About
Mike Kearby, a retired high school Reading and English teacher, is the author of nine novels. The Road to a Hanging (2006), Ride the Desperate Trail (2007), and Ambush at Mustang Canyon (fall, 2007), completed his Young Adult trilogy published by Dorchester Publishing (NY). Ambush at Mustang Canyon was honored as a 2008 Spur Award Finalist from the Western Writers of America. The Taken (Dorchester) was published in January 2011. Mike’s first graphic novel, Texas Tales Illustrated, will be published by TCU Press in April 2011. The novel features artwork by renowned illustrator, Mack White.
The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls
Description
<p>Emerging from the long shadow cast by his formidable father, Harold Godwineson showed himself to be a worthy successor to the Earldom of Wessex. In the following twelve years, he became the King's most trusted advisor, practically taking the reins of government into his own hands. And on Edward the Confessor's death, Harold Godwineson mounted the throne—the first king of England not of royal blood. Yet Harold was only a man, and his rise in fortune was not blameless. Like any person aspiring to power, he made choices he wasn't particularly proud of. Unfortunately, those closest to him sometimes paid the price of his fame.<br /><br />This is a story of Godwine's family as told from the viewpoint of Harold and his younger brothers. Queen Editha, known for her Vita Ædwardi Regis, originally commissioned a work to memorialize the deeds of her family, but after the Conquest historians tell us she abandoned this project and concentrated on her husband, the less dangerous subject. In THE SONS OF GODWINE and FATAL RIVALRY, I am telling the story as it might have survived had she collected and passed on the memoirs of her tragic brothers.<br /><br />This book is part two of The Last Great Saxon Earls series. Book one, GODWINE KINGMAKER, depicted the rise and fall of the first Earl of Wessex who came to power under Canute and rose to preeminence at the beginning of Edward the Confessor's reign. Unfortunately, Godwine's misguided efforts to champion his eldest son Swegn recoiled on the whole family, contributing to their outlawry and Queen Editha's disgrace. Their exile only lasted one year and they returned victorious to London, though it was obvious that Harold's career was just beginning as his father's journey was coming to an end.<br /><br />Harold's siblings were all overshadowed by their famous brother; in their memoirs we see remarks tinged sometimes with admiration, sometimes with skepticism, and in Tostig's case, with jealousy. We see a Harold who is ambitious, self-assured, sometimes egocentric, imperfect, yet heroic. His own story is all about Harold, but his brothers see things a little differently. Throughout, their observations are purely subjective, and witnessing events through their eyes gives us an insider’s perspective.<br /><br />Harold was his mother's favorite, confident enough to rise above petty sibling rivalry but Tostig, next in line, was not so lucky. Harold would have been surprised by Tostig's vindictiveness, if he had ever given his brother a second thought. And that was the problem. Tostig's love/hate relationship with Harold would eventually destroy everything they worked for, leaving the country open to foreign conquest. This subplot comes to a crisis in book three of the series, FATAL RIVALRY.</p>
Story Behind The Book
What if the familiar words of the playground taunt, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me— could physically hurt an individual? What if 200,000 years of hate and violence, the amount of time that human-man had been on the planet, were compressed into a singular moment in time? This is the premise of the horror novel, The Resonance.
The mutilation and murder of Bette Short in 1947 Hollywood, spawns the unholy resonance, which springs into existence out of Bette’s cleaved torso. A big bang-like phenomenon inflates the resonance to unimaginable size. The newborn amorphous entity thrives on and feeds off the vibration of every spoken word.
The dark entity quickly learns that vibrations from the darkest words—those cried out by victims of heinous crimes, such as domestic violence and murder, are the most nutritious— feeding electrical energy into the ravenous prodigy. In order to flourish, the resonance searches for humans who possess the ability to ‘synch’ with its electrical vibration and do its murderous bidding.
A dead man, Joseph Burks is the latest resonance recruit. Burks is reanimated by the dark entity and lives in a zombie-like state off the resonance’s electrical vibration. Burks travels through Texas cities meeting potential victims through an Internet service that promotes extramarital affairs. Burks proves to be very successful for the resonance, killing thirty women in fifteen years.
As the resonance thrives—growing larger and more powerful in a world abundant in hate, greed, and distrust, Burks grows younger.
After Burks’s first killing, the resonance locks onto the vibration of thirteen-year-old Molly Harmon, a curious bystander of the crime scene. The resonance recognizes that Molly not only possesses the ability to ‘synch’ with its dark energy, but can also serve as a vessel for the cast-off electrical waste from the resonance’s murderous feasts.
The resonance first appears to Molly as a piece of ribbon candy. Intrigued by the entity, Molly ‘synchs’ with the resonance and is forever bound to the dark side of humanity. The resonance tells Molly during their initial encounter, you’re the one I’ve been searching for—you’re one in a million, Molly.
Molly soon learns that her dark shadow is obsessively possessive. Anyone who touches her is aged by her powerful electrical vibration. Molly also discovers that she is not immune to the aging process—that the cast-off waste of the resonance’s feedings ages her as well.
