Penny Zeller and A Giveaway!

by

Wild West Vocabulary

Howdy, y’all! I’m so thrilled to be a guest again on Petticoats & Pistols. Today, I’ll be chatting about my latest faith-filled Christian historical romance, Heart of Courage, which takes place in 1885 in the Montana territory.

In the opening scene, widow LilyBeth Engle is traveling from Ohio to the Montana Territory with her two-year-old son, Otis, in tow. (Disclaimer: Be prepared—Otis will steal your heart as he did mine).

With nothing but the clothes on her back, the baby in her arms, her Bible, and a skill for sewing beautiful dresses, LilyBeth determines to succeed with the Lord’s help and dogged determination. A few meager coins—all that she has to her name—will take her cross country aboard a train and then a stagecoach to a small town called Hilltop.

LilyBeth is a seamstress who not only sews dresses and mends clothing items, but also sketches new designs, which she uses as inspirations for her creations. She longs to own a sewing machine again, like the one that was taken from her through no fault of her own while living in Cincinnati. But first, she must find a place to live and a storefront for her seamstress business.

When she meets handsome and rugged rancher, Barrett McCallum, she has no idea what an instrumental role he will play in assisting her pursuit of that dream. But will she have the courage to succeed? What happens when Barrett begins to fall in love with LilyBeth? Will she have the courage to allow herself to love again with so much at stake?

Historical novels always include plentiful research, not only for time-accurate settings and clothing, but also for words. Heart of Courage was no exception. I spent a fair amount of time looking up words to make sure they were in use at the time. I’m always amazed by the words that were (and weren’t!) in usage. Take the word “sappy”, for example. According to my research, this word, for the meaning used in the book, was first used in that instance in the 1660s. Other such words:

Driveway-1845

Personalized-1741

Casserole-1708

Personality-15th century

What about words originating in 1885, the year Heart of Courage takes place? A quick scan of Merriam-Webster indicates that the following words (not used in the story) were also in use beginning in that year: clipboard, finger painting, multiple sclerosis, ruckus, and saccharin.

Courage, a key word in my book due to the obstacles LilyBeth must overcome and the bravery with which to do so, was first used in the 14th century.

Not only must historical romance authors string together words, but they must string together accurate words far beyond “oblige”, “reckon”, and “courtship”. Words such as teacher’s pet, teenager, meet-cute, haywire, hootenanny, and shrinking violet were in use beginning in the 1900s.

What word above surprised you the most? For me, it was haywire and hootenanny because those words just sound…old-fashioned.

Heart of Courage is a tender, heartwarming, and uplifting tale.

 

*****GIVEAWAY*****

In Heart of Courage, LilyBeth’s son, Otis, names a dog “Cow”. (I warned you this little boy would steal your heart!) What is the funniest pet name you’ve ever seen, heard, or named your own pet? Leave me a comment for your chance to win a copy of Heart of Courage. (U.S. residents only, please). Can’t wait to read your answers!

 

Thank you for joining me today. Before you go, be sure to grab your free copy of An Unexpected Arrival by going here.

 

Penny Zeller is known for her stories of faith-filled happily ever afters with tender romance, humor, and memorable characters.  She is the author of nearly thirty books in the Christian subgenres of historical romance, romantic suspense, and contemporary romance. She resides with her husband and two daughters in small-town America and loves to connect with her readers at http://www.pennyzeller.com.

 

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75 thoughts on “Penny Zeller and A Giveaway!”

  2. Snuckers. The black cocker spaniel was already named when we got her. However, she began a long line of cockers in our family.

  4. I had a german shepherd as a young teenager. I got her as a puppy and named her Shaker- because she was shaking when we picked her up. She always would shake whether in excitement or fear, so the name really fit her.

  5. The only ones I can think of right now is my sister had a female cat named Oscar. Her daughter until the most recent animal named her pets after food; cat named Oreo (he’s a tuxedo), dog named Nugget (he was golden so it worked), a chinchilla named Cholula (I’m not sure how this one it), and a bunny named Latte (she was kinda milky gray)

  8. The funnest name I’ve heard for a pet is what I read in a book. A one eyed, three legged dog named lucky

  10. TRAMP!

    Late one cold winter night, my late husband heard a puppy crying outside. He named him Tramp because he appeared like a ‘tramp’ in the night. He turned out to be the best dog! True story – When I was outside calling him one day, some guests of my neighbors heard me. One lady told my neighbor she couldn’t believe I was calling “HER” a tramp!

  18. There was a blind man with a service dog who had a very unique name. I just can’t remember it at this moment. Been years since they have ridden the bus.

  20. They’ve since moved, but my neighbor was a motorcycle fan, and they named their dog Harley, with the middle name Davidson. 🙂

  22. I once rehomed a dog that was named “Dammit!” it was very fitting as he tore up everything he came into contact with – a friend kept him busy doing the obstacle courses!

  24. We “inherited” a beautiful large golden colored cat already named “stinky”. He wasn’t stinky so don’t know why they named him that.

  25. I’ve only heard of your typical pet names and human names given to pets. It does come to mind that the local Humane Society gets creative quite often. I seem to recall an orange and white kitten called Sherbet once but that’s the only once I can remember.
    I grew up with dogs named Samantha, Brandy and Teddy for the 3 collies and 1 dob we had (Samantha). Cats named Midnight, Mama, Thunder and Lightning. They were all black cats. I have a black cat named Emma. She’s 19. My boys have always had guinea pigs. They rescue them when they have room for them. I can’t even begin to remember those names. Over the years, they have probably had a total of 25 in as many years.

  29. We had a cat when my children were young who looked like Sylvester from Loony Toons, but the children thought he had a “pig nose”, so that’s what they named him. He became “Piggy” until he died.

  30. Welcome back. Great to have you today. I love to look at when words came to be. I cant wait until this book comes out. Some names I used while living on the farm. Pig (boar) Squeak, Palomino horse – Goldie, heifer shorthorn – Burgandy Rose, her son – Chantilly Lace. I really have had fun with names over the years.

  31. I’m not great at naming pets, I usually go with people names for them. I always admire the people who give them unique names though, like Dodger or Pepper.

  32. We had cats named tinker, gravy, punk, honey, precious, pepper, beauty and cutie. Some of them were already named and some weren’t. Our dogs were lady, dodie, baby, Samson, and sugar. My mother had a dog named rags. She went out to the country to buy pumpkins and came back with pumpkins and the dog that was a stray “rags”.

  33. A friend from church had Pancake and someone at work had Porkchop. I thought those were great names. Allo of our dogs (and our porch cat) have people names since pets have as much personality as people.

  34. Th barn cat at my daughter’s riding center is named Floof. I have never seen a cat with so much hair!

  36. So glad you take the time and I’m sure hard work to do the research even on words in use at the time the book takes place. I have read books where that wasn’t the case and it can be very annoying. lol I too was surprised by some of them, especially hootenanny.

    We have had a number of pets through the years and some very funny names. We had pet rabbits once. Our daghter named hers Popcorn, he was white, and our son named his Burnt Popcorn, because he was white with black spots. HaHa Right now we have a dog named Puppy. She is 14 years old but still Puppy. We had given her away twice when she was a puppy and they brought her back both times. They said she chewed up everything. She was a puppy! We kept hoping to give her to a good home so didn’t want to name her. Didn’t happen. LOL

  37. I once owned a female cat which my brother encouraged to name her Squirrely. She turned out to be the funniest cat with the most personality and intelligence I have become acquainted with. I’m old enough that I owned a TV with a knob for volume control which Squirrely would hop up and hang onto that knob when something appeared on the TV she was staring at (I guess she liked the show and wanted to hear it better). She would also jump up and hang on to doorknobs if she wanted me to open the door. I really loved that cat and missed taking a nap with her on the couch. And I’m really glad for spell check when words.

  38. We named our cat Fearless. He received his name while a kitten who was a stray chasing a full size groundhog and raccoon out of the yard. Thank you for the opportunity. God bless you.

  39. Hey, Penny, fancy meeting you here!! I’m not good coming up with names!! Otis was great, though, and yes, he steals the show!!!

  40. My son had dogs named Snowman, Bandit, Smokey, and Fred after characters and a dog in the movie Smokey and the Bandit.

  42. It has been so much fun reading all of these pet names and the reasons behind them. Last year one of our cats kept her kittens in an old rubber tire. It was like a playpen for them. Our daughter named them Michelin, Cooper, and Toyo.

  43. We had a stray cat come up in our yard and we fed him. My granddaughter named him shut up because he meowed all the time. She was about 4 years old.

  45. Our daughter had a dark brown, female llama named Cocoa. Her babies were lighter than she was and named Mocha and Latte.When she was in 3rd grade our other daughter named her calico kitten Angel. That lasted only a couple of weeks. One afternoon I hear some rattling in our living room. the kitten had climbed my lace curtains and was walking along the 15 foot curtain rod. Her name was changed to Mischief, which she created for another 15 years.
    The two words that surprised me with their age were Driveway-1845 and saccharin-1885.

  46. We had a dog named Snickers, the funny thing is he ate a bag of fun size snicker candy bars that my mom had hidden.
    My brother named a dog Dizzy. She was constantly running in circles chasing her tail or making a race track around our house and as fast as she disappeared around the house she reappeared on the other side already, pretty much as quick as you could turn your head.

  47. I adopted a feral cat that had been named Bessie because it looked like a cow and since it was feral, they didn’t know the gender. Well, Bessie turned out to be a boy that was renamed Pepe. I guess because black and white could make you think of a skunk? I wasn’t crazy about his name but ended up keeping it. Thanks for the chance to win a book.

  48. Not funny just very boring and no imagination. First cat I found wondering the neighborhood as a child was named cat and the first dog was named king, I pestered my father for months for a dog, I got a bad ear infection and he finally let me get a dog, (he was scared of dogs). All my childhood names for fur babies, rabbit named bunny get the picture.

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