Thank you all so much for visiting my Tuesday post! I really appreciate you.
Now for the Drawing for one paperback copy of Bright is the Light!
And the Winner is…………
ALICIA HANEY
Woo-Hoo!! I’m so happy for you, Alicia. I’ll contact you so be watching.
I found an interesting article in this month’s Electric Co-Op magazine and want to share it. Cowboys have more ways to tell time than you can shake a stick at and their time isn’t fast or slow. It’s just right.
Do you know how long it takes to mosey? Or lollygag? Me either, but I’m guessing it’s as long as it takes. Ha!
When cowboys were on cattle drives, they told time by the sun and moon. Then when it was time for dinner or supper, they could tell when they heard the cook striking his large iron triangle or rang a bell. No whistle blew and no horn called them. Trail hands joked that the cook had the only watch that mattered and that might be still the case even on modern ranches.
The only time that mattered was daylight and whether the herd was settled for the night or the work done.
By dawn, they were in the saddle, driving the cattle and at night, time passed in shifts—first which began right after the evening meal, midnight, and morning. The cattle calmed to the music so time passed more often by melody instead of a clock.
Often, the dying embers of campfires helped tell the time in the dark. Cowboys not on shift knew to hit the sack and they didn’t dawdle. Many were probably asleep before the embers half died in the fire if the truth was known.
Even distance was measured, not by a watch, but how often they had to stop the horses to rest. For instance, they’d say, “That’s a two-horse ride.” Normally, they stopped to let the horse rest every fifteen to twenty minutes, but shorter if they carried a heavy load or were galloping instead of walking or trotting. So a two-horse jaunt with a single rider and no heavy load was approximately about an hour.
The cowboys with timepieces were usually from Waltham or Elgin. Those were well-known for being tough and dependable. Even so, you wouldn’t find many of these dedicated men who rode the range, content with, not only what they had, but also satisfied with who they saw looking back in the mirror. 🙂
I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of “cowboy time.” Life passed in a slower pace and only as fast as you needed. It was very steady and most often you could set your watch by the cowboys’ daily lives. Why would you want anything else? Sounds like a great life to me.
I have to admit, “Cowboy Time” still has a hold on a lot of us. We work till half-past dark, eat when the food’s ready. We don’t need any buzzing on our phones to tell us what to do. Old cowboys whisper a different wisdom—don’t count every minute. Let it pass as slowly as it wants. We’ll all be better for it and you won’t need anxiety medicine.
Find pleasure in the small stuff. An animal, a wildflower, a book, a poem, a child’s drawing. Doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive.
I have one early autographed copy of my new Christmas book, Bright is the Light, to give away. To enter the drawing, are you keeping the right time? What’s your opinion of a slower pace and letting life unfold as it should? In or out?
BRIGHT IS THE LIGHT….
Sometimes the brightest Christmas miracle begins with a single lantern in the window.
Two weeks before Christmas, former soldier Calder Jackson drifts into Jubilee, Texas, half-frozen and desperate to escape a blinding snowstorm. Looking for nothing more than shelter, he never expects to find a family who welcomes him as though he belongs. He hasn’t belonged anywhere for a long while.
Kate Walsh hesitates to take in a male boarder, knowing how fast small-town gossip can ruin a woman’s reputation. However, with a disabled mother and a simple-minded brother depending on her, she needs the money. Before long, Calder becomes more than a tenant. His kindness brings laughter back into their home and gives young Micah the acceptance he’s longed for.
Together, Calder and Micah build a Christmas lantern to place in the window on Christmas Eve, honoring an old Irish tradition that welcomes blessings and guides the way home. Can Calder finally find the elusive peace he’s been chasing? The love he feels for Kate makes everything seem achievable as though the light has been waiting in the window all along.
Filled with hope, faith, and the warmth of family, this heartwarming holiday romance celebrates second chances, unexpected love, and the light that guides us all home.
* * * *
Release date – September 1, 2026 — KU, Kindle, Print
Available for preorder now – CLICK HERE
FOR EXCERPT — CLICK HERE
I’ll have more copies to give away next month! Let’s Keep Cowboy Time. 🙂
Thanks so much for all the comments, everyone! What a day. So many comments.
The winner of my $10 Amazon gift card is……….
WINNIE THOMAS
Congratulations, Winnie. Watch for my email or you can email me at linda (at) lindabroday.com.
Around the turn of the century, the wealthy folk here in America began having what they called “Poverty Parties.” They mostly provided entertainment for the snooty rich where they could poke fun of the poor and say that it was all in good fun. I seriously doubt the poor saw it that way.
One such party was at the home of D.W. Tripp in Athens, Pennsylvania. Guests were instructed to wear flour sack clothing, no jewelry, and speak in dialect.
Here’s a portion of Mr. Tripp’s invitation and it’s very difficult to read: “Every womin what kums must ware a Poverty dress and apern, er something ekelly erpropriate, an leave her poodle dog to hum.”
Fines were assessed for dressing too richly, such as having cigars in a man’s pocket, slicking his hair down, walking with a cane, etc. The party was a fundraiser and the money went toward building a new church. Not one cent to help the poor people they ridiculed.
The food consisted of corn meal mush served with an abundance of cream and sugar, brown and white bread sandwiches, apple and pumpkin pie, donuts and cookies. The table was bare of a cloth or napkins and the guests ate from tin plates and drank coffee from tin cups.
Such parties established even a greater divide between the classes. They parties came at a time of great inequality. Immigrants were suffering as well as black Americans. I’m sure they had a totally different view of these parties.
One snooty woman wrote an article in the 1905 copy of Bright Ideas for Entertaining that stressed that the tinware was always borrowed for the party. She wanted to make sure no one thought the entitled would actually “own” any.
Yet, later on into the 1920s, one brave woman wrote that Poverty Parties should be used to shine a light on the less fortunate instead of making fun of them and that the guests should do some real service to help the poor. Southern fraternities and sororities carried over this form of entertainment well into the 1950s. When they tired of that, they added unemployment parties where they stood in a bread line to get coffee and donuts.
Give me a break!
My parents were very poor with little to their name. They married in 1934, my dad in coveralls and mom in a borrowed dress. A government migrant camp was their home. They crisscrossed these United States following the crops. They saw little to laugh about in their situation. And when I came along, fourth in the lineup of five kids, our family lived in a tent that a kind farmer let them stretch on his land and pick cotton for him. So poverty parties? No thank you. Each day was a reminder of how little they had.
I had never heard of these Poverty Parties until I ran across an article about them. Have you? What do you think about this? Leave a comment to enter a drawing for a $10.00 Amazon gift card.
I have a promotion going on called Heartfelt and Wholesome with my two Hangman’s Daughters books. Winning Maura’s Heart is a mere $.99! Courting Miss Emma is $2.99! However, there are tons more from other authors and rest assured all are sweet romance. Maybe you’ll find some new reads that will suit your fancy. To check them out, click on the graphic.
Plus, all three of my McIntyre series books are marked down for a limited time. Only $.99 for Cade’s Quest, Summer’s Heart is $1.99, and Jess’s Reckoning is $3.99. If you missed any of these, snatch them up now at these low, rock-bottom prices.
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my Tuesday blog. I enjoyed it.
I put all the names in a fish bowl and Drew……….
TRUDY C.
Yippee, Trudy! I’ll email you in the morning. Decide if you want an ebook or print.
One of the strangest customs that was pretty common in the 19th century and earlier was a married woman referring to her husband as Mister and whatever their last name was. I just think it’s so odd and kind of funny in a way. It makes it sound like they’re not even married and maybe complete strangers.
My grandmother used to call her husband Mr. Smith like they weren’t even acquainted.
But my grandpa always called my grandmother by her first name which was Becky and didn’t say Mrs. Smith. It seems it was only the women who did this.
Another thing had to do with sending any mail to my grandmother. It had to be addressed as Mrs. Robert Smith, not by her name. It almost seemed like an ownership thing and she wasn’t her own person, not like today.
I still have an elderly cousin who always wants Mrs. Ed Langley on every piece of mail I send her even though he’s been dead for over ten years. Somehow, she’s still unable to claim her own identity. I think that’s really sad.
Yet, when I try to write this into one of my stories, it makes it seem they’re strangers, so I give up and change it so the reader will know who I’m talking about.
These days, we have a fast-paced, very casual lifestyle and wives always use their husband’s first names when they speak to them and it seems more natural.
One of my pet peeves is that I do not like is a man referring to his wife as his “old lady or old broad.” And the wife saying, “My old man.” Just sounds awful disrespectful, but maybe that’s just me. Or when they call each other Ma and Pa.
My parents always used their first names when speaking to each other.
Now for book news. The McIntyre complete series is out now, and I think doing pretty well as far as I can tell. It has its own series page on Amazon.
CLICK here for the link.
The McIntyre siblings are on a quest to reunite their fractured family no matter the cost. As they search, each also finds a love that cannot be denied.
How about you? Have you ever heard women of the older generations calling their husbands Mr. so and so? I’ll give a copy of Book 1 in this series – Cade’s Quest – to one commenter. (Either ebook or print)
Wow, my thanks to everyone who commented on my superstition post Tuesday! It was fun.
I put all the names into a hat and two popped out.
LINDA R
ALISA BOISCLAIR
Congratulations, ladies! Watch for my email!
It’s really interesting how new information comes when I’m not looking for it. I was reading The Mountains We Call Home by Kim Michele Richardson (Book 3 of The Book Woman series) and how these people in the Appalachians were really superstitious. The main character in this book found an angel crown in her pillow and saw it as an omen that death was near.
So let me explain what an angel crown is. This phenomenon only occurs in feather pillows when the feathers swirl in a circle to form what appears to resemble a crown.
The character in this book found one of these dark omens and refused to sleep on the pillow. She threw it on the floor and slept without. To clarify, she does not die.
Angel crowns were also found in the pillow of a deceased and that was supposed to be a sign that the person went to heaven.
The main character in this particular book by Richardson is Cussy Mary and she has blue skin which is a real affliction by a select group way back in the hills and has been studied by a lot of scientists. Everyone believes if they touch her, they’ll die so they hunt her like she’s a wild animal. I really loved this story.
Anyway, I grew up with a lot of superstitions. A bird in the house is a sign that someone will die. Finding a hat on the bed meant bad luck, illness, or death. To break its curse, you were supposed to spit in the hat, throw it on the floor, and stomp on it. There were a million others. I think these people had way too much time on their hands.
In my new book, Jess’s Reckoning, they’re trapped in an outlaw town with a madman. He’s very superstitious so Abigail, the newspaper owner, plays on his fears by appearing at his bedside in white face paint, wearing a nun’s habit. She tells him he has to pay for his crimes and will face death. Scares him out of his wits. She and Jess McIntyre do finally wear him down and they’re able to get free.
This is a sweet romance. For an excerpt, CLICK Here.
I once had an uncle who was terrified to walk past a cemetery for fear a ghost would get him. He took a night watchman job but never got out of his car. Another time our family was in a flood and found a dead body. They left my uncle to stay there and went for the sheriff. As the water began to seep out of the person, the muscles began to contract in his arms and legs. My uncle took off running and never looked back.
Who still throws salt over their shoulder when they spill it? Or refuse to walk under a ladder? Or how about not crossing a black cat’s path or step on a crack? I don’t think I’m very superstitious but how about you? I’m giving away two copies (ebook or print) of Jess’s Reckoning so leave a comment.
On the Texas frontier, justice is a long ride. And love is the most dangerous gamble of all.
Jess’s Reckoning is now up for preorders! Won’t be long until release day on May 12th. I had so much fun with this story as Jess and Abigail find themselves trapped in an outlaw town where death awaits around every corner.
One of the more humorous parts is the fact that newspaperwoman Abigail Farnsworth wears a black wig over her blonde curls in an effort to escape notice. She has access to all sorts of fake wigs, mustaches, and beards through a woman she meets who once traveled across America with an acting troupe.
Research proved extremely helpful and I learned that wigs and artificial facial hair were very prevalent back in the 1800s. Of course, the judges and lawyers wore white wigs like their British counterparts but others wore a variety of colors for different reasons. Hair loss was a big thing back then. Maybe due to bad water, medicines made with opium and alcohol, and lead that was often in food and their homes. They were made of horsehair and other animal hair, sheep’s wool, vegetable fibers, and human hair. Egyptians wore wigs because they shaved their heads. In fact, they were probably the first people to wear them.
There were two different kinds of traveling performers – the medicine show and what was called tent repertoire theater. The medicine shows traveled by wagon out west selling elixirs and mostly fake medicines. They used an actor or two to entertain the crowd while the salesman made the pitch. Tent repertoire theaters were just that—performances in tents that could be pitched anywhere.
In my book the wigs and hair pieces were needed for disguises that helped them move around the outlaw town of Diablo Springs. Once you entered, you were not allowed to leave. Something Jess and Abigail learn too late.
While they’re kept there, they discover Jess’s little sister, the last of his missing siblings to be found. And that only complicates things more. Jess has his work cut out for him and after he’s beaten severely on the head with a hefty club, he’s left with double vision, headaches, and intermittent dizziness. You get the picture. Scary times.
Have you ever worn a wig or hairpiece? If not, would you want one? I have a nice wig that I bought following a botched haircut. I learned firsthand that they’re not all that much fun and I couldn’t wait for my hair to grow out so I could retire the wig. Every so often I get it out for a special occasion. And I also have a purple wig I bought for Halloween. Here’s a picture.
If you haven’t preordered Jess’s Reckoning, CLICK HERE. And if you’d like to read an excerpt, CLICK HERE.
Thank you all for coming to make my St. Patrick’s Day party a success yesterday!
I chose a random winner from the commenters for my gift card and…….
The winner is:
CONNIE SCRUGGS
Yippe! Congratulations, Connie. I’ll email you so be watching.