It has everything to do with my parents.  They brainwashed me–and I’ve loved every minute of it.  

Thanks to them I grew up on musicals. I’m talking about the love at first sight, happy ending, burst into song at the drop of a hat kind. (Oh how my sons roll their eyes at that!)  

Between Rogers and Hammerstein and Walt Disney I was happy as a bee in a field of Texas blue-bonnets. The music, the lyrics, the dancing—and the touch of humor in just the right places– swept me away to a magical realm and kept me enthralled. It didn’t hurt that the heroes were easy on the eyes and the heroines beautiful too. And they always fell in love and lived happily ever after.  

The first musical I remember seeing was Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke lit up the screen. I know every song by heart. Then there was The Sound of Music. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to go to Austria after seeing that! The scenery was stunning.  

Oklahoma!, The Music Man, West Side Story, South Pacific, Camelot and a host of others—the music was so ingrained in me that I couldn’t believe it when I’d meet someone who’d never seen a musical—it was that incomprehensible to me. (Don’t ask me how I ever ended up marrying a “sports jock.” At least he tolerates my singing around the house!)  

Watching Disney movies with my sons as they grew up kept the musical bug alive in me (not that it needed any help!) Being boys, they didn’t much care for the “princess” movies like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or The Little Mermaid, but there was Pete’s Dragon, Beauty and the Beast, and their favorite–The Prince of Egypt.  

I enjoyed Carousel originally as a child, but when I grew up the way the story treated the aspect of battering upset me and I’ve never watched it again. Too bad—because the music was lovely. It was also the first sad ending to a musical I’d ever seen.  

More recent “musicals” I’ve enjoyed are The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and my personal favorite Beauty and the Beast (on stage.) Eventually I hope to see Wicked. And I would absolutely love it if Beauty and the Beast would be made into a movie with real actors. I do so like the extra songs added on the Broadway version.  

Since this is Petticoats and Pistols—I tried to remember

My favorite would have to be Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. My–could Howard Keel sing! And he was easy on the eyes too—not to mention being a bit of a rascal! Jane Powell as the feisty girl who “tamed” him was just beautiful. I smile every time I hear the song “Bless Your Beautiful Hide.” It took place in the Oregon wilderness and I was captivated by the gorgeous scenery. It wasn’t until I was older that I learned much of it had been filmed onstage.  

Another good one was The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds and Harve Presnell which takes place in Colorado territory.  I think Oklahoma! with Shirley Jones and Gordon McCrea could be classified in this category.  

Paint Your Wagon – now that was a bit of a shock to see Clint Eastwood  singing, but I did enjoy the show and the music.  

With all of this ingrained in me from an early age, it’s no wonder that I grew up believing in happy endings and the kind of love that lasts a lifetime. Perhaps I’m looking through rose-colored lenses, but it is a lovely view from here. 

I wonder if my debut book could ever be turned into a musical? Hey—it’s an interesting thought!  

Are there any musical lovers out there? And if so, which is your favorite? To encourage lurkers to join in, if you post and your name is drawn, I’ll send an autographed copy of my debut book The Angel and the Outlaw along with a watercolor note card of the lighthouse that figures prominently in the story.  

I’d love to hear of a musical I haven’t seen yet!  

Thank you, Petticoats and Pistols for inviting me to blog today. It’s been fun. Here’s to a successful round-up Ladies!

Kathryn Albright had been writing for several years when she sold her first novel, The Angel and the Outlaw, to Harlequin Historicals. Her second novel, another western, The Rebel and the Lady, will be released September 2008. Stop by her website to see an excerpt!

She will draw a name for an autographed copy of The Angel and the Outlaw and a fancy notecard from the comments on her blog!

In a waiting room recently, I took my cell phone in my hand, not to annoy the other patrons but to re-live some fun moments. I checked through my saved pictures — my hubby and me at the Angels/Sox game at Fenway, Charlene Sands and me drooling at a Tim McGraw concert, a bazillion pix of our year old grandson — and I enjoyed everything all over again.

When I got my Kodak Instamatic for a graduation present sometime last century, I thought I was on the top of Everest. With its Magicubes, it was so state-of-the-art. In my wildest dream then, I never imagined a future where I could take pictures with a phone….and email them to a computer! Or use a digi-cam where I can delete all of my faux pas in a flash and where everything’s got a date for instant record keeping. Or scan a horde of old photos for publication on the Internet for you to see.

I wanted to share today some of the gorgeous antique photographs that inspire me. But beforehand, I’m going to make you suffer through a brief history of photography through 1900. After all, I am a retired schoolteacher and lecturing’s a hard habit to break.

Cameras existed long before J.N. Niepce produced the first permanent image, a heliograph, in 1826 - an exposure that took 8 hours with a camera obscrua! This was an image of an outside scene formed by a simple lens and sunlight shining through a small hole into a darkened room. (Camera obscura means “darkened room.”)

In 1837, his partner, Louis Daguerre, began to produce images on silver iodide-coated copper plates that took 30 minutes to develop with warmed mercury. Two years later, Fox Talbot introduced the negative from which many positive images could be produced. But paper negatives didn’t produce the detailed images of the daguerreotype. In 1841, he patented his “calotype” negative/positive process with its 5 minute exposure time.

London sculptor Frederick Scott Archer never patented his 1851 wet plate collodion process, where he spread a mixture of nitrated cotton dissolved in ether and alcohol on sheets of glass. The result: the 10-second exposure “tintype.” Much cheaper than the daguerreotype, the tintype brought photography to everyday people. The name probably comes from the tin shears or scissors needed to cut the small pictures (about 2″ x 3″), rather than the metal plates on which they were reproduced.

In 1861, Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell came up with the color-separation method by using green, red, or blue filters when taking black and white photographs. And during the Civil War, Mathew Brady and his staff exposed 7,000 negatives while covering the war!

British physician Richard Leach Maddox developed the dry plate process in 1871, using an emulsion of gelatin, the protein in animal bones, and silver bromide on dry plates. (Gelatin is still used today.) Exposure time: 1/25th of a second!

When he was 24 in 1880, George Eastman set up his Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, NY. By 1888, the general public had access to a simplified camera, thanks both to his “Kodak Number 1″ model and his mass developing/processing service. A year later, Eastman produced the first transparent roll film. This was a vast improvement over the 20-foot roll of paper in the “Number 1″ that produced 100 two-and-a-half inch circular pictures.

The next year, 1889, Thomas Edison improved the Kodak roll film to 35mm and put the perforations down each side. This became the international standard for motion picture film. Briton Eadweard Muybridge, who had changed his name from the unexciting Edward Muggridge, is credited as the “father of the motion picture” for his 1877 time-stop sequence photos of Leland Stanford’s galloping horse. He didn’t copyright his images, though, and lost a lawsuit against Stanford when he published them. Yes, that’s the same guy who named a university for his son. (Mr. Muybridge and his “flying horse” play a brief but adorable part in a work of mine that likely won’t ever emerge from my hard drive. But oh I had fun writing it!)

In 1880, the first half-tone photo appeared in a newspaper, and ten years later, Eastman introduced the Kodak Brownie box camera.

Okay, now the lesson is over. Last year, my mom moved to a beautiful retirement apartment, leaving my brother Paul and me to shovel out her old house. While the process that he and I have nicknamed The Upheaval has its ups and downs, one “Up” is the treasure trove of antique photos I’ve found. Going through them is like nirvana.

This tintype of my great-grandfather shows him handsome enough to star in his own romance novel. Agreed? Even more interesting is the tintype in the same studio of an unidentified woman. It’s not his only sister. And it definitely isn’t great-grandma. An old girlfriend? No one knows. But Great-Grandpa was happily wed for almost 55 years to my darling great-grandma.

Look at that face. How could he not? One can almost forgive her for weighing only 98 pounds the day she gave birth to her eighth child. (I did not inherit those genes, by the way.)

But, I do think Tintype Woman deserves a story of her own. Especially since I borrowed Great-Grandma’s name for a character in my first book.

The next photo touches me deeply. One of my great-grandparents’ seven sons passed away as an infant, little Paul. In the nineteenth century, it was common to photograph the dead children, but my ancestors fortunately passed on that tradition and only depicted his catafalque. I just can’t help being teary-eyed just looking at it; I think this could evoke a powerful scene in a future book.

Well, their second son was my grandfather, a prim and proper minister. It seems his profession gets short shrift in romance novels because of, ahem, the love scenes. Truth to tell, the hero of my Eadweard Muybridge tale is just such a preacherman. But I think Grandpa’s a dashing hero anyway. I just imagine him on the way to woo his beloved (my grandma), as proud of that buggy and his horse Babe as any fictional hero with his Stetson and stallion.

After seminary in St. Louis, he took a call to Union City, Oklahoma, which evokes every pioneer town I’ve ever dreamed up myself, or read about. How about you?

But now’s when things get interesting and I get to let my imagination run wild. A whole ton of the old photos aren’t labeled with any specific details. Grandpa and Grandma lived in a parsonage, so no one knows who belonged to this homestead. All that’s written on the back is: “A bird’s eye view of the place taken last spring. Oklahoma.” So without a who, exactly where, or when, I can people this homestead with whomever I want.

How about these twins? Boy or girl? Children of both genders in the late 1800’s dressed quite similarly until little boys turned six or so.

Very poignant is the picture of “Raymond and children.” No relatives alive today remember them. No last name. No date. No hometown. Where is Mrs. “Raymond?” Did she die birthing one of the kids? Was he heartbroken? What futures, what loves, what adventures did those little kids have? Did they have a stepmother later on? Was she wicked? Since I don’t know for sure, I’ll just give them a good stepmom in some future tale. I might even let Raymond find love again.

Now, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to help me develop a story about the woman in this photo. All I know about her is the photography studio’s label, “Sedalia, Missouri.” Look into her eyes and tell me the story you see there when you comment today. In three sentences or so, give her a name, a goal. Conflicts and motivations. A future worthy of a romance novel heroine including of course, a hot hero. My family members will pick the “story line” they like best and that writer will receive a copy of my latest release, Midnight Bride, and a pair of sterling-silver cowboy hat earrings.

So get creative. Who is the pretty lady? Where does she live? On what journey would you like her to go? And most important of all, who will be the love of her life?

What I Have in Common with the Nineteenth-Century Woman

I can’t believe it.  I’m part of the Petticoats and Pistols Spring Author Round-Up.  How cool is that?  I’m thrilled to be here and, best of all, I get to give stuff away.  Stuff that celebrates the Wild West.  A slice of American History near and dear to my heart.  But before I can give stuff away, I need to blog about something of interest.  Something that will entertain, educate or inspire.  If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll touch a bit on all three. 

In publishing-land there’s a saying: Write what you know.  This is advantageous for several reasons, but most importantly, in my opinion, because it infuses your story with a certain honesty that’s compelling to readers.  I wasn’t familiar with this saying when I attempted my first manuscript.  Good thing.  Otherwise, I probably would’ve second-guessed my desire to write a historical western romance instead of diving right in.  I would have grappled with my lack of qualifications. I didn’t (and still don’t) have a degree in American history.  I didn’t experience that era first hand.  I didn’t know anything about the American West other than what I’d learned from movies, novels, and the 1960s TV series like Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and The Wild Wild West (starring Secret Service agent James T. West. Be still my heart!) Yet I was passionate and driven and, as it turned out, intuitive.  

The heroine of my first western (Lasso the Moon) is a bit of an odd duck. A young woman who burns to write music and to share her compositions with the world. She’s also driven to make her papa—the man she idolized—proud.  I understood this creative soul well, because my background is in entertainment. I performed live on stage as a singer and actress for thirty years. (Yes, I started young!) And I, too, was driven to impress my dad. Write what you know.           

The heroine of my second western (Romancing the West) learned early on that the greatest form of escapism is though reading novels.  As an adult, she works in a library and, in her private time, writes her own adventures.  Like Emily, I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book, head in the clouds. After retiring from the stage, I hired on at my local library and, in my private time, I write books.  I understand how Emily ticks.  Her interests, her insecurities, her dreams. Write what you know.   

My upcoming release—The Fall of Rome—features a heroine who made her fame and fortune as a gambler. No, I don’t gamble. But I worked in Atlantic City for several years where I was surrounded by cardsharps and games of chance.  In addition, although she’s a sensitive soul, Kat developed a thick skin to survive in her chosen profession. I can relate to that.  Write what you know. 

Although my experiences are rooted in present day, while my heroines’ are firmly planted in the 1870s, we share common ground.  Emotional aspects transcend time.  The professional angle required major research and made me appreciate the advantages to be a ‘career’ woman now as opposed to then.  It also provided a wealth of inspiration.   

So…. I wrote what I knew and researched what I didn’t. What a fantastic ride! 

As you see, there were women who bucked convention and enjoyed careers in the 19^th century, although their path was rarely easy.  I admire their courage and determination and strive to achieve my own dreams with equal gusto.   

Now for some related trivia and websites of interest. 

• “Only a few of the many women composers in America had their music published and heard during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fewer still, enjoyed the popularity that most male composers enjoyed, even though much of their music was superior to much of what some of the more celebrated men wrote.”  ~ Quoted from ‘Parlor Songs’ 

http://parlorsongs.com/issues/2002-9/thismonth/feature.asp 

• “May Agnes Fleming enjoyed a successful and lucrative career as a writer of dime novels.  She developed a solid reputation and solid readership writing for Saturday Night, a weekly story paper which ran from 1867 to 1901. The publishers paid her $50 per segment for a total of $850 for each story. ~ Quoted from ‘American Women’s Dime Novel Project’

http://chnm.gmu.edu/dimenovels/ 

• A Deadwood legend, ‘Poker Alice’ made her living as a gambler, bootlegger, and madam. Nicknamed for her game of choice, she is estimated to have won over $225,000 during her 60- year career as a professional poker player in the latter half of the 1800s. ~ Information noted at ‘Outlaw Women’ and ‘Poker Player’.

http://www.outlawwomen.com/PokerAlice.htm 

http://www.pokerplayernewspaper.com/viewarticle.php?id=1337&sort=topic

What about you? What do you ‘know’ about the Wild West?  Do any of your interests date back to the 19^th century?  What profession, if any, would you dare to pursue?  Chime in and become eligible to win one of three prizes. #1 – A signed copy of Lasso the Moon.  #2 – A signed copy of Romancing the West.  #3 - A Wild West messenger bag.  Winners to be chosen late this evening. Talk to me!                        

When I was a little, I had a horse named Sun Dancer.  He lived in my basement, in the corner, and his springs squeaked when I rode him.  He ate things like Cheerios and potato chips, and on him, I galloped the rolling hills of Montana, chasing down them varmints who stole my pappy’s land.   

Yeah, I wanted to be a cowgirl.   But it ain’t easy to emulate Annie Oakley when you live in the suburbs.  So I read a lot of Louis L’amour and dreamed of the day when I’d move west and start my dude ranch.   But my vision of ranching was Bonanza, and little Joe, and cute cowboys in Stetsons, and horses.  It was Oklahoma and square dancing and rodeo.  Boiled down, I thought ranching was a country music song.   

I got news for you.  It ain’t.  I know because I spent a week playing cowgirl on a real ranch, helping the owners dig a water line, and riding fence.  It’s hot, smelly work, with cows that don’t like being told what to do, and horses that’d just rather go home.  And not only that, but the ranch, well, it was on the backside of nowhere, over the river and through and through and through the woods until we came to a place not on any map.  I got a big red star in the middle of Montana when I Mapquested it.   

And being there, I learned something.  Sometimes the dream is better than reality.  Sometimes the smell of the pumpkin-nutmeg latte is better than the taste, the look of the leather pants on the mannequin better than in the two-way mirror.  Which, frankly, is why I like to read books, why I like to write.  My imagination is richer.  It contains a soundtrack, and lots of handsome, tan cowboys. Besides, no one really wants to hear about the hours spent watering the bulls.  We want to cut to the fun parts, like when the bull chased me into the truck.  Or when the stars came out over the Montana night and seemed close enough to pluck from the sky.   

I had dinner recently with a friend who says, “I never read fiction because it isn’t true.”  Yeah, well, that’s why it’s called, uh, you know, FICTION.  But he says he doesn’t like to spend time focusing on things that don’t let him engage in the world.   (He reads a lot of theology and political books – way too much brain food for me).  

Here’s me saying that sometimes I don’t WANT to engage in the world.  Like when the washing machine seal breaks and floods my basement.  Or when the dog eats all the chocolate cake and his face blows up like a balloon. Or when my husband gets food poisoning and is sick in bed for two days.   I need to close my door to the world and escape into Montana, or Alaska, or even the Lifetime movie channel.  Because, hello, no one is sick in my imaginary world.  It’s cleaner.  And less smelly.   

In short, give me my fiction, some chocolate and close the door behind you when you leave.   

So, here’s to handsome cowboys and Bonanza and the FAKE world of ranching.   Now, I wonder what it’s like to be a fire fighter…. 

Susan May Warren let her imagination run wild in her new suspense/romance series set in modern day Montana. Book 1, Reclaiming Nick, won the 2007 Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award.  Book 2, Taming Rafe, is the story of broken bull-rider and the woman who helps him find his footing again.  Taming Rafe is also nominated for a 2007 Rita away. 

Read an excerpt at http://whosrafe.susanmaywarren.com, and check out all of Susan’s books at: www.susanmaywarren.com

In honor of the Petticoats and Pistols’ Spring Round-Up, I’m having a fun, “Petticoat” contest. Leave a comment on this post telling me who your favorite western hero is (books or movies!) and why and I’ll randomly choose one lucky person to win a $50 gift certificate to Victoria’s Secret, the place for fancy petticoats!

Dear Reader, 

Someone asked me how I became so interested in our Native American Indians and this was my reply—“At 12 years-of-age, I fell in love with a dead Jewish actor who played a dead Indian”. 

It was the movie star Jeff Chandler who played the part of the Chiricahua Apache leader, Cochise, in the movie BROKEN ARROW made in the l950’s.  After that every term paper or book report I did in school was about our westward expansion and Apache Indians.   

Many years later, I went to work for the producer of The PTL Club televisions show in North Carolina.  We started doing a series of shows we called Days: Truckers of America Day, Italian American Day, Athletes of America Day, etc..  I asked my boss if we could do something on American Indians and have a Native American Indian Day show for them.  He said to research it because he didn’t know anyone working with American Indians and that if I checked it out and it looked promising, he would see what we could come up with. 

Well, I knew of a work in Farmington, NM, and I’d read a heart-wrenching story of a Cheyenne girl named “Crying Wind,” that had touched my heart. It was the story of a teenage girl who when ran away from home and the reservation to try to make it in the white man’s world.  Trying to fit it, she died her hair blond, dressed older, (she was under 16), and did a lot of things that had bad consequences for her until a Presbyterian Minister came into her life.  He turned her to Jesus, who healed her broken spirit, and made a big difference in her life.  So armed with these two people, the missionary in Farmington and Crying Wind, I went back to my boss and presented them to him. 

In the meantime, someone had found a father and daughter singing team called “Pam and Tom Thumb,” and we did our “Indian Day Program.” Unfortunately, for me and for the show, it did not go over well. But through that program, a missionary working with Apaches in Cibicue, AZ wrote to my boss and said she knew some more things that God was doing with American Indians and if we ever did another an Indian Day Program, would we please contact her for more information. Needless to say, my boss did not want to hear anything more about Native Americans, but I truly felt the letter had come for my benefit anyway, so I took it home and answered it and the missionary and I became friends.   

For the next ten years I spent all my summer vacations with her on the Apache and Navajo Reservations and attend Native American Pastor convocations. I met many wonderful Apache and Navajos, as well as people from many other tribes.  I was grieved and touched by their poor living conditions on the reservations and was appalled that we would let the real First Americans live like that in this day and age.  That started my empathy and love for them as a people. 

One day in l982 while my son and I were getting ready for work and school, a famous romance writer was on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, discussing her latest best seller.  I turned to my son as we passed each other in the living room and I said: “I’ve read her books and I know I could write one every bit as good as hers.”  

And my son said, “If you can, do it,” putting the dare before me to write a historical novel.  So I took him up on it and I wrote the first book in three months.

It is a romantic historical saga about an Eastern Baltimore belle and an Apache warrior caught up in a taboo love that has the power to heal or harm a broken people.  Set in historical SE Arizona of l860-1880, Apache Warrior proves love knows no color, creed or race.  It happens in the heart, when and where you least expect it and if allowed to grow, can conquer differences in culture, hatred and personal loss.  

Kensington has asked for a second book on another tribe and setting, so I have started the second book.  It will feature a Navajo medicine man and a pastor’s daughter from Virginia.  I hope you will look for it in 2009.   

Thanks for taking the time to read my posting.  I hope you will enjoy APACHE WARRIOR. I’m giving away one copy of it to someone who posts a comment or a question. Good luck!

Carol Ann   

What a nice surprise, to get an invitation from Cheryl St.John to blog here! Cheryl and I met a looooong time ago at a writer’s conference, and one of the best parts of being a writer has always been the friendships we make in this biz! It’s a real pleasure to be here among so many other Western titles and authors, because Western romances have always been my favorites!

In the early ‘90’s when Cheryl and I met, I was writing for the Zebra Heartfire line. Spicy-hot stories about feisty young heroines who won the day–and their heroes–their way! Lots of action/adventure, and lots of sex.

Well, my stories and my covers have changed! The books in this Angels of Mercy series were first labeled “inspirational,” and they’re all faith-and-family stories…like, the Waltons are visiting LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE!

But the star of GABRIEL’S LADY comes closest to being like my first adventurous heroines, in that she can outride and outshoot any man in Abilene! Solace Monroe was riding before she could walk, always with a Border collie tagging along (gee, where did I get the idea for putting a litter of Border collie pups in this series?! Say hi to Ramona!) She was born during a blizzard in the first book of my Angels of Mercy series, A PATCHWORK FAMILY and now that she’s eighteen she has a matched team of bays, Lincoln and Lee, and she’s trained them to performance perfection. Her new dog Rex is a real ham…but bless his heart, he can sit so still–trusts Solace SO much–that she can shoot an apple off his head!

Solace is so busy training horses, dreaming of riding in a Wild West show, she has little time for guys…until Gabe Getty comes back into her picture in a big way. Gabe, too, first appeared in A PATCHWORK FAMILY as a kid gone mute from watching Indians massacre his family and burn his home. Those same puppies brought him out of his silence, and he grew up with the kids Mercy and Judd Monroe took in during the first book.

As GABRIEL’S LADY opens, Gabe–who is 9 or 10 years older than Solace–is marrying the gorgeous socialite Letitia Bancroft, and is junior partner in Mr. Bancroft’s law firm. He thinks of Solace as his best friend’s kid sister, and poor 12-year-old Solace feels like a sparrow among swans at the wedding. Her unruly waves, broad shoulders and tanned, fit body just don’t fit 1886 society’s expectations for a lady.

But six years later, the tables have turned: Gabe is widowed, deeply torn because his pretty wife was addicted to laudanum and took their unborn child to the grave with her. Letitia’s diary revealed some shocking secrets and Gabe finds himself jobless, homeless and hopeless…

Until he sees Solace straddling those two matched bays, barefoot, with her hair blowing in the breeze as she urges them into a full gallop. And Rex hops on with her! Is it any wonder Gabe’s heart beats faster? MY heart certainly did when I wrote these scenes!

The tension cranks up when Solace joins Apache Pete’s Wild West Extravaganza–disguises herself as a young man–and is then framed for murdering the show’s lady sharpshooter, Crack-Shot Cora. Good thing Gabe’s a lawyer–but then, he can’t defend her case because he’s become a judge in the court where she’s to be tried! Things get complicated! And leave it to little redheaded curly-top Bernadette to save the day for Aunt Solace–at least in the courtroom.

Of course, it all works out for Solace and Gabe in the end–and I throw in a few surprises along the way. I got a few thrown at me, too, when a little boy named Charlie showed up OUT OF THE BLUE…and wow, did I love that kid from the moment he asks Gabe, “You from the orphanage, mister? Come to fetch me back ‘cause I runned away again?”

My goal is always to make my readers laugh–and cry–and come back for more! I love pulling your strings! My Angels of Mercy series (named for Mercy Monroe, heroine of A PATCHWORK FAMILY) has been a joy to write because I get to see all the kids who show up in the first book grow up and have stories of their own, while the West and our nation changes so much, as well! And lots of readers write me, saying, “Write them faster! We can’t wait to see what happens to Billy–or Solace–or–”

The challenge of writing a series? Making sure that readers who pick up, say, GABRIEL’S LADY, will love and understand the characters for who they are in this book–enough to go back and start from the series beginning. It’s a fine line, deciding how much back story from the Monroe-Malloy family to include: I know my longtime readers want to catch up to what those characters are doing…how they’ve changed as they’ve matured. Mercy, the mom of the series, begins as a Kansas settler in her 20’s, and by the series end she’ll be celebrating her 60th birthday! It’s a rare treat for a writer to live with a character this long, but Mercy’s a very special mom, and I’ve loved every one of her angels more than I ever dreamed possible when I conceived this series years ago.

So what do you think about series? Do you enjoy seeing characters grow and change through the course of several books? Or, when you see a book is in a series, do you put it back because you’d rather not hunt down the earlier books? I’ve got a signed copy of GABRIEL’S LADY or a signed copy of A PATCHWORK FAMILY for the two of you who give me the best insights about this!

Thanks so much, Fillies, for inviting me to your corral! I’ve enjoyed reading your entries–and I’ve enjoyed lots of your books for years!

The Road To Love is my first Love Inspired Historical, and you’ll find it on the shelves in May. This story is set in the Dirty Thirties and features a widow with two children striving to make it on her own on a little dirt farm, and a wandering man who has been a cowboy, a farmer, and Jack of all trades.

This was a fun story to write—two people who needed each other but weren’t willing to admit it, kept together only by circumstances. Of course they find out they don’t want to continue to live without each other. I hope you’ll enjoy the things these two are willing to do in order to gain the love of the other. 

I grew up on the prairie and often saw abandoned home sites like this one. Or perhaps only the cellar hole. Even as a child, I wondered what had become of the people. Why had they left their house behind? Sometimes there was still furniture in the house or machinery in the yard.

Then I married a man whose father had purchased a big house and farm for the price of working off the back taxes. The original owner had gone into debt to build the house and then the thirties hit. Unable to keep up his loan payments, the man had to abandon his house and farm to the bank. I was sad to think of the way so many dreams had been dashed.

Then there were the stories of those who stubbornly clung to their dreams, unwilling to give them up. These stories fired my imagination. Researching the era seemed straightforward enough. There was information about the drought, the dust bowl, the collapse of the stock market and falling commodity prices, but there were few stories about the emotional fallout of all these things.

I found a few first-hand stories.  One that was especially insightful for its honesty was written by a child.  

Recently I found a book buried among many in a garage sale. Titled The Ten Lost Years and written by Barry Broadfoot, it is full of first-hand recollections. I’m still thrilled to have discovered this wonderful treasure chest of tales of that era. In the preface to this book, the author says, ‘…there seemed to be a general feeling that the Depression should not be talked about…the Thirties were a shameful smear on people’s memories, so everyone should forget that it ever happened…. To the people I met, the Great Depression is not to be swept under the carpet. To all of these people, their survival of those days is a badge of honor to be worn with pride.’

I confess I feel much the same about those who survived one of the darkest times of our history. I want to honor them and their perseverance.  I want to give life to the events that clawed at them.  I want to show how the human spirit can overcome the worst and come out shining. Their lives have become heroic in my mind. Their faith has become a beacon.  

I hope you find the stories I’ve created do the people justice and that they fill you with admiration. The Road to Love is the first of three stories set in this era.  The Journey Home will be released in Aug 08 and The Path to Her Heart in Jan 09.

I’m giving away one copy of “The Road to Love” to a commenter today. Good luck!

  

One of the most dangerous things about living in the Wild West was how close they came to the edge of physical survival.  Can you imagine giving birth at a time when the number one killer of women was giving birth?  

Fortunately, it’s all fiction for us, so we as writers are free to wreak havoc in our stories.  But our tales are based in reality, and those were some tough men and women.  Adding a medical problem to a story raises the stakes immediately.  Not only are we concerned about how the relationship is going to work, or how the villain will get stopped, but we also wonder:  Who’s going to tend to that stab wound?  And what is that strange disease the neighbor has?

I find it fascinating to write about the medical problems.  I’m sure it’s got something to do with my background as a former R.N. (pediatric ICU).  I enjoy the research, and tend to give every book some unique medical dilemma.

Klondike Fever, out now, is set in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush.  The hero is a Mountie.  One of the secondary characters, an old man, wears a broken set of spectacles.  One of the lenses is smashed.  He’s living in the woods, hundreds of miles from a nearby town.  He either wears the eyeglasses with just one lens, or he’s totally blind.  On the run from their own troubles, the hero and heroine agree to take him along so he can buy a ‘new set of eyes.’

Of course, it’s a love story first and foremost.  It’s about a reversal of fortune, when the richest woman in the Klondike is robbed on a stagecoach headed to Alaska, and chained to the man she used to work for as a servant.

Western Weddings is an anthology I have coming out in May, with fellow authors Charlene Sands and Jillian Hart.  In my novella, “Shotgun Vows,” one of the secondary characters is trampled by a horse and almost doesn’t survive.  It’s a key turning point in the story of two young people forced to marry at gunpoint.

I spend a lot of time researching on the web, and have spent blissful days at my local university in their medical archives.

What surprises me most about the late 1800s is how much the medical community actually knew about diseases, rather than what they didn’t know.  Here’s an example.  I was scouring through actual copies of the British Medical Journal from the 1880s and could not believe the detail of some of their clinical trials.  In the 1880s in London, doctors were studying the increased rate of prostate cancer in chimney sweeps.  And I thought prostate cancer was a fairly modern concern.

Unfortunately, I think many Hollywood movies make it seem like the doctors knew very little.  Definitely, we know tons more now, but not all doctors back then wanted to amputate a leg with a rusty saw, if you know what I mean.  It also makes me wonder how our future generations, two hundred years from now, will view the type of medicine we practice.  Will Hollywood of the future paint us as dimwitted and archaic?  

Here are some other interesting facts. Did you know that Parkinson’s Disease has been treated since ancient times, but its symptoms weren’t categorized until 1817 by an English physician named James Parkinson?  One of the early treatments to stop the tremors was to have the sufferer ride in a horse and buggy very fast.  For some reason, speed calmed the body.  That’s how one of my young characters deals with it in The Surgeon (released 2003).

Before the rabies vaccine was invented by Louis Pasteur in France around 1885, everyone in the world was terrified of catching it.  Packs of rabid dogs were the scourge of North America and Europe.  In fact, it’s been said some of the first tales of vampires grew from the real-life witnessing of a rabid human being attacking the throat of another.

There is something riveting and powerful about overcoming these medical obstacles.  Of neighbors helping neighbors.  And about writing how women were finally allowed to study and enter the field of medicine.

I always love to hear from people about personal details from history.  Tell me…what occupations did some of your grandparents or great-grandparents have back then?

One of my grandfathers was a wagon maker.

If you post a comment or a question on my blog today or tomorrow, we’ll enter your name in a draw to win one of four signed books— Klondike Fever (2) or Western Weddings (2).

Kate

www.katebridges.com

Greetings from Queensland, Australia! 

My novels are set in the late nineteenth century Outback, when the area I write about was still quite newly settled. Imagine riding a hundred miles side-saddle, as my heroine does, through untamed bush with only a dusty track to follow. Then, when she finds that track won’t lead her to her destination, she joins a cattle drive through even more untamed bush. Perhaps it’s just as well the man in charge of the cattle persists in asking impertinent questions about why she’s travelling alone, and generally distracts her from the discomforts of droving life! 

My background is a little different to most authors. I was raised on a large cattle station in central

Queensland and I grew up riding horses, rounding up cattle and playing cowboys on horseback. I’ve always been fascinated by the Wild West as well as

Australia’s own frontier history, which is every bit as wild if less well-known. Some of the incidents my characters experience, such as galloping through thick timber in an attempt to control half-wild cattle, drinking billy tea brewed on the campfire and sleeping beneath the stars in a bedroll (or swag as we call it), are things I have done myself.  As they say, ‘write what you know’, and it certainly helps to have that first-hand knowledge.  To handle cattle, Australian stockmen use different techniques from the American cowboys. One of the big differences is throwing and tying wild cattle rather than roping them. Perhaps this practice originated because roping is impracticable in heavily timbered country. To do this, the stockman will ride his horse up close to a fleeing cow or steer and lean over to grasp its tail. As he gallops past the animal, he pulls the tail and the beast is thrown off its feet. Then he has to dismount in a hurry and be upon the winded beast to tie its legs before it can regain its feet. A second method is to stay with the animal until it tires. The stockman dismounts and grasps the animal’s tail, waiting until it turns to charge him before pulling it off its feet.  

As you can imagine, neither method is for the faint-hearted or the unskilled! In my second novel, A Hidden Legacy, the hero throws a young bull in this manner, with disastrous consequences.  My two books, The Cornstalk and A Hidden Legacy, are available from Wings ePress and Amazon.Heather is giving away an autographed copy of The Cornstalk to one lucky reader who posts here this weekend!

 

 

“If he’d just pay me what he’s paying them to stop me from robbing him, I’d stop robbing him!”

That’s Paul Newman’s clever rationalization in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!  Those two lovable bankrobbers had some classic lines and put smiles on our faces.

“Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?” 

And who could forget this exchange?

Butch Cassidy: Then you jump first.
Sundance Kid: No, I said.
Butch Cassidy: What’s the matter with you?
Sundance Kid: I can’t swim.
Butch Cassidy: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you. 

Now for a few more notable quotes from our favorite westerns!
 
 
 
“When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.” — The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly “

The public doesn’t give a damn about integrity. A town that won’t defend itself deserves no help.” — High Noon

 “Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?” — The Outlaw Josey Wales

“There’s always a man faster on the draw than you are, and the more you use a gun, the sooner you’re gonna run into that man.” –
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

“People scare better when they’re dying.” (Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West)

“If God didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep.” (Eli Wallach, The Magnificent Seven) 

“I come close to killing you a couple of times when we were younger. It saddens me I didn’t.” (John Wayne, McLintock)  “Since you haven’t learned to respect your elders, maybe you’ll learn to respect your betters!” (John Wayne, Big Jake)
 
“Men are gonna get killed here today, Sue, and I’m gonna kill ‘em. ” (Kevin Costner, Open Range)
 

See if you can guess who said this:

1.”A cows nothing but a lot of trouble tied up in a leather bag.”

A.  Gene Autry
B.  Clint Eastwood
C.  John Wayne
D.  Steve McQueen

 What movie did this quote come from?

2.”Man’s got a right to protect his property and his life, and we ain’t lettin’ no rancher or his lawman take either. A.  Open Range
B.  High Noon
C.  Stagecoach
D.  Quigley, Down Under

3. What female star said this, “”If you weren’t the Sheriff, I’d call one.”

A.  Maureen O’Hara
B.  Raquel Welch
C.  Sharon Stone
D.  Dale Evans

I’ll come back later in the day with those answers!  Make your guess and check back, unless you’re sure
you know!  And tell me, do you have a favorite quote from television or movie stars?  A book?  Who is your favorite notable quotable cowboy?

Western Weddings on Sale now in Bookstores and online.

www.charlenesands.com