Author Spotlight: K.S. Jones…

I want to thank magnificent middle grade/young adult author, K.S. Jones for showcasing her award winning book Shadow of the Hawk on my blog today. I’d also like to congratulate K.S. on recently signing a contract with Mirror World Publishing for her middle grade fantasy book, Black Lightning, which you can read about HERE. High fives, K.S.! Now let’s get this spotlight rolling…

Debut Novel:

Title: Shadow of the Hawk

Author: K.S. Jones

Genre: YA Historical Fiction

Length: About 350 pages

Release Date: February 2015

About the book:

GOLD MEDAL WINNER IN THE 2015 LITERARY CLASSICS BOOK AWARDS!

It is May 1932 and life in the timbered rise and fall of Western Arkansas has just gotten harder for sixteen-year-old Sooze Williams. With debt mounting and both friends and family fleeing, Sooze is determined to "do the right thing." She promises her heart to a well-to-do man believing true love is just another loss along the way. But when her uncle is murdered and family is accused of the crime, Sooze faces a different kind of battle. One too important to lose.

Excerpt from Chapter Three:

As we neared Uncle Ray and Aunt Lissie's farmhouse, the front left wheel, which was already whopper-jawed, hit a pothole in the road. Smack! The bolster clapped against the wood under our feet, and Cora nearly flew off the wagon seat. I caught her by the brown puffed sleeve of her dress and pulled her back toward me, holding her tight. Pulling hard on the leather reins, Daddy stopped the wagon. We could hear Uncle Ray yelling.

"You get off my land, and you stay off, you no-good little thief!"

Busting out the door of the hen house, Henry's friend Benny was running like a wild man. His black hair was whipping across his face like strings from a wet mop, and he had his dirty white T-shirt pulled up like a hammock at his belly. It was filled with eggs.

"Go on, scram!" Uncle Ray came out the door of the hen house, swinging a leather strap. "If I catch you here again, I'll beat the tar out of you, boy!"

Benny was in a dead-run. As he skidded around the back of our wagon headed for town, I saw a red welt the size of Uncle Ray's leather strap across his cheek.

"What'd he get from you, Ray?" Daddy called.

"He stole my whole batch of eggs!" Uncle Ray walked toward us with one shoulder of his blue bib overalls hanging. He wasn't wearing a shirt underneath to hide his big belly or a hat to cover his balding head. "I knew movin' in this close to town would just invite the hoboes and hooligans." He stopped at the wagon, reaching up to help Cora down off the seat, and kept right on talking. "But that boy — that loony little two-bit thief — he's the worst of 'em all. If he was stealin' so's he could feed his family, I might look the other way once in a while. But when I get to town later today, I'll bet I see a fresh batch of brown eggs for sale at Huckabee's. All that boy does is sell what he steals from me so's he can gamble and booze."

"It ain't right," Daddy agreed, shaking his head. "It just ain't right. You want me to go get the sheriff and be an eyewitness? A complaint is easy to file."

"Won't do no good," Uncle Ray said. "With only one lawman in town, the sheriff said I needed to catch that boy red-handed myself and hand him over. But who can catch him? Did you see the way he lit out of here runnin’ like a jackrabbit?"

Reviews for Shadow of the Hawk:

"The realism of John Steinbeck meets the thrill of John Grisham in this tale of love, sacrifice and betrayal." ~ Reader's Entertainment Magazine

"This is one of those young adult novels that every adult will want to read. It's filled with wonderful characters and a heartwarming story set in the midst of America's darkest days, the Great Depression. Jones' voice is reminiscent of Steinbeck's at his best." ~ W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, USA Today and New York Times bestselling authors of People of the Thunder

"With a clarity reminiscent of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, K.S. Jones gently draws the reader into a masterful description of the grit and hard times of one farm family's struggles during the Great Depression." ~ Alethea Williams, author of orphan train novel Walls for the Wind

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEPXNOW

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shadow-of-the-hawk-k-s-jones/1121194142?ean=2940150302396

About the Author:

Author K.S. Jones, whose first name is Karen, has been writing most of her life, usually in stolen moments between raising children, caring for elderly parents, and working a real job. She spent fifteen years writing and researching her Depression-era debut novel, Shadow of the Hawk. During that time, she had short pieces published, but it wasn't until 2014 that her writing took a giant leap forward. Early one summer morning, an email arrived announcing she had won the Southern Writers 2014 Short Story contest. Still at her computer reveling in the moment, a second email chimed – a publisher was offering a contract on her novel! That same week, two more publishing offers arrived for the same novel, and she hasn't looked back since. Mirror World Publishing has her middle-grade fantasy, Black Lightning, scheduled for release in May 2016.

Additional Tidbit-

Born and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley — the destination of thousands of families fleeing the Dust Bowl during America’s Great Depression — the author's favorite childhood pastime was reading. She especially loved The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird plus all the Jack London novels. Who could expect Shadow of the Hawk to sound any differently than it does? She now lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country with her husband, Richard, and their three dogs, Libby Loo, Red Bleu, and Jack Black.