Hello Darlin’s,

The Fillies are extremely happy to welcome Miss Janét Vincent Lee on Monday.

Miss Janét is filling in for our own Winnie Griggs who is attending a writing conference. Miss Janét comes with a long list of “western” credentials. The dear lady is a costume consultant for one thing. She designs and sews old west clothes. For another thing, she’s participated in countless old west reenactments and has gotten to shoot people for a living. Miss Janét will talk about that and also tell us about The Cross Creek Cowboys.

You might be interested in her book called “Ladies Fashions of the 1880′s Southwest.” She’ll tell you how to get one if you take a notion to do that.

On top of everything, you’ll have a chance to win one of Winnie Griggs’s books from her backlist.

Ah know you’ll want to shake a leg and hightail it over to the Junction tomorrow.

Don’t be a stranger now, you hear.

Look who we roped in!

You may not know his name but you know his work.  Legendary stuntman Jack Lilley has been making some of our favorite screen cowboys look good for more than fifty years and has worked in more than 300 movies and TV shows. Recently inducted into Newhall’s Walk of Western Stars, his many credits include Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Blazing Saddles, High Chaparral, Mountain Men and City Slickers.

In addition to wrangling and stunt work, Jack and his son Clay own Movin on Livestock, a motion picture barn located in Southern California and New Mexico and which supplies production companies with movie horses and mules, animals and stagecoaches and wagons. So pour yourself a cup o’ Arbuckle’s and sit back and relax.  You’re about to meet a real cowboy…

P&P: Jack, welcome to Wildflower Junction.  You started in show business as a horseback extra for The Durango Kid at the tender age of 14.  Would you tell us how you landed that job as such a young age? 

Jack Lilley:  I lied.  I was only fourteen but I told them I was eighteen.

P&P: After serving in the navy you went from horseman to stuntman. That seems like a big stretch.

Jack Lilley: I’ve been around horses all my life. It started with my father.  I started working for him when I was eight.   He raised and trained horses and was president of   the California Cutting Horse Association. My two sons are also stuntmen and so is my  grandson Clay.  We’re now into our 4^th generation of stuntmen.

P&P: That’s amazing.  So are stunts planned and choreographed in advance?

Jack Lilley:  Absolutely. As stunt coordinator I always tell my stuntmen to think a stunt through and only do what they feel comfortable doing.

P&P:   Stunting seems like a very demanding and dangerous profession.

Jack Lilley: It is, but there’s a difference between being a dare devil and a stuntman.  A stuntman is  always thinking of safety and how to protect himself and his peers.  Horses, too.  You never want to hurt an animal.   I’ve turned  jobs down that I thought were too dangerous or that I wasn’t qualified to do. 

P&P:  Jack talked at great length about some of the jobs he turned down for safety sake  which included a motorcycle trick for Steve McQueen, a lion trick  and a snake trick for Swiss Family Robinson. 

Tell us more about that reptile, Jack. 

Jack Lilley:  The snake was fifteen feet long.  I also turned a job down with a six foot three inch rattler.  I hate snakes.

P&P:  You and Indiana Jones.  Speaking of dangerous stunts, have you ever been injured?

Jack Lilley:  Not really. A couple of pulled ribs, broken nose, cracked shoulder, bruises— nothing really serious.  I’ve had some close calls.  One of the closest was when we were filming a runaway caboose scene for Little House on the Prairie. 

P&P:  Jack said his throw left  his head perilously close  to the tracks.  He also had a close call while doubling for Brian Keith in Scandalous John.   While trying to rope a steer, his rope caught on a road sign sending him and his horse sky-high. 

Jack, you were once quoted as saying that some older actors such as John Wayne, Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen were among those who did not need a double as they rode their horses so well.  

Jack Lilley:  They could have done their own stunts but insurance companies wouldn’t let them.

P&P:   Who were the most memorable actors you ever worked with?

Jack Lilley: There were so many.  John Wayne, Dean Martin, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, Michael Landon, Robert Mitchum, Charlton Heston, James Garner, Clint Eastwood.   I also worked with some great directors. 

P&P: Jack talked highly of everyone he worked with but he seemed especially fond of Michael Landon, describing him as a talented actor, writer, producer, director and all around great person to be around.   His death was a terrible blow to the Lilley family.

Jack, it’s sad to think about all the wonderful talent we’ve lost.  What do you think caused the western’s decline?

Jack Lilley:  Money.  It’s all about money.   If they ever come back to their former popularity, they’ll need good original stories and actors who are believable as cowboys.

P&P:    I don’t know if children today even know what a western is.

Jack Lilley:  Kids don’t even play cowboys and Indians anymore. They’d rather dress up as freaks.

P&P:   So tell us what you’re working on now. 

Jack Lilley:  I’m getting ready to leave for New Mexico. We’re filming Cowboys and Aliens with Harrison Ford. 

P&P:   We can’t wait.  (and for those of you who really, really can’t wait here’s a quick take: In Silver City, Arizona, Apache Indians and Western settlers must lay their differences aside when an alien spaceship crash lands in their city.)

Thank you, Jack, for being our cowboy for today! 

 Visit the Lilley family at the  Movin’ on Livestock:http://www.movielivestock.com/

Oh my goodness, ah loved chatting with Kaki today! What a dear lady.

It’s time to announce the winners of their choice of books………

Christi Corbett

CathyAnn

Ah’m dancing a jig for both you ladies! Now, if you’ll email Miss Kaki at kaki.warner@yahoo.com and give her the mailing particulars and tell her which book you want she’ll get them out on the next stage.

For the rest of you, if you’re looking for some of the best writing in western romance ah recommend Pieces of Sky and Open Country. You won’t be sorry.

And come back tomorrow to help us celebrate the National Day of the Cowboy. Mr. Jack Lilley will be the guest of honor.

Hi folks.  Kaki Warner here, come to chat with you about SEX—more or less.

Is it just me, or is there less explicit sex in western historical romances than in other genres?

Maybe it’s just the ones I pick up, but it seems more and more western romances dwell on the romance of the thing, rather than the mechanics of the thing.  Is this a pattern?  Or has it always been that way?  Look at some of the great western romance writers—Jodi Thomas, Mary Connealy, Debbie Macomber, Linda Lael Miller, and others I can’t remember right now, in addition to the fabulous authors on this website.  Seems most of their stories are more character-driven than sex-driven.   I wonder why?

Perhaps because the archetype of the western hero is so firmly ingrained in our minds that to reduce him to just a roll in the hay (even though he might be the world’s best at it), diminishes the myth of the cowboy somehow.   

Or, perhaps because the Old West and the people who inhabited it—in real life and in fiction—are part of our shared history and have become almost like extended family.  And if so, do you truly want to watch from behind the curtain when family members are bucking the bronc, so to speak?

I don’t.  The minute I started writing Book I of the Blood Rose Trilogy, PIECES OF SKY, the characters became my family.  And even though the mismatched romance between a hard-bitten rancher caught in a blood feud (Brady) and a pregnant English hat maker (Jessica) is central to the story, I wanted to put equal emphasis on other aspects of their characters—past mistakes, regrets, fears as well as desires, not to mention the hardships of living in a harsh place (New Mexico Territory) during hard times (1868).  They had a lot to overcome to earn their HEA, and sex was only part of it.

 The same with Book 2, OPEN COUNTRY, when Brady’s brother, Hank, awakens after a train derailment to find himself married to a stranger (Molly), the father of two children he’s never met, and embroiled in a post Civil War conspiracy.  Dropping a rope on his reluctant wife was only half of his problem.  It wasn’t always a tiptoe through the sagebrush back then.  Those were tough times, and there was more going on than wardrobe choices and getting the heroine in bed.  (OK.  I could be wrong there.  Men haven’t changed that much.)  Even so, how many times do we need detailed instructions on how to fit tab B into slot A?

Relax.  There’s plenty of killing and cussing in my books, so I’m not a complete prude.  A realist, perhaps.  And maybe too visual, because the thought of watching two people I care about roll around in the hay makes me itch.  And seriously…how many of you could write a graphic sex scene without bursting into raucous laughter?  There’s something about a man’s bare bouncing butt—well, never mind. 

So.  How necessary are graphic sex scenes in western historical romance?  Do you prefer closed doors or open doors?  Do you find yourself skimming TO, or THROUGH the sex scenes?  Leave a comment and your name will be entered into a drawing for a sensual-but-non-sexually graphic copy of PIECES OF SKY and/or OPEN COUNTRY.  Thanks for dropping by, and especially thanks to PETTICOATS & PISTOLS for inviting a nearly almost semi-famous western romance author to stop in today.

To celebrate the National Day of the Cowboy on Saturday the Fillies have a special treat in store for you.

Legendary stuntman Jack Lilley has found his way to Wildflower Junction!

Mr. Lilley has worked in over 300 movies and TV shows with the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Michael Landon to name a few. Ah’m sure he has more stories to tell than you can shake a stick at.

So shake the wrinkles out of your bustle and saddle up.

Join us right here on Saturday for a day you won’t soon forget!

Nan Aspinwall, born in Nebraska in 1880, was skilled at trick roping, sharp shooting, archery, stunt riding, bronc riding, and steer riding. She also portrayed an Oriental dancer called Princess Omene.

She was eventually the highest paid star in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East troupe. None of these things are what she became really famous for. Two-Gun Nan’s true claim to fame came in 1910-11 when, on a bet from Buffalo Bill, she rode from San Francisco to New York on horseback. At the age of 31, she covered 4496 miles in 180 days in the saddle, alone. The 180 days includes a week spent in the hospital when she and her horse ‘fell off a mountain.’

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I have no idea exactly what that means and I couldn’t find details but she and her horse were in good shape when they finished their historical coast to coast ride. Like a true showman, she didn’t end her ride quietly. When Nan arrived in New York she rode into a 12 -story building, on into the freight elevator and rode it to the top floor.

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Two-Gun Nan became an instant legend. At a time when the frontier to the west had closed, and barbed wire cut across every stretch of once open country along the entire continent, this cowgirl single-handedly found a way to rekindle the American fascination of saddling up, heading to the horizon, and banging around the vast expanse of a country that spread from one sea to another. Perhaps more importantly, she proved this dream and this country were open to women as well as men.

The ride became part of the greater Western mythology almost instantly, where it remained solidly for half a century. In 1938, almost three decades after the ride, Nan’s journey was included on the Mutual Broadcasting System’s national radio broadcasts of Famous First Facts. The media legend of the ride again was recounted on the radio in 1942 on a broadcast of Death Valley Days. About 1960 “Death Valley Days” did a television show about her cross-country ride, for which she was a technical advisor. In 1958, Nan’s adventure made the jump to black-and-white television when it appeared in an episode of the Judge Roy Bean television show.

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Born Nan Jeanne Aspinwall, she added the last name Gable when she married her first husband, Frank Gable, around 1900. These two traveled and performed together, and after 1913 even ran their own touring wild west vaudeville production, Gable’s Novelty Show.

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Frank died around 1929, and Nan dropped from view not long after that. Nan remarried at some point in the 1930s to a man whose last name was Lambell.

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With the new name of Nan Jeanne Aspinwall Gable Lambell, the adventurous cowgirl spent the last 34 years of her life living in anonymity and solitude by choice. She died on October 24, 1964 at age 84 in San Bernardino, CA.

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Her death certificate listed her as a life-long housewife.

Mary Connealy

Well, bless my soul!

Come Friday, the Fillies will welcome a brand new guest: Kaki Warner.

Miss Kaki has written a series about three brothers and Ah have to say Ah’ve never read better. OPEN COUNTRY is the second in this trilogy and it’s a real humdinger.

Miss Kaki plans to talk about a subject that’s near and dear to this old heart…sex in westerns. Ah can’t think of anything that suits me more. Ah just hope the dear lady will share some ideas on how yours truly can ambush and hobble one of those handsome cowboys!

So mark your calendar and follow the path to the Junction come Friday.

Find out what all the racket is about.

Well, I’m not quite done extolling Texas, but I’m taking a break today and taking y’all back to Old California. To the Olivas Adobe, a terrific site left from Southern California’s Rancho Period. The home, or hacienda, is a prime example of adobe  (dried clay brick) architecture, made even mores unique with its two-story structure.  Don Raymundo Olivas added an unusual second floor during the rancho’s hey-day in the late 1840’s, and the house has been restored to its original stature. It’s something to see.

Making things even more fun, the adobe is said to be haunted! Although of course many locals dispute the idea, stories persist of  folks seeing a ghostly “dark lady” standing near the kitchen, of present-day tour guides hearing piano music in the empty living room, and of visitors encountering odd smells and strange footfalls on the balcony. She is referred to as “the Lady in Black.”  But “the Lady in White”  has also been seen…with no eyes but bloody sockets. A hundred witnesses saw a little girl, believed to be Maria Olivas,  in the children’s room on a recent Halloween night

Let’s start at the beginning, a very good place to start.  Don Raymundo was born poor in 1809 in the tiny pueblo that grew into today’s Los Angeles, and he joined the Mexican Army in California at 16. As a  Lancer (cavalryman), he was assigned to the Presidio (fort) at Santa Barbara, about two hours north of L.A.

It was here in Santa Barbara that Raymundo met Teodora Lopez and married her in November 1832. In gratitude for his loyalty and service, Mexican Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Raymundo and a friend 4,670 acres of land in today’s Ventura County. Raymundo began ranching this land while Teodora began bearing children. 21 total, eight girls and 13 boys.                                                            

When gold was discovered along the American River about four hundred miles north, Raymundo found his own “gold mine” and made a fortune supplying those Forty-Niner miners with beef as well as hides.

These were the golden years for the adobe, with its remodeling and additions and glorious parties that lasted for days. Raymundo’s family prospered until drought in the 1860’s destroyed the cattle empires. He survived by raising sheep. However, drought may be just one reason for the decline in fortune. In 1855, legend claims the hacienda was robbed by a gang of outlaws with a take of more than $75,000 in gold.

Another tale claims that Don Raimundo saw the outlaws approach and gave his strongbox to a trusted servant to bury. Enraged upon finding nothing of value to steal, the bandits supposedly ripped Dona Teodora’s gold earrings from her lobes!  Some say she is “the Lady in Black.”  Departing in anger, the outlaws caught site of the loyal Indian servant with a shovel in his hands. Thinking he was about to use it as a weapon, the leader shot him dead.  This servant was the only person who knew where the fortune was –and is–buried. The treasure trove has never been found.

Indeed, Don Raymundo’s death in 1879 was the beginning of the end for the Olivas’ fortune, and the adobe house was sold in 1899. Some of the ranchland has become a municipal golf course, some strawberry fields, some subdivisions. After passing through many owners, the adobe itself was purchased by Max Fleischmann, of the yeast empire, who restored the building in 1927. Upon his death, the adobe was given to the City of Ventura, and it opened as a museum in July, 1972. Docent-led tours are frequent, and many fourth-grade schoolchildren take field trips to the adobe for a hands-on two-hour program that brings to life the Rancho Period of California History.

And at Christmas, locals enjoy a holiday candlelight tour that showcases the tradition of Las Posada where Mary and Joseph seek room at the inn.          

Historian and professional ghost hunter Richard Senate believes the Adobe is one of the West Coast’s most haunted places. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxaRs0S-Wp4  or his marvelous book, Ghosts of the Haunted Coast  from Pathfinder Publishing. I bought his book last weekend at a book festival and enjoy it immensely.

How about you? Any haunted places near your homestead?

Click on cover                                                                                                                                           Upcoming White Rose Pub. release

Texas history is full of larger-than-life men and women. There was none more compelling in the Old West than Temple Houston, the youngest child of Sam Houston.

Temple carried the distinction of being first child born in the governor’s mansion in Austin, Texas. He never knew his father because Sam Houston died when the boy was only 3 years old. His mother followed four years later when Temple was 7. Upon her death he went to live with one of his sisters.

Of the eight Houston children, Temple was most like his father in temperament and abilities. But he hated being compared to Sam and especially as being Sam’s boy. Temple was rebellious and had a need for adventure. At age 13 he signed on as a cowboy on a cattle drive going all the way to Dakota territory. To get back home, he was hired as a steamboat captain on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

He began studying law and at the age of 19, he was admitted to the Texas Bar. He was well-educated and spoke fluent French and Spanish in addition to seven Indian languages.

None was more flamboyant and unorthodox. The 6’2″, long-haired man was fond of wearing black Prince Albert coats, elegant pinstriped trousers stuffed into high, handsome boots, and white sombreros. Temple was exceedingly handsome, had piercing gray eyes and coal black hair.

He was also a crack marksman. He carried a pair of ivory-gripped, nickel-plated Colts. And he didn’t hesitate to use them. After a courtroom argument with another lawyer, he met the man in a saloon. Houston killed the adversary and promptly entered a plea of self-defense. He was acquitted.

Before his 21st birthday, Temple was appointed first district attorney for the new district court in the Panhandle. He went to the wild, lawless town of Mobeetie where there was no jail. Not long after he arrived he insisted that one be built. While it was being constructed, one convicted cowboy was chained to a rock pillar in one of the town’s saloons. They gave him a blanket and left him in the saloon overnight. The following morning they found the man dead drunk, surrounded by whiskey bottles. He’d torn his blanket into strips and made a lariat. He spent the night roping bottles off the backbar and drinking the contents.

The next year at age 22, Temple married Laura Cross, a planter’s daughter. Seven children were born to them, but only four survived infancy.

Temple Houston was also an excellent defense attorney. At one trial, that of a man accused of murdering a skilled gunfighter, Houston whipped out his pair of Colts, pointed them at the jury, and fired away. Jurors dove out of the box, spectators dove out the window, and the judge ducked down behind the bench. Houston’s attempt to show the lightning speed of the gunfighter in comparison to that of the accused cowboy, even though the cowboy had shot first, was in fact a matter of self-defense. Once courtroom order resumed, Houston apologized for his gunplay, explaining that his own weapons had held blanks. The cowboy was acquitted.

But his most famous case was the one defending accused prostitute Millie Stacey in 1899. His closing summary is still studied by law students today. It’s considered the perfect defense argument and one of the finest masterpieces of oratory in the English language. In his speech which was spellbinding, he proclaimed Millie innocent, saying man was to blame for her shame and that “Where the star of purity once glittered on her girlish brow, burning shame has left its seal forever.” Millie went free, her guilt expunged.

(As a side note, a copy of the speech was framed and hangs today in the Library of Congress.)

A remark for which his is known is “Your honor, the prosecutor is the first man that I’ve ever seen who can strut while sitting down.”

Another time, a judge persuaded Temple to represent a penniless horse thief. Temple promised, “I’ll provide the unfortunate gentleman the best defense I can.” He asked the judge for a private office where he could talk to his client. A little while later, they found Temple sitting alone in the room with the window open. He smiled and remarked, “I gave him the best advice I could.”

Always a restless soul, Houston left Texas for a new frontier and more adventure. He participated in the Oklahoma Land Rush and raced with thousands of other land-hungry pioneers. He brought his family and moved his practice to the new town of Woodward, Oklahoma. His services were in great demand. Before it was over, he became as big a legend in Oklahoma as he was in Texas.

The man who lived life large died of a stroke in 1905 at the age of 45 and was buried in Woodward’s Laurel Land Cemetery. Needless to say, Temple Houston left a huge mark on the legal profession. And though he never reached the historical acclaim of his father Sam, he was a man to be revered.

Doesn’t this sound like a hero right from one of our western romances? I’d like to have known him.

www.LindaBroday.com

   <<<Click on image to order from Amazon

Being an author is about connections – with other writers, with people in the business, and most of all with readers.  Today I’d like to share the story of one special connection that has enriched my life in measureless ways.

My first novel, MISTRESS OF THE MORNING STAR was published in 1980.  A few weeks after the book’s release, I received my very first fan letter.  I was so excited.  The letter, beautifully and intelligently written, was from a woman named Barbara.  She ended the letter by saying, “If you ever get to San Diego I’d love to have you come to dinner.”

It so happened that my then-husband had a brother in Southern California, and we were planning a visit.  I accepted her invitation.  I’ll never forget walking into that charming Spanish-style home to be greeted by a lovely, slender woman with a long blond ponytail, who cooked the best vegetarian lasagna I’ve ever eaten.  A friendship was born.  We kept in touch. 

We’ve kept in touch for the past thirty years – through multiple moves, successes, heartaches, bereavements, divorces, new beginnings and all the ups and downs that are part of getting through this crazy life.

Let me tell you a little more about my friend.  Barbara survived a nightmarish childhood (her mother was mentally ill).   Barbara married young and had four children, whom she mostly raised as a single parent, with the help of a long-time boyfriend, Gary.  Along the way she discovered some special gifts – a head for business, a talent for making friends and a way of turning whatever she touched into something beautiful.  She used these gifts, and her amazing strength, to build a good life for herself and her family.

We’ve spent just a little precious time together.  About 1990, after the loss of her partner, I invited Barbara to visit me.  I had a brand new Honda Civic, and we took a road trip through the southern Utah parks – two middle aged broads in a hot little red car.  Despite the fact that the weather was miserable and Barb’s back went out on the way, we still laugh at the memory.  Thelma and Louise minus the Grand Canyon.

A few years ago, newly single and starting over yet again, Barbara started her own web design service.  I needed a web site and was delighted to become one of her first clients.  Over the years, the beautiful site Barbara Castleman created for me has grown to 42 pages, and www.LadyWebPro.com has become a thriving business.  Check it out.  Or click my name on the list of Fillies to see her work.

Have you, as a writer or reader, found a friendship that grew from a connection to a book?  There must be some great stories out there.  I’d love to hear them.