Merry Christmas and…the New Year is full of books!

by

The Wyoming Sunrise series kicks off in February with Forged in Love

TI was inspired to write The Wyoming Sunrise Series when I found out Wyoming was the first state (then a territory) in the Union to give women the right to vote.

Wyoming.

Doesn’t that seem odd?

Then I found out it wasn’t just the right to vote…all sorts of other rights were given to women by women’s suffrage. The right of women to run for elected office. Or be appointed to office. The right to serve on a jury. (They took that away after two years, trails were just too awful for sweet little women to watch!) And I found the first woman justice of the peace in America was from Wyoming. Esther Hobart Morris.

This inspired me to have one of my heroines be the second justice of the peace in the United States.

As I researched this book, reading about all that went on in Wyoming was fascinating. They became a territory in 1868…with women voting. I read somewhere that initially they didn’t have enough people in this large state unless they included women in their citizen count. Not sure if that’s accurate based on other things I read. It sounds like men genuinely (but not unanimously) supported the right to vote for woman.

Because of this suffrage nonsense (insert sarcasm) they weren’t allowed statehood for 30 years. Why? When other states were getting granted statehood in only a few years? Because the United States refused to let them in unless they took the vote away from women.

And Wyoming adamantly refused to strip that vote from women. I also read that Utah gave women the right to vote but, when they applied for statehood, they were told, not if women can vote. So Utah stripped women of the right to votes.

So, year after year Wyoming was denied statehood. When they finally got it, the women maintained their right to vote because Wyoming just would not budge. The whole history of it was great reading.

But the part I loved was, when the word was out that THIS YEAR it was going to pass there was a riot in Washington D.C. PROTESTS against. One representative from Wyoming kept shouting the words from a telegram he’d received from the Wyoming legislature: “We will stay out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women.” 

Whoever it was who was shouting it, ended up having to climb a wall somewhere to escape the mob but even as he climbed he kept yelling, over and over again, “We will stay out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women.”

That story makes me smile.

Anyway, fun research for this new series. I’m hoping to get it all into the pages of the new books.

When sparks begin to fly, can a friendship cast in iron be shaped into something more?

Forged in Love

coming February 2023

Mariah Stover is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she’s riding in, killing both her father and brother. As she takes over her father’s blacksmith shop and tries to move forward, she soon finds herself in jeopardy and wondering–does someone know she witnessed the robbery and is still alive?

Handsome and polished Clint Roberts escaped to western Wyoming, leaving his painful memories behind. Hoping for a fresh start, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with harsh resistance from the townsfolk, who prefer to stick to their old ways.

Clint and Mariah are drawn together by the trials they face in town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love?

Click to Pre-Order

 

 

 

 

The Laws of Attraction

Coming June 2023

If widowed town seamstress Nell Armstrong has to make one more pair of boring chaps for the cowboys in her tiny Wyoming town, she might lose her mind. So meeting Brand Nolte, a widower father struggling to raise three girls, seems like her dream come true. Brand has no idea how to dress the girls, and Nell finally has a chance to both create beautiful dresses and teach the girls to sew.

But Nell is much more than a seamstress, and the unique legal and investigative skills and knowledge she picked up alongside her late lawman husband soon become critical when a wounded stagecoach-robbery survivor is brought to town. As danger closes in from all sides, Nell and Brand must discover why there seems to be a bull’s-eye on their backs.

Click to Pre-order

 

 

 

 

And because it’s Christmas time I’m including a recipe. This is a Connealy family FAVORITE.

It’s like scalloped corn combined with Mac & Cheese. 

Because my sister-in-law Mardelle brought it every year to every holiday, we’ve named it Mardelle Corn

Mardelle Corn

1 can whole corn-drained

1 can creamed corn

1 cup salad macaroni (the type isn’t important)

1 cup cubed Velveeta

1 stick butter cut up

Mix together, pour into 8 x 8 buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, stirring halfway through.

I actually self-published a book of Family Favorite Recipes.

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Faster than Fast Food.

And Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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

36 thoughts on “Merry Christmas and…the New Year is full of books!”

    • it really is, Janice. For example, North Dakota’s legislature had a ‘deal’. They’d pass women’s suffrage every year….knowing the governor would veto it.
      And the next place to give women the right to vote was……New York City allowed them to vote in school board elections only.

  8. Merry Christmas. Oh what fascinating information. This all must have really given you some interesting facts to work into the characters lives. Congratulations on your upcoming books. These covers are wonderful. Cant wait for them to come out.

  9. Merry Christmas!! your recipe sounds interesting and I may have to try it sometime. I can’t wait to read your books they sound so good and I really enjoy your books.

  10. Oh, Mary, good for you, TWO new books in 2023! You’re a good role model.
    I’m not surprised about Wyoming’s stand for women voting. It was, like, you know, the West, and the West opened up a lot of possibilities for women, especially in situations where they really were the smartest one in the room. Sometimes they had to fight for it, but then they had to fight for everything else in the West.
    Merry Christmas if we don’t speak again.
    Kathy Bailey

  11. I can’t wait to read your new books! The recipe sounds like one my kids would like. I plan to try it soon. Thanks!

  12. Picking up history lessons on Petticoats and Pistols certainly makes this daily visit more interesting along with the wonderful authors we have access to through the tales of their lives and challenges, just like us. They are real people, not just an inanimate object or untouchable famous person. Your recipe sounds very good along with the two new novels you are releasing in the new year. Thank you for the enrichment of our lives you give, in your story telling, with factual information to feed our minds as well as our hearts. May GOD bless you, today and into the new year.

  13. Fascinating to see what our forebears had to go through, for things we take for granted!! The books sound great!!! Merry Christmas!

  15. I’m looking forward to reading your new series. I love how all your books are a lighter & funny read.

  20. I enjoy cooking and always looking for family favorite recipes. They tend to be hearty, relatively easy, and most kids will like them. There are of course those special family recipes that are a bit more work and just for special occasions.
    Thank you so much for sharing your research and news of your upcoming series. I knew about their being the first to give women rights, but did not realize it held up their statehood, let alone for such a long time.
    The covers are lovely as usual. However, no blacksmith would ever be that clean if working. I would like to see her in a leather apron with a dark shirt with rolled up sleeves with burn holes in the fabric. Soot smudges on the arms and a cheek would be likely. (my son is a blacksmith and my husband dabbles in it)
    Just kidding. I am sure she appreciated getting cleaned up when going out to town. I doubt they would have accepted her if she didn’t.
    Have a joyful Christmas Season and a wonderful 2023.

  21. Montana is interesting in that Jeannette Pickering Rankin of Montana was the first woman to hold Federal office in the US. She was interesting as she voted against a declaration of war in 1917. She was voted out of office in the next election. She was elected again in time to be the only one to vote against a declaration of war in 1941. Her work helped bring about the 19th Amendment.

    Wonderful recipe.

  23. Wow! Enjoyed learning about Wyoming and voting.
    Love the covers of your next books. A beautiful, determined woman on each of the covers.
    Thanks for sharing your family corn recipe. I love corn.
    I’m in a rut cooking wise so this sounds like a delicious change.
    Merry Christmas to you too!
    Thanks for the chance to win a cookbook featuring more of your family’s recipes!

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