Mary Connealy

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

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Mary Connealy

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This was always a family favorite.

I’d make it and always imagine it was what cowboys ate sitting around a campfire at the end of a long day of a cattle drive.

I usually called it GRUB

MY ONLY ADVICE on this ten minute recipe…most of that ten minutes is browning the hamburger…is it’s a BIG recipe.

As the children grew up and moved out, I started leaving out the beans one can at a time. In recent years we just use one can of baked beans.

Three Bean Hamburger Casserole

AKA Grub

1 lb. hamburger (browned)

1 can pork & beans

1 can butter beans

1 can kidney beans

I skip the extra beans most of the time and just use pork & beans. Otherwise the recipe is too big. Add:

½ C. brown sugar

½ C. catsup

1 T. mustard

Heat thoroughly, serve.

That’s it. Spend the time while the hamburger is browning opening the cans, then dump it all in and heat it up. DONE!!

Chasing the Horizon

Her only chance at freedom waits across the horizon

Upon uncovering her tyrannical father’s malevolent plot to commit her to an asylum, Beth Rutledge fabricates a plan of her own. She will rescue her mother, who had already been sent to the asylum, and escape together on a wagon train heading west. Posing as sisters, Beth and her mother travel with the pioneers in hopes of making it to Idaho before the others start asking too many questions.Wagon-train scout Jake Holt senses that the mysterious women in his caravan are running from something. When rumors begin to spread of Pinkerton agents searching relentlessly for wanted criminals who match the description of those on his wagon train, including Beth, she begins to open up to him, and he learns something more sinister is at hand.
Can they risk trusting each other with their lives–and their hearts–when danger threatens their every step?

So this time he’s an inventor………..

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Coming soon

Toward the Dawn

The era I’m writing in was the Industrial Revolution and there was just this EXPLOSION of innovation.

Trains. Iron. Oil.

This is the 1860s-1890s. Cars were coming. The internal combustion engine. Everything was about power, how to harness it, how to use it. They wanted an engine that could be portable. They’d invented what they called a traction engine, which was the forefather of tractors. Engines were the size of train locomotives.

The inventions were all done in tiny steps. Over 100,000 patents were involved in the invention of the car.

My hero in Toward the Dawn is working on a battery. Batteries had been invented but they were huge. Big jars full of water, I don’t know how it worked but whatever else it was, it was NOT portable. My hero is working on a smaller battery. Along the way he invents other things. His patents come in small improvements.

Besides his battery work, at his wife’s request he invents a mousetrap. A lawnmower. Always something new.

And she runs the homestead.

She’s an escapee from an insane asylum. He runs (or is carried away) when someone shoots him. They’ve been hiding in a hidden canyon in Idaho for a year and they find they aren’t suited for the isolation. To come out means she might be found and locked away again and he might be killed.

On the other hand, the isolation is driving them mad.

So they step out into the world and leave their friends behind, who decide to stay hidden. They just want a quiet life. Him inventing, her running the home.

And what do you know, here comes trouble.

They aren’t even sure who the hired killer was after, but they know they’ve either got to run and hide again or go east, toward the dawn, and face their troubles head on.

Toward the Dawn

Book #2 in the Western Sunlight Series

Despite trials that threaten their path forward, hope dawns for a future filled with love.

Kat Wadsworth and Sebastian Jones never imagined their lives would entwine so closely. Forced to flee on a wagon train from a vengeful uncle and an unknown gunman, they live in a hidden canyon with the family that rescued them. But as the days turn into months, they each have separate reasons for wanting to move back to society, and the best way to the independence they desperately crave might be through a marriage of convenience.

However, settling into their homestead in Cheyenne, Wyoming, reveals a different reality for Kat. Her new husband becomes consumed by his inventions, leaving her feeling lonely and isolated. And just when they think they’ve left the danger behind, a mysterious attacker lurks in the shadows, threatening the new life they’ve built. Together, they must confront the perils from their pasts to forge a future with hope and the prospect of love.ern Sunrise Series

Coming in June

Re-released book–Deep Trouble

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Adventure in the Grand Canyon in the Old West

I regained my rights to this book so I’m casting it upon the waters…….or something. No paperback copy. The price just seems wild. They didn’t used to cost that much, did they? Anyway, I feel guilty charging that much so ebook only, at least for now.

My heroine thinks the Seven Cities of Gold are in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Shannon inherited a map from her father…nicknamed Delusional Dysart.

But she never called him that.

My hero thinks she’s insane. Gabe can’t talk her out of going. So he decides someone’s gotta keep her alive and it looks like it’s him.

Also there are people trying to steal her map.

More crazy people who believe in cities of gold.

What could possibly go wrong?

Deep Trouble

Gabe Lasley and Shannon Dysart are an unlikely pair. He’s an aimless wanderer who wants nothing other than to be left alone. She’s a fearless female determined to find a city of gold. When they are forced together the mayhem begins. As they set out to find the treasure, trouble is hot on their trail. Will the dream of gold color every decision Shannon makes? Will Gabe fail yet another helpless female in his life?

On sale right now, it released yesterday, ebook only: $3.99

Grab a copy because I think it’s pretty funny.

Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? Let’s talk beautiful places in nature. Where’s the prettiest place you’ve ever been?

 

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Chasing the Horizons is OUT!

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Chasing the Horizon (A Western Light Book #1): (A Suspenseful Historical Western Romance Set on the 1800’s Oregon Trail)

I first looked at it, with the one item circled (it was circled on this picture when I found it) and had a good laugh, but there are so many WEIRD THINGS on this list.
Uterine Derangement
Shooting of Daughter?
Parents are cousins
Excitement as Officer...what in the world does that mean?
Marriage of Son…does that mean…you  married your own son? Or you just don’t like who he married?
Rumor of Husband Murder?–okay if you can’t prove it, you can’t lock me up
Salvation Army? What?
okay, some I don’t even want to comment on…but this is one weird list.
and what it comes down to is, if someone wanted you locked up, they could find a reason.
They passed laws before the Civil War to make it HARD to lock people in an insane asylum. A court had to rule, or at least a doctor had to agree…
The sole exception to the court and/or doctor was…..wives.
A man could lock his wife in an insane asylum simply on his say-so that, yep, she’s insane.
It’s a weird and fascinating slice of history to study and when I read a book on it, called, The Woman They Could Not Silence, I knew I had to write about it.
My book begins the night Beth, my heroine, helps her mother escape from the insane asylum. The two of them run from Beth’s tyrannical father and know he will never give up searching for his wife and daughter.
They run far and fast and quiet. And along the way, Beth meets a handsome man with the instincts of a hero.
But how does a woman who doesn’t dare trust anyone, a woman with HUGE secrets, open her heart to love? Like all good heroines, she finds a way.
A wagon train is her very below-the-line escape route.
And an old family friend had prepared a hideout for them a long-long-way west.
And even with all this, father is coming, coming, coming, until Beth can feel his hot breath on her neck.
Chasing the Horizon, in bookstores and shipping online now.
Which is your favorite cause of insanity?
I think I’m going with fever and loss of lawsuit?????
Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Chasing the Horizon, book #1 in A Western Light Series

A New Release is Coming–Chasing the Horizon

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Chasing the Horizon

Available for pre-order now

Amazon

Baker Book House

Coming in February–Read on to get your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Chasing the Horizon

“Hi, my mother is an escapee from an insane asylum and my father will slap her right back in there, and me with her, if he catches us.

If you think I’ve been secretive, that’s why.

Lied about my name. My relationship to Mother. My destination. Everything really.”

It makes it hard to fall in love……….and at the same time……….stay free.

Her only chance at freedom waits across the horizon.

Upon uncovering her tyrannical father’s malevolent plot to commit her to an asylum, Beth Rutledge fabricates a plan of her own. She will rescue her mother, who had already been sent to the asylum, and escape together on a wagon train heading west. Posing as sisters, Beth and her mother travel with the pioneers in hopes of making it to Idaho before the others start asking too many questions.

Wagon-train scout Jake Holt senses that the mysterious women in his caravan are running from something. When rumors begin to spread of Pinkerton agents searching relentlessly for wanted criminals who match the description of those on his wagon train, including Beth, she begins to open up to him, and he learns something more sinister is at hand. Can they risk trusting each other with their lives–and their hearts–when danger threatens their every step?

This is book #1

A Western Light

All releasing this year.

Toward the Dawn coming in June

Into the Sunset coming in October (not yet available for preorder, but soon!–and the cover is not yet official so it could change…but it probably won’t)

Do you like wagon train books? This is the first one I’ve ever written. I’d’ve said I know allllllllllllll about wagon trains until I started writing…and then the research began. Did you play Oregon Trail when you were a kid? I did. I kept dying of dysentery.

To get your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Chasing the Horizon…Leave a comment about Wagon Trains.

 

Christmas Decor Crawl ~ Mary Connealy

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I had a different plan for the decor crawl.

but then I was in some cute little shop, not really looking for a front door hanger because I have a perfectly nice one

 and I saw this:

It just spoke to me. 

Peace on Earth

Dear God, Let there be peace on Earth

It seems so often, and never more than now

when there is so much ugliness right by where our Savior was born in Bethlehem,

that

Peace on Earth

is an impossible dream.

Maybe, just pause for one moment, right now, and pray for

Peace on Earth

I believe we all know only a miracle could bring such a thing.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Maybe 2024 will bring peace.

I’ll pray and I’ll hope,

but I won’t hold my breath.

And also, I need to paint my front door.

Cowboys & Mistletoe – Mary Connealy

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(POST  2 of 3  for Wednesday)

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. It starts on Thanksgiving and lasts until after New Years Day and the decorations come down.

We’re kicking off the season here with games and prizes. My prize today is a $25 Amazon gift card. Every one who guesses which is the lie, gets there name in the drawing.

First a little bit about my next release, coming January 1st. The Legacy of Rocking K Ranch.

Six Decades of History Unfurls on a Wyoming Ranch

Journey to untamed Wyoming where four generations of women experience love, loss, grace, adoption, struggles with the law, relationships with natives, and through it all, family bonds.

Eleanor by Mary Connealy
1850 – Wagon train guide, Ray “Wild Cat” Manning, can’t ignore the abandoned wagon stricken with smallpox. Eleanor Yates, now widowed with an ailing daughter, says yes to Wild Cat’s marriage of convenience. It is her only choice—but far from her romantic dreams.

Grace by D. J. Gudger
1867 – Grace Manning abandons her journey east at Fort Laramie. The ranch is where she belongs. Unable to reach her father, Grace scrambles to find a way home. Captain Winfield Cooper is mustering out in a few short days. The gold fields at South Pass City are calling but a lonely laundress pleads to tag along with him and his motley men. Will this woman who refuses to unveil her face derail his dreams?

Caroline by Becca Whitham
1886 – Ray Cooper escaped reservation life by pursuing a degree from Harvard, but it hasn’t granted him the respect he craves in Washington, DC. Caroline Forrester longs to be more than a society hostess for her father. As the two fight against the Dawes Act, they also fight their growing attraction.

Penelope by Kimberley Woodhouse
1910 – Penelope Cooper, an ambitious writer, is commissioned by her publisher—and future husband—to present tales of the American West. She returns to her family’s ranch in Wyoming along with photographer, Jason Miller, to interview the women of her family. But will rediscovering her past make Penelope reconsider her future?

 

Below you will find three statements, two are true, one is not. 

Guess which is the lie in the comments to be entered in the drawings.

Winners and answers will be announced on Sunday 12/03.

I’m one of eight children. The only author

 

My most recent release is book #75

 

I got my first book published the same year my youngest daughter went to Kindergarten