#NewRelease – Mountain Laurel Christmas #Christmas #ShortStory @JanSikes3

I am honored to host award-winning author Jan Sikes on the Indie Spot today. Jan is a gifted writer and a wonderful storyteller.

For a young aspiring musician, getting noticed in Nashville is equivalent to us as authors, trying to get readers to find our books.

Andy Roberts arrived in Nashville a starry-eyed teenager. He put his name on the waitlist at the famed Tootsies Orchid Lounge. I wanted to make this the Bluebird Cafe, but since it didn’t open until 1984, and my story is set in the seventies, that didn’t work.

Nevertheless, he finally got his chance.

Here’s the excerpt:

I have my name on the waitlist for months before a spot ever opens up. It was the biggest chance I’d get.  I showed up every night, hopeful. After all, it was common knowledge that’s where record executives went to discover new talent.

Nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers, when I finally get my fifteen minutes on the microphone, I sing and play my heart out. I never wanted anything as badly as I did that night. Just one person. That’s all it would take.

Corinna South approached me as I wiped down my guitar. My God, she was strikingly gorgeous. Pure confidence radiated from her as she flashed a thousand-watt smile.

“You’re damned good, kid,” she said. “Did you write those songs?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How about you come to work for me? I’ll show you the ropes.”

I’d stuttered some stupid reply while her attention turned me various shades of red. Holy Hell! Corinna South was talking to me.

***

We often hear of artists who were discovered by playing open-mic nights at the Bluebird Cafe. Garth Brooks is one example. It’s a tough business. Have you ever personally known anyone who tried to break into the music business and either succeeded or failed?

Mountain Laurel Christmas Blurb:

Orphaned, his family torn apart by tragedy, Cole Knight has come a long way from a ramshackle miner’s cabin on the side of the Cumberland Mountain.

Daring to follow an impossible dream, he’s made it big in the music business. Now, he’s a country music sensation with a huge house, fancy cars, plenty of willing women, money, and adoring fans. He should be on top of the world. Instead, he’s drowning in a swirling pool of self-contempt and relentless guilt.

It’s easier to lose himself in a bottle than face the hard truth…he hasn’t delivered on a promise he made to his father.

It’s almost Christmas, and the sting of failure drives him back to that tiny cabin in the mountains. But has he waited too late to put the shattered pieces back together—to find himself and restore a lost family?

PURCHASE LINK:

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Laurel-Christmas-Jan-Sikes-ebook/dp/B09KJYMVT9/

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