To Tame a Wild Horse — New Novella — Plus Giveaway

Howdy!  Welcome to another terrific Tuesday!  Hope y’all are doing well!

Have just released a new Young Adult, Novella #2 in the Untamed Frontier Series.  The title of the book is To Tame a Wild Horse.  It’s written under one of my pen names, Genny Cothern.

First let me tell you a little about the series and then the story of book #2.  The series is about two teenagers from completely different cultures, Good Eagle and Miss Starling.  When they first meet, he is eighteen and she is sixteen and they spark off of one another from the start.  But gradually, they become friends, though it’s a long, hard road.

 

Book #2 takes place about a year later and together they herd the horses for the Fort (where Starling’s uncle is the Factor), they hunt for the fort and they roam the prairies when they can.  They’ve become good friends.  And so, with this in mind, this is the back blurb for the book:

 

TO TAME A WILD HORSE

Montana, 1848

 

Can Friends Ever Fall In Love?

I have only been at Fort Lewis for a year, but my friendship with Good Eagle has blossomed and has brought me a kind of happiness like nothing I have ever known.  Daily I ride over the prairies and mountains with Good Eagle, and, I’ve now learned to herd horses, to hunt wild game and to aim at a target and bring it down.  But, when a grizzly threatens both Good Eagle and me, and, when Good Eagle commands me to hide from it while he faces the grizzly alone, I refuse.  Desert my best friend?  Never.

But, after we rescue some stolen horses, I begin to believe my friendship with Good Eagle might have been love from the very start.

This is not good.  Not only has Good Eagle given my Uncle Jed a promise to treat me like an almost-sister, we share nothing in common except our friendship.  Nothing.  And, when I slyly bring up the subject of love, Good Eagle reminds me of his vow to my uncle.

And yet, when we track and bring down the wild, black stallion we are seeking, Good Eagle gives me an unexpected gift.

Is falling in love really impossible, or are we merely too young to know our own hearts?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F89HQKVZ?tag=pettpist-20

This fictional story is inspired by the true adventures of Thomas Fox and Pitamakan, as written by James Willard Schultz from Thomas Fox’s handwritten legacy — and from Thomas relating the adventures of he and Pitamakan, while sitting around an evening’s cozy fire.

Pitamakan went on to become a great chief, but a quick search doesn’t pull up many results about him because Pitamakan means Running Eagle in Blackfeet and there was another Running Eagle, a girl warrior, and most accounts I’ve been able to find about Pitamakan are about the girl warrior, who, by the way had many adventures, as well, as told by her lifetime friend, Ap’ah, who was born on the same day as she.

 

Must admit I love telling these stories about friendship and honor, and about two people from completely opposing cultures who somehow manage to become friends.  And, I love learning about a history I had no knowledge of prior to doing this research.

Now, I’ll be giving away this new story to four (4) bloggers today.  So come on in and leave a comment.  And, May your week be filled with happiness and love!

 

 

It’s Raining eBooks!

Howdy!  Welcome to a terribly terrific Tuesday!

Okay, so it’s not exactly raining books, but do you remember old pop song, “It’s Raining Men”?  I loved that song and it popped into my head while I was writing this blog.

What I mean by it’s raining books is that I intend to give an ebook to each person who leaves a comment on the blog.  Let me explain:  I plan on having two new books coming out soon (the Good Lord willing).  One is a Historical Romance/Native American, book #5 in The Medicine Man Series.  And the other is a Young Adult story, Novella #2 in The Untaimed West series.  So, to celebrate these two books that I hope will be soon released, I’m giving away either book #1 in the Young Adult series, THE ADVENTURES OF GOOD EAGLE AND MISS STARLING, or book #4 in The Medicine Man series, SHE BRINGS BEAUTY TO ME to each person who leaves a comment…reader’s choice.  This offer expires, by the way, at 11:59 PM on April 8th, 2025.  Also, if you could please let me know on your post which book you would like, I would appreciate it.

So, I should probably tell you a little about each one of these stories, and to do that, I’ll leave a synopsis of each story.

THE ADVENTURES OF GOOD EAGLE AND MISS STARLING

Montana, 1847 

When my life is turned upside down, I have no one to turn to except Uncle Jed, a fur-trader who lives deep in Indian Country; a man I have never met.  I was expecting to be greeted by my Uncle Jed at a place called Fort Union, a fur-trading fort some two thousand miles above St. Louis.  But, when I finally arrive at the fort, I am met, instead, by an eighteen-year-old Indian, Good Eagle, who swears my uncle has sent him to meet me.  Would you trust this boy, a youth only two years older than my sixteen years?  I certainly didn’t and I told him so.  However, although I was polite, he took offense.

As the steamboat continues its way to my uncle’s fur-trading post, Fort Lewis, the Indian boy, Good Eagle, has declared that my heart has panther’s claws around it.  Yet, though he seems to dislike me as much as I do him, because of the promise he gave to my uncle, he has no option but to guard me.

But, when my life is threatened and Good Eagle saves me, I experience a change of heart about this young man; I decide I will “bury the hatchet” and become friends with him.  Imagine my surprise when he refuses my offer of friendship.

Can I ever change Good Eagle’s mind about becoming my friend?  Or will his first impression of me remain to forever haunt us?

 

SHE BRINGS BEAUTY TO ME

 

A woman deserted.  A troubled warrior.  A passion denied.

1855

When eighteen-year-old Czanna Fehér is forced to flee her home in Hungary, she journeys with her younger siblings and her father’s manservant to Montana in search of her cousin. Mourning for her recently deceased parents, she sings a prayer to the grand, Montana mountains.  From the first moment Stands Strong hears Czanna singing, he is transfixed.  When he meets her, he is captivated as much by her dark beauty as he is by her voice.

But, after the family’s hired guide steals their money and runs, her father’s servant leaves Czanna to go and serve justice to the man, leaving Czanna desolate and in charge.  Being of the gentry class in Hungary, Czanna knows she and her siblings cannot survive in this land without help.  When Stands Strong comes to her aid, she realizes she must trust this man.

Lakota born, though raised by the Blackfeet, Stands Strong descends from a long line of medicine men, but this legacy seems to have skipped over him.  Accepting this, he has become an expert scout.  But, when Czanna attempts to hire Stands Strong as their guide, offering him the “evil gold rock” as payment, he suggests marriage to him instead.  Czanna refuses him, even though the flame of love is burning heatedly in her heart.

Can two people from incompatible cultures ever come together?  Or are their star-guided paths meant only to briefly cross?

Warning:  A sensuous romance that might cause a desire to go West in search of love and adventure.

I’ll leave you today with a little bit about the new book which is currently in editing, entitled, SHE BELONGS IN MY WORLD.

 

Coming soon: SHE BELONGS IN MY WORLD

Beauty, treachery, and an untamed wild love

Liliann Varga had been too young the first time she met and fell head-over-heels in love with the Blackfeet Medicine Man, First Rider, the man who saved her father’s life. Besides, he was newly married to a woman of his own tribe. But years later, when Liliann’s husband has committed a terrible aggression against her, it’s First Rider who once again is called upon to put his healing skills to use.

First Rider has come to heal Liliann, not to seduce her. But his reaction to the grown up Liliann, the little girl who used to be his shadow, is entirely masculine and sensual. Though he’d vowed to bring his first wife back after her capture by an enemy tribe, he’d failed and she had died, causing First Rider to nearly lose his mind. Could Liliann be his second chance at love?

Enacting a “scout’s revenge” against Liliann’s cruel husband would leave the man alive but broken, and it would also set Liliann free. But, just as their love deepens, a report emerges: First Rider’s wife is still alive.

To discover the truth or lies of the report, they both embark on a dangerous journey through the Backbone-of-the-world Mountains. But, with little more than a bow and a gun, can they survive the beautiful but treacherous snows to find a world where they both belong?

****

Well, that’s all for today.  Hope you enjoyed the blog today and I hope, too, that you’ll leave a commit.

 

 

 

Two Winners for Karen Kay’s Giveaway

Howdy!

Hope your evening is goingn well, indeed.

Well, because there was a good turnout yesterday on the blog, I decided to up a person’s chance of a win and give away two books instead of one.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a large selection of RED HAWK’S WOMAN on hand and so I’m going to give RED HAWK’S WOMAN , book #3, to the first name I picked and then the book, THE SPIRIT OF THE WOLF, book #2 in The Lost Clan series to the second name I picked.

Here are the winners:

BONNIE

and

MEGAN

Bonnie and Megan, please message me at karenkay(dot)author(at)startmail(dod)com — What I’ll need from you is a physical address to send the books to.  And again, CONGRATULATIONS!

A New Book Soon to be Released — and a Give-away

Welcome to another sensational Tuesday!

What am I giving away this month?  I’ll be doing a drawing for the mass market paperback (this is the original edition of this book) of RED HAWK’S WOMAN.

This is book #3 in THE LOST CLAN series.  Though all the books are related, they are all different stories and are all a stand alone book.  Originally published by Berkley in the early 2000’s, it is a solid historical book with a strong mystery connected to it, as well as a paranormal element.

But, please allow me to give you a synopsis of the book

RED HAWK’S WOMAN

Their passion is thunder and lightning.  Their fate could be a flood of sorrow.

THE LOST CLAN, BOOK 3

Red Hawk’s most precious childhood memory is of a single morning with a girl whose beauty seemed lit from within with magic.  Now, years later, she could very well hold the key to a centuries-old curse – but when his visions lead him to her again, no recognition lights her eyes.

At age twenty-five, Effie Rutledge has missed her chance for marriage, but the daughter of a renowned archaeologist would rather get her hands dirty on a dig than cleaning up after some man.

She is determined to finish her father’s quest to recover four precious artifacts that could free a lost clan from a half life in the mists, but with her expedition reported as jinxed, there are no guides to be had.  Except one tall, enigmatic native who draws her as naturally as water flows to the sea.

Even when memories reconnect, they struggle to trust each other.  Worse, their once-in-a-lifetime passion risks the Thunder god’s wrath – and the future of the entire Lost Clan.

Warning:  Within the pages of this book is an all-consuming passion, so deep, so sensuous, it might cause you to want to spend the night in a loved one’s arms.

To enter into the drawing for this book, just leave a comment.

And then, on another note, I thought I’d let you know that my latest effort, entitled, SHE BELONGS IN MY WORLD, is in editing right now and I hope to have the book published and out for sale in early April.

And so I thought I’d give you an inside glance at the cover for the book.  This is book #5 in The Medicine Man series.  As you can see, this is a winter scene and the hero of the book is wearing a capote, an item of clothing worn by many of the Northwestern tribes in the winter.

But, what is a capote?  The capote in these days of the past was a blanket made into a coat.  Usually it was white and might have strips on it or other decorations.  These commonly had a hood, were very warm and were preferred by the men of the tribes because of it’s white color, which blended in with the countryside and made it a little easier when they were hunting.

Nowadays, capotes are still in style in the northern regions of this country, but they are also a little fancier.  But, they are still made in the style of the original, which was a blanket made into a coat.  I’ll post some pictures here so you can see them as they were worn in the late 1800’s.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the time because it shows the style of the capote, the hair style worn at this time by many of the northern tribes and also shows the style of the white man’s clothing.  These two young men were obviously friends.  Note the beautifully beaded gun case our Blackfeet (Pikuni band) young man carries.  The coat the young Blackfeet man is wearing is a capote.

To the right here are a couple of Blackfeet (Pikuni band) men wearing capotes.  Notice also the style of the two women’s clothing in the photo.  All are wearing moccasins.
This is another Blackfeet young man, although he is of the blood band of the tribe, which resides in Canada.  He is holding some kind of weapon, perhaps a tomahawk or something similar to it.
This picture was posed in front of a tepee or lodge (as they were often called).  And note the hairstyle and moccasins.  The Blackfeet wore three braids.  One on each side of the face and one in back.
And this last picture is a painting by Karl Bodmer (the artist who accompanied Prince Maximillian in 1832 to Fort McKensie)  It is of special interest to me because the blanket he is wearing is one which could have been made into a capote.
Notice the difference in hairstyle between the 1830’s northern style and the later style abive (1850-1890).
Well, so much for men’s fashion in coats and the blankets they wore during the winter while hunting or attending to other chores.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little excursion into the past.
If you’d like to enter the drawing, just leave a comment
Have a beautiful and a blessed day as well as for rest of the week.

Karen Kay’ Winners! Yay!

Good Evening!

Hope your day was great and hope y’all are doing well!

I know I’d said there would be two winners, but becaue there were more people who came to the blog yesterday, I decided to have five instead.  I figured no one would object.  : )

So names were drawn and here are the winners:

Shirley M. Zigler

Pam Hamlin

Deborah D

Ashley Macias

Patricia Collins

Oops!  In looking at the tags I’d drawn, there was another name attached to one of the others … so we have one more winner.  And that winner is:

Cassie

To claim your ebook, please email me personally at karenkay(dot)author(at)startmail(dot)com

Put a (.) for “dot” and the @ for “at.”

Hope the rest of the week — and the rest of the year, too — is beautiful and filled with lots of love and joy!

Thank y’all for coming to the blog yesterday.

New 25th Anniversary Book Just Released — Plus a Giveaway

Howdy!  Howdy!  And Welcome to another terrfic Tuesday!

News!  News!

I’ve just re-released another 25th Anniversary book, LONE ARROW’S PRIDE.  The book has been re-edited and proofed and has a gorgeous new cover.  And, I’ll be giving away two copies of this book free.  However, the book is currently on sale for $.99 and is also on KU.

 

This book has an interesting history.  And I’d love to share it with you.  This is really the only hidden treasure book I’ve written, while also being a solid Historical Romance/Native American.

The story begins when I was writing for AVON/HarperCollins Books.  I had submitted a story idea, which my editor rejected for some various reasons.

So I had to come up with a new story idea and I remember sitting now in my livingroom brainstorming with my husband and my brother-in-law…who used to mine for gold out in the desert.  Well, they have some great stories of goldmining in the Superstition Mountains.  And so, all those years ago, I was told the following story.  Hope you’ll enjoy!

The cover off to the left is the cover made by Samhain Publishing.

What I am about to tell you, by the way, is a true tale, or perhaps we should call it a legend as told to me by my husband and brother-in-law.

In Arizona, there is a mountain range called the Superstitious Mountains, just outside of Phoenix. Some of you might be familiar with the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine. Some may not. Bear with me.

There are many, many miners who go into the Superstitious Mountains today, hunting for the Lost Dutchman gold mine. Many years ago stones were found, upon which was written some hieroglyphics, thought to be part of a map. Many of these stones were discovered all over the Superstitious Mountains and all of them were thought to be part of a map that would lead others to the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine. Today, those stones are on display in a bank where all can see them and try to discern where the gold mine is.

What is not generally known is that many hundreds of years previous, there were Jesuit priests in these mountains. They befriended the Indians and managed to get the Indians to bring them gold from these mountains, whereupon the Jesuit priests made artifacts out of the gold. Many, many artifacts.

To the left is the original cover of LONE ARROW’S PRIDE.

These priests were recalled to Spain. Most of them refused to go and so Spain sent an army into the Southwest to drive the priests home. The priests got word of the oncoming army and, deciding not to let the army get their gold, nor take the gold back to Spain where it would most likely be claimed by the king, they hid their treasure. It is the Jesuit priests who etched the map on the stones in hieroglyphics and left these stones in fairly inconspicuous places, thinking to come back and collect the gold at a later date.

Recently miners have found, after using the stones on display, and digging about twenty-two feet deep in these mountains, two crosses with more hieroglyphics on them.

To date, neither the Lost Dutchman’s mine, nor the stash of gold from the Jesuit priests has been found. Added to this is the fact that the Indians believed that the Thunder God lived in the Superstitious Mountains and in fact, up until the late nineteenth century, no one was able to go into the mountains and mine the gold without great risk to their lives. Any white person found in the mountains was at once killed.

Another interesting fact is that earlier on, two brothers got word of the mines in those mountains and were mining one that they had found. They made two successful trips into the mountains and obtained a great deal of gold. On the third trip they were discovered by the Indians. And so the brothers loaded up all of their gold and put it into bags, which they tied onto their mules.

Of course, these two brothers were found and killed by the Indians, but the mules were let go, still carrying the bags of gold. The last bag of gold to be found was in the 1920s or 30s (I forget which), and contained gold to the amount of approximately $12,000 at that time—today the find would have been close to half a million dollars.

So the question is: Has anyone ever found the Lost Dutchman’s Mine? Not to my knowledge.

Has anyone discovered the gold that was hidden by the Jesuit priests? Not that we know of. But I would have to ask you this question. If you were there and you found it, would you tell anyone?

**********

So, I took these stories and brought some of what I learned into the Bighorn Mountains in Montana where the legend lives on (but in a different location).  Now this is Crow country.

To the left here i a photo of Hail Stone, a young Crow Indian who, by the way, married a white woman.

I’ll close up the blog today with the synopsis of the story.

LONE ARROW’S PRIDE

Buried Treasure Shines Brightest in the Dark

Ten years after she survived a cholera epidemic that wiped out her entire wagon train, Carolyn White is on a quest to shake off the bad luck that follows her everywhere and which now threatens her adopted family. The unending string of mishaps can have only one source: the gold piece that she, in childish innocence and wonder, once took from a stolen cache.

She tells herself her journey to Crow Country is merely to put the piece back in the cave where she found it. Yet, in her heart she knows it’s the memory of Lone Arrow, the boy who sheltered her there. The boy whose face—now that of a man’s—inhabits her dreams.

Lone Arrow’s anger knows no bounds. Anger with the white woman he suspects isn’t being truthful to him. Anger with himself that he cannot ignore the beauty who captured his heart even as a boy. Though trust is in short supply, he can’t deny his burning need for her. Whatever else she may be, she is his destiny.

This is the 25th Year Anniversary Edition of this book.

Warning: Sensuous Romance which contains a passion that could lead to soul-stirring love.

If you’d like to enter the drawing for a free copy of the ebook, LONE ARROW’S PRIDE, just leave a comment and you’re autormatically entered into the drawing.  And, remember, the book is free on KindleUnlimited and is on sale now for $.99.

Here is the Amazon link for the book:

https://tinyurl.com/LONEARROWSPRIDE

 

Karen Kay’s Winners

Howdy!

Thank you very much to all of you who came to the blog yesterday.  And a very big thank you to all of you who left a message.

We have three (3) winners and they are:

Bonnie

Danielle B

Deb Kronenberg

Congratulations to you all!  What you have won is any of the ebooks in my most recent series, the Medicine Man Series:

 

 

SHE STEALS MY BREATH, Book #1

SHE CAPTURES MY HEART, Book #2

SHE PAINTS MY SOUL, Book #3

SHE BRINGS BEAUTY TO ME, Book #4

.  Or, if you prefer a different book, please let me know.  You can message me at karenkay.author@startmail.com so I can get your book to you. 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

The Adventures of Laughter, the Tame Wolf, Plus an e-book Giveaway

Howdy! Howdy!

Here’s hoping your holiday was bright and cheerful and that Santa brought you everything you wanted.

Well, I am currently at work on the story of First Rider and Liliann and am about (a little short) of 2/3’s done with the book.

However, in the meantime, I have two sales occurring, both books priced at $.99 cents.  The first one is SHE STEALS MY BREATH:  https://tinyurl.com/SHE-STEALS-MY-BREATH

The other book on sale is: PROUD WOLF’S WOMAN  https://tinyurl.com/ProudWolfsWoman
This book, Proud Wolf’s Woman, does not go on sale very often.  Also, because I’m an Indie and the book is on other platforms, it can’t be in Kindle Unlimited — and so this is a good sale, I think.
Here are their covers:  She Steals My Breath
And Proud Wolf’s Woman
I’d also like to say that my heart goes out to all those who have been adversely affected in California by the fires and also in North Carolina.
If you have been adversely affected by the fires or the hurricane, please leave me a message here on the blog and I will give you a free book of mine — of your choice.
Well, onward we go with the story of Laughter the Tame Wolf.  This story comes from the book WHY GONE THOSE TIMES, Blackfeet Tales by James Willard Schultz as told to him by Red Eagle, who was an old man then in February 1878.
When Red Eagle was a young man, his close friend was Nitaina, known as Lone Chief.  Well, one day, when they were out on the hunt they came upon a flooded lake.  Sometimes the ice from the mountains breaks loose in the early spring and floods the rivers and lakes.
The two of them saw a couple of wolves on an island who were pacing back and forth and the two men knew they had some pups nearby.  Determined to find the pups and kill them, the two waded out to the island only to see one, lone wolf pup scared and shaking who was still alive.  His brothers and sisters had not survived the flood.  And so Nitaina decided to take the pup and make a pet of it.  Red Eagle made no objections, and so the wolf pup came hom with them.
Before the pup was a year old he had come to love the man who had saved him and he would often put his paws on Nitaina’s shoulders and grin at him, thus his name, Laughter.  Laughter was afraid of the camp dogs and left them alone.  But one dog had the nerve to fight with Laughter and result was that the other dog lost the fight.  From then on the dogs left Laughter alone.
Laughter didn’t bark.  Nor did he howl in camp.  But, he would listen to the howling of the wolfs each night and often bothered Nataina to take him to his own kind.  But Nataina would tell him to lie down and pup would obey.
Well, unlike dogs, Laughter was a very good hunter and the first time he made a kill for meat, he was so excited he kept jumping up on Natiana and grinning.  Lone Chief one day joined a war party, but was denied going with the others because they knew the wolf would follow.  But, what none of the knew was that, unlike a dog who announces your position with barking — saying here we are, here we are, we’ve come to steal your horses — Laughter proved to be as excellent in the war trail as a trained warrior.  He didn’t howl.  Instead, he alerted the entire war party when danger was near.
Well, as was bound to happen, after they had gone on many adventures together, Laughter began to absent himself from time to time, each time staying away longer and longer until, at last, he came to the camp no more.  Natiaina and Red Eagle saw the wolf one last time when they were out hunting on the plains.  In the distance were two wolves watching Red Ealge and Natiaina.  As they neared the two wolves, one trotted down to meet them.  It was Laughter.  Oh, how wonderful was the reunion and Natiaina got back on his horse and ordered Laughter to follow.  But, Laughter would not follow.  They saw in the distance that Laughter was dancing around his wife, trying to get her to come with him with Natiaina, but his wife would not go.  At last, howling his misery, Laughter stayed with his wife.
Though he loved Natiaina, he loved his wife more.  Schultz ends the story, saying, “The call of kind to kind is stronger than any other love.”
I hope you have enjoyed the blog today.  Please come on in and leave a comment.  I’ll be giving away one of these e-books to some lucky blogger!

Cowboy Cookie Exchange with Karen Kay

 

Howdy!

Well, here we are on the sixth day of the twelve days of Christmas!  Are you still baking Christmas cookies?  Must admit it’s this time, when I’m not so stressed getting everything ready for the big day, when I have the most fun in the kitchen.

The recipe I’m going to share with you today is an old recipe, passed down from our neighbor down the street when I was very little.  It is one our family has loved for as long as I can remember.  It is called Mom Johnson Cookies.  My only addition to it is to use organic ingredients.  Otherwise, it is the same and this recipe makes lots of cookies to fill up that cookie jar.

Mom Johnson Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup sour milk (one can make this by adding 2 TBs vinegar to milk if you don’t have sour milk on hand)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 BIG tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

5 cups of flour

Optional:  Red hots

Drop from teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  We always put a red-hot atop each cookie before baking.

Upon reading over the former posts, I’m going to get out my recipe cards and write down some of these recipes!  They sound so good!

May the joy of these next few days in the twelve days of Christmas be yours and may the New Year be full of love, romance and lots of happy reading!