Fiercely Independent

By Chase Wyatt from The Final Tap

It’s winter in New Hartford. It’s a quiet time in the town and at Barton Farm where Kelsey Cambridge lives and works. She has a tiny cottage tucked back in the corner of the Farm behind the maple sugar grove. She lives there with her six-year-old son Hayden, her corgi Tiffin, and the one-eyed feline terror of the county Frankie. Of those living in the home, Frankie scares me the most. No, I take that back. Kelsey scares me the most. She’s a single mom with a lot of responsibility on her small shoulders and doesn't take backtalk from anyone. She might punch me if she knew that I told you that. She’s a tough cookie. That’s why I like her.

Kelsey is independent. I remind myself of that often when I want to offer my help and she refuses. It’s one of her most attractive qualities but also most infuriating. This is a good and a bad thing. I like a woman who wants to stand on her own two feet, but I want to help her too. Sometimes she needs help, but she won’t ask for it. At least, she won’t ask me for it. The times that she needs help the most occur when she is in pursuit of a murderer. And there are times she could really use some backup like when she is trapped in the basement of Barton House or being chased through the maple grove. Her first instinct is to protect the people she loves and then get out of the situation herself not to ask someone to back her up. She's a mother bear at her heart. Don’t tell her I said that either.

Despite her fierce independence, I hope someday she will ask me for a hand. In fact, I’m counting on it.

COZY UP TO SUMMER WITH A KILLER CHARACTER
TODAY'S GIVEAWAY

What is the quality you like most to see in a mystery protagonist? Leave your answer and email address in the comments below for a chance to win a signed copy of The Final Tap.

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Amanda Flower, a Agatha Award-winning mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. Amanda is a librarian in Northeast Ohio. She also writes as USA Today Bestselling Author Isabella Alan. Her next release it PROSE AND CONS release December 6, 2016. www.amandaflower.com