Lowcountry Rising

Lowcountry Rising is a masterpiece—a fast-paced and action-packed yet cerebral novel. From all my years of reviewing the worlds best literature its my opinion that Lowcountry Rising will be an instant classic… This novel has something for lovers of every genre: romance action literature crime and mystery. A must-read. Anthony Willis M.A. formerly the University of AkronSticker is a man with pains more than heartache and a childhood he’d rather forget.Candy is a divorcee abandoned at six months and trying to get by raising her nine-year-old daughter by herself.They’re neighbors and it’s complicated.When Candy’s nine-year-old daughter Sunny is threatened with physical harm by Candy’s ex-husband (who isn’t the girl’s father) Sticker fights to save her. But his success only serves to ignite villainous forces—and a corrupt sheriff’s department—that are on the verge of closing the deal of the century: A deal that would not only ensnare countless others in its treachery but put a speedy end to Sticker’s and Candy’s lives.The escape is on the choices made. But to break free completely Sticker and Candy must go back—back into their greatest fears—that are just as frightening as the men who are chasing them.It’s a clear summer’s night. It’s hot. It’s sweaty. And they’re all alone. Generations-old secrets sequestered in the bottoms of the Lowcountry of South Carolina swamps are bubbling up to awareness and soon everything in Sticker’s Candy’s and Sunny’s world is going to change.This story holds nothing back.There are adult language and content as in real life—so buckle your seatbelt and take a wild ride and adventure of a lifetime into the frightening but liberating Lowcountry. The year is 1986. Sticker has a gut-wrenching secret that has ruled his life. His cousin Tom has taken to dealing drugs with the help of the local sheriff. His neighbor Candy is trying to get by raising her nine-year-old daughter by herself and Kaitlin—the “other woman”—is carefree and content except for not getting the one thing she’s longed for for years. This story holds nothing back. There is adult language and content as in real life so buckle your seatbelt. When an unthinkable calamity strikes Candy and her daughter Sunny Sticker must make a choice—the outcome of which will determine all of their fates. In the heat of the moment he suddenly realizes that the choice he is about to make is really no choice at all but was determined years ago when he himself suffered a life-changing tragedy. But will he be wise enough strong enough to let the future become the present the way it was supposed to? Cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss star-filled nights fire ants and flypaper. A kiss in the moonlight a love triangle a forbidden attraction. A corrupt sheriff greedy drug dealers the outrage of slavery. A lost soul the meaning of family the meaning of life. It’s a clear summer’s night. It’s hot. It’s sweaty. And they’re all alone. Generations old secrets sequestered in the bottoms of the Lowcountry swamps are bubbling up to awareness and soon everything in Sticker’s Candy’s Sunny’s and Kaitlin’s world is going to change. And a forgotten soul returns for retribution. The challenges are before them. The answers lie within them. Their adventure is just beginning. . . Down in the Lowcountry. Excerpt: For those all too brief four hours at River-hole that afternoon I was seventeen again. We swung off the rope—alone in pairs and all together—sometimes laughing so hard as we dropped into the water with our arms and legs and torsos so tangled up that we could barely make it to the surface in time to suck air into our bursting lungs and laugh even harder. We sat on the bank on the blanket and watched the lazy water pass us by with water bugs lighting on it and fish surfacing to peck at the bugs and an occasional stick or leaf floating down and then disappearing around the bend. We drank the coolers and told jokes and kidded each other about how ugly we were and how dumb we were and how rich we were and how rich would be rich enough. And the women brushed their hair and spread suntan lotion on their arms and legs and then on each other’s backs and on my back too and we laid there and looked up at the underside of that towering old oak and the blue sky beyond it without a cloud to be seen. We swam again and drank again and even nodded off as the late afternoon sun headed for the horizon. And I realized that this girl turned woman who I hadn’t been near in years had cast a spell on me years ago and probably even before that. A spell that I’d never break. “Sticker” Kaitlin says softly as we lay there on our backs—both of us half dozing—as Kathy’s clearly sleeping. We’re both quite happy from the drink and the day. “Yes Kait.” “Why did God to this to us?” I feel my throat swell. It takes me a long time to answer and all I can manage to say is “I don’t know.” “It’s not fair” she slides her hand along the blanket and takes a hold of mine. “It’s just years. Just some time . . . a few years” she says. Again I can’t answer. Finally I say “It’s more than that Kait. You know it’s more than that.” “I know” she says even more softly. “But what they say or think doesn’t matter to me. You know that don’t you Stick?” “I do. And what they say or think doesn’t matter to me neither. But still you know it’s more than that.” I look up at the branches on the tree overhead and follow one down to the trunk. “You see Kait” I say trying to keep my voice from cracking “you have a future waiting.” I take her hand and raise it up and work her fingers so her forefinger points at the open sky. “You see that?” I ask. “See what?” “What you’re pointing at . . . the sky. Do you see the sky?” “Yes” she says patiently. “Tell me what you see” I say. “I see a clear blue sky.” “Yes. It’s a clear blue sky. What’s beyond the clear blue sky?” “Beyond?” “Yes beyond.” “Outer space I reckon.” “Yes space. And what’s there in space?” “You mean stars?” “Yeah stars. The same things you see at night when it’s dark are still there during the day. We just can’t see them on account of the light.” She’s quiet. I continue “Your future is there Kait. Like the stars in the sky are there. You just can’t see it. But you know it . . . you feel it.” I feel her fingers squeeze my hand. And then I say something that shows what a son of a bitch I truly am: “There’s a star up there in your future Kait that I just can’t give you.” Tears well up in my eyes and roll down across my temples and ears and down my neck. I feel her grip tighten even more as she rolls on her side towards me. She buries her head on my chest and silently weeps. I feel her tears on my sun-baked skin… Excerpt: Instantly another part of that same dream flashes through my inner vision… They’ve returned. It’s all so similar. But now I’m right in the middle of it and this ain’t no damn dream! Then it rips through my mind in the clearest most poignant realization I could ever have just who I’m really fighting for. I’m no longer fighting for me you see. No longer fighting to get past the abuse and neglect I was born into and suffered through which caused me to turn upon myself like a twisted-up coil of flypaper. I no longer matter and never really have you see except to be here… for them. For if I’m to fail and die here on this threadbare old carpet Candy has long dreamed of replacing in this run-down old double-wide that’s the epitome of commonness that something very uncommon would not be realized. And even though the events I’m revisiting in my dreams are all in the past and cannot be changed changing this outcome from the one so long ago would be a retribution of sorts a validation that the spirit of that little girl has risen. And although that soul wasn’t allowed to flower into true womanhood back then it could be now. But the only way I’m going to save both of them is to save myself first. A bolt of electricity explodes from my heart and surges through every particle that is me. A wellspring of clarity and purpose gather instantly in my veins like blue sky emerging after a thunderstorm. “Not again you… Comments about Lowcountry Rising: “I loved it! Mom finished your book too. She really enjoyed it as well” Lorna J. Miller author of Ink “Very fresh and original.” Lowcountry Weekly Lowcountry Rising is a masterpiece – a fast-paced and action-packed yet cerebral novel. Far ahead of its time Lowcountry Rising will be an instant classic. It’s a psychological drama that left me deeply moved deeply satisfied and yet still wanting more – a book readers will not want to put down. This novel has something for lovers of every genre: romance action literature crime and mystery. A must-read!” Professor Anthony Willis M.A. formerly at the University of Akron “Lowcountry Rising is an emotionally hard-hitting novel and is highly recommended. Midwest Book Review