Lisa ~
____________
BENEATH THE SHINING MOUNTAINS
Moon Hawk is playing a dangerous game. Her heart is set on
Winter Man, but why would a man with so many lovers want to take a wife?
Challenging his virility captures Winter Man’s attention, but in a village of
skin tipis where every word is overheard their escalating game of tease and
spar soon spirals beyond control, threatening Moon Hawk and her family with
ridicule and shame. Is this Winter Man’s intention? Or are they both dancing to
another's tune?
Set on the northern plains among the Apsaroke/Crow people before ‘the hairy-faced traders’ turn into a flood of émigrés, the novel explores male as well as female expectations of life, from buffalo hunting to horse raiding, to honour among rival warrior societies, and one woman's determination to wed the man of her dreams.
Set on the northern plains among the Apsaroke/Crow people before ‘the hairy-faced traders’ turn into a flood of émigrés, the novel explores male as well as female expectations of life, from buffalo hunting to horse raiding, to honour among rival warrior societies, and one woman's determination to wed the man of her dreams.
It’s often a source of confusion, and sometimes amusement,
that a British author writes about Native American life in the 1830s. What can
I say? Us Brits are nothing if not eccentric.
The interest started before I was school age. My mother used
to tell anyone who would listen that when she was lying-in after giving birth
to my brother she cut a war bonnet out of newspaper to keep me occupied – which
made me about four and prior to the family owning a television set. So how did
I know these people existed? My parents couldn’t fathom it, but by the age of
eight neighbours knew enough to keep an eye open at church bazaars, and this is
how my book collection started.
Books, I soon realised, left me with more questions than
they answered, and learning about bibliographies was a revelation to my young
mind. While my parents were keen to steer me into the children’s library to
look at ‘A Day In The Life Of…’ picture books, I wanted to see the sorts of
tomes that would need to be ordered from the regional holding library, if not
from the British Library in London. “She’ll grow out of it,” they said. Of
course, I didn’t. As I entered my teens I just got worse.
Reading about
turned into how-to… make moccasins
(from an old leather coat), make a bone whistle (family chicken dinner), tan
hide (rabbit from the butcher – my mother was horrified), and when I found a
book on tipi construction summer camping in the garden took on a whole new
meaning.
Boyfriends only marginally interrupted the interest, and
when one not only didn’t laugh but actually showed an interest, I married him!
Between us, over the next few years, we kept afloat both the international
parcel services and American university presses. At last count the books,
journals, academic papers and biographies numbered just over a thousand. If we
ever had a fire I’m not sure what I would save. It certainly it wouldn’t be the
family photos.
I’ve always been a writer, and despite British publishers
telling me that ‘no one is interested in Native Americans’ Beneath The Shining Mountains sold 30,000 copies in its first
paperback incarnation, despite it never been published in the USA. So it’s a
delight to see it continuing to sell well, especially in the USA, now I can
offer it under its true title as a paperback and ebook. Enjoy!
EXCERPT
The hunters drew their mounts to a
standstill and watched the antics of their more youthful cousins with a mixture
of amusement and disdain. Men who had counted coup did not begrime their
prestige by entering into such games, but they all remembered when they had.
Moon Hawk had eyes only for Winter
Man. He flanked the group, a mercy she gave thanks to First Maker for. She’d no
idea what she would have done if he’d been surrounded by his friends. Despite
being away from the village for more than four days, his raven-black hair was
as immaculately dressed as ever she had seen it, its length almost touching his
horse’s rump, the quiff above his brow erect and whitened as if a swan’s tail.
No shirt stopped the sun from shining on this bronzed skin, and only a looped
necklace of tiny bone discs adorned his chest. Just looking at him brought a
thrill of expectation.
Putting such thoughts from her
mind, she drew a determined breath. If she didn’t act now… Pulling back her arm
she threw her chosen missile with accuracy. A small, shrivelled turnip caught
Winter Man full on the base of the neck. Such a well-balanced rider needed more
to unhorse him, but the blow made him lurch to such an extent that his mount
shied. Regaining control, he swung round on his attacker, astonishment
sharpening his high cheekbones and widening his eyes.
‘Did you throw that?’
Moon Hawk swallowed her fear and
lifted her chin. ‘I didn’t mean to hit you,’ she said. ‘My throw was wild.’
‘Wild? No woman’s throw can be that wild!’
Moon Hawk flashed her eyes at him
to give her words more vehemence. ‘I slipped,’ she said. ‘Do you think I would
waste a hit on you?’
She glanced across to the young
people disporting themselves in the sunshine. As she knew he would, Winter Man
followed her gaze. She looked back at him in time to see his face registering
utter disbelief that any young woman would prefer someone of no account to him.
‘I am Winter Man!’ he bellowed. ‘I
am a Good Young Man.’
Moon Hawk gave a casual shrug of
her shoulders. ‘I know that.’
Her reply seemed to cut him to the
heart. As rehearsed, she took a step towards her friends.
‘Ha!’ Winter Man spat after her.
‘Your lover seems to have deserted you. No boy
waits for you that I can see.’
Moon Hawk’s heart sang. He’d drawn
on the bait as her mother said he would. She swallowed her smile of excitement
and turned back to him with a look of disdain.
‘Lover? I have no lover! I am
chaste. There’s not a man alive who can entice me.’
Linda
Acaster is the author of five novels, over 70 short stories and a
non-fiction guide to writing short fiction. She is currently working on the
second in the paranormal ‘Torc of Moonlight’ trilogy set in her home county of
Yorkshire, but vacations among the vast skies and rolling landscapes of the
North American plains.
Catch
her at:
Beneath The Shining Mountains is available in both paperback and ebook:
