In celebration of All Hallow's Eve, this week's book hook departs from the usual fare to take a trip into the unknown. For your consideration, an excerpt from one of the tales in the collection, Hearth and Sand: Stories from the Front Lines and the Homefront. Like the other stories in the collection, "Echoes From The Valley" reflects a continuity of service from the past to the present.
When the valley echoes with the sound of a popular Civil War tune, two reenactors encounter a soldier from the past and learn the true meaning of duty--in this life and the one beyond.
Excerpt:
Pillars of mist rose like wraiths from the valley below, then danced toward my hilltop vigil. Unlike the chilling mist usually found there, this one’s feather-like touch felt like a warm breath. Although I hadn’t heard any sound beyond my own heartbeat, a swirl in the mist revealed a soldier leaning against a tree not ten feet away. A nod and brief touch of his fingers to his kepi brim was his only acknowledgement of my presence. I thought of returning to the rows of tents, but I wasn’t ready to go back there quite yet.
The eerie quality of his bugle’s first whispery note almost sent me running back to the tenuous safety of people. But I found myself unable to move as the tone seemed to turn into a wail. The bugle’s haunting tones echoed across the valley. Note after spectral note disappeared into the mist to be answered by the sense of unseen souls cavorting in the darkness below.
Lost in the transcendence of the moment, I didn’t notice the last purple flickers of light fade from the now velvet-cloaked valley.
The last echoes of “Taps” faded into the darkness before I found myself able to move again. I looked for the bugler to commend him on his portrayal. There was just a hint of movement and only shadows remained where the man had been.
** END OF EXCERPT ***
If intrigued, the rest of the tale is available for a free read for the holiday. Click here for a free download. More on Hearth and Sand. A collection of twelve tales of those who served on the front lines and the stories of loved ones left behind who preserved the home front. Set universes apart and separated by decades in time, the stories in Hearth and Sand reflect a continuity of service from the past to the present and into the world of tomorrow. Although the events are fictional, the voices captured within these pages came from historical notes, veterans’ own words, letters left by their ancestors, or contemporary events. Pen was put to paper while watching fighter planes land in the Philippine Islands and in the shaded woods of a stateside farm.
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