Here
is the link at Amazon. You can link to the different formats from this one link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JJDWLYG Amazon
Once again, here are the blurbs and an excerpt, as well as the trailer.
Short blurb: A woman's search for God ends in a miraculous rescue mission in the marijuana fields of the Devil's Backbone.
Here is the longer back-cover blurb:
Legend
says it was the landing spot for Lucifer when he was cast out of
heaven. That's not the only thing it's known for. It is also a land
of marijuana fields, opium poppies, kidnappings, and drug-related
killings. It's the last place you would expect to find God, but Abby
Welles is looking for Him there, and her search will lead her on a
miraculous rescue mission inside the heart of The Devil's Backbone.
But she is running out of time.
And she may have already run out of luck.
+++
Here is an excerpt:
The black bird was back, or whatever it was,
and it was in Scarface’s gunsight.
It was perched on a dead tree overhanging the mountainside, watching
the activity below. Something in the bird’s gaze and mechanical head
movements troubled her. Was it watching the activity or controlling it?
She silently ridiculed the thought. She was being paranoid. This place
did that to her.
The rifle fired, and she jumped. An unexpected explosion ripped through the early morning quiet.
Scarface gave a sudden shriek of pain and fell to the ground, clutching
his face with blackened and bloodied hands. Unearthly sounds
accompanied his cries and repeated off the wall of rocks. Bebo joined in
the chorus, barking furiously, teeth barred. Abby wanted to silence him
but knew it was pointless. His barks were lost in the sea of strange
sounds.
She tugged on him, pulling him back. He
had strayed too close to the edge. Once he was on safer ground, she
strained to see where the other noises were coming from. Had the weapon
backfired? Was shrapnel pinging off rocks? Not that it would explain
what she was hearing. These were more like animal yips and howls, but
not quite.
Whatever was producing these noises
wasn’t apparent from her vantage point. Fear gripped her every muscle
and nerve as the sounds continued and grew more bizarre. Surely these
weren’t the natural sounds of nature. They didn’t even seem to originate
from anything she could see—or ever would see—in this world.
+++
Here is the trailer:
Interview: This interview is a combination of questions from the Smashwords interview feature and a Q&A with my niece.
Interview Questions:
Describe your desk
I'll
paraphrase Zola Levitt. For evidence of the Second Law of
Thermodynamics, one need only look at my desk. Everything on it is
moving from a state of order to disorder.
When did you first start writing?
In
eighth grade. I had an amazing teacher, Mr. McIntyre. He gave us
contracts at the start of the year. We decided what grade we wanted to
earn. I wanted an "A", but that meant I had to write three short
stories. He read those stories out loud to the class. Fortunately, he
was an actor, and he did a really good job reading them. The class
laughed like crazy and everyone enjoyed my stories. I've been writing
ever since.
What do you want readers to know about your Christian book, "Thirteen Miracles"?
There
are a lot of layers to "Thirteen Miracles" and a lot of archetypes. For
example, I think of Abby's husband, Charles, as a "type" of Christ. He
goes into Satan's territory hoping to save his wife. I also want readers
to know in advance that this is mostly a story about a woman and a dog
in a wilderness survival story. So there is not a lot of dialogue. I
think that no matter how many people are with us in this life, we are
ultimately alone with God in the wilderness. I want readers to feel they
have been inside Abby's head, heart, and soul by the end of this story.
But my goal is to tell a good story. I hope I've done that in "Thirteen
Miracles."
What is "Thirteen Miracles" about?
It's about a
woman's search for God. Abby has gone to Mexico to write a book about
miracles and to meet a Christian mystic who has the gift of prophecy.
After some family struggles, Abby is reeling. She has lost her faith and
feels that she must connect with God again if she is ever going to
recover from her depression. She feels that she must get away from the
"screaming commitments" in her life in order to do that.
On her
journey, she is separated from her guide and must survive on her own
with the help of an albino boxer named Bebo. As she attempts to find her
way home, she discovers that two sixteen-year-old boys have been
kidnapped by drug runners. She decides she must try to free them from
their captors, and the book follows her journey inside The Devil's
Backbone as she attempts to survive the wilderness and free the
hostages, but she has some supernatural resistance to her goal as well
as some natural ones.
You have called this a supernatural adventure, is that the best description of your story?
Yes.
It is a Christian, supernatural adventure. I also think of "Thirteen
Miracles" as a missionary story. As human beings, we have been separated
from God and must find our way home. If we do, our goal is then to
attempt to rescue others who are being held captive. But, it is an
allegorical story in many different ways. It is the reader who will
decipher the symbols and decide if they succeed or not. I don't want
things to be taken too far, however. It is just a story, after all, with
symbolic undertones. Above everything, I want the reader to experience a
good story and be impacted by it.
Will this appeal to non-Christians?
Maybe.
I'm not sure. I can't see this appealing to people who don't believe
God exists. I think it would be offensive to them. In fact, I think
there are many Christians who would be offended by "Thirteen Miracles"
as well. Christians who don't believe in miracles will have a problem
with this book. Christians who don't believe in an unseen, demonic world
will have a problem with this book. I have a disclaimer at the end of
the book. It states that my goal was not to teach doctrine or theology.
It was to tell an entertaining story. I hope I succeeded, but that is up
to the reader.
+++
I have discovered from reviews and other feedback that this story did appeal to unbelievers. The Interview was originally posted here:
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/DLKennedy
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