*** COVER REVEAL *** (and a little excerpt)

Here it is! The gorgeous cover to my next release, Blood & Milk.  Eeeeek!
I’m super excited (and extremely nervous) about this one. I wasn’t going to publish this book at all, but after an extensive beta-group read for race/cultural sensitivities from people all around the globe, and after a heartfelt plea from my Kenyan beta to please please publish it, the original release date of June 23rd still stands.
The blurb is unedited, so I won’t share that just yet.
Damu (pronounced Dah-mu) is on the cover, he is Maasai. I can’t wait for you all to meet him!

I’ll be posting more on why this book almost made the cutting room floor, and ultimately why it didn’t. I’ll also be sharing an interview with a lovely Kenyan-born lady who helped me with some of the finer points of research on Maasai lives and culture, and who gave me the final push to say yes to putting this book into production.

Blood & Milk is the story of Heath Crowley, an Australian man who finds himself living with the Maasai in Tanzania.

Here’s a tiny little (unedited) excerpt:

I stripped down too, completely naked and not caring for modesty, and dove into the water. It was cool and fresh, and felt heavenly against my skin. I didn’t realise how gritty I’d become. Sure, I’d dived into the water a few times in my time here, but never fully naked.

It was sublime.

Underwater, I raked my hands through my hair letting the water sluice through the strands to remove any grit and sand. Daily face washes, shaving and teeth brushing served its purpose, but a proper bath was unbeatable.

I’d forgotten what a shower felt like. And as amazing as the water felt, I didn’t miss running water. I didn’t miss electricity. I didn’t miss anything.

Except Jarrod.

I broke the surface, gasping for air. As usual, the memory of Jarrod squeezed my heart and crippled my lungs.

Damu laughed at me, oblivious to my struggle to breathe. And strangely enough, his laughter, his smiling face, calmed me. I exhaled with a rush and laid back, allowing myself to float, feeling my lungs expand and contract with every inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, until my panic attack passed.

Damu floated beside me and without a word between us, with a peace that soothed me, we floated naked in the water under the Tanzanian sky.