Guest Author

Lacy Williams: Bullfighters and Butterflies

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Well looky here! Lacy Williams has come back for a visit. I swear to goodness that woman writes some good stories. Guess that’s how she got to be a bestselling author, huh? Let’s give Miss Lacy a big ol’ howdy!

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lacy-williams-media-1Lacy Williams here, excited to be back with P&P!

Today I want to chat about the men who risk their lives in the rodeo arena. No, not the ones with the vests and helmets… the other ones. They wear colorful outfits and clown makeup. You know. The bullfighters.

Their job is two-fold. When the bull riders get bucked off (or jump off), the bullfighters distract the bulls to buy the riders time to get out of the arena. In between rescuing riders, the bullfighters also entertain the crowd with their antics and often over the loudspeaker, so they have to have a sense of humor and be able to think on their feet.

Can you imagine racing around in a dirt-packed arena, just in front of a fifteen hundred pound bull that wants to pound you into the ground? You jump into a barrel (have to be pretty fit and more agile than I am!) and wait for the bull to leave the arena. Then you do it all over again!

Ty Pozzobon Invitational PBR

 

What would make a man choose bullfighting for his job? That was the question I asked as I created the hero for my June release, Luke Starr. As Pamela Tracy and Vickie McDonough and I brainstormed the Lone Star Brides series, I knew their heroes would be twins and bull riders. I also knew Luke would secretly be a little envious of their close twin relationship. But the real thing that drove him to choose bullfighting is his guilt over something that happened when he was sixteen. I won’t spoil the story for you, but Luke uses bullfighting to distract himself from the guilt that eats him alive… until he’s forced to come home to his family’s ranch and face the memories that haunt him.

THE BUTTERFLY BRIDE is book three in the Lone Star Brides mini-series and is Luke’s story. When heroine Jess Sadler ropes him into reaching out to a special needs student, Luke uses the skills he’s learned in the arena to reach out to the boy. And what woman can resist a man with a soft spot for kids?

THE BUTTERFLY BRIDE is releasing in ebook only and I’d like to give away two ebook copies, names to be drawn from anyone who comments today. Do you have a favorite kid-friendly hero? It could be a single dad, uncle or otherwise. Let me know!

Thanks again for hosting me today. I always love visiting Petticoats & Pistols!

 

lonestar brides-3_lowres copyAbout The Butterfly Bride:

The prodigal son is back. Ever since the terrible mistake he made in high school—a mistake that cost his best friend his life—bullfighter Luke Starr has stayed far away from Pecan, Texas, and his family. But with his twin brothers gone on their respective honeymoons, Luke is forced to come back to town to watch over Gramma and the family ranch. And he can’t wait to leave again. Because being home hurts more than being stomped on by a bull—and it’s only a matter of time until he messes up all over again.

Special ed teacher Jess Sadler will do anything for her students—even abandon her comfort zone to convince a reluctant rodeo cowboy to give “horse lessons” to a student she can’t reach. But when feelings for Luke blindside Jess, she knows she’s in trouble. The man is counting down the minutes until he can leave Pecan. Will he take her heart with him when he goes?

Then a little boy goes missing on the family ranch, and Luke must confront the ghosts of his past or lose the future he never dreamed was possible.

 

About Lacy Williams:

USA TODAY bestselling author Lacy Williams works in a hostile environment with three-point-five kids ages 6 and under. In spite of this, she has somehow managed to be a hybrid author since 2011, publishing 26 books and novellas. Lacy’s books have finaled in the RT BOOK REVIEWS Reviewers’ Choice Awards (2012, 2013, & 2014), the Golden Quill and the Booksellers Best Award. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, ALLi, and Novelists Inc. Visit her online at LacyWilliams.net.

 

Image © vanell via depositphotos.com
Cover art © Lacy Williams via Serenade Books

Guest ~ Rosanne Bittner!

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Rosanne BittnerLook who has returned to Wildflower Junction!
From “The Heart of the West”…
I am tickled pink to welcome Rosanne Bittner to the corral!

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Well, by the time this blog is posted I will have just returned from the big Romantic Times conference at the RIO in Las Vegas! As of this writing I’m not there yet, but I know it will be a blast, and I’ll get to meet Linda Broday! I’m so happy to finally meet her, and we have a lot to talk about!

 

WITH LINDA BRODAY AT RT
WITH LINDA BRODAY AT RT

Thank you for having me back. I love the blog name Petticoats and Pistols – so perfect for those of us who write westerns!  And westerns are my favorite (and pretty much my only) genre. I have written about the Revolutionary War era, the Civil War era, the French and Indian Wars, the Mexican War, the Alamo, the building of the Union Pacific, the founding of Denver, Colorado, the very early years of Chicago, the gold rushes, silver rushes, the stagecoach era, the Indian wars, the land rushes in Oklahoma, the gradual demise of most of our Native American tribes, the War of 1812, outlaws and lawmen, vigilantes and bounty hunters, ranchers and townsmen, and everything in between.  I guess you can see what I love – American History and for the most part – the Old West.

 

Outlaw HeartsSome call my westerns gritty and sexy – and I love both descriptions. No “fluff” here.  Few “Mr. Nice-Guys.” Very strong heroines to match very strong heroes who take no sh—but definitely know how to treat a woman! And through it all there is always a very strong, very touching and always memorable love story that stays with my readers long after they put down the book.

 

One of my best love stories was between Zeke and Abbie Monroe in my 7-book SAVAGE DESTINY series – over 30 years old and still selling! Now I think I’ve matched that great love in my OUTLAW series – OUTLAW HEARTS, DO NOT FORSAKE ME and LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE (coming September 2016). DO NOT FORSAKE ME is up for an award from Romantic Times for Best Historical Novel for 2015. 

 

These three books are about wanted man Jake Harkner, a man haunted by a tortured boyhood and looking for Do Not Forsake Methe love he never had as a child – a man both ruthless and devotedly loving. When Jake meets Miranda Hayes in the first book, it’s as though God brought them together, because it’s Randy who changes Jake’s life forever. Ironically, in the first book Randy is so afraid of Jake that she shoots him! Yet they end up recklessly and hopelessly in love, and Randy bears a hard life for marrying a wanted man who (by book #2) becomes a U.S. Marshal – a man who already had enemies and makes more because of his job – enemies that threaten Jake and the beautiful family he has spawned over the years.

 

LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE continues to bring Jake and his family troubles from his haunted past that won’t leave him alone.  In spite of being tough and rugged on the outside, and damn good with a gun, Jake still experiences the terror and fears of a little boy who lived with a demon for a father, whom Jake killed himself when very young.  His constant inner struggle to hang on to the love he’s found in Randy and his family keeps getting Jake into trouble in his over-zealous attempts to protect them – and sometimes he isn’t just protecting them from cruel enemies – sometimes (in his mind) Jake is protecting them from himself.

 

Loves Sweet RevengeThese “Jake” books are, if I may say so myself, some of my best writing, mainly because I love all the psychology involved.  It’s Jake’s boyhood that controls most of his emotions and actions. In modern times he would need counseling, but in the 1800’s such things were unheard of. Jake’s protection from his past is his gun – and his counselor is the woman he worships and adores – his Miranda. She and his devoted family keep Jake sane and on the straight and narrow … most of the time … until something devastating happens in book #3, LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE. You won’t want to miss it!

 

I am planning a fourth book – THE LAST OUTLAW. Hope my publisher takes it, because Jake’s story is still unfinished.

 

A big thank you to Linda Broday and Petticoats and Pistols – and to all my fans out there who keep asking for more! I’ll keep writing more stories as long as my brain and fingers work! Love to all – and enjoy LOVE’S SWEET REVENGE! Be sure to visit my website at www.rosannebittner.com, where you can “one-click” order many of my books, and read my blogs at www.rosannebittner.blogspot.com. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and many other sites!

 

I’m giving away two sets of my Jake Harkner books. (U.S. only.)

Just leave a comment to enter the drawing.

 

A Warm Wildflower Welcome to ROBENA GRANT and a giveaway!

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Robena is giving away a copy of BACHELOR ISLAND…either print or e-book. Please leave a comment and check back tomorrow!

It’s so nice to be here. Thank you, Tanya Hanson, for this opportunity. Writing Bachelor Island was so much fun, and because I’m interested in the behind the scenes of a story, or film, and especially why a certain location or setting was chosen, I thought I’d share mine.

Bachelor Robena Grant

I also adore fish out of water stories. When I moved to the U.S. from Australia in 1973, I was part of a recruiting program for registered nurses with post-operative heart surgery nursing skills. The hospital I’d been hired for was in Texas. I was definitely a fish out of water. But I fell in love with Texas and have vivid memories, especially of the hill country from where my cowboy hero hails. My publishing house, The Wild Rose Press, also hold retreats every few years in Bandera, Texas.

Bachelor Island island pic

Kauai—the setting of many well-known films and TV shows—was chosen because it has an exotic feel, yet still has some small town aspects, and it has studios, casting companies, for the filmmaking that I needed. I put my Texas cowboy in a Hollywood production. You guessed it, another fish out of water story. A friend, who is a native of Hawaii, told me the history of Parker Ranch, and the paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys of Mexican heritage.) The backdrop of the ranch was perfect for my cowboy, and the other cowboy contestants, so I had to also include the big island of Hawaii.

Parker Ranch, Big Island
Parker Ranch, Big Island

Soooo… do you like fish out of water stories? What’s your favorite one?

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BLURB
Corie Benton, co-producer of television reality show, Bachelor Island, is scheduled to film the grand finale on Kauai. However, the season five BI winner drops out. Producer Brick Masterson, Corie’s boss and ex-lover, refers to the finale as Dante’s Divine Comedy. He needs seven finalists and wants diversity. Corie suggests re-filming with cowboys.

Wyatt Hardy, a Texas cattle rancher suffering through a 3 year drought, medical bills for his ten-year-old daughter’s cancer treatments, and the memory of her mother who died eight years ago, needs a stroke of luck, but the thought of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood spooks him.

Wyatt must fight to win for his two loves—the ranch, and his daughter…well, make that three—also his co-producer.

 

EXCERPT

“You might want to take two keys, just in case,” a female voice said.

Wyatt did a slow turn. What the hell? The woman seemed familiar. He’d know those eyes anywhere. He fast forwarded through his almost empty file of attractive women and hit pay dirt. How the hell did she get here? She gave him that same once over again, the same one she’d given him in his home town, little old Hardisburg, Texas. He’d never forgotten her, or her scent. His nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled. She smelled like vanilla pudding.

The woman smiled. “Corie Benton, executive producer of Bachelor Island. Most of us refer to it as BI, along with the number of the episode. You’ll be starring in BI 5. Welcome aboard.”

Wyatt blinked hard. “Thank you.”

He’d thought she was one of those romance authors who’d been doing a writing retreat at a ranch on the outskirts of town. Huh? Well, how about that? She looked different today. Her long rich brown hair fell in messy waves, whereas last time it had been pulled into a tight bun thing at the back of her neck. His head had ached at the thought of it. And she’d been in a damn suit and heels in the middle of Texas, in the rain, and with no umbrella. She’d given him a look like he smelled bad. He had.

Her shoulders were now bare and that sundress hung on by the tiniest of straps. He felt disoriented, pulled in a deep breath, and scanned the lobby again hoping for Luke to come save him. She looked up at him her hand jutting out. The bright, penetrating brown eyes were the same: Questioning.

 

BIO

Robena Grant is a 2012 RWA Golden Heart Finalist, and has placed in many contests. She writes both romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and this is her seventh novel published by The Wild Rose Press. Australian by birth, Robena lives in Southern California. She has two adult children, adores reading, coffee, red wine, chocolate, travel, and she’s never met a cowboy she didn’t like. Robena can be contacted through Facebook, Twitter, or her website: www.robenagrant.com

 

 

 

 

Welcome, Robena Grant on Thursday!

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Hi, this is Tanya. As soon as I read Bachelor Island, I knew I had to share my friend’s wonderful story with all y’all. So please welcome award-winning author ROBENA GRANT on Thursday! She’s giving away either a print or e-copy of her book, so don’t be a stranger. 

Bachelor Robena Grant

Robena is a 2012 RWA Golden Heart Finalist, who writes both romantic suspense and contemporary romance. A native Australian, she now lives in Southern California and has never met a cowboy she didn’t like. Robena can be contacted through Facebook, Twitter, or her website: www.robenagrant.com

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Welcome Guest – Ruth Logan Herne & Book Giveaway

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Ruth Logan HerneI am over-the-moon excited to be over here on Petticoats & Pistols, because that means I’ve had another dream come true:

Ruthy’s writing westerns!

I love western lore, I love the look of a rugged cowboy, and I love Reba McIntyre’s song “Cowgirls Don’t Cry”… And I’m thrilled that Book 1 of the “Double S Ranch” series is releasing on March 15th! Talk about a swoon-worthy hero and cover!

But westerns aren’t just about heroes, although I love ’em… The backbone of the western movement is found in the women who settled there under some unspeakable conditions, the women who still help run the west. They’re the stuff dreams are made of. The ones who stayed back then and help run the heartland today are not shrinking violets. Generally these gals are unafraid to get dirty, and willing to roll up their sleeves and help in the barn before they set a fresh baking of bread.

You only have to do a walking tour of a nineteenth century cemetery to see how many women and children were lost in days of scant medical care and pre-antibiotics.

And still they forged ahead, risking life and limb to open a new land to growing families for a long variety of reasons, many of which lay back east in the smog-filled manufacturing cities. The open air of the west called to them. A land of opportunity, free land! Tempting flyers and newspaper announcements painted a glowing picture, even though the truth of the matter was often quite different.

Back in the SaddleHarsh lands and tough conditions took required health and backbone, and it’s an unfortunate truth that the loss of women in childbirth or to disease opened the door for more western brides. Opportunity sprang from great misfortune, and for each group of wagons bringing worn pioneers back east, more joined the journey west. Mail order brides back then have become the Farmers Only internet brides of today.

The image of the west called to certain types.

Women with a past, and women who thought they had no future. And also women who wanted a say in their future, women seeking the rights of suffrage had fewer men to shout them down on the prairie! And women were of great value on the prairie. Staking, running and keeping a claim wasn’t a one-man job.

The role of women and the claim of suffragists helped forge a different kind of community from the early years of settlement. As communication became easier, women’s voices grew louder, and men began listening because what choice did they have? By the first World War, it became clear that certain rights were undeniable, finally, but FOUR western states had granted women the right to vote decades earlier. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho stood strong on the belief that women and men were equal, and raised the bar for an East Coast that had been dickering the subject for nearly six decades. Good for them!

I love creating heroines worthy of that western designation, the distinctive grit that goes hand in hand with a more feminine, nurturing side.

Settling a land isn’t for the faint of heart, that’s true, but when men and women join forces to create an unbreakable bond, amazing things happened then… and now!

Here’s a Peek at Ruth’s new book

When stock market manipulations leave Colt Stafford financially strapped, the oldest son of legendary rancher Sam Stafford returns to the sprawling Double S ranch in Gray’s Glen, Washington. He’s broke, but not broken, and it’s time to check in with his ailing father, and get his legs back under him by climbing into the saddle again.

He doesn’t expect to come home to a stranger pointing a loaded gun at his chest— a tough yet beautiful woman that Sam hired as the house manager. Colt senses there’s more to Angelina Morales than meets the eye and he’s determined to find out what she’s hiding…and why.

Writing westerns is a dream come true for Ruth. 

For a chance to win 1 of 2 copies of Back in the Saddle tell us about a dream

that came true for you.

The book can also be Pre-ordered Here:

Amazon
B&N

About Ruth

Multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves God, her family, her country, chocolate, coffee and dogs, not always in that order! A country gal with a love for the big city, she is the author of nearly thirty novels and novellas and absolutely loves writing the kind of books she likes to read!

Ruth Loves Hearing from Readers

Website

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Doc Susie: The truth of Colorado Women Physicians & Giveaway

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close up hhj spcPlease welcome guest blogger:

Doris McCraw/Angela Raines

Doris is giving away four eBooks,

so be sure to leave a comment!

In January 1991, “Doc Susie, The true story of a country physician in the Colorado Rockies” was given to the world. This biography of Dr. Susan Anderson began the legend of the lone woman doctor who gave up so much to follow her dreams. This legend became a myth when “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” hit the airwaves in 1993, two years after the release of the book. Both were full of drama and pathos.

But was Dr. Anderson the norm for women doctors, or is there more to the story? Susan Anderson , born January 31, 1870, received her license to practice medicine in Colorado in 1897 and the bulk of her story takes place in Frasier, Colorado after 1907, where she was the lone doctor, and never married. To put this in perspective, Colorado had women physicians as early as 1873. Dr. Alida Avery came to Denver, Colorado in 1874 from Vassar, where she taught and was their physician for nine years. Like Doc Susie she also remained single.

9-6-2015 209In 1876, according to relatives, Dr. Harriet Leonard arrived in Manitou Springs, Colorado, with husband and children. By 1878 she was joined by Dr. Julia E. Loomis, Dr. Esther B. Holmes and shortly after Dr. Clarabel Rowe in Colorado Springs. All four of these women were married and practiced their chosen career, along with the sixteen other doctors in the area in the late 1870’s. Dr. Loomis went to medical school in her 50’s. None of these women, who appear to have been married prior to going for their medical degree, could have achieved their goal without a least some support from their husbands.

In 1881 when Colorado started licensing physicians, women were licensed the same as men. Dr. Edith Root of Denver, Colorado may have been the first to receive her license. Her license number was 82.2-19-2013 020

Between 1870 and 1880 Colorado saw the arrival of many physicians, which included a number of women. This may have in part been due to Colorado being touted for a climate known for helping those who suffered from consumption. Note, consumption was not just TB, but any wasting disease. There was another spurt from 1890-1900. Yes, many of these women congregated in the larger towns, to include the boom towns of Leadville, Cripple Creek and Victor. Once the floodgates were opened, women physicians made their way to Colorado. Many became involved in the suffrage movement, while others worked to better the conditions of others. Dr. Caroline Spencer of Colorado Springs and Dr. Alida Avery worked for the rights of women. Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates helped start a hospital in Leadville. Dr. Kate Yont worked in the Italian community with the naturalization process in Denver. Some carried guns, others didn’t have to, but all have stories waiting to be told.

So you see, while the story of Dr. Susan ‘Doc Susie’ Anderson is a wonderful story, it is by far not the norm for women doctors in the state of Colorado. There were many before her who also followed the dream of helping people in need.

Doris McCraw has been researching the women doctors in Colorado prior to 1900 for some time. Finding the stories of these pioneering and determined women is a passion. Doris also writes fiction under the pen name Angela Raines where she tells the stories of strong women and men who find the strength to love, much like the women doctors who followed their dreams.

 Author Page: http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

What do you think was the biggest challenge for those early female doctors?

 

Angel of Salvation ValleyA Cowboy CelebrationOne Christmas Knight     Home For His Heart

 

 

 

 

 

Four lucky readers will win one of these delightful e-books. The rest of us can order by clicking on the covers.

Sweepstakes Rules Apply

 

 

Welcome to the Junction, Crystal L. Barnes!

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Catherine forced her fingers on her right hand to loosen a fraction and slid them to the rope below her left. Her WLOD meme 2boot skidded on the rock face as she inched it lower to a small ledge. Her heart left residence in her chest to pound in her throat. She could do this. Just don’t look down.

Hand over hand, inch by inch, she descended the gorge’s wall, barely daring to breathe until her feet touched level ground. When they did, she gripped her shaky knees and stared up at the distance she’d covered. Straightening, she grinned. It was oddly liberating facing a fear and overcoming it. Maybe she might yet face the fears she had about Sam and come out the victor.

Shoving the thought aside for later perusal, Catherine kept to the ravine wall and started toward the outlaw camp. First she had to get her husband out alive, then she’d figure out how to live with him.
—from Win, Love, or Draw by Crystal L Barnes

Howdy y’all! Crystal L Barnes here. I’m so happy to be a guest today on Petticoats & Pistols and share some of the tidbits behind my first full-length, inspirational, western romance Win, Love, or Draw. Namely, the tidbits behind this scene. Have I scaled a rock wall? Yes, actually. A short one—but no rope. And I was going up, not down. Talk about heart in your throat. Oh but that’s not the big story behind this scene. No, that’s tied up in that feeling of victory at overcoming a fear. When did I experience this, you may ask? Why in a shoot out of course. (This is Petticoats & Pistols after all. J)

Now I hear you doubters out there. A shoot out? No way. Well, I didn’t say my opponent had a gun. No, he had scales and a forked tongue. Yep, you guessed it—a snake. To be specific, a chicken snake. And he’d slithered his two-to-three-foot-long self into the wrong place. My hen house. And in the very last hen nest, farthest from the door, no less. Which meant I’d have to go into the small coop to get rid of it. Oh joy of joys.

chickencoop(I know many of y’all are thinking the only good snake is a dead snake, but as long as they aren’t poisonous or endangering my critters (or me), I’m fine with them.)

I couldn’t have the chicken snake stealing my eggs or snacking on my chickens so I had no choice but to do something before he got away. Now I’ve killed a number of copperheads, but there’s something about going into a confined area with one of those forked-tongue creatures. (Probably because there’s not much running room if something goes awry. J ) The copperheads I decapitated with a shovel outside. I wasn’t about to take the risk of missing or even getting that close to a chicken snake. But shooting the creature had its own drawbacks. My brain kept shouting what if the bullet ricochets? What if the bullet comes back at me? What if I miss and the snake gets mad and attacks me? Oh, and did I mention I was on the phone with my mom this whole time? What did she do? She laughed. Thanks, Mom. Then she told me to just shoot it already. Why? ’Cause she’s done this countless times.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a country girl through and through. Grew up on a ranch and have done my fair share of processing wild game and such, but it was my parents who did the dirty work of killing snakes. Now it was my turn. Yippee.

After countless false starts and many more squeals when that snake moved (and more laughter from my mom), I finally hung up the phone, prayed, gathered my courage, prayed, reminded myself of Scriptures, prayed. Did I mention I prayed? And pulled the trigger. With ears ringing, I skedaddled from that hen house, leaving the snake with a hole the size of Dallas through its middle to slither off and die on its own. It didn’t make it very far. I had to scoop it out of the doorway later.

Nevertheless, the triumph I felt at overcoming my fear was quite a heady feeling. Makes you feel like you can conquer anything. Makes you wonder why you were ever scared in the first place. I know I couldn’t have done it without God’s help. He truly can and will help you do anything through His strength.

Have you ever felt that conquering thrill? Have you had to face a fear? How did you overcome?

Today I’m offering a copy of Win, Love, or Draw (winner’s choice of paperback or kindle) to one commenter who’s brave enough to share one of their fears or their experience of overcoming.

Happy Trails!

 

CLBarnes_avatarAn award-winning author, Crystal L Barnes is a born-n-raised Texan and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). She has a degree in Computing Science because she loves putting things into their proper place, and she enjoys writing because she gets to share her love of old-fashioned things and the Lord. You can connect with Crystal at her website, on her blog, her Amazon Author page, Goodreads, Pinterest, Google+, or on her Facebook author page. Want to be notified of her latest releases and other fun tidbits? Subscribe to her newsletter.

 

 

 

 

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Win, Love, or Draw Blurb:

Catherine McGarrett is a strong woman. Life in Texas demands such. For five years, she has built a growing horse ranch while praying for the return of the one man who stole her heart and shattered it in a million pieces when he left.

Now he’s back.

Samuel McGarrett rides into Cater Springs, Texas toting two six-shooters and too many scars. The trouble and pain from the past erupts around the couple. And not just in their marriage.

Can Sam win Catherine’s trust? Will their love survive? Or will his final draw be his last?

Welcome to The Junction, Celia Yeary!

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CeliaLOVE’S FIRST TOUCH
By Celia Yeary

In today’s world, we fall in love and get married, or dream of falling in love, or we thought we were in love but learned better.

I’ve often wondered about our forefathers…our “foremothers?”…falling in love and marrying the man they chose. Did they?

My paternal grandfather at age twenty left home and wandered about for a while, until he came to the Moore farm in North Texas and asked for a job. The family had a fourteen-year-old daughter. After a while he decided he wanted to marry her. The father promised him he could marry his daughter when she became a little older. I believe my grandmother loved my grandfather. They lived a good happy life, had one daughter, and five sons.

Most pioneer women had little choice for one reason or another, but being the romantic I am, I do love to fantasize about these unique women marrying the man they chose. In fact, some of our well-known Texas pioneer women did just that.

Henrietta Chamberlain married Robert King, and together they built a ranching empire—TheHenriettaKing King Ranch in the Wild Horse Desert of South Texas. Henrietta was a tall, lovely young woman when she met and married Robert King. In her own words, she describes her happiness:

“When I came as a bride in 1854, a little ranch home then — a mere jacal as Mexicans would call it — was our abode for many months until our main ranch dwelling was completed. But I doubt if it falls to the lot of any a bride to have had so happy a honeymoon. On horseback we roamed the broad prairies. When I grew tired my husband would spread a Mexican blanket for me and then I would take my siesta under the shade of the mesquite tree.”

This was a happy marriage.

Molly GoodnightMolly Ann Dyer married rancher Charles Goodnight. In May of 1877, Charles and Molly built a two-room cabin in Palo Duro Canyon in the Panhandle of Texas. The nearest neighbors were 75 miles away from where Molly Goodnight established the first ranch household in the Texas Panhandle. In her biography, she explains how happy she was, although left alone much of the time. She loved her husband.

 

Luvenia Conway Roberts was called Lou by her beloved husband Dan Roberts. At DanielWRoberts_mediumage 33, Dan Roberts was a fine specimen of a man, tall, lanky, and strong. He joined Company D of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers in 1874, when the rangers were reorganized to offer protection to pioneers on the Texas frontier. When Dan was ordered to go into Indian country, he asked to take his new wife along. She agreed and was eager to travel with the Rangers.

In her own words:

“My friends thought I was courageous; in fact quite nervy to leave civilization and go into Indian country. But it did not require either. I was much in love with my gallant captain and willing to share his fate wherever and whatever it might be. Besides, the romantic side of it appealed to me strongly. I was thrilled with the idea of going to the frontier, the home of the pioneer.”

Ahhh, true love.

Prairie Rose Publications is growing by leaps and bounds. I was so pleased they wanted to include one of my sweet love stories in a Boxed Set titled “Love’s First Touch.” It includes stories from five authors.

Love's First Touch

LOVE’S FIRST TOUCH is powerful and sweet. It can move the heart to realize the true depth of emotion that only a first love can bring to a relationship. There’s some exciting reading ahead in these five full-length novels! Come join these wonderful characters as they experience awakening feelings and tumultuous relationships that can only be discovered with LOVE’S FIRST TOUCH!
WISH FOR THE MOON by Celia Yeary—Sixteen-year-old Annie McGinnis wishes for a chance to see more of the world, since all she’s ever known is the family farm in North Texas. Then she meets Max Landry.

FLY AWAY HEART by Sarah J. McNeal—Lilith Wilding can’t remember a time when she didn’t love the English born Robin Pierpont.

DOUBLE OR NOTHING by Meg Mims— Lily Granville, heiress, rebels against her uncle’s rules. Ace Diamond, determined to win Lily, invests in a dynamite factory.

DRINA’S CHOICE by Agnes Alexander— To escape her abusive father, Drina Hamilton feels she has no choice but to become the wife of a rancher she only knows from the one letter his uncle has written her.

DIGGING HOLES IN PARADISE by Karen Mihaljevich—In 1859 Missouri, Josette Stratton discovers that a chance identity switch gives her an out from a marriage mandated by her father—and allows her to work as a seamstress.

 

I would love to Gift an ebook copy of this Boxed Set to a lucky person who leaves a comment.

 

Celia Yeary-Romance…and a little bit ‘o Texas

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/celiayeary

My Website

My Blog

Sweethearts of the West-Blog

My Facebook Page

 

Sources:
The Handbook of Texas On-Line
Wikimedia
Wikipedia
Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine

Welcome Guest – Linda Hubalek!!

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Linda_HubalekLilly: Bride of Illinois,

What does the Union Stockyards in Chicago, have to do with a mail-order bride story set in 1890?

I needed a place in Illinois, where a woman from Massachusetts, could meet a man from Kansas. While doing research, I found out the American Horse Show was held in The Yards on Nov. 1-8, 1890 (125 years ago!). The setting and dates were perfect for my contribution, Lilly: Bride of Illinois, book twenty-one, in the American Mail-Order Bride Series, which debuted Dec. 9th. This book is a spin-off of my Brides with Grit Series featuring one of Pastor and Kaitlyn Reagan’s boys, Seth, as an adult.

The Union Stockyards was established in 1865 and became the point where livestock raised in the west, were shipped and processed. Then the meat was shipped on to the Eastern States. (This is where the Texas cattle were shipped to after arriving in the Kansas cow towns.)

Union_stock_yards_chicago_1870s_locThis color lithograph was made by Charles Rascher, and published by Walsh & Co., c1878.

Caption below title on lithograph: Packing houses in the distance. Covered pens for hogs and sheep; open pens for cattle. Area of yards, 75 acres; 50 miles railroad tracks. Daily capacity: 25,000 head cattle, 160,000 hogs, 10,000 sheep, and 1,000 horses.

A tidbit from Wikipedia: Processing two million animals yearly by 1870, in two decades the number rose to nine million by 1890. Between 1865 and 1900, approximately 400 million livestock were butchered within the confines of the Yards. By the start of the 20th century, the stockyards employed 25,000 people and produced 82 percent of the domestic meat consumed nationally.

Eventually, the expanded 375-acre site had 2300 separate livestock pens, but closed in 1971.

 

Lilly-Bride-of-IllinoisHere’s the story line for Lilly: Bride of Illinois.

Lilly Lind was forced to emigrate from Sweden two years ago, due to circumstances beyond her control. She finds a job as a garment maker in the Brown Textile Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, finally feeling as though she is settling in her new country. Then a suspicious fire burns the mill, making Lilly seek another way to survive. She answers a mail–order bride ad in the Grooms’ Gazette and sets off for Chicago, believing she will be a business owner’s wife.

Kansas rancher Seth Reagan travels to the Union Stockyards in Chicago to attend the 1890 American Fat Stock Show, the American Horse Show, and to purchase horseflesh to augment his herd. When arriving at the train station, he overhears a conversation between a young woman and a shady–looking man. Seth becomes concerned for the mail–order bride who is whisked away to a saloon, not to her new husband’s home.

When Seth goes to the saloon to check on the young woman, he finds her in trouble and offers to help her escape. While buying horses and arranging their return travel to Kansas, Seth realizes he would like to bring Lilly home with him, too, but she is still being hunted by the saloon owner’s thugs.

Lilly’s good fortune in meeting Seth makes her want to start a life with this man, but he came to Illinois for horses, not a bride. Would he want her after he learns of her secrets?

 

I’m giving away a Kindle version of Lilly to someone who comments on…If you could visit Chicago, what would you like to do and see there?

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The American Mail-Order Brides Series is a joint venture with 45 total authors representing all 50 states. On fifty consecutive days beginning November 19, 2015, a romance will be published featuring a mail order bride, one set in each of the fifty states and released in the order the states were admitted to the union. The stories all take place in 1890, when a factory fire in the East burns to the ground, leaving these women unemployed. These women answer mail-order bride ads in the Grooms’ Gazette, and then head out to find their groom.

To see the other books in this series, head over to the American Mail-Order Brides Website.

About the Author

Linda writes historical fiction and sweet western romance books about pioneer women who homesteaded in Kansas between 1854 to the early 1900s, often using her Swedish immigrant ancestors in the storyline.

Sign up for her newsletter at www.LindaHubalek.com.to hear about the release of future books, contests and more. Linda loves to connect with her readers, so please contact her through one of these social media sites.

Author website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Amazon Author Page

What C. J. Carmichael Loves About Montana

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cj1I’m so happy to be visiting Petticoats & Pistols today. For the past five years my romance novels have focused on cowboys and ranch settings, specifically in my favorite state of Montana. Full disclosure here, I’m actually a Canadian, living on the border of the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta. But four years ago my spouse-to-be and I fell in love with a cottage on Flathead Lake, south of Glacier National Park in Montana, and the love affair has only grown since then. (For the guy and the cottage!)

Maybe this photo will help explain the appeal:

To get to this cottage Mike and I drive through some of the best ranching land in the world (stopping frequently so I can take photos).

cj2In fact the highway south of Calgary is called “The Cowboy Trail” and it leads almost the entire way to Montana. And the further south we go, the more beautiful it becomes.

See what I mean? So, loving Montana the way I do, is it any wonder when my friend Jane Porter called to invite me to write for a new publishing company she was starting (Tule Publishing) and suggesting we begin with a series of romances featuring cowboys in a fictional town in Paradise Valley Montana, that I said: Hell yes!cj3

It isn’t just the scenery in Montana that I love. It’s the emphasis on family, intrinsic to the cowboy way of life, the code of honor the men and women of the west live by, and their love and appreciation for their land and their animals. All of these qualities are wrapped up into the 6 book series that I’ve subsequently written for Tule. All is not sunshine for the Carrigans of the Circle C however. There are secrets that divide, family conflicts, painful losses and other obstacles along the path to love and forgiveness.

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The latest book in this series came out this October. A Bramble House Christmas is about a grieving man and a lonely woman who travel to Marietta, Montana for the holidays…never expecting the magic they will find on they arrive. I love writing Christmas stories for many of the same reasons I’m drawn to cowboys and ranch settings. I appreciate the way we focus on home, family and hearth at that time of year. It’s the season to reflect on the things that are really important in life. At the end of each story, I strive to leave my readers with a smile on their face and a tear in their eye.

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Thanks so much for inviting me to your blog to chat about what I love about Montana, westerns and Christmas romances. Now it’s time to hear from you. What do you look for when you pick up a Christmas romance? And do you love western settings as much as I do? I’ll be giving away an e-book copy of Snowbound In Montana and A Cowgirl’s Christmas to two random commenters.

p.s. On my website right now is a contest for a Kobo Glo HD. Please take the time to enter and to sign up for my newsletter if you’d like to hear about my future releases and reader giveaways.

Happy Reading!

CJ

Petticoats & Pistols