Hello and thanks so much for having me here this weekend at Petticoats and Pistols. A lot of folks have been asking where I got the idea for my April Intrigue, BULLETPROOF TEXAS. This romantic suspense thriller is about a pharmaceutical research scientist and a brooding caving guide who are forced to work together extracting cancer-eating bacteria from a flooding Texas Hill Country cave. As the sparks fly and passions rise, so do the dangers when a competitor decides this potential cure shouldn’t see the light of day–and is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way.

I seem to get some of my best ideas while I’m traveling. When my family and I were on spring break in Carlsbad Caverns a couple of years ago, I was listening to an audio tour that talked about cancer-eating bacteria found in a nearby cave. New research with the bacteria is showing great promise and from the moment I heard the details of this medical discovery, I was fascinated with the idea of setting a romantic suspense novel against such a backdrop. I’d just finished a manuscript with a biomedical edge and a pharmaceutical company’s machinations as part of the plot that would later be my debut novel, BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF (Harlequin Intrigue, January 2009). This new idea seemed the perfect fit for a sequel.

Once I got home, I did some reading to figure out where I could set my fictitious cave. In Lechguilla Cave, near Carlsbad, where the real discovery of cancer-eating bacteria was made, the cavern is not open to the public. In fact there’s a vacuum-sealed door to keep those pharmaceutical-grade discoveries untainted by any outside pollutants.

In order to get a feel for caverns in general, I watched the amazing footage on the PLANET EARTH video series and several movies featuring caves and climbing, too. (Have you noticed that every recent movie set in a cave is a horror movie?)

I’m sort of claustrophobic so doing a “get-dirty-down-on-my-belly-with-a-headlamp strapped-to-my-forehead-and-squeeze-into-a-crack-for-research” kind of venture was not in my future. But I do love walking through caverns on guided tours, so I decided to visit another cave in person. 

Inner Space Cavern, just north of Austin, is part of the Edwards Aquifer system (also featured in BULLETPROOF TEXAS.) This cave was accidentally discovered in 1963 by a road crew working on Interstate 35. The workers were testing the ground to see if it could support a highway overpass and their drill bit kept busting through the limestone into nothingness. (Unknown to them at the time, this was one of the cavern rooms). The crew decided to lower a man through the one of the enlarged “test holes” on a drill bit. What they discovered was an extraordinarily well-preserved cave and prehistoric animal remains.

At the time of my visit, Inner Space Cavern was experiencing major flooding from heavy spring rains and run-off. Some rooms were completely underwater. No one working there had ever seen anything like it before. The tour guides were as excited about the flooding as the tourists, some even coming in on their off days to see how far the water had risen. The rooms I saw were all electrified and many of the lanterns were still operational. Light reflected off drenched surfaces everywhere with a constant drip, drip, drip in the background. As I walked through the partially submerged cavern rooms, I knew I’d found my setting in Texas. It was right there in front of me.

As for the hero and heroine, there’s a bit more to the Carlsbad Caverns story. On our spring break trip, my husband and I got separated from our children in the caverns. And we were assigned the grumpiest Park Ranger in the National Park Service to help us find them.

Now normally Park Rangers are very friendly, right?  Not this one. I kept thinking why are you so prickly? (I’m the one who should be upset here…my kids are lost!)

For the record, my kids were 9 and 15 at the time and they were together. So my husband and I knew they were okay, but it was extraordinarily unnerving to not know exactly where they were in the caverns. And it took about an hour to find them. All while this Park Ranger was downright surly.

I kept thinking, you are going be in a book one day. But I’ll have to give you a reason to be unhappy or no one will like you! And that’s how Zach Douglas, my brooding Park Ranger, was born.

Now in BULLETPROOF TEXAS, Zach is grieving the death of his sister so he’s a very sympathetic guy, even though he’s a bit dark. But that line about “what you do may appear in my next book,” yep, it’s absolutely true!  I seem to get my best inspiration on vacation, especially traveling in the Southwest.

Have you ever been inside a cave? If so, where was it? Did you like it? Or, if you’ve never ventured inside a cave, which one would you like to visit if you could? One lucky commenter will receive a copy of my new April Intrigue, BULLETPROOF TEXAS.

View Kay’s Trailer!  

BULLETPROOF TEXAS is Kay Thomas’s second novel from Harlequin Intrigue and is on US store shelves this week. Romantic Times gave BULLETPROOF TEXAS 4 stars calling it “taut, tricky and worth the read.” Cataromance gave it 4 ½ stars calling it “non-stop action, nail-biting suspense and fiery passion.” Her debut novel BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF was released in the US in January and in Australia in March. To see excerpts, book trailers, enter Kay’s “Bulletproof Sighting” contest and more please visit www.KayThomas.net.

To Buy BULLETPROOF TEXAS, go to Amazon.

Our family is big on games.  We’re “gamers” as they say.  Whenever we get together either with friends or family, we play our fair share of games.

It’s a hoot and a howl and we usually end up laughing our heads off after a few pizzas and beers.  Since our kids are grown and out of the house, we’ve instituted a Once A Month Game day!

Cards are usually the game of choice. We’ll play anything from UNO to Milles Bornes to Phase Ten. We have Phase Ten Tournaments.  My new son-in-law is quite a competitor. He and my hubby are always trying to outdo each other.

Sequence is a board game that you play with a deck of cards as well.  Its sort of like Bingo … but we play regular Bingo too!  

When we have a larger group than the six of us, like this past Easter – we’ll break out Catch Phrase. This is a game like Password, where you are allowed to describe the word in any way possible to your team members.  Once your team gets the word, you pass the digital “board” to your opponent.  A clock clicks off time and if you’re the team left holding the “board” when the timer runs out, the opposing team scores a point.  Not only are we playing a Password type game, but we’re also playing Hot Potato – all at the same time.   

Another fun game for more than four players is Apples to Apples. It’s easy and fun, REALLY, but way too hard to explain on this blog.  Trust me – you’ll love it. 

As I peruse my closet, I see digital Deal or No Deal (but you don’t win any real money), Risk (one time we played this game for 8 hours),  Parcheesi (for oldies but goodies) and Upwords, a board game that’s like scrabble except you can build tiles upon each other.  Of course Yahtzee and Monopoly and Clue are among my all time favorites.   Fun, Fun, Fun!

So what games did they play in the 1800’s?  

The first American board game was created in 1843 by the W & S.B Ives Company called the Mansion of Happiness.  This game led children via their playing pieces down the path of “eternal happiness.”

Would you believe that the The Game of Life as we know it (pictured on left) started out as the picture you see next to it. Invented by Milton Bradley in 1860, The Checkered Game of Life was a board game that rewarded good deeds and punished bad ones. Milton Bradley, once a successful lithographer, had created a portrait of Abe Lincoln without his beard.  When Lincoln grew his now-famous beard, Bradley’s clean-shaven portrait was no longer popular.  Out of desperation, Bradley designed the Checkered Game of Life and its immediate popularity started Milton Bradley on a new career path. 

Milton Bradley

As more and more Americans traveled overseas in the late 1800′s, traveling board games held great appeal. Travelers could relive their trips by playing such games as Around the World invented in 1873 or McLoughlin Brothers’ Game of Round the World with Nellie Bly which was created in 1890. 

Are you a ”gamer” too?  Do you play cards or board games with family and friends?   Which are your favorites? 

Hello Darlings,

Miss Kay Thomas will be gracing our small town this Saturday and you’re all invited to come visit with her a spell.

Miss Kay loves to write romance and things that go bump in the night. She does enjoy scaring the pants off her readers. Just wish she’d scare the pants off a sexy cowboy and leave him on my doorstep. Hee-hee!

But all joking aside, Miss Kay has a real keeper in her new release called Bulletproof Texas. Some of the action takes place in  dark caves and caverns. Hope that’s fired up your interest because mine durn sure  is. Gives me a big idea. It might make be easier to catch a cowboy in the damp darkness. He might not be able to run as fast.

So saddle up and ride over to the Junction on Saturday.

We’ll make a party of it.

While researching the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, for my April book, HIS SUBSTITUTE BRIDE, I came across some amazing personal stories.  The story I’m about to share with you is one of my favorites.  This account is adapted from the book San Francisco is Burning by Dennis Smith. 

Miss Donalda Cameron of the Chinatown Presbyterian Mission had fifty Chinese and Japanese girls in her care, most of them rescued from terrible circumstances.  The younger ones had served as household slaves.  The older, teenaged girls had suffered an even worse fate.  Yuen Kim, the eldest of the girls, was pretty and bright.  Miss Cameron had arranged for her to marry a worthy young man named Henry Lai, an immigrant from China who’d settled in Cleveland Ohio.  The two had met six months earlier when Henry had come to San Francisco for an interview with Miss Cameron.  Even in that brief time, they’d grown fond of each other. 

The wedding was set for April 21.  At 6 a.m. on the morning of April 18, Henry arrived in San Francisco to meet his bride.  The quake had occurred less than an hour earlier.  He found the city in chaos and beginning to burn.  The streets were filled with terrified people, and there was no sign of Yuen Kim or Miss Cameron.  In a panic, he ran from street, asking for them everywhere.  By the end of the first day, much of Chinatown had burned.  Henry knew he couldn’t give up.  His bride had to be somewhere.  She had to be alive. 

 Meanwhile Miss Cameron was doing her best to get her charges to safety.  Loaded with what they could carry, the girls marched in a tight line through the streets to the shelter of another church.  From there they planned to take the ferry to San Anselmo across the bay.   It’s possible they passed near Henry, but he failed to see them. 

After three days of searching, someone directed Henry to the mission.  He found it in flames, surrounded by soldiers, with no Chinese people in sight.  He tried to ask where Miss Cameron’s girls had gone, but between the noise and Henry’s poor English, he could get no help.  At last he found a man who looked like a minister, and he was able to make himself understood.  Miraculously, the minister knew where Miss Cameron had taken her girls.  He gave Henry directions to the ferry and to San Anselmo. 

When Henry reached the ferry, he found thousands of frantic people trying to get on.  One boat left without him.  He fought his way forward to the next boat.  A sailor, seeing his desperation, opened the gate just enough for him to slip through.  He made it to San Anselmo and found his bride.  Henry and Yuen Kim were married that day, April 21, in an ivy covered chapel.  After the wedding, they boarded a train back to Cleveland and a new life.  As Donalda Cameron would write, “…So romance with its magic touch helped us for a time to forget our great losses.”  

Speaking as a romance writer, that last sentence says it all.

And now to my question, why do you read/write romance?  How do these romantic stories enrich your life?

Good Morning!  Hope you are one and all doing well on this beautiful Tuesday after Easter!

In keeping with the theme of American heros, the next American Indian leader that I’d like to honor is Tecumseh.  Tall and handsome, he held the respect not only of his people, but of those he fought, as well.  Though he fought long and hard to save his land and his people, he fought just as hard against also the practice of torture and would not allow any torture of any prisoners.  A great orator, he sought to unite the tribes against the encrouchment of settlers on their lands.  To Tscumseh, all land belonged to all people.  Sell the land?  Why not sell the air that one breathes?

Tecumseh was Shawnee and was born in 1768 in the area that is now Ohio.  He grew up in an era in which his people were in constant battle with the white settlers and his father died in a conflict in 1774 at the Battle of Point Pleasant.  In 1779 Tecumseh’s mother moved westward, into what is now Indiana and Illinois, eventually coming to live in Missouri.  Tecumseh stayed behind to be raised by his sister and elder brother.  By 1808, Tecumseh was a chief.

“Tecumseh’s War”

In 1805, Tecumshe’s brother, Tenskwatawa, who would later come to be known as the prophet, had dreamed.  He started a religious revival. Tenskwatawa preached that people should reject the ways of the whites — like Tecumseh, he urged people to keep their land and stop selling it.  But there is always internal opposition to even the best plans.  Another Shawnee leader, Black Hoof was trying to maintain peace with the United States.  Tensions became so great that by 1808 Tecumseh and his brother moved further northwest, near the rivers The Wabash and Tippecanoe.  It was Tecumseh’s dream to unite all the Indian tribes together, from Canada to the very southern tip of the United States.  Only in this way could the Indian Nations counter the effect of the whites who were surrounding them.

Toward this end, he accomplished much.

In September 1809, William Henry Harrison negotiated a treaty wherein  a delegation of half-starved, drunken Indians ceded 3 million acres of land that they did not own or live on.  It was a scam. perpetuated by Harrison.  Tecumseh was so angered over this that he journeyed to to Harrison’s home to denounce him publicly.  But it had little effect on Harrison.  In the end, nothing was done.

Tecumseh began to put his dream into effect.  He began to travel widely.  A great orator, he started to unite the different Indian tribes to one cause.  Tecumseh said, “No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers…. Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn’t the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?” And, “….the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided.”

In 1811 Tecumseh again met with Harrison  in Vincennes, Indiana to try to resolve the situation between them.  However, Harrison had a father-in-law, John Cleves Symmes, who was a memeber of Congress  and who was actively making a career out of being  a land developer of the lands that Harrison acquired from Indian Treaties.  Therefore it proved fruitless to try to negotiate with Harrieson.  He had other interests rather than negotiate with American Indian tribes.  Indeed, it was worth it to him to push the Indians off the land they had always owned.  Tecumseh might have gone to war over this;  however, he wanted peace and wanted to keep hold of his ancestral lands.  He knew that only a solidarity of tribes might convince those in Washington, and so he set out on another journey to the south to try to convince warriors in the Five Civilized Tribes to come into his confederacy.

This 1848 drawing of Tecumseh was based on a sketch done from life in 1808. Benson Lossing altered the original by putting Tecumseh in a British uniform, under the mistaken (but widespread) belief that Tecumseh had been a British general. This depiction is unusual in that it includes a nose ring, popular among the Shawnee at the time, but typically omitted in idealized depictions.

While Tecumseh was in the South, Governor Harrison marched up the Wabash River to try to iintimidate Tecumseh’s brother, the Prophet.  Tecumseh had left orders with his brother that he was not to engage any American army.  However, the Prophet took matters into his own hands and fought Harrison.  Although the match was really a draw, Harrison still had the field by morning and the Indians withdrew from the village after the battle.  There were women and children to consider, after all.  Because they withdrew, it was considered that Harrison won.

The loss of the battle was a severe blow for Tecumseh, but he determined to put his efforts once again into kuniting the tribes, and he might have succeeded had it not been for the War of 1812 intervening.  Tecumseh joined the British in that battle and had he lived, he might have succeeded in uniting the tribes, as was his dream.  At the very least, a united Indian front might have allowed the Indians to keep hold of their ancestral homes.  Tecumseh lost his life in battle in the war of 1812.  And so ended a career to unite the several Indian tribes.

Tecumseh was brilliant.  He loved his homeland and his tribe.  He fought for both and gave his life for both.  That he didn’t win thim both is not the point.  The point is that, against all odds, he stood for what he believed in — his people, his hom and his country.

Well, that’s all for today.  So tell me what do you think of these American hero stories?  And about this one in particular.  Do you like them?  Have they shed any light on history as we usually study and know it?  About ten years ago there was a made for TV movie about Tecumseh and his brother.  Did you see it?

So tell me what do you think you might have done had you been alive at the time and born to the Indian culture?  Would you have joined Tecumseh, or would you have given up your homelands to the vasty superior culture coming in upon you, and gone West?

For myself, I think I might have stayed.  After all,  there are still some things worth fighting for — freedom, liberty, one’s way of life are some of those things.  But come on in and let’s talk.  Tell me your thoughts.

Let’s go shopping, 1860s style.

If you lived back in the Old West, chances are the tinsmith ran one of your favorite shops. To an untrained eye, entering his store might look as though you’re entering a cluttered space. But if you look closer, you’ll note the fine tools, the specialty patterns and the intricate designs. What you’ll love most of all is the usefulness of every product.

There was an art to handling tin. The fine detailed work often lent itself to women’s hands, and I can well imagine the tinsmith’s wife or daughter working just as hard as the man himself in designing the tools, the well-crafted shapes, and coming up with ideas for new products.

Here are a sampling of things available to a person in the 1860s. 

   Hip tubs.

Lanterns of all sorts.

Cookie cutters. How would you like to have a cookie in the shape of a horse’s head?

Tin ceiling tiles, designed to your liking.

And best of all, if you lived in a cold climate, how about some duct work going from the stove to the ceiling, thereby warming the floor of the upper story above you?

You’ve probably spotted other kitchen pots and utensils for sale on the back walls. Do you have your credit card ready? What’s the first thing you’d buy?

My new book is out now! Visit me at www.katebridges.com.

Click to link to Amazon. Wanted In Alaska 

Easter has always been a special time for me. Growing up I didn’t have an abundance of anything except love. No matter that we were poor as church mice, my sister and I always knew our parents loved us. That knowledge sustained us through a lot of lean years. The only time my sister and I got a new dress and shoes was at Easter. If we only had money enough to buy shoes, my  mother made our dresses. In fact, I can’t recall too many times when we had a store bought dress. Or an Easter basket. That cost too much.

Here’s a picture that was taken in the early 60′s of my dad, me, and my sister. I’m the one in the middle. We must’ve done very well that year because we’re sporting not only new dresses and shoes, but purses as well. And look at the flowers in our hair. My sister and I thought we were just the cat’s meow. So proud and happy.

We’d get up early on Easter Sunday and get dressed in our finery. It was like Christmas morning. Mama would usually take our picture before we headed off to church. She’d have a roast in the oven that would be ready when we got back home. Those were wonderful times. I can close my eyes now and smell that roast cooking. My mother was an excellent cook and could make a meal on a little of anything.

I sure miss those times and my parents who have both passed on. They left so many warm memories. I hope you’re all making plenty of memories with your children. And I wish you all a very wonderful Easter.

The Night Before Easter

‘Twas the night before Easter. All was calm and laid back.
Fred, the mouse in the kitchen, snarfed down a late snack.
The eggs were all dyed but still drippy and sticky…
To be honest, they looked just a little bit icky.

There were big jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and such,
And as Fred stuffed his face, he sighed, “This is too much!”
Phil and Rose were in bed watching late night TV,
While munching saltines with low-sodium Brie.

Then a sudden commotion rang out in the night.
It shook Phil and Rose, really gave them a fright.
Phil’s hair stood on end, and his eyes bugged out big…
Rose whipped off the covers and knocked off her wig.

They lunged to the window, yanked open the blinds…
What they saw was amazing; it boggled their minds:
Across the night sky, with a noise like the dickens,
Soared a minivan drawn by eight overgrown chickens!

At the wheel sat a bunny — cute, fuzzy and fat –
In designer blue jeans and a Panama hat.
Like a speeding space shuttle, those chickens they flew,
As the van driver called to each hen in his crew:

“Now, Ashley! Now, Sheila! Now, Kelsey and Bo!
On Bethany, Liza! On Daphne, on Flo!”
The van made its landing lickety-split …
Nearly wiped out the shrubs and the barbecue pit!

Then up on the roof, much to Phil’s consternation,
They squawked of egg prices and space navigation.
They made so much noise that Phil started to stammer,
“If you guys don’t shut up, we’ll get thrown in the slammer!”

Fuzzy hopped down the chimney, amidst all this racket,
And emerged from the fireplace, adjusting his jacket.
This bunny was chic, he had class, he had flair ..
Not your average bozo, not your typical hare.

His ears were enormous; his huge overbite
Was right under a nose like a pink neon light.
His manner was smooth, he was hip, he was cool;
This floppy-eared bunny was no fuzzy fool.

“While I’m here,” he smiled, “Everybody relaxes …
I’m not selling storm windows, won’t audit your taxes.
I’m just here to bring you some fun and delight.
Eat, drink, and be merry! Let’s party tonight!”

So they sipped diet soda and swapped silly jokes,
Those birds and their bunny just being plain folks.
Then flop-ears said, “Hey, friends, we’ve had quite a ball,
But my chickens and I are now due in St. Paul!”

He crossed both his eyes. Then he wiggled one ear,
And he yelled to his chicken team, “We’re outta here!”
As the minivan rose in the 3 a.m. sky,
He called out, “Later, Phil! And to you, Rose, good-bye!”

As he sped out of sight, his two friends heard him say,
“Happy Easter to all! Have a beautiful day!”

 Author Unknown