The Secret of Bishop Hill

By Robert Ladd

Calling all readers! I need your help. What I've done is start a contemporary novel of the changes one woman goes through after her divorce, but I want to make sure I write a book you'd love to read. So please, take a look and let me know how I should proceed. How would you like the characters to develop, the plot, the twist and turns. I truly want your help!

Thanks!

Rachel Clark is trying her best not to go crazy. Following her divorce, she packs up everything she owns and moves from Chicago back home to Bishop’s Hill, Mississippi; a sleepy little town steeped in antebellum history, southern charm and a trio of eccentric neighbors. Rachel loves the town. It’s the neighbors who are driving her nuts.
Between John-Thomas (the handy-man with knowledge ), Slim (the former circus performer who keeps a gigantic hot-air balloon in his back yard) and Grace (the artist who hasn’t set foot outside her home in thirty years) life becomes a series of unexpected yet never-failing-to-intrigue events.
At first Rachel accepts her neighbors for what they are: a group of bewildering eccentrics, fun and funny, interesting but harmless. She has never been more wrong about anything in her life. Her neighbors are indeed harmless, but far from bewildered. In fact, within each of them lies a wonderful secret. A secret that has the power to change the lives of those who are fortunate enough to discover it. It is the Secret of Living. It is also the secret of Bishop’s Hill.
And Rachel Clark is about to discover it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Ladd
• Release date: Dec 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301645862

Robert Ladd

I live in Kansas City with my wife Molly and three children. I'm a Christian by religion,a Methodist by denomination and a Seeker by nature. I wrote the trilogy "Rachel's Confession" in response to a question my eight-year-old daughter asked at my father's funeral. Dad had just died after a long battle with cancer, and my daughter wanted to know "What kind of God would allow that kind of suffering?" At the time I had no answer, so I went in search of one. In the process, I rediscovered my faith, and came to understand God in a way I had not known before. As a result of my search, I wrote the trilogy. Part 1 is "The Confession." Part 2 is "The Journey" and Part 3 "The Promise" will be available in the spring of 2013. The Reverend Molly Simpson of Church of the Resurrection (the largest Methodist Church in the United States" had this to say: "If you have ever wrestled with the question 'Where was God when?' then allow Rachel's story to take your imagination on a journey towards healing" I've also written a Christian-based thriller entitled "The Shroud of Mar-Saba." I hope your like what you read. Please, send me your comments! I love feedback!

Book preview

THE SECRET OF BISHOP HILL

By

Robert Ladd

www.robertladdbooks.com

Copyright © 2012 by Robert Ladd

Smashwords edition, copyright 2012

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Sun Literary.

Published by Sun Literary, 7922 Darnell Lane, Lenexa, KS, 66215

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International Standard Book Number 978-1-4499494-3-3

CHAPTER ONE

Rachel, are you awake?

I slowly opened my eyes. The room was dark; the clock on the nightstand read 5:22.

Rachel?

Whaaa…

Did I wake you?

I glanced at the clock again. Still 5:22. Dad, I said, What’s wrong?

My father was outside in the hall, talking quietly through the closed door. Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart, he said. I just wondered if you and Katie were up yet.

My father has the habit of waking up hours before anyone else. On most mornings he tiptoes around the house, showering, shaving, making himself breakfast, and then goes to work. On the days he doesn’t work, however, the ritual is still the same, except when he can no