A Contradiction to His Pride

By Leanne W. Smith

Do you enjoy stories about ordinary people, especially women, who find themselves in extraordinary situations in history that test both their character and their mettle? I do.

I am intrigued by the values and motivations that lead people to act as they do. And I am inspired and encouraged when they choose to act bravely and rightly.

 

Herman Melville said, “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” Life is a tapestry, and stories intersect along that tapestry like the intersecting threads of a spider web.

A Contradiction to His Pride is my second historical fiction novel (available June 12). While I envisioned writing several stories with intersecting threads at the time my first novel was released two years ago, I hadn’t planned to write a follow-up story per se. Contradiction actually caught me by surprise, much as James’ feelings for Corrine caught him by surprise.

One part of the original vision that has remained steady, however, is a strong female lead forced to make a decision about the kind of person she’s going to be as she meets unwelcome adversity.

An overview…

James Parker didn’t mean to fall in love with Corrine Baldwyn; they were simply traveling the Oregon Trail together. But what started as a standard game—see if he could get the sharp-mouthed beauty to smile, and better yet to blush—wrapped itself around his heart mid-way into the five-month journey.

Now that the core group of pioneers in their wagon train has settled in Baker City, Oregon and begun to build homesteads, James is restless to make his fortune so he can stake his own claim and win Corrine’s hand with honor.

But when James takes Corrine on an outing designed to impress her, things go tragically wrong. When James foils a bank robbery, he unwittingly sets a series of events into motion that shatter Corrine’s heart and now threaten her life, along with his and her older brother Charlie’s.

James, Corrine and Charlie soon find themselves in Colorado for a final showdown with the outlaw family bent on making James pay for his heroic actions.

The prologue…

A cold wind rustled the leaves of the evergreens west of Baker City, building like the crescendo of a symphony. When the wind unfurled and swept into town, it lifted the top layer of a twenty-inch snow that had fallen the day before, sending icy sprays swirling over several residents who rushed to stand in the drifts and on the boardwalk following the gunshots.

 James Parker wanted to give Corrine Baldwyn a day to remember him by, not a day to curse his name.

 Now, as she thrashed while he tried to hold her, the blood from her hands raking stains over the sleeves of his coat, James squeezed his eyes shut against the wind, the ice, the snow and the slaughter, and wondered if she could ever forgive him.

If you enjoy reading stories about ordinary people, especially women, who find themselves in extraordinary situations in history that test both their character and their mettle, I hope you’ll consider A Contradiction to His Pride.

About the Author

Leanne W. Smith is a writer and professor. Her books include Leaving Independence, On a Dark & Snowy Night (short story), and A Contradiction to His Pride. She also teaches business courses at Lipscomb University in Nashville. Smith and her husband have two creative daughters and a son-in-law who make the world a more beautiful place through their art, design, photography, singing, songwriting and mandolin-playing. Visit her website at www.leannewsmith.com.