The Price of Sanctuary by Gaylon Greer Excerpt, Guest Post and Giveaway

The Price of Sanctuary

by Gaylon Greer

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BLURB:

Accustomed to a life of privilege, Shelby Cervosier new finds herself running for her life. Accused of killing an American Immigration agent, Shelby has undertaken a mission on behalf of a secretive American espionage agency in exchange for a promise of legal amnesty and political asylum in America. Now, however, the agent who coerced her into accepting the assignment wants her dead to cover up the bungled mission. Two hit men compete for the bounty that has been placed on her head.

Shelby and her younger sister flee into America’s heartland in search of a safe haven. They find only fear and danger, however, when they are captured by one of the assassins, Hank.

Prepared to do whatever it takes to keep her sister safe, Shelby cooperates with her capturer. Deciding that his feelings for them are more important than bounty money, Hank takes the sisters under his wing and secrets then away to his hideout: a farm in a remote corner of Colorado. They become a part of his extended family; they have finally found sanctuary.

Their safe new world is shattered when the second hit man, a relentless psychopath, captures Shelby’s little sister and uses her to lure Shelby and her lover into a middle-of-the-night showdown on an isolated Rocky Mountain battleground.

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Excerpt 

    

Shelby barely cleared the edge of the runway before twin engines on the sleek little jet wound up to an ear-achy screech and it began moving, leaving behind a smelly residue of burned fuel. Chuck's warning about the runway lights struck home; shadows below them made the ground a dark void. With every step, roots, ruts, and weeds threatened Shelby's balance. Something—palmetto fronds, she guessed—whipped her legs.

When distance rendered the lights less blinding, she picked up her pace. Cloying heat and humidity plastered her T-shirt and jeans to her skin as she jogged across the rugged turf with her blue canvas overnight bag slung over a shoulder.

Look for a Dodge van, Chuck had said. But what if it wasn't there? Maybe she could hibernate until daylight and flag some¬one down. One way or another, get to a car rental agency, drive to Homestead and sneak Carmen away.

As she approached the hangars, she slowed her pace. Wiping at sweat that stung her eyes and breathing hard from exertion, she looked for the woman who was supposed to meet her. With solid cloud cover blocking the moon, she almost bumped into the van be¬fore she recognized it.

Chuck had guessed wrong about the driver: she wasn't sleeping. She opened the passenger door. “Welcome to Florida.”

Shelby climbed in. “Brenda, right?”

“Not really.” The old Dodge Caravan's dome light revealed an overweight, middle-aged woman with freckled, sun-leathered skin and unruly blond hair. “Chuck said not to give you my real name, in case the feds nab you.” She cranked the engine and pulled away from the hangar. “You lean on back, catch some shut-eye. We'll be on the road at least an hour, and your butt's gotta be draggin'.”

Shelby reclined the seat and closed her eyes. She was too keyed up to sleep, but God, she was tired. Tired of running. Tired of hid¬ing. Tired of being scared.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Working with traveling carnivals and itinerant farm labor gangs during his teen and early adult years took Gaylon Greer up, down, and across the United States and introduced him to a plethora of colorful individuals who serve as models for his fictional characters. A return to school in pursuit of a high school diploma while serving in the Air Force led to three university degrees, including a Ph.D. in economics, and a stint as a university professor. After publishing several books on real estate and personal financial planning, as well as lecturing on these subjects to nationwide audiences, he shifted his energy to writing fiction. Gaylon lives near Austin, Texas.

Blog #3: Beating Blank-Page Paralysis

For me, the hardest part of writing is getting started. What makes it extra difficult is that the hurdle is always there; you have to overcome it again each time you face your word processor. Given the immense psychic reward from creating something that others enjoy reading, it seems passably curious that starting and sticking with a project is so hard. Two explanations that I find most plausible are resistance and fear of success.

            In The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield explores the phenomenon of resistance. It is, he says, what stands between the life one lives and the life one would like to live. It is what keeps us from hitting the gym for the exercise routine that we know would extend our lives and put more joy in our years; it keeps us from going back to school for the degree that would move our standard of living up several notches; it keeps writers from sitting down at their word processors and cranking out the timeless prose they know is somewhere inside them.

            Pressfield calls resistance “the most toxic force on the planet.” It keeps us from realizing our dreams, and the more important the dream is to our sense of accomplishment and self-worth, the stronger the resistance becomes. As if it weren’t strong enough all by itself to stop most of us before we get started, it has allies: our families, our best friends, our lovers. If we succeed in overcoming resistance, our success becomes a reproach to those still mired in their own. It is easier for them to sabotage our efforts than to follow our example.

Those few determined individuals who overcome resistance and get on with their calling face a second hurdle: fear of success. Writing in Psychology Today, Susanne Babbel, Ph.D., explains fear of success by noting that most of us grow up being warned not to “get our hopes up” because of the inevitable disappointment. We internalize that message, and the closer we come to success the greater the dread of inevitable disappointment. The way to avoid it is to quit before we fail. All too often, that is what we do.

 Gaylon’s Web Site:  http://gaylongreer.com/

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Gaylon-E.-Greer/e/B000APV4BE/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxEUXWou4A

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Price-Sanctuary-Gaylon-Greer-ebook/dp/B00GAGFPQ2

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