SWING YOUR PARTNER ROUND AND ROUND AND HAVE A FOOT-STOMPING TIME AT THE PETTICOATS AND PISTOLS HOLIDAY HOEDOWN! TAKE A LOOKSEE AT THE WAGONLOAD OF PRIZES YOU CAN WIN AND TOSS YOUR HAT IN THE RING ON OUR CONTEST PAGE! 

GRAND PRIZE :

$25.OO Amazon Gift card

Autographed Books from all the Fillies

John Wayne Movie Pack

Bonanza Episode Pack

Cowboy Boot Keychain

Lovely Book Pin

Silver Star Bookmark Roy Rogers DVD

 SECOND PRIZE:

Autographed books from the Fillies

Bonanza DVD

Roy Rogers DVD

THIRD PRIZE:

Autographed books from the Fillies

Rifleman DVD

The second great news is that my December romantic suspense release (“Behind the Shadows”) has been selected as the featured alternate by five book clubs, including the Literary Guild, Mystery Guild, Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody, the romance book club. The book will also be featured in Rhapsody’s “Between the Covers.”  I’m still floating among the clouds about that.  This is definitely a first for me.It’s really a book of my heart, having much to do with mother daughter relationships. A thirty–two year old woman tries to donate a kidney to her dying mother and discovers she’s not her mother’s genetic daughter. When she searches for the real one, she encounters any number of family secrets as well as danger. Unlike my other books, it has four major characters, all with very big problems of their own. I was delighted that their complexity was the main focus of the Rhapsody interview. 

I plan to continue writing romantic suspense. I truly love the challenge involved in moving from historicals to contemporary, and back again. It makes me a bit schizophrenic at times, but it also makes writing challenging and exciting.   The biggest problem has always been language.   Historicals demand a different voice than the contemporary, and it always takes me half a book to regain the right one.

That’s pretty much the news. I had planned to write about Fanny Kelly, who was captured by the Sioux Indians and whose status among the tribe was constantly being reversed from captive to honored guest. She’s the model for one of my three sisters, but I didn’t have room to do justice to her. So she’ll be my blog in two weeks. She’s one terrific heroine.

Our thanks to everyone who stopped by and left a post this weekend. You’re a wonderful group of ladies. We couldn’t keep having unique guests and an interesting site without all of you who come and share. Thank you very much.

Winner of Tanya Hanson’s special Hawaiian prize is………

Deidre!

Congratulations! I know Tanya will come up with something really outstanding.

Contact me at lindabroday@live.com  with your snail mail address and Tanya will get your prize to you.

Keep your eyes peeled for information about the new holiday contest that’s about to start. We’ll have a bunch of prizes to give away to three lucky people.

Y’all won’t be a bit disappointed when you see the wagonload of prizes the Fillies have conjured up for you!  So join in the fun and keep a lookout for our new Holiday Hoedown Contest, Petticoats and Pistols-style!   Coming soon!

Although I’m a Californian by birth, I’ll always be a Nebraskan at heart, thanks to my college days. So why is this blog titled Hawai’ian Cowboys?

Well, first off, I can’t resist a chance to plug my new book, Marrying Minda, set in fictional Paradise, Nebraska (read: Platte Center LOL), which will be released by the Cactus Rose line of The Wild Rose Press in early 2009.

Something about those blazing sunsets, the rolling prairie, the Sand Hills cattle ranches, and ruts from the Oregon Trail just evokes everything Western in me. In my humble opinion, the land of the Cornhusker is a tailor-made and long-overlooked setting for cowboy romance.

My heroine Minda Becker is a mail order bride who finds herself alone in Paradise -married to the wrong man. Yet the hottie cowboy has her tingling top to toe. What’s a poor girl to do? Especially when he constantly yaps about going back to Texas? Stay tuned and you’ll find out.

Secondly, it seems we have another long-overlooked setting for historical Western Romance.

Hawai’i!

If you’re like most folks, you likely think the Old West stopped at America’s Pacific Coastline. Which it does . . . if you travel three thousand miles farther. Yes indeed, Hawai’i has a cowboy history all its own. It even involves vaqueros!

Those first cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, taught Texan buckaroos how to lasso, make lariats and herd cattle. But much earlier in the 1800′s, those guys traveled across the Pacific and roped longhorns in Hawai’i.

What? Longhorns in Hawai’i, land of coconuts, nene geese, and menehune? (elves)

Yes, indeed.  Captain George Vancouver brought Hawaii’s first longhorn cattle as a gift to King Kamehameha I in 1793. Vancouver believed he’d delivered a new resource to the islands, but His Majesty imposed a ten-year kapu (restriction), making them a protected species. The animals were allowed to roam wild and breed freely.

Consequently, the herds became a nuisance, harming native vegetation and forests. Upon descending the uplands, the cows knocked down fences, trampled village gardens, and destroyed taro fields.

So vaqueros from Mexico and Portugal were imported to control the cows and teach native ranchers how to oversee the herds. The islanders called these guys paniolo. (Some folks say paniola.) Ranchers constructed stone walls and cactus barriers to stop the foraging beasts.  Tourists today sometimes view old rock walls in Hawaii and assume they’re ancient heiau (temples) or home sits.  But more often than not, these rock piles are just leftover cattle walls!

Like cowboys everywhere, a paniolo relied on his horse to round up the wild pipi (cattle) from the places they shouldn’t be. When he roped a bull, he would “dally up” the rope around the horn of his saddle and get the bull over to a strong tree, wrapping the rope around it and pulling the animal flush against the trunk.

Furthermore, he’d secure the bull’s horns to the tree with a short rope. Most times, the bull was left like this until the next morning. At that time, the paniolo returned with several tame bullocks, called pin bullocks, which would lead the wild pipi back to a holding pen for slaughter or sale. Catching wild cattle in this method of Po’o Waiu has now become a rodeo event.

Today about 75 percent of the state’s cattle roam the Big Island of Hawaii. Fifth and sixth generation Hawai’ian cowboys continue to raise, herd, brand, and market cattle.

Parker Ranch is among the largest ranches in the United States, spanning some 150,000 acres across the Big Island. Established nearly 160 years ago, it is also one of the country’s oldest ranches.

The ranch’s story begins in 1809 when nineteen-year-old John Parker jumped the ship that brought him to Hawaii. He quickly came to the attention of King Kamehmeha I for his new, state-of-the-art American musket. The gun got John the “privilege” of being the first man allowed to shoot some of the thousands of maverick cattle wandering the island’s remote plains and valleys. Due mostly to John’s efforts, salted beef replaced  sandalwood as the island’s chief export.

Horses, of course, are a cowboy’s best friend even in Hawai’i. In 1803, the first horses arrived on the Big Island and Maui. Many roamed freely and quickly reproduced in the wild. By the 1840′s, horses better suited for ranching and riding were imported but sadly, the wild horses had contributed to the destruction of vegetation. They were considered an “alien” animal. Other “aliens” associated with paniolo history include Koa haole. This plant first used to feed livestock has become a threat on all the islands because it multiplies so quickly. (Haole actually means “foreigner.”) But dung beetles are good aliens! They reduce cattle manure, which controls flies.

And guess what! 2008 is designated The Year of the Hawai’ian Cowboy by Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle and Harry Kim, mayor of Hawaii (the Big Island) County. In Waimea, the Big Island’s headquarters of the ranch industry, festivities for The Waiomina Centennial Celebration have honored legendary rodeo champ Ikua Purdy, who set the rodeo world on fire with his roping and riding skills at the 1908 Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. In fact, Waiomina means Wyoming in the Hawai’ian language.  A year ago, Purdy was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.

The Paniolo Preservation Society sent a large Hawai’ian delegation to Cheyenne’s Frontier Days this year, and an exhibit featuring the Hawai’ian cowboy will be on display at the Old West Museum there throughout May 2010. In turn, Wyoming sent a reciprocal delegation to The Waiomina Centennial Celebration in August.

And as for John Parker, he was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great Westerners in April.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of aloha yee-haw. I know there’s no Chimney Rock in the Hawaiian Islands, but the Iao Needle of Maui is a pretty spectacular pinnacle. Now, I’ve been racking the noggin, trying to find some question to leave with you to get you to respond, so how about: Which of these United States produces your favorite brand of cowboy? And what’s your favorite drink of choice to imbibe while you consider this important question?

(Me, I’d like a Lava Floe please.)

Bio:

I’m off to the Islands and couldn’t resist blogging about the Hawaiian cowboy, the paniolo. I’ll be bringing back an aloha-style gift for one lucky name drawn from this weekend’s bloggers.

It might be some Hawaiian style Arbuckle’s (Kona Coffee.)  Or it might be some Donkey Balls (round chocolate truffly things). Or maybe something practical like a rice paper journal. Just kinda depends on what I find while shopping in historic Koloa Town. Honest, you’d think you were in Wyoming or something. The town is still oftentimes called Homestead and was established about 1835. It’s the site of Hawaii’s first successful sugar plantation.

Thanks to all who participate! Thank heaven for WiFi.

And I hope you’ll not only enjoy Marrying Minda when it’s released, but also the Christmas story I was asked to write for Cactus Rose. His Christmas Angel spins off the handsome schoolteacher who fights for Minda’s hand. I figured he deserves a happy ending of his own…with Minda’s sister. It’ll be a free online read during the holidays.

Thanks to the wonderful Fillies for inviting me back to Wildflower Junction. I promise ya’ll more fun from the Luv Wranglers next time — if they invite me back LOL. Aloha!

How better to spend a Saturday than with Miss Tanya Hanson?

It’s more fun than chasing my durn mule that’s for sure! She’s a very talented, delightful lady with a wonderful sense of humor. Ah know we’ll all have a wonderful time. Miss Tanya is going to serve up some stimulating, little-known facts about the hunky cowboys in Hawaii and talk about her brand spanking new book that ah can guarantee you’ll all want to read.

Miss Tanya is already in town so shake your bustle and come on over tomorrow. 

 Charlene Sands

When I think of “True Confessions” I remember the one-time tell-all magazine that depicted stories that weren’t all that sensational, come to think about it.  And then there was the show on television called True Confessions.  It didn’t last long, so don’t worry if you didn’t know of it. You’re not out of the loop!

 But today I’m giving you my very own True Confessions, and unlike my romance novels, which tend to get very steamy, very quickly, these confessions aren’t glamorous. They have to do with my very own quirks, cheat sheets and foux pas, in the writing world.

Confession #1

 When I was writing Chase Wheeler’s Woman, I had a scene where my hero gets poisoned. Well, I did my research, read through a book called Deadly Doses- a writer’s guide to poisons.  And I found the perfect way to poison Chase. Only the plant I found was so accessible to the public and the method so easy, I COULDN’T use it in the book. My conscience wouldn’t allow me.  I thought, if someone gets mad at their spouse, all they had to do was put a few of these leaves in their tea, and they’re a goner. So I sacrificed the authenticity of my story and used vague words and terms to poison my hero. I smile when I think about that now, but you know, today, I’d do the same thing.

 Confession #2

To date, I’ve written 25 books and I swear that at times, I’m at a loss to come up with names of my characters. I’m picky.  The name has to fit the character to a T.  I CAN’T even start writing the outline, synopsis, much less the story, until I get the right names.  Because of this, I use some very unorthodox methods to find names because I am very eager to start writing. I do resort to a baby name book, called The Best Name for Your Baby. Sometimes, I just flip open one page and say, “Charlene, find a name on this page.”  Does it work? Heck no.  If the name’s not right, it’s just not right. For my westerns, I’ve resorted to going to the PRCA website for rodeo riders. I check out the rodeo names and I have come up with quite a few good ones that way.  When I’m desperate, I’ll pause the credits at the end of a movie or TV show to see if something hits me.  Lastly, there’s always the Santa Anita Race Track!  Don and I are members of the Thoroughbred’s Club and we love going to the races.  The Racebook we get at the door is chock-full of interesting names of jockeys and owners AND sometimes I get a title idea from the horses’ names.   Here’s just a few that’ll put a smile on your face.  

One Hot Storm

River Lord

Sweet Spot (Susan Mallery has a book with this title)

Foxy Danseur

Hot and Dusty

Beencaughtcheating

Belle’s Bounty 

Confession #3

 I’m fully ashamed of myself that I no longer have a library card!  I can’t believe it. I let my card expire. Until a few days ago, I hadn’t stepped foot in a library in years. Why?  The Internet, for one.  I do a ton of research on the Net. It seems I can pull up data and find the answers to my questions in mere seconds.  We’ve all really gotten spoiled, I’m afraid. We need and expect everything in a quick hurry and with my super duper new 21-inch Vista-infused computer, I get my research done in no time flat. It’s a miracle invention that can be your best friend and your worst enemy (you know what I mean)

Back to my red-faced library confession. The other day, when out with friends I visited a brand-new gorgeous Civic Center in a neighboring town.  The library called to me and we walked inside.  Well, I was like a kid walking into a candy store. As I wandered quite excitedly thru the corridors, my friends tagging behind me, I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing. This library was amazing, with its wonderful catalogue of books, up-to-date computer center, separate children’s library, lecture rooms, a reading/sitting area complete with a floor to ceiling fireplace and an outdoor amphitheatre. I think my jaw dropped. I didn’t want to leave. My non-writing friends weren’t as enthused so I didn’t have time to get my library card. But I promised myself I would. And I will. There’s nothing like seeing all that knowledge – and yes, even a romance section-at your fingertips, literally. Oh to pick up a book, leaf thru and smell the pages and the binding. What childhood memories just being there evoked!

Confession #4

There aren’t many things about being an author I dislike. I’m a pretty positive, optimistic person and I always give the benefit of the doubt. I was taught to turn the other cheek, whenever possible, so I haven’t complained, or even been snarky about this.  But the one thing I really hate, is when readers, friends, acquaintances, come up to me and say, “Oh, I read your book.”   Period. That’s all they say.

Okay, so does that mean they read my book and enjoyed it? If so, why not say that?  Does that mean that they read my book and hated it?   And they don’t want to say so. Or is it more about them than me. Are they PROUD, they actually finished a book and want a pat on the back? Often, I believe this is the case. I’m tempted to reply, “Congratulations.”  The irony floors me.

 For heaven’s sake, why don’t they say something more? 

I wouldn’t visit a friend who just gave birth to her precious baby and say, “Oh, I just saw your baby.” Some gushing is required, I would think.  

I guess some people don’t understand that our writing is personal to us. We put ourselves out there – much of our writing comes straight from the heart and our guts are involved too.  None of our Petticoats’ readers would do this. I know you’re all in sync with our sensibilities. Your comments have proven it time and again. And don’t get me wrong, I do get praise for my stories. I’m at a place in my career when winning a contest, sweet words from my editor and good sales, tell me, I’m doing A-Okay. 

 But is it too much to ask to avoid those awkward moments in life?

 And lastly, Confession #5 

I don’t read!

Oh dear, did I just say that?  I did.  Unfortunately, its more a true statement than I’d like to admit. I LOVE to read.  I have auto-buy authors like Rachel Gibson, Linda Lael Miller, Janet Evanovich and Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I love to read new authors, and I love to read our wonderful Petticoat authors.  But I don’t have time.  Does that sound like a cop out?  It does to me, too.

But it’s true and I’m so regretful about the fact that I’m too busy these days. With deadlines, research, proposals, blogs and promotion, there’s always something to do at the computer.  And at night, I promised myself to spend more time with my hubby.  He likes to watch television and we have our favorite shows. And quite frankly, my eyes burn like wildfire by the end of the day.  In the summer, when I take my beach days, maybe I’ll get a hour or two of reading in, but I’ll admit to you that I’ve started a few books that I really wanted to read, and haven’t finished them.    I miss reading so much!  I used to read 3 books a week.   I would go thru them like my favorite candy. Not anymore. 

I’d love to know if any of you experience this too?   Any hints as to how to sneak in some reading time?   Do you have any confessions to share today?  What do you think about mine, agree or disagree?

I thought I’d share my new cover with you. It’s my favorite thus far.Romantic Times Magazine Top Pick 4 ½ Stars *****   and part of Eharlequin’s Red Hot Passion Reads!

 Suite Reading Everyone!

Click on small cover to purchase. 

Cincinnati, Ohio

Thanksgiving Day, 1875

Frank Butler was a professional trick shooter who showed off his skill in traveling stage shows.  When a $100 prize was offered to the winner of a shooting match, he was confident the money would soon be his—especially since he’d be shooting against a pint-sized 15-year-old girl. 

     Young Phoebe Ann Mosely, known as Annie, had been hunting game to feed her family for years.   $100 was a fabulous sum, and she was determined to win it.  The two competitors took turns firing 25 shots each.  Annie hit the target 25 times.  Frank missed his last shot.  He lost the match, and his heart in the bargain.  “I was a beaten man the moment she appeared,” Frank later said, “for I was taken off guard.”

     A gracious loser, he gave Annie’s family tickets to his show.  Soon he was courting her.  An Irish charmer, older than Annie by ten years, Frank had been married before and fathered two children, but he was a kind man with no bad habits, so Annie’s mother gave her blessing.  The couple was married August 23, 1876 (a date later given as 1882, perhaps because of Annie’s age or because Frank may not have been legally divorced at the time).   

     A  man with a poetic soul, Frank would write of his wife, “Her presence would remind you/Of an angel in the skies, /And you bet I love this little girl/With the rain drops in her eyes.”   

     In the early years of their marriage, Frank performed with a male partner.  On May 1, 1882, his partner took sick.  Annie had to go on stage to hold the targets.  Frank wasn’t having his best night.  When, after some misses, the audience clamored to “let the girl shoot,” Annie gave a spectacular exhibition.  Soon the team was performing as Butler and Oakley.  But Frank soon realized that Annie was the real star of the act.  Some husbands wouldn’t have taken kindly to having a celebrity wife.  But as Annie’s fame grew, Frank became her manager, handling finance, bookings and promotions.  It was a happy partnership that would last for the rest of their lives. 

     In 1885 the pair joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, touring and performing with them for 16 years.  Annie Oakley became one of the most famous women in the world.  But in private life she was always Mrs. Frank Butler.  

In 1901, after suffering injuries in a train wreck, they left the show to rest and recover.  Frank took a job as a representative for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.  They continued to tour and perform on their own, finally retiring in 1913.   Even then they did charity work, raising funds during World War I.  In 1922 Annie was planning a comeback when both of them were seriously injured in an auto accident.  Annie never fully recovered her health.   On November 3, 1926, at the age of 66, she passed away.    After 50 years of marriage, Frank was unable to go on living without his Annie.  He stopped eating and died 18 days later, on November 21. 

     Can you think of other couples who’ve had inspiring love stories?  My own mom and dad come to mind.  They were married sweethearts for 63 years.  I like to think they’re still together somewhere. 

Clicking on one of the small books below will take you to Amazon.com.  My new story, THE BORROWED BRIDE will be available November 1.

Yippee! Miss Tanya Hanson will be in town Saturday!

This marks Miss Tanya’s second visit to Wildflower Junction and we’re jumping for joy. She’s such a delight and always has something interesting to share. This time she’ll be talking about Hawaiian cowboys and longhorn. Bet you didn’t know the cowboys were called paniolos and that they rode the Hawaiian landscape in the early 1800′s. Yep, they durn sure did!

Miss Tanya has a new book coming out – Marrying Minda – and she’ll give us the scoop on that.

Help the Fillies give her a big ol’ Wildflower Junction welcome right here on Saturday. Don’t forget now.

I had planned to blog about superstitions today but I came across an image that so captured the essence of the heroine in my next book, WILD 3, it redirected my focus. This image of my mountain woman, Maggie (aka Mad Mag), reminded me of why I truly love writing westerns. One of my main draws is the freedom to create heroines who had to be as rugged and daring as their heroes. The women who settled the west were as hard-working, adventurous and courageous as their men folk–even more so by my account, as many were also rearing children amid establishing a home, working the land, tending stock and training a husband

History is bursting with dynamic western heroine inspiration.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• Cattle Kate – Ellen Liddy Watson, the first woman lynched by vigilantes in Wyoming. She was a widow who worked hard to build her own herd and purchase her own homestead. She was lynched by a rival cattle baren along the Sweetwater River, Wyoming, in 1889, during the height of the Wyoming range wars. 
• Elizabeth Simpson Bradshaw – A widow, with five children, the youngest only 6 years of age, walked across the American prairie pushing all her family possessions in a handmade, wooden handcart. After much tribulation, more than could ever be told, Elizabeth, with all of her children still alive, arrived at her destination, the Salt Lake Valley. There in the West she made her home, reared her children, and is honored by her posterity.
• Mary Fields – Born a slave in Tennessee in 1832, this tall, powerfully built woman was ambitious, daring and liked a good fight. With no formal education, she forged her way to Ohio and on to the Montana Territory. Declaring herself the protector of the Ursuline nuns at St. Peter’s Catholic Mission near Cascade,Montana, Mary defended those she loved from predators on two legs as well as four. She delivered the mail by stagecoach, never missing a day until she was almost 80 years old.
• Margaret Borland Heffenan – By 1873 she owned a herd of more than 10,000 cattle. She was said to be the only woman known to have led a cattle drive.
• Cathay Williams – Female Buffalo Soldier. When Congress passed an act authorizing the establishment of the first all Black units of the military, later to become known as “Buffalo Soldiers”, Cathay Williams, a former slave, decided it was time to join the Army. In November of 1866 she enlisted in the 38th US Infantry as William Cathay. Since there were little or no medical exams required, Cathay was able to successfully (at least initially), pull off this disguise.
• Calamity Jane -  ”Heroine of the plains” was born Martha Jane Canary. A wandering American frontierswoman, she dressed like a man and was even a pony express rider. She frequented bars, telling stories of her adventures with other “personalities” of the west during the mid to late 1800′s.
• Pearl Hart – First Known Female Stage Robber In Arizona Territory After being captured for the stage robbery, she said that she “would never consent to be tried under a law she or her sex had no voice in making, or to which a woman had no power under the law to give her consent.” She had become a strident voice for “women’s emancipation.”
• Nellie Cashman – “The Angel of Tombstone”  Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails, the extraordinary Nellie Cashman wandered frontier mining camps of the 1800s seeking gold, silver and a way to help others. A lifelong, devout Catholic, Nellie convinced the owners of the Crystal Palace Saloon (one of whom was Wyatt Earp) to allow Sunday church services there until she had helped raise enough funds for construction of the Sacred Heart Church. She was also active raising money for the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Miner’s Hospital and amateur theatricals staged in Tombstone. She was famous for taking up collections to help those who had been injured or fallen on hard times, especially miners.

Many of these women remind me of my grandmothers–both ventured westward at a young age with little more than a suitcase and their sheer rugged will to build a better life for their families–both are wild west women in their own right and a basis of inspiration for all my heroines.

Do you have any favorite wild west heroines, either legendary, fictional or personal inspirations? For fun, what is the name of the heroine in the book you’re reading now?

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