April in the Back of Beyond by P.M.terrell 💕 Behind the Scenes, Book Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Romantic Suspense)

This blog post contains affiliate links. Click Here for details.

Writer Hayley Hunter has arrived in Ireland to complete a book on Irish history. When she discovers the old carriage house she is renting is haunted, she is determined to uncover the truth behind the burned ruins of a nearby manor house and the abandoned British barracks it overlooks. With the assistance of Shay Macgregor, an Irish historian, her quest will take her to 1919 and the Irish War for Independence, exposing the murders of two young men and why their mother, April Crutchley, refuses to leave the back of beyond even in death. With a budding romance and the opportunity to begin life anew, Hayley finds her own life is now in jeopardy as she gets closer to a truth the villagers have long sought to bury.

April in the Back of Beyond blends three things that I’m fascinated with together: history, Ireland and parallel worlds.

My father should have been a history teacher, because he has always been keen on sharing historical facts and genealogy with others. But it wasn’t until 2006 when I began writing the story of an ancestor that the names and dates became so much more; they became people much like myself who loved and lost, succeeded and failed, and lived in times of uncertainty. When I came upon the true story of two brothers who had been killed in Ireland’s fight for independence in 1919, I knew I had to tell their story—and the story of their mother, who witnessed the killings and tried to save them. Though we know today how things turned out—with Ireland becoming independent from Britain—no one knew whether they would succeed and every day was filled with uncertainty and danger.

I was drawn to Ireland as I continued to research my family’s history. The highlight of my life was when I traveled to Ireland and discovered the village where my ancestors once lived and I visited with the people there. The Neely family had been granted land at Glen Cull outside of Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, by the British monarchy in the 17th century, and at the time of my first visit there, I was presented with a book that had been written about the school’s history. It turned out that my ancestors had donated land for the school and a local church and had remained well thought of until the last departed in the mid-20th century. In April in the Back of Beyond, I used Ballygawley as inspiration for the village in the book, along with the surrounding area.

The third layer to the story comes with my fascination of parallel worlds. I love science and I wish I was more intellectual so I could understand the parallel worlds about which Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and others have spoken and written so eloquently. I recently learned about aircraft that is in development that could have the potential to bend time and space, making it possible for humans to travel to distant places in our galaxy and beyond, and also have the ability to bend time so an astronaut doesn’t age substantially in getting there. In my book April in the Back of Beyond, I tell the story of a woman that dreamt every night of a house in Ireland. When she finally traveled there and located the house which was for sale, she discovered the current owners had placed it on the market because it had become haunted—with the woman that had been dreaming of it. The story was actually true; the woman had never been psychic or an astral traveler, and yet there she was, halfway around the world every night in her dreams. It was a fascinating subject that led me to the hauntings in the book, in which April lives in 1919 and the writer, Hayley Hunter, who has rented the carriage house, is there in the present day.

So now you have the inside stories that make up April in the Back of Beyond—the blend of history, the setting of Ireland, and the hauntings made possible through parallel worlds.

Thank you for having me here today!

He held onto the basket a bit awkwardly and I found myself reaching for it. I closed my fingers around his for the briefest of moments before taking the basket from him and setting it just inside the door.

“It may require refrigeration,” he said quietly.

“If it lasts that long,” I said.

“Oh, it can last as long as you’d like it to.”

“Are we still talking about the picnic basket?”

The most subtle of smiles crept across his lips.

“How did you say I should turn on the heater for hot water again?” I asked.

“I’ll show you, if I may.”

“Please do.”

As he entered the cottage, I closed the door behind him. Despite his assurances, I quietly locked it. When I turned around, he’d already entered the bath and was reaching upward to point to the water heater. “It’s this switch right here,” he said as I joined him.

I moved up behind him and slipped my arms around him. He smelled of the fresh ocean air at Carrickabraghy. I closed my eyes and rested my head against his back. After a moment, I felt his hands upon mine, gently moving them away from him as he turned to face me before placing them back around his waist. I found myself now with my head resting against his chest. I could smell the salty air upon him and could feel the grains of ocean salt on my skin. My clothing felt oddly clammy now that we were inside with the warmth of the fire, and my hair weighted down from the Irish mists.

“Would you like me to show you how quickly the water heats?” he whispered.

I turned my face upward, my eyes meeting his. “I’d love that.”

Without taking his eyes off me, he switched the heater on. “By the time you’re undressed, the water will be hot,” he said, his voice husky.

“Prove it.”

He smiled again and his eyes took on a mischievous glint as he unbuttoned the top button on my blouse. I watched his face as he moved downward, my cheeks becoming warm as his grew flushed. Before the last one was unbuttoned, I’d begun to return the favor, revealing a strong chest lightly covered in light brown hair. As he unsnapped my bra and it fell away, I pressed against him, allowing the soft chest hair to tickle my skin.

His lips found mine as his fingers moved to my jeans and mine moved to his. Stepping out of our shoes and socks, we found the bathroom beginning to fog as he turned on the shower and beckoned me inside, leaving our clothing in a combined heap on the bathroom floor.

The warmth of the water cascaded around us as he joined me. We moved under the water and I closed my eyes, envisioning us beneath a pristine waterfall as our kisses grew more passionate and the seconds turned into minutes. When he eventually pulled away, it was to sit in a molded shower seat in the corner while he tore open a packet of soap.

I adjusted the showerhead so the water would spray directly on us and then I straddled him on the seat.

p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 23 books in multiple genres, including contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer instructional, non-fiction and children’s books.

Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area: McClelland Enterprises, Inc. and Continental Software Development Corporation. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in the detection of white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence.

A full-time author since 2002, Black Swamp Mysteries was her first series, inspired by the success of Exit 22, released in 2008. Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee, and The Pendulum Files was a national finalist for the Best Cover of the Year in 2014. Her second series, Ryan O’Clery Suspense, is also award-winning. The Tempest Murders (Book 1) was one of four finalists in the 2013 International Book Awards, cross-genre category. Her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee. Songbirds are Free is her bestselling book to date; it is inspired by the true story of Mary Neely, who was captured in 1780 by Shawnee warriors near Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN).

She was the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She was the founder of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in the town of Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime and served as its chairperson and organizer for its first four years. She also served on the boards of the Friends of the Robeson County (NC) Public Library, the Robeson County (NC) Arts Council, Virginia Crime Stoppers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.

For more information, book trailers, excerpts and more, visit the author’s website at www.pmterrell.com.