Tour Date: March & April, 2017
ISBN: 978-0974260761
Available in: Print & ebook, 256 Pages
Then she saw it – a sheet of paper in the mailbox, underneath the mail. It was white with large black letters and said LEAVE IT ALONE.
Mrs. B has a quiet life, and she likes it that way. Morning pinochle games at St. Mary’s Senior Center. Afternoon lunches with Myrtle, Anne and Rose. Peaceful evenings with a cup of coffee and the classic movie channel.
But one day she wakes to a phone call, which leads to consequences she could never have foreseen. Secrets snowball and threaten to change the neighborhood of Burchfield forever. Someone has to make things right. It’s up to Mrs. B.
Praise for Question of Devotion by Anita Kulina
“If you can picture Columbo when he’s retired, and spending more time in church and the kitchen, and Polish, and wearing a babushka, you have a sense of the down-home detective that Anita Kulina has created. I love Mrs. B!”-Brian O’Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist and author of The Paris of Appalachia
“A Question of Devotion is a comforting snapshot of an aging population, where the way of life is still bound by churches, neighborhoods, and countries of origin. Its heroine, Mrs. B, is not just an old woman living out her twilight years at the senior center, but an able detective engaged in solving a mystery as cozy as cocoa and afghans on a cold Western Pennsylvania day.”-Kathryn Miller Haines, author of the Rosie Winter Mysteries and the Iris Anderson Mysteries
Like most people who love to write, Anita Kulina has been telling stories since she was old enough to hold a pen. Her first publication was in the letters-to-the-editor column of Adventure Comics #341. Nowadays, much of her work centers on the rich and colorful lives of Pittsburgh’s working poor. Since Anita spent much of her life in those ranks, it’s a subject dear to her heart.
Her book Millhunks and Renegades won her the Achievement in Literature award from the community of Hazelwood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is currently at work on the next two Mrs. B books.
Website http://www.brandtstreetpress.com/books/mrsb1.html
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Buy Question of Devotion by Anita Kulina
See the first part of this excerpt here: https://staceyschneller06.wordpress.com/
Father Sean Flaherty was as young as Father Clancy was old. He was handsome and pleasant and eager and, in Mrs. B’s opinion, a little too good to be true. She stepped carefully over the doorstep with Father following patiently behind her.
“It looks like it’s going to be a lovely day, Mrs. B, doesn’t it? And I hear we have fish fingers on the menu for lunch.”
What did he mean we? She didn’t like that royal we. It reminded her of nurses and hospitals and things she’d sooner not think about. In an attempt to be polite, she forced a little smile.
Mrs. B didn’t like Father Sean. He wore an earring. He did have a lovely Irish brogue, and he was always perfectly nice to her, but she had trouble getting past his earring, and the fact that he asked everyone to call him by his first name. She preferred her priests to be like Father Clancy. Father Clancy was an old-fashioned priest. Father Clancy had the good grace to be grumbly once in a while.
One of the men from the Senior Center walked over to Father Sean and started talking to him about money Father wanted to raise for an Irish organization. Father pulled him aside and Mrs. B made her way toward the coffee urn, stopping to set her purse on a chair at the card table on her way.
She shook some creamer into a blue mug, then filled it almost to the brim. Taking a spoon from a handful of mismatched silverware in a yellow mug, she gave the brew a little stir and carried it to the card table. From the corner of her eye, she could see Vic Mathews approaching.
Mrs. B hung her sweater on the back of her chair and sat down. She took the pinochle deck from the center of the table, snapped off the rubber band and began to shuffle the cards. Vic took a seat and then got up again and came back with a little tablet and a pencil just as Don Cermiani reached the table. Don wore a blue ball cap that said United Steelworkers on the front in white letters.
“Ed.”
She nodded toward him. “Don.”
He sat down to Mrs. B’s right with his coffee, then blew on it and took a sip. Vic got up again and got a cup of coffee. Old Mike Rafferty pulled out the chair across from her.
“Morning, Ed.”
“Morning, Mike.”
She didn’t look up until she’d finished shuffling. She set the cards in front of Don. He cut them and set them in front of her again. She began to deal. Because of the way they were sitting, it looked like she would be partners with Mike. She was glad. Yesterday she had partnered with Vic and he bid too high without the meld. Mrs. B secretly thought she and Don were the best players, but Don always seemed to have better luck.
Brushing her white bangs away from her eyes, she sat back and fanned her cards. A decent hand. Not great, but good.
People were still filtering into the Senior Center, mostly women headed toward the crafts table in the back of the room. No sign of Myrtle. Not yet, anyhow.
When her cards were all in order, she sat back to study the faces of each of the three men at the table.
Mrs. B didn’t like any of these men. She didn’t dislike them either, though it was tough sometimes not to. Vic could be surly and you had to watch so he didn’t cheat, and Don was always double-checking her math when it was her turn to keep score. Don had been a laborer at the steel mill, and Mrs. B had been a bookkeeper. Which of them was likely to be better at math? And Don never took off that darn ball cap. Everyone knew he was bald. It wasn’t like it was a secret.
But there was no one else at the Senior Center who played cards seriously. The women at the next table were playing 500 Rum. Mrs. B taught her kids to play 500 when they were in kindergarten. If she wanted a challenging game of cards she had to put up with Don’s controlling attitude, Vic’s constant complaining and salty language, and Old Mike.
Actually, when she thought about it, Old Mike was alright. Everyone called him Old Mike because he had a son, Young Mike, who was probably 65 now. Old Mike didn’t talk much. He played cards well, so you knew he had a lot going on upstairs. Though he wasn’t the best player at the table, he was good. A challenge. And Old Mike never ticked her off.
They played one hand. Without any of them speaking, Mike picked up the cards, shuffled, and handed them to Vic to cut just as Myrtle walked through the Senior Center door. Mrs. B caught her friend’s eye and received a big smile and a wave. Mrs. B waved back as Myrtle headed toward a group of women at the crafts table. By the time Mrs. B picked up her cards, Myrtle was busily chattering away. She looked happy, almost giddy. What on earth was going on?
This excerpt continues on April 18th here: http://turningthepagesx.blogspot.ca/
The book is available for giveaway is for the choice of one Print or ebook. Print is open to Canada & the U.S. only. Please leave a comment below with your email address so you can be contacted should you win! Thank you and good luck.
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