Greetings Fillies! Thanks for having me! I’m thrilled to be here chatting with you about one of my first western romances, which is where I got my start as a romance writer.
My debut novel, PRAIRIE BRIDE was set in a sod house on the Kansas prairies. It was a Harlequin Historicals release in the year 2000. But even before that – back in 1995 – I wrote a time-travel romance where a contemporary heroine gets caught in a lightning storm and is transported back to the Old West. Not long after she arrives, she falls for the ruggedly handsome gunslinging sheriff, who quickly becomes her hero and protector against a band of dangerous outlaws.
I gave it the title JUNEBUG JESS. It won some writing contests and garnered a few requests for the complete manuscript from publishers who read the proposal, but by the time I was shopping it around, time travels were no longer considered marketable, so it never sold. And hey, I was a newbie unpublished author, and it was tough to break in. I didn’t give up, however. I wrote five novels over a period of six years before I finally sold PRAIRIE BRIDE to Harlequin.
Now here we are, seventeen novels later, and authors have the option of publishing independently. Last summer I had a short break while my agent was negotiating a new contract with my publisher, so I decided to dig JUNEBUG JESS out of my old rejection pile and take a look at it. Would it still hold up? Would the writing be atrocious? To my utter delight, the plot line was fresh and fun, the characters were interesting, and the writing was… well, not too bad.
I could see that the prose needed some polish, so I began an intensive rewrite to bring it up to speed to match my voice today. Also, cell phones and laptops were not part of daily life when I originally wrote it, so the technology needed an upgrade. The heroine’s outfit was more than a little outdated, so all that had to be changed.
I gave it a sexier title, TAKEN BY THE COWBOY, and a splashy cover inspired by the Cowboys and Aliens movie poster (scroll down for a peek at it), and now I’m wildly happy to see it out there at last for readers to enjoy! This one was a long time coming .
Now here’s the good news and the fun part.
For those of you who are reading the blog today Feb 4 – the ebook edition of TAKEN BY THE COWBOY is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents for a limited time. Hurry and grab it for your Kindle and please share the link with your Facebook and Twitter friends!
Lastly – I’m going to give away a $25 gift card to Amazon or B&N (winner’s choice) to one commenter. All you have to do is tell me the name of your favorite western romance novel of all time (or the top 3 if you can’t narrow it down).
HERO AND PROTECTOR
Former bounty hunter, expert gunslinger, and the toughest sheriff Dodge City has ever known, Truman Wade is a real man from the tip of his black Stetson right down to his spurs and leather boots. He’s never met his match in a gunfight, but he’s never met a gorgeous, gutsy woman from the twenty-first century either…
TORN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Newly single after a rocky breakup with her self-absorbed fiancé, newspaper columnist Jessica Delaney crashes her car in a lightning storm and soon finds herself dodging bullets in the Wild West. Before the night is out, she’s tossed in jail for a murder she didn’t commit, and if things don’t seem complicated enough, the impossibly handsome sheriff in charge of her arrest has danger written all over him – and a sexy swagger to die for. Jessica knows she needs to get home, but when Sheriff Wade’s enticing touch sets her passions on fire, she begins to wonder if fate has other plans for her, and soon she must choose between the life she longs for in the future… and the greatest love she’s ever known.
Many thanks to Karen Witemeyer for inviting me to be a guest blogger today to spread the word about my newest novel for Revell, Where Wildflowers Bloom.
Wildflowers is the first in the Sisters at Heart series andis set in Missouri shortly after the end of the War Between the States. When I worked up the proposal for this series, I had my characters and their occupations set in my mind. I planned that one of the characters, Rosemary Saxon, would be a nurse during the war, and then would follow the same occupation afterward.
Well, surprise, surprise. When I began to research nurses in the Civil War, I learned that very few of them were women, and the ones who were female were generally older and/or widows. For a young unmarried woman to touch men’s bodies, even to tend to wounds, was considered vulgar. Throughout the war, male nurses outnumbered female nurses 4 to 1. The general public believed women would only be a nuisance and get in the way of the doctors.
Where female nurses were allowed, they were required to be plain-looking women. Their dresses were to be brown or black, no bows, no curls, no jewelry, and no hoop-skirts. The last prohibition made sense, since the hospital aisles were narrow.
So, where did this leave Rosemary, who was to be a continuing character in the series? Using my artistic license, she’s attractive, not plain, but I did make her “old.” She’s twenty-seven. J In addition to her God-given gift of mercy, she’s also determined to the point of being headstrong. She needs to be to stand up to the prejudice she encounters.
In Where Wildflowers Bloom, Rosemary is the best friend of the story’s protagonist, Faith Lindberg. Oh, and did I mention Rosemary has a brother, Curt? How many of us remember having girlfriends with handsome brothers? I’ll just say that through Rosemary, Faith and Curt end up spending quite a bit of time together.
So, like Rosemary, have any of you taken a job in what is considered a man’s field? Did you encounter prejudice? On a more romantic note, did any of you ever fall in love with the brother of your best friend? How did it work out?
I hope you’ll look for Where Wildflowers Bloom at your local bookstore, or through an online retailer. Please visit my website at www.annshorey.com for more information about Where Wildflowers Bloom, as well as my other books.
Where Wildflowers Bloom
How far will she go to follow her dreams?
The War Between the States stole a father and brother from Faith Lindberg—as well as Royal Baxter, the man she wanted to marry. With only her grandfather left, she dreams of leaving Noble Springs, Missouri, and traveling west to Oregon to start a new life, away from the memories that haunt her. But first she must convince her grandfather to sell the family’s mercantile and leave a town their family has called home for generations.
When Royal Baxter suddenly returns, Faith allows herself to hope that she and Royal will finally wed. But does he truly love her? Or will another man claim her heart?
Ann has graciously agreed to give away a copy of Where Wildflowers Bloom today, so be sure to leave a comment in order to be entered in the drawing!
Do you have a “collection” of special people in your life? People that helped you in ways maybe you hadn’t really given much thought to, but that turned out to be extremely important? One of the first milestones in my writing career—becoming a finalist in the EPIC Awards with my first novel, FIRE EYES—brought this realization home to me. I got curious. I know there are incidents in people’s lives that are pivotal to their entire careers, dreams, and goals, that, perhaps at the time, don’t seem that important. Later, looking back on it, it becomes an “aha” moment—you understand that THIS was the moment when you made the decision to do something you might not have done otherwise, or because of a word of encouragement you continued on when you’d been ready to stop.
Most people that I’ve met in the last half of my adulthood would never describe me as “shy,” but as a youngster, I was—horribly. That’s one reason I turned to writing. It was a great way for me to get my feelings out without actually having to say them. I could have someone else say it all for me.
I imagine that’s how many of my fellow writers started, too. I sometimes wonder what might have happened had we all known each other when we were younger. Would we have developed into the writers we are today, or would we have found our “niche” with one another and NOT turned so much to writing?
If you can relate to the “shy” part, then maybe you felt this way, too: I was never competitive. Not like so many sports contenders might be. The things I enjoyed, writing and music, were open to everyone, I felt. I am not a “joiner” and I am not one to enter a lot of contests. I entered FIRE EYES in the 2010 EPIC Awards competition, and something odd happened when I did.
From the moment I entered, my attitude about myself changed. BEFORE I entered, I thought, “I probably don’t have a chance.” But my mom always used to say, “If you don’t enter, you certainly are NOT going to win!” I remembered those words, and sent in my entry that very day. Once it was sent, I began to feel some confidence growing. As I analyzed WHY, here’s what I came up with.
FIRE EYES was a joint project. I wrote it, but I couldn’t have if I hadn’t had the cooperation and support of my family—my kids and my husband. While I was writing it, my oldest sister, Annette, was constantly asking about “how it’s coming” and she was the one I could bounce ideas off of. Once written, my business partner read it for glaring mistakes, and my best friend of 45 years read it for moral support. The Wild Rose Press accepted it, and my editor, Helen Andrew, was so phenomenal in helping me mold it and shape it into the story that was released last May. My cover artist, Nicola Martinez, did a superb job on the beautiful cover. My family and friends were all pulling for me, and constantly offering encouragement. With all these people behind me and my story, my confidence rose. Whatever would be, would be—and entering the competition was a win/win situation. Even if I didn’t make it to the finals, I would still have taken the chance and had the experience.
When I received the news that my book was, indeed, a finalist, I thought immediately of all the people who had helped me get to this point; people in my life who had faith in me, and in my ability, and in the story itself. I thought of that saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It’s true, even in the broader sense of our lives as writers. The experiences we had growing up, people who encouraged us even then, our spouses, our children, mentors and teachers we’ve had along the way, and peers that have helped and encouraged us. Editors, artists, publishers and organizations such as EPIC that give us a chance to compete and strive to be better and better, along with our readers, are all part of the completed circle of a successful writer’s endeavors.
Though FIRE EYES didn’t win that year, the experience of entering the competition and finaling in it was more important that I could have realized when I sent my entry in. It was the thing that made me understand just how many people had been involved in the entire process of writing that book. And it gave me the impetus and encouragement to move forward with the rest of my writing projects since that time. That realization was far more important than winning the contest, and has been with me every day, like a component of myself that I didn’t have before; another part of my make-up.
Does anyone have a “special person” that helped them along the way? Not just in writing, but in your life’s goals and dreams? What about a “collection” of special people? My “collection” of special people in my life is the thing that I am most thankful for above all else. Without them, my dreams could have never happened. I could never have done it alone.
I love spending time here at Petticoats and Pistols with the fillies and all their fantastic fans! I’m grateful to have my fifth book, An Inconvenient Match, Love Inspired Historical, on the shelves this month. The release of a new book is always exciting!
In past visits I’ve shared tidbits of history I discovered while researching such topics as orphan trains, medicinal herbs and Victorian houses. Today I want to chat about romance. First let me give you a peek at my story.
THE BEST OF ENEMIES
His family destroyed hers. But Matthew Cummings’s job offer—to care for his recuperating father—is impossible to decline.
Schoolteacher Abigail Wilson can swallow her pride for the sake of a summer paycheck that will help her sister. And when Abigail’s employment ends, old loyalties will separate the feuding families once more.
If there’s anyone in town stubborn enough to deal with Matthew’s cantankerous father, it’s Abigail. It’s just a business arrangement—and a temporary one, at that. Her good opinion shouldn’t matter a lick to Matt. Yet their different backgrounds belie a surprising kinship. Perhaps unexpected love will be their reward for the summer’s inconvenient match.
As the story unfolds, the hero and heroine struggle to reconcile loyalty to family with their growing romantic feelings for one
another. To see if they overcome the obstacles between them is one reason I love to read romance novels. Another reason is romance novels guarantee a happy ending. Still, getting to the “happily ever after” isn’t easy. Bottom line, conflict is story. No conflict, no story.
So expect trouble.
Abby and Wade have plenty. The feud between the Wilsons and Cummings isn’t their only problem. Wade hurt Abby when they
were courting in high school. She’s not forgiven him. Ah, the heartache of young romance.
Anyone relate? I do.
My first boyfriend dumped me. That hurt. Not that I was in love, but I liked him. I was fifteen. He was sixteen, tall, dark, handsome and a driver. :-) We met at 4-H camp and dated that summer. He was the first boy I kissed. Unless you count the silly kiss that followed the spin of a milk bottle. Toward summer’s end we had plans to attend the county fair. He never showed up. Even then I had a creative imagination and visualized an accident or at the very least, car trouble. Surely he was hurt or stranded somewhere. I called his house. First dumb move. His mother answered and said he’d gone to the fair with friends. Friends? I’d been stood up. I’m sure he had a lot in common with Danny, John Travolta’s character in “Grease.” Danny dumped Sandy, Olivia Newton-John’s character, no doubt running from a summer romance that wouldn’t make him look cool to the guys in school. Sadly, I was not cool. I went from hurt to mad. What a coward he’d been not to tell me face to face. When school started, I never spoke to him again. Second dumb move. We were both pretty childish. But, the experience proved to me that Abby’s refusal to talk or eat with Wade could happen.
I dated a few more nice guys before I went steady in my junior year. That boy broke up with me. See a pattern here? He had the
guts to do it in person, probably because he wanted his class ring back. What a waste of angora and pillows of tape painted with different colors of nail polish to match my skirts and sweaters. Does anyone remember the creative ways to make a boy’s ring fit your finger?
I persevered in the romance department until I met my husband in college. I’m grateful I waited for Mr. Right and got my happily ever after. But wait, I’m ignoring poor Abby and Wade. The feud and heartache over the breakup wasn’t all that stood between them. They clashed over a student of Abby’s. Like most of us, they saw the situation from the bias of their past experiences. Thankfully, they matured and changed. Thanks to me. Yes, romance isn’t easy. But, Wade and Abby got their happy ending.
Can anyone relate to romance woes? Have a breakup story to share? Are you grateful you broke up? Does it hurt still? No full names, please.
For a chance to win a signed copy of An Inconvenient Match, please leave a comment.
When I began writing Be My Texas Valentine I decided not to do the typical boy meets girl on Valentine’s Day story. I wanted something different, so decided to use the facts around the railroad coming to the Texas Panhandle coupled with a true story that took place at the second town established in the Panhandle, Old Tascosa. As the story went, the men wanted to add gravel to the town’s dusty streets to entice the merchants to come to Tascosa thus making certain the railroad didn’t bypass the town. There was a need for an organ at the church, so an oyster supper was held at the Exchange Hotel. I took my creative liberties to determine that the women wanted the organ and the men being merchants wanted the gravel streets.
Oh by the way, for those who don’t know, the coast of Texas is about a fourteen hour drive today, so the “oysters” no doubt were mountain oysters (calf fries to some) but that could only take place during “cutting season”. Since my story was to take place in February, I had to change the type of benefit; thus, a boxed supper for the women and a BBQ and beer for the men.
That was the birth of Loving Miss Laurel, but lot of things changed as I galloped along with the novella. I decided the women of Farley Springs wanted a library, while the mayor and the other men thought paved streets were needed. My visionary mayor had a lot of surprises thrown at him … the first being his childhood sweetheart showing up from back East and then she got bamboozled into helping the women make sure the money raised was for the library.
With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought it’d be fun to look at its history and customs; and man oh man, did I ever find a lot of interesting things to share with you all today. We all know that most of the Western countries celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th, and most of the U.S. customs; so I’m going to go back a few centuries, oh let’s say as far back as the 17th Century and look at some.
In Europe, people celebrate in many ways. In some areas of England, people bake valentine buns with caraway seeds, plums, or raisins. People in Italy hold a Valentine’s Day feast.
In Britain and Italy, some unmarried women get up before sunrise on Valentine’s Day. They stand by the window watching for a man to pass. They believe that the first man they see, or someone who looks like him, will marry them within a year. William Shakespeare, the English playwright, mentions this belief in Hamlet (1603). Ophelia, a woman in the play, sings: Good morrow! ‘Tis St. Valentine’s Day All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine!
In Denmark, people send pressed white flowers called snowdrops to their friends. Danish men also send a type of valentine called a gaekkebrev (joking letter). The sender writes a rhyme but does not sign his name. Instead, he signs the valentine with dots, one dot for each letter of his name. If the woman who gets it guesses his name, he rewards her with an Easter egg on Easter.
Many Valentine’s Day customs involved ways that single women could learn who their future husbands would be. Englishwomen of the 1700′s wrote men’s names on scraps of paper, rolled each in a little piece of clay, and dropped them all into water. The first paper that rose to the surface supposedly had the name of a woman’s true love. Also in the 1700′s, unmarried women pinned five bay leaves to their pillows on the eve of Valentine’s Day. And, one description of Valentine’s Day during the 1700′s tells how groups of friends met to draw names. For several days, each man wore his valentine’s name on his sleeve. The saying wearing his heart on his sleeve probably came from this practice.
The earliest records of Valentine’s Day in English tell that birds chose their mates on that day. Shakespeare also mentioned this belief in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A character in the play discovers two lovers in the woods and asks, “St. Valentine is past; Begin these woodbirds but to couple now?” Of interest, DeWanna’s story in our anthology is entitled Sweet Talk and has love birds in it.
One of the oldest customs was the practice of writing women’s names on slips of paper and drawing them from a jar. The woman whose name was drawn by a man became his valentine, and he paid special attention to her.
Many men gave gifts to their valentines. In some areas, a young man gave his valentine a pair of gloves. Wealthy men gave fancy balls to honor their valentines. The custom of sending romantic messages gradually replaced that of giving gifts.
In the 1700′s and 1800′s, many stores sold handbooks called valentine writers. These books included verses to copy and various suggestions about writing valentines.
Do you have a favorite custom you share with your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day? To celebrate the upcoming holiday, I will give one lucky commenter an autographed copy of Be My Texas Valentine.
Hello everyone! I want to thank the Petticoats and Pistols gals for having me on the blog today. I’m giving away a copy of my ebook, NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, to TWO readers who leave comments.
I’d like to talk about the appeal of the sexy rodeo cowboy. We love them ‘em, don’t we? I sure do. I fell in love with my first cowboy many years ago when I was on a business trip to Tucson. But it’s not just the cowboy that we’re drawn to in romance novels. It’s the rodeo cowboy.
I’ve often wondered what it is about the rodeo cowboy that has such appeal to a New England gal like me. I think it’s the fearlessness about them. It makes a woman feel safe. Let’s face it. You have to have some pretty tough cookies to get on the back of 1200lbs of dusty, sweaty bull, and hang on for dear life for 8 seconds. And have you ever seen these cowboys ride bronc bareback? It gives tall, dark and dangerous a whole new meaning.
The hero in NOTHING BUT TROUBLE is this kind of cowboy. Fearless and fiercely protective and he does his best to keep a determined debutante safe for 1 month in the Wyoming wilderness. It makes a great combination for romance.
I love writing stories featuring cowboys. NOTHING BUT TROUBLE was my first and is currently available online at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Sony and Kobo. Keep your eye out for HER HEART FOR THE ASKING, book 1 in my Texas Hearts series, featuring sexy bronc bareback rider, Beau Gentry.
Excerpt of NOTHING BUT TROUBLE.:
His jaw tightened. Yes, there was something definitely wrong here. And money had nothing to do with it. It had everything to do with this beauty standing in front of him, who was clueless about what she was getting her pretty little hide into. “No,” he replied tersely.
“Mr. Buxton, I need your help.”
“Tourist season is in full swing. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding someone else.” He turned his back to her and began walking along the fence toward the barn, almost forgetting…
Abruptly, he glanced up and saw the charred remains of the barn. The place where all his troubles had started just one year ago. It hadn’t taken but a second for him to hear her boots digging into the dusty gravel behind him, jarring him from his thoughts.
“Then I’ll do it myself,” she said to his back.
His whole body stiffened. He angled back to read her face, to see if she was just being a spoiled rotten rich kid, trying to get her way, or if she was actually serious. Seeing her head held high and her arms crossed in front of her, he realized she was dead serious. And dead she’d be if she stepped one boot into those mountains alone.
“You’ll do no such thing.” Frustration flaring, he lifted his dusty hat and forced his fingers through the thick crop of black hair before returning the hat to his head.
“You just don’t get it, do you? You’re not asking me to take you on a theme park ride where you’ll get to see the wonders of the world at a nice safe distance. This is God’s country. The creatures that live up there don’t know civilization, and you are no better than them. You could–probably will–get killed if you go out there alone.” His lips twitched, taking a good long appraising look at the woman in front of him. “You might even chip a nail on that pretty hand of yours.”
Remember, I’m giving away a copy of NOTHING BUT TROUBLE to TWO commenters today. So don’t be shy. Leave a comment and tell me what you love about the rodeo cowboy.
As I write the final book in a four book series about the Worth Men, I find myself feeling extremely sentimental and a little bit saddened. After all, I’ve lived with these four cowboys for almost two years. I sort of fell in love with each one of them too. And isn’t that the way? If the author doesn’t fall in love with a hero of her making, then what’s the point? With each hunky man, I’ve matched a woman that has thrown them for a loop, rejected, loved to distraction and angered the hero. But what our heroines had above all else was enough grit to stick it out to the end for their own personal happily ever after.
Taggart Worth - May 2011
Taggart Worth in CARRYING THE RANCHER’S HEIR was my wounded hero. He was a loner, a recluse who never wanted to love again. That story flew off my fingertips, because I knew him so well and I knew Callie too. She had a girlhood crush on Tagg as a teen that he didn’t know about. All he knew was that Callie was his enemy’s daughter.
Clayton Worth - Dec 2011
Clayton’s story didn’t exactly fly off my fingertips, though. In THE COWBOY’S PRIDE, I had a pretty complex conflict – two people bent on divorce only to find love again with the help of adorable baby Meggie. SHE was fun to write, and I used my knowledge not only as a mother, but as a childbirth and parenting instructor to keep my facts straight about all things BABY.
In April, A COWBOY WORTH CLAIMING comes out with Harlequin Historical. Set in early Red Ridge, we find out how Chance Worth met Lizzie Mitchell and how the Worth legacy began. It seemed like the right thing to do – to go back in time to see how the legend of the ruby necklace and Elizabeth Lake came to be. Chance is a reluctant hero with a deep sense of honor, and Lizzie tests that honor time and time again.
Both Chance and Jackson Worth’s story lure us in with “forbidden love.” Jackson, in WORTH THE RISK coming in October 2012, is the most charming, best-looking Worth brother, a confirmed bachelor who is good-natured but used to getting what he wants. I’m working out the kinks in this story to give my readers a very satisfying ending to the series. So I write Jackson’s story with a heavy heart. I will miss these guys, Tagg, Clay, Jackson and Chance. I’ll miss Red Ridge too along with the characters I’ve created. Saying good-bye surely won’t be easy. I have only four chapters left in Red Ridge and then I’ll be moving on to launch Harlequin’s Rich Rugged Rancher series in 2013.
Recently I’ve said good-bye to some other series that I’ve loved, though not of my own making. Twilight is one series, I never thought I’d like. But those stories struck a chord and I had to read all of them, gobbling up the entire series in two weeks. I’ve also seen all the movies. Because I don’t get a lot of reading time these days, I watched the Swedish version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies by Stieg Larsson. I wish I could have read the books too, but I’d heard the movies were actually excellent and the storyline extremely intense. Then there’s good ole bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum in the series written by Janet Evanovich. What can I say about the Morelli/Ranger conflict that hasn’t been said before? I’ve read all of the books in the series and am awaiting the movie, One for the Money. I’ve read Linda Lael Miller’s McKettricks and Susan Mallery’s series as well.
What series are you especially fond of? Do you have favorites? Which characters/stories are hard for you to bid farewell to? Below I’ve posted my inspiration for each Worth hero. If you had to pick which hero appeals to you the most?
Taggart Worth
Clayton Worth
Chance Worth
Jackson Worth
A COWBOY WORTH CLAIMING IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW on AMAZON. It will be officially released on March 20th and is eligible for the Amazon 4 for 3 program. Buy 3 get the 4th free!
Cheryl Pierson here! I want to introduce you to a very special guest, a good friend of mine who writes some fantastic western adventures, Peter Brandvold! Pete has been gracious enough to take time from his busy schedule to answer a few interview questions for us and will be poking his head in every once in a while today to read and answer comments and questions. He’s got a couple of new releases to tell us about today as well as some insight as to how he got started writing and a few of his pet peeves.
How did you start your writing career?
I hated teaching so much so it was either writing or suicide the way Yukio Mishima did it–seppuku.
Tell us about your current release.
I have two current releases–a paranormal or “weird” western, DUST OF THE DAMNED, and a traditional western under my pen name Frank Leslie–THE LAST RIDE OF JED STRANGE. DUST is a werewolf western in which two ghoul-hunting bounty hunters, Uriah Zane and Angel Coffin, go after the Hell’s Angels–a pack of werewolves brought into the U.S. by Abe Lincoln to win the Civil War at Gettysburg. The Angels were supposed to go home when the job was done, but it seems you can’t trust a werewolf farther than you could throw your fattest aunt uphill against a cyclone. They came west and caused all kinds of trouble. A beautiful Mexican witch and necromancer is leading them across the Arizona desert in search of the werewolf-equivalent of the holy grail. (Jesse James makes an appearance as a ghoul-hunter, as well, because in my messed-up West there’s more money in hunting down vampires, aka, “swillers,” and hobgobbies and werewolves than there is in train robbing!)
JED STRANGE is about one of my series characters, young Colter Farrow, who wears the ‘S’ mark of Sapinero on his cheek–branded there by the vile Bill Rondo. In this one, he’s on the run in Mexico with a young girl, Bethel Strange, who’s looking for her outlaw father who was last seen running guns in the Sonora Desert.
Who is your favorite author?
I have tons of favorite authors, and the list moves around a lot. I like Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore a lot–sci-fi writers from the pulp days. And I also like the fantasy novels of Jack Vance. For western writers I like Gordon D. Shirreffs, Richard Jessup, Luke Short, Lewis B. Patten, and H.A. DeRosso.
Has someone been instrumental in inspiring you as a writer?
The students I hated teaching.
Has someone helped or mentored you in your writing career?
My dogs have always been here for me. (Actually, my ex-wife taught me a lot by her incredibly gifted editing, but if you tell her I said that I’ll deny it and call you a raving lunatic!)
What was your first sale as an author?
ONCE A MARSHAL back in ’98. It was about the aging lawman Ben Stillman, whose career was cut short when a drunk whore shot him in the back by accident. Sigh. But Ben got himself dusted off and went back to work to solve the murder of his old hide-hunting pard, Milk River Bill Harmon. I really like that book. I wish someone would reprint it.
What is the hardest part of writing your books?
Editing. I really hate editing. I like to just keep moving forward. Going back to polish is like when you’re a little kid out playing cavalry and you got dead Injuns all around and only a few more to go and your mom calls you in for supper.
What are your pet peeves as a writer? As a reader?
As a writer, it’s editing. As a reader, it’s dull writing. Writers today seem more preoccupied with telling back stories than front stories–i.e, keeping things rolling. I mean, they’ll start a book off with, “Jessica gripped the gun in her fist and walked into the saloon. She’d just ridden into Dodge City that morning and found her father hanging from a gallows. That really miffed her, so the first thing she did was…” Know what I mean? The art of bringing all that stuff in through action and dialogue is an art and most writers today do it about as well as I can dance. Omniscient narrators should be killed en masse all over the writing world. There, I said it, and I don’t care if I hang for it!
Who are your books published with?
Berkley and Signet. At one time, Forge. They’ve been good to me.
Pete, thank you so much for being our guest today and giving us these personal glimpses into your career and how you got started writing. You’ve written so many wonderful action packed westerns, my new kindle is going to be loaded down. These latest two additions to your credits look absolutely wonderful. Again, thanks for being our guest today, and we hope you’ll come back again in the future!
I love romances. Really. I write them and read them. But there are some things in romance novels that just make me crazy, and I know I’m not the only one.
In no particular order these things irritate me:
1 . The heroine has tiny feet. How many people actually think of their own feet as tiny?
2 . The heroine falls asleep thinking about what’s going to happen. Yawn.
3. The heroine has “small perfect” teeth. Or pearl-like or even. Why does the writer feel the need to tell us that?
4. Jumping in and out of heads/point of view. Do readers notice or care when we know what the cab driver is thinking?
5. A couple jumping into bed before I care about them – or before they care about each other. :::yawn:::
6. The ending feels rushed, as though the author only had a few remaining pages in which to resolve everything.
7. A story that starts out with so much backstory that I feel as though I’ve missed the previous book.
8. Heroines who giggle.
9. Heroines who only need a shower and a little lip gloss to look like JLo. Yeah, right.
10. Heroes with bad attitudes and nobody ever calls them on it. He’s full of himself, bossy and arrogant. I just don’t like jerks.
11. Heroes who growl. Really? If a man growled at you would you fall all over him?
12. Heroines who purr or mewl. :::meow:::
13. Impossible dialogue tags: “He husked” How does one husk?
14. Ridiculous dialogue tags: “He barked” Excuse me? Are you barking at me? Down boy.
15. Euphemisms. You know the ones I mean. Call a body part by its name or simply elude to it, but don’t bring pomegranates or roots into a love scene.
16. A heroine who cries. A good cry once—maybe twice—is acceptable as long as it’s well motivated. For me, the black moment or an overdue confession is a good reason to cry. But please not weeping and tearing up all through the story. A lot more emotion can be conveyed if the character holds back tears. Strength can be great characterization.
17. Characters who say the other person’s name repeatedly. I understand all about keeping story people separate for the reader, but people don’t speak to each other that way—unless they’re angry, usually.
18. Couples who argue without good reason. This is not conflict, people, this is bickering!
19. Heroines who are too young. Ewww.
20. Purple eyes. Do you know ANYONE with purple eyes?
I doubt I’ve covered it all. Is there anything I missed that sets your teeth on edge?
I trust that Santa brought you lots of goodies and that you had a safe and happy New Year’s.
Now that we have the holidays out of the way I’m proud and happy to share that our sixth anthology, BE MY TEXAS VALENTINE, with Phyliss Miranda, Jodi Thomas, DeWanna Pace, and myself hits bookstores this week. Already we’ve gotten some great reviews.
My story is called CUPID’S ARROW. Rue Ann Spencer, the daughter of a high-powered Texas senator, has come home from a ladies finishing school. She’s busy planning her wedding to Theodore Greeley, her father’s hand-picked groom for her. The last person she wants to run into is rancher Logan Cutter. But as the fickle hand of fate would have it, that’s exactly who she plows into as she’s leaving the dressmaker’s shop.
Logan Spencer never knew why Rue Ann suddenly up and left town. One minute they’re planning their life together and the next he’s left high and dry with no explanation. He thought he had her out of his system….until he finds her unexpectedly in his arms. Looking into her beautiful green eyes he knows he’ll never be content with anyone else, not even if he lives to be a hundred.
Two matchmaking spinster sisters, a stray dog that’s looking for someone to love, and a sudden storm that traps Rue Ann and Logan gives Cupid a little extra help and gets everyone sorted out and with the ones they’re supposed to be with.
I hope all four of these stories reminds you how special Valentine’s Day is when you’re with the one you love.
Now here’s a short excerpt:
Rue Ann Spencer stepped from Mrs. Fitzhugh’s Dress Shop where she was being fitted for her wedding gown into the blinding afternoon sunlight.
She quickly raised her hand to shield her eyes but it wasn’t soon enough to keep her from plowing into the solid wall of a man’s body.
His quick grasp kept her on her feet.
“Pardon me. I didn’t see….” She stared up into the liquid brown eyes of none other than Logan Cutter. Her words trailed as she suddenly lost the ability to form coherent thought. Her blood chilled. Why did she have to run into the one person who still had the ability to drive a knife straight into her heart?
That’s why she’d stayed far away from Texas and Shiloh for three years. She’d never forgive him for what he’d done.
“I heard you were back in town, Rue Ann.” Logan’s deep growl indicated he wasn’t thrilled with the encounter either. “And I also hear congratulations are in order on your upcoming nuptials.”
“Thank you, Mr. Cutter,” she replied stiffly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a million things to do to prepare for my wedding. Valentine’s Day will be here-”
“In exactly two weeks and five days,” he finished for her.
Shocked that he knew to the day how long before she’d become someone else’s wife, she gathered her shredded composure and turned in the direction of Whipple’s Dry Goods. Refusing to give Cutter the satisfaction of knowing how deeply he’d affected her, she moved on, keeping her gaze glued to the sidewalk, never once glancing back.
Trembling, Rue Ann opened the door of the dry goods store and hurried inside. Thankfully, Mr. Whipple had his hands full with the spinster Barlow sisters.
Rue Ann headed for a dark corner and, there sagging against a shelf of men’s hats, she blinked back sudden tears and gave herself a stern talking to.
She would not shed one more tear on that man. Logan Cutter wasn’t worth it.
*********
This is going to be our last anthology for a while. We’ve decided to work on our own individual projects.
Do you have a favorite Valentine memory you’d like to share? I’m giving away a copy of the book to two people who leave a comment.
my start as a romance writer.
t a band of dangerous outlaws.
. 
I love romances. Really. I write them and read them. But there are some things in romance novels that just make me crazy, and I know I’m not the only one.
4. Jumping in and out of heads/point of view. Do readers notice or care when we know what the cab driver is thinking?
8. Heroines who giggle.
14. Ridiculous dialogue tags: “He barked” Excuse me? Are you barking at me? Down boy.
20. Purple eyes. Do you know ANYONE with purple eyes?
