Punishment Summer By Peggy Rothschild ~ GIVEAWAY ~ INTERVIEW

Punishment Summer

By

Peggy Rothschild

Peggy is giving away $25 Amazon GC during the tour. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. Don't forget you may increase your chances of winning by visiting the other tour stops. Those locations may be found here. 

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Interview:

Crystal: Today I have the pleasure of hosting Peggy Rothschild. Welcome Peggy! I'm so happy to have you here today! Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

Peggy: I grew up in Los Angeles then moved to the Boston area – where I lived for five years and met my husband. He and I now live in Ventura, CA. I had the great good fortune to get to go camping a lot when I was growing up, and I love the outdoors. I’m a bit of a nature-geek – I’m fascinated by birds, and like reading up on plants and local critters, and for me, a perfect day includes time working in the garden. I also have zero sense of direction – which means NEVER hiking alone.

Crystal:  Do you have a favorite scene you would like to share with us?

Peggy: Sure. It’s not a big action scene, but it’s one of the first times Nicki feels like she’s conquered a small part of this new world where she’s living.

Walking into the river wearing boots felt worlds better than trying it barefoot. The lug soles gave decent traction and, without the icy current burning my skin, I managed to wade thigh-deep. Down river from Grandpa, I positioned my feet the way he’d taught me, my right foot back, braced against the muddy river bottom and started casting. With each try, the fly landed closer to my target. 

“Looking good. You’re no longer thrashing around like a badger in a bag.”

I smiled then faced the water again. My next cast flew true, landing upriver, dead center. As soon as the fly began traveling with the current, a fish struck. Remembering Grandpa’s lesson, I raised the rod tip. The fish ran, taking up the excess line. Between his runs, I reeled him closer.  

“Keep the tension steady.”

“Right.” The fish gave a strong pull and danced to the left. I lifted the tip of the rod higher and let him run. If I tried to muscle him in, the line would likely snap – a lesson I learned the hard way the week before. After a ten-minute battle, I got him in my net and hoisted the speckled trout from the river.

“Caught yourself a beaut.”

Warmth spread through my chest. “He’s heavy, too.” The fish would feed us for several days. I waded back to shore and opened Grandpa’s creel. “Holy frijole.”

Grandpa turned. “Something wrong?”

“No. I caught one before you.” I closed the creel.

“Good job.” He grinned and cast his line again.

Crystal: Where did you come up with the idea for your current release?

Peggy: The story actually started with a subplot – the idea of an underground railway that would whisk abuse victims away from their abusers. From there, I did some world-building and when Nicki appeared on the page, I knew I had my protagonist.

Crystal:  What are you currently working on?

Peggy: I’m working on a mystery where the protagonist is a former con artist-turned magician’s assistant. In order to stay hidden from her violent stepfather, Jen lives under an assumed name and takes cash-only jobs. But, when a dear friend and fellow former grifter is killed, Jen fears the past has caught up with her. 

I’ve had so much fun researching cons and magic tricks for this story.

Crystal:  Do you have any special routine that you follow when you are writing? 

Peggy: Other than writing mostly at my desk, I’m kind of all over the map. I do some writing by hand, though the bulk of drafting is done on my laptop. I don’t consistently write at a particular time of day or for a set number of hours (or words). The only truly reliable part of my writing process is: at some point, there will be dark chocolate!

Crystal:  Did you have to do a lot of research for this book or any other? If so do you have a fascinating fact that you have learned you would like to share with us?

Peggy: Oh boy, did I do research! I learned about tracking dogs, hunting, fly fishing, what types of food crops grow up in Mendocino, windmills, water pumps, living off the grid, and the problem with illegal pot fields in the region. A lot of the research didn’t wind up on the page, but it gave me the confidence to write about Grandpa’s cabin and living in the woods. During my research on fly fishing, I learned that trout face upstream and wait for food to come down on the current, and that tying fishing lures is a real art!

Crystal:  Who are some of your favorite authors that you like to read?

Peggy: Though I don’t write fantasy, I re-read the Harry Potter series about every 18 months. And I love mysteries -- especially books by C.J. Box, Harlan Coben, Robert Crais and Tana French.

Crystal:  Is there any genre you haven't written that you would like to try?

Peggy: I’m pretty happy writing YA and adult novels, and I do enjoy plotting out mysteries. It’s not a huge stretch, but within the YA genre, I’ve been thinking about writing a historical mystery (more fun research!).

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Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Nicki is sent to stay at her grandfather’s cabin near the town of Punishment in the Mendocino Forest. As always, she hides her burn scars and keeps quiet about the mother who ran out on her. But soon after arriving, she begins to suspect
Grandpa is also keeping secrets. Her exile brings an unexpected bright spot—Grandpa’s German shepherd, Queenie. The hunky
neighbor boy’s another plus, though she quickly starts to doubt his honesty.

From secret pot farms to human trafficking, Nicki discovers nothing in the ‘Mendo’ is what it seems. When Grandpa takes off and the lives of new friends are endangered, Nicki must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect those she cares about. Before summer ends, Nicki will learn there are some choices she can’t undo.

It’s a good thing Grandpa taught her how to shoot.

Evernight Teen Publishing

Contemporary/Suspense

70K

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Buy Links: 

Evernight Teen    Amazon

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Excerpt:

The hill climb seemed endless. Up, up, up we went, keeping beneath the cover of trees and shrubs. Other than the fact that Queenie periodically growled at Ben, the dog seemed to enjoy the journey. Though the pine-scented air felt cooler under the trees, my T-shirt soon became soaked with sweat. I wanted to take a drink from my canteen and pour some water into
my palm for Queenie, but worried about the etiquette. Would I have to offer Ben a drink? I wasn’t sure I wanted to swap germs with the guy. I longed to ask how much farther we had to go, but held off. He sounded pissed enough the last time I asked. Instead, I kept my mouth shut and continued climbing.

Ben stopped, held up his hand. He leaned in, his body heat adding to the day’s warmth as he whispered in my ear. “We gotta keep real quiet now. Watch where you step. Try to make as little noise as possible.” He moved off, walking in a strange semi-crouch.

I tried to mimic his stance as I followed. He stopped at the hill’s crest and knelt behind a tree. I hunkered down in his shadow, my arm around Queenie. Below us stretched rows and rows of bright green plants. Slender pines edged the field. Two men walked between the rows, the height of the crop almost to their knees. The large buds on the branches of the closest plants were easy to spot. Each man carried a plastic jug, dribbling liquid on the crop rows as they passed. The nearer of the two wore khakis plus a dirt-and sweat-stained undershirt. The distant man looked more pulled together: short-sleeved shirt tucked into his pants, hair tidy.

From what I could see, other people had spent time in the clearing, too. Maybe even lived there. Hammocks hung between half a dozen trees. Empty food cans rusted in a pile. The remains of an old campfire sat surrounded by cooking pans, food wrappers, and discarded cigarette packs. On the far side of the field sat a trash heap. Two men didn’t make a mess this size.

Black hoses ran between the rows of plants into the woods beyond. Now that we had settled in our spot for a couple minutes, the odor hit me. The place smelled like an outhouse.

Queenie’s body tensed, but she stayed silent. I leaned down and rubbed my cheek against the top of her head.

Gemma once tried growing a couple pot plants behind her garage. A gardening crew took care of their property and her parents never went behind that building. But none of the plants I’d seen before looked like this.
Star-shaped clusters rose toward the sky, the glossy leaves reflecting back the sun’s rays. I stared at the sheer size of the growing area and tried to calculate the number of trees someone had chopped down. This was no home patch.
This was a huge commercial operation. Ben warned me, but I hadn’t believed him.

Now I knew. We were in way over our heads.

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About the Author:

A native Californian, Peggy Rothschild grew up in Los Angeles. Always a mystery-lover, she embraced the tales of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys before moving on to the adult section of the library. An English major in high school, she switched to art – her other passion – in college. Peggy has authored two adult mysteries, CLEMENTINE’S SHADOW and ERASING RAMONA.
PUNISHMENT SUMMER is her first young adult novel.

At present, Peggy and her husband live in the beach community of Ventura with their cats – who are always willing to rip apart any pages they feel aren’t up to snuff. In her spare time she can be found drawing and painting, or out in the yard weeding, pruning, and generally getting messy.

Contact info:

Website: www.peggyrothschild.net

Twitter: @pegrothschild

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peggyrothschildauthor

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/peggyrothschild/punishment-summer

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7079283.Peggy_Rothschild

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