Jean Henry, Guest Author

This week I’m welcoming my friend, Jean Henry, for a visit. I’m in the process of reading her latest book. I’ll let her tell you about it since I haven’t finished it yet. I know you’ve had a rough time thanks to a huge storm, and I’m amazed to see a new book already. Thank you for joining us this week.

Thanks, Marja, for this opportunity to talk about my latest release, Girl on the Precipice.

While I was writing the novel, Hurricane Harvey flooded my home as well as my computer, and thanks to Marja saving a rough draft of the book for me via the Internet (ahead of the storm), I was able to reconstruct and complete the novel since returning to my native California.

 

When I began writing Precipice, the Me Too Movement had yet to begin, and although my book only hints at sexual abuse, it does feature physical and emotional abuse first enacted by my protagonist’s husband, Todd. It also focuses on a lack of respect for women, an age old problem.

Lauren Mason Bleaker is a young southern California woman who is transplanted on a Wyoming mountaintop ranch when she marries a sailor in Long Beach, after her adopted parents are killed. So far, the story is more or less autobiographical.

The ranch is referred to as the concentration camp because Todd strings eight closely-woven barbed wire stands around the ranch when Lauren tells him she’s lonely, bored and wants to leave. Todd becomes her jailer and is increasingly abusive. Then, unbeknown to Lauren, he’s stockpiling contraband in the barn where she’s forbidden to go.

Lauren manages to adjust to the foreign way of life until Todd’s mother dies and Todd’s demeanor changes dramatically. She’s then so miserable and depressed living in a decrepit old ranch house without television, phone, Internet or modern appliances, she stands on a precipice at the ranch and contemplates suicide. But Lauren decides at the last moment to attempt an escape instead. What she encounters afterward is a story of suspense when Todd’s criminal partners get involved. 

A bit of humor and new friends’ loving relationships weave their way through the plot, so I assume the novel could be considered romantic suspense.

I wrote the book as Jean Henry due to a recent divorce and the fact that it’s easier than trying to fit the name on a book cover than Jean Henry Mead. I hope my readers will stay with me despite the name change and the ever-increasing stockpile of books on the Internet. : )

Thanks for stopping by.

Excerpt:

Lauren watched an eagle glide across the rock-studded canyon, wishing she had that freedom to escape her miserable life. Tenting her fingers, she closed her eyes to beg forgiveness for what she was about to do. The sound of a rattle stopped her mid-prayer, prompting an instinctive jump aside. The coiled snake threatened from a few feet to her right. If she were going to leap, now was the time. A snake bite was a painful way to die. It was better to get it over quickly. Removing her headband, she flung it at the rattlesnake to distract it. Realizing too late that the snake would interpret that as an act of aggression, she immediately dropped to slide over the precipice.

The rocky canyon wall sloped outward far enough to prevent her from jumping straight down, so she slid on her backside a few yards from the edge, She then grabbed a stump of juniper to stop her forward motion when she noticed jagged rocks littering the canyon floor. No more than sixty feet deep, the chasm represented what her husband Todd referred to as the snake pit. Why hadn’t she remembered that until now? There had to be a better way to end her life. 

Todd would arrive home soon. Cringing, Lauren imagined him stomping into the old ranch house from the south pasture, covered in tractor grease and mud, expecting dinner. A feeling of revulsion overcame her, causing Lauren to reconsider her  leap. 

Life on the isolated ranch had become a nightmare in progress, steadily growing more unbearable as time crawled by. The eight strands of barbed wire had been so closely strung that she was unable to climb through the fence; the gates padlocked and topped with even more wire. Wire cutters and other tools were locked in the barn and Todd wore the key on a chain around his neck. The only unfenced area of the ranch was along this canyon where he obviously thought she wouldn’t attempt an escape. She was a prisoner without a phone, TV, or Internet in her husband’s desolate concentration camp.

Bio:

Jean Henry, aka Jean Henry Mead, began her writing career as a news reporter and photographer in California, later serving as a staff writer and magazine editor in Wyoming, while a correspondent for the Denver Post’s Empire Magazine. As a photojournalist, her magazine articles have been published domestically as well as abroad and she worked as editor of two small presses. Girl on the Precipice is her 23^rd book. Her publications include mysteries, suspense, children’s mysteries, historicals and nonfiction.

Website: http://www.jeanhenrymead.com/

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