She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much [Excerpt Tour]

Others assume she has fallen in love with another artist, and it’s not a match Mother would consider suitable. But it’s much worse that.

Welcome to the October 14th stop on the latest excerpt tour for She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much by S. R. Cronin with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for alternate excerpts and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you’ll know I am a huge fan of this series and this isn’t even the first time I’ve posted on a tour for this particular title!

• Book 1: She’s the One Who Thinks Too Much – 4 Star Review
• Book 2: She’s the One Who Cares Too Much – 4 Star Review
• Book 3: She’s the One Who Gets in Fights – 5 Star Review, Excerpt Tour
• Book 4: She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much – 5 Star Review

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Oh, and by the way!

The majority of my blog audience probably isn’t aware that I post to YouTube as well. I did a video on this series so far, the 4 reviews and my hopes for the upcoming books, and I’d love to plug it here.

About the Book

She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much
War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters Book Four
by Sherrie R. Cronin

Published 13 August 2021
Cinnabar Press

Genre: Historical Fantasy
Page Count: 234
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Olivine, the fourth of seven sisters, has been hiding a secret as she travels to K’ba to meet her artist friends. Others assume she has fallen in love with another artist, and it’s not a match Mother would consider suitable. But it’s much worse that. For on the way to K’ba is the dirt poor nichna of Scrud, a place scorned by all other Ilarians. And in Scrud is the one man who understands her.

However, Bohdan is also is a realist, and a man who recognizes the dangers posed by an impending Mongol invasion. When he learns of Olivine’s unusual visual powers, he convinces her to pick up her bow and arrow and start practicing.

She does, though she’s more concerned with producing enough art to raise the funds to run away from home and live in K’ba, where she can paint all day and see Bohdan as often as she wants. If only her sister Ryalgar hadn’t learned of what she can do and decided Olivine and her fellow long-eyes held one of the keys to defending the realm.

Then, as if life wasn’t complicated enough, Olivine learns the artist community she yearns to be part of has developed a different take on the invasion. They feel certain the only way to survive is to capitulate completely to the Mongols demands. Artists who feel otherwise are no longer welcome.

Where does her future lie? The supposed invasion is coming soon and Olivine doesn’t have much time to decide.

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Excerpt

Finally, an ank before Kolada, a Velka in the marketplace confirmed my invitation. Dad took me to the forest’s edge and I clawed my way through the thick underbrush as I’d been instructed. The smell of decaying leaves and damp earth filled my nose while the strong vines and thorny plants fought my entrance. I feared I wouldn’t make it through, but after a little more frustrated wriggling, a woman in men’s pants reached out to grab my hand. She gave me the reins of a small donkey and we rode further into the forest.

Although my sister lived in a magnificent lodge, the Velka seemed so ordinary. Many weren’t that friendly, and some ignored Ryalgar. I felt offended on my sister’s behalf.

She and I sat together on one of the many small porches on my last afternoon there, sipping fizzy green wine in the sun. I’d decided not to confide in her about Bohdan until I knew whether he’d be part of my future.  So instead, I listened as Ryalgar told me of how she learned to better use her talents to move objects with her mind. Everyone in my family knew Ryalgar could nudge smoke and keep away small insects; she’d always been that way. It surprised me to learn others with the same talent used it more effectively, and the Velka sought them out and trained them.

“They call it oomrush here,” she said. “Honestly, learning more about it was one of the things that drew me to the Velka. Other women here have their unusual talents, too.”

Well, maybe some of the rumors of the Velka’s powers weren’t unfounded. Greatly exaggerated perhaps, but not entirely made up.

“Like what sorts of unusual talents?” I asked.

“The biggest one is making plants do amazing things. We have a lot of women with close connections to all that grows.”

“Like that horrible perimeter around the forest?” I asked.

“Exactly.”

 It gave me an idea.

“Do the Velka ever teach people who can do unusual things, even if they aren’t Velka?”

“Not really.”

Too bad. Ever since I’d learned from my artist friends that being a long eye was uncommon, I’d been eager to discover more about the skill. I’d hoped some of the Velka were long eyes and could teach me about it. I described my peculiar vision to Ryalgar.

“Can it be used for anything else but art?” she asked.

“Of course. I use it for lots of other things.” I spoke of finding my way in near darkness, and my archery and how I’d picked up my bow again to practice.

“How far can you shoot an arrow?” she asked me.

“At best I use a medium weight bow, so maybe a hundred paces. I can see much farther than I can shoot. If my arrows travelled further, being a long eye would be more useful.”

She stared at me, then started babbling about how she could make twigs fly further than she could throw them.

“What are you talking about?”

“This could be important, Olivine. Listen. Could you stay a day or two more while we look into this?”

About the Author

Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.

All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

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Giveaway Alert!

S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.