The WILD WEST, UP CLOSE and PERSONAL!
Readers voted at Sweet Wild West Reads! They wanted more stories with covered wagons and cattle drives. The new multi-author Prairie Roses Collection was born with that poll almost a year ago. And the 2019 stories have just launched. Our heroines are the roses: Sadie, Remi, Hope, Grace, and Julia, and do they create a lovely bouquet of fiction for Mothers Day! The award-winning, best-selling western authors writing for Prairie Roses Collection are: Patricia PacJac Carroll, myself, Barb Goss, Indiana Wake, and Vickie McDonough. All the books are covered wagon stories.
My story, REMI, begins with a young woman’s seasickness aversion which influences her choice not to accompany her step-father and mother to the Riviera, but to travel west to California to search for the father she’s never met. In 1853, she and her bondwoman journey to Saint Joseph to join a wagon train. Readers first meet her in UNIQUELY COMMON, my April 2019 release with all the same characters.
What a blessing to go and ride along the same trail as the early, courageous pioneers traveling two thousand miles in wagon trains—a journey plagued with hardships and troubles—to settle the West. Last December, traveling from our home in Clarksville, Texas a full day to Saint Joseph, Missouri, I did just that! I couldn’t wait to see the Oregon/California Trail.
Once the pioneers crossed the Missouri, they were no longer in the U.S., but the government still helped, building forts along the way where wagon trains would rest a day or three, do their repairs and restock.
I found it so interesting to discover they sold food at cost or even gave it away free to those who couldn’t pay. They also sent the Army Corp to work on the passes such as at Scott’s Bluff.
It was an amazing sight and right when Remi and Edwina passed by here, the U.S. Army Corp were there!
I know that my 4300+ mile trip made Remi such a much better story. I pray it comes alive for you in the pages of my novel. I didn’t make it all peaches and cream. This wagon train suffered measles, water shortages—plenty of hardships, including fatal accidents. I hoped to portray the difficulties these settlers faced.
It flabbergasted me to come upon Fort Laramie in Wyoming. The main building, erected in 1851, has been completely refurbished in recent years. I rejoiced with Asher and Remi, Dusty and Edwina, and Ethan and Christina Cord as they saw it, too. A bit of civility in the wilderness. The government set their eyes on the manifest destiny of the nation being from sea to shining sea one day.
And then there was Independence Rock which for me, was a bit of a spiritual experience. Hundreds, thousands of those in the covered wagons stopped here and celebrated being at Independence Rock in early July because that meant they would make it over the Rockies before the winter storms! While at this heart-warming landmark, the men, women, and even some children carved their names all over this Independence Rock so they would be remembered.
Here’s an artist’s rendition I photographed at Independence Rock See how many wagon trains would be there to circle up a couple of celebratory days.
I touched the very rock my friends Remi and Samantha carved their names on in 1853. My characters are that real to me, and I believe they will be to you! I hope you’ll enjoy visiting all these historical sights in the West when you read REMI and the other Prairie Roses Collection stories!
Thank you so much, Karen, for the invitation to Petticoats & Pistols!
I’d like to gift THREE eBook copies of Remi to THREE WINNERS as it debuted on my birthday, May 3rd !
Leave a comment below for a chance to win!
REMI jacket copy: It isn’t within man to guide his own steps—or a woman. Caught between a wagon train and the deep blue sea, Agnes Remington Dalrumple, Remi for short, chooses the overland journey west over crossing the Atlantic with her mother and step-father. Though the introvert has never been on her own, she decides to go to California and try to find the father she’s never known. Thwarted at every turn, almost every effort is dashed until a widower’s thirteen-year-old daughter intervenes on her behalf. How can the headstrong young woman place herself under the responsibility of the girl’s father, a perfect stranger? But if she doesn’t, her journey ends right there in Saint Joseph, Missouri. On the Oregon/California trail, will pride and independence deter her from the destiny God has prepared?
Caryl’s bio: Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory! Her best-selling novels are blessed with a lion’s share of 5-Star ratings! With forty-three-and-counting titles, she loves writing as well as singing the new songs the Lord gives her—listen to a few at YouTube. Sharing four children and eighteen grandsugars, Ron and Caryl live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County, in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.
Contact links for Caryl:
- Website (All first chapters offered here!)
- Newsletter
- Amazon Author Page
- Goodreads
- BookBub
I have always wondered about Wagon Trains. I would have loved to try one but I think it must have been tough and I have lots of allergies.
The hardships were amazing, Debra. Like Remi, I always thought of it as a lark, a fun adventure, but it was far from it. Most folks WALKED the whole way to save their animals. The human spirit is the same now as it was then, so no doubt the Christians prayed and kept the peace of the Lord by trusting in Him, and he helped them. It’s pretty high and dry a lot of the way, maybe that helped allergies??? 🙂 Blessings!
I suspect it was a rough life on a wagon train, not sure I would have wanted to travel that way unless I had to.
I think I must agree, Quilt Lady! I definitely would have to have a word from the Lord!
So cool that you got to go on that trip. I enjoyed following you as you did it. The cover of your books is wonderful. Just as I would imagine a girl on a wagon train. I am enjoying reading your books. So much wonderful information and detail. I am reading Vow Unbroken right now and am loving it. Thank you for being here today.
Lori, I must have replied to you in a regular comment box 🙂 It’s below <3
A belated Happy Birthday. We have traveled sections of the Oregon Trail In the past and it is amazing how many did not give up when faced with the hardships they endured. There ae stretches of prairie where it would seem they had not moved at all after a days travel. We are currently traveling a bit north of the Oregon Trail, although we may overlap a few sections. We hit severe storms and fog yesterday and today we stayed put. The weather was miserable and it was snowing where we were headed. We hadn’t really planned on that. I can just imagine how miserable it would be to be traveling in a wagon. Thank you for an interesting post and some good pictures.
Aww, Thank you Patricia! I KNOw! (regarding giving up) but how could they? They really didn’t have much of a choice then. They couldn’t turn around and go back, especially after things got tough. The early travels through Nebraska was pretty easy with plenty of prairie grass for the oxen. The further they went, the harder it got! With the worst being the Rockies, but by then, they HAD TO DO IT or die.What takes us ten minutes, taking a full day! And this is just the time of year they’d be on it, too! Thanks for sharing and Blessings on your journey!
Hey there, Lori! It was such a blessing in so many ways! I love the cover, too, and when I saw that girl, I knew THAT was Remi! I’m so blessed to have Chautona Havig for my graphic designer! She’s so gifted! Wait until you see The Gold Diggers Collection! Gorgeous covers and mine has emerald green! I LOVE green, of course 🙂 Thanks so much for dropping by!
Karen, I just wanted to say thank you again for inviting me to Petticoats & Pistols! It was delightful and I’ll see you again in August when the Gold Diggers Collection has launched! Until then, be blessed!