The Coach’s Wife
by Barbara
Casey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Another deafening roar
exploded from the coliseum, and when it did Marla threw down her partially
smoked cigarette and ground it into the polished tile floor with the toe of her
shoe. Quickly she reached for another cigarette from the opened pack in her
small red handbag. She lit it, sucked the smoke into her mouth, held her
breath, coughed, and then slowly released it. Marla didn't smoke, but when she
paced up and down the hallways of basketball coliseums, puffing on cigarettes
seemed appropriate. It gave her something to do with her hands, and it helped
keep her sane.
Marla
Connors, recently married to head basketball coach Neal Connors, travels with
her husband to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Piedmont State University
Coyote team is playing in the NCAA Finals. Marla has not been accepted by the
Coyotes, that loyal bunch of fans who follows the university team, partly
because she is almost twenty years younger than Coach Connors and a divorcée,
but also because the fans are afraid she will distract her husband from his
duties as head coach. They see her as someone who married Coach Connors just
for his money. Only Gale, the older wife of assistant coach Stu Simmons, goes
out of her way to be a friend to Marla.
The
Coyote team is plagued with problems from the very beginning of the season, and
when they finally manage to reach the NCAA Finals, it's even worse. Their
center is caught using drugs, Athletics Director Charlie Morgan, who is also in
Albuquerque for the games, makes a pass at Marla in her hotel room, and Coach
Connors comes down with the flu. No one believes that State can win the big
game.
With
so much happening, Marla can't shake the feeling that something evil is taking
over her life. She tries to convince herself that it is emotional anxiety left
over from the abuse she experienced during her first marriage to Dr. Martin
Andrews and that the stress from the tournament has brought it once again to
the surface. She soon learns, however, that the evil is real and it threatens
not only everything she loves, but her very life.
Illegal
drugs, illicit affairs, murder, and scandal that shakes the entire university
system are woven inextricably into Marla’s life until eventually she comes face
to face with her real tormentor. It is only then that she realizes the full
depth of her love for her husband--and his love for her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Everything
you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso
Prologue
Marla Connors
wrapped her full-length, black mink coat tightly around her and sat back in the
rich brocade chair--one of a matching pair--that faced the ivory damask
sofa. She had chosen this particular
chair in the lobby because it allowed her full view of the front entrance of
the hotel as well as the bank of brass-framed elevators located off to the
right. She watched a group of noisy
Wolfpack supporters get off one of the elevators, all of them wearing red and
white and carrying an assortment of pompoms, banners, and other displays of
school spirit to wave during the basketball game. Several other people, also Wolfpack fans who
had waited to see if State would make it to the NCAA semifinals, were trying to
check in at the hotel desk.
Even though
Marla could easily see anyone coming into or leaving the lobby of the hotel
through the massive glass doors, as well as anyone using the elevators, she for
the most part was hidden from view by a tall palm and several smaller potted
plants placed around the seating area.
And even if someone did notice her sitting there, no one would recognize
her--not with the wig. The shoulder-length
blond hair and heavy makeup, as well as the coat, made her look older than her
thirty-three years.
Another group
of loud fans clamored out of an elevator.
Charlie Morgan, the new athletics director, and his assistant, Ray Knox,
were among them as well as Stuart Simmons, one of the assistant coaches. The Piedmont State University Wolfpack team
was scheduled for the first game of the semifinals in the NCAA National
Championship basketball playoffs, and many of the fans had already started
drinking. Their boisterous and obnoxious
behavior was only a mild indication of what they would be like during and after
the game.
He entered
through the glass doors and stood for a moment in the sunlight that was
scattered on the thick maroon carpet.
Tall, muscular, erect, his sixty-year-old body looked like a poster ad
expounding the benefits of keeping in shape.
He had probably been doing a pre-game interview outside for one of the
television networks. His thick graying
hair was slightly wind-blown giving him a boyish look, and he still had on the
sweats he had worn to practice that morning.
Marla crossed her legs and when she did the coat opened slightly,
exposing her bare leg and thigh. She
smoothed the blond hair with her hand and licked her lips. Other than that, she made no movement. He would see her. He always did.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Originally
from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent Barbara Casey attended the University
of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she
received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and
history. In 1978 she left her position
as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North
Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript
evaluation and editorial service. In
1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has
represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, and Japan.
Ms.
Casey's two middle-grade/young adult novels, Leilani Zan and Grandma Jock and
Christabelle (James C. Winston Publishing Co., Trade Division) were both
nominated for awards of excellence by the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the National
Association of University Women Literary Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh
Literary Award. Shyla's Initiative
(Crossquarter Publishing Group), a contemporary adult novel (occult
romance/mystery), received the Independent Publisher Book Award and also an
award of special literary recognition by the Palm Beach County Cultural
Council. The House of Kane (ArcheBooks
Publishing) was considered for a Pulitzer nomination. Another contemporary novel for adults, Just
Like Family, received “Special Recognition from the 7-Eleven Corporation.” Most recently, her young adult novel, The
Cadence of Gypsies, was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its List of Most
Notable Books. The Gospel According to Prissy, a novel for adults, has received
excellent reviews and received an IPPY Award for Best
Regional
Fiction. Warner Brothers Studio has also
expressed interest. Newly released in paperback, The Coach's Wife (ArcheBooks
Publishing), also a novel for adults (contemporary/mystery), was semi-finalist
for the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel and listed on the Publisher’s Best
Seller List.
Her
award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in
both national and international publications including the North Carolina
Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and
Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The
Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms.
Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North
Carolina. She also received special
recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian
children’s stories.
Ms.
Casey's award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in
The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in
The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg
Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus
Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Ms.
Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she
served as guest author and panelist. She
has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin
Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of
Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. She is a frequent guest lecturer at
universities and writers’ conferences around the country including the SCBWI
Regional Conference, the Harriett Austin Writers Conference in Athens, SIBA
(Southeastern Independent Book Sellers Association), Florida Writers
Association, and the University of Auburn, Montgomery. She makes her home on the top of a mountain
near Trion, Georgia, with her husband and Benton, a hound-mix who adopted her.
www.barbaracaseyagency.com
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.archebooks.com
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Thank you so much for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeletejslbrown2009(at)aol(dot)com
You are welcome, Lisa. Good luck with the giveaway.
DeleteThank you so much for hosting me today.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I enjoyed the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteKit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Thank you, Rita. I am glad you stopped by.
DeleteVery Intriguing! I like reading this type of book!
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