August

It's been a couple of weeks, but my mom had surgery last month. There is always so much we think about, but it is hard to put it all into words how we really feel. I love and adore my mother. But, we are worlds apart in how we view the world. She has tongue cancer and this was her second surgery, so it could have changed her life completely by causing issues with speech and the ability to do something as simple as sitting down to a meal. The speech is slightly effected, but not to the point we can't understand every word. And the getting past milkshakes and soup is still ongoing. But, the margins are clear and her life goes on, with a large pot hole in the road. Did I say pot hole, you could take a mule ride the bottom...She is eighty-two.

My dad used to always say "such is life" He didn't speak french very well. I miss him everyday. It would have been his birthday on the third. You can blame that for my ramblings today.

The road we take is seldom without construction or a straight line. And sometimes it's the circle around the big cities or the stop light on a county road, but the view is seldom the same, unless of course, you're in Kansas. Before the gasoline crisis, I was young and loved to travel. I can tell you that driving through Oregon was one of the most spectacular drives I ever took. I went from the stark young mountains of Colorado, to the rich lush visages of the Bitter Roots. And yet, I live in a small southern Indiana town, so that I can be close to family.

I am always trying to tell stories in my writing that are essentially about hope and happiness, but there is always some fundamental roadblock that must be overcome along that journey. It is how I have always experienced life. Wanting, but always having to work hard for whatever has been achieved. The characters in The Replacement Lists have lived those kind of lives. They are a reflection of the road they have taken in life.

Takeshi and Hannah's love story unfolds in the first book, Shaking Off the Dust. She is has been somewhat beaten down by her life and yet she lives each day with humor, often at her own expense. She realized a while back that she was going to be single, until she meets Takeshi.   Shimodo has achieved great things scholastically, but he has a very clinical view of life until her meets Hannah. She is the perfect research subject, but she is fully engaged in life. She soon makes him laugh and feel all those emotions he thought were beyond his experience.

Despite The Replacement Lists being an adult read, it is all about family. Taking responsibility for the safety of those you love. Creating extended families. The blending of families into a protective unit.  I don't want to spoil any of the odd twists and turns of this book, but you will discover that love has a way of sneaking up on you, even when you are seeking to avenge the death of those you care about.

Kiss your mothers, fathers, husbands and wives and children goodnight and take a journey down a different path.

Rhianna

The Replacement Lists

It's out on Amazon! The sequel to Shaking Off the Dust is called The Replacement Lists and it's got a different point of view than the first. I think it allowed me to tell a bigger story this way.

This story begins nearly eight months after the end of the first book. Takeshi and Hannah are getting ready for their babies to come any time when people that they know are suddenly being murdered in professional hits. When they finally put two and three together it equals the names from their wedding replacement lists. It also means going on the run and into hiding.

Along the way, all of those men and women involved in the original capture of the infamous terrorist and drug lord Sanchez are targets. Their friends are coming from all over the world to help Takeshi and Hannah survive, including a friend from Takeshi's childhood, Yanna. She's the daughter of a dojo master and a Japanese policewoman, but once she hears the concern in his voice, she flies to their side.

The graphic and violent murders of two of their friends turns Dr. Dwight Santiago in to the hard as nails ex Delta boy he was in the service. Doctor or not, he plans to see the the Shimodos safe and the assassins pay. You'll see a side of him that you never glimpsed in the first book.

I hope you all enjoy this new book.

Rhianna Samuels