I'm often asked where I get my ideas. Most writers are asked the same question. Mine usually begin with an image or a character. Huck's Legacy, now available, is no different. I'd wanted to write another novel involving motorcycles in some way and I happened across a photo of French singer and actor Tom Leeb. His smoldering good looks inspired the character of Huck - a Mississippi raised man working undercover as Huck Morgan. He's working for the DEA as an undercover agent, infiltrating a notorious gang in LA called The Diamondbacks (like the rattlesnakes) so he rides a 1998 Harley Davidson Road King bike.
His real name is Henry Beauregard Baskin. Huck's nickname is handed down from his grandfather, just like his name.
So Huck riding his Harley down Hollywood Boulevard was an early image and I built a story around him.
Enter his love interest (I do write romance, after all), a young woman on the run from Tennessee. Her name is Summer Tatum although her true first name is Sarabeth.
She wears a jacket like one I bought in my 20's, wore to California, and yes, strutted down Hollywood Boulevard late at night wearing. Inspiration for the story number two.
Huck noticed her and when he stops at a local diner, she's his waitress.
From there, the story unfolds so no more spoilers....here's the blurb, then an excerpt:
Blurb:
He's an undercover DEA agent, trying to infiltrate The Diamondbacks, an infamous motorcycle club, in Hollywood. When Huck sees a beautiful woman who intrigues him, he wants her. Summer is on the run from an incident back in Nashville that put her in fear for her life. Working as a waitress in a diner near Hollywood Boulevard, Summer is drawn to the bad boy biker. Their mutual attraction fires a wild passion and shared nights but as the danger increases, passion turns to something deeper, something real. When he's outed as a Fed, he's about to be executed when Summer steps in to save him. Although he's seriously injured, they escape the Diamondbacks and leave Hollywood but trouble follows them all the way back to his hometown in Mississippi. The stakes are high – life or death – and the chance for a happily ever is in jeopardy.
Sensitivity warning - there is some language, just saying.
Excerpt:
“Welcome to Neon Nights,” she said in a patented singsong. “Would you like a cup of joe while you look over the menu?”
Her voice poured over him like rich caramel or soft velvet. He caught a hint of a Southern accent, one with slow heat and some Tennessee twang. Intrigued by the way she spoke, Huck glanced up and did a double take. At close range, she was beautiful when he’d thought her merely pretty.
“I’ll take a cup of coffee,” he told her. “What kind of pie you got?”
“Chocolate, coconut cream, banana cream, apple, pecan, and strawberry.”
So he could hear her voice one more time, Huck asked, “What’s the blue plate special?”
“Beef stroganoff or Cobb salad,” she drawled. “If you look over the menu, there’s plenty more—burgers, hamburger steak with gravy, sandwiches hot and cold, meatloaf, chicken, or you can order breakfast anytime, 24/7.”
“What do you recommend?”
Her lips twitched. “What’s next? Are you going to ask for the wine list? If I had a choice, I’d go with the beef stroganoff. It’s the best of the specials in my opinion. That, or just get a burger run through the garden, maybe a Jack Benny.”
Huck knew a little diner lingo. “Grilled cheese with bacon? All right. I’ll take one with a side of fries.”
“I’ll be back with your coffee.”
Her name tag read “Summer” and he wondered if that was her real name. If so, it suited her. She radiated a sense of calm, quiet beauty that evoked the serenity of summer.
When she brought the coffee pot, she turned over the cup already on the table and filled it. “Your food should be up before long,” she told him.
“Thank you. I’m Huck.”
“As in Huckleberry Finn?” she asked, with one raised eyebrow.
He laughed. “No, not quite. More like ‘I’ll be your huckleberry,’ an old Southern saying.”
With a quirky grin, she said, “You know, it rhymes with…”
Huck completed her sentence. “Fuck. Yeah, I’ve heard that one so often if I had a dollar for every time I have, I’d be a rich man. It’s Huck Morgan, by the way.”
He expected she’d offer her name in return, but she hesitated before she did.
“Summer Tatum,” she told him. Then, she walked away, her sweet ass bouncing to an unheard beat beneath the cheesy uniform. She intrigued him, so much he’d almost blundered and told her his real name and why he was nicknamed Huck.
I never fucking screw up like that. I can’t. I won’t. If I do, the entire investigation is gone and with it two years of my life.
This one also has a dedication - most of my novels do. This one is for my cousin, Bill, who would have turned 63 on October 11, the day before Huck's Legacy releases. He passed away unexpectedly in November 2021.
Dedication:
For my late cousin, my summer brother and lifelong best friend, Bill Sontheimer. Together we borrowed his brother’s books to read the sexy, hot parts until we figured out just how the act worked. We drank too much, drove too fast, and shared a rock-n-roll soundtrack for our lives. As Janis sang, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
I hope I've intrigued you enough to pick up a copy this week!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKWFLB4W
https://www.evernightpublishing.com/hucks-legacy-by-lee-ann-sontheimer-murphy/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hucks-legacy-lee-ann-sontheimer-murphy/1144198314
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1463147
https://www.bookstrand.com/book/hucks-legacy-mf
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/huck-s-legacy
Huck's bike and car!
Balfour House Vicksburg MS - in the novel it becomes Baskin House.
