Excerpt of Whippoorwill by Sharon Sala

Chapter One

This book represents a departure from the Sharon Sala material you have been accustomed to. It represents a turning point for her in that she was not confined to the formula she has been using for most of her writing career. Ms. Sala's unique ability to tell a compelling story has been directed mainly toward one kind of genre, which has been the foundation of her writing career. No argument about that. Just ask her loyal fans; they love her books and she loves writing for them.

This book, though a complete departure for her, is a story she wanted to share. Her problem was finding a publishing house to produce it.

Loveland Press provided that place. A place where your favorite authors can also stretch out with new and different material for their readers. Our goal is to provide published authors with an opportunity to produce work that does not fit their usual mold. We ask the authors to throw away the constraints of their normal books. This is the place where their readers can find them "off the leash" so to speak.

Your comments are always welcomed. Is there an author you would like to see break away from his or her normal subject matter and try something different? Let us know, give us a call or mail a card.

We look forward to hearing from you, andin the meantime, we hope you love this new book as much as Ms. Sala loved writing it for you.

Whippoorwill is a new venture for me. I wanted to explain that in advance so that you will not be taken unaware by the change in my usual story line.

I am so excited to be sharing this with you and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. I've always wanted to do more than the romance and romantic/mystery/suspense stories, but couldn't seem to convince my current publishers to let me "branch out" so to speak.

However, persistence pays off and this wonderful book is the result. Whippoorwill is not a romance, or a historical, or a western, yet it has a little bit of all of the above. I call it a funny, sometimes bawdy romp through the old West and it all starts with the imminent arrival of a "real" preacher from back East.

It's a wonderful, funny story about second chances. I hope you enjoy the book and will recommend it to all your friends.

Sleeping with men for money was not something Leticia Murphy had planned on doing when she grew up, but then, neither had she planned on being orphaned at twelve, or winding up in a godforsaken place in the Kansas Territories like Lizard Flats. But here she was, like most of the other lost souls who'd come West, looking for something better, and in her case, wishing for a second chance. She knew the odds were against her, but it didn't stop her from yearning.

There was a ritual from her childhood that she performed each evening as the sun was going down. She would step out onto the balcony off her bedroom above the saloon, lift her face to the heavens to search for the Evening Star, then stand quietly in the growing shadows and listen for the call of the whippoorwill.

It came from a memory of her mother who had died when she was ten. Always, she was sitting in her mother's lap outside their clapboard house watching night fall across the land. They would sit on the front step with their bare feet planted firmly in the still warm dirt while enjoying the first cool breezes of evening. As they sat, they would search for the first star and wait for the call of the whippoorwill. Her mother had told her the bird was searching for its mate, but Letty had yet to meet a man who was worth the call. However, the memory was one of the few good ones she had left. Two years after her mother's untimely death, her father was killed by a Comanche hunting party. Letty survived by hiding in a hollowed out badger hole. That was the last time fate showed her any kindness. At twenty-seven, she was well past the marrying age and nearly too used up to care. Yet she didn't stop wishing, and she didn't stop dreaming about a different sort of life.

Then one day, something happened in Lizard Flats that had never happened before. Word began to spread throughout the area that a real preacher from back East was coming to perform a wedding. The news set off a whole series of unforeseen events. Caught up in the excitement of the occasion, Letty couldn't help but think that a change was coming for her, too.

A gunshot sounded just outside Letty's window. It wasn't the first time she'd heard that sound in Lizard Flats and she would bet her next year's wages it wouldn't be the last. When the sound of an argument followed, she didn't even bother to get up and look out to see what was going on. Chances were she'd see both of the stupid louts who'd started the fuss before the night was out. Men were always the same. Drink. Fight. Then celebrate their victories or losses by paying for her pleasures. And since her friend, Truly Fine's exit months earlier, Letty was the only woman still working at the White Dove Saloon, which meant she got more than her share of fools in her bed.

Refusing to think about the boredom of her life, she pushed the coal oil lamp a little closer to the mirror and then leaned forward, giving herself a final check before going downstairs.