The Color of Morning by Bonnie Smith

“A day that will live in infamy,” Franklin Roosevelt said of December 7th, 1941, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. September 11th, 2001, is another of those infamous dates that stunned our nation. My home is in Montana, far from the mayhem unfolding on the East Coast that morning, yet I had a chilling connection to 9/11. My daughter was a flight attendant for United Airlines. Thankfully, she called to say she was okay. Others she knew weren’t. A classmate had gone down in Pennsylvania.

I understand why our military had to attack the Taliban. I expected we wouldn’t stay in Afghanistan very long. I believed the Russian experience there had taught memorable lessons. Then, in March 2003, for duplicitous reasons, our country invaded Iraq, releasing a fresh world conflagration of hatred and killing.  Worse, our military wasn’t prepared for the upheaval that ensued. And even when the lies that pulled us in were exposed, it was far, far too late to stop the carnage. Eighteen years later and still counting, American troops are fighting and dying in the Middle East. Personally, I ache for those who lose loved ones to irrational violence—and not just for our side either.  Though no bombs are falling in my backyard, I can imagine what it must feel like if they were.

So . . . as I’ve done in the past, I created a tale to share my side of reality. From these imaginings came Claire and Luke’s story. While abhorring the cruelty of war, Claire loves Luke. And he loves her. But Luke’s a soldier—in every way loyal, responsible, and imbued with duty. For Claire, war is tragedy, plain and simple. No side will escape unscathed. No side does.

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New Year Book News from Betty Kuffel

For four days, January 23-26, my medical thriller E-books Fatal Feast and Deadly Pyre, will be  FREE on Amazon. I will post a reminder on Facebook just before the event to download them and tell your friends. Please write a review.

Fatal Feast is set in Montana. A prion pandemic threatens the world as brilliant young researcher Dr. Callie Archer vows to find a cure for the aggressive variant of mad cow disease that killed her father. Like unstoppable super-bugs, the deadly prion proteins infect livestock and wild game, threatening world food supplies. Dr. Archer closes in on a cure, but murderous activists penetrate her lab, steal infected animals, and nearly kill her. Callie’s promising treatment may be the only hope to prevent a world-wide pandemic. With forces against her mounting, can she save mankind and herself?

Dr. Kelly McKay struggles to complete her ER residency at Seattle’s Harbor Medical Center. Ferocious competition, burnout and an unpredictable lover complicate her life. Besides unexplained deaths of patients under her care jeopardizing her career, a sudden increase in stabbing victims points to a serial killer stalking women near the hospital. Will Kelly be next?

I hope you enjoy them.

Best wishes and happy writing in 2020.