If Darkness Takes Us Read online

  Big thanks to John Foxworth of Pearl Street Photography for kindly enduring my camera-related peccadilloes, and Jo Bertram and Shirley Berwick for putting me together and keeping me there for the photo shoot. Thanks also to Winnie Brooke for helping me explore cover ideas.

  I started writing stories when I was five years old and have wanted to be a writer ever since, though I didn’t get a chance to seriously work at it until my kids were grown. Great teachers who encouraged me to write, fed me wonderful books to read, and deserve special thanks are Penny Ellis and Gary Watson.

  All enduring gratitude goes to my big loving family for putting up with me and cheering me on: Les Jr., Denise, Candace, Steve, Teresa, Dustin, Dylan, Shiryn, Jennifer, Bob, Michael, Ryan, David, Shelly, Leigh, Amy, Shirley, and Robin; my sons and stepsons Aaron, Jared, Ron, Jeremy, and Matt, daughter-in-law Nikki; and my grandchildren, Sophia and Miles. Sophia has a gift for story, and Miles is gracious when I accidentally call him Milo, a kid character in the book who is near Miles’s age.

  Enormous appreciation goes to my parents, Leslie and Patricia Smith, who didn’t live to see my books published but who encouraged me to be smart when smart women were not cool, forever on my side, and always believing in me so strongly that I can feel them doing it even now.

  My fabulous and indulgent husband, Doug Goebel, had a bad day that gave me the idea for Hank the Crank, but in truth Doug is more like Jack Jeffers, a very good and extremely helpful man. Douglas Wayne, you are my muse, my heart, and my reason to live.

  All my thanks to you readers and reviewers as well. I hope you find the novel satisfying.

  Better stock up on those canned goods, although it is my fervent hope that you will never need them.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Brenda Marie Smith studied fiction in the UCLA Writers Program. Born and raised in Oklahoma City, she was part of the back-to-the-land movement, living off the grid in the Ozark Mountains, and then joining the Farm—an off-grid, vegan hippie community, based in Tennessee—where her sons were delivered by midwives.

  In Austin, Brenda managed student housing co-ops near the University of Texas for fifteen years. If Darkness Takes Us is her second novel. Her first, Something Radiates, is a paranormal thriller.

  Brenda and her husband own and reside in a grid-connected, solar-powered home in South Austin. They have five grown sons, two grandkids, and a self-assured kitty cat.

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