Hello Darlings,

Woo-Hoo! The Fillies are excited to have Linda Lael Miller visit the Junction on Thursday.

Miss Linda has a brand spanking new series, THE MCKETTRICKS OF TEXAS, to tell us about. It’s about three brothers–Tate, Garrett, and Austin. Boy, does it look like a humdinger! Ah can’t wait for the first one to come out.

Rumor has it that Miss Linda’s publisher is offering a chance to win several prizes in the Take a Cowboy Home Sweepstakes. One prize is $10,000! Oh my Lord! Ah about swallowed my teeth there. That’d buy a lot of sourdough biscuits for sure. Ah know you’ll want to enter it right away.

So don’t lollygag around on Thursday.

Get your little behinds over here to see what all the excitement is about!

People often ask me where I get the ideas for my novels.  I think sometimes they come from my DNA.  Certainly I’ve mined my family history for characters, settings, and story arcs, but there have been a couple times when I’ve written something as fiction that I found out later actually happened to a long dead relative, and there was no way I could have known. 

It happened in my latest book, Counting the Cost, which is based on the story arc of my uncle, a cowboy, who married a socialite from back east.   

My mother’s people were ranchers, but my dad worked construction.  Though Mother would love to have stayed close to family, my father’s work took us far away for years at a time.  I loved it when we came home to New Mexico for a visit, because I’d get to hear all the family stories again: how Aunt Clara’s husband got struck by lightning out on the roundup; how Uncle Buck used to travel with a goat in the rumble seat because his baby was allergic to cow milk; how my adolescent uncles staged an impromptu rodeo for the benefit of the local saloonkeeper’s clientele.

 I was a grown woman before I realized that, in all the stories told, no one ever mentioned the uncle who married the lady from back east.  This uncle died before I was born, and when I puzzled about the absence of stories about him, I figured it must be because the family was so hurt by his untimely death that they couldn’t speak of him. 

My mother spoke of him to me, though.  Living away from New Mexico, she assuaged her homesickness by recounting family stories, and she told me all about this brother and the lady he married. My mother and the lady had become friends, and she, the lady, taught this poor, rustic, southwestern girl all the little unwritten rules that young women of the early-twentieth-century needed to know when they went out in society. 

There was one story Mother didn’t tell me, though, until the day before she died. That’s when I discovered that it wasn’t sorrow that kept the family from speaking of this uncle for fifty years; it was shame, for she already had a husband when she ran away with my uncle.  They lived together without benefit of clergy until she was free.  It was after they finally married that that my mother met and grew to love this new sister-in-law.

Nowadays, people might not be shocked by two people living together unwed, but in Depression-era, provincial New Mexico, it made outcasts of the couple and shamed the family. 

After my mother died, the story of a cowboy who falls in love with a married socialite from back east welled up inside me and poured out my fingers.  When the book was half written, I visited my two octogenarian uncles—one of whom was still working cattle—and got them to finally talk about their long-dead brother.  Each told me of an incident with that brother, an incident that I had no way of knowing about, that I had already written as fiction, but that actually happened. How did I know?  That’s why I say some of my stories come from my DNA

Other stories come from long-forgotten memories.  As I wrote Counting the Cost, I must have remembered seeing the photograph of my mother traveling from Seligman, Arizona to Hot Springs, New Mexico with her mother and this same brother.  Without his saddle and bedroll, a cowboy was unemployed, so they stowed it the best they could for the journey.

Here’s how I used it in the story:

  Shadow rode in just as Heck was tying up his bedroll. He dismounted and stood holding his horse’s reins as Heck carried the bedroll out to the car and tossed it atop the things in the rumble seat. It stuck up above the roof of the car, even when Heck cinched it down as tight as he could. “That’s my bedroll,” he said.

Ruth called to him from the car, where she still sat with her head resting against the doorpost. He leaned in closely, since her voice was so faint. “What’s in the rumble seat?” she asked.

 “That’s my bedroll,” he said.

“Tom Mix just uses one blanket. I’ve seen him in the movies.” 

 Heck smiled tenderly, glad that she was feeling well enough to tease him. “The ground’s a lot softer in the movies.”

Heck stuck his saddle blanket, bridle, and spurs behind the seat and stood looking at his saddle. There was no room, but without his own saddle, he was unemployed. So, he threw it across the hood of the car and tied it down with a short piece of rope. He took the quirt that was hanging on his saddle horn and approached his young friend. “Evening, Shadow. I’m pulling out now.” He nodded toward the car. “Miz Reynolds is going with me. I think she’s feeling too bad to say goodbye.” He offered the quirt to Shadow. “I made this the other week. I’d like you to have it. I sure enjoyed working with you. I know you’re going to be a mighty fine cowboy.”

Shadow’s eyes went from Heck to the car, where the battered face showed through the windshield. He swallowed. “Thanks, Heck.” He had to make a second try, because the words didn’t come out right the first time.

“I’d be obliged if you’d take Spook to Mike. Tell him I want him to have ‘im.” 

“All right, Heck.” 

Heck reached in his pocket for the sugar and walked to the corral. Spook trotted up and took the sweet morsel from his hand. Heck said softly, “You treat Mike right, you hear? I’m sure gonna miss you. Never been a pony like Ol’ Spook. Goodbye, old fella.” He patted Spook on the neck and turned away, feeling all of a sudden very weary.

 Shadow watched as Heck got in the car and swung it around, waving to him as he went past. But, he couldn’t wave back. He just stood there, holding the quirt in both hands as he watched his hero drive away with someone else’s wife.

  So the question for you western writers out there is, where do you get your stories?  Your settings?  Your characters?  I’ll have a drawing of the names of all the people who comment and send the winner a copy of Counting the Cost.

Visit my book trailer at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moiORkCKbYM

Hello Darlings,

Yippee! Miss Deborah Schneider is beating a path toward us and will arrive Wednesday.

Although Miss Deborah is well-known for winning the 2009 Librarian of the Year Award, she’s also a very talented author. Her books have handsome heroes and determined heroines.

PROMISE ME is the title of her new romance. Miss Deborah likes to tell stories that make her readers sit up and take notice. This one is no exception. Ah know you’ll agree.

Don’t forget now. Saddle up and ride over to the Junction come Wednesday.

We’ll be waitin’ for you!

Horace “Haw” Tabor may not have been long on talent or ambition, but he made up for it with sheer dumb luck.  1878 found the 48-year-old Tabor running a store in Leadville, Colorado, while his loyal wife Augusta kept a boarding house.  Storekeepers at the time had the option of providing a “grubstake” for miners on their way to the wilds for a shot at fortune.  In return, the storekeeper was entitled to one-third of any riches the miners discovered.

That spring, Tabor grubstaked a pair of sorry-looking miners named August Rische and George Hook.  They didn’t seem to know much about prospecting, but the two of them wandered into the hills and, by pure chance, dug into a vein of pure silver.  Their Little Pittsburgh Mine yielded $20,000 a week.  Haw Tabor’s $60 investment earned him $2 million in the first year alone without getting his hands dirty.  In short order he became mayor of boomtown Leadville and lieutenant governor of Colorado.  Augusta, unable to adjust to her husband’s meteoric rise, became more and more reclusive.

Enter Baby Doe.  Born Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt, and newly divorced from her slacker husband, Harvey Doe, she was blue-eyed, blond, spunky and irresistible.  In 1879 she met the newly Rich Haw Tabor.  Despite their 26-year age difference the two fell in love.  Over the next few years, as Tabor’s relationship with Augusta became more distant, his liaison with Baby Doe became increasingly public.  In 1881, Tabor quietly obtained a backwoods divorce from his wife (without bothering to inform her).  At some point he and Baby Doe were quietly married.

Eventually word of the secret divorce reached Augusta Tabor.  She hauled her ex husband into court and received a million dollar settlement.

 In 1883 Tabor was appointed to fill a 30-day vacancy as U.S. Senator from Colorado.  He and Baby Doe took advantage of the chance to stage a lavish Washington wedding, attended by no less a person than President Chester A. Arthur.  Soon, however, the gossip caught up with them.  The priest who’d performed the ceremony declared the marriage illegal because both parties had been divorced.  But since they’d already married each other earlier, it didn’t make any difference.  The wedding had been pure theatre.

That was the end of Tabor’s political career.  Although he and Baby Doe lived well for a time, and he attempted to run for governor and senator, public opinion had turned against him.

            In 1893 the final blow came when the federal government announced that it was going to stop buying silver for its currency and convert to the gold standard.  The crash ruined Tabor.  Everything he had was sold, but nothing he could do was enough to support Baby Doe and their two daughters.  In 1899 he died of appendicitis in the single room he shared with his family.  Shortly before his death, he reportedly told his wife to “hang onto the Matchless Mine.”

 Baby Doe spent the remaining thirty-five years of her life in a cabin outside the Matchless Mine in Leadville.  Still beautiful, she could have easily remarried.  She chose instead to “hold onto the Matchless.”

 In Early March, 1935, her frozen body was discovered on the floor of her cabin.  Deserted by her two daughters, she had passed into legend.  Her life has been the subject of two books, a Hollywood movie, two operas, a screen play, a one-woman show and countless other books and articles.

 The only connection this story has to my March 2010 book, THE HORSEMAN’S BRIDE, is that they both take place in Colorado.  But I wanted to give you the first look at my cover.  More about the story next month!  Or if you’d like a sneak preview, you can check it out on my web site: 

http://www.elizabethlaneauthor.com

Hello Darlings,

Miz Liz Adair will grace us with her presence on Tuesday. The Fillies are proud to have her come calling on us.

Miz Liz does like her cowboys so she’s going to fit in real fine. Handsome cowboys just happens to be one of my favorite subjects. Hee-hee!

The dear talented lady has a new book out called COUNTING THE COST. Ah’m sure we won’t have to twist her arm to get her to talk about it. Sure looks like one I’m going to have to put on my list. Ah do love a good book, especially if it’s about the wild and wooley West!

The Fillies would like you all to head over to the Junction to show Miz Liz a down home welcome fit to raise the dead.

Don’t forget now, it’s Tuesday, January 5th.

Tie a red string around your finger and shake your bustles.

I’m a little late today. Was up all night doctoring my sick mule.

The names of all the folks who came by and left a comment were put in a hat and shaken up………

Karyn Gerrard AKA Drew

is the lucky winner of Miss Donna’s book.

Congratulations, Karyn! Now if you’ll contact Miss Donna at donnaalward@hotmail.com she’ll get the book on the next stage out.

Miss Donna thanks all who spent the weekend with us here at the Junction. She wishes she could give a book to each of you.

Until next time………

When my editor and I talked about me writing a duet set in my fictional town of Larch Valley, my mind started whirring.  It’s always a challenge to come up with something to distinguish a book, a little something different to make it stand out.  I already knew who my characters were – Jen O’Keefe and Andrew Laramie.  Jen I already knew owned the bakery in town and made the best brownies ever.  Andrew was her old flame who had moved on to greener pastures, something more than small town Alberta and its limited offerings. 

But there had to be more.

I started looking a little more closely at Andrew and why he was coming home and what he was going to do when he got there.  That’s when I had an idea…I would have him set up a rescue ranch.

I talked to my very horsey friend Trish Wylie about it, and she issued a warning.  You see, I’m a little soft-hearted and she advised me that the research would be heartbreaking.  She was right.  There’s only so much you can read and watch about horse slaughter and abattoirs and abandoned animals.

In the middle of researching I discovered the website of Bear Valley Rescue Ranch in central Alberta.  Bear Valley is situated in one of my favourite areas of the province, close to where I set three of my first four books and where we used to go camping quite often.  I dropped them an e-mail with questions.  It just so happened that I was going to be in Calgary for a weekend and I added a few days to the trip so that I could pay them a visit.

If there is a positive side to all the research I did, it was my afternoon spent at Bear Valley and with Mike Bartley and his motley assortment of animals.  Not only horses, though there are several of those, with velvety soft noses, some only foals and others old gents and ladies.  There are cows, and pigs, and dogs and cats and chickens and a particularly old tom turkey that was quite intimidating.  Mike, however, is not.  He is a gentle soul with a big heart who together with his wife, Kathy, has made this his life. 

Bear Valley relies heavily on donations for upkeep, and you only have to visit the site’s donation roster to see how the community pitches in.  That whole idea formed the spine of what I wanted Lazy L Rescue Ranch to be. 

And in the middle of it all of the story, I somehow think that while it’s the cowboy that rescues the horses, it’s the heroine who steps in and rescues the hero. 

One Dance With The Cowboy was a lovely book to write.  It’s out this month from Harlequin Romance, the first in my “Cowboys and Confetti” duet.

Of course, being a duet you know there’s more to the story – and in March you get to return to Lazy L Ranch for Noah Laramie’s story…you won’t want to miss it.

Have you ever rescued an animal?  In December we adopted a rescue cat who had been abandoned as a kitten.  I get quite squishy about it and I think my husband is very relieved we have restrictive covenants against livestock in our community – else I’d end up with a stable full! 

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of One Dance with the Cowboy!

I’ll tell you what, the Fillies are busier than horse thieves trying to outrun a posse!

We’re sweeping, mopping, and spiffing up Wildflower Junction, getting ready for our guests this coming week. And boy, do we have a line-up for you!

On Tuesday, we’ll welcome Miss Liz Adair. This will be her first visit and we want it to be as warm and welcoming as we can make it so the dear lady will want to come back. Miss Liz has a new book called COUNTING THE COST. Looks like a winner.

Wednesday we’ll get to entertain Miss Deborah Schneider. This will be her second time around and we’re thrilled as all get-out to have her back. Miss Deborah’s new book is PROMISE ME and it’s getting lots of attention.

Now, hang on to your hat.

Are you ready?

Miss Linda Lael Miller will be here on Thursday. Yep, that’s right. Miss Linda will talk about her new MCKETTRICKS OF TEXAS series that’s hitting the bookstores. It’s about three brothers-Tate, Garrett, and Austin. Ah know you’ll wade through a den of scorpions to get your hot little hands on these. The books, not the men. Hee-hee! As for me, ah’d wrestle a pack of alligators just for one chance to exchange pleasantries and while away the hours with any or all of these handsome devils.

So, next week is shaping up to be one to remember.

Shake the wrinkles out of your bustles and join us here at the Junction. You’ll be right glad you did!

The Texas Rangers, one of the most well-known law enforcement agencies in the world, has an on-again off-again history. First established in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin to “act as rangers for the common defense, the Rangers were disbanded and reformed many times over the years, mostly at the whim of whatever politician was in power at the time. It wasn’t until 1987 that the Texas Legislature enacted a statute that made the Texas Rangers a permanent entity of the Department of Public Service.

Through those years, the Rangers have worn several different styles of badges. Contrary to legend, they didn’t start out with stars on their vests. The first Rangers carried a Warrant of Authority, signed by The Adjutant General, that granted them the right to enforce the law when and where they saw fit.

It wasn’t until 1889 that the first Texas Ranger badge was created. Made from a silver Mexican coin, this unofficial badge was made from a Mexican silver dollar by the Rangers riding the southern and western parts of the state. The five-pointed star design is thought to have come from the unofficial seal of the state first used in 1835.

It changed a bit over the years:

An official, state-issued badge didn’t come along until 1935.

And even that changed again in 1957:

In 1962, in a decision that the Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety called “going back to the tradition steeped Mexican silver badge worn by their predecessors during frontier days,” the department adopted their permanent badge.

The “wagon-wheel” design is a five-pointed star, symbolizing the “Lone Star” of Texas, supported by an engraved wheel. The oak leaves on the left side represent strength and the olive branch on the right signifies peace, just as they appear on the Texas State Seal. The center of the star is reserved for the Company designation or the rank of Sergeant or Captain or Senior Captain.

This is the star you will see on the uniform of every Texas Ranger, along with their boots, revolvers and signature white cowboy hats.

If you want to know more about the Texas Rangers, visit their website: www.texasranger.org. There’s some fascinating stuff on that site.

Hello Darlings,

Well, bless my soul! I see Miss Donna Alward coming around the bend.

Seems like it’s been a coon’s age since the dear lady last visited with us. The Fillies have become very fond of Miss Donna. Bet you have too.

Miss Donna will talk about those majestic animals of the West–horses–and the shameful way some are being treated. It’ll about near break your heart. She’ll tell us about some wonderful folks who take them in and give them a loving home.

Miss Donna also has a new book out called ONE DANCE WITH THE COWBOY.  She’ll be giving away an autographed copy to one lucky person. Don’t you want that person to be you? If so, get your rears over to the Junction and get your name in the pot. You might just win. Don’t know ’til you try.

Well, don’t just stand there. Draw a red circle around Saturday so you won’t forget.