Francine Craft

July 4, 2007, 9:00 a.m. - Marigold,  Maryland – on the Eastern Shore

Sheba Davis sat on the back seat of her twin Ernie’s  snazzy black Porsche just behind Martina Solomon, who was both their friend.  Martina’s  daughter, Kaya, sat just behind Ernie and from time to time looked at Sheba and smiled.  Kaya was nine and often commented on Sheba’s burgeoning belly.   Five  months pregnant, Sheba often touched her own body where her baby had begun to move.  Now she thought sorrowfully that her late husband, Scott, would have loved watching his child grow, touching his wife ardently the way he did.  They were so in love.  She felt the start of tears  just behind her eyelids.

Read the rest of this entry »

Readers looking for excerpts from Dying on the Edge will find them just beyond the material below.

I promised and now I’m delivering.  Below is the background for my coming in 2012 lush novel of love and hatred, forgiveness and redemption.

S&S is set in the imaginary Eastern Shore Maryland town of 20,000, Marigold.  The time is July 2007 – July 2008.  The story revolves around several couples, interracial and intraracial.  The leading stars are Martin - Marty – Solomon a white (or is he?) much loved and admired minister of a swiftly growing nondenominational church and Sheba,  his African American wife who is 7 years older than he.   Sheba is gifted with a gorgeous lyric soprano voice and psychic gifts that sometimes seem more a curse than a blessing.

Then there is Marty’s brother, Pete, with a loving family and a heart full of hatred, beginnning with his more favored brother Marty.  Another couple  is 81-year-old Joe Isaacs and his tad older wife Addie Love.  He has put her on a pedestal she is terrified of falling from.  There are the Mallories,  another interracial pair;   David who is white and Merla who is African  American     They are deeply in love and have it all figured out.  Why is trouble threatening to tear them apart?  Two more are an African American couple,  Emil and Kaya Gardner and their fascinating twins, Biff and Lisa.  They thought they  had  Paradise until illness struck  and almost  undid them.  Black world traveler psychologist Dr. Mark Lisner and his Swedish wife Marguerite are town favorites, but his illustrious life hides sadness and regret.  His wisdom has been gained at a price no one of us would care to pay.

I’ll run the prologue by you in a few days,  then several more excerpts.  I’m looking forward to getting your “take” on this story because it’s close to my heart as all my stories are. I’ll welcome your comments and suggestions.

Stay tuned and here’s hoping I’ll see you here!