Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth $20.67 an ounce (that would be around $535 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for $2.99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of $2.99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Petticoats & Pistols » Behind the Book http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Working (And Laughing) With A Critique Partner http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32648 This post is for anyone who loves languarge--readers and writers alike. It’s also for anyone who’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  This  past year, I decided to stretch my wings with a completely new project. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH,  I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to plot a story. I thought I had a good ear for language. Oh. My. Goodness. When I finished the first draft of the BOMH, I shared a chapter with my best friend, an award winning author who really knows her stuff.  She had a few ideas.  Actually, more than a few. Every one of those ideas--from word choice to plot shifts--proved to be valuable. I didn’t realize it, but I’d fallen into a rut. Mentally I had incorporated every writing rule I’ve ever read, and that obedience had limited my voice. As we worked on that first chapter, I realized that my sentences lacked variety, and my diction wasn’t as precise as I thought.  Adverbs? Nope. G.O.N.E.. But there were places were an adverb would have been stunningly useful. Use a semi-colon?  Maybe, but aren’t they considered distracting?  Not always. Sometimes they’re the perfect link between two ideas. (I used one somewhere in the blog. Can you find it?) My CP and I have a lot of fun when we do a phone edit.  She’s big on strong verbs.  So am I, but my writing style is simpler. We had a good time playing with synonyms for “to walk.” This verb is particularly synonym-challenged. How many ways can you describe a person walking?  Here’s where my mind went in a moment of hair-pulling insanity:             Annoyed, he walked to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he scampered to the sliding glass door and looked out.             Annoyed, he marched to the sliding glass door...             Annoyed, he did the cha-cha to the sliding glass door . . .             Annoyed, he sidled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he crawled to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he bunny-hopped to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he kicked like a Rockette to the sliding glass door …             Annoyed, he said, “Forget it! I’m not getting off the couch! My hero told me in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to walk, he’d walk. No way would he march, pace, amble, shamble, shuffle, waddle, toddle or kick like a Rockette.  He did consent to stride, but only after I convinced him I hadn’t used that word in the past two chapters.  At least he got off the couch! Now on to that happy ending . . .

 

Brides of the West is currently available at Amazon

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/24/working-and-laughing-with-a-critique-partner/feed/ 0 FIRE EYES REVISITED! Everything Old is New Again! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 14:00:25 +0000 Cheryl Pierson http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32700 Three years ago this month, my debut western historical romance, FIRE EYES, was published by The Wild Rose Press. I was thrilled! Finally, my dream had come true, with the help of a wonderful editor and publishing company. When I got my first box of books, I sat and gazed at the covers—just like any first time author would. My husband teased me about “rubbing off the paint”—but I was so proud of them, and justifiably so. A lot of very hard work had gone into that story, not just from my perspective, but also from many other people. My editor at The Wild Rose Press, Helen Andrew, was wonderful. She really explained in detail why certain things couldn’t stand and had to go or be changed. But part of what ‘had to go’ was important to the story, in my mind. Still, there were company guidelines to be followed, and neither of us could do anything about that. So we worked together to find a way to take out the parts that made it more “western” than “romance” and still came out with a fine story. However, this spring, I asked for my rights back for FIRE EYES and got them, and submitted the story to another small publisher who has an imprint for westerns and western romances.  I was able to re-edit the book and add in much of what I’d had to take out or rewrite in the first version, and it was released yesterday with a brand new Jimmy Thomas cowboy cover and lots of renewed interest. The e-book version is available now at Amazon, Lulu, Monkeybars and many other e-book retailers, and will become available soon at Barnes and Noble, Sony and Apple. Here are the links for Smashwords and Amazon: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/162817  http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0083JYET8 The print version will become available within the week, and again, I’m very happy about breathing new life into this wonderful story. Once I am able to order my print copies, I’m sure I’ll sit on the floor and ‘rub the paint off’ again. And I’ll be grateful that I’ve had two chances to get my story out there—another thrill, a second time around! I'LL BE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF FIRE EYES TODAY! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO. EXCERPT FROM FIRE EYES: “You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.” Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched. His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.” Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath, and try not to move.” He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.” She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?” “Go ahead.” Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked. As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip. Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this— It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage. She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck. She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was. “Fallon.” His voice was rough. Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?” His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?” What should she tell him? The truth. “I—don’t know.” “Damn it.” “You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek. His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally. Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/23/fire-eyes-revisited-everything-old-is-new-again/feed/ 38 Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:23 +0000 Margaret Brownley http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31736

 

 

Mountain Man Logan St. John knew his town was no place for a woman.

 

Especially one who scrubs his buckskins; turns a bunch  of rough miners into

choirboys, and hangs curtains in the saloon!

 

I’m pleased to announce that one of my previously out-of-print books is now available.  To get your Kindle or iPad copy click the cover. 

 

 A Long Way Home takes place in a California mining town in 1850 and it’s always been one of my favorites.  Libby Summerfield is a new widow with a baby on the way and is desperately trying to get back home to Boston.  Unfortunately, she’s stuck in Deadman’s Gulch, the roughest, toughest town in gold country.  The book won many awards during its initial run and was awarded a hero K.I.S.S. award from RT.

 

I thought you might be interested in some of the fun facts about the Gold Rush I discovered while researching the book (hey, I gotta do something with all these notes):

  

  • Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.  Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if word got out.  His fears were valid: As soon as the rush began, his workers left in search of gold and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.

 

  •  Getting to California was no easy task.  Forty-niners faced hardships and even death traveling to the gold fields.  It took as long as eight months to sail around South America. Some chose the alternative route which meant sailing to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. They would then have to travel through the jungle to the Pacific and catch a ship bound for San Francisco.  Shipwrecks and typhoid fever were among the hazards travelers faced.

 

  • Gold was worth .67 an ounce (that would be around 5 in today's market). That sounds like a lot given the times until you consider the cost of living.  During the gold rush years eggs cost three dollars each (yes each!).  Water could cost up to a hundred dollars per glass! And pills were ten dollars each without advice.

 

  • In 1852, more than eighty-one million dollars worth of gold was taken from the Mother Lode.  Yields dropped after that, as gold became more difficult to mine.  Some miners got rich, but most returned home with less than what they started with.

 

  • The old gold mining town now called Placerville was once named Hangtown for obvious reasons.

 

  • The world’s second largest gold nugget—and California’s largest—weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds.  It was found in Carson Hill in Calaveras County in 1854

 

  • In 1848, San Franciso’s population was a mere 1000. Two years later it had exploded to 25,000.  People lived in tents, shanties and ship cabins.

 

  • The gold rush had a very negative effect on California Indians who were pushed off their land, attacked or enslaved as “diggers.”  Some claim that an estimated100,000  Indians lost their lives between 1848-1868.

 

  • Forget about the old miner with the long beard.  Four-fifths of the forty-niners were youths between eighteen and thirty-five.

 

  • According to the 1850 census, only two percent of the residents in mining counties were women. Females were either good or bad.  The first "good" woman to arrive in the mining town of Columbia, CA was greeted with a brass band parade.   Women had their pick of men.  One woman buried her husband one day and married the chief mourner the next. 

 

Speaking of gold, have you seen how much it's going for lately?    I recently took a bunch of broken gold chains into the jewelry store and came away with enough money to purchase a couple of glasses of water at 1850 prices. I'm about ready to try my hand at panning. What about you?   

 

 

To order the book everyone's talking about (okay, maybe not everyone) click on cover:

 

 

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/18/thars-gold-in-them-thar-hills/feed/ 8 Real Life That Inspires http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:30 +0000 Linda Broday http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32509 It seems the most frequently asked question of a writer is where our stories come from. My first two published books - KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS and THE COWBOY WHO CAME CALLING - came from real life experiences. I didn't know at the time why certain things happened and why I had to live through them. I didn't know that I was a writer-in-training and storing up all these life events for future stories.

The Story Behind Knight on the Texas Plains

When I was a child growing up, our family lived next door to a Latino couple. They had a daughter who was a few years older and we became playmates. I was around eight or nine years old. One day an ugly truth came to light and it affected me in a huge way. We learned that the neighbor's girl wasn't really theirs. The man had won her in a poker game and brought her to the U.S. illegally. He was really mean. He didn't work and stayed drunk all the time. He made life miserable for his wife and my friend. I began to wonder what her real father must've been like to have wagered his daughter in a poker game. Did she mean so little to him that he could give up his own flesh and blood so easily? I never got an answer to that. But it stayed with me, refusing to go away. That was long before I even knew I'd be a writer one day. I had a burning desire though to give Juanita the happiness that she was denied in life. I just didn't know how I'd do that. And then I became interested in writing fiction. I joined writing groups and learned how to put a story together and how to perfect my craft. A few years later, Knight on the Texas Plains was born. I knew I wanted to write a story about a child that was won in a poker game. I named her Marley Rose. Duel McClain is a down and out cowboy who'd just buried his wife and son. He's wandering from town from town, not caring about anything other than dying. So he sits in on a poker game and comes away with an innocent little girl to take care of. On his way back to where his parents lives, a woman stumbles into his camp. She's hungry and desperate. He strikes a deal with her-ride along and take care of Marley Rose just until he gets the child to his family and he'll take her anywhere she wants to go with no questions asked. Jessie Foltry agrees, only she doesn't count on the fact that Marley Rose and Duel would wiggle into her heart. All she's wanted for as long as she could remember is to be a mother. Holding the sweet baby in her arms forges an unbreakable bond. And the nights under the stars with Duel make her dream of things a woman like her can never have. Trusting Duel was the easy part…living without her knight on the Texas plains would be next to impossible. This book came out with Dorchester Publishing in 2002. It has recently been re-released as a Kindle e-book for .99. I'm so glad that readers who didn't get a chance to read it now have the opportunity.

The Story Behind The Cowboy Who Came Calling

During the writing of "Knight on the Texas Plains," I knew I had to write a story about Duel's brother, Luke. It seemed as natural as breathing. At the time I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and began losing my vision. One day I could see fairly well and the next I could see little more than shadows. It was one of the scariest times in my life. I didn't know how I could deal with being blind. I was a writer and I had many more books to write. In Luke's story he meets a woman named Glory Day. Glory is her family's sole support. Her father is in prison and her mother has sunk into a deep depression and she's developed an addiction for laudanum. Glory's vision begins to swiftly fade and she doesn't know how she'll provide for her mother and younger sisters if she can no longer see. But Luke isn't going to let her find out. He means to do whatever he has to do to help make Glory's life easier whether she gets as mad as a hornet or not. He'll risk life and limb for the woman he loved. And he does. Today, I'm happy to say that my vision has returned. Unlike Glory I never had to find out what permanent blindness was like. At least not yet. But it sure let me immerse myself fully in Glory's character. The Cowboy Who Came Calling was a 2003 release by Dorchester Publishing. It has recently come out again as a Kindle e-book and sells for the low price of .99. Have you ever dealt with something in your life and then found out much later the reason why such a thing happened? Or feel free to just talk about anything. I'm giving away a Kindle version of KNIGHT ON THE TEXAS PLAINS to two people who comment.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/15/what-inspires/feed/ 20 Win our Western Weddings Book! http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/14/win-our-western-weddings-book/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/14/win-our-western-weddings-book/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 06:41:00 +0000 Elizabeth Lane http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32355 Wedding Season is upon us—time for a sneak peak at Harlequin’s new Spring Brides anthology.  WEDDINGS UNDER A WESTERN SKY, to be released later this month, combines three joyful novellas, written by Lisa Plumley, Kate Welsh and myself.  What a privilege to share a book with these two great authors! Today I’ll be giving away a free copy.  But first let me introduce you to my story, “The Hand-Me-Down Bride.”  Boston belle Arabella Spencer has followed her dream all the way to Montana, where her childhood sweetheart, Charles, will be waiting to make her his bride.  But Arabella has a few surprises in store.  Here’s an excerpt. Buffalo Bend, Montana April 29, 1876  Arabella Spencer huddled under the dripping eave of Brophy’s Feed and Mercantile where the stage had let her off with her trunk.  Rain had churned the deserted street into a quagmire of mud and manure.  The muck had ruined her new kidskin shoes and wasn’t doing much for her disposition.  After more than twenty minutes of waiting, she was wet, worried, and getting madder by the second.  Charles, her fiancé, had certainly known she was coming.  He’d mailed her the tickets three months ago, with a promise to meet the stage and drive her to his new ranch.  Only the thought of their wedding, and the fine home he’d refurbished especially for her, had sustained her on the grueling journey by train and stagecoach, all the way from Boston to Buffalo Bend.  Now she was here at last, bruised, chilled and bone-weary, with Grandma Peabody’s wedding dress packed into her trunk.   The bride had arrived.  So where was her groom?   True, the stage had been delayed two hours by a broken wheel.  But that was no excuse for him not to be here – especially given that she had no place to get out of the rain.  Brophy’s Feed and Mercantile, which appeared to be the only store in this ramshackle excuse for a town, had long since closed for the night.  There wasn’t a hotel in sight, or even a restaurant; and the church at the street’s far end looked as dark as a tomb.             Only the saloon across the street showed any sign of life.  Lamplight filtered through gray sheets of rain.  Occasional bursts of laughter and the wheeze of a concertina drifted over the drone of the storm.              Arabella shivered beneath her damp woolen traveling cloak.  The thought of shelter was tempting.  But she’d have to leave her precious trunk behind and wade through ankle-deep mud to cross the street.  In any case, well-bred young ladies simply did not venture into saloons - not even in a deluge fit to float Noah’s ark.             A flicker of movement across the street caught her eye.  Someone had just come out of the saloon.  Was it Charles?  Had he been waiting for her in that disreputable place?  But the man who stepped into the street was too tall and too broad-shouldered to be her fiancé.  Charles was of average stature.  The figure striding toward her, wearing a bulky sheepskin coat, loomed like a giant against the roiling sky.  Arabella shrank into the doorway.  If the man meant her harm, she’d have no place to run.  But she could kick and bite and scream for all she was worth.  If it came to that, she vowed, she wouldn’t go down without a fight.             He stopped a pace away from her.  Close up, he wasn’t as huge as she’d first thought.  But he was big enough - six-foot four, by her reckoning.  His face was obscured by rain streaming off the broad brim of his hat.             “Miss Arabella Spencer?”  His voice was like the rumble of an iron wheel over a graveled road.  “I was told to look for a redhead, so I’m guessing you’re the one.”             Staring up at him, she nodded.             “McIntyre’s the name.  I’ve come to fetch you to the ranch.  Wait here, and I’ll bring the buckboard around.”             He thrust something toward her.  Realizing it was an oilskin, Arabella seized it eagerly and wrapped it over her damp cloak.  Before she could utter a proper thank you, the man had melted into the rain.             Moments later he reappeared from behind the store, driving an open rig behind a team of sturdy bays.  The back was filled with some kind of bulky cargo covered by a canvas tarpaulin.  There was one bench seat in front, with nothing to shelter its occupants from the rain.             For heaven’s sake, if Charles couldn’t come himself, why couldn’t he at least have sent a covered buggy?             McIntyre halted the horses, climbed to the ground and came around the rig – a buckboard, he’d called it, though it was more like a wagon, drawn by two horses instead of one.  Hefting Arabella’s trunk as if it weighed nothing, he slid it under the canvas in back.               “Where’s my fiancé, Charles Middleton?” Arabella demanded.  “Is he all right?”             “Far as I know, he’s fine.”  McIntyre’s big hands caught her waist and boosted her onto the bench as if she were no bigger than a child.             “Then why didn’t he come to meet me?”              “Spring’s a busy time for ranchers.  I had to drive to town for feed and salt, so he asked me to pick you up.”  He climbed onto the bench beside her.  “It’s a long ride.  Too bad I hadn’t counted on the rain, or on the stage being late.”             As if that had been her fault!  “Well, at least you got to spend a couple of hours in the saloon,” she sniffed.             “Uh-huh.  Had a drink and won fifty dollars in a game of five-card stud.”  His hands flicked the reins.  The wagon ploughed forward through the sticky mud.             Struck by a sudden realization, she stared at him.  “Wait - you were in the saloon when the stage arrived.  You must’ve heard it stop, and you knew I’d be getting off.  Why on earth did you leave me standing outside in the rain?”             He shrugged.  “I was holding a royal flush.”             Is there an upcoming wedding in your family?  What’s your idea of the perfect wedding?  Readers who comment will be entered in a drawing for a free copy of WEDDINGS UNDER A WESTERN SKY.  ]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/14/win-our-western-weddings-book/feed/ 30