise.” She could still hear her mother’s voice. “Why can’t you be more of a lady like Lenora?”

“Miss America, you never were, Kinkaid,” she said aloud, enjoying how sonorous her voice sounded in the tiny bathroom.  “And still aren’t.”

She counted the plum-colored bruises on her legs. “Five, six, seven.” She lifted her head to inspect a particularly large one, still an angry maroon. “That’s a doozy. How’d I get that one?” She moved to the other leg. “Eight, nine. I do remember this one. That really hurt. Stupid rock.”

She laid her head back on the daisy, wiggled her toes, and contemplated the chipped remnants of toenail polish.

Some women might consider fifteen men to one woman on a team a to-die-for ratio. But Gracie found that working in close proximity with so many Manly Men for so many hours, sometimes days at a time, often took its toll. She could take only so much crotch arranging, and fart and blonde jokes before she began to crave a bubble bath or, in this case, painting her toenails search-and-rescue orange.

She splayed her fingers in front of her face. Ragged nails. Torn cuticles. An Orion’s belt of scabs across the back of one hand. “Holy cow,” she whispered. “Maybe you should get a manicure. Right. With what money? You spent your last paycheck on a new ice axe. Remember?”

Her mother would be so proud. She’d been taking a lot of baths lately. But then, a hot bath was part of her post-search ritual and she’d been on a lot of searches lately.  In fact, it seemed like all she was doing was work and search, search and work.

“You need to get out more, Kinkaid. Ya know, socialize. You should call Ralphie.”

Ralph Hunter, Search and Rescue teammate, best friend, the man she’d been avoiding. “Because you have been. Avoiding him.”

After last month’s team after-meeting meeting at The Saddle Tramp saloon, Ralph had walked her out to her truck as he always did, then surprised her by kissing her good night. Once. On the lips. Very chaste. Very non-threatening. “No tongue even. And you’re acting like a 6th grader who’s just been felt up for the first time. Or are they doing that in 4th grade now?”

Ralph was her only real friend, the one person on whom she leaned, the one person she trusted to never let her down.

She knew Ralph loved her. And she loved him. But did the kiss mean he love loved her? “Cuz if that’s what it means, that’s huge. Huge!” Ever since the kiss, outside of searches, she had been avoiding him. “Maybe you should actually try to figure out why.”

Because she had also said ‘no’ to Rob Christian, big (big) British movie star, the man whose life she had saved on a search six months earlier, with whom, in the dark, cold confines of a snow cave, she had made the most exquisite love in her life, who made every nerve ending in her body come alive, the man whose presence brought the world into focus in all of its Orrefors-clear glory.

Ralph had kissed her, letting her know he was willing to take their friendship to the next level. What had she done? Avoided him. “Chicken shit.”

Rob had asked her to run away with him, a fairy tale invitation if there ever was one. What had she done? “You said ‘no!’ Stupid chicken shit.” She sank lower in the tub. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Beep! Beep! Beep! The piercing tones of Gracie’s Search and Rescue pager sounded from out the kitchen.

“Dammit!” Gracie heaved herself up from the tub, wrapped a frayed Sponge Bob beach towel around her and ran into the adjoining room where her pager lay on the counter. She grabbed it up, pressed the readout button, and squinted at the miniscule screen.

“Search for missing juvenile.”

In the laundry room doubling as a closet, Gracie yanked bra, panties, and sock liners from the clothes line. From the dryer, she pulled her orange uniform shirt, socks and camouflage army surplus pants, the back pockets still wet.

“Here we go again,” she said and began pulling everything on.

“Murder Off the Beaten Path” Coming Soon!

The second book of my Search and Rescue mystery series featuring Gracie Kinkaid, “Murder Off the Beaten Path, releases October 7, 2014.

As a member of a mountain search and rescue team, Gracie Kinkaid routinely volunteers to put her life on the line. But it’s at her new day job at a residential camp in the mountains of southern California where she finds her life is really in danger.…

Murder Off the Beaten Path: A Search and Rescue Mystery tells how Gracie responds to a Search and Rescue call-out for a car that’s gone over the side of a treacherous mountain highway. The crash, which Gracie quickly suspects is no accident, proves to be one in an escalating and deadly series of events that lead her right back to Camp Ponderosa, a church-owned camp where she works. As Gracie probes more deeply into the dark secrets at the camp, she unearths a hidden world of illegal activities, including murder, and finds herself going head-to-head with desperate perpetrators who will do anything to silence her forever.

Murder Off the Beaten Path contains all of the same ingredients that made the first book in this series, Zero-Degree Murder, such a smashing success—thrills, chills, break-neck pacing, and its quirky, fearless heroine, Gracie Kinkaid, on almost every page. Lots of new characters and some returning ones, an intriguing new setting—a residential camp high in the mountains, and an exciting new nightmare for Gracie.

Of “Zero-Degree Murder,” Library Journal wrote: “This exciting, seriously good adventure debut deserves a place in your book carts. With her spunky female leading the way, Rowland dishes out generous portions of adrenaline rush. …Her adventure writing style has real flair.”

“Murder Off the Beaten Path,” and the first in the series, Zero-Degree Murder” are available on my website, http://www.mlrowland.com, and at http://www.amazon.com and http://www.barnesandnoble.com.

And don’t forget your local brick and mortar bookstore. If they don’t carry it, they can order it for you!

Thanks, everyone!

Happy reading!

Wise People, Those Greeks

Rest in peace, Miss Maya.

The personification of strength, dignity, perseverance, this great woman has passed from our midst.

I’ve only recently grown to love your words, respect your faith, honor your spirit, strive for your courage.

We mourn your passing and will never forget you.

My Mom. My Hero.

 

At the risk of boring those who remember this post from Mother’s Day last year, I’m re-posting it again this year, with a few minor revisions.

This post is in honor of my mother, Evangeline Lamberts–my role model for women in a man’s world, my role model for fighting for what is right and just in the world.

In 1961, Evangeline M. Lamberts was elected to the city commission–the first woman in the history of the City of Grand Rapids. She was also the only woman on the County Board of Supervisors along with 87 men.

Those were the days, as the election poster shows, she referred to or addressed not as Evangeline Lamberts, but as Mrs. Austin Lamberts.

Those were the days of the Jackie Kennedy pillbox hats and matching shoes and purses, when we dressed up to fly on airplanes and go to church, and wore only dresses and skirts to school.

I can remember Mom going off to a meeting wearing a pink suit, a little pink hat with a veil, matching shoes and purse, matching pink earrings and necklace.

She used to complain that after every Board of Supervisors’ meeting she would have to have her suit dry-cleaned because all the men there smoked cigars.

When I was older, she told me how men’s wives often shunned her, possibly because they felt threatened by her, because they were afraid she was going to steal their husbands away. Stealing other women’s husbands couldn’t have been further from her mind. She spent time with men because she enjoyed the politics, the excitement, the intellectual stimulation, the experience of working in a man’s world as it was in the early 1960′s.

Mom was unyielding and outspoken about her beliefs which some people found irritating. But that never seemed to bother her. She operated with absolute integrity, always up for a battle, always up for fighting for what she thought was right and honorable and just.

When her daughter’s teacher told his class that women shouldn’t have the right to vote, Mom protested directly to the teacher. He suggested she teach his classes for a day. So she did (much to the teacher’s consternation, I’m sure).

When an exquisite old building in Grand Rapids was slated for demolition in the name of “Urban Renewal,” she fought against it. Years later, the building still stands, now a Grand Rapids Music Center.

I remember her stumping for a friend who was running for Kent County Circuit Court. I remember wearing a pin that read, “I’m for Letts.” I was in 7th Grade. John T. Letts was elected–one of the first elected black judges in Michigan.

Mom stood only 5’3″.

One of my favorite stories about her:

One day a passerby stopped her on the sidewalk of downtown Grand Rapids.

“Are you Mrs. Lamberts?” the man asked.

“Yes,” she answered with some trepidation.

“But you’re so little!”

Little in stature. Great in spirit.

Evangeline M. Lamberts died July 28, 2004. It’s so difficult to believe it’s been almost ten years. I can’t believe how much it feels like yesterday.

And how much I still miss her.

I love you, Mom.

Meet Methuselah

Meet Methuselah — At 4,841 years old, this ancient bristlecone pine is the oldest known non-clonal organism on Earth.

(Thanks, Mother Nature Network)

“Do behold the King Sequoia”

The Riderless Horse

What is it about a riderless horse with its master’s boots placed backwards in the stirrups that’s so uniquely moving?

My husband, Mark, and I attended a memorial service today for a man–a horseman–well loved by his family, friends and community. The man’s horse, saddled with the man’s cowboy boots backwards in the stirrups, stood quietly at the front of the room throughout the entire service.

The pastor read this poem, written while watching JFK’s funeral procession.

The Riderless Horse

Oh, where is my rider today?

I miss his weight upon my back.

Reversed and empty, his boots are there,

But the reins have fallen slack.

Where is my rider today.

Where is my rider today?

Which way am I to go?

The hands that firmly led my course,

Signal naught, neither to nor fro.

Where is my rider today?

The Master taught me my jaunty step,

And to hold my head up high.

He kept my wayward thoughts in line,

And kept my courage nigh.

Where is my rider today?

Surely the journey’s not ended,

We’d merely selected a road.

How can I go undirected,

When my back yearns for the load?

Where is my rider today?

The procession I’m in wends slowly along,

And I with my saddle bare,

Trot crooked and jerky, and out of line,

For want of a rider there.

Where is my Master today?

A caisson precedes me with escort afoot,

And bannered casket astride.

The fear that has plagued now settles as fact.

It’s my Master that rides inside.

Oh there is my Master today.

I’m strong and stately and young of life,

And there’s many a road ahead.

But where can I go with no one to lead me?

Now that my Master is dead.

His life has been taken away.

Tomorrow I’ll stand for another to ride,

With boots again stirruped forward.

His hands will signal the course to travel.

And my pace will again be onward.

But I miss my rider today.

“Murder Off the Beaten Path”

Here’s a first look at “Murder Off the Beaten Path,” the next book in this Search and Rescue mystery series featuring Gracie Kinkaid.

As a member of a mountain search and rescue team, Gracie routinely puts her life on the line to save others. But it’s at her new job a year-round residential camp in the mountains of southern California where she discovers someone is actively trying to kill her.

As a volunteer for Timber Creek Search and Rescue, Gracie responds to a call-out for a vehicle “over the side” of a treacherous mountain road. The crash, which Gracie quickly suspects is no accident, proves to be one in an escalating and deadly series of events which leads her right back to Camp Ponderosa, a church-owned camp where she works as the Youth Program Director. As Gracie probes more deeply into the dark secrets at the camp, she unearths a hidden world of illegal activities, including murder…and finds herself going head- to-head with desperate perpetrators who will do anything to silence her forever.”

“Murder Off the Beaten Path” releases October 7, 2014, and is available now for pre-sale at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.