Why Cowboys?

by

I have a lot of people ask me if I’m ever going to write books about anything other than cowboys.

I have written other things. So never say never. But mostly no. I’m good with the Stetsons and lariats.

I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published. And, at the end of that ten years, I had twenty finished books on my computer.

Lots of stuff there. Mostly romance, but contemporary, suspense, mysteries. And westerns. The westerns were what finally sold.

I have to ask why.

My best response to why is, maybe I just found a genre that matched my voice. I’ve lived in rural Nebraska all my life. Born and raised. Married a Nebraska cattleman. I suppose I just brought some authenticity to the books because I know what horses and cows…..and cowboys, would say and do.

Or at least what SOME of them would do. ONE of them would do. Maybe this is at the root of the old saying, “Write what you know.”

Let’s just go with that, okay? Because I write all over the map. (the cowboy map) Have all sorts of professions and settings. Mysteries and danger.

I pretty much have to research all of that.

My next release, coming in October, A Model of Devotion, the heroine is a civic engineer. Before that was an actual term. She built bridges and trestles. And blasts holes in mountains. She smoothed the dirt on the way. Calculated the power of a train engine and the slope…up and down….the engine could manage. She knows surveying..

If you’ve ever driven through a hole blasted in a mountain, did you know that they started on opposite ends of the mountain and blasted toward each other? They calculated it and surveyed it and they’d meet in the middle exactly as planned. It’s all very science-y and math-y. Very intelligent stuff

Well, my heroine can do that.

Of course I CAN’T DO THAT. Write what you know? HAH!

So research. And what I can’t figure out, I skip, hopefully quietly so no one notices. And of course, when there’s trouble, she’s very good at handling it herself. And what it’s more than she can handle…there’s a cowboy

A Model of Devotion

She’s finally claimed her independence . . . how far will she go to keep it?

A brilliant engineer, Jilly Stiles has been educated since childhood to help run her father’s lumber dynasty. With the company safe from her stepfather after the marriages of her two sisters, Jilly can now focus on her dream of building a mountaintop railroad–and never marry.

Nick Ryder came into Jilly’s life when he saved her mother from her no-good stepfather, and he’s prepared to protect Jilly from anything that threatens to harm her–as long as he keeps his heart from getting involved.

But when a cruel and powerful man goes to dangerous lengths to make Jilly his own, she must make a decision between her safety and her hard-won independence.

 

 

Mary Connealy
Website | + posts

Author of Romantic Comedy...with Cowboys including the bestselling Kincaid Brides Series
https://petticoatsandpistols.com/sweepstakesrules

30 thoughts on “Why Cowboys?”

  1. Your next book sounds fascinating.

    My husband is a civil engineer in the transportation field. Published in a trade magazine for transportation engineers, too.

    • I was inspired to write this book after a visit to the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The pictures of those tracks. The massive trestles across vast gorges. The mountains they climbed, then blasted holes through what they couldn’t go over. It was all amazing and I wanted to know how they could do it!

    • Teresa, cool. I’m not sure how many generations back we go. But we live in my husband’s grandfather’s house. And my husband’s great-grandfather? Or great-great not sure, came to Nebraska to farm. But what about before? They moved here from Illinois or something. Probably farmers there, too. I could match your 5th generation farmer!

  3. I really enjoy reading your books even the non cowboy ones (Of Mice and Murder). I am looking forward to reading A Model of Devotion.

  5. I grew up on a ranch and have always enjoyed your books. I appreciate your mix of characters and professions, sometimes unusual for the times, in your stories.

  9. This story sounds very intriguing. I look forward to reading it. A beautiful plot and also a very strong woman to head it. Best of luck, Mary.

    • Lana in book #2, Inventions of the Heart, especially, I found out from my research that a whole lot of all this flood of inventions came from Women. Women didn’t write history though.

  11. I already have the first two books in this series and this one is pre-ordered!! I’m trying to wait for this last book before I start the series (it’s so very hard), but I started reading the Brides of Hope Mountain series (4 times now) and Brothers in Arms series again (3 times now). I do have 20 of your other books and LOVE them all.

  12. One of the things I appreciate about your books is the authenticity. Some books read more like the Hollywood version of ranching. Yours do not, thank you. I always enjoy the humor too. Another farm and ranch family here.

  14. What an amazing blog, your book sounds great.
    You really gave us some things to ponder. Why Cowboys?

  15. This sounds like a good addition to the series. Sadly, no matter how strong, capable, and independent were then, they were still at the mercy of men. It is better today, but we must still keep trying. We always appreciate your stories of strong men and women. The West has always had many of them. In most cases it was necessary for survival.

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