For our newsletter this month we're going to offer a chapter that was written for SALLY but which did not make the finished version of the book. Y'all get to read this free! It's a novelist's version of the movie clips left on the cutting room floor. Purchase Sally at Hard Shell http://www.hardshell.com/detail.asp?product_ID=0-7599-0329-8

Sally squinted through the wood smoke and tried to follow the words her mother spoke. Sometimes the older woman shouted, at other times whispered. Now, her mother's eyes were tightly shut and she spoke so softly it was impossible to make out what she said. The twelve-year-old wanted to pull her hands from her mother's harsh grip but she didn't dare. She sighed and hunkered down to fit herself into a more comfortable squat, to simply let the night and the smoke and the words permeate her. She barely noticed the drumbeat from the woods where the others danced.

"Ah!" Her mother's voice changed timbre, "You, girl. You got the special thing in you, Sally. You gonna be somebody, be something." The hooting of a barn owl punctuated Betsy Hemmings' tirade and Sally shivered. "You can make other people do what you want."

"I'm tired, mama."

Betsy jerked Sally's hand but continued her muttered speech, "...and don't let no man touch you lessen he make you the right promises. Don't want my child's children be slaves." Again the hoot, again Sally shivered.

"I be teaching you all you need to know. You hear me, girl?"

"Yes, mama."

"We gonna go over everything come from your grandma. From across the sea. You hear?"

"Yes, mama."

"You already got a lot of the knowledge. Now you got to get the special charm that suit you. Hear me?"

"Yes, mama."

"You get something he personal. Make you juju. You know about that?"

"Yes, mama."

Her mother's voice again drifted into mutterings and whispers. Sally felt her fingers going to sleep in her mother's numbing grip.

"Can I go to bed now, mama?"

Her mother jerked at her hand again. "You can listen what I say, girl. Do what I say."

"Yes, mama." Sally closed her eyes only to open them wide at her mother's next question.

"You still virgin, girl?'

"Yes, mama." The drumbeats sounded louder as if the dancers were coming toward them.

"Now, here is what you do..." Her mother talked and Sally Hemmings listened.

Let me know if you liked the free chapter, will you?

Best to all of you. Peggy Moss Fielding