Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Welcome Caroline Clemmons and her Brazos Bride

I'm pleased to have Caroline Clemmons on my blog today talking about poisons used in our past history. She'll also share details about her current release Brazos Bride. I know it's going to be a wonderful read as I just finished A Most Unsuitable Wife and love it!

Why would a writer focus on poison? No, I don’t plan to murder anyone in real life. I do kill off some people in my books, though. Great way to relax. Joking, joking.


I first became interested in poisons years ago from reading Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I still love her books and am fascinated with poison. Don’t worry, I don’t use what I learn to wipe out people I dislike. I favor poisons for eliminating characters in books.

Many plants have medicinal qualities and other seemingly innocent lovelies can be deadly. For instance, in Alexander Dumas’ THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, oleander leaves are ground and incorporated into food to murder. Foxglove can heal or kill, depending on how it is administered and to whom. While researching, I pour through books like DEADLY DOSES from Writers Digest Book and old herbals. My eldest daughter fed my fascination with HERBS AND THINGS by Jeanne Rose, a book on remedies that gives both friendly and unfriendly plants and their uses.







Before current forensic tests, poisoners had more freedom. Pathologists’ tests uncover most poisons and create a hardship for villains. Since my current trilogy is historical, my villain is safe from sophisticated forensics. Of course, many poisons leave tell tale signs that even a medieval physician could detect. All readers know that cynaide leaves a distinctive smell and coloration of the victim’s lips for a while after death. Advanced arsenic poisoning colors the fingernails at the base and is left in hair. Can you believe women used to use arsenic to control their weight? I’d love to be thin, but not that way!


For my current Men of Stone Mountain trilogy, I studied poisons available in the Southwest where the book is set. In the first of my trilogy, BRAZOS BRIDE, heroine Hope Montoya is being poisoned. She doesn’t know the killer’s identity or type of poison, but she is an intelligent woman and deduces the poison is administered through her food and/or her tonic. Although she is severely weakened by the contaminate, she devises a plan to escape and gain an ally. The key is to convince Micah Stone to wed her in a temporary marriage of convenience. What would convince him? Although in truth we’re saturated here in North Central Texas, often that’s not the case. A drought has Micah’s cattle dying for lack of water.




Here’s a blurb from BRAZOS BRIDE:

Hope Montoya knows someone is poisoning her, but who? She suspects her mother was also poisoned and knows her father was murdered. Who wants her family eliminated? She vows to fight! She realizes she won’t last the eight months until she turns twenty-five and her uncle no longer controls her or her estate. Never will she be dominated by a man as she was by her father, as she has seen her mother and grandmothers dominated. If she marries, she gains control now, but only if she weds a man she can trust. Only one man meets her requirements. Can she trust him to protect her and capture the killer...but then to leave?

Micah Stone has been in love with Hope since the first time he saw her. But he was accused of her father’s murder and surely would have hung if not for his two brothers’ aid. Most in the community still believe him guilty. But the drought has him too worried about water for his dying cattle to care about his neighbors’ opinions. When Hope proposes a paper marriage in exchange for land on the Brazos River and much needed cash, her offer rubs his pride raw. His name may be Stone, but he’s not made of it. He can’t refuse her for long, and so their adventure begins.


And here’s a BRAZOS BRIDE excerpt from the wedding night of their marriage of convenience. I hope you find this intriguing:


She looked at her hands. Perhaps she was unreasonable. Or maybe insane for sympathizing with a man who'd had to work harder because of her family.

"I know it is an odd situation. If—if you wear your shirt and britches, I guess it would be all right if you slept on top of the cover here." She patted the bed beside her.

He froze. Not a muscle moved, and he only stared at her. Had she misunderstood? Did he think her offer too forward?

She babbled, "That is, if you want to. You said I should trust you. Well, maybe you would be more comfortable where you are." Why didn't he say something? Would he prefer sleeping in a chair to sharing the bed?

From the street below, she heard raucous laughter and someone called to a man named Ben. Music from a piano, she supposed in the saloon, drifted in through the open windows. A gust of breeze moved the curtains and slid across her skin. In this room, though, there was no sound.

Slowly, he rose and extinguished the lamp as he moved across the room. She slid one of the pillows beside hers then scooted down. What had possessed her to offer him half her bed? Would he think she invited more?

Too late to take it back now, for the mattress dipped as he stretched out. Quaking inside at the thought of him so near, she turned her back to him. She heard his weary sigh, as if he relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"Good night," she offered, and hoped he understood the finality of the phrase.

"Yep. Good night, Mrs. Stone." The mattress shook as he turned his back to her. She felt the soles of his feet press against her ankles. He must be several inches too long for the bed and she guessed he had to bend his legs to fit. She didn't dare turn to see firsthand.

She lay perfectly still, afraid to take a deep breath. Soon his breathing changed and she knew he slept. Outside the open window the town quieted and the distant tinkling of the piano was the only sound. Light from the full moon illuminated the room and slanted across the bed. A soft breeze drifted across her, lulling her in its caress.

With a sigh, she fought to relax, but abdominal pain kept her awake no matter how her body cried for rest. Perhaps if she planned, she’d forget the pain and chills that racked her frame.

Plan, yes. She needed a plan for food preparation when she returned to her home. No, Micah said he had a plan. Oh, dear, once more he took charge when it was her life, her home.

Maybe Aunt Sofia and Uncle Jorge would have left by then and things would be fine. Already she felt more secure. She sensed her eyelids drifting closed and the sleep’s blessed relief approaching.

A gunshot ripped apart the night.

The blast startled her and she screamed as something thudded near her head, showering her hair and face with splinters. Panic immobilized her. What had happened?

Micah dragged her onto the floor as a bullet ripped into the mattress.


Did that capture your interest? If so, here is the buy link at Amazon Kindle where BRAZOS BRIDE is only 99 cents:

Thank you for stopping by!

Caroline Clemmons writes mystery, romance, and adventures—although her earliest made up adventures featured her saving the West with Roy Rogers. Her career has included stay-at-home mom (her favorite job), newspaper reporter and featured columnist, assistant to the managing editor of a psychology journal, and bookkeeper. She and her husband live in rural North Central Texas with a menagerie of rescued pets. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, reading, travel, browsing antique malls and estate sales, and genealogy/family history.

Excerpts from some of her exceptional reviews can be found on her website at www.carolineclemmons.com. View her blog posts Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com and find book reviews, giveaways, interview, and miscellany.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CarolineClemmonsRomances#!/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/carolinclemmons (No E in Caroline)

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/458092.Caroline_Clemmons

Caroline loves to hear from readers at caroline@carolineclemmons.com

Leave Caroline a comment. I know she'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for Reading and Writing!

Linda
http://www.lindalaroque.com/

19 comments:

  1. Linda, thank you for having me as your guest today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting reading. Remind me never to anger a mystery writer, it might be fatal!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You got my interest, Caroline! Loved the post about poisons too.

    Brazos Bride sounds like another great story! Wish you many sales!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Susan. You write great stories yourself.

      Delete
  4. Hey Caroline. Very interesting article. :)

    What gets me? There's arsenic in apple juice! Hubby jokes, when we get it, that we need our daily allowance of arsenic. Goodness!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Julianne, thank you for commenting. I believe that arsenic is in the soil in many areas. But I don't want an extra dose. LOL

      Delete
  5. Hi Caroline: Thank you for sharing your research with us. And I have to proclaim that I LOVED Brazos Bride and cannot wait to read the next book in the Men of Stone Mountain series! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so kind to say you loved the book. You helped me enormously as a critique partner and with your encouragement.

      Delete
  6. Hi Caroline, I enjoyed your research on poisons, and I enjoyed even more reading Brazos Bride during my latest trip. Micah and his brothers are great heroes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mona. Continued success to you for your fine books.

      Delete
  7. I'm saving this post for future reference! Thanks so much for sharing you hard work! Brazos Bride is already on my Kindle. I'm hoping for reading time when we go up north for Memorial Day! Best wishes for many, many sales!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lauri, thank you so much. I have lots of info on poisons if you ever need it. For writing, that is, not for using on someone. LOL

      Delete
  8. Wow! What an excerpt Caroline! Loved the information on poisons too. I find those sorts of things very interesting too, but I'm lazy and like my research done for me - so thank you for that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone who writes as many books as you could hardly call herself lazy!

      Delete
  9. Interesting post. There were always plants and bushes we were warned about as children-polk berries, oleander, foxglove(digitalis). One other thing that arsenic was used for was to make the skin appear translucent. The Hungarian women (like the Gabors) took arsenic in very tiny amounts to give themselves great complexions.
    I have Brazos Bride and really enjoyed it.
    Thanks again, for a great post.
    Ruby

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruby, I had not known that about the Gabors. Beauty at a great cost, except they each lived a long time, didn't they? Thanks for your comment.

      Delete
  10. Interesting post about poisons. I, too, am a big fan of Agatha Christie. Another poison that's hard to detect is shellfish poison. Great excerpt, by the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for commenting, Ilona. I think I've read each of Agatha Christie's books and stories, except the last one in which Poirot dies. I just couldn't make myself read that one.

      Delete
  11. What an interesting and beautiful post, and story. I look forward to reading this one--definitely on my TBR.

    ReplyDelete