Friday, May 30, 2014

"The Hunt" by Ben Woodard

The Hunt
(A Shakertown Adventure)
by Ben Woodard


The Hunt is a short story. Also available in Ben Woodard's Shakertown Adventure Series featuring Tom and Will: The Trestle (FREE), A Stairway to Danger (read my blog post), and Steps Into Darkness (read my blog post).


Description
Two boys. Guns. Laughter, and a haunting memory.
Not Tom and Huck, but Tom and Will in this Twain-like short story of a hunt in the Kentucky countryside. Tom's inexperience leads to hilarious antics until they finally bag their animal. Tom finds that hunting is fun, but the killing is not.
The Hunt is a chuckle-worthy teen adventure hinting of a past that won't stay hidden. A YA short story.

Excerpt
They left the shade of the woods, and shuffled into the pasture baked by the afternoon sun. Tom panted, sweat dripping off his nose. His feet hurt from the wet boots. Flies swirled around his head and his shoulder ached, but his thoughts were of the deer. Its eyes. He’d never killed an animal before, and while pulling the trigger was easy, the killing was not. He had seen death. Up close. And her eyes seared his brain.

Featured Review
This is absolutely a 5 star book. I purchased this book and will purchase more stories by this author.
It is a story about two cousins. One from the country who is teaching his city cousin to hunt. The author masterfully creates the story line using imagery and humor so the reader feels as if they know the characters personally with in the first few pages. It is such a good story that it ends too soon and leaves the reader wanting more. I once heard that you could recognize a great writer through a short story as only masters could do this perfectly in this type of form. I understood what they were talking about after I read this book. Ben Woodard is a true Master of story telling.

About the Author
A spellbinding storyteller of high adventure, Ben has walked the Great Wall of China, hiked in Tibet, and climbed to 18,000 feet on Mt Everest. And recently learned to surf in Hawaii.
Ben is active in SCBWI and a member of a local children's writing critique group. He is a former Marketing Manager for a major corporation and ran his own marketing consulting business. He started writing children's stories in 2008 and has written picture books, middle grade and young adult. Stories of adventure and wonder. Stories that inspire and educate, and, most of all, entertain. His titles include The Trestle (FREE), The Hunt, The Boy Who Flew With Eagles, A Terrible Price (FREE), A Stairway to Danger, and Steps Into Darkness.
Ben lives in Kentucky with his wife Lynda.

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