Misty Beller – The Mountain Man Rendezvous (and giveaway)

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It’s such an honor to sit around the campfire with ya’ll! The Petticoats and Pistols family is one of my favorite places to hang out. J

My latest book, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, is the story of four sisters who head west to accomplish their father’s deathbed request—return a special set of beads to a Blackfoot woman who saved his life during his travels west two decades earlier. The sisters travel with the supply wagons bound for the 1837 trapper rendezvous to find the native woman. But the sight that greeted them in the Green River Valley (in modern-day Wyoming) was nothing like they expected!

Men EVERYWHERE!

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLW67XC5?tag=pettpist-20

The trapper rendezvous was always a sight to behold. Each year, supply wagons would come from the east in the summer, and mountain men and natives would travel from all throughout the Rockies to trade furs for the supplies they’d need in the coming year. This was usually the only opportunity for trading each year, so EVERYONE came and the camp stretched for miles. This was a great time for friends to catch up, and the festivities always included a great deal of drinking and horse racing.

There weren’t usually permanent structures like log cabins or buildings. The trappers and native families erected tents and lodges, or slept under the stars. The event lasted the entire month of July, which was the off-season for trapping in the Rockies. By the end of that month, the trappers would have joined on with a trapping party—sometimes a new group or sometimes the same men they’d worked with the previous winter. Fully stocked up, they headed out to find the best river or lake to set their traps for the fall season.

The Green River Valley, Wyoming, site of the 1837 Rendezvous

I love to read first-hand accounts—journals from trappers and natives and white men who lived with the natives. Since I’ve written so many stories in the Rockies during this general time period, I’m always looking for new journals! Some of my favorites that helped with the research of this book are My Life as an Indian by James Willard Shultz and Journal of a Trapper by Osborne Russell.

In my story, Riley Turner is one of the trappers at the meet-up, and he realizes immediately what kind of danger the Collins sisters are in from unscrupulous men in the crowd. He helps them with their search, and they find so much more than they expected along the way!

Juniper, the second sister by age, is the heroine in this first story. Book 2, Rocky Mountain Promise, releases in November and will feature Lorelei, the third sister and the animal lover in the group. I don’t have covers for the final 2 books in the series, but they’ll be coming in 2024. These sisters were originally patterned after my four girls, but the Collins sisters have definitely taken on their own unique personalities! I pray you love this first book as they embark on the search of a lifetime.

To whet your appetite for Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, I’m excited to give away a signed paperback set of my Hearts of Montana series! All three of these books are set in the Montana Rocky Mountains, a setting very similar to the Wyoming Rockies in Rocky Mountain Rendezvous!

To be entered for the giveaway, I’d love to know if you’ve ever visited the Rockies! Leave a comment below to share your experience.

 

 

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83 thoughts on “Misty Beller – The Mountain Man Rendezvous (and giveaway)”

  1. Just reading your blog, immediately made me want to get your book. I love historical novels with a factual background.
    Unfortunately, I have not been to the Rockies, except in novels, and living in South Africa I am unlikely to get there!

    • Oh, Jeannette! I haven’t been to South Africa, but I can imagine it’s beautiful! Just a different kind of beautiful than the Rockies. 😉 I pray you love Rocky Mountain Rendezvous!

  3. Welcome! I’ve read two of your series, Call of the Rockies(still my # 1 series of yours!), The Mountain series, Hearts of Montana, and Texas Rancher Trilogy. I would love to read Brides of Laurent! And this new series! My mother would also. We both enjoy your books. However, we have only read your Kindle unlimited ones. We are hoping they will eventually become Kindle Unlimited! I’m keeping my fingers crossed! 😉

    I’ve never been to the Rockies, but your books make me want to see it! Thank you for stopping by!

    • I said TWO of your series. I meant a FEW of your series! A question: Are the Call of the Rockies finished?
      I loved the Indians(Native Americans) in this series along withe the mountain men. And the women were so independent. Loved it!

      • Oh, good question, Tracy! Yes, I think the Call of the Rockies Series is finished with Joy on the Mountain Peak. If you liked that series, I think you’ll really like this new Sisters of the Rockies series that starts with Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. It has a really similar feel with Native Americans as some of the main characters.

    • I’m so honored you and your mother have enjoyed my stories, Tracy!! I’m a KU fan too. 😉 I think the Brides of Laurent series will be available there soon!

  4. I have been to the Rockies more than once. One of my favorite places in the West is Cody, Wyoming. My husband and I are travelers and have been to all 50 states, plus other countries.

  5. I love your books, Misty.
    Everyone else will too!
    I’ve never been to the Rockies. I hope to hike the Continental Divide Trail someday and see them.
    God bless,
    Kim in NC

  6. I just love all of your books. I think I have them all. My husband and I enjoy road trips, and we have been to the Rockies. We drove to the southwest one year and home through Colorado. We stopped for lunch in Vail. Driving through the mountains is amazing. Our last trip we spent a few days in Wyoming and stopped at several places along the Oregon Trail. I enjoyed this first book in the series, and can’t wait for the next one.

  7. Would love to visit the Rockies, but without my hubby my traveling days are over. Now I’ll be satisfied fulfilling Gods will and will be blessed doing my travelling by immersing myself in your books ;o)

  9. Oh yes we love going to the Rockies! Next up are the Big Horn Mountains as we visit Wyoming. Misty, thank you for coming today. Your books are treasured.

  10. I live at the foot of the wasatch mountains, but I grew up in the desert, with a mountain man as a father. We would go to the rendezvous every year as a family and sleep in our teepee. My dad was also a big contributor to setting up the California Trail interpretive center and still goes there and does demonstrations.

  11. My husband and two kiddos and myself have gone through parts of the Rockies while traveling to or from family reunions. We made a big trip of it all for vacationing. Sooo beautiful. We saw a lot of animals and the way people lived differently in the mountains was so cool. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

  12. I grew up in Colorado where there are a lot of the Rocky Mountains. Colorado has about 14 peaks that are over 14 thousand feet. In one of the mountains near Leadville, Colorado the crevices form a cross which seems to have snow in it year round.

    They are actually breathtaking if you visit them.

    • Oh, Joye, I can imagine how amazing that is! I’ve not been to the Leadville area, but I feel like I have from reading (and re-reading) Kristen Heitzmann’s Diamond of the Rockies series. How wonderful it must have been to live near there!

  13. Your novel sounds captivating and memorable. I have been to the Rockies. Such vistas and so magnificent. The Rockies in Colorado and Leadville is one of m y favorite places.

  14. I have visited the Rockies and was amazed at the stunning beauty. The area is unforgettable and special. We spent a week travelling in B.C. and Alta. years ago and I can still feel and picture the locale. Staying at a lodge there was extraordinary. The Rockies weave a spell which is still ongoing.

  15. I have not, but it’s on my bucket list. There is a train you can take called The Rocky Mountaineer that travels through the Rockies. I would love to go on this adventure.

    • Kathleen…I hope you are able to go on the train trip and if it’s out of your reach, Amtrak runs from the San Francisco area through the Sierra Nevada mountains and then into the Rockies through Colorado and on into Chicago. Beautiful route…

  17. Welcome back, Misty! I’ve visited the Rocky Mountains quite a few times and the beauty never fails to strike me. They’re just gorgeous. I always like to picture some old mountain men gathering to talk. It would sure be a smelly affair since they didn’t bathe much. But oh the stories they could tell. Huge congrats on the new book!

    • Yes, Linda! Those stories the mountain men tell are usually too wild to put in a book, but often at least partially true. 🙂 And watching them tell the story is definitely part of the fun!

  18. I have been in the Rockies many times. The first time I was 4 and got to play in a snowdrift. I still remember how much fun t was.

  19. Good morning, I have never been to the Rockies, only in books. Your book series sounds Great! Your book cover is Gorgeous! Thank you for the chance. Have a great day and a Great weekend.

  20. I have been to Rocky Mountain Park in Colorado, part of the Rockies in northern New Mexico and the Montana Rockies. Yes, I’ve seen the Rockies..they are magnificant.

  21. I got to see the Rockies on a family vacation in ’15. My husband had seen them & tried to tell us how big they were, but our daughter, son, & I had never been there. Words couldn’t describe them!! I grew up in the mountains of West Virginia & I thought those were big, but wow!!! I still love my WV mountains the best, but it was great to see the awesomeness of the Rockies!

    • Yes, Lori! It really is impossible to describe how amazing they are! I live about 2 hours from the Blue Ridge mountains, so I definitely love our eastern ranges too, but there’s something special about the Rockies!

  24. Yes, we have traveled through the Rockies and the Tetons while touring into Montana and they down through Yellowstone. We spend a couple of nights at Jackson, Wyoming and loved the area so much we contemplated moving there until they described the horrible weather during winter. Coming from Iowa we had quite enough of the white stuff and much easier ways to get around during the winter months. It is indeed a beautiful place to visit and we have actually been there twice. I love the west very much.

  25. I lived in Washington state as an older child & teen, & we drove through the Rocky Mountains occasionally. We only tried it in the summer, though. Those mountains are so pretty, but the passes can get nasty in the winter!

  26. I missed the family trip to the Rockies because I was newly married. My baby brother thought they were “super cool…almost as good as a roller coaster.”

  27. Hello Misty, No I have never visited The Rockies but it sur sounds like a great place to go ! Have a Great weekend!

  28. We have driven through the Rockies to visit family and friends who live in Colorado and Montana. The year our nephew graduated from high school two of our daughters and I drove a big loop from our home through North Idaho to Yellowstone and the Tetons, across Wyoming to Denver area. Three days with family and then home the long way going south over Wolf Creek Pass to Four Corners and Grand Canyon before heading north again through Utah and Southern Idaho. So many things to see! I am always amazed at how flat the land can be at some of the very high elevations. Never enough time to see all of the things we would like to and always finding more interesting places.

    • What amazing memories you have, Alice!! You’re right though, never enough time to see all the amazing places! I guess that means you’ll have to go back. 😉

  29. Interesting blog post. Thanks for sharing. I have never been to the Rockies but would love to see it some day. Thanks for the chance to win a book prize. Your new series sounds interesting. Will be adding it to my TBR pile.

  30. Great idea for a series. Yes, I’ve been through the Rockies many times because as a child we’d drive from the West Coast to Chicago every summer and we took different routes to see new sights. When I was young my mom and I took the Greyhound back and forth so we saw their routes. As an adult, I’ve taken each East/West Amtrak trip several times and for me, it’s a great way to see the country. I get excited when I fly over the Rockies, whenever I see them, it feels special to me.

    • My childhood was similar, Rachel. We had family in California, so we’d drive back and forth every other year, going a different way each time. I’m sure you have a multitude of wonderful memories!

  31. Welcome. I have never been to the Rocky Mountains. I have been to the mountains in West Virginia as well as the Blue Ridge mountains. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

  32. We lived in Colorado Springs for three wonderful years. We really didn’t want to move, but the Air Force had other ideas. We loved the area and have gone back out West as often as we could to visit all up and down the Rockies. On one trip we stumbled upon the Fort Bridger Mountain Man Rendezvous. What a great piece of luck. It was a wonderful experience and one I recommend anyone attend if they get the opportunity. There were over 200 teepees that year with traders, “trappers,” Native Americans, and of course those of us who were a bit out of place. It was a wonderfully immersive experience. The rendezvous is held at Fort Bridger State Historic Site i Wyoming over Labor Day Weekend. On another trip came across the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, WY. Not very big, but nice exhibits. I got several good reference books there. They hold a rendezvous there also which we missed by just a few days.
    We were lucky to come across these places and events accidentally. Next trip out that way I will research a bit and try to catch a rendezvous and a few more mountain man related sites. I know there is one in Wind River Valley, the 1838 Mountain Man Rendezvous in Riverton not far from Yellowstone. Your series may seem a bit like a return to the rendezvous for me.

    • Oh yes, Patricia!!! This book is set in the Green River valley, which would be similar to the rendezvous you saw. The second book in the series takes place just before the 1838 rendezvous in the Wind River Valley! You’ve seen just what an incredible experience the rendezvous are. 🙂

  36. Hello! I have been to the Rockies, but it’s been so many years ago I almost don’t remember. We haven’t traveled in over 20 years, so sad, but I’m hopeful in the future we can as so much as changed in us, in the world. I told my mister we should take a weekend trip not to far away to see if we even travel well together and how it might work for us since that last time was before cell phones. Ha!
    Would love to read your books.

  37. I’ve been to the rockies many times when I was younger and really enjoyed them. I’m always looking for a new series to read, sounds good!

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