Family Connections

A heartbroken widow sacrifices her dream job, an angry daughter attacks her mother, the premature birth of twins threatens to cause yet another loss, an abusive relationship devastates the family, and a brother sets out to collect all that is “rightfully” his — these are just some of the family connections that pepper this cozy thriller.

Interactions among family members always provide great grist for our writing mills. Powerful emotions and situations that many people relate to create strong hooks for readers. The following excerpts from A Brother Betrayed play on this theme. The book is scheduled for release very soon if all goes as planned.

Katherine Kohler shivered and pulled the Afghan up around her neck. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep on the couch again, but her bed felt so empty without Ed.

Sleep had come fitfully, and now, in the first cold rays of dawn, her eyes popped open for the umpteenth time. As the room came into focus, her gaze rested on the photograph that shimmered in the pale beam of the night light. She and her husband had posed for it three weeks before, on their twenty-ninth wedding anniversary. His pleased smile said it all when he’d placed it on the piano next to the vase of her favorite yellow roses. Had that been just ten days ago? It seemed so much longer.

*  *  *  *  *

Like a video on fast forward, the past two weeks flashed through her mind. Her husband’s last words that had brought her to this place in time still baffled her. Print shop. Promise. Stop. The agony in his voice had torn at her heart.

She stared again his picture. “What am I supposed to stop, Ed?”

Whatever it was, she had given up the job she loved for it — the job she'd worked so many years to get. And now nothing made any sense at all.

The face in the photograph smiled back at her; but the wilted, yellow petals scattered around the vase of bent, barren stems spoke only of death.

*  *  *  *  * 

“Katie, dear, what on earth has happened?” The gleeful glint in [Oren's] eyes mocked the concern in his voice.

“There was a fire.”

“I’m so, so sorry. Why didn’t you call me? You know I would have been there for you. Edmund would want me to be there for you.”

“Thank you, Oren,” she forced herself to say. “But I knew you didn’t have your truck. Besides, I didn’t want to bother you.

“Bother me? You’re my brother’s widow. It’s my responsibility to take care of you in your time of need.”

*  *  *  *  *

Very successful business…that had a great ring to it. And it was very successful, wasn’t it? The thought of the check in [Oren's] pocket made him wonder. The bank manager had said there were insufficient funds to cover it, but he’d seen the register. He knew the money was there. Unless...
 
Kent! So Katherine wasn’t the only snake in the grass. Her good-for-nothing son was doctoring the company books, stealing what rightfully belonged to his uncle. Well, one more jerk would go down the tube. He could almost feel Edmund’s disappointment in his family. It was a good thing his brother wasn’t there to feel it himself.

“That’s okay, bro. I’m handling this personally.”

GaborFromHungary via MorgueFiles

Family connections (or lack of them) affect the vast majority of us in one way or another, and my stories always include them — which isn't to imply that they lack action, intrigue, love interests, etc. My next re-release, Treacherous Tango, due out in the fall, uses them, too, but in very different settings and ways.

Linda Lane and her editing team mentor and encourage writers at all phases of the writing process. To learn more about what they do, please visit them at www.denvereditor.com.