Kaitlene Dee: Apples and Gold in California

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The Fillies welcome Kaitlene Dee to our little neck of the woods. She has some fascinating history of an old mining town that she built a story around. Scroll down for her giveaway.

Thank you for having me. I have always been fascinated with small towns, especially ones with a place in history and one such town is Julian, California, which is an official California Historical Landmark. This small mountain town was the only place in San Diego County to have its own gold rush in the late 1860s, early 1870s.

Julian started as a small mining camp that was set up virtually overnight, shortly after Fred Coleman discovered placer gold at a creek in the area in 1869. Many miners rushed to stake their claim at the creek. The summer of 1872 would’ve seen the miner population grow to about 300, the tented mining camp had grown into a bustling town of 50 houses, 4 stores, a couple of restaurants, a schoolhouse, and nearly a dozen saloons.

Later, when the placer gold dried up, the town still survived because of hard rock mines that continued on and yielded nearly $5 million dollars in gold ore.

Julian’s climate also made it ideal for growing orchards, specifically apples. Mr. James T. Madison first brought apple trees to Julian in the early 1870s. Eventually, ranchers moved cattle onto the rolling hills and ranched in the mountain area.

Today, Julian is known for its apple pie festival in the fall (and the aroma of baked apple pie fills the air throughout the town), as well as the numerous cozy, romantic bed & breakfast inns dotting the outskirts of the town.

Currently, a couple of the hard rock mines can still be toured, and the town boasts the fascinating Julian Pioneer Museum with many incredible pieces from history.

Is it obvious that I absolutely love this town? What I haven’t touched on is how amazing the people who made Julian were—and they made it rich in history. These founders and citizens are the true treasure of Julian. For instance, Julian’s first mayor, was in trouble with the residents after a dance at the town hall. During the dimly lit evening dance, the babies were all sleeping in a very dark room, where the mayor went in and switched all the babies around, so the families of the town didn’t discover, until the next morning, that they’d each brought home the wrong baby. Silly mayor!

There is too little space here to share more about them, but they have inspired my heart to write an entire series called the Brides of Willow Creek series (currently, 8 of 10 novels are either written in rough draft or heavily plotted). Originally, the series was to be called the Brides of Julian Creek, but I had to change the name with my new penname for historicals (vs the contemporary westerns I write). The first book, Josina, will release in December 2022 (though the pre-order will have a temporary release date of 3/2023).

As the first book in Brides of Willow Creek series, Josina is about a young lady who is helping friends run their store while the owner’s wife is bedridden. A miner places an order for a rocker cradle for his placer mining work and she mistakenly orders a baby cradle. The encounter between them, when she goes to right the wrong, is hilarious and full of growing romantic tension.

Josina has only a sister, who is currently serving time at a women’s prison for cattle rustling, which has left Josina to fend for herself. When help arrives from the store owner’s family, Josina sets off for adventure and to make things right with the customer, Henry. He turns out to be a handsome grump with an old prospector sidekick who befriends Josina and seems bent on helping her find the adventure her heart’s looking for by way of matchmaking her to the handsome but cranky Henry.

A lighthearted, Christian mail-order bride romance set in gold mining town of Willow Creek, Josina is part of the Brides of Willow Creek series. All books in this historical Christian romance series are stand-alone novels and can be read in any order.

For a chance to win a signed paperback of Josina, please leave a comment

on the trope you love best in historical fiction.

Order your copy of Josina and read how a gold miner discovers a treasure worth more than her weight in gold—the zany lady with her blonde curls and uncontainable adventurous spirit! Pre-order your copy of Josina, available at the special pre-order price of 99 cents for a very limited time only! Order HERE

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Kaitlene Dee lives on the west coast, not far from Julian CA, and writes contemporary Christian romances as Tina Dee. Kaitlene and Tina’s books can be found on Amazon.

Please join my newsletter at: Kaitlene & Tina Dee’s Newsletter

As a thank you, you’ll receive a sampler containing the first couple of chapters for the first 4 books in the series—yes, it’s just a teaser but I hope it will whet your whistle to give my new series a chance for a place in your reading stack.

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76 thoughts on “Kaitlene Dee: Apples and Gold in California”

  3. I pre-ordered Josina and look forward to this series. I love all genres in historical western, but I really like mail-order/proxy brides.

    • Hi Sreesor, I thought I replied yesterday but don’t see my comment so I’m making a new reply. Thank you so much for pre-ordering Josina and for dropping in today. Historical western romances have been my favorite since high school. Have a great weekend

    • Hi Rhonda, yes! Me too! Mail-order bride is on of my favorites. Love how they have to learn to work together and the relationship grows, then later romance follows. Have a wonderful weekend.

  6. First of all, the cover to your book is beautiful! Secondly, Linda Broday captured my heart with a mail order bride series that set me off on reading one series after another of mail order bride books. Ha! So, your book has my full attention! I’ll be looking you up on Amazon too. Have a great day. I can already smell apples baking this fall.

    • Kathy Rader, I’m tickled to death that you liked my mail order bride series and that those led to many others. You just had to mention apple pies. Sure wish I had a piece. Take care, friend, and an early happy birthday.

      • I just love coming to Petticoats & Pistols almost every morning. So happy I found you and your books and the many new authors I met through knowing you, ??

      • Hi Linda! First of all, I’m sorry I misspelled your last name in my reply to Kathy (I don’t know how to edit comments) and I’m also excited to purchase and read one of your books on Kathy’s recommendation. Thank you for dropping in to visit! Have a great weekend!

    • Kathy, I love this and thank for the recommendation for Linda Brody’s book. I love recommendations for genres and tropes I love to read and I haven’t yet read any of Linda’s books but am excited to dive into one! Thank you for the compliments on my book cover. I will pass those on to Virginia McKevitt, my cover designer. She’s great and fun to work with. Have a fun weekend!

    • Hi Connie L, one of the books in this series has that very situation in it, but the bride and groom’s brother end up together (he’s the one she’s attracted to and the brother she came for doesn’t want to be married, actually). However, there’s a lot of stubbornness to get through before the romance follows. I’m in rewrites on that story, which I think is book 3 or 4 in the series. I hope you’ll get a chance to read it. Thank you so much fir stopping by!

  12. This sounds like a fun story that I would enjoy. You’ve made me want to visit Julian sometime, too. I love a mail order bride story.

    • Hi Christy! Yay! Julian has been a favorite place of wonder and romantic daydreaming since I was a teen. I’m so glad you’re interested in it and it’s beautiful history and people. I hope you’ll get a chance to enjoy the fictionalized version of the town and people in my Brides of Willow Creek series. I hope you’ll feel like one of the townspeople, in fact! Have a great weekend.

    • Hi Sandy! I love that too. I also love how this town turned to farming and ranching as the gold and silver dried up. And now it’s famous for its apple festivals in November, and how the entire down has the aroma of fresh baking apple pie in the air. It’s an amazing smell. So many bed & breakfasts up there too because it’s so romantic. I am eager for you to read the stories. Have a very blessed weekend.

  14. I like reading about wagon trains in historical fiction but enjoy most all western historical fiction unless there is too much violence. This sounds like an interesting town and I pre-ordered the book. When you get an Amazon page for Kaitlene Dee, I will be following you.

    • Hi Brenda! Thank you so much for dropping by and pre-ordinary Josina from Brides of Willow Creek series. I can’t wait for you to read it. I’ll get the Amazon author page set up, Thank you so much for the reminder! Have a wonderful weekend!

  20. Love, love the cover!! I have always loved historical romances, whether they are regency, western, highlander, etc. I love em all!! Looking forward to adding your book to my favorite list!

    • Thank you so much, Valerie D! I love the cover too! This is a fun story to write and I hope you’ll get a chance to enjoy it this December. I love regency as well. Have a great weekend and Thank you for supporting my writing.

  22. It sounds fabulous. I love it. I enjoy reading friends to more. Please do not include me in the giveaway. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

  25. My great uncles owned a silver mine called rocky bar in Idaho near silver city. We loved to go visit it when we were kids. Silver city is a ghost town Love historic fiction especially when it involves western gold rush!

    • Hi Cindi, I love that you have an uncle who owned a silver mine. That’s so very interesting. The town I shared about, Julian, also mined silver. Thank you for stopping by and sharing!

  26. Tina, welcome to P&P. I second the compliment on your gorgeous cover and the story sounds like a fun one. I love all historical romance tropes but my favorite I think is mail order brides. Nothing is ever assured. Wishing you tons of success.

    • Thank you so very much, Linda! Virginia McKevitt is so talented in cover designer and a dream to work with. Thank you for the well wishes—I appreciate them with the new pen name and series! Have a great weekend!

  28. This sounds so interesting i can’t wait for this to come out! I love to hear the back stories for what inspired authors to write books!

    • Hi Sara! This town and its wonderful people, both past and present, inspired an 10-book Brides of Willow Creek series. I have over half of them in rough draft or heavily plotted out and am so very excited to release them as soon as they’re ready. Thank you for the support and for checking out the first book!

  30. Oh, I LOVE books that have some true historical value to them! And I’m married to a Henry, so a romance with a man named Henry is very interesting to me!! I love all of Tina Dee’s books, so I know I will love Kaitlene Dee books, possibly even more, since they might be more historical, which I love! Thank you!!

    • Hi Lanajburton, I’m so glad to have you in my corner and can’t wait for you to read this series. The stories will all be longer than what you’re used to seeing from me—they’ll be full length novels, so I hope that’s an extra treat. Have a very blessed weekend!

  31. My favorite trope is when the heroine (with God’s help) helps reform the hero. When he feels so unworthy of her love, of God’s love, because of a difficult past, but he is changed into a man of integrity. 🙂

  34. Welcome. Interesting about the mining town. I lived in CA and never heard of this town. Now I need to find out more. Your book sounds fascinating. I love historical Christian sweet clean westerns – mail order brides – second chances etc….

    • Thank you, Lori S! I love Julian in the fall and winter. It’s in the San Diego mountain range and has all four seasons. It’s beautiful there in the colder months of the year, and always a delicious smelling place to visit, especially in fall during the apple festival. I hope you’ll get a chance to read Josina and the other books that will be in the Brides of Willow Creek Series. Have a great weekend!

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