Kari Trumbo

New Release Coming Your Way Tomorrow

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I’m so excited to share my new release with you! Well, it will release officially tonight at midnight. It’s special because you still have a chance today to get it at the preorder price. And saving a dollar is a good thing.

If you prefer print, the print book is available now.

 

The thrilling conclusion to the Belle Fourche Chronicles

Alice has always been the good daughter, the one who does what everyone expects. She promised Kent Douglas she would wait for his return even though her family has fought his for the past thirty years.

Then he left and never contacted her again.

Five long years have gone by and Alice is an adult. Despite the occasional annoyance by the Douglas patriarch, they hear nothing from their neighbors. When word comes that Kent not only returned, but has been back for quite some time without contacting her, tensions rage. Alice wants revenge for her humiliation.

Kent was heavily scarred protecting Alice from a bomb, and he’s returned home with worse scars to his heart.

He went to school to become a doctor, but along the way found out the teachers thought he’d be better suited to a barn. No patient wants to look to a monster for hope. He never wanted to work on a ranch again, but now his training — the training he ran away and fought to have — will be in a barn.

He loves Alice Johlman like she’s half of his heart, but he can’t accept the failure he is and won’t force her to follow through on her promise from years before.

If only he could forget her.

Wounded hero Kent will do anything for the only woman he’s ever loved, except ask her to keep her promise.

It’s so hard to say goodbye…

This was the first series I started as a filly so I’m excited to share this book with you. It also feels like “the end” in other ways because I’ll be writing mostly contemporary cowboy romances next year. I have a contract with Love Inspired Suspense and my first book with them will be coming out in Oct or November of 2023.  So, saying goodbye to these characters feels different from a usual “book goodbye”.

Don’t worry though, it’s not permanent. I like historical books to stay away from them for too long.

What’s one type of book you said goodbye to, but you know you’ll be back because you love it?

For me: Westerns are my favorite, but I used to love Medieval romance (for many of the same reasons, rugged heroes, chivalry, horses…)

An Impromptu Game Day

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I am a sufferer of random migraines. It’s not much fun and it also wouldn’t matter if I’d found the time earlier to do my post for today.

 

However, I did not. And now, it’s 9PM and I’d actually already climbed into bed before my bleary eyes flew open, remembering today was my day to post!

My lack is your gain.

 

Here is how this will work.

 

I will say a cowboy word and you post the first word that comes to mind when you hear it (PG 13 please) I’ll throw all names of those who respond into a hat (cowboy, of course) and the winner will get a print copy of Belle Fourche Legacy when it releases in a week. I’ll even sign it.

  1.  purdy
  2.  cowpoke
  3.  herd
  4.  trot
  5.  ranch
  6.  acreage
  7.  palomino
  8.  bandana
  9.  lariat
  10.  pistol                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Good luck to all who enter and thank you for understanding. Ah, the glamorous life of an author.

A New Old Hero Rides into Town

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You know the scene. He’s been around before and everyone wonders where he’s been. He’s a little shady, wears his hat low. He’s covered in trail dust. Even his horse has a swagger.

He’s the kind of hero who says things like, “Come here, darlin’,” and women swoon.

We all know that hero

That’s what writing a good hero is all about, right?

We want the guy who says just enough to seem like a man and those few words make our hearts melt or race.

He must be an upright man, or at least want to be.

He must possess some level of confidence. Confidence is attractive.

He must be skilled. Never will you see a hero who does nothing with the skills and talents God has given him. Even a man down on his luck will work in some way to prove his worth.

This is the gold standard for a hero.

So what is a ‘new’ old hero?

When you flip the script and an old hero returns changed.

I’m currently writing the final book in the Belle Fourche Chronicles. It’s set to release in about a month. In it, I’m tackling this sort of hero. He’s a man who once had swagger and zest. He was physical and brash. He would’ve made women swoon.

But after a serious injury to the side of his face, he fears the only swooning going on, will be in fear. He certainly doesn’t want to force the woman he loves to look at his face every day. He doesn’t even want to.

Unfortunately, he already promised her he’d marry her and now he’s broken that promise.

So, does he fit the criteria? Let’s see.

Does he talk little, but what he says is good? Check, he’s very much a grump and doesn’t talk but he has some sweet words for Alice.

Must be an upright man? He will do whatever it takes to save an animal or to rescue Alice. So, check!

He must possess some level of confidence. While he has lost confidence in his ability to be a good husband, he has an abundance of confidence in his ability to be an animal doctor. Check!

He must be skilled. Kent is both skilled at ranching and veterinary medicine. So, despite the reaction of the general female population towards him, he is most certainly a hero and–I think–he’ll end up being one of my readers’ favorites.

What do you think makes a great hero?

Saying Goodbye to Summer

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At least here on this side of the planet, we just said goodbye to summer (perhaps not officially for a few more weeks, but most consider the end of summer to be Labor Day).

I’ve sent one daughter off to college. I’m ordering the books for my other daughter whom I homeschool. My boys will be on the bus headed to their first day this morning. That’s it, the end.

And part of me is super jealous that a bunch of my friends are going to St. Louis to meet for the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Conference. I haven’t been to one since 2017 and would love to go. Perhaps next year is my year. But, alas, I can’t this year.

However, I was able to do a lot of wonderful things with the time I had.

I saw my first child graduate high school and along with that, had the first big party in our new house (and finally planted grass).

We put a garden in for the first time in four years. My gracious that was a lot of work all summer and now as we head into the fall. I have more zucchini in my freezer than I know what to do with and it’s a very good thing we go through about a jar of pickles a day.

Summer was full of shopping trips to outfit my daughter with everything she would need for her first year away from home, and making sure we did memorable things as a family. We even visited the World’s Largest Ball of Twine (I live within an hour of it).

It was also my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. So, after dropping my daughter off, the Hero and I bopped on over to Duluth where we spent a few precious hours on Canal Street and wading in the Great Gitche Gumee. I also got to eat at Grandma’s for the very first time (the namesake of the marathon). I also spoke last month about the writing retreat in July that was so refreshing. I plan to do that next year as well, and may be an ongoing thing.

As I list what I’ve done, I know that I’m forgetting things, because I’m trying to look forward. What have I got coming up? Deadlines? Jobs? Conferences? Interestingly, I’m one of those people who forever think, ‘in this next season of my life, I’ll have more time,’ and I’m always wrong. Something always crops up and I have just as much time (or less) to do what I’ve always done.

 

But each and every day is a blessing.

For a chance to win an ebook copy of Battle For Her Heart, my most recent release, tell me one fun thing you did this summer.

A Refreshing Author Weekend

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Have you ever run yourself so ragged that you just couldn’t even put two and two together?

 

That’s where I was about a week ago. This season of my life has been challenging. My oldest daughter graduated from high school in May and I’ve been doing ALL THE THINGS, like shopping trips for college, helping her apply for student aid, gearing her up to pack, scheduling last visits (like doctor and dentist). And…trying to keep my author business going.

It’s been a lot.

From left to right: Kari Trumbo, Elana Johnson, Cathe Swanson, Mandi Blake, Laura Ashwood, and Chautona Havig

I’m about to break the fourth wall here, but we are in a “pivot” season as far as being an author goes. Marketing books is vastly different from what it was pre-covid and even during covid. While I know there are still cases, the world’s way of thinking is different and authors are having to adjust to the way people are now consuming entertainment. Figuring out what works now, is challenging.

So, all that to say, I needed a reset!

I met with 5 other authors over the last few days in northern Minnesota. We talked, we had devotions. We worked through stuck plot points. We fellowshipped… It was fantastic.

AND, it was exactly what I needed to keep going. You see, even professionals get tired. We need someone to refill our cup too. I didn’t know who to ask, I wasn’t even sure exactly what I needed, but God knew.

The only thing I’m bummed about? Jessie Gussman was supposed to be able to come but had to cancel. Having her there would’ve been fantastic. I will meet her in person some day.

Other than myself, at least two of these authors have been on the blog before and all of them are fabulous.

The setting for the retreat was a very rural, rustic cabin out in the woods. We saw deer and one of the authors even had close encounter with a coyote. Luckily, they are afraid of people it turned tail and ran the moment it saw her.

 

Beyond the refreshment I got (and hopefully gave) to these great women, was the scenery. We took a day trip to Lake Superior, and everyone loved experiencing the ‘big water’, some for the first time. There is something incredibly relaxing about huge bodies of water. The waves, the sound, the scent, and the blue of the water

meeting the sky just creates this amazing internal worship. I can’t explain it any other way.

What do you do when you need a refresh?

In the past, I’ve been able to grab a good book or talk to friends and recharge my batteries, but I think I let myself get too low. I needed to get away from the ordinary for a short time (Thurs.-Sun. morning). While I can’t do a retreat every time I get in this situation, I now know that I can look forward to this every year and I’m excited for 2023.

 

I Arrive Precisely When I Intend To

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I’d bet you never thought you’d see a quote from Lord of the Rings on the P&P, but I promise it will make sense in a moment.

The full quote is: “A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

-J. R. R. Tolkien

But why would this quote matter to a bunch of western aficionados? Well, other than that it’s actually a wonderful story, it’s the first thing I think of when I think of time. Gandolf may never have used a watch, but I can practically see him pointing to his wrist and smirking at Frodo as he makes his humorous quip. Or, maybe my imagination just gets the better of me sometimes.

I got to thinking about time pieces (and how fast time flies) when walking with my youngest son down our long driveway a week ago. We were talking about his affection for watches and how he needed a new band, then he asked me a question, one that sent me down a rabbit hole or two.

“Mom, why do they call watches, watches and why is it different from clocks?”

The answer may seem obvious. I mean, it would make sense that there should be a different name for a clock you wear and one that sits there, right?  Well, yes and no. Here’s where the word nerd in me gets giddy (I’ve always loved vocabulary). The word clock (older than watch) is derived from the word cloche, meaning bell in French. It is meant to be large, public, and above all, it’s supposed to make noise denoting the passage of seconds, minutes, and especially hours. A watch is meant to be personal, i.e. watched. Interesting, huh?

But all of that is from the 1500’s which is great, but not ‘western’ history, right?

And we’re all about the western history here.

Interestingly, as I was researching the why and how of clocks/watches, I found that they were much the same from the 1500s up until the mid 1800s when they became vastly more precise.

Can you guess why?

The answer is, the railroad. The railroad was, above all, a money making venture and they needed to have precise timing for trains to leave and arrive because the next train’s arrival was dependent on those before it being on time. A late train was a danger to other trains.

So, the time piece that was already incredibly accurate considering the age of the technology, became so metered, examined, and parsed as to be considered “perfect”.

While the very first clocks were created for religious reasons to keep track of prayer times, standardization came with the railroad. Small, portable watches became commonplace around the time of the industrial revolution, when the railroad was in its hay day. Interesting that the watch (whether it is a pocket watch, a chain necklace, a pin on a coat, or later in the 18C on a leather band, watches are in almost every western I read. And now you know why.

I have a collection I just released. The whole series revolves around the town of Redemption Bluff and the outlaws who find their way there looking for a fresh start. From the beginning, the townspeople want the railroad to come through so the town doesn’t dry up like so many other little towns.

I’ll offer a free ebook copy of The Redemption Bluff Collection to one commenter below.

Have you ever had a favorite watch? I still have mine although I haven’t worn it in many years. One of the very first gifts my husband gave me (before he was my husband) was a delicate Black Hills Gold watch.

A Summer Full of Busyness

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A week ago, I was recovering from the four day affair that was my birthday, my daughter’s graduation, her graduation party, then Memorial Day. All week, my children have been home. The house has been loud. I’ve been trying to do “all the spring things” that I couldn’t do while I was preparing the house for my daughter’s graduation party. Oh well, we’ll be harvesting sweet corn in September. It probably won’t freeze…

At the last minute, one of our family members messaged me to let me know they couldn’t come. They had just gotten over being ill and weren’t feeling up to the drive. With that, we were looking at our respective calendars and trying to figure out when we are all free to get together. What we figured out is that summer is about 5 weeks too short.

Do you feel this way? Like every week and ever minute is planned? All of a sudden you look at things you wanted to do and realize the time is literally spoken for? Just about every weekend is taken from now until the weekend after I drop my daughter off at college and I even canceled a few things!

I know myself. If I don’t take some time to recharge, I’ll get sick. The older I get, the easier I hit burnout and I can’t go through that again. Burnout is a pit of despair coated with tar and deeper than the ocean.

One thing I’ve done this year is to give myself reading challenges. I read a book from my own library that I haven’t read yet (free entertainment when gas is so expensive). I already paid for it, I should enjoy it! Then, I read a book in Kindle Unlimited. I got a free 3 month subscription with the new Kindle I just got for Mother’s Day. I don’t normally splurge on KU, because I don’t have the time to enjoy it. I might decide to keep it this time. Then, I’ll read a book for endorsement or one that my friends have recommended. You can see my new TBR here.

Since I haven’t made enough time to read extensively in the past few years, this new “take time to read” plan is helping to keep me grounded. And, I can read in the car as we take my daughter off to college (and blame my tears on the book).

I’m currently writing the 4th book in the Belle Fourche Chronicles. Book 2 comes out this Friday. Grab your copy HERE.

For a chance to win an ebook copy of Valley of Promise, tell me about your reading plan for the summer. Happy reading!

Inspirational Tuesday Quotable

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“Does it bother you when I say her name? She was a part of my life for six months. A big part.”

 

“It isn’t so much that it bothers me, only that she seems to have left perfect shoes to fill, and I have… imperfect feet.”

Quote image

I wrote this book back in 2017, An Ivy Tangles. It published April 28, 2017, just 5 days after my mother died and just two days after her funeral.

To say I was a mess for the release of that book was an understatement. However, in a lot of ways it was the biggest single release I’ve ever had. Many of my friends supported me by sharing the release in their newsletters. Not only that, but the book itself was one my readers had been waiting on for a long time. I’d hinted at Ivy and her sordid story for a few books before I wrote it.

While I was writing the story, my mother was going downhill. She was in a nursing home and had lung cancer. She hadn’t wanted surgery to remove the mass attacking her lung, so we knew the cancer would come back, but not when. When it happened the end came suddenly.

Since then, I’ve done very little with Ivy other than a quick re-read before putting it into the boxed set. I love the story, but it holds so many memories for me. Even that line above, calls to me. Ivy wanted so much to be seen as a person, which is why she hid a terrible secret. The pain that she felt was pushed onto the page because I was dealing with my own hurts.

One of the last times I saw my mother and she was lucid, she’d forgotten (again) that I was an author. To be fair, I’d only been an author for a little over a year at that point but having that title meant so much to me, especially because we both loved reading and books. Having her forget (repeatedly) something that was so important to me, hurt.

 

When I was cleaning out her room, I found a copy of my very first book, signed. One of the nurses had purchased it for her as a special Christmas gift. She’d gotten to the first chapter and set it aside, back on the shelf.

I know Mom loved me, but I never knew if she was proud of me. That’s something I won’t know this side of Heaven. But I could give Ivy what I needed. Something so important. I could give her closure and a future without wonder or regrets.

Is there some way you could reach into someone’s life today and spread some joy?

Love those around you. Tell them you’re proud and that life would stink without them in it. We weren’t made to fill someone else’s shoes.

 

God Bless

Kari

Writing About Disasters – Galveston Hurricane of 1900

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As romance authors, we sometimes intentionally choose moments of historical hardship to write about, but why?

 

Are we a bunch of heartless people, looking to pull on reader’s heartstrings? Not really (though maybe…) Most of the time, we choose these moments in history for a few reasons:

It’s a good way to spread awareness of things that happened. 

Let’s face it, history, even trying history, can be boring when in textbook form. Reading about floods and hurricanes, dust storms and wars can be easily pushed off as being about “other people” when it’s in the pages of a history book. History books are “just the facts, ma’am” publications and we want them that way. But, if you want people to really think about what people went through, put it in the pages of a fiction novel.

It reminds us of how strong humans really are.

chron.com

When we write about people, we expect them to be heroes and heroines. Average joes (and janes) come to life on the pages as they rise above and do the impossible. These terrible situations did happen and while there were many bad outcomes for people, good things did happen in the midst of these awful situations. The Lord does provide hope.

When good things happen in the middle of a terrible situation, it make the hardship easier to process (and thus increases our understanding).

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down (or so I’ve heard in a fun little song). That’s why history wrapped within a romance makes learning a little easier. If we only wanted a story about what happened, even fictionalized, we could just watch a docudrama or read regular historical fiction. But when we know there is the hope of a romance within the story, we can open the pages of the book knowing one good thing is going to come out of the book, even if it seems like many bad things could happen to other people.

oceanservice.noaa.gov

In my research into the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, I’ve found all of these things to be true. While that particular storm has always fascinated me and I love history books, I haven’t picked up a book dedicated to that storm until recently when I decided to write 2 stories about it. There was so much devastation, so much loss, that I knew I would struggle with it if I couldn’t wrap my own story of hope within all that pain.

 

These books won’t be coming out for at least a year, but I’m doing the research now. What situations in history interest you but you wouldn’t want to read about them without adding a little hope to the story?

I haven’t done a giveaway in a while so I’ll choose one commenter to receive an ebook copy of To a Brighter Tomorrow. Winner will be chosen tomorrow evening.