Tirgearr Publishing: Available Now: The Drinking Gourd by Kotar and Gessler

THE DRINKING GOURD
The Kansas Pirates Saga, #3
S.L. Kotar and J.E. Gessler

Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Price: $4.99

Buy here: Tirgearr Publishing

A knock came on the door in the dead of night. On the verge of Civil War, such a summons meant trouble and danger. To ignore it offered momentary reprieve for the Ward family: it also meant shirking duty. Such was not in their make-up, for the Wards, otherwise known as the landlocked "Kansas Pirates," had taken the buccaneer's oath to protect one another, and, by association, the oppressed, against tyranny and injustice.

Their help was urgently needed to guide runaway slaves from "Bleeding Kansas" across the river to safer ground. Barbara Nelander-Ward, former first mate aboard the Bottom Dollar, accepts the arduous task and so begins her trek to "follow the drinking gourd" north to freedom. Fighting slavers who worked on the side of the law earning a living selling human beings as chattel, those who believed the dark color of a man or woman's skin made them inferior, battling the elements and finding herself forced to trust a former enemy, Nelander also discovers "the side of right" is not always what it seems.

• • •

The knock at the door came quickly: three sharp raps, a pause, followed by two more. For all the world it might have been a code, yet none in the house rightly spoke the language.

That it signaled danger could not be debated.

Seth Ward rose from his rocker, the Lawrence Gazette he had been reading slipping from his lap to the wooden floor. It landed with a soft swishing noise, hardly enough to disturb a sleeping babe, yet he flinched as though the periodical rattled the walls. Finger to lips, he signaled for silence. Barbara Nelander-Ward, his wife, nodded understanding and softly ushered two older children and the sleeping babe into a rear bedroom.

Before completing the tactical withdrawal, a small pup, teeth bared, body quivering in righteous indignation, raced between her legs. Viciously yapping, the animal squared itself by the main entranceway, a narrow line of fur bristling down its back like a solitary row of corn. The hound’s sudden silence bore testimony to the fact Seth had slipped a hand around its muzzle.

Inside the sleeping chamber, the children formed a close-knit circle.

“Who is out there?” Patricia whispered. As the elder of the non-commissioned crew and senior able-bodied seaman of the farm called Pirate Treasure, she took it upon herself to speak for Peter, her brother, and their infant sister, Paula.

“I don't know,” Nelander responded in a command tone befitting the many years she had worked aboard a real sea-going vessel. “It is best we take precautions...”

Times being what they are.

She did not finish the sentence. In the opening months of 1861, it had already grown old by repetition.

“Shall I get my cutlass?” Peter queried in a brave, ten year-old’s voice. “If it’s trouble, I want to be ready.”

“Say, rather, it is the unknown,” his stepmother advised.

“But I want to be prepared to defend the house. And you and Captain Papa and —”

“Enough. It is an officer’s duty to protect. You will receive your orders. In the meantime, stay here. Do not emerge until given the all clear.”

Expecting them to obey, she cast a loving glance at her sleeping daughter then tiptoed out, sealing the door behind. Lowering the wick in the kerosene lamp to make her and her husband less of an obvious target, Nelander merged with the night shadows, rejoining Seth by the entrance. The fact he had grabbed the deer rifle from the wall and cradled it in the crook of his arm augmented rather than lessened her discomfiture.

"Have you looked out the window? Who's there?"

He shrugged. “Whoever it is, he's standing outside my line of vision. Can’t make him out.”

Professing ignorance of the summons provided no escape. Granting the stranger had seen the lamp burning through the window, he could reasonably expect the family to be home. Waiting too long might incite ire. Refusing to answer altogether implied fear.

And cowardice.

Giving their enemy, if so he turned out to be, an edge.

• • •

S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler's first writing success was an episode of the television series GUNSMOKE. The episode, "Kitty's Love Affair," guest-starred Richard Kiley as a gunfighter who saves Kitty's life and then becomes romantically involved with her. This was the highest-rated episode in the series' 20-year history. They published an iconoclastic Civil War magazine called "The Kepi" for many years, specializing in new historical perspectives of the battles and leaders as well as presenting detailed articles on life in the 1860's. Their published works include a detailed account of the series starring Darren McGavin, "Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series, 1959-1961" and historical non-fiction texts including, "The Steamboat Era: A History of Fulton's Folly on American Rivers, 1807-1860," "Ballooning: A History, 1782-1900," "The Rise of the American Circus, 1716-1899," "Smallpox: A History," and a cardiology textbook, "The Complete Guide to Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring and Full Disclosure Telemetry." Their book, "Cholera: A History" is due out later in 2013 and they are currently working on "Yellow Fever: A History," due out in 2014. Outside of writing and cardiology, their main interest is baseball; they are close friends with Whitey Herzog, the great Hall of Fame manager, who inspired them to move to St. Louis and they have rooted for the Pittsburgh Pirates for many years.

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