By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills
Content from this post first appeared 8-17-17
I was a guest at a book club of a special group of ladies who read my books and encourage me. These ladies are grandmothers and great grandmothers, full of life and energy.
With the release of Fatal Strike, I think you’ll enjoy what happened at this Texas book club meeting.
If you suffer from Ophidiophobia, read no further.
As a kickoff to the evening, one of the ladies prepared a fabulous dinner. We filled our plates and seated ourselves in the dining and kitchen rooms. For some reason, they started sharing stories about snakes . . . not garden snakes but the venomous kind native to Texas. These sweet women are gutsy and more courageous than I’ll ever be. I laughed to keep from being frightened. Although for a while, I pulled my feet up from the floor.
Their tales are below.
One of the ladies is a retired school librarian. From inside her school library, she opened the door to the outside. A snake from above the door fell at her feet. Thank goodness the snake was stunned, and she didn’t have to chase it through the school. The assistant principal found a broom and helped her sweep it into a trash can.
The book club hostess told an alarming story. Her husband had been busy tending their yard when he was bitten by a coral snake (hyperlink coral snake info). He called his wife at work to arrange anti-venom to be delivered to a neighboring hospital. He decided to take a shower before driving himself for medical treatment. Dear reader, a coral snake is nothing to mess with. He finished his shower and drove to the hospital where he received the anti-venom treatment.
Another story came from a woman’s husband who enjoyed hunting. She mentioned her husband had backed up from a poised rattler to take a shot and landed on a cactus. Ouch!
A woman, quite lovely and feminine, spoke about an incident that happened about six months prior. My heart’s still pounding with this story. Outside her back door is a narrow, concave area where a coral snake had stretched out. Her husband fetched a shovel, but wasn’t able to get to the snake due to the shape of its “bed.” The snake couldn’t coil to strike. This woman retrieved a butcher knife from her kitchen and proceeded to cut the snake into pieces and used scissors to sever its head! Oh, what can I say about Texas women except we do have our heroic moments.
Other women had stories too, but I think I’ve shaken y’all enough for one day, even without showing pictures!
I’m excited to share that Fatal Strike is now available at your favorite online or retail bookstore.
In Fatal Strike, I used my worst fear—snakes,—to create real emotions and panic among the characters walking the pages of the story.
What aspects of a romantic suspense novel thrill you?
