Woo-Hoo! Mary Connealy, our Filly sister, has some mighty big news and we’re tickled to death to tell you.

Mary attended the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Conference over the weekend and she came away a winner.

She took home the ACFW Book of the Year in the short historical category with Golden Days! The story is set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. I’ll bet my hat that it’s a humdinger of a story.

Mary’s Petticoat Ranch was also nominated for the best book by a Debut Author. Can you beat that? We’re so proud of Mary that we don’t know what to do.

Send her your congratulations. She’ll love hearing from you.

I like pretty things.  That’s why when I recently visited a preserved village of houses, shops and streets, I was struck by the pretty interior decor. These are original colors, furnishings and buildings restored to the 1860s. For those in driving proximity, it’s called Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto.

How about the rich milky turquoise on these walls? The lovely color surprised me. Isn’t this a stunning kitchen? Homesteaders usually started out with a small log cabin as a first home, as quickly as they could clear the trees to make room. This would’ve been their second house, after living off the land for sixteen years–a two-story structure with more expensive furniture.

Here’s my favorite room in another house—the kitchen where the village seamstress took in sewing and made hats. The original log house was built in the 1830s. The kitchen was framed as a later addition in the 1850s. I’m guessing the room is about 15 x 20. The seamstress packed in a lot of interesting activities into this kitchen, and it was definitely the place where she liked to hang out.

Before the invention of interior plumbing, pioneers used what was called a ‘dry sink.’ They looked pretty much like some of our cabinets today, but with no faucet. When they washed dishes, there would be two pails standing inside the dry basin, one with warm soapy water and the other with clear. They did a whole variety of jobs while standing by this window—anything that was messy or needed water.  Canning, preserving, handling cheese, washing hair, cutting meat and numerous others.

The dry sink was positioned close to the stove, just as we like today, handy to grab a pot full of hot water or boil potatoes once they’d been peeled.  It was interesting to discover that villages like these, beyond the outskirts of a major city, were healthier than most because they had their own water wells. When epidemics like cholera, caused by contaminated water, plagued bigger cities, farms and villages that had their own water supplies were safe.

Here’s the sewing machine. (And a person dressed in costume demonstrating.)

And some other things the seamstress was working on—hats and dresses and clothing patterns cut of paper.

The decorations hanging near the sill caught my eye. I think it’s always been the woman who makes the home, who adds the pretty little touches and pats down all the feathers.

What’s your favorite room or corner in your house? Is there a special place where you like to read? Have you visited any interesting historical sites?

 www.katebridges.com

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Quite a crowd on the streets of Wildflower Junction this weekend, wasn’t there?  Thanks for being our guest, Jane!  And thanks to all who came out for the occasion.

The names of all who commented are in the cowboy hat, and the winner of an autographed copy of DEEP IN THE HEART is….

NANCY LEVINE

Congratulations, Nancy!  Please send your address to Jane at: Jane@janemyersperrine.com and she will get that book out to you ASAP.

This week watch for announcements regarding our first special anniversary celebration!  We’re itchin’ to party.

The Fillies have a nice treat in store for you on Wednesday.

Mr. Jeff Barnes will be in town and chatting up a storm with us.

Jeff will be taking Mary Connealy’s regular spot. But don’t worry, Mary isn’t going anywhere. She’ll be back on her regular Wednesday next month.

Now, for a little about our guest. Mr. Barnes is a former reporter and newspaper editor and was once the press secretary for Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s governor. The man is very interesting and full of knowledge. He’s written a book about forts that is sure to please. His book is called Forts of the Northern Plains.

Since old forts just happen to be some of my favorite places to visit, I can’t wait to see what fascinating tidbits he’ll have to share. Come and join us. Help the Fillies roll out the red carpet. I do say that piece of rug is getting quite a workout!

My husband and I have lived a lot of beautiful places.  I grew up in the Midwest and loved the redbud trees and soft dogwoods.  We moved to Kentucky which has gorgeous yellow narcissus and mimosas.

Savannah in the spring is gorgeous with the azaleas, then the crepe myrtles, but it wasn’t until we moved to the Hill Country of central Texas that I realized how lovely spring can be.

Texas is an amazing state.  As the commercial says, it’s like a whole other country with mountains (not very high ones but mountains still) and deserts, the piney woods of East Texas, and the coastal plains on the Gulf.

But it’s the Hill Country I love.  Scattered through the area are the Highland Lakes, made when the Colorado River was dammed nearly one hundred years ago.  Surrounding that are the most beautiful fields of wild flowers that bloom every spring.

All this glory starts with the blue bonnets which come up close to Easter.  By mid-March, everyone competes to be the first to find a patch.  As March melts into April, the fields on each side of Old Spanish Trail are covered with the bluish-purple haze that is the beginning of spring and the wildflower season. 

Because of the beauty of the Hill Country—from the blue bonnets to the Mexican blanket and other wild flowers followed by the blossoming and blooming of the prickly-pear cactus– small town Central Texas is a marvelous place to live, especially for those of us who can’t raise flowers on our own.  God provides them in abundance..

That’s why I placed the mythical town of Silver Lake, TX, right in the middle of the Hill Country.  That’s the setting for my September release, DEEP IN THE HEART.

When Kate Wallace comes home after an absence of nearly fifteen years, she falls in love with the beauty of her hometown.  Although she’s lived in New York, Houston, and Miami, she discovers to her amazement that she wants to stay in Silver Lake. 

Her old boyfriend Rob Chambers is used to the beauty of their hometown.  After she left, his heart mended.  He married and had a darling daughter.  Then his wife died and, for him, the blue bonnets didn’t bloom again.

As I was writing DEEP IN THE HEART, I decided I had tell all my readers how beautiful spring in the Hill Country is.  I used the changing wildflowers to show the passage of time.  Kate comes back to Silver Lake as the blue bonnets begin to show.  The changes in her life take place against the background of the cyclical beauty of nature.  I had to spend a lot of time researching the wildflowers.  I have a shelf of books and a dear friend who helped me greatly. 

DEEP IN THE HEART is all about change.  Through the book,  Kate is happy she came home,  She becomes a small town girl and finds her faith again.  She attempts to reconcile with her difficult sister and helps her lonely niece to find friends.

Rob has to learn to grieve for his wife and trust the woman who left him.

And nature reflects those changes.  The cycles of life match the cycles in nature.

I’ve mentioned a few places we’ve lived that I found very beautiful.  What is the most beautiful place you’ve lived or visited?  Why?  What did or do you find so lovely?

I’ll have a drawing for one person who posts their answer.  The winner will receive an autographed copy of DEEP IN THE HEART.  If you visit my web site janemyersperrine.com, I’ll have an additional Texas prize for one of you.

 Order Jane’s book from amazon!

My dear ladies,

We’re so honored and privileged to have Miss Jane Myers Perrine in Wildflower Junction tomorrow! I dare say we’ll have a great time visiting with her.

Miss Jane will chat about flowers and places she’s lived. And she’ll not hesitate to tell us about her brand spanking new book called Deep in the Heart.

Set your alarms and be right here bright and early to get the shindig going. The Fillies will be here. Will you? Come on over. What’cha waiting for?

I recently finished the final book in my WILD Trilogy (Yay!) and I’m hunkering down to finish the third in my BRIDE series (deadline countdown: three weeks; three days–aaah!!). I’ve spent the past few days trying to rewire the hardware in my brain for the new book as I put the other rest. Lucky for me, my upcoming hero has been calling to me ever since I brought him to life in THE GUNSLINGER’S UNTAMED BRIDE. The moment Kyle Darby struck a match in the dark, the orange glow lighting the chiseled features of his face, I knew he’d be next. I’m thinking he’s my favorite kind of hero, reserved on the outside, high strung on the inside, a nice hard shell around his heart for the heroine to break through.  In the past few years I have learned, as a writer, that I also prefer a talkative hero. Chance Morgan in MAVERICK  WILD was my hardest hero to write, mostly because he’s the strong, silent type and I’m a writer who thrives on dialogue. I spent much of the book wanting to beat words out of him.  His brother, on the other hand, was a sheer joy from page one to the end. I had a hard time keeping up with Tucker and his banter *g*.  While pondering my array of heroes and trying to decide on which characteristics make them easiest for me to write (as if my characters would let me decide!), I started to focus on what I like most as a reader.

As a reader there are certain heroes who stand out as all-time favorites. I was actually surprised to discover the strong silent types rank among my faves. I started to ask myself why? What was it about these guys that really snagged my heartstrings? Here’s a few of my all-time favorite western romance heroes:

Luke Shardlow of ONE WISH by Linda Lael Miller is hands-down my all-time favorite hero — it was love on page one, and he was only eleven years old! *g* Even at eleven, bruised and beaten by his father, Luke was cocky, wounded, yet undeniably self-assured. His consternation at having to fetch a dumb girl from a river won me over, him knowing he’d get whooped again for ruining his wool trousers, yet he dives for her anyways. As an adult he’s still cocky, wounded and self-assured–amplified a hundred times. He’s also bruised and beaten by his half-brother’s gang of outlaws when his heroine finds him and when he warns her to leave before they come back to finish him off and she asks “Who?” his flat reply is “The Ladies’ Aid Society.” I love his wit, his loyalty, his sarcasm and his hidden vulnerability of believing he’s too rotten to love.

Jesse DuFrayne in LaVyrle Spencer’s HUMMINGBIRD radiates confidence–even when he’s unconscious *lol*.  He’s a rugged, worldly man with no give what-so-ever who’s up against a rigid Miss Abigail who’s not about to bend to his demands or desires. I absolutely love how her brash treatment toward him and her unwillingness to bend becomes what he admires most about her. And while he eventually wears her down, he’s the one who falls the hardest. I suppose the harder they fall the bigger the imprint on my heart

Another long-time fave is Luke McClain in Dallas Schulze’s SHORT STRAW BRIDE. He and his brother are sitting around the kitchen in the opening, noticing how their late-mother’s house has been neglected and are bothered by the displeasure she’d surely feel at seeing her home in such a state–which of course spurs their need for one of them to find a wife. What better way to decide which should marry than to draw straws?  Men, gotta love ‘em. Having drawn the short straw, Luke sets about finding a wife the way some would choose a horse. One of my favorite scenes is when he asks his Bride-To-Be to marry him–or rather, he thinks he asked, but when she believes he’s offered her a job as a housekeeper he silently recounts all he said in his mind and realizes he’d detailed all his reasons for needing a wife, but hadn’t actually asked her to marry him. His understanding of women is slow-coming, his words remain minimal and misspoken, but his heart grows by leaps and bounds as he sets out to win his wife’s affection.

A new favorite is Jenna Kernan’s Ford Slayter in FALLEN ANGEL, part of the A WESTERN WINTER WONDERLAND Anthology (also features hunky heroes by Pam and Cheryl!). My instant appeal was his reaction to accidently shooting the heroine, utter horror followed by a sharp sense of duty to this woman and her young son. This hardened bounty hunter is a man who’s life has been shattered by the loss of his wife and young daughter. His conviction to care for this duo until he sees his angel back on her feet causes him no small amount of emotional pain. He sucks it up, holds it in, and melts my heart as his growing affection seeps out while he strives to not receive their affection in return. *sigh*

How about you?  Care to share some of your most endearing western romance heroes? What is it about them that really tugs at your heartstrings?

Thanks to all who stopped by to chat about bloomers today! You just never know what you’re going to find when you surf in to Wildflower Junction, do ya?

All the names are in my cowboy hat.
And the winner is….

MARGIE!

Yee haw! Margie, send me your address, and I’ll mail a copy out to you asap. SaintJohn@aol.com

Be watching for news about our special celebration comin’ up real soon!

The Fillies have something special up their calico sleeves!

Throughout American history until the early twentieth century, women’s clothing was restrictive and cumbersome.  Corsettes, stiff petticoats, crinolines, hoop skirts, bustles and busks were all designed to cinch, pad, flounce and lift, sometimes in layers, often in uncomfortable fabrics, draped and shirred and pleated to add even more weight.  Some of those styles were downright unhealthy!

One of the first women who chose more comfortable clothing was British-born Fanny Kemble, daughter of touring actors who married a plantation owner.  Critics were outraged over Fanny’s loose fitting pants that she wore under a skirt that came to her knees.  But coming to her defense on the pages of her Senecca, NY newspaper The Lily was Amelia Bloomer.

Born Amelia Jenks, she married Dexter Bloomer in 1840.  Dexter was an attourney and a publisher of a county newspaper.  When Amelia first wrote for his paper, she took up the cause of temperance.  In 1849 Amelia took over The Lily, a temperance newspaper.  Influenced by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia addressed issues of women’s rights, educating women about unequality and the possibility of social reform.  The paper became a model for other suffrage periodicals. 

Amelia, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, adopted the mode of dress sometimes called the new American Costume.  The style was also referred to as Turkish pantaloons.  When Amelia staunchly defended the clothing, other papers picked up the story, referring to their clothing as bloomers.  Eventually Stanton and Anthony agreed to forego wearing bloomers so that their cause wasn’t seen as a mere dispute over clothing.

You might recall another woman who started a trend nearly a century later: the lovely Kathryn Hepburn wore trousers with stylish disregard for what was considered appropriate.  However Hepburn’s popularity and intelligence soon aided a style revolution that the country–and women–were ready for.

Later Amelia and her husband moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio and in 1855 to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she continued to write and speak on the issues of women’s rights.  When age caught up with her, she left the battle for equal rights to her successors. 

Throughout the Village of Seneca Falls, NY there are bronze statues and monuments that bring the women’s movement to life.  One in particular is a real car stopper: Life sized sculptured figures of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Amelia Bloomer.  I would love to see these in person!

Not only are these women shining examples of the courage and tenacity it took to win equal rights for the sexes, but they pointed out the foolishness of nonfunctional clothing and changed the way people thought about fashion.

Thanks for dropping by Wildflower Junction!  I’ll draw a name from your comments today and send the winner a copy of my December anthology, THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS.

LEARN MORE ABOUT AMELIA BLOOMER

    ORDER THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS

Hello Darlings,

Ah almost forgot to tell you about Saturday’s guest. We’ve had a busy day with more guests than Wildflower Junction has seen in a while.

Miss Jane Myers Perrine will be calling on us Saturday. She’s such a dear lovely woman. Miss Jane will talk some about the places she’s lived, among them the Texas Hill Country, and she’ll also discuss her new  book release, Deep in the Heart.

Dust off your bonnets and get your wagons and buggies out. Be here with us come Saturday. You’ll have a ringside seat!