What Makes a Cowboy and a Giveaway!

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We’re so happy to have USA Today Bestselling author Paula Altenburg with us. She has a giveaway so scroll down. 

Thank you to Petticoats & Pistols for having me here!

Cowboys are made, not born.

But being a cowboy takes a certain type of personality, and those are the heroes I love to write.
Even though I write contemporary western romance, I do a significant amount of historical research, because real people are a product of their histories and their cultures. That’s one reason why you see so many successful marriages among childhood sweethearts. It’s also why no one will ever know you as well as your siblings do—they shared the same upbringing and understand where you come from. I say this from experience. (Not the childhood sweetheart part, though. My husband is Dutch. I will say that the majority of our disagreements over the years can be directly attributed to language nuances and having been raised in very different cultures.) This is a segue into European colonization, by the way.



The Irish in particular formed a strong presence in the American Old West. You can read a fascinating article on them here. Irish surnames show up all over the present-day west. In fact, two authors I use as writing resources have Irish names—Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) and David McCumber (The Cowboy Way). McMurtry is Texan and McCumber is from Montana.

Grand, Montana was set up in my first series, The McGregor Brothers of Montana, as an Irish community. Grand’s fictional founders were two enterprising young Irish brothers (and ancestors of the contemporary McGregors) who made their money off selling liquor to soldiers. I’ve loosely based my Grand on real-life Miles City, Montana, which sits where the Tongue River flows into the Yellowstone River. I love the opportunities doing this offers me as a writer. If I need a setting detail, I can dip into the Miles City website and let my imagination run wild. The Miles City Chamber of Commerce is another great resource.


But setting Grand up as a fictional town means I get to make it my own. I read Lonesome Dove to get a feel for the landscape and what cowboys were like in the latter part of the 19th century. I read The Cowboy Way because I wanted to see how ranching has evolved. While ranch practices have changed with the times, cowboys, as it turns out, have not evolved in the least.
                                            

Sheriff Dan McKillop is definitely a product of his history and his environment. He’s
hardworking, he loves women (maybe a little too much) and he’s uncomfortable with money. When he and two friends inherit the Endeavour Ranch and billions of dollars, the only positive he sees is the opportunity to give back to his community. It takes a lot to knock him off his stride, but firefighter Jazz O’Reilly manages to do exactly that.
The Montana Sheriff is the first book in the Grand, Montana series.

Buy now

Four books will release this year with two more arriving in 2023.



Also in 2023, USA Today bestselling author Roxanne Snopek will be joining me with a series of her own. It’s tentatively titled The Lost Malones and familiar faces will appear.

And now, as a thank you to Petticoats & Pistols for having me here, I’m going to give away three electronic copies of another Grand, Montana book (and my USA Today bestseller!), The Rancher Takes a Family. You can check it out on my website.

All you have to do to qualify to win a copy is answer the following question and drop it in the comments below. “If you could live in any story world, what world would it be, and why?”
I’ll be stopping by throughout the day to chat and answer any questions.

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35 thoughts on “What Makes a Cowboy and a Giveaway!”

  1. As much as I love cowboy books, I love books set in Regency England. It would be fun to visit for a day or two, but I need my modern conveniences too much to live there permanently.

    I still live cowboys. Especially stories set in Montana and Texas.

  2. Welcome Paula, I enjoyed reading your blog. I think it’s neat you’re focusing on the Irish concept of the west.
    I love historical westerns, if I could live in a setting it would be in Wyoming, I love visiting that state. I think living at FT. Laramie would have been a great way of experiencing the settlement of the west, the people traveling through, but also not having to travel the harsh land by being a constant at Ft. Laramie.

    Come join Us, again.

  6. I’m trying to decide what story world I’d like to live in. I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and when I was a kid I probably would have traded places with Laura Ingalls in a heartbeat. 🙂 Now I’m all about modern conveniences, too. I don’t even like camping.

  7. We live in Minnesota and for the past 10 years we have been traveling through Montana to Wyoming to go four wheeling in the Big Horn Mountains. We camp along the Tongue River each year. It is awesome to stop in Miles City and take in their rich western heritage. My heart belongs to Wyoming, but Montana is a close second. Thank you for coming today. I enjoyed reading your blog.

  9. Somewhere out west, but not sure where as I don’t enjoy winter, I love stories about cowboys in the late 1800s, but would only want to visit that time period as I like modern conveniences.

  10. I love historical western so I guess it would something set in Texas, Wyoming or Montana. I love me some cowboys so I often wonder what live was like living in that world. I think I would just want to visit but not stay there.

  11. I’m a little too fond of modern conveniences but if I were to pick a wild west fictional place, I’d be a character in Y:1883. Of course, if I was from that time period I guess I wouldn’t know any other way.

    For a modern day fictional setting, i’d pick Yellowstone. I’d love to be their only female cowgirl on the ranch. I’d be a better hand than most of the cowboys, of course!

  12. Being a farm girl I’d definitely pick a western ranch life. I love reading about cowboys and their lives in the big open wild spaces.

  13. I’ve always thought it would be fun to visit Narnia from C. S. Lewis’ books. But the the other fictional town I’d like to visit is the town Mwlissa Tagg created in her books, a small Iowa town where everyone knows everyone.

  14. I would have loved to have been the only, baby daughter of a wealthy family with a bunch of cowboys for brothers, like The Big Valley. But, I wouldn’t want to live in CA, but rather, in Montana or Wyoming. I love the beautiful scenery in the endless beautiful mountains there, and especially the Yellowstone area. The era- late 1800’s, of course.

  15. Blessings, GA (Sharon sala series starts with free prequel ebook Count Your Blessings) or Hope Harbor OR (Irene Hannon series starts with the book Hope Harbor)

  16. Montana and Wyoming were always high on my list of places I’ve wanted to visit. I grew up reading Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey, so I wonder if I’ll be disappointed in modern day reality.

    • Paula, I grew up reading those same westerns. They did such a great job of bringing that world to life. It certainly wasn’t glamorous like the movies portray. It involved a lot of backbreaking work.

  17. Good morning, Paula! We’re so happy to have you visit and hope you enjoy your stay. Since I write historical westerns, I would love to live in those books on the Lone Star Ranch. It’s such a special place with this family who loves showing their pride in Texas. Your books look amazing. Love you covers. We wish you much success with them.

  18. I would like living in Montana in the late 1800’s close to a town. I think I would enjoy having a bakery, restaurant, hotel, or some kind of shop in town. I would be seeing plenty of cowboy’s as they rode in for supplies and something to eat.

  25. Loved the background about the different ethnic groups. I’m primarily Scots-Irish, and my maiden name was McCuller, so I can appreciate the history. I’m an author, though, so please, don’t enter me in the Giveaway.

  26. My favorite place is in Eastern Tennessee. No cowboys there, though. Next I love the Flagstaff, AZ area. It is one where you can experience western cowboys as well as cold, snow and warmer climes without traveling very far. Mountains, Grand Canyon and buffalo among other animals. I do not know of any book written around these areas.

  28. I’m a country girl at heart, and live in Texas, I would love to experience the Western side of life. I would love to do it in Montana. I think I could live off the grid for a while. I already experience growing my own food and ranching. Montana is just a beautiful place.

  29. It would be a toss-up between the late 1800’s in the American West and the Highlands of Scotland any time. It is actually for very similar reasons. The land is hard and can be unforgiving. It took strong people to survive and thrive in both places. Loyalties were important – to your clan, your family, your friends, your ranch. The work was hard but rewarding. You may specialize in one area but needed to be able to lend a capable hand whenever and wherever needed. They knew how to celebrate and play hard (sometimes too hard) when they got the opportunity. They both knew what was needed and expected of them and worked hard to be the best they could at it. It is not to say there were no bad apples in either group, but both were very much the same in both places and times.

  30. I would love to live in the story world of the Emerald Island in Ireland. Why? I’ve always wanted to go there and some of my ancestors are from Ireland. I also love the landscape and it’s just beautiful. I would really want to explore and even live in the castles too.

  31. I’d probably want to live in a world where hard work is a principle of life, a man’s handshake means something, and the pace of life is a little slower. …if only that intersected with indoor plumbing, Marriott pillows, and modern medicine. ?

  32. I’d probably want to live in a world where hard work is a principle of life, a man’s handshake means something, and the pace of life is a little slower. …if only that intersected with indoor plumbing, Marriott pillows, and modern medicine. ?

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